A few weeks ago surfing on Facebook, I came across an old photo of a friend that seemed to be generating a lot of attention.  The picture was of my buddy sitting at a ski lodge in Vermont, about 20 years ago simply waiving to the camera.  The funny thing about the picture was this incredibly ridiculous pastel-colored ski jacket he was wearing.  It was green, pink, blue, orange…it was like a winterized technicolor dream coat, and there was no shortage of posts under the picture mocking my friend for is choice in winter apparel.

I was all set to pile on, to jump in the fray and post something funny about what a tool he was, for wearing such a ludicrous jacket.  Fortunately for my friend there was something that kept me from adding a post to his picture.  The fact that I had owned the EXACT same jacket.  And what’s WORSE, in my spartan-like fashion sense, I think  I kept wearing it years after it had gone out of fashion, like my brown-leather bomber-jacket.  But that’s another story.

Wearing that Elton John-ish jacket at the time was OK, matter of fact, it was the COOL thing to do.  And it worked, as unbelievable as that may seem today, and in that exact same way I have to realize that the jacket I wear today will look foolish in the pictures I show my kids in 20 years.  So while all of us will admit that we hate change, we have to also admit that there’s a cost to not changing.

I mean, really, what’s my choice?  Stop wearing winter jackets? Or simply change my jacket?  After Snow-maggedon, I am glad I did not stop wearing jackets, however at the same time my wife is excited that I no longer wear THAT jacket.

Have you ever had to change anything?  Were you able to pick up on the subtle changes around you to quickly adapt to your environment, or are you still the guy driving around in your pink and aqua colored ski jacket looking for a Blockbuster that rents VHS tapes?  Now while those things just make you look silly, mostly because they only impact you, what we start to realize is that when we refuse to change the things that have the potential to impact others, we end up becoming irrelevant.

Come on out this Wednesday as we fire up our second year at Hidden Creek Country Club and take a look at how we can maintain our effectiveness by being able to adapt and change.

Invite someone to join you.  Especially if you attended our golf outing and invited someone to play that day—you have earned the relational capital to invite them back.

We are eager to see you at the club, please try to get there by 6:20 to give us all a brief time to catch up before kicking off at  6:30 sharp.

Invest and Invite,

Pat

Pat Mancuso
patmancuso@mac.com
(703) 401-8302
FUEL
See our Blog at: https://menoffuel.com/blog

“It’s what you need to keep you going…”

Our mission is to create a comfortable, relevant and honest environment where men can explore and discuss aspects of life, purpose and faith.

We accomplish our mission by reviewing pertinent issues in men’s lives, examining them through relevant biblical principles, followed by a time of discussion with other men.

Wednesday mornings, September through May…and beyond
6:30 AM to 7:30 AM @ Hidden Creek Country Club, Reston, VA.

http://www.hiddencreekcc.com

Men of Fuel,

Its the most wonderful time of the year…and its not Christmas nor back to school either…

Come out and join us as we recap and celebrate the inaugural Fuel year at Hidden Creek Country Club… With delicious and barely nutritious breakfast burritos. The annual Triple B where we look back and reflect upon all that we have done together.

Bring a friend to come see first-hand, why you bounce out of bed before 6AM each week. This will be an opportunity for any of you to briefly share what Fuel has meant to you, done for you, or taught you.

We have been through a great agenda of talks…do you remember the Prodigal Sermon? The Underhill’s Bill—and not taking responsibility for our own decisions? Our series on Accountability?

Will you ever look at the movie Rocky Balboa the same way again?

“You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain’t about how hard ya hit. It’s about how hard you can get it and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward. That’s how winning is done! Now if you know what you’re worth then go out and get what you’re worth. But ya gotta be willing to take the hits, and not pointing fingers saying you ain’t where you wanna be because of him, or her, or anybody! Cowards do that and that ain’t you! You’re better than that! I’m always gonna love you no matter what. No matter what happens. You’re my son and you’re my blood. You’re the best thing in my life. But until you start believing in yourself, ya ain’t gonna have a life. “

Our discussions on not having enough to give anymore? The talk about being connected with all these virtual communities like Facebook and Linked In and Blackberries and iPhones yet being more disconnected than ever before? Remember the Inward Pull where DR’s company realized that his sales people had only 40 hours PER YEAR to be with their customers? How about the left handed man and the fact that the best scene in the Godfather was taken from the Bible?

The talks on “Am I falling or am I flying?” Denial. Remembering. The picture of Church—and how it ought to be lived outside the walls of a building…

The Easter message about resurrection, the stories of transformation, and the story of “Raising the Roof” pointing out that it was the people INSIDE and closest to Jesus who kept the people OUTSIDE away from Jesus…

We discussed the Promise and then spent two weeks “Waiting on God.” Waiting is not meant to be passive…and its ordained time we are meant to “Prepare the Horse for Battle…” Prov 21:31.

All of this culminated into the final talk, “The Integrated Man” wary of becoming the “disintegrated” man…

Wednesday will be a blast. Please show up early and plan to stick around late.

So, as you know, we are launching “Starting Point—Summerfest at Fuel”. More info to follow, but sign ups will begin on Wednesday.

Get your BURRITO on.

Invest, Invite, Ingest…

Pat Mancuso
patmancuso@mac.com
(703) 401-8302
FUEL
See our Blog at: https://menoffuel.com/blog

“It’s what you need to keep you going…”

Our mission is to create a comfortable, relevant and honest environment where men can explore and discuss aspects of life, purpose and faith.

We accomplish our mission by reviewing pertinent issues in men’s lives, examining them through relevant biblical principles, followed by a time of discussion with other men.

Wednesday mornings, September through May…and beyond
6:30 AM to 7:30 AM @ Hidden Creek Country Club, Reston, VA.

In 2000 I was neck-deep in the throws of over-managing my career; continually looking for and convinced that I was “The Guy” for whatever job I had deemed as the “next step” in my career.  In a span from 1996 to 2000, I had the following jobs: Sold phone systems; sold information services to Capitol Hill, sold web-based publishing software; sold web-hosting and data-center services, went back to selling phone systems, and then I moved all my chips to a start-up called Network Access Solutions, (NAS).  It was at this start-up where I reconnected with DR and began to explore my faith.

It was also during this time that my attention was captured by another job for which I was a perfect fit.  Now while this “dream job” was very technical, I am not.  Any of you who know me, understand that I am not technical at all.  Sure, I had taken the pre-requisite sales-trainings and had the sales certifications; but honestly I could not tell the difference between a switch and a Swatch.  However; what I could bring to the table was the ability to create relationships with the customer, allowing them to lead me to where I’d bring an engineer into the conversation and quickly back-away.  Until of course it was time to cash commission checks.

The point is; I was not really qualified for the job I wanted.  And even though, as my long resume could attest, I had good sales experience, I really only had one-year of true networking experience and frankly only had about 3-4 transactions that would qualify as the type of deal I would be running every day in my new role.  The truth of the matter is that I was not ready for the job.  From a technical standpoint I would have been in way over my head, and in the end was passed over for the job.  The funny thing when looking back on it, is that I could have been ready for it.  Had I spent half the time preparing for my dream job that I spent looking for my dream job, I might have been ready.

Sound familiar?  Has anyone else ever missed out on an opportunity because more time was spent working for the opportunity instead of preparing for the opportunity?  The great news that I didn’t know in the early stages of my expedited resume construction, is that God actually weighs in on this topic.

Prepare yourself tonight to join us tomorrow morning at 6:30 as we finish up our final series of the year.

Invest, Invite…

pat

Pat Mancuso
patmancuso@mac.com
(703) 401-8302
FUEL
See our Blog at: https://menoffuel.com/blog

“It’s what you need to keep you going…”

Our mission is to create a comfortable, relevant and honest environment where men can explore and discuss aspects of life, purpose and faith.

We accomplish our mission by reviewing pertinent issues in men’s lives, examining them through relevant biblical principles, followed by a time of discussion with other men.

Wednesday mornings, September through May…and beyond
6:30 AM to 7:30 AM @ Hidden Creek Country Club, Reston, VA.

http://www.hiddencreekcc.com

As we approach Easter week and after hearing stories of redemption I was reflecting on one of my many career choices that I made that had so much promise.

Several years ago I took this job as a Branch Manager for a local mortgage company that was going public as a community bank.  The lure of a nice financial guarantee, stock options, the ability to open my own office, and hire a staff seemed like the perfect opportunity.  Everything seemed to be pointing to the plan I always wanted…

So I quit my job with a reputable bank where I was flourishing, and started the new career.

The first few weeks I was excited about the new products we had in development, that would allow me to compete with the likes of Countrywide and Wells Fargo.  We had identified office space in Herndon at a realtors office that would bring me new clients, and were going to market our exclusive access to alternative lending plans.  These affordable first-time home buyer loans would allow me to branch out from my normal business to attract an extended pool of prospects who could now buy properties in towns like Reston, McLean, and Vienna.  This was going to be awesome.

The COO of the bank who recruited me personally, absolutely loved me, and helped negotiate my package with the CEO and President, assuring me that I was stepping into a wonderful and credible outfit.  I was so excited about the promise.

But, the promise was not what I thought it was.  The portfolio loans in development never made it to the rate sheet, because they did not exist. The realtor who’s office I worked in wanted kick-backs, higher rent than what we negotiated and agreed to, and was frankly a crazy person who had a problem telling the truth and discerning between what was actually legal, and what was ethical.

Within 2 months, the COO who was my mentor was fired, actually kicked out in an internal power-play and I was directed to go build my business in Fauquier and Prince William County which was never part of the game plan.  It turned out what was supposed to be a promise, was a big fat lie.

Suffice it to say, this pretty much killed my career path and my annual income was cut by over two-thirds.  And after enduring 12 months of disappointment, I left for another, where I literally had to start all over.  The stock I bought and the options I had became worthless.  For months, I had to endure the pain and regret of something I did not see, and could not understand.

But isn’t that the same with all of us when face these unexpected trials?  If you are like me, its confusing, and you ask, “It wasn’t supposed to be like this, was it?”  Don’t we all have the tendency to buy into promises that never materialize?

Well, there is a parallel between these promises that we buy into, and the promise we have in the bible.  God assures us,  He has something more for us, even though we can’t see it or feel it at the time.

Jesus talks about “the Kingdom of God” yet what his followers experienced was far from heaven on earth.  That first Easter weekend looked nothing like the promise Jesus spoke about.  But the story wasn’t over…it was only just beginning.

Come on out this Wednesday and hear author Gavin Long discuss how God set his redemptive process in motion. He promised a coming King and a Kingdom that would never end. But that journey rarely looks like we expect to look like…

But in time, it makes a dramatic impact in our lives…

Come find out how…

Invest and Invite

pat

Pat Mancuso
patmancuso@mac.com
(703) 401-8302
FUEL
See our Blog at: https://menoffuel.com/blog

“It’s what you need to keep you going…”

Our mission is to create a comfortable, relevant and honest environment where men can explore and discuss aspects of life, purpose and faith.

We accomplish our mission by reviewing pertinent issues in men’s lives, examining them through relevant biblical principles, followed by a time of discussion with other men.

Wednesday mornings, September through May…and beyond
6:30 AM to 7:30 AM @ Hidden Creek Country Club, Reston, VA.

http://www.hiddencreekcc.com

—
See our blog at https://menoffuel.com/blog and leave your comments

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