Category Archives: courage

Jan 27 0 comments
Anonymous, comfort, courage, new, Travel

>Motivation #2 – Discomfort or Regret?

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Motivation #2 mug
Motivation #2 by NapkinDad
Create custom mugs at Zazzle

My wife and I had a long discussion today about what we might like to do in the future.  We talked about how when we decide to do something new and different we can feel discomfort. Whether it is thinking about traveling somewhere we have never gone, becoming friends with new people, even something as simple as going to a new restaurant or cooking a new meal, it’s easy to feel a bit of discomfort and choose to not go in that new direction so we can avoid that discomforting feeling. 

But, in the end, if that becomes your habit, you stay home, meet no one, do nothing and get filled with regret for a life not lived.  My wife and I don’t want to do that and so we choose to suffer the discomfort because the pay off is so wonderful.  New friends, new experiences and new opportunities to love and care about the people we cross paths with.  That is worth it. 
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Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman of The Napkin Dad Daily

Quote author unknown. After I came home from our breakfast together this quote quickly passed in my twitter feed and I knew it was meant to be my quote for the day. I didn’t catch who posted it, but it’s a great quote. The original said ‘resentment’ instead of ‘regret’ but I liked ‘regret’ better so I changed it.

Dec 09 0 comments
courage, Peter Drucker

>Whenever You See A Business

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No matter if it’s Linda’s Roadside Diner or the corporation that turned it into a world-wide franchise worth billions, a business is made out of people making steps they are scared to make. Steps that could mean the loss of the diner, the loss of jobs, the loss of power.  It takes guts and commitment and courage to take those steps sometimes.

I appreciate every storefront I see because I know it meant a courageous step on the part of some individual.  While big office buildings often don’t engender the same feelings, they are also filled with people who had to make some seriously scary steps.  No matter your thoughts on business, capitalism, and commerce, it’s a good thing to have respect and admiration for those who take those scary steps.

Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman of The Napkin Dad Daily


Quote by Peter Drucker, 1909-2005, business writer and management consultant.


May 28 0 comments
Art, artist, courage, Georgia O'Keefe

>To Create One's Own World

>Day #5 of Art Week at The Napkin Dad Daily 



This is the essence of art.  This is the most important truth about being an artist.  This is the single indispensable characteristic for creating art.


It is simple, and to teach it is simple.  To be an artist, you have to admit who you are.  You have to tell the world you love naked people.  You have to tell the world you love the color red and only red.  You have to tell the world you love the smell of oil paints more than the smell of food.  You have to tell the world you love the discarded cutting from the bottoms of the flowers more than the flowers.  You have to tell the world you love flowers so much you hate that you aren’t one.  You have to tell the world you like asphalt more than grass.


In other words, you have to admit your passions, no matter how absurd, silly, perverse, scary or mundane they are.  Do that and find YOUR way of expressing them, and you will be an artist.


Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman of The Napkin Dad Daily


Quote by Georgia O’Keefe, 1887-1986, Artist


Feb 21 3 comments
courage, Mary Anne Radmacher, persistence

Courage Doesn’t Always Roar

I wonder what a lion actually feels after having failed to capture his or her prey. I wonder if there is regret, or anger, or embarrassment. It’s hard to imagine they have feelings organized intellectually like we do, being able to categorize them. But I don’t doubt they have the feeling we need to have that night or the next morning. They know they need to get up and try again.

A confessional and cautionary tale is needed here. Before I was the Napkin Dad, before I lived in Oklahoma and went into interactive and internet development and design, I was a teacher. I taught drawing, art appreciation, figure drawing, art and design at the community college level at 3 different institutions in Northern California. I was part-time for 9 years. I tried for 8 of those years to land a full-time position. I applied to hundreds of jobs all around the country.

The job with the least amount of applications over that time was in a west Texas town that had a prison as it’s main employer. They had over 100 applications. The job with the most applications was the University of Virginia, which had over 600 applications for the particular job I applied for. I was a finalist many a time, but never landed the full-time gig.

It took just as much courage for me to decide to give up on that dream and find myself another as it did for me to get up every morning for those 8 years and decide to try again. During the 9th year, instead of applying for teaching positions, I spent the time retraining myself as a commercial artist using computer software. I started applying for educational software design jobs and landed one in 1994. My family and I moved, sight unseen, to Tulsa and I began a new career as an entry-level employee at age 39.

Persistence is important, I believe in it. But wisdom is important too. Wisdom to know when to change direction, when to ask for directions, when to test the wind, test the waters, test yourself. Be wise and persistent.

Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman of The Napkin Dad Daily

Quote by Mary Anne Radmacher, American author

May 26 0 comments
courage, faith, John Bingham, running, scared

>The Miracle Isn't

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At some point in time you realize most people people don’t look at the
world the same way you do. When I was very young I had no idea what
a shy person was or a worried person, or a scared person. I thought
most people were like me. I wasn’t afraid, I wasn’t worried and I wasn’t
shy. I was excited about trying new things, exploring vacant lots, riding
my bike to the town next door, swim in the surf, or something like that.

Eventually life gave me lessons and I learned about being worried and
scared and shy, but I still didn’t know that for some people it was something
they carried with them all the time. The first time I really understood
how fear ruled some people’s lives was when I started teaching drawing.
Some students were just PETRIFIED of taking the class, petrified of failing,
of not being able to learn, of looking stupid. The fear list always goes on and on.

Obviously, if they were in my class they had already taken the first step.
They had begun. They now had help. They had direction, encouragement,
progress to see. They all finished the class, they all were able to draw much
better than when they came in. None of them were made fun of, none were
embarrassed, none were left behind.

If you are one who is fearful of things, worried or shy, then get yourself into a
group or class. Get into a running group, or a reading, bird-watching, rock and roll,
dancing, skydiving, geneology, swimming, theatre, or something else.
Just take the first step, the rest will take care of itself. Don’t stay home alone,
don’t wish it were different.

Go, take the step.


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