Beyond the Ordinary

The world is full of extraordinary. Join me in exploring all that sparks creativity and change.

latest inspiration posts

Crash Landing: The Inside Story of How the World's Biggest Companies Survived an Economy COVID Crisis

I recently read “Crash Landing: The Inside Story of How the World's Biggest Companies Survived an Economy on the Brink” by award-winning business journalist Liz Hoffman. It was an interesting exposé about how the world's most powerful CEOs built the US economy only to watch it fall before their eyes – and never saw it coming. The book does a great job of putting the reader in the middle of the CEO experience, from the realization of how deep the pandemic crisis would be, to the strategies they were working on to save their companies. Clayco and our team had these same stories. From helping the White House and CDC navigate how to work safely to keep our job sites going, to responding to the drastic growth of E-Commerce, we responded to the same circumstances.

April’s Inspiration of the Month: Daya Brown

Daya Brown is a name that an increasing number of people are beginning to recognize for her intelligence, dedicated work ethic, and the fact that she was accepted by 54 colleges and received $1.3 million in scholarship offers! Brown is my inspiration for April for all her accomplishments and determination to reach her goals – especially because most of her journey was during unprecedented global uncertainty. As a Freshman at Atlanta, Georgia’s Westlake High School, Brown said she considered becoming a lawyer before being introduced to Westlake Out Loud, a poetry performance group for students. She then realized she wanted to embrace her creativity to empower people and heal the world.

Freedom's Forge: How American Business Produced Victory in World War II

This is great storytelling about winning WWII, American ingenuity, innovation, and how many of the great engineering and construction firms grew into the powerhouses they still are today. I wish this book would have been around when I started Clayco. “Freedom's Forge: How American Business Produced Victory in World War II” is written by author and history connoisseur (with a Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins and five other historical works to his credit) Arthur Herman. This book is insightful in covering the history of the United States’ industrial mobilization for World War II.

March Inspiration of the Month: Lauren Underwood

My inspiration of the month is the really impressive Lauren Underwood. The Illinois Democrat Representative is a registered nurse from Chicago who set out to make a difference in the healthcare system. She’s also the first woman, the first person of color, and the first millennial to represent her community in Congress. “If you focus on the work, you find fulfillment,” she once said. Underwood was born in Naperville, Illinois. Even as a kid, she believed in public service. She was a Girl Scout, a volunteer for community service groups, and always working to help others. As a junior at Neuqua Valley, her first experience with politics was serving on the Naperville Fair Housing Advisory Commission, where she was exposed to injustice and discrimination. Her task was to report these to the Naperville City Council. That was when she began to build her leadership skills.

In Memory of Rafael Viñoly

I am deeply saddened to learn about the passing of one of the great architects and thinkers of our time, the renowned architect Rafael Viñoly. Rafael was an Uruguayan-born architect based in New York. He was born Montevideo, Uruguay in 1944, and his passion for architecture later led him to study at the University of Buenos Aires. He then continued his journey to the United States in 1978, and decided to make New York City his permanent home in 1979.

February Architect of the Month: Daniel Libeskind

Bold, innovative designs often challenge traditional architectural conventions. Daniel Libeskind, known for his distinctive, avant-garde projects, is an architect, artist, and friend whose provocative work I have admired for many years. Daniel was born in Poland in 1946 to parents who were Holocaust survivors. The family moved to Israel in 1957 and then to New York in 1959 on an immigrant boat. His father worked at a print shop in Lower Manhattan, from where Daniel watched the construction of the World Trade Center in the late 1960s.

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Inspiration

I have always had an insatiable curiosity

What causes me to get out of bed every morning is driven by inspiration. Ever since I was a little boy, I was inspired by my insatiable curiosity, which caused me to be a reader, a thinker, and a dreamer.

I can remember being inspired by seeing Bobby Kennedy on TV and watching videotapes of Martin Luther King Jr., and being deeply saddened by their assassination even though I was only 10 years old when I experienced all of this.

As a little boy, rocket flight was a big thing. I remember being fascinated by the moon and the stars and the astronauts exploring them.As humans we are achieving remarkable things that only a handful of years before were just in the imagination.