A Letter from Phoenix: Reflections on a Red Rubber Ball

I’m wrapping up my week in Phoenix and heading home today; it was a good few days at a great annual conference put on by one of our larger vendors (the picture at left is of “Camelback” mountain, looking from my hotel).

As they did last year in Miami, the conference featured a keynote by a motivational speaker. His name was Kevin Carroll, and I had not heard of him before.

He calls himself a “Katalyst” and has written a book called “Rules of the Red Rubber Ball“. Yes, the Red Rubber Ball was a very important visual prop and symbol throughout his very entertaining and inspiring presentation. It was a symbol of how he found his path and purpose on a playground, chasing after that ball.

The gist of his message is the “freeing” benefits of play; in fact, he got all of us to “pledge” to renounce our adulthood and become 8-year olds again (what a nice idea). Once we get into that state, just like a child, we can live much more in the moment and be much better able to cultivate and leverage our creativity and imagination.

This use of child-like imagination was put vividly on display when he presented a variety of homemade “balls” he had accumulated during his trips around the world – some were made of socks, some of water balloons, and others were literally held together by a thread.

During the presentation I had one of those “freaky” moments – when he was talking about creativity I consciously thought of Gordon MacKenzie and “Orbiting the Giant Hairball”, and actually wrote the book title down on my note pad. Lo and behold, 5 minutes later he handed out “Hairball” to one of his audience “helpers” and spoke about many of MacKenzie’s words of wisdom.

After the presentation, Kevin autographed a copy of his book for me, and we chatted about my “freaky” moment – turns out, “Hairball” was an enormous influence on him (his book is put together in much the same way, and he lists MacKenzie as one of his teachers).

Here’s another freaky thing – when I looked up the Amazon.com page for the book , guess who reviewed the book? Yep, Phil Gerbyshak. The circle got closed again. And who says things don’t happen for a reason?

Funny how all this works – hairballs (Gordon), red rubber balls (Kevin), and a ball of fire (Phil), all converging together, and sending the same message – chase your dreams with all the positivity, creativity, and imagination you can muster. Because if you do, they will come true.

Just read Kevin’s story for a great example of what I’m talking about. Now I’m off to play a little tag, before I turn back into an adult. Bye!

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