Jeanne Rhea is one of my two Mom’s and for this Mothers day I present to you this list of things she has taught me that make me forever grateful to her.

1. Do something you are passionate about, if you are not passionate about it, don’t do it.

2. Take the necessary risks to succeed but always have a backup plan.

3. Live within your means, it’ll make it easier when you decide that Plan A really isn’t what you wanted to do and you need to switch to Plan B.

4. You can make money at almost anything, you just need to find your angle and work at it.

5. Success takes hard work, don’t wimp out. Luckily if you are doing it right you won’t mind doing the work since you are enjoying what you do.

6. Clean up as you see messes starting, don’t wait until later.

7. White is a good color to use in almost all circumstances where you can’t figure out what other color to use.

8. You can both 1. Own a ton of stuff and 2. Keep it organized and out of the way. You just need to invest in the right organization systems and spend the time to keep things organized.

9. Don’t surround yourself with people who irritate or stress you out, they will only make you irritated and stressed.

10. Get your hands dirty and don’t procrastinate when there is a hard job needing to be done. Get it done early so that you can stop thinking about it.

11. Doing it right the first time means you don’t re-do it a dozen times.

12. Creativity comes in many forms and flavors, don’t discount other people’s view of art or creativity.

13. You can create anything from a paperweight to a space shuttle booster rocket out of polymer clay… then fix it with hot glue.

14. You can always forgive people, sometimes it will take awhile but everyone deserves a second chance.

15. Being happy with your life isn’t something you get for free, but it isn’t terribly expensive if you make the right decisions and keep the right attitude along the way.

16. Heaven is a place people like my Mom go, not because they pray every day or attend church every weekend but because they make the world a better place while they are here.

I Love You Mom.

-Alan