James Dole was born and raised in Jamaica Plain, Massachusets. He grew up in a Puritan family and later attended Harvard. After graduating at 22 years old with a Bachelor's in Agriculture, he began looking into moving away and seeing what the West was about. 

With a savings of about $1500 and plenty of determination, Dole made his way by train across the country, and hopped on a boat to Honolulu, Hawaii in 1899. That sounds like a long trip to me. He arrived in Hawaii, purchased 64 acres, and began planting all kinds of tropical fruit. 

Due to the Iron-rich soil, the 10th plant that he tried was the first to survive. It is a hearty and durable fruit that has now become an empire. The Dole Pineapple. 

You can now tour the Plantation and learn a bit of it's history, but to me the most impressive part of this tale is how it started, with a determined and opportunistic mentality...and the Dole whips are pretty good, too.

Happy Thursday, Team!!

To this day there is one Loop post that has stuck with me the most: “Change Vs. Movement” which was published by Theo on May 12^th (yes, I actually went back to find it).  This post talks about how you may see others making huge gains in what seems like a short matter of time, while you feel like you are barely making progress. Theo then goes on to talk about how, while it may seem like others are making major improvements, we do not see their daily grind and the work they put in to get to where they are.

I wanted to bring this up because even though I know that those that are excelling are putting in a ton of work, just as I am, I find myself asking myself what they are doing right and what I am doing wrong; especially when it comes to my friends. I have several friends doing amazing things and I am constantly reminded of how well they are doing.  One of them is at Harvard and has an internship with Deloitte, which is the largest professional service network in the world, all while playing Division 1 football. Another one of my close friends is studying music at UCLA and has been able to work with some amazing artists and producers in the Los Angeles area. The last one I will mention was my classmate, who is currently the number two candidate for the Heisman Trophy, Jake Browning. You may have heard his name on ESPN. 

Granted all of these examples are very gifted individuals, seeing them excel at such high levels makes me question how well I am actually doing. This is when I think back to Theo’s Loop post. While it seems like my friends are making major improvements effortlessly, they all have their own obstacles to overcome every single day, just like all of us do. We all wake up every morning and go through our own grind, whether that be school, work, or practice, and we fight to become better one step at a time. So moving forward, try not to compare yourself to how much others have improved, but rather look back and see how much you have improved.

Halloween is an interesting day on the calendar. Whether you want to call it All Hallow's Eve or All Saint's Eve or Halloween, it has certainly always been one of my kid's favorite holidays. Many believe that a lot of our current traditions are Celtic in their origin as well as linked to the Gaelic festival of Samhain, as well as the more modern Christian religious observance to include church services and lighting candles on the graves of the dead. There is even a popular Irish folktale where a gentleman named Jack tricks the devil into a tree and makes a bargain that the devil can never claim his soul. Jack goes on to live a life of debauchery so he can't get into heaven either and is doomed to roam the earth with a hollowed out turnip with a coal from the fires of hell burning in it, giving rise to the modern Jack-o-lantern.

No matter your belief, growing up it was an awesome day filled with parties and parades at school, followed by roaming the streets with your parents getting candy from the neighbors. What other day can you dress up like Batman and come home with a bag full of Snickers and Smarties as a kid?  As you can see from the below picture, there is no shortage of creative types here at Slidebelts. Kudos to all for coming up with fun, creative and appropriate costumes (who knew that was still possible?) You all rock!