Mark Tutton offers this inspiring story from CNN.com:

Tasked with creating something that reflected her environment and the people around her, Conto came up with the idea of making something from a bullet fired during Liberia’s civil war…

‘I always wanted to be a fashion designer,’ Conto told CNN…

…Conto came up with a design inscribed with the word ‘life.’ It’s intended to show new life can arise from even the worst hardship. She has now sold hundreds of necklaces under the name ‘Akawelle, which translates as ‘also known as love.’

Conto made an opportunity for herself in a bad situation, and also demonstrates the principle of letting go of old rubble. And she was able to get a U.S. Visa through the Strongheart Fellowship in 2005…

Adjusting to life in the U.S. was difficult for Conto. She found it hard not be angry when she compared the wealth around her with the poverty she had grown up with. But the experience changed her life…

‘If something happens to you, you hold on to it so hard, but Strongheart taught me to let go of things and to express my feelings and how to expect good things in my life. That was life changing for me — for me to love myself.’

Holding onto bad experiences—whether they’re major traumatic events or just small ways that we’ve been disappointed—is a hard habit to break. But they can prevent us from seeing the good things in our lives and finding the next big opportunity for ourselves.

I’m continually amazed at the positive results people find out of the most unlikely circumstances.

William Holman Hunt - The Finding of the Saviour in the Temple

My 21-year-old son Carson recently made an appearance at my keynote speech in Charlotte and, as always, he brought the house down. If you’ve read The Ring in the Rubble, you know that Carson’s story of a serious heart condition at birth and the major surgeries that followed is part of a key parable in the book. It was an experience that shaped my outlook, inspired my work and gives me a touchstone for everything I do.

Father and son book signing at the NSPRA conference in Charlotte.

Carson and his sister Kimberly constantly serve as my teachers. Youth can teach us a lot about facing fear. Youngsters are typically bold compared to their parents and teachers. Of course that may or may not be due to ignorance! Nevertheless, when I’m vacillating or trapped in “analysis paralysis” or just plain “chicken” about a big decision or choice, I like to tap into my inner whippersnapper.

Luke Sharrett at 21 is already a rising star as a photojournalist in the Washington press corp. Never mind that he’s only an intern at The New York Times. In his previous internship as a White House photographer, Sharrett was challenged by President Obama who asked why the young photographer intended to get a degree, after all, he had captured some famously iconic images of the president (see it here).

Sharrett told the president getting a degree is simply something he has to do. Sharrett’s story, described by NYTimes.com blogger David W. Dunlop, is a heartening example of youthful pluck and passion. But there’s impressive wisdom in the intern’s humility and grounded perspective.

…Mr. Sharrett’s portfolio speaks for itself. Since he arrived at the Washington bureau in August 2009 as a one-semester intern from Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green — an internship that just kept getting extended — Mr. Sharrett has had more than 400 photographs published in The Times.

How can we all rediscover that post-adolescent sense of opportunity? I’m lucky to have two kids as teachers. Out in the workplace, take time to stop and talk to the interns before they go back for fall semester. If nothing else, you’ll learn some new words!

Dress made by Motor City Sewing. Image courtesy Sarah Lapinski.

When we find ourselves in challenging situations, it’s normal to cling to the old way of doing things. In times of uncertainty, we find stability and comfort in our own habits. Often, though, this sense of security turns out to be false. Stagnation doesn’t protect us; it only prevents us from digging through the rubble for rings. Sarah Lurtz and Sarah Lapinski, the owners of Motor City Sewing, have chosen to break with convention by opening a sewing factory in Detroit, instead of an established center of apparel design like New York City or Los Angeles.

In this article from Metromode, Meghan McEwen shares the encouraging story of the new Midwestern sewing factory.

The factory represents the last, best chance of getting their designs into production.

After a few bum scouting trips to LA last year, one soured factory relationship and another factory that dropped Wound for its itsy-bitsy production order, the duo decided to take matters into their own hands—literally.

…

Nothing like Motor City sewing exists in the Midwest. New York is too expensive. And LA —if you can find someone to take you on— is too far away to effectively manage quality control. “Finding production is the hardest thing… finding someone you trust,” Lapinski explains. As up-and-coming designers themselves, they understand what designers need from manufacturers: micro service, flawless execution, and reliability.

Of course, this insight comes from experience—and they wouldn’t be here, trying like zealots to spur new industry in Detroit, without struggling elsewhere first.

Of course, Detroit has been all about cars for about 100 years. But this didn’t stop the owners of Motor City Sewing. Even their name challenges the fashion paradigms while staking a claim in the revitalization of a rust-belt metropolis.

“The city needs this,” [floor manager Julian Paul] says.

And he’s right—in more ways than one. In a region notorious for its rusted beltway, new industry archetypes need to be embraced.

Tried and true can work. But Lurtz and Lapinski show the power of improvised solutions. There might be more than the usual amount of rubble in this uncharted territory, but there are also rings that nobody else has found yet.

Photo by Fastily

How many times do we have promising ideas and not act on them for fear of failure? How often do we stay in unsatisfactory situations because we’re afraid that we might lose what we have if we try for something better? Unemployed college graduates with no experience and nothing to lose have been finding Rings for themselves by starting businesses in their own kitchens.

Julia Moskin reports on the recent wave of young homemade food mavericks in this inspiring piece from The New York Times.

“This is my investment in the future right now,” said Fabiana Lee, 26, an interior designer who lost her job in 2009. She has been selling at the Greenpoint market since its inception in October. After experimenting with cookies (too much competition), she has pared her offerings down to two: gorgeously browned empanadas and irresistibly twee “cake pops,” golf-ball-size rounds of cake perched on lollipop sticks. At the moment, they are her main source of income.

Young, college-educated, Internet-savvy, unemployed and hoping to find a place in the food world outside the traditional route, she is typical of the city’s dozens of new food entrepreneurs. As the next generation of cooks comes of age, it seems that many might bypass restaurant kitchens altogether.

Faced with a difficult job market, a few have found an alternate route to success by taking risks and doing what they love. This shows an incredible sense of ingenuity and optimism that would benefit anybody in the business world, not just newcomers. I’m impressed by the confidence and willingness to try new things; in my language, to dig for new Rings.

Aspiring cooks (and the adventurous eaters who love them) come face to face at markets like this one, which are opening and expanding at a brisk pace. The Brooklyn Flea, the Hester Street Fair and the soon-to-reopen New Amsterdam Market have become tasting destinations, where handmade food is as much of a fetish as vintage Ray-Bans or bargello pillowcases. The all-food Greenpoint market, which is open to home cooks of all stripes, is one-stop shopping: Mexican-Indian tacos, artisanal soda pop, roof-grown produce, exotic chili peppers, long-brined pickles, Taiwanese street food and retro-Southern snacks under one roof.

“I feel like I’m at a science fair and I get to eat all the experiments,” said Erin Massey, a Chicago native who lives in Brooklyn, looking around the crowded church basement. “It’s like going to a music festival with all the different bands, only here it’s different kinds of kombucha.”

Everyone has this creative ability to some degree. Too often it’s just buried under the rubble of fear and doubt. Wouldn’t it be great if we could dig past all that rubble and tap into this talent again? You can. But you have to pick up the shovel and start digging!

“When I quit my old job to take this new one, I rewarded myself with this ring!” I was told. She went on to say that the ring is a reminder of the risk in making a big change…something she wanted, but not a guarantee.

As an author on finding rings, I couldn’t agree more that she had a worthy symbol to signify a big decision. Rings traditionally mark special achievements from engagements to Super Bowls.

But I was most impressed that the woman from the audience was reveling in making her recent leap from a steady job to an unknown opportunity. She made a change with no guarantee of success. Such is the essence of finding the rings in our lives.

Symbols—whether jewelry or a ticket stub—serve as milestones and provide benchmarks to help us review our progress and landmarks to guide us whether things go as planned or not. They help recall how we felt at a crucial point in time. A photograph might remind you of commitments and principles when you get discouraged. A souvenir from a successful project might suggest a forgotten talent that could be useful in the present moment when you think you’ve run out of ideas.

Don’t forget to leave some markers along your path.

5th floor lecture hall at Baruch College. Taken on the day of an Economics Final Examination. Photo courtesy Wikipedia.

Some of us groan about our SAT experience or having to wash dishes for spending money in the cafeteria, but for others, the typical middle-class college tribulations were non-issues because just getting accepted and managing to stay enrolled were the real challenges.

Kathleen Megan, writing in the Hartford Courant, offers a compelling read covering four recent degree-earners who had to dig through serious rubble just to get to class on time.

“Getting into and graduating from college is never easy, but there are factors that make it even harder: Growing up in poverty. Suffering neglect and abuse as a child. Having a child at an early age. Suffering mental illness…”

They’re all inspiring stories of not accepting our own excuses and avoiding the victimhood often bestowed upon us by society. And there’s a lesson, too, in understanding the human spirit and its ability to get us through adversity. Or, in the examples of the four students, multiple adversities, one after another.

“When Khaliyl Lane was a little boy, he liked to ride his bike down the road to visit his good friend, Mike Allison. ‘I’d take a peek at what a real family is supposed to look like,’ Lane said. ‘I was always envious of the fact that they had so much love for one another.’

“Though he was only age 6 or 7, Lane knew his life wasn’t normal. His mother didn’t pay much attention to him or his younger brother. He didn’t know the word neglect, but he knew his mother acted differently from other mothers.”

There’s an almost magically redemptive effect in wiping our slates clear of bad experiences, mistakes and squandered opportunities. Morgan’s story tells us of sheer self-discipline from knowing “deep down” it’s the only way to stay on course and of teachers with lessons on maintaining perspective and creating your own reality.

“Born to a 17-year-old mother who dropped out of high school, (Denise) Poventud, a graduate of Weaver High School, was determined ‘not to be a product of my circumstances. … To stop the cycle.’

“Her mother, Mayda Rodriguez, had run away from home and spent time homeless, sleeping in hallways when Poventud was a newborn. Rodriguez shared her daughter’s ambition. ‘She was not going to go down my route,’ Rodriguez said. ‘She was going to do better.’

Please take a few minutes to read it all!

The take-away for me is that we should prepare ourselves for “surmounting” as a daily routine. Even on the “peaks”—as Dr. Spencer Johnson describes—of easier times we know they are inevitably followed by the experience of climbing out of valleys.

When people are in need, close to us and far away, we sometimes struggle with ways to truly help. Send money? Get on a jet and lend a hand? Pray? All are good choices. Sheer human compassion can also help the healing process and sometimes this is simply a matter of thoughtful words

CNN.com reports on a Haitian-born French professor in Minnesota who chose to give free lessons in Creole for aid workers bound for Haiti. The story tells us how experienced volunteers in Haiti not only improve their practical skills by speaking the native language, but they also are rewarded by the warm, thankful response they get from Haitians who have suffered devastating and lingering loss.

“If they see an American say ‘How are you today, how are you feeling, what hurts?’… I know the smile that would put on somebody. The appreciation they would get to see an American not only care enough to be there but care enough to learn the language to speak to me in my own tongue and make me understand that I matter … I know the joy that would bring to a Haitian’s heart.”—Max Adrien, from CNN.com

Helping others dig through the rubble of an earthquake or the rubble of lost jobs or family crisis is always enhanced by also “being present” as a fellow human being and empathetic to validate the person’s situation and efforts.

How many times has sharing your problems with others refreshed your perspective and given you new strength? Don’t underestimate the power of lifted spirits!

People do it every day and sometimes they’re also moms and dads who have to “be there” for very physically capable children.

CNN.com wrote a moving article on the lives of handicapped adults managing the physically demanding role of parenthood…

When Sarah Kovac watches her son, Ethan, crawl or grab objects, she feels proud, but also has mixed emotions. Already, the 8-month-old has abilities Kovac never had.

“He relies on me, but he’s already able to do things that I can’t, which is kind of a strange combination of feelings,” said Kovac, 26, of St. Joseph, Missouri.

Not surprisingly, a lot of differently able parents count on their children for support in overcoming physical challenges, which is an encouraging lesson in the strength of children. But also, it’s often a matter of the parents finding innovative ways around their own limitations, like the determined mom who has no control of her arms but manages to bathe her son and accomplish all the usual daily tasks, including driving…with her feet.

When you talk to people with disabilities and learn about their solutions that seem downright amazing, you start to see the potential for overcoming all sorts of situations that we too quickly consider to be impossible.

The next time my computer crashes on a deadline, maybe I’ll be inspired to find a work-around, considering what I might have to do if I couldn’t SEE my computer screen!

Inspiration abounds if we pay attention.

What’s most encouraging about the expression is how it has “gone viral” without any formal backing or official sanctioning. Which leads us to Web based organizations like The Secret Society for Creative Philanthropy.

Forbes calls it “guerrilla philanthropy.” The basic idea is that “agents” from the SSCP anonymously give $100 to people with the promise that they recipient will donate the $100 in some creative fashion. People regularly offer their own innovative suggestions, such as: “Pay the bill for people who are angry and impatient in line, to remind them not to sweat the small things. We have all been stressed out and in that place before.”

Okay, so one hundred one dollar bills handed out in small portions isn’t going to solve world hunger. But making philanthropy a compassionately creative process is a neat idea. SSCP is getting global attention. Maybe because it taps into some universal desire to validate the innate kindness of humanity.

What I like about it is how it turns the notion of philanthropy upside down and reminds us that we can all—with a little creative leverage—make a positive difference with small, sometimes whimsical, actions.

When you’re having a bad day, how good does it feel for someone to notice you with a kind thought or small gesture? And sometimes giving a kind thought or gesture feels even better. Which is great because when you’re digging in your own rubble, a small gesture might be all you can afford!