LIVE A GREAT STORY Started the Day My Grandfather Died

Three years ago on January 27th, 2015 I decided there wasn’t another option : I had to give LIVE A GREAT STORY my complete and absolute everything until the very end.

But this story starts a long time before, weaving back through generations of family history.

My ancestry on both my mom and dad’s side is filled with go-getters, businessmen and truth fighters. My DNA comes from a long lineage of people who fought for their beliefs, made tough choices for their families, faced daunting odds and persevered through seemingly impossible obstacles. Out of all of them the most important is my grandfather J.D. “Jakie” Sandefer III.

Jakie had a lot of accomplishments to his name. In Highschool he was a decorated athlete and was later inducted into the Texas High School Football Hall of Fame. He then played football at Oklahoma, playing full back and running back during the 47-game winning streak that still stands today. He was also roommates with Prentice Gautt, the first African-American athlete at OU. After college he followed family tradition into the oil and gas industry as wildcatter, a term for independent operators who drill in new territories in hope of finding oil. Years later he was inducted in to the prestigious All-American Wildcatters group. During all of this time he made significant contributions to Oklahoma University to help student athletes with career progression post-graduation.

I was visiting Austin with my girlfriend at the time, on the first leg of an Austin / New Orleans / Nashville trip. It was fortunate timing because we were just a three-hour drive from Houston where he was hospitalized. Our family left immediately.

When we arrived he was in bad shape and declining. It all happened so quickly even though it didn’t really seem like a big deal. He just got sick. It wasn’t anything serious, but it was a situation where his body wasn’t healthy enough to recover.

I remember telling him we’d be back on the golf course in no time and hearing the nurse scoff under her breath. It was heart breaking.

Shortly after our visit my girlfriend and I continued our trip to New Orleans.

We adventured around the NOLA, spreading LIVE A GREAT STORY by putting up Street Reminders around Frenchmen St, Magazine St and other highly trafficked areas of the city. The next stop was Nashville, once again putting up Reminders in 5 Points, 12 South and more.

Like most funerals and memorials, Jakie’s was filled conversations remembering his life. His friends of decades shared about his young adulthood, football career, business ventures and the ups and downs of his life.

Jakie had risked, accomplished, pushed forward, succeeded and then risked again, putting it all on the line repeatedly through his life. Up until the end he was still making moves in the oil industry, still fighting for student athletes at OU, still pursuing…

Thoughts rushed and emotions flowed in a deep and overwhelming feeling, : it was a mixture of sadness, remembrance and pain mixed with complete empowerment and clarity, like Jakie’s spirit, energy, vitality, pursuit and responsibility had passed down to me. It was my turn.

Until this point I had started and stopped a million things. I had a long string of launched business ventures that I quickly abandoned months down the road in favor of more shiny and new ideas. LIVE A GREAT STORY was still in infancy, maybe 6 months old, still a seedling of an idea, nothing but a couple words and simple logo… but it had started showing signs of potential.

The #liveagreatstory hashtag had started organically spreading, people were sharing powerful responses to the message and interest was building. It had energy, it gave life, it inspired and it was deeply human with the potential to make a positive impact.

But it was going to take work, consistency, continuation, vigor, effort and focus…and way more than I had ever put into a project before.

But sitting there at the funeral and memorial listening to the stories about Jakie, I realized I had no choice but to give LIVE everything. In a moment of higher clarity I realized this responsibility not only to myself but to my family and also the world. To continue LIVE with anything less than absolute pursuit would be letting down a long history of family that came before me and that would also come after.

Near the end of his memorial ceremony my phone started blowing up, vibrating in my suit pocket non-stop, back to back to back. After the ceremony I walked outside to find text after text from tons of girl friends.

It was like a final sign from the universe that I was on the right and to keep going.

Ever since that day three years ago I’ve worked on LIVE. Every. Single. Day. Not an hour goes by where I’m not thinking, dreaming, planning, executing, failing and repeating. I crave early mornings of opening my computer to get to work. I live for the moments where ideas flow like an opened dam, where action comes to life bigger than planned, where I get texts from people from around the world sharing their LIVE experience. I love seeing the LIVE Inspiration ripple into the various cracks of people’s lives, specifically where it’s most needed, from Austin to Philly to Europe and around the world.

It’s not all wins / highs / full speed. There’s lots of lows, slow progress, false starts and mistakes. But I’ve fallen in love with the ride, embracing the journey, enjoying the complete experience… because I’ve committed and I have no choice

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