Mollie Tibbets - The Sad Conclusion to the Grand Tale

It looks like investigators found her, but not the way they had hoped. After missing for more than a month, her body was found in a cornfield. You’ve heard the story—a beautiful young lady with hopes, dreams, and a real future went missing in a rural town in Iowa. Reporters, friends, family, investigators, and complete strangers around the nation went looking for her. You wouldn’t be reading this now if you hadn’t already heard about it!

According to the new release on August 21, 2018, she was abducted on 385th Avenue in Brooklyn, IA. Somewhere along the line she was also killed, but the details were not given. Her hidden body ended up in a cornfield on 460th. The same county, but more than 10 miles away by car. An illegal alien from Mexico age 24 is charged with murder. (Screenshot from Google Maps)

 It seems that this is real life—what a parallel! We get so involved in fantasy. We could live the good life—cruises, first class airplane rides, traveling the world! We save as much money as we can to get a glimpse of what that might be like—then we make it sound much better than it actually was! This thinking snowballs into grand tales of success and greatness!

Mollie’s story went viral. Everybody knew she was missing, yet nobody knew where she was. Thousands of people helped to search for her. Even I, thousands of miles away, felt the hope that she would be found alive.

In the end, she didn’t make it very far. No, she wasn’t alive. No, she wasn’t found by some concerned citizen hundreds of miles away. She was right where it all started and the murder was solved in the very same county in which it took place.

 It seems so disappointing—we wanted to hear some great story of how they took down the killer; we wanted to find out that she survived in Iowa’s farmlands, feeding off grass and sucking up fresh water through a straw. That’s just how it always is, though, isn’t it?

At the same time this was a wonderful display of how local community members come together. How families should stick together. Mollie’s dad spared no money, gave up every second of his time, and make every effort for his daughter. That’s how it should be.

Families are not created easily. You don’t automatically love your husband or wife when you get married. You grow into it. You have children and they are difficult. Life is not simple. Yet, when you work at it, you achieve what this family achieved.

This world breaks apart the family and all that it stands for, but Mollie’s family is a perfect example of what it should be. They make mistakes, I’m sure. They have fought with each other no doubt. However, when push comes to shove, the family overcomes the world. They didn’t truly need the help of the nation. They just needed each other.

So, don’t worry about Mollie—worry about yourself. She proved that life is wonderful and families are important. Now it’s your turn! Build what you can in your own home and community! When life gets hard (and trust me, it does!), you can be the one that brings people together for a great cause. Be the firm foundation people can trust!

Experience does not always equate with Knowledge

Everyone has some sort of passion. Whether it's a passion for work, a passion for cars, a passion for twitter, a passion for writing. Whatever it is, you have something that you enjoy doing. You learn about it because you want to. The idea of it gives you butterflies in your stomach. If anyone wanted to know anything about your topic, you would have volumes of information to offer.

The funny thing about this is you don't typically have a passion because you are paid for it. You do it because you want to. You do it because you like it.

Oftentimes you become a self-taught expert in that field. You know everything about it. You would never admit that, however, because you have had no formal education in the matter. Regardless, you know it all.

I had a recent experience where someone at work came up to me to talk. He had **seven** years of experience in his position. Wonderful, right? Honestly I didn't really care.  Your work should speak for itself. 

Anyway, he came up to my desk to complain about some work that he didn't understand. He did not like the fact that I (a pretty junior employee) had any sort of knowledge about the topic. I honestly wish I didn't. He was quite upset over a trivial thing because he didn't understand it and I did.

Unfortunately, this happens all too often. Think of Bob. Bob has been working at the facility for years. He worked his way up to a promotion and is very proud of his work--and he should be!  He has grown a lot during the time he was working for the facility. Not long after Bob's promotion, Johnny shows up at the facility.  Johnny works hard and seems to have a natural talent for the work. His performance report reflects his great work. He has been working for a few months when he gets the very same promotion as Bob. Bob is mad because it took him years to work into such a position and Johnny has only been there a few months.

This is an incorrect reaction. I have been denied promotions for this very reason--despite me being more qualified that people currently in those positions.  You must remember, experience does not always equate to knowledge or skill.  In some cases, I would be Bob. I am not good at everything, but there are certain things I am good at. 

Having been a supervisor, I want to impress on other supervisors and managers alike that it is more important to look at performance than it is to look at meaningless credentials such as experience and formal education.  As a co-worker, you should not look down on your peers for getting promotions sooner than you. You should treat everyone equally.

On the other side remember this: If you work hard and have higher performance than your peers (and I mean seriously higher performance, not just moderately higher. Also, take a good introspective look at yourself, you may not be as good as you think you are).  If your management does not recognize this, don't bother continuing with the company. Being loyal to a company is great, but they have to earn your loyalty. You shouldn't be giving it away for free.

On this note, go out there and kick some butt! Show the world how great you truly are.