A Story of Courage and Hope: The Cornell Effect 

Episode# 272 with John Cranham

Life may not always go to plan, but there isn’t a shadow of a doubt that each moment is a beautiful one. There is no better example of this fact than the story that we have to share today, so join Kirk Behrendt as he brings in John Cranham to talk about the amazing impact his son, Cornell, has had on the world. You may be surprised to learn just how much of a difference faith and a little bit of perseverance can truly make. Tune in to Episode 272 of The Best Practices Show to find out more about the story of Cornell and his family!

Main Takeaways:

- Embrace the fact that many of our life’s stresses can pale in comparison to the trials of others if we take a moment to truly think about it.

- Embrace knowing that comparison is the enemy of contentment.

- Embrace your dreams and be comfortable with where you want to go and who you want to be in life.

- Embrace learning to walk the talk.

- Embrace the understanding that even little actions can make a big difference when your heart is in the right place.

- Embrace today and enjoy living the moment.

- Embrace the opinions of others and take time to see what can be learned from their wisdom.

Quotes:

- “This was something I felt like I had to do. I didn’t have a choice. I was gifted with this, and I had to tell the story”. (6:30-6:36)

- “In the midst of all this [tough times] was just this kid that just had this joy about him and this ability to kind of, separate out the bad stuff. To find the magic in the moment. It just kind of warmed your heart and just pulled you in and wanted to make you pull for him”. (10:45-11:05)

- “Part of the joy that I saw from my son, was that he was just fighting 100%”. (11:33-11:39)

- “I say that I was an 85%er and I could get by with that. But, he [Cornell] shamed me into realizing that the gifts that I have been given, are worthy of more effort”. (12:22-12:37)

- “As a young dentist- or as a young professional or young person- going from 85 to 95, or 96, or 97 percent over the course of 20 years changes the trajectory of your whole life”. (12:42-12:53)

- “Comparison is the enemy of contentment”. (14:33-14:36)

- “I think in this world right now, I worry about young dentists as there’s so many things with social media and Instagram and people posting things about where they are in their lives. And I think it’s so easy if you’re having a bad day to look at that. And half of it isn’t real- I mean, you can be comparing yourself to something that isn’t even real”. (16:57-17:23)

 - “If somebody is making more money than me somewhere and lives in a better house- or thinks they live in a better house- ya know, it just doesn’t matter. Because it’s gotta be your path”. (17:46-17:55)

- “You can work towards being your best and not be bitter about what somebody else is doing”. (18:25-18:32)

- “If you as the leader veer from that [walking the talk], it’s kind of giving permission to the team members- that you’re not really taking it seriously”. (21:05-21:13)

- “In the end, we can have our causes that we want to speak out against. But in the end, the hand that we’ve been dealt is the hand that we’ve been dealt. It’s our responsibility to pick ourselves up and make the best of it”. (34:49-35:08)

- “He [Cornell] embraces obstacles in a way that- I get emotional talking about it, but- he embraces obstacles as his biggest gift. It sounds crazy, but, he just does”. (45:01-45:18)

- “It’s one of those things- the clarity that you can see the future of where you wanna go, the more you can be disappointed if your reality doesn’t align with that at the time that you want”. (46:27-46:39)

- “You can have goals and dreams, but God has the timeline of when...