On a September day in 2016, Brett, my eight year old little boy, was hanging out with me after having surgery on my shoulder. He was trying to bottle flip and just could not get the bottle to land. Brett was beginning to get upset because he wanted to land it so badly. After several more attempts, Brett finally started to get the bottle to land and stay upright. The next thing you know, he was lan
ding the bottle almost every time. All of a sudden, Brett stopped and said to me, “Dad, you know what? You never know what you can or can’t do unless you are willing to try. Even if you fail, you have to just keep trying and never give up.” Well I thought that was pretty profound coming from an eight year old. It shows the type of can-do attitude that we all need to have when we are faced with a challenge in life. When my wife got home from work, I shared the story with her. She also thought it was pretty cool and was proud of Brett for not giving up when things weren’t going his way. The more I told this story to my family and friends, the more it became apparent that what Brett had said is more than a saying. It is a mindset, a purpose, a belief that people need to have in order to get through the daily challenges in life, especially children. A child does not know what he/she can do unless he/she is willing to try. Even if they fail the first time, as many children do when learning how to do new things, they should keep trying until they are successful. As the days and weeks went by, I could not get the saying out of my head and wondered what to do next. I decided to do some research on how to trademark sayings and what it entailed. After reading pages and pages of what it takes to trademark a saying, I finally decided that it is what I was going to do. I filed for the trademark in January of 2017 and hoped that it would be approved. After months of receiving emails stating that the application was on the right track, I finally got the information I was waiting for on August 1. I shared my vision with my wife and kids and they were instantly on board and excited about our new adventure. We were issued a serial number for our approved trademark. The last and final step was to send in the “Statement of Use” paperwork and we would be issued our certificate of registration. While waiting on the trademark process to work its course, we contacted a very talented graphic designer hoping she could help us tell Brett’s story through a certain cartoon-kid character. I wanted the design to resemble Brett and be able to show the things he has tried or wants to try. The graphic designer came up with a perfect cartoon likeness of Brett and started putting our family’s ideas into drawings. The main goal was to show a kid trying to do the activities that kids all across this world want to accomplish. These activities included things such as learning to ride a bike, how to fish, to go hiking, to swim, and to steal home or some other sport related activity. With “life’s about trying,” our ultimate goal is to encourage not only children but adults as well. If you have a positive attitude and are willing to try, you can do anything. Always believe in yourself and never give up. Like Brett said, “You never know what you can or can’t do unless you are willing to try. Even if you fail, you have to just keep trying and never give up.” After all…life’s about trying.
