Dear Friends and Fans:

A lot good things are happening on the business front.

I am busy, traveling around the country making appearances, with the focus of most of these appearances being on teaching teamwork and inspiring organizations (more on this below).

I am also active as a national spokesperson for Ultimate SAAAVE, a public affairs campaign that urges those at risk for an abdominal aortic aneurysm, commonly called a triple-A, to get screened for the condition.  Twenty-one years ago, my dad entered the hospital complaining of back pains.  We didn’t know that a triple-A, undetected, caused the pains.  Within hours, my dad died suddenly when the triple-A ruptured; he was 68.  (It is important to note, though, that while my dad had symptoms, many triple-As cause no symptoms; hence, it being tagged the “silent killer”.)   A triple-A can be discovered with a simple and painless ultrasound, and repaired through a minimally invasive procedure.  It is imperative for those with the triple-A risk factors – men or women 65-75 years old who have ever smoked, or men or women 65 to 75 years old with a family history of vascular disease – to get screened.

A project about which I am particularly excited is a book that multiple New York Times bestselling author Don Yaeger and I are collaborating on that focuses on and explains my Gold Medal Strategies for Success.  These are strategies I teach and present – the primary objective of which is improving teamwork and motivating – for corporations and other organizations throughout our nation.  We have received an offer from a major publisher to publish the book, and I am confident we will sign a deal soon.

I also want to encourage people to send in stories via email or snail mail (visit the contact us page for the address) about where you were and how you felt when the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team was winning at Lake Placid, and how our victory affected your life.  If you were too young to remember where you were, or if you were not even born yet, perhaps watching replays of the games, or watching the movie “Miracle”, or reading about the “Miracle on Ice’, or listening to friends and family talk about the episode, inspired and affected you; we want to hear from you as well.

I plan to start posting these stories at www.jimcraig.net and www.goldmedalstrategies.com – different addresses for the same place on the web: a site which combines info on me and my company Gold Medal Strategies.

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Memorial Day is observed every year on the final Monday in May.  Memorial Day is our most solemn federal holiday, a day on which we honor and remember those who gave the supreme sacrifice in defense of our republic.  Of course, we honor and remember on this day all veterans and men and women presently in uniform.

Honoring and remembering our armed forces personnel – through American sports culture – is the focus of The American Patriot Program (TAPP).

TAPP has my enthusiastic support.  TAPP presents beautiful and specially designed Enduring Remembrance baseball bats to wounded soldiers – and in the memory, and to the families, of those who have fallen.  On July 4^th, TAPP will unveil the American Patriot Goalie Stick Award –it too to be bestowed on those who were wounded and those who died to preserve our freedoms.

On the subject of defending freedoms, in early April I was out in the San Diego area for a series of appearances.  In one of those appearances, I was fortunate and honored to share the stage with a true American hero, U.S. Navy SEAL Cmdr. Thomas Chaby, chief staff officer with the Naval Special Warfare Group ONE.   Both Cmdr. Chaby and I spoke at an event honoring the Poway High School wrestling program, one of the top prep wrestling programs in the nation.  Cmdr. Chaby has been in the Navy for more than 20 years.   Among his many assignment and missions are leading a 50 man team conducting combat operations in Afghanistan in the initial stages of Operation Enduring Freedom – and leading more than 500 men and women in combat in  Operation IRAQI FREEDOM.  Courageous, poised, smart, and a gentleman, he represents the best of this nation.

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Loving the weather.   Golf, boating, and fishing close on the horizon.   I’m looking forward to all of it.

Believe in Your Dreams – and Believe in Miracles.

Sincerely,

JIM CRAIG

April 2010

Dear Friends and Fans:

It’s been a busy time, traveling east and west, north and south, around the country, speaking to companies and other organizations representing many different industries.

And no matter the group and the sector of the economy in which it operates, all benefit from more efficient and higher functioning teamwork.

So whether – to use an example of a stretch of appearances early last month – it was addressing Rite-Aid in Baltimore, MD, or Sanofi Aventis in Bridgewater, NJ, or MPI Research in Salt Lake City, UT, or Citizens Bank in Warwick, RI, or Horace Mann Insurance in Marana, AZ, my messages and teaching points, adjusted and customized for each audience, emphasized and expanded on the traits and strategies of great teams.

A primary point I present and discuss is that members of great teams have a shared dream.  Employees of many companies for which I speak are practicing and striving to share a dream.  Still, a speech specifically tailored, well crafted and presented, reasserts the importance of and makes more urgent and relevant this winning element.

Think of the players on the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team.  Early in our journey together, six months out from the Olympics, the 20 players who would make up the team that played at Lake Placid did not share a dream. We were 20 guys with our own individual dreams.  That changed, of course.  We trained and worked and were molded into a group of young men whom fervently shared a dream.  We wouldn’t have made history if we didn’t.

One of my mentors, and a good friend of mine, is Jon Luther, executive chairman for Dunkin’ Brands, the company that owns the Dunkin’ Donuts and Baskin Robbins brands.  Here is a reflection Jon wrote recently on the importance of a shared dream:

As Jim Craig and I built our friendship over the years,we often talked about leadership…and how you get teams aligned to win.  Jimmy believed that one of the ways that great teams are able to win ….is to create a shared dream or shared vision.  I took that premise to heart when building our great team at Dunkin Donuts.  We spent a lot of time developing that strategic notion and once that dream/vision was set….  we wrote it…we talked about it…we communicated it…we role modeled it… we rewarded it….and now everyone in the organization lives it!!  It is no coincidence that our strong results followed.  Today, Dunkin Donuts is one of the most admired brands in the restaurant world…….in part due to Jim Craig’s view of a shared dream…and helping me to embed the Dunkin shared dream throughout the organization…

I am fortunate and blessed to make a living doing something that I enjoy, which I know is important, and which challenges and improves me.

I also wanted to give a special call out to one of my clients and teammates, W.L. Gore, a company I work with as a national spokesperson for its Ultimate SAAAVE, a public affairs campaign that urges those at risk for abdominal aortic aneurysm, or triple-A, to get screened for the condition.  The screening is easy and painless, and if a triple-A is discovered, a non-invasive endovascular procedure can repair the triple-A and make you as good as new.  My father died suddenly from a triple-A that ruptured.

Please visit www.ultimatesaaave.com to learn more about triple-A and the Ultimate SAAAVE campaign.

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April is upon us.  I leave you with a reflection of Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the modern Olympics, on the Olympics and its relationship to spring: “The Olympic Games are the quadrennial celebration of the springtime of humanity.”  Nice.

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Please return here often and follow what I and Gold Medal Strategies have been up to.   I encourage you to click on the links here that take you to my Facebook page, where you can become a fan, and Twitter page, where you can sign up to follow my tweets.  As well, you can link here to my YouTube channel and sign up for my online newsletter.

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Believe in Your Dreams – and Believe in Miracles.

Sincerely,

JIM CRAIG

And now, in accordance with tradition, I declare the XXI Olympic Winter Games closed, and I call upon the youth of the world to assemble four years from now in Sochi to celebrate the XXII Olympic Winter Games.

JACQUES ROGGE, PRESIDENT
International Olympic Committee
Vancouver Winter Olympics Closing Ceremony Speech
February 28, 2010

March 2010

Great job Vancouver!  Get ready Sochi.

An Olympics that began with hurt and sadness – Georgian luge athlete Nodar Kumaritashvili, 21, killed when his sled crashed in a training run a few hours prior to the opening ceremonies – emerged as magnificent and demonstrated just about the best we are as an international community.

Speaking to those in attendance at the opening ceremonies, and to those watching and listening around the world, John Furlong, CEO of the Vancouver Organizing Committee, struck the right balance of memorializing an athlete who died young, honoring those about to compete, and celebrating the wonder of what was to come, when he said, “May you carry his Olympic dream on your shoulders and compete with his spirit in your heart.”

So the 2010 Olympics began.

Yes these Olympics had operational problems, including one which was broadcast globally:  a beam of the Olympic cauldron failing to rise from the event floor during the opening ceremonies.  And – although this was not the fault of Vancouver organizers – the weather was not great, providing little snow, and too much rain and fog and temperatures more than a few degrees above freezing.

Still, the games were mostly a big win.

It was fun to be in such a beautiful city, in that environment, during the 30^th anniversary of the “Miracle on Ice” and gold medal clinching game against Finland – reliving the emotion and wonder.

Some of that historic energy seemed to carry through the years and into the event that closed the athletic competition of the 2010 games: an adrenaline-rushing and anxiety-pulsing Canada-U.S.A. men’s hockey gold medal game.  It was a contest that showed hockey – supported by the passions and carrying with it the hopes of hundreds of millions of people – at its best and most exciting:  fast and with flow and precise passing, sometimes even elegant; with hard hitting, but light on the mugging; high energy and high spirited; all out from start to finish.

Congrats, Canada, on the win.  Nice job U.S.A.  Together you did a lot of good for hockey, the sport I love.

(By the way, my daughter, Taylor, who is a talented high school hockey player, and shares my love for the sport, has a favorite player.  Who is it?  Why, that would be Sydney Crosby – yeah, the guy who scored the game winner in OT. Figures.)

It is healthy and helpful when following sport to tie in to the broader human stories, to go beyond and behind the Xs and Os, the scoreboard, the stopwatch, and the scores of judges.   What girded and supported the performances of Vancouver were countless hours of personal sacrifice, and lifting, running, calisthenics, skating routine after routine, exercises and drills to strengthen and focus the mind, flips and aerials, and runs down tracks.   Every athlete was nurtured by family, friends, coaches, and other mentors.  Every athlete arrived at Vancouver with dreams, a history of triumph and defeat, success and failure, hurt and exhilaration, confidence and doubt.

Jim Craig with fan Photo Credit: Alan Hay The DreamCatches Photography www.thedreamcatchersphotography.ca

Consider the stories of women’s figure skating – Kim Yu-Na from South Korea winning her country’s first gold medal in the event; and the bronze medalist, Joannie Rochette, displaying grit and inspiring poise in competing four days after her mom died of a heart attack.

How about the U.S. winning its first gold in the four-man bobsled since the St. Moritz games in 1948?  Steve Holcomb, a former Utah National Guardsman, piloted his crew of Steve Mesler, Justin Olsen, and Curt Tomasevicz to victory.  But here’s the thing – only two years ago, Holcomb, who is responsible for steering the 500-lb. sled at speeds of up to 95 miles per hour, had been left legally blind from a degenerative eye condition.  Holcomb’s sight was saved through an experimental procedure in which permanent lenses were placed in his eyes.

In late November 2007, Norwegian alpine skier Aksel Lund Svindal suffered broken facial bones and deep body bruises in a scary crash during a training run on a slope in Beaver Creek, CO.   Svindal was in the hospital for weeks in Vail, CO and in Olso.  He was out of competition for the winter.   It would be understood of someone who endured such physical and emotional trauma never again skied fast and aggressively enough to win.   A little more than two years later, though, Svindal was in Vancouver to take on the world.  He won gold in the super-G, silver in the downhill, and bronze in the slalom.

These are just a few stories; again, every athlete has her own, his own.

It gets you thinking.

What stories are being written now?
Who are the authors?
And which stories have chapters and verses that remain to be told in Sochi?

Believe in Your Dreams – and Believe in Miracles.

Sincerely,

JIM CRAIG

Dear Friends and Fans:

February – this February especially – prompts all sorts of powerful and happy memories.

Thirty years ago, the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team entered February prepared, focused, anxious, and full of wonder and anticipation.  We knew we had at least five games to play at Lake Placid – and after that … perhaps … just perhaps … we would play two more games in the medal round and compete for a bronze medal.

Today, athletes from all over the world, make final preparations for the Winter Olympic Games at Vancouver.  I know what they are feeling.  I’ve been there.

I am busy speaking to corporations and other groups across America , motivating, delivering sales and marketing coaching, and teaching teamwork.   Lately, with the 30^th anniversary of the “Miracle on Ice” and the Vancouver games upon us, there is a special type of energy and nostalgia to tap into when I make an appearance.

[[Show as slideshow]]Of course, over 12 days in February in 1980, over seven games, the U.S. Olympic hockey team managed to do better than bronze.  What happened on that ice rink in upstate New York – happenings that were extraordinary, incredible, and a bit unbelievable  – continue to inspire and warm hearts.

I am forever grateful and fortunate to have been part of such an extraordinary group of men mentored and directed by a coach for the ages.

Who knows what achievements and performances and stories will play out this month when the strongest, fastest, most agile, best conditioned, and most focused meet in Vancouver.

Thrills, epic accomplishment, and the amazing are in the forecast.

Believe in Your Dreams – and Believe in Miracles.

Sincerely,

JIM CRAIG

Dear Friends and Fans:

Next month – it will be 30 years.  Thirty years since that wonderful episode in Lake Placid, NY when my teammates and I, under the direction of a coach for the ages, Herb Brooks, demonstrated what optimum and high achieving teamwork is all about.

Can you believe it?

That the 30^th anniversary takes place during the Vancouver Winter Olympic Games makes it particularly special.

I am forever fortunate in that I was able to be a part of such an exceptional group of men.

How we prepared – and how we competed – are an enduring legacy and example for all types of organizations and people as to what traits, what qualities, what type of talent enables and supports greatness.

My experience in hockey nurtured and was fundamental to my later success in marketing and sales.  And today I am rewarded in traveling across the country and integrating the “Miracle on Ice” with lessons from my business career into speeches and seminars I deliver that help people and groups win in life and in the marketplace.

Get ready for the anniversary and for Vancouver.

Excitement builds.

Believe in Your Dreams – and Believe in Miracles.

Sincerely,

JIM CRAIG

Dear Friends and Fans:

Happy Holidays. Hockey, at all levels, is now in action. And speaking of hockey, we are on the cusp of the greatest international hockey tournament on earth – that which will be played in the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, which runs from February 12-28.

What is particularly historic about the 2010 Winter Olympics and its hockey competition is that most of it coincides with the 30th anniversary of the remarkable run of the 1980 U.S. men’s hockey team at the Lake Placid Winter Olympics.

All this ongoing and impending history is keeping my teammates and I busy with media interviews and other types of appearances.

Our team actually started out the Olympic tournament on February 12, the day prior to the Opening Ceremonies, with a 2-2 tie against Sweden. Now, of course everyone knew what team would win the gold medal, but on February 14, we stunned a solid silver medal favorite, Czechoslovakia, 7-3, to make the world take notice. Two days later, we beat Norway, 5-1; on February 18, we defeated Romania, 7-2. Team USA completed the preliminary round with a 4-2 win over West Germany on February 20.

It is often said that many people do not know, or just don’t remember, that our epic upset win over the Soviet Union – the “Miracle on Ice” – on Friday evening, February 22, did not clinch the gold medal; indeed, the win did not guarantee a medal of any type. Yet after knocking off the seemingly invincible Soviets, we did control our destiny. If we beat Finland on Sunday, we would be Olympic champions.

Our coach Herb Brooks told us that a loss to Finland in the final – to get so close and to fail – would be something we would take to our graves.

Well, that is something we just couldn’t let happen.

1980 US Olympic Hockey Team

Believe in Your Dreams – and Believe in Miracles.

Sincerely,

JIM CRAIG

Dear Friends and Fans:

It’s a busy time for me, and for that I am most thankful.  I have been traveling from coast to coast speaking for corporations, making other types of appearances, and doing my vitally important spokesperson work for Gore Medical and its Ultimate SAAAVE public affairs campaign.

Among the appearances I did last month are two that honored and supported legacies that are especially important to me.

On Monday, October 26, I was in Lake Placid to shoot a segment – along with my teammates from 1980 and sportscaster Al Michaels (his call “Do you believe in Miracles? Yes!!” remains one for the ages) – for an NBC special that focuses on the 30^th anniversary of the “Miracle on Ice” and which will be broadcast during the Vancouver Winter Olympics in February.

It is always fun to be in Lake Placid, with all the memories and the psychic energy of the place still pulsing.  It is rewarding to meet and talk and reminisce with teammates and others who shared and enabled me to be part of something so special – something that continues to inspire and elevate the spirit of millions.

From left to right: Big Kenny, Gavin DeGraw, Tony Martell, Sharon Luther, Jon Luther, Jim Craig & Michelle Branch

I was privileged to be in New York City on Tuesday evening, October 28, to introduce my good friend and mentor, Jon Luther, for a tremendous honor.  Jon, the CEO and president of Dunkin’ Brands, received the T.J. Martell Foundation Humanitarian of the Year award at the foundation’s 34^th Annual Awards Gala which was held at the New York Hilton.

Jon Luther is a great humanitarian and civic leader – a winner in business and in life.  No better choice could the foundation have made.

The work of the T.J. Martell Foundation is sacred work: supporting research and cures in the battle to conquer cancer, leukemia, and AIDS.   Indeed its labor may be guided, inspired, and nurtured by an angel.  In 1975, T.J. Martell, 21, the son of music industry executive, Tony Martell, was gravely ill with leukemia.  Shortly before he died, T.J. persuaded his father to promise him that he would raise $1 million to fight the disease.  His father made that promise – and through the work of the T.J. Martell Foundation he upped the return – taking on leukemia and cancer and AIDS, and to date raising $225 million to fell the diseases.

Like so many, my family knows the hurt of cancer.  I lost my mother to cancer when she was 54.  Cancer took the life of my older sister Ann when she was 40.

So, you can see, it was particularly special for me that I could help honor Jon Luther and share in celebrating his achievement.

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Mark the date – and its fast approaching.  The opening ceremonies of the XXI Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver take place on February 12, 2010.  I am at the world famous Ice Rink at Rockefeller Center in New York City on November 4 for a United States Olympic Committee (USOC) observance of 100 days out from the lighting of the cauldron in Vancouver.

NBC TV’s The TODAY Show will broadcast a portion of the event.

On the ice at the rink will be Mike Eruzione, the captain of the 1980 U.S. team, to recognize the 50 year anniversary of the U.S.-Russia ice hockey rivalry.  Mike will have a teammate in the effort:  David Backes, a standout for the St. Louis Blues of the NHL and a strong contender for a spot on the U.S. team that will play in Vancouver.

Jim Craig & Vladimir Myshkin at Rockefeller Center photo credit: Chris Coleman

I will get some time on the Rockefeller Center ice as well.  My role is to help officially announce the bilateral sports cooperation agreement signed by the U.S. and Russia on Oct. 3.  The agreement promotes friendship and understanding between the two countries.  Most appropriately, joining me to announce the agreement are two Russian hockey stars, one retired and one active.  Vladimir Myshkin is the retired star; he was the great Soviet goaltender who replaced the legendary Vladislav Tretiak in net following the first period of U.S.-Soviet game in 1980 at Lake Placid (four years later at the 1984 Winter games in Sarajevo, Myshkin was again in net, and the Soviet Union took gold). Still to be announced is the active player, but he will be a member of the Russian squad competing in Vancouver.

I went on for a while in this update.  But, then again, lots to talk about.

Believe in Your Dreams – and Believe in Miracles.

Sincerely,

JIM CRAIG