Doing vs. Talking

This may seem weird but watching Obama get that fly has made me spend some time thinking about what he has done.

I have recently been reading the Tapstack (free mini books that are apps on the iPhone) titled: “Why did I marry you anyway?” by Barbara Bartlein, RN, MSW, The title may seem kind of weird, but it is a great book with a great message, very pro marriage and staying married. In it there is a page speaking on action that I found very powerful, quoting her:

‘You don’t get a degree because you intended to go to school. Or a paycheck because you thought about showing up for work. Intentions don’t count. I get so tired of hearing “I should’ve,”"I would’ve,” and “I could’ve.” Enough already! The should’ves, would’ves and could’ves of broken promises and commitments are not impressive. When evaluating human behavior, I always look at what people actually do, not what they say.” -Barbara Bartlein

Why Obama is more effective.

Obama has been a good leader, not from what he has said but by what he has done. Although I disagree with many of his policies and agendas, he has quickly and decisively led America (to where? is a big question, but where headed there in a hurry). He is very effective at passing legislation. The recent bailout was incredible, I can’t say I was tuned into the news everyday as it went down (as it is going down) but it was done with alarming speed. I think Americans felt like something needed to be done about our financial situation immediately and allowed for the government to throw around money like it is going out of style. Effective. Not effective in the sense of principled solutions to problems, but effective in the sense of just getting stuff done.

Credentials.

On the news and through Facebook I hear a lot of Obama detractors and it makes me laugh. I could quote all their opinions about him and it would just take up a bunch of time. It comes down to this: Sitting on a computer somewhere posting videos or ideas online about Obama is simply not effective.  By posting a video on your Facebook page or website about Obama being evil or doing an awful job you aren’t really doing anything. Look at his resume: Bachelor at Columbia, Harvard Law School graduate, teacher at U of Chicago Law, Attorney, U.S. Senator, U.S. President, and lately Nobel Peace Prize winner. He has some serious credentials. Not that credentials mean everything but compare them to his haters? It makes you think.

My Point.

It’s simple. He hasn’t gotten to the White House by accident, he has done it with very deliberate intention. He is highly effective, his campaign of ‘Change’ was no joke. He is changing things. I have a lot of respect for him. He is a great example of the American Dream. In America we can be whatever we want to be. If you disagree with Obama, just be aware of what your up against. He has done some monumental things, and those that oppose him think they can post some quotes, or disagree with him online and make a difference? You have to be more clever than he is to be more effective than he has been. Watch him get this fly, can you do that?

Where the Wild Things Are

Max’s character makes you think.

As a young child I read the book and thought it was a story with a happy ending. Young boy chooses to leave his family, goes to a far away land, lives out his fantasy and then heads back home.

Caught up in the excitement of the new movie, I went to the bookstore and read the book again. This time the story had a totally different meaning to me. When I finished reading it, I thought: “Huh, I kind of remembered this book having a happy ending?”

Being somewhat older since my last reading of the book, and maybe somewhat wiser, I saw 2 different perspectives on the book.

The Prodigal

Referring to parable found in the bible:

The young man finally comes to his senses, remembering his father. In humility, he recognizes his foolishness, decides to return to his father and ask for forgiveness and mercy. The father who had been watching and waiting, receives his son back with open arms of compassion. He is overjoyed by the return of his lost son!

The Entrepreneur

I shall quote Timothy Ferriss to explain this perspective:

“The New Rich (NR) are those who abandon the deferred-life plan and create luxury lifestyles in the present using the currency of the New Rich: time and mobility. This is an art and a science we will refer to as Lifestyle Design (LD).

I’ve spent the last three years traveling among those who live in worlds currently beyond your imagination. Rather than hating reality, I’ll show you how to bend it to your will. It’s easier than it sounds. My journey from grossly overworked and severely underpaid office worker to member of the NR is at once stranger than fiction and — now that I’ve deciphered the code — simple to duplicate. There is a recipe.

Life doesn’t have to be so damn hard. It really doesn’t. Most people, my past self included, have spent too much time convincing themselves that life has to be hard, a resignation to 9-to-5 drudgery in exchange for (sometimes) relaxing weekends and the occasional keep-it-short-or-get-fired vacation.

The truth, at least the truth I live and will share in this book, is quite different. From leveraging currency differences to outsourcing your life and disappearing, I’ll show you how a small underground uses economic sleight-of-hand to do what most consider impossible.” – Timothy Ferriss, Introduction to ‘The 4-hour Workweek‘.

Perception determines Action.

The story although extremely short, maybe one entire paragraph, is powerful. Who was Max? A wreckless youth, a waster? Or a genius, a creator? You choose, more importantly than what we think of Max, we get to choose what we are. People’s perceptions of us matter very little, It’s all about what we think, and then what we do with our thoughts. Max is an example to us good or bad. The story has a happy or sad ending depending on how you look at it. He is either the returning prodigal or the quitting entrepreneur. Either way, “Let the wild rompus begin.”

Very sad to see the passing of the legend Michael Jackson. I think he was amazing artist and performer. I believe that there are people in the world who hate to see people succeed. Especially extraordinary success like the kind that Michael created. There are also people, media, and influences in the world that seek to destroy successful people, and I mean this in a very literal sense. So is it possible that MJ was portrayed wrongly or poorly in the media? Yes. Could the media have been right on? Yes.

My point is this: What is the truth? Will we ever know? Are there tremendous stresses and issues when you are super successful? I can only imagine that there are. I can only imagine the people who seek to consume from those who are successful, who lie, cheat, steal, and manipulate to get money from those who have earned it. I can only imagine that once you are labeled something accurately or inaccurately that it sticks with unquestioning masses. There is so much to learn from MJ.

That is my objective. What can I learn from the King of Pop? What did he do to influence millions? What was his mission in life? Regardless of whether he achieved that vision or not. What can I do to protect myself from harmful accusations and the dangers that come from success? There is a lot to gain from MJ. God bless his family and especially his children at this difficult time. Thank you Micheal for the great music that shaped so much of life as we know it.

Who are ‘they’?

Not sure if it was one day or over the course of many days when I began to realize that people who qouted ‘they’ had no clue who ‘they’ were. Who is this elusive, catch phrase starting, ‘truth’ dropping group? I started to look at the people who qouted ‘them’ and looking at the results in their lives. Many people who quoted ‘they’ lived lives that did not inspire me. I started to question ‘them’, the people always referred to as ‘they’, and I quickly realized that ‘they’ were never known individually, and that ‘they’ had clever sayings but very limited ideas on many things. The sayings were in many times much cleverer than the actual advice.

I don’t know who ‘they’ are, and they definitely don’t know me.

When I started my first business, I consulted with anyone who I knew that had their own business, and asked them their thoughts about partnerships. Almost everyone one of them shared what ‘they’ had to say about partnerships, but none of them had any personal experiences to share. In fact, almost every person that I spoke to on the subject refused to have a business partner of their own becasue ‘they’ had spoken out so harshly against it. Luckily by this time I had overcome my earlier naivete and I was quick to see through the clever sayings. I did start my business with a partner and it was, to this day, the best decision I have ever made in my professional career. It turned out to have the exact opposite effect that ‘they’ warned me of.

How to handle the elusive ‘they’.

• Just question what ‘they’ have said.
• Ask yourself who ‘they’ are, each time ‘they’ are quoted.
• Look at the person who is quoting ‘them’, what results are they getting?
• Do your own due diligence. Next time you hear on these quips, research the facts.

Steve D’Anunzio has an incredible book called ‘Prosperity Paradigm’ and in that book he has a line that says- “Merely thinking differently is not enough- you must think the opposite.” I love this line and think it is a great thing to try when one of the messengers for ‘they’ have spoken. Common sense is commonly wrong.

Please leave your comments on this post, I would love to hear your thoughts on this topic. Thank you.

Life is FULL of static!

Life is full of static. I repeat, Life is full of static. It is so prevalent in the world yet it seems to go unnoticed until you try to go against the norm. I like the term to go ‘Rogue’. When others see you in this ‘Rogue’ status they tend to be very critical of you and their behavior towards you changes. They no longer give you the benefit of the doubt, sometimes they wait to watch you fail. Sometimes well-intentioned friends and family can cause more static in our lives than our household dryers (like when you forget fabric softener). Really though, they think they are helpful by’clinging’ to you, warning you, criticizing you, they don’t realize how unhelpful they really are.

So how do we find meaning in all the static?

Static will never cease in your life. In fact it may possibly get worse. But you have control over what it means in your life. For myself, when the static gets stronger than I take it as a sign that I am headed in the right direction and a breakthrough is nigh. I like to give people the benefit of the doubt and say: “This person probably wants what is best for me, but only I know what is best for me.” Hate the static, not the staticky one. Actualy I say think a great meaning behind static is that the universe is telling you that you are on the right track. The static can wear us down and make our goals look impossible, it is up to us to create the meaning for static in our own lives.

Static is static.

I believe that static has no power in and of itself. It is just noise, thoughts, and worries of other people passed on as advice. Let each of us see the static in our lives, attach our own meeting to it, and accept the universe’s compliment to us as we journey to our potential, destiny, and rewards.

(click here for the full article)

Fuzzy Math.

My buddy Coby Tippetts calls this type of thing Fuzzy Math. See we are sold by people in the finance industry that our mutual funds are increasing annually an average of 9.7% but that doesn’t mean that every year your investment capital is raising an additional 9.7%. It is an average. If it is only outperforming inflation by 3-5%, then aren’t we only making 3-5% on our money? This is an example of a sacred cow. But there is another flaw in the ‘average’ retirement plan, read on…

Killing Sacred Cows.

This is the title of my friend Garrett Gunderson’s book and in it he has an example about this ‘average’ return that most people fail to realize. When you do the math on the returns it uncovers a basic assumption. In the book on page 70 Garrett gives this example:

“Suppose I have $1,000 to invest in a mutual fund.I invest it in a fund that has an estimated 10 percent return and enjoy a 100 percent positive rate of return the first year. Now I have $2,000. In year two the market actually drops 50 percent, leaving me with half of my $2,000, or $1,000. Year three results in yet another 100 percent positive rate of return, so again I have $2,000. Unfortunately, year four brings 50 percent negative yet again, so I’m back to my original amount of $1,000.

“The mutual fund company is pleased to announce a 25 percent rate of return on its prospectus for the last four years, but what does that mean for me? (Of course, this is an extreme example to prove a point. Mutual fund companies are much more subtle than this, because they would show the fund over a longer period of time so as not to highlight the wild variations in such a short period of time.)

“My actual return, as concerns he fund alone is $0 and 0 percent- or so it would appear. The situation is actually worse when we take into account inflation (which, generally speaking, is grossly underrated by most media), the capital gains taxes I paid in years one and three, fund expenses (because the mutual fund gets paid even for bad performance), and lost opportunity costs.”

He goes on in more detail of the actual math on ‘average rate of return’. I love his example and if you thought this was good you should read the entire book, it is available at your major bookstores and can be ordered online here at: killingsacredcows.com

I realized reading the book that I had many ‘Sacred Cows’ that I needed to murder in order to prosper.

Garrett titled his book ‘Killing Sacred Cows‘ and the subtitle is ‘Overcoming the Financial Myths that are Destroying your Prosperity.’ I have read the book a couple times and I think it is one of the best books on personal finance and the abundance mindset I have ever read. Anyone could read it and find it to be very valuable for their personal prosperity and financial education. Check it out and leave a comment here, I’d love to hear how much you like it.

Communication is a  2 way street.

Talking more is not communicating more, but typically hearing more is. It has been said: ‘You have two ears and one mouth, use accordingly.’ I talk a whole lot and listen some. Pretty common in the world today I would say. So we know listening is important, but what about emotional listening? I am not talking about being sensitive or empathetic to people but emotionally listening to people and what they say. For example I am a newlywed and it is crazy how I can be so emotionally involved in the conversation that in my listening I fail to communicate. Making emotional decisions is very rarely good, like extremely rare. Listening emotionally is the same. If you have too much emotion in your listening it will be easy for you to construe the message your hearing.

I am currently involved in a few deals where emotions are running high and it has been very interesting to see how the decision making process is altered by people’s emotions. Everything becomes very serious. Every word is scrutinized too much. Every one seems to be at a breaking point. But the reality is the same as it was months ago before emotions were involved. Emotions take control and play by their own rules. Emotions rule and principles go bye bye.

Lastly, How often do we lack clarity in our explanations? We spend minutes or hours talking to people and leave them without a clear plan of action. We tend to communicate the way we view ourselves, we give ourselves a little more credit than we deserve. If you think you have mastered communication than you are deceived. Clarity is priceless.

So… Use your ears, manage your emotions, and be so clear that you cannot be misunderstood.

Leave a comment, do you agree? disagree? Let me know either way. Thank you for checking it out.

More to come…

I know that I have. I think we have all felt passionate for someting at sometime.

I love when people are so passionate that you ask yourself ‘Am I this passionate?’ or ‘What am I passionate about?’. I call that ability to increase or make someone question there passion the ability to passionate. So passionation is when we share what we are passionate about and it helps someone with their passion.

This does not occur often enough. It is pretty rare that I meet someone that is passionating. I talk to many people on a daily basis that are excited or motivated about selling a good or service, but many lack passion.

Why do people lack passion?

I think one of the reasons people lack passion is because we have been taught from a young age to do things on a daily basis that we are not passionate about. Go to school, get a good job, and then retire when your 65. That is so commonly advocated, even passionately advocated, but accomplished by so few. I have read in a few places it could be 6-7 times in a lifetime, to check out an article on this idea click here. This bromide and others exist and are passed on daily as truth. Well intentioned people pass these bromides around all day long. The truth is that many of these popular bromides don’t exist anymore. Some things that worked and were true 30 years ago do not work and are not true today. Who is giving you your information?

The Truth about Passion.

The truth of the matter is that living your passion is always the best road to take. Be careful, I did not say it is the easiest, but is the best. Never do something you hate for money and you will never hate what you do. For some reason we sacrifice passion for money. Find your passion and live it daily. This will bring you success any time and all the time. I guarantee you will be happy no matter what your bank account says (or yells) at you. I also believe that if we find and live our passion and do not sacrifice it for a paycheck we will find ways to get compensated for our passions. I am passionate about helping others find their passions and getting real life education.

What are you passionate about? If you know what you are passionate about please leave a comment to this post so people know what it is that you love and you can passionate to help others.

Please check out Exactness , It is designed to help you determine your passion and mission in life. Email me if you have any questions.

Opposition is there to show us the differences in life and help us know good things from bad things. The word opposition always makes me think of opposites. When I study any topic I always look at its opposite. It is very powerful to take an idea or topic and get clear on definitions and then to look at their opposite. It helps when you try articulating ideas or concepts to people when you can share definitions and do comparisons with opposites. So I like opposition in study. But opposition in our lives is a different animal. My good buddy Coby Tippetts brought up a good concept to keep in mind when it comes to opposition that is: “The last 200 feet is the hardest.”

Napolean Hill articulated this same concept in his book ‘Think and Grow Rich‘ in there he tells the story of a man who quit drilling for oil literally feet within strinking a huge deposit. He goes on to say that a lot of our problems are never overcome because we quit just before we are about to have success. I put it this way “The breaking point breaks us.” Opposition is a tool for our personal development. Those who desire to be successful will have to go beyond the breaking point if the success they seek is to be realized.

This gets tricky because sometimes we doubt ourselves and think ‘Maybe I shouldn’t be trying to do this, maybe I’m only meant to do that.’ We can sometimes confuse our doubts for inspiration that we should quit, when our success or our victory is only 200 feet away. I love Coby’s idea because 200 feet is not very much to travel even on foot, but the last 200 feet is the difference maker.

So I declare that I, and we, should not doubt and should not fear if we keep pressing forward we may not achieve our original objective (although usually we will) but a new, more rewarding objective may result if we persist.

Are you 200 feet away from glory?

Stay tuned as I’m certain more on this topic will come.
Update: Coby discussing similar idea @ http://tinyurl.com/5vuxk7