Do you hope or believe the power of one person could shift an entire situation from failure to success, from terror to cooperation, from isolation to inclusion? In 1999, I listened as Mike Milken extolled the value shift in the Chicago Bulls basketball team pre-Michael Jordon and post and the Boston Celtics basketball team pre-Larry...Read More
I have a habit of seeking true life stories that inspire human resilience. I was first taught this habit in a self-help book of some form. The suggestion was to continually read, listen and watch inspiring stories of human resilience. Over the last ten years, various forms of psychological studies have confirmed this to be...Read More
Long before TED conferences branded the now recognizable “ideas worth spreading”, a child whose parents were recently freed slaves by the name of Mary McLeod Bethune, took it upon herself to find ways to educate herself and those in her community. Mary financed her ambitious dream by selling sweet potato pies door-to-door to raise money...Read More
If you think as I do, personal development is an inside job. Therefore, no one is ever really ‘unemployed’ or ‘underemployed’ if they are working on their own development at some level. I mention this perspective because I was struck by two occurrences this week. The first occurrence was the posting of a quote by...Read More
Gratitude. I dare say, I feel the word gratitude is so overused the word, its use, and its place in human development, have become a cliche’. Then something happened and I became aware of another perspective. During what has become an almost endless move from one home to another, I have had the opportunity to...Read More
In Don’t Die with Vacation Time on the Books, I used a John Lennon quote: “Life is what happens when you are busy making other plans.” All I can say is, “Yes!” My plan for the last 60 days was to successful sell our home and move to our new home. My plan was to...Read More
My first Don’t Die book traversed the true story of business loss and health loss. The second Don’t Die book recounted the true story of a transformative 31 days of positive life change. My third book is awaiting a vibrant true story that traverses and recounts a life experience that implores us all not to...Read More
This week has been all about freedom in the United States. Freedom may have been the theme, but I was reminded how important the emotional strength of courage is to our freedom in some unusual ways. The courage of those who protect our freedom is obvious. What I had lost focus of was how much courage it takes achieve...Read More
On May 11 I posted a blog referencing Sherly Sandberg’s advice in her book, Lean In. This past Friday I saw for the first time a re-run of a Shark Tank episode featuring a team of teen inventors — 5 young women and 1 young man ages 12-18. I urge you to watch the video...Read More
It is summer and the three steps to success are simple: 1. Buy, read, and of course, take action to create the habits outlined in Tevor Blake’s Three Simple Steps. 2. Become a member — not just a subscriber — to The Intelligent Optimist Magazine. (Hint you will have access to Tevor’s most recent live,...Read More
