Developing Your Social Skills
By Cheval John
When you are attending an event, whether it is a conference, sports, etc., it is viable to know how to act in certain situations.
Just because a person pays a boat load of money does not mean they should act like a fool.
We have seen at sporting events, fans who would try to get involved with the action of the games and would end up paying the price for it.
For example, an Alabama fan went after the Oklahoma students during the team’s humiliating loss in the Sugar Bowl.
She did not stop to think that her actions would hurt her reputation in the long run.
If she was an entrepreneur or a professional, many would point to the video and then wonder if it is ideal to do business with her.
In the same manner, if a professional is traveling overseas for business, they will have to understand how the norms of the country’s culture in which they are doing business.
Kara Ronin, founder of Executive Impressions, understands the nuances of doing business in another culture.
She has lived and worked in Japan, the United States and now France.
She had to adapt to the different working norms of the countries in order to succeed.
Her experience has allowed her to teach people from corporate to university students on how to adjust to the living standards of the countries through her company, Executive Impressions.
You can take a listen below.
After listening, what are your thoughts on developing your social skills?
You can leave your comments below.
Video courtesy of Bon Blossman
Life Is Not Harder Than Death
By Cheval John
Nicole Welch (left) interviewing Pat Flynn (right) at Podcast Movement 2015 Courtesy of Vallano Media
A customer came in to order some supplies after work.
After his order, I asked him, “How was his day?”
He said, “It was a Monday, but it is not the same after working the weekend.”
Then, I followed up with his occupation.
He mentioned that he was a lawyer.
I had a feeling that he was not happy with his work granted that he had spent a huge amount of time in college to achieve the law degree.
So I asked him what his dream goal would be.
He mentioned, “Not working and sitting on the beach and watching his kids grow up.”
He added that he would not be able to “enjoy” life until he reaches the age of 75.
And when he was about to leave, he said, “Life Is Much Harder Than Death.”
That statement was a dagger in my heart.
He had accepted the old dogma that he had to work the long hours in order to be successful.
At the same time, I was not surprised because he is among the many Americans who are unhappy at their work according to this Forbes article by Susan Adams.
He did not see that he had the power to make the life of his dreams come true by finding his true calling.
The truth is that anyone can change their situation and make it better.
I had the fortune to spend the weekend at the Omni Hotel in Ft. Worth for Podcast Movement’15, organized by Jared Easley, Dan Franks, Mitch Todd and Gary A. Leland.
Though it was a national conference, which was the first of it kind, it felt like a small gathering of like-minded people who were either podcasters, about to start a podcast or was learning more about the medium.
They have podcasts about different subject matters like sports, books, self-help, video games, etc.
The podcasters that attended are authors, entrepreneurs, sales people, etc. and are all rock stars in their own right.
The best part was meeting fellow podcasters who I had developed great friendships with online and meeting others who I met for the first time.
What is more impressive is that they did not settle for the status quo like the majority of people that was mentioned in the Forbes article.
They knew that they were meant to do more to make their lives better and also to help people to achieve their goals of making the world a better place.
People like Kimanzi Constable, who worked as a bread delivery person for 12 years before breaking free after he self-published two books that sold over 45,000 copies before getting a book deal with Sound Wisdom.
Now, he is is an accomplished speaker, coach and a contributor to large websites like Entrepreneur, the Huffington Post and Mind Body Green.
And because he did not settled for the mediocre, he was one of the co-founders of the Self-Publishing Success Academy, where they teach about being successful as a self-published author and has helped a lot of people to be accomplished authors.
And Patty Elizee, who has a podcast called, “The Brand You Economy.”
I had written about her story in the previous article, “Making An Investment In Yourself.”
She was energetic and was introducing everyone at the conference.
She brought a lot of life to the party.
Another person I will mention is Nicole Welch, who hosts a podcast called, “Real Time, Real Men Only.”
She was really awesome because she brought a lot of value to those who spent time with her.
Mrs. Welch also was one of the few who had the opportunity to interview Smart Passive Income’s Pat Flynn at the conference.
She showcased her personality and asked really good questions.
Another thing that stood out to me was the fact that Katie Krimitsos, of Biz Women Rock and the energetic, South Florida Podcast Group, wrote an excellent post on how to arrive at the Omni Hotel using the TRE Railway if attendees were arriving either at Dallas/Ft. Worth International Airport or Dallas’ Love Field Airport.
That thoughtful post made a big difference for those who were visiting Ft.Worth for the first time.
All of these podcasters showed that if you really want to enjoy life, you must create your own destiny and not settle for the mediocre.
The truth is, “Life Is Not Harder Than Death.”
What will you do to achieve the best life that you want to fulfill your calling to make the world a better place?
You can leave your comments below.
The Quest Of Learning A Foreign Language
By Cheval John
A quest is something that many should pursue if they want to have a fulfilling life.
The problem is that many are content with the o.k. lives that they have.
While others might think that pursuing a quest means going sky diving or climbing Mount Everest.
Those are worthy quest in a sense because you are pushing your limit.
However, pursuing a quest can be something that is not so adventurous.
Like learning multiple languages and becoming bilingual or even a polyglot.
You might even know that being bilingual, trilingual, or a polyglot can help a person to have more work opportunities according this article by Laura Morsch of Career Builder.com.
Some might think that it is too late to learn another language in their adult years.
They believe that if they don’t learn a second or even a third language by a certain age, they will miss out on the opportunity to be bilingual.
That is certainly not the case.
According to this article by Lucy Kinder of The Telegraph, learning a second language can allow your brain from getting dementia years later than those who only know one language.
This should give you encouragement to pursue language learning.
You might have the excuse that you do not have the time to learn another language because you are working full time or you are not living in another country where the language is spoken, etc.
Steve Kaufmann, founder of LingQ.com, explains in this interview with John Forthingham of I2mastery.com, that he spent time in Hong Kong in the late 60s where English was the predominant language and was still able to learn Mandarin Chinese.
He did not have all of the resources like Duolingo or iTalki plus the internet to chat with native language speakers that we have today.
And to add on to the fact of learning language late in life, Mr. Kaufmann, who speaks 11 languages, learned five of those languages after the age of 55.
Another benefit of knowing a lot of languages is the option of watching a major sporting event like the World Cup on television.
If you do not like the English commentary, you have the option of watching the same matchup in a different language and still be able to follow the matchup.
I will admit that it is great to be bilingual because of the options of watching a sporting event in a different language.
Now I feel that I am still limited despite knowing both English and Spanish.
My goal is to learn as many languages as possible during my lifetime.
And I have started this journey with Portuguese.
Though I began learning Portuguese last year, I did not continue with learning the language.
So I have restarted that goal of learning Portuguese and my goal is to be fluent in the language by the end of this year.
I honestly believe that I can achieve fluency in Portuguese because I have seen others achieve fluency in a short amount of time.
So in reality, it is never too late to learn a language late in life.
The only question is, “Who Will Join In On Learning Another Language?”
You Only Need One Person To Believe In Your Dreams
By Cheval John
People are afraid to go after their dreams because they fear that they will not achieve it.
Most of the time, they believe that many will not believe in them.
Like if they have an idea to create a better product to improve the usage of computers, they will hear from the masses that they are crazy.
Or if they are following their heart and pursuing their true calling, like becoming an entrepreneur, the majority will be wondering if they are crazy.
What if Steve Jobs had not followed his intuition and went along with the majority who graduated from college and work the normal 9-5 workweek for 40 years until he retired, we would not have had the Apple Computer.
And if the Apple Computer was not created, we would not have had the iPhone which later led to iTunes that has revolutionized the way everyone consumes podcasts.
What if Orville and Wilbur Wright had listened to the masses and not invented the airplane?
Then we would have not been able to travel to different parts of the world in less time and we would have probably be using ships which takes longer.
And what if Thomas Edison had said, “This is not meant to be” after he failed about 1,000 times with the invention of the light bulb?
We would still be using candles and it would have been a huge hassle for businesses, etc.
The primary reason why we know about Steve Jobs, Orville and Wilbur Wright and many others who revolutionized the world is because they did not follow the masses or listened to the naysayers who were content with the status quo.
They had a vision, took the necessary steps to achieve their dreams.
One final question?
What if Laura Wilkinson did not followed her heart and pursued her dream of being in the 2000 Sydney Olympics?
Laura had broken her foot during training about 6 months before the Sydney Olympics.
She dealt with the injury and continued her pursuit of making the team.
When she qualified for the Olympics, Laura had another obstacle to overcome.
Many believed she was a long shot of winning a gold medal because she was competing against the powerhouse Chinese team.
China entered the 2000 Olympics as the favorites because they had won gold medals in the previous four Olympics.
It was true that she was the underdog because the last American to win a gold medal in the sport of diving during the Olympics was in 1964.
Plus with her broken foot, they believed she was not a contender for the medal.
It seemed like their predictions were going to come true because Laura was sitting in 8th place after two rounds in the diving competition.
However, Laura had a positive mindset and believed that if she had made her most difficult dive, the reverse 2 1/2 somersault, she would have a chance at competing for the medal.
Her intuitions was right because she made the dive and was awarded a 9.5.
Then the next four divers including the Chinese flopped on their dives and all of a sudden she was in contention for the gold medal.
She made her next two dives which put her in first place and was able to hold off the competition to win the gold.
Laura went on to make the 2004 and 2008 Olympics in Athens and Beijing, respectively.
However, she did not achieved any medals in those games.
If Laura had listened to the masses who said that she was too old to start competing in diving, or had said to herself, “It was not meant for me to be in the Sydney Olympics, #paraphrased” after breaking her foot, she would have been wondering “What would have happened if I had pursued the 2000 Sydney Olympics”?
So if you believe that it is too late to pursue your dream career or receiving a ton of rejections if you are just starting your business, remember that it takes one person to say that “I believe in you.”
Thankfully, Laura had that one person, Kenny Armstrong, who believed in her.
And because of Mr. Armstrong telling her, “I believe that you can succeed in diving, #paraphrased” the world was able to witnessed one of the biggest comebacks in Olympic history.
Pushing To Achieve Your Career Goals
By Cheval John
Photo Courtesy of Stuart Miles
The thing about chasing your dreams as a writer, public relations practioner, sports professional, etc. is that things will not come easy.
You might think there is an easy path to achieving success.
That is not the case.
For example, those who aspire to play professional in Major League Baseball (MLB), have to go through the different levels of the minor league system.
If that person is really good, they will get called up to the Majors within a few years or even a year.
Now let’s delve deeper into the minor leagues.
The people who are in the minors don’t have a huge salary like their counter parts in the majors.
They have to travel for most of the year and probably have to pay their own way as well.
That can lead to them having stress and even doubt their abilities to be a major league baseball player if they have been in the minors for such a long time.
Most might think about quitting their journey to become a major league baseball player and will end up giving up on their dreams of playing baseball in the MLB.
For those who keep their dreams alive, they will eventually achieve their goals of playing baseball in the Majors.
People like Alan Zinter.
Mr. Zinter spent a long time trying to make it to MLB.
At that moment, he had a family to support and it seemed like he was not going to achieve his dreams of playing baseball in the Majors.
I can guess that they were times that Mr. Zinter wanted to quit.
But he saw that he had to keep on chasing his dreams because people were looking up to him.
Eventually, Mr. Zinter kept his dreams alive and made it to MLB in 2002 with the Houston Astros and again in 2004 with the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Though it was short lived, Mr. Zinter achieved his dreams of playing Major League Baseball.
Maybe you had thought of quitting your podcast, blog, writing career, etc. because not many people were listening or reading your blog.
You might have been feeling a sense of defeat because you see others are successful with their blogs or podcast with the high number of downloads or viewership.
The truth of the matter is that everyone have faced that sense of defeat and wanted to quit at one point or another in their writing or podcasting journey.
I know I have at one point or another wanted to quit podcasting or blogging.
The thing that has kept them going with their podcast or blog is they understood that it is a marathon and not a sprint.
The truth is that people are watching you whether you see it or not.
You have to keep on pushing towards the obstacles in order to achieve your goals as a writer, podcaster, professional athlete, etc.
You might never know who you will be impacting for the better when you finally achieve your goals of succeeding as a writer, podcaster, etc.
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