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.
Learning A Language To Discover The World
By Cheval John
You may have heard these quotes:
“To Have Another Language Is To Possess Another Soul” Charlemagne
“The Limits of My Language Are The Limits Of My World” Frank Smith
“Language Is The Road Map To A Culture. It Tells You Where Its People Come From And Where They Are Going” Rita Mae Brown
The last quote is very profound.
When a person wants to learn more about the culture of a country or a tribe, the best way to access the culture is through the language.
It is true that we see great poetry like Don Quixote translated into English and being taught in schools.
However, it is difficult to really understand and appreciate the story of Don Quixote if a person is not a Spanish speaker.
And to bring on another example, Columbian super-star singer Shakira, who speaks Spanish, English, and Portuguese, made an excellent song back in the mid-2000s called, “No” in her native Spanish.
The song is really beautiful and achieved a smashing success like her other songs.
When the producers or music executives of the record company wanted her to make the same song, “No” in English, she said “no” to the idea even though she recorded her other Spanish songs in English.
The reason why she decided not to record “No” in English was that it would not have had the same impact that it had when she sang it in her native Spanish.
So fans of Shakira who were only English speakers, missed out on an opportunity to hear the beautiful song, “No.”
Now the same fans could do what few in this world have done, learn another language.
The only thing that will keep them from learning another language is their limited belief that they can’t learn a second language.
I would suspect that they feel that they don’t need to learn another language because of the belief that the world is learning English.
It is true that English serves as the important language of organizations such as the United Nations and the language for aviation.
That should not be an excuse to not learn another language.
You might have to start learning from scratch if your are not a first generation American.
For those who are offsprings of immigrants, they have a fast start because they grow up listening to their parents native language and also English.
Ladan Jiracek is one of those people who had the fast start to knowing multiple languages.
His parents immigrated from Slovokia and he had the fortune of growing up in a different culture and has traveled to over 80 countries.
What is really cool is that he took advantage of the opportunity to intern in Berlin, Germany while he was an undergraduate student.
Now, he lives in India and host the Travel Wisdom Podcast, where he interviews best-selling authors, world travelers, polyglots, etc.
The most important thing is that if you want to understand a culture that is different than yours, you have to speak the language.
When you know another language, three, 6, etc., you will have more options to work anywhere in the world and also enjoy your travels.
Video courtesy of Shakira Vevo
Lack Of Resources Creates Innovation
By Cheval John
Photo courtesy of Stuart Miles
We often think that it is important to have all the resources to be successful.
It is true that resources like money is what makes things go.
Whether it is running a business, an organization, a university, etc., we believe that having more resources will make everything easier.
We think that if we have more money, we can make a great impact on the world.
Sometimes it is better to have less money/resources because it will make you think of creative ways to get work done.
You will have innovative ideas on making something better and in the process disrupt an entire industry.
Here are two examples of people/organizations who were innovative with their ideas and showed everyone that you can make something out of nothing.
Next week Thursday, I will share two more examples of people/organizations who are making something out of nothing.
1. London Heathrow Airport.
When travelers pass through London Heathrow Airport, they get a chance to see a glimpse of the innovative culture of the British people.
In a sense, Heathrow represents the ingenuity of the United Kingdom.
What I mean is that Heathrow only has two runways.
Yet, they have found a way to keep themselves relevant with the rest of the world.
Heathrow has served over 73.4 million passengers in 2014, making it one of the busiest airports in the world and the busiest in Europe.
The second busiest airport in Europe, Paris Charles De Gaulle, handled over 63 million passengers despite having four runways.
You might think that an airport that has a lot of space and a lot more runways should be able to handle more traffic.
To a large degree, it is the case.
However, Heathrow has proven that they are capable of handling more with less.
They basically went with the build as you go approach.
When they saw the wave of the jet age in the 50s and 60s, they modified their runways and build the terminals large enough to handle the large jets.
They kept at it when the bigger jets like the 747s came into existence in the late 60s/early 70s and added more terminals to accomodate them.
With four terminals already in operations, they saw that the airport was facing overcapacity.
So they added the fifth terminal, which allowed them to handle more passengers even with two runways.
You might still wonder how they get all of the jets in and out safely without any delays.
If you ever flew into Heathrow, you might have noticed that the plane was circling around before they landed.
You might wonder why they do that?
That is where it gets interesting.
Your plane was circle around because they were in a “holding pattern”
While the plane was in a holding pattern, air traffic controllers were trying to put the smaller planes behind each other in one taxi-way and the bigger jets behind each other because they wanted to gain them more space.
If a smaller jet is behind the bigger jet and it takes off, the smaller jet will probably have to wait for about a minute or two before they can take off.
Once they get the planes in the right spot, then the air traffic controllers gives the pilots permission to land.
That is how Heathrow has managed to remain relevant and be the airport that connects the world one flight at a time.
Billy Bean and the Oakland Athletics
Major League Baseball has grown into a 9 billion dollar industry.
With that type of money, baseball players will want a piece of the pie.
The really good players will be able to command the high multi-million dollar contracts.
With that being said, a team would have to be able to afford the really great players if they want to compete.
And the teams with the highest payrolls, mainly the large market teams (New York Yankees, the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Chicago Cubs) are the ones who get those types of “elite” players.
The ones who are in the bottom don’t have that chance to gain the “elite” players.
Most of the time, it does not put the smaller market teams in a disadvantage because they develop the players in their farm system to get them ready for the big leagues.
And most of the time, the small market teams moves further in the playoffs.
Example of this was the Kansas City Royals, who went to the World Series last year and lost in seven games to the San Francisco Giants.
But I want to focus on the Oakland Athletics, who made the playoffs from 2000-2003 under general manager Billy Beane.
The Athletics are consistently ranked in the bottom half of the MLB payroll.
However, Beane was very innovative in finding the right players for the team that fit the system of the Athletics.
As a result, the Athletics were able to make four consecutive playoffs in the early 2000s.
Amidst that run, Oakland became the first American League team in a century to win 20 consecutive games in 2002 and eventually won their division.
Beane’s innovation as a general manager caught the attention of national media and Hollywood with the movie, “Moneyball.”
One can guess that many small market teams like the Royals are following Beane’s approach to running a franchise with a much lower payroll.
So if you have the not-enough blues, do not complain because the lack of resources is an opportunity for you to be creative in getting your work finished effectively.
Videos courtesy of Rachel Matt and Major League Baseball, respectively
5:13 Seconds That Led To Second Championship For Stephen F. Austin
By Cheval John
KATY, TEXAS-When Sam Houston State narrowly defeated Texas A&M-Corpus Christi 70-67 on Friday night to advance to the finals of the Southland Conference (SLC) Men’s Basketball Tournament, they shot 20% from the field in the first half.
The Bearkats, who were the No.2 seed, had to play near perfect basketball if they wanted to defeat their arch-rival and No.1 seeded Stephen F. Austin.
Unfortunately, the Bearkats was not able to meet the challenge of playing near perfect basketball as horrendous shooting in the closing minutes of the first half led to the Lumberjacks pulling away with an 83-70 victory to claim their second consecutive SLC tournament championship and clinched an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.
In the process, Stephen F. Austin (29-4 overall) became the second team to repeat as SLC tournament champions since former conference member, the University of Louisiana at Monroe, won four straight tournament titles (1990-93).
After a back and forth matchup in which Sam Houston State took a 25-24 lead on Kaheem Ransom’s three pointer, things started to fall apart in the final 5:13 of the first half.
The Bearkats (25-8 overall) missed shots and turned the basketball over while the Lumberjacks capitalized with a 13-2 spurt to close out the half with a 37-27 lead.
The dagger that shut Sam Houston’s coffin during that run happened with 02.5 seconds when the Lumberjacks inbounded the basketball and found Tanner Clayton, who hit a buzzer-beating trey from 40 feet.
Sam Houston shot 30 percent from the field in the first half and finished the game shooting 36.1 percent from the field.
The Bearkats also shot 15 percent from three point range.
Lumberjack basketball player, Thomas Walkup, who won the tournament MVP, led all scorers with 24 points and 8 rebounds.
Bearkat senior Michael Holyfield, who made the all-tournament team, led SHSU with 18 points and 12 rebounds.
Stephen F. Austin will find out later today who they will face in the opening round of the NCAA tournament on Selection Sunday that will air on CBS starting at 6 p.m. eastern, 5 p.m. central.
The Bearkats also have a strong possibility to make a post-season as well, but not the NCAAs.
Creativity Always Outshines Talent
By Cheval John
When Air Zealand made it’s inaugural landing at Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH) on Tuesday, it became an historic event.
The reason is that Houston became the first city in North America and the 6th city globally, to have non-stop flights to cities in all 6 continents of the world.
Normally, an airport that has more airlines and space, like Los Angeles International Airport should be able to accomplish the feat.
That was not the case.
IAH has a total of 36 gates in their international terminals (Terminal D for foreign carriers and Terminal E for United’s International flights).
While the largest airports in the world like (Los Angeles) has more international gates.
So why is it that Houston became the 6th city in the world to serve cities in all 6 continents and Los Angeles did not.
Well, Houston was very creative in how they use their airport to co-ordinate international flights and the foreign carriers shares the ticket counter in Terminal D.
Meaning certain international flights from foreign carriers flies in the morning time (Asia), then others fly in the afternoon (European), while the rest flies in the night time (Middle East and some Asian flights).
That is why Houston was able to succeed with the limited resources they had.
When most people have limited resources, the first thing they do is make excuses on why they can’t succeed with their business.
They are not seeing it as an opportunity to use their creativity and in the process stand out from their competition in their businesses.
In the same way like IAH, the Kansas City Royals made their second consecutive World Series appearance and won it this time.
Kansas City does not have a huge payroll like the New York Yankees to bring in the most talented baseball players in Major League Baseball.
They used what was given to them in talent and developed their baseball players to compete year in and year out.
Plus, each of the Kansas City baseball players had the growth mindset and worked very hard to be the best and that is why they made consecutive trips to the World Series.
So if you feel like you have limited budget to take your business to the next level, don’t complain.
See it as an opportunity to showcase your creativity that will take your business to the next level and attract the correct clients to your business for the better.
Samantha Kelly, a.k.a. the TweetingGoddess, did just that and is now successful in her business for the better.
And to get more inspiration, listen to this interview on my show, “What’s The Word? with guest Maria Ross, founder of Red Slice.
First video is courtesy of Airways
Second video is courtesy of TEDXTalks
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