We are born with the makings of success. The desire and ability to focus the whole of our being on something is basic human impulse that is at the heart of all success. Remember what it was like to focus heart and soul on what you were doing? That's the state of mind you must recapture if you want to be a big success in the adult world. Few people attain real success because over the years most fall victim to distractions that rob them of the strength and purity needed to focus 100% on what they're doing. To get on the success track, we must relearn how to focus. We must develop the ability to spot distractions and build the strength to banish them from our minds.
Distraction #1
FATIGUE: A healthy, vital mind naturally focuses itself on the problem or challenge at hand. That state of relaxed concentration takes a brain that's supplied with the sugar, oxygen and other nutrients and hormones needed for optimal levels of brain activity. When you're learning or problem solving, your brain uses 70% of your body's blood supply. If your body can't supply the fuel needed to maintain this high energy level, you become distracted and descend to non-productive activities at lower energy levels.
We depend too much on coffee to stimulate our metabolism each morning. Problem is, the nervous energy coffee produces lowers your metabolic efficiency and accelerates the onset of nervous fatigue. By mid-afternoon you're too strung out to concentrate.
Daily physical exercise is the only way to keep your mental energy level high throughout the day. Exercise tunes your metabolism to function at a high enough level of efficiency to supply your brain with optimal flow of energy-packed, well-oxygenated blood. When you're out of shape, the blood flow to your brain provides only a fraction of the sugar and oxygen. You find yourself getting distracted after only two or three hours of intense mental activity. A half hour of exercise each day gives you two, three or four more hours of peak mental efficiency each day. That can double or even treble your productivity and turn you into an entirely different person in both outlook and the capacity for work.
The kinds of exercise that works best are those that can be performed daily come hail or high water and that can be sustained without interruption at a pleasant level of exertion for at least 30 minutes. Sports like tennis and racquetball are prone to scheduling conflicts and can rarely be maintained on a regular basis for more than a few weeks. What's more, unless both you and your partner are expert players who play without breaks, they don't provide the sustained cardiovascular workout needed to raise your metabolic efficiency. Also, if you're the competitive type, you can overtax or even injure yourself, thereby lowering your energy level and cutting into productivity.
The best workouts are solitary endurance sports like jogging, swimming and cycling that can be done any time. The best times are mornings, before your workday starts. Evening sessions are far more likely to fall victim to the demands of social or business entertainment.
Distraction #2
PEER PRESSURE: Your career is stalled. You're stuck in a nothing job with no prospects for the future, and no ideas on how you're going to improve them. As you start complaining about the miserable conditions you're forced to endure at work, your colleague tells you sunnily that she's going to become the company's top executive by focusing her energies in ways that will multiply her productivity and effectiveness.
You are :
(a) filled with good wishes for her success;
(b) filled with envy, resentment and concern lest she actually accomplish even a small part of what she's setting out to do and leave you lying bitterly in the dust;
(c) scornful of the bright-eyed, bushy-tailed Pollyanna who thinks she can do better escape being reduced to a bitter old wreck along with everyone else.
If you have an honest bone in your body, you'll admit your actual reaction is likely to be closer to b or c than a. That's human nature. Knowing that, you can see why it would be foolhardy to depend on your peers to support your plans for success. That isn't to say you should alienate yourself from them, just to expect their initial reactions to be less than supportive or encouraging. Be prepared for the worst and be pleasantly surprised if they turn out to be better people than the human mean.
The need for approval is conditioned in all of us. Like addiction to drugs, alcohol or junk food, this need can be a major distraction. A decision to be a success takes willingness to forego your daily fix of peer approval and acceptance. You will need to keep your own counsel and provide your own support system while meeting the negativity of your peers with a constructive, optimistic outlook. Remember, if you do succeed, you may be managing your former peers. Your continued success will depend on your ability to inspire them to work at their most productive.
Inevitably, once your focus on success becomes known, your peers will come to resent and distrust you to varying degrees. This is the one hurdle that trips up many otherwise talented, ambitious and highly effective people. The prospect of becoming the target of constant sniping, gossip and free-floating resentment is too scary and distracting for most people. They just don't have the stomach for success.
If you're determined to rise above mediocrity, know that the envy, resentment and distrust of former peers is inevitable and, what's more, isn't caused by anything peculiar to your own personality or character.
Remember, too, that diverting your energies to try to diffuse the negativity is counterproductive. It would merely encourage your former peers to step up the pressure in the hope of bringing you back down to their level.
The notions of brotherhood/ sisterhood and equality that fill books and movies simply don't govern the workings of the business world. A successful company simply isn't a democracy. Workers aren't equal. If we were, communism wouldn't have failed so miserably and capitalism wouldn't work so well. Some people learn to be more effective at focusing their energies on creating value for their organizations and clients. If you are one, peer resentment will simply have to be a fixture of your career. The key to keeping it from becoming a fatal distraction is to expect it and accept it as an indispensible part of success, not something inspired uniquely by you. John Kennedy and Abraham Lincoln seem like gods to Americans. While they lived, they were hated and reviled by more people than loved them. Their greatest successes were achieved only to the extent they had the strength and good sense to avoid being distracted by public opinion.
Distraction #3
MISCONCEPTIONS: Unrealistic expectations of what success entails is another deadly source of distraction. Even genuinely successful people become confused and distracted when their experiences don't jive with their expectations of what success should be like. They begin second-guessing themselves in the hope of realizing an idealized state that has never existed on earth.
A common misconception involves the regard they expect to enjoy from others. Even those who could handle the hostility of peers as they built their early successes have trouble accepting the fact that no matter how successful they become, the hostility will remain, never to be replaced by universal respect and acclaim until the day they die or are otherwise rendered non-threatening.
There's good reason for that-your success simply isn't very important to anyone but you. Those who love you will rejoice in it as long as you don't forget who you are and who they are. Strangers will accord you a measure of respect and admiration for your achievement. These feelings, however, aren't nearly as deep or constant as the expectations that will have become fixed in your own mind.
No matter how successful you become, your success will never be what others judge you by. You will continue to be judged first and foremost on the human level. What's more, your success will make others expect of you even more honesty, courtesy, kindness and generosity. Noblesse oblige, as they say.
Your success will simply multiply the demands on you to be a warm, courteous and considerate human being. Fail to meet them and the superficial respect and admiration quickly sour into scorn and hatred. Since few people are saints, even among the super-successful, you're likely to alienate as much as win over those who come in contact with you. This fact baffles some successful people, making them question the genuineness of their success.
Money is the basis for another distracting misconception. Many people mistakenly assume that success provides access to unlimited amounts of money and unlimited time and freedom with which to spend it. Truth is, only a miniscule fraction of all successful people enjoy incomes that provide unlimited material rewards.
Take Bill Gates, commonly reckoned the world's richest person, with a fortune valued at over $8 billion. Putting aside for the moment Gate's well-known stinginess-which helped immeasurably in his quest for success, neven he isn't free to spend recklessly. If he tried to cash in his Microsoft stock, share prices would plummet instantaneously, costing him and his company billions in lost wealth. The annual income he draws from the company is measured in millions, not billions. As head of a company that prides itself in its ability to control waste, Gates would severely damage his credibility and leadership position if he were to become a profligate spender in his personal life. More importantly, Gates is severely constrained by the need to focus his energies on running his company. He simply can't afford the time for shopping sprees, even if he were so inclined. His chief pleasure is growing his company, not in dissipating what he's built up.
There are many other examples. Warren Buffet, the world's most successful investor, denied his only daughter's request for a $30,000 loan for a down payment on a house on the ground that he owed a duty to invest his money wisely. The late Walmart founder Sam Walton, who once headed up the Forbes 400, drove a beat up pickup truck and lived out his life in the same modest home he bought 30 years earlier.Successes who become distracted by the myth that success means profligate spending and start pushing the limits of their successes with their burgeoning insecurities provide the world with dozens of juicy morality plays every year . Who hasn't heard of the music star who had his estate auctioned off, the real estate tycoon put on a tight allowances, the former rock star who lives on the streets. Success takes a decade or more to build but mere months to send into the bankruptcy courts.
Successful people who lose their focus on creating value and distract themselves with the supposed rewards of success soon find themselves on the slippery slope to a humbling disaster.
Distraction #4
FEAR OF FAILURE: The fatal distraction is fear of failure. For most even the remote possibility of public humiliation and financial ruin is so terrifying that they never entertain the risk. For them success is never more than a pipedream, something to gawk at and gossip about from a safe distance.
Even after you muster the focus, faith and fortitude to get on the success track, sooner or later fear of failure can start to distract you. It can keep you from trying what ought to be tried, taking the countless calculated risks that are the building blocks of success. It whittles down your grand success adventure into a struggle for survival.
That's when you need to remind yourself what success is about-giving yourself the opportunity to fail. Success and failure are two sides of the freedom to take full responsibility for your actions. That's the only way we humans build worthwhile things. Making a thousand light bulbs that didn't work taught Thomas Edison how to make the one that changed life on earth. From internal combustion engines to computer chips, from Kentucky Fried Chicken to Microsoft, the story of success is the story of perseverance in the face of repeated failure.
When the prospect of failure looms so large it distracts you from your focus on success, remember that the faster you make mistakes, the faster you learn how to become successful. If you aren't failing, you aren't succeeding.
2.25.2007
2.24.2007
Get rid of your bad habits
By the time we reach the peak years of our career, most of us have picked up a deadly collection of time-killing habits. Each one eat into our capacity to focus on success. TV and the morning newspaper are two of the worst. Devotees watch their days dawn stillborn, suffocated in the awful banality of pulpy events and canned banter.
Long juicy phone chats with friends and enemies are deadly. If you need a ten minute chat every hour to get through your workday, you should feel lucky you even have a job. A phone chat costs you not only the time it takes to dial and talk, but also the time and energy to restore your focus to the effort at hand, not to mention the lost momentum caused by the interruption.
Coffee or snack breaks rob precious minutes from prime work hours while adding flab and lowering energy levels. Grabbing coffee and a donut seems like it should take a minute or two. In fact, a donut break is more likely to cost 20-30 minutes, especially when you consider the time it takes to refocus on what you were doing. If you must nibble, bring a snack to work and keep it on your desk so you can munch without breaking stride. Just make sure it's energy boosters like baby carrots or trail mix, not slothmakers like donuts, cookies or breads. Anything starchy makes you drowsy and costs you the keen edge you need for focus.Bad habits can turn a highly effective person into a hopeless bumbler.
The trick to dealing with bad habits is to substitute a good habit in their place. Substitute a morning run or swim in place of TV or the morning paper. Substitute a call to a few key clients or associate in place of a chat with friends or a coffee break. Use the impulse to indulge a bad habit as the stimulus that triggers a good habit. The next time you feel the urge to get your third cup of coffee, consciously replace it with the desire to make a business call to a favorite client, or at least reach for a carrot or glass of water. The next time you feel the urge to call your significant other to engage in a long gripe session about your lazy, stupid, ugly boss, condition yourself to call your boss instead and suggest ways to add to the bottom line. That way you're actually using the conditioned power of your bad habits to trigger a good habit. If Pavlov could do stimulus-response conditioning with canines, you can train yourself to do the same.
Obviously, relaxation and entertainment must have a place in your life. The key is to save them for the end of the workday, after hours or weekends when they help us unwind rather than indulging in them early in the day and causing our workdays to start stillborn.
Long juicy phone chats with friends and enemies are deadly. If you need a ten minute chat every hour to get through your workday, you should feel lucky you even have a job. A phone chat costs you not only the time it takes to dial and talk, but also the time and energy to restore your focus to the effort at hand, not to mention the lost momentum caused by the interruption.
Coffee or snack breaks rob precious minutes from prime work hours while adding flab and lowering energy levels. Grabbing coffee and a donut seems like it should take a minute or two. In fact, a donut break is more likely to cost 20-30 minutes, especially when you consider the time it takes to refocus on what you were doing. If you must nibble, bring a snack to work and keep it on your desk so you can munch without breaking stride. Just make sure it's energy boosters like baby carrots or trail mix, not slothmakers like donuts, cookies or breads. Anything starchy makes you drowsy and costs you the keen edge you need for focus.Bad habits can turn a highly effective person into a hopeless bumbler.
The trick to dealing with bad habits is to substitute a good habit in their place. Substitute a morning run or swim in place of TV or the morning paper. Substitute a call to a few key clients or associate in place of a chat with friends or a coffee break. Use the impulse to indulge a bad habit as the stimulus that triggers a good habit. The next time you feel the urge to get your third cup of coffee, consciously replace it with the desire to make a business call to a favorite client, or at least reach for a carrot or glass of water. The next time you feel the urge to call your significant other to engage in a long gripe session about your lazy, stupid, ugly boss, condition yourself to call your boss instead and suggest ways to add to the bottom line. That way you're actually using the conditioned power of your bad habits to trigger a good habit. If Pavlov could do stimulus-response conditioning with canines, you can train yourself to do the same.
Obviously, relaxation and entertainment must have a place in your life. The key is to save them for the end of the workday, after hours or weekends when they help us unwind rather than indulging in them early in the day and causing our workdays to start stillborn.
2.23.2007
FAITH
FAITH is the 'eternal elixir' which gives life, power and action to th impulse of thought!
FAITH is the starting point of all accumulation of riches!
FAITH is the basis of all 'miracles' and mysteries that cannot be analysed by the rules of science!
FAITH is the only known antidote to FAILURE!
FAITH is the element, the 'chemical' which, when mixed with prayer, gives one direct communication with Infinite Intelligence.
FAITH is the element the transforms the ordinary vibration of thought, created by the finite mind of man, into the spiritual equivalent.
FAITH is the only agency through which the cosmic force of Infinite Intelligence can be harnessed and used.
from THINK & GROW RICH, by Napoleon Hill
2.18.2007
Your Top 4 Strategies To Thrive During Stressful Situations
by Go To Coaching
Stress. You’ve got to love it! It can make you great or it can make cowards of us all! In a previous article I discussed exactly what stress is and what it does to your body and mind.
Today I want to share with you some successful stress reducing strategies that you can start to use today. Although these concepts are not new, they are powerful and if you choose to apply them in your life now you are guaranteed to see results!
The number of strategies available to combat stress is large. Lets focus on the following 4 extremely effective approaches:
1. Nutrition
2. Sleep
3. Exercise
4. Breathing
You can apply each of these tactics right away and as a result you can expect to see an immediate difference. That is of course if you choose to act now and apply this information!
Although there are many other strategies you can use, I challenge you to try these four and notice how your stress levels begin to fall like the Wide World of Sports Skier off that jump. As a byproduct you will also notice other improvements such as increased energy, enhanced focus, better decision making abilities, and a general sense of well being.
That all sounds great doesn’t it? So what specifically do you have to do in order to take advantage of these stress-reducing techniques? The following is a quick guideline for each strategy:
Nutrition
• Eating high water content and nutrient dense vegetables
• Minimizing processed foods, caffeine, sugar, salt, alcohol, and saturated fats can also have a positive effect on stress management.
• If a food makes you tired, bloated, or congested – eliminate these foods or eat less frequently.
Sleep
• Sleeping at least 7.5 hours and up to 9+ can help enhance the body’s natural resistance to stress
• If you can’t get it every night try every other night.
• Also give yourself at least one day to recover completely!
Exercise
• Total body activities such as jogging, swimming, biking, paddling, surfing, yoga, and hiking for at least 30 minutes and no more than 2 hrs for 3-5 times per week
• Remember with each exercise session to create variety – avoid doing the same thing on back to back workout sessions
Breathing techniques
• Take 40 really deep breaths throughout the day
• Relax your abdominals
• Begin by drawing air in and allow your belly to expand out
• Ensure your ribs expand out and not up
• Pause for a second when you have taken a full deep breath
• When exhaling reverse the process
• Start from the top of the chest and move towards your abdominals
• As you expel all the air out, your abdominals should be tight and contracted – hold this for a second
• Repeat 10 times 4 times per day
We have discussed what you can do to diminish the effect of stress on you so that you may thrive in the face of stress! Breaking this cycle requires you to be proactive in your diet, sleep, exercise and even how you breathe. Stress can be an obstacle or an opportunity for growth – its your choice!
Choose Victory! The Go To Coaching Team
To find out how Go To Coaching Inc. can help you achieve your goals visit www.gotocoaching.com
Stress. You’ve got to love it! It can make you great or it can make cowards of us all! In a previous article I discussed exactly what stress is and what it does to your body and mind.
Today I want to share with you some successful stress reducing strategies that you can start to use today. Although these concepts are not new, they are powerful and if you choose to apply them in your life now you are guaranteed to see results!
The number of strategies available to combat stress is large. Lets focus on the following 4 extremely effective approaches:
1. Nutrition
2. Sleep
3. Exercise
4. Breathing
You can apply each of these tactics right away and as a result you can expect to see an immediate difference. That is of course if you choose to act now and apply this information!
Although there are many other strategies you can use, I challenge you to try these four and notice how your stress levels begin to fall like the Wide World of Sports Skier off that jump. As a byproduct you will also notice other improvements such as increased energy, enhanced focus, better decision making abilities, and a general sense of well being.
That all sounds great doesn’t it? So what specifically do you have to do in order to take advantage of these stress-reducing techniques? The following is a quick guideline for each strategy:
Nutrition
• Eating high water content and nutrient dense vegetables
• Minimizing processed foods, caffeine, sugar, salt, alcohol, and saturated fats can also have a positive effect on stress management.
• If a food makes you tired, bloated, or congested – eliminate these foods or eat less frequently.
Sleep
• Sleeping at least 7.5 hours and up to 9+ can help enhance the body’s natural resistance to stress
• If you can’t get it every night try every other night.
• Also give yourself at least one day to recover completely!
Exercise
• Total body activities such as jogging, swimming, biking, paddling, surfing, yoga, and hiking for at least 30 minutes and no more than 2 hrs for 3-5 times per week
• Remember with each exercise session to create variety – avoid doing the same thing on back to back workout sessions
Breathing techniques
• Take 40 really deep breaths throughout the day
• Relax your abdominals
• Begin by drawing air in and allow your belly to expand out
• Ensure your ribs expand out and not up
• Pause for a second when you have taken a full deep breath
• When exhaling reverse the process
• Start from the top of the chest and move towards your abdominals
• As you expel all the air out, your abdominals should be tight and contracted – hold this for a second
• Repeat 10 times 4 times per day
We have discussed what you can do to diminish the effect of stress on you so that you may thrive in the face of stress! Breaking this cycle requires you to be proactive in your diet, sleep, exercise and even how you breathe. Stress can be an obstacle or an opportunity for growth – its your choice!
Choose Victory! The Go To Coaching Team
To find out how Go To Coaching Inc. can help you achieve your goals visit www.gotocoaching.com
Stress: What is stress?
by Go To Coaching
I was having lunch with a friend of mine the other day and we started talking about one of the many pharmaceutical commercials being aired. In fact, it may have been a hodgepodge of several.
Regardless, our conversation was directed at all the leading questions that these companies ask during their respective commercials. “Are you tired?” “Are you overwhelmed?” “Are you fatigued?” “Are you not feeling like yourself?” Yes, yes, yes, and yes.
It could be sleep deprivation, it could be depression, it could be allergies, it could be an assortment of many things. The underlining theme is the stress that either causes or is caused by these ailments. The take a pill and call me in the morning mentality is only a band-aid. Instead of being reactive and taking a drug, choose to be proactive by attacking the stress.
So what exactly is stress? Here are a couple textbook definitions:
1. Richard Lazarus, University of California Professor of Psychology, defines stress when “demands exceed the personal and social resources the individual is able to mobilize”.
2. Hans Selye’s, one of the pioneers of stress research, states: “stress is not necessarily something bad – it all depends on how you take it. The stress of exhilarating, creative successful work is beneficial, while that of failure, humiliation or infection is detrimental.”
Whether you actually experience the stress or you think you may be under stress, guess what, your body goes through the same physical reaction. Just more ammunition for the belief that the mind is more powerful than the body! So now that we have a better idea what stress is lets find out what causes it.
So what are common scenarios that we engage in daily that allow stress to accumulate in our life?
- Public speaking
- Academic tests
- Changing jobs
- Loss of a loved one
- Driving in rush hour traffic
- Loosing
- Isolation
- Large crowds
- Loud noises
- Natural disasters
- Acute injuries and illnesses
- Chronic illnesses
- Competition
- Relationships
Stressors you may not have considered:
Eating, physical activity, exercise, winning, and silence.
Within these scenarios what is really causing the stress? Stress occurs in our physical, psychological, spiritual, and social lives.
Physically we see stress caused by a wide variety of things including:
- Poor Nutrition
- Drug use
- Excessive caffeine, sugar, alcohol, nicotine and food additives
- Dehydration – not enough water consumption
- Lack of oxygen –not from holding your breath when you don’t get what you want
- Musculoskeletal imbalances – think about it this way – when your joints ache, when your muscles are tight, when you feel clumsy
- Too little or too much exercise
- Hormonal imbalances
- Food allergies/sensitivities
- Low blood sugar – not eating multiple small meals per day
- Trauma
- Chronic pain
- Ph balance – caused by poor food choices – eating too many processed foods
- Illness (virus, bacteria, fungus, mold, dust, parasites, other toxins and pollutants)
Psychological stress originates from:
- Perceptions
- Emotions
- Attitudes
- Beliefs
Social stress occurs with:
- Finances
- Relationships
- Isolation
- Crowding
- Social overload
- Lack of support
- Conflict
Spiritual stress results from:
- An individual’s lack of purpose
- Faith
- Value
- Direction in their life
- Guilt
All of these factors combine to create a cumulative stress on our system. Which may lead to unwanted outcomes.
The Center for Disease Control estimates that stress and its resulting effects cause 85% of all disease conditions. Furthermore, Bruce Lipton, PhD, a cellular biologist from Stanford estimates 95% of all illnesses are directly influenced by stress.
Disease is not the only result of stress. The physical, emotional and behavioral effects of stress are vast and can be all encompassing. From poor performance at work to grinding your teeth at night. From developing digestive problems to explosive diarrhea. If you allow it, stress can influence every facet of your life.
You just learned what stress is and how it can negatively effect you. If you want to learn what you can do to diminish its effect on you and be proactive to break this cycle so that you can thrive in the face of stress, check out www.gotocoaching.com and look for other articles related to Stress reduction.
To your health! Go To Coaching Inc.
I was having lunch with a friend of mine the other day and we started talking about one of the many pharmaceutical commercials being aired. In fact, it may have been a hodgepodge of several.
Regardless, our conversation was directed at all the leading questions that these companies ask during their respective commercials. “Are you tired?” “Are you overwhelmed?” “Are you fatigued?” “Are you not feeling like yourself?” Yes, yes, yes, and yes.
It could be sleep deprivation, it could be depression, it could be allergies, it could be an assortment of many things. The underlining theme is the stress that either causes or is caused by these ailments. The take a pill and call me in the morning mentality is only a band-aid. Instead of being reactive and taking a drug, choose to be proactive by attacking the stress.
So what exactly is stress? Here are a couple textbook definitions:
1. Richard Lazarus, University of California Professor of Psychology, defines stress when “demands exceed the personal and social resources the individual is able to mobilize”.
2. Hans Selye’s, one of the pioneers of stress research, states: “stress is not necessarily something bad – it all depends on how you take it. The stress of exhilarating, creative successful work is beneficial, while that of failure, humiliation or infection is detrimental.”
Whether you actually experience the stress or you think you may be under stress, guess what, your body goes through the same physical reaction. Just more ammunition for the belief that the mind is more powerful than the body! So now that we have a better idea what stress is lets find out what causes it.
So what are common scenarios that we engage in daily that allow stress to accumulate in our life?
- Public speaking
- Academic tests
- Changing jobs
- Loss of a loved one
- Driving in rush hour traffic
- Loosing
- Isolation
- Large crowds
- Loud noises
- Natural disasters
- Acute injuries and illnesses
- Chronic illnesses
- Competition
- Relationships
Stressors you may not have considered:
Eating, physical activity, exercise, winning, and silence.
Within these scenarios what is really causing the stress? Stress occurs in our physical, psychological, spiritual, and social lives.
Physically we see stress caused by a wide variety of things including:
- Poor Nutrition
- Drug use
- Excessive caffeine, sugar, alcohol, nicotine and food additives
- Dehydration – not enough water consumption
- Lack of oxygen –not from holding your breath when you don’t get what you want
- Musculoskeletal imbalances – think about it this way – when your joints ache, when your muscles are tight, when you feel clumsy
- Too little or too much exercise
- Hormonal imbalances
- Food allergies/sensitivities
- Low blood sugar – not eating multiple small meals per day
- Trauma
- Chronic pain
- Ph balance – caused by poor food choices – eating too many processed foods
- Illness (virus, bacteria, fungus, mold, dust, parasites, other toxins and pollutants)
Psychological stress originates from:
- Perceptions
- Emotions
- Attitudes
- Beliefs
Social stress occurs with:
- Finances
- Relationships
- Isolation
- Crowding
- Social overload
- Lack of support
- Conflict
Spiritual stress results from:
- An individual’s lack of purpose
- Faith
- Value
- Direction in their life
- Guilt
All of these factors combine to create a cumulative stress on our system. Which may lead to unwanted outcomes.
The Center for Disease Control estimates that stress and its resulting effects cause 85% of all disease conditions. Furthermore, Bruce Lipton, PhD, a cellular biologist from Stanford estimates 95% of all illnesses are directly influenced by stress.
Disease is not the only result of stress. The physical, emotional and behavioral effects of stress are vast and can be all encompassing. From poor performance at work to grinding your teeth at night. From developing digestive problems to explosive diarrhea. If you allow it, stress can influence every facet of your life.
You just learned what stress is and how it can negatively effect you. If you want to learn what you can do to diminish its effect on you and be proactive to break this cycle so that you can thrive in the face of stress, check out www.gotocoaching.com and look for other articles related to Stress reduction.
To your health! Go To Coaching Inc.
Portrait of the month: Damon Dash
Damon Dash is in town for 24 hours. He's flown in on a private jet with an entourage that includes personal assistants, publicist, valet, cameramen, laptop geeks and sundry "friends". With this crew he'll work, party a little and then be back in New York in time to take the kids out the following evening. As you might expect from the man who admits he's the walking embodiment of his own multi-faceted, money-printing urban lifestyle brand, Dash doesn't do things on the cheap. Despite meeting in a luxurious suite at London's fashionable Soho Hotel he still insists on having his food prepared by his own chef.
How could you not say in the same sentence that this man was CEO and founder of Roc-A-Fella Records which had Jay-Z and Kanye West; who started Rocawear clothing; who was owner of Armadale vodka and America magazine; a man who bought Pro-Keds sneakers and who makes movies; a man who does a lot of things and does them well?" Answer: because most people would run out of breath.
The only reason why Damon Dash is where he is today is becase he always want more money. He never gets enough.
The 33-year-old thinks about money a lot. He grew up telling his childhood friends in Harlem that he would one day make it big and winning a scholarship to a leading private school meant he got to study wealth at close quarters. "I'm comfortable in very extreme situations," he says. "I can go into the depths of the 'hood with the roughest type of guys and feel 100% comfortable because I lived through it, survived it and felt comfortable with it. I'm also confident I can go into the boardroom with non-urban people and feel 100% comfortable because I have lived the non-urban life at times and I survived it. I can relate and I can also translate."
This ability comes in handy when it comes to dealing with what he describes as "square businesses".
This ability comes in handy when it comes to dealing with what he describes as "square businesses".
"Some people have a serious disconnect with the culture of people they are trying to sell to," explains the self-proclaimed marketing manager for the street. "I don't want to talk about exploitation but business is business and if you want to sell to a certain demographic, you have to understand it. The majority of big corporations don't. They haven't any experience of struggle and they don't know what's cool. They're kinda nerdy actually."
Yet for all the ultra-bling diamond-encrusted watches, über A-list dinner-party guests and membership of the hip-hop aristocracy, there is something strangely nerdy about Damon Dash. Perhaps it's his easy fluency in marketing spiel or the towels and trainers discarded after a single use. Or maybe it's because becoming part of his entourage requires passing out of what he happily describes as "boot camp".
"When I want to employ somebody I try to build them from A-Z," explains Dash. "Before I put you in the field with one of my businesses, I would spend very intensive time with you to put you through the shit work so you appreciate the move up. You got to watch how I work and see what I expect from people. If you pass through boot camp, you can move on and get into my company."
Once there, he says, you're unlikely to leave. "I like to empower people and give them their own businesses so they can go ahead and run them. They can then run those parts of the world that I can't." The recent parting of the ways with Jay-Z has allowed Dash to put these theories into practice. The new Damon Dash Music Group gives individual artists their own labels under one umbrella, while Dash Dibella Promotions, a co-venture with wizened fight promoter Lou Dibella, aims to "empower" its stable of boxers.
"When I want to employ somebody I try to build them from A-Z," explains Dash. "Before I put you in the field with one of my businesses, I would spend very intensive time with you to put you through the shit work so you appreciate the move up. You got to watch how I work and see what I expect from people. If you pass through boot camp, you can move on and get into my company."
Once there, he says, you're unlikely to leave. "I like to empower people and give them their own businesses so they can go ahead and run them. They can then run those parts of the world that I can't." The recent parting of the ways with Jay-Z has allowed Dash to put these theories into practice. The new Damon Dash Music Group gives individual artists their own labels under one umbrella, while Dash Dibella Promotions, a co-venture with wizened fight promoter Lou Dibella, aims to "empower" its stable of boxers.
He calls his personal assistant Sophia into the room. It's her birthday. "She is actually two years old," smiles Dash, "because I have been personally raising her for the last two years. She came and got into boot camp and I had her doing all kinda stuff. Crying was involved but she passed so I put her in the field. She's 23 years old. Imagine what she's going to be like when she's 30 after seven years of being around me and learning from me in an intensive way?"
FROM THE GUARDIAN UNLIMITED
You have a thing for vodka?
I have a thing about buying things and not owning them, ya know what I'm saying?
You have a hard time buying things and not owning them?
Yeah, like if we're promoting something we don't own ... we know what we like, and if it's real, we could do the research and make it better and then we could market it and sell it. I have a problem with making other people money.
You seem pretty passionate about making more money — but do you ever have moments when you look around and say holy cow... I'm really rich!?
The funny thing about that is the more money I make, the more I want. On my first vacations, I'm going to the Bahamas or something. Then, you make money, then you go to St. Tropez. And what you notice is everybody's richer than you in St. Tropez, so I don't feel rich. I can't afford to just frivolously buy a $30 million yacht, you know what I'm saying? So I aspire to have what everybody around me has and more...
I'm never trying to be a big fish in a little pond. I wanna be a big fish in the ocean.
I have a thing about buying things and not owning them, ya know what I'm saying?
You have a hard time buying things and not owning them?
Yeah, like if we're promoting something we don't own ... we know what we like, and if it's real, we could do the research and make it better and then we could market it and sell it. I have a problem with making other people money.
You seem pretty passionate about making more money — but do you ever have moments when you look around and say holy cow... I'm really rich!?
The funny thing about that is the more money I make, the more I want. On my first vacations, I'm going to the Bahamas or something. Then, you make money, then you go to St. Tropez. And what you notice is everybody's richer than you in St. Tropez, so I don't feel rich. I can't afford to just frivolously buy a $30 million yacht, you know what I'm saying? So I aspire to have what everybody around me has and more...
I'm never trying to be a big fish in a little pond. I wanna be a big fish in the ocean.
© 2007 MSNBC Interactive
2.17.2007
Work on your power of attraction: sense of humor
What's Humor Anyway?
Humor is what makes something funny; a sense of humor is the ability to recognize it. Someone with a well-developed sense of humor has the ability to recognize what's funny in others and can amuse others as well.
Sense of humor can help you:
Humor is what makes something funny; a sense of humor is the ability to recognize it. Someone with a well-developed sense of humor has the ability to recognize what's funny in others and can amuse others as well.
Sense of humor can help you:
- see things from many perspectives other than the most obvious
- be spontaneous
- grasp unconventional ideas or ways of thinking
- see beyond the surface of things
- enjoy and participate in the playful aspects of life
- not take yourself too seriously
Don't think that because you want to be someone important & influent, you have to be always serious & impress people by appearing as someone cold and condescending.
Being an easy-going person is essencial, because it helps people feel comfortable even in the most tense situations. Don't hesitate using your sense of humor. You should even be able to laugh at yourself without giving the impression to be a complete fool. It's a way to show that you are self-confident & that you can take any joke.
Don't be afraid to be funny, but don't abuse of your sense of humor. Avoid corny jokes. Please no racist, sexist, sexual joke. People might not take you seriously. Worst, they might find you boring & avoid you.
Another thing to avoid is to become too familiar with people. Being funny, doesn't mean sharing your personal informations. Don't forget your ultimate goal is to create professional links & establish a strong reputation. I will come back on this point in another post. But keep in mind that less people know about you & better it is.
Just make sure people smile when they are around you.
2.14.2007
Forget the 5 Dollar Words
Direct and concise is best
By: MAX MESSMER, Scripps Howard News Service, Scripps Howard News Service (SH) -
When compiling their resumes and cover letters, job seekers often attempt to showcase their expansive vocabularies. Unfortunately, instead of sounding savvy and sophisticated, many come across as pretentious. The truth is that being clear and concise impresses hiring managers more than using - or misusing - fancy five-dollar words.
"SKILLS: Enrich performance-based employee remuneration, enhanced with consistent encouragement, support and coaching."
"Support sales staff" might have been the better choice of words.
COVER LETTER: "I always aggressively take on the demeanor of meticulous leadership."
Lead us away from that nonsensical sentence.
In addition to avoiding convoluted language, it's also important to target your application materials to the specific employer and position. The next applicant missed the boat completely:
COVER LETTER: "I visualize myself as a person viewing a stream - the stream being a business. I see rocks beneath the surface causing the water to run with ripples. I view myself as the one who removes those rocks, leaving a smooth-running stream."
We visualize a long-winded job seeker failing to produce a compelling cover letter.
COVER LETTER: "Intuitive people value imagination. When I look at an apple, I imagine myself baking a pie or putting the apple into a fruit salad."
In this case, an apple a day keeps the job offer away.
QUALIFICATIONS: "I enjoy challenging tasks involving measurable results and imaginable solutions."
All good, but why place this information under "Qualifications"?
While some job applicants try too hard to impress, others just don't try hard enough:
COVER LETTER: "Teachers say they are preparing you for the real world, but when exactly does the real world multiply matrices? Or when am I going to have to know the smallest unit of organic compounds? To me, it seems useless and a waste of time to teach these senseless things."
We sense a real attitude problem here.
By: MAX MESSMER, Scripps Howard News Service, Scripps Howard News Service (SH) -
When compiling their resumes and cover letters, job seekers often attempt to showcase their expansive vocabularies. Unfortunately, instead of sounding savvy and sophisticated, many come across as pretentious. The truth is that being clear and concise impresses hiring managers more than using - or misusing - fancy five-dollar words.
"SKILLS: Enrich performance-based employee remuneration, enhanced with consistent encouragement, support and coaching."
"Support sales staff" might have been the better choice of words.
COVER LETTER: "I always aggressively take on the demeanor of meticulous leadership."
Lead us away from that nonsensical sentence.
In addition to avoiding convoluted language, it's also important to target your application materials to the specific employer and position. The next applicant missed the boat completely:
COVER LETTER: "I visualize myself as a person viewing a stream - the stream being a business. I see rocks beneath the surface causing the water to run with ripples. I view myself as the one who removes those rocks, leaving a smooth-running stream."
We visualize a long-winded job seeker failing to produce a compelling cover letter.
COVER LETTER: "Intuitive people value imagination. When I look at an apple, I imagine myself baking a pie or putting the apple into a fruit salad."
In this case, an apple a day keeps the job offer away.
QUALIFICATIONS: "I enjoy challenging tasks involving measurable results and imaginable solutions."
All good, but why place this information under "Qualifications"?
While some job applicants try too hard to impress, others just don't try hard enough:
COVER LETTER: "Teachers say they are preparing you for the real world, but when exactly does the real world multiply matrices? Or when am I going to have to know the smallest unit of organic compounds? To me, it seems useless and a waste of time to teach these senseless things."
We sense a real attitude problem here.
The Invisible Rich
The biggest barrier to becoming rich is living like you're rich before you are.
By Knight Kiplinger
This question has been asked to high school teens :
"When you see a man cruise by in his $65,000 BMW 550i, what do you assume about him?"
The answer: "He's rich."
-"And a man who drives by in a ten-year-old Chevy? "
"He's struggling."
Elusive realities. Just the answers I was looking for, and they provided a launching pad for a lively discussion of deceptive appearances and realities. By the end of it, these teens had a clearer sense of how little you can determine about wealth from a person's visible consumption.
The BMW, I noted, is probably leased (perhaps for three years, no money down), so we can infer only that the driver earns enough to handle a $1,131 monthly lease payment. We know nothing about his net worth, which may be great ... or may be almost nonexistent.And the man in the old Impala? Maybe he is struggling financially, but there's another possibility: His income is just as great as that of the dude in the Bimmer, but he's not saddled with a lease payment -- and he's investing the money in mutual funds that are growing at 10% a year.
The message in all this: The biggest barrier to becoming rich is living like you're rich before you are. Why? Because all that discretionary spending -- the chic apartment, frequent travel and restaurant meals, consumer electronics, fancy clothes and cars -- crowds out the saving that will enable you to be rich someday.
I often hear complaints from young adults, twentysomethings to those in their early thirties, that they'll never be able to buy a home because they can't afford the down payment. But when I probe them about their budgets, I find that they earn enough to make a down payment in just three or four years -- if they cut back on their spending, and if their starter-home expectations are reasonable.Know who grasps this best in American society today? Recent immigrants, whether they're from Latin America, Africa, Asia or Eastern Europe. Many of them come to the U.S. almost penniless. They work long hours at modest wages and send some of those earnings to relatives back home. But, miraculously, they still have money left over each month because they live simply. Often they double up with friends and family in crowded housing.What do they do with their savings? They buy a home, often in a less desirable neighborhood that other strivers are leaving behind. They fix it up, rent rooms to friends and relatives, and then trade up to a nicer home. They may keep their first and second homes as rental properties, becoming hands-on landlords.
A niece of mine sells new homes in the outer Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C. The houses cost $500,000 -- a "middle market" price in this affluent area. Many of her buyers are Latinos. They don't look or act rich, and they often need translation help. Many of them arrived in the U.S. with nothing but ambition. They worked hard, started small businesses and saved 30% of their incomes.Someday, when they finally feel as financially secure as they will actually be, they might start living it up. They might buy -- not lease -- a BMW, most likely a used model. High school kids will assume them to be rich and cast admiring glances at them and their fancy cars.
Proudly invisible but just like overspending, the habit of frugality is hard to break. Maybe these folks will just keep the old Chevy. They will remain proud members of the Invisible Rich -- a growing army of super savers whose net worth is more impressive than their income. They'd rather live within their means, sleep well and forgo the covetous attention of their fellow citizens. Not a bad way to live at all.
By Knight Kiplinger
This question has been asked to high school teens :
"When you see a man cruise by in his $65,000 BMW 550i, what do you assume about him?"
The answer: "He's rich."
-"And a man who drives by in a ten-year-old Chevy? "
"He's struggling."
Elusive realities. Just the answers I was looking for, and they provided a launching pad for a lively discussion of deceptive appearances and realities. By the end of it, these teens had a clearer sense of how little you can determine about wealth from a person's visible consumption.
The BMW, I noted, is probably leased (perhaps for three years, no money down), so we can infer only that the driver earns enough to handle a $1,131 monthly lease payment. We know nothing about his net worth, which may be great ... or may be almost nonexistent.And the man in the old Impala? Maybe he is struggling financially, but there's another possibility: His income is just as great as that of the dude in the Bimmer, but he's not saddled with a lease payment -- and he's investing the money in mutual funds that are growing at 10% a year.
The message in all this: The biggest barrier to becoming rich is living like you're rich before you are. Why? Because all that discretionary spending -- the chic apartment, frequent travel and restaurant meals, consumer electronics, fancy clothes and cars -- crowds out the saving that will enable you to be rich someday.
I often hear complaints from young adults, twentysomethings to those in their early thirties, that they'll never be able to buy a home because they can't afford the down payment. But when I probe them about their budgets, I find that they earn enough to make a down payment in just three or four years -- if they cut back on their spending, and if their starter-home expectations are reasonable.Know who grasps this best in American society today? Recent immigrants, whether they're from Latin America, Africa, Asia or Eastern Europe. Many of them come to the U.S. almost penniless. They work long hours at modest wages and send some of those earnings to relatives back home. But, miraculously, they still have money left over each month because they live simply. Often they double up with friends and family in crowded housing.What do they do with their savings? They buy a home, often in a less desirable neighborhood that other strivers are leaving behind. They fix it up, rent rooms to friends and relatives, and then trade up to a nicer home. They may keep their first and second homes as rental properties, becoming hands-on landlords.
A niece of mine sells new homes in the outer Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C. The houses cost $500,000 -- a "middle market" price in this affluent area. Many of her buyers are Latinos. They don't look or act rich, and they often need translation help. Many of them arrived in the U.S. with nothing but ambition. They worked hard, started small businesses and saved 30% of their incomes.Someday, when they finally feel as financially secure as they will actually be, they might start living it up. They might buy -- not lease -- a BMW, most likely a used model. High school kids will assume them to be rich and cast admiring glances at them and their fancy cars.
Proudly invisible but just like overspending, the habit of frugality is hard to break. Maybe these folks will just keep the old Chevy. They will remain proud members of the Invisible Rich -- a growing army of super savers whose net worth is more impressive than their income. They'd rather live within their means, sleep well and forgo the covetous attention of their fellow citizens. Not a bad way to live at all.
2.12.2007
Work on your power of attraction: Self-confidence
Charisma is with no doubt an essencial tool to be succesful. But it is said that charisma is something mystic, that few people are born with.
Does it mean you are condemned to be an average person & that you will never be noticed when you enter a room full of people? No.
Let me reassure you. You can work on increasing your power of attraction. You can get everything you want by using the infinite potential of your mind & easy rules to follow.
You can't make people be attracted to you if you don't love yourself & feel confident about yourself, first. Having a strong self-confidence is crucial not only for your professional life, but also for your personal life.
Self-confidence allows you to accept failure & learn from it.
Self-confidence helps you move on without paying attention to destructive critics.
You can't step forward if you can't believe in your own potential or if you constantly wait for the approval of someone, before doing anything.
Keep in mind that there is nothing humanly possible that you cannot do.
I want you to take a dictionnary, look for the word 'impossible' & rip the page off. This word should be banned from your vocabulary. There is nothing you cannot do if you want to do it.
Never let anybody tell you 'you can't make it.'
Only people who can't achieve something by themselves try to drag those who have the will to make their dream come true down.
Dare to take risks & don't be afraid to compliment yourself if necessary.
You should also be able to be honest with yourself to be able to experience improvement.
Do an introspection & see what is wrong with you to start. Then work on improving yourself.
My next post will deal with how to read people like open book. Don't miss it :)
Does it mean you are condemned to be an average person & that you will never be noticed when you enter a room full of people? No.
Let me reassure you. You can work on increasing your power of attraction. You can get everything you want by using the infinite potential of your mind & easy rules to follow.
You can't make people be attracted to you if you don't love yourself & feel confident about yourself, first. Having a strong self-confidence is crucial not only for your professional life, but also for your personal life.
Self-confidence allows you to accept failure & learn from it.
Self-confidence helps you move on without paying attention to destructive critics.
You can't step forward if you can't believe in your own potential or if you constantly wait for the approval of someone, before doing anything.
Keep in mind that there is nothing humanly possible that you cannot do.
I want you to take a dictionnary, look for the word 'impossible' & rip the page off. This word should be banned from your vocabulary. There is nothing you cannot do if you want to do it.
Never let anybody tell you 'you can't make it.'
Only people who can't achieve something by themselves try to drag those who have the will to make their dream come true down.
Dare to take risks & don't be afraid to compliment yourself if necessary.
You should also be able to be honest with yourself to be able to experience improvement.
Do an introspection & see what is wrong with you to start. Then work on improving yourself.
My next post will deal with how to read people like open book. Don't miss it :)
2.10.2007
Finding Good References
Finding Good ReferencesWhen You Can't Ask Your Boss by Dana Mattioli
If you have been fired or quit a job on shaky terms, the prospect of securing positive references can seem daunting. Employed job hunters face a similar predicament when they need someone to vouch for them but want to keep their search hidden from their immediate boss. Whatever the circumstances of their job hunt, professionals with a track record of success needn't be at a loss for supporters. Below are some tips for winning rave reviews when the usual sources aren't available.
Ideally, you should choose a strategy and put it into action at the time of your dismissal, before you even exit the building. If you haven't, review your options and then line up your references before you begin your job search. Just remember to contact your potential supporters before offering them as references, so they aren't caught off-guard when an employer calls.
1. Settle on a story:
Don't assume that because you were fired, you can't get a good reference from your boss. It isn't unusual for managers to put in a good word for employees whom they have dismissed, says Richard Bayer, chief operations officer in New York for the Five O'Clock Club, a national outplacement organization.
Mr. Bayer says his clients have been able to settle the details of their termination to their satisfaction and secure a positive reference from bosses who have fired them. Doing so allows both the employee and the employer to move on, he says. He suggests having a friend call under the guise of an employer to ensure that your former boss sticks to the agreed upon story.
When asking an ex-boss for a reference, pitch your assets. "Remind the employer of what you have accomplished, because they may just be thinking of the recent event that you were fired over and lose focus of the good qualities," says Linda Matias, president of CareerStrides, a career and outplacement- consulting firm in Melville, N.Y.
2. Ask a previous boss to be a reference:
When Leslie Macabeo, 33, of Westminster, Calif., resigned from her job as dean of academics at a Huntington Beach, Calif., college in April after severe criticism from her supervisors, she didn't feel comfortable asking them to be references.
As an alternative, she used the former president of the college as a reference, says Ms. Macabeo, who had been with the college for two years. She secured a new job within a week of the dismissal and is now director of development at the Creative Collection, an after-school arts program in Aliso Viejo, Calif.
If you haven't kept in touch with former managers, reopen the lines of communication. Update them on your situation and then ask for a reference.
3. Find an ally:
Chances are good some co-workers won't side with your boss and instead sympathize with your situation. It is important to ask these allies to be a reference immediately after you leave the company, while they are still friendly with you.
In 1999, Tom Pulley, now 56, was let go from a managerial position at an aerospace and defense company in Dallas after 25 years with the employer. Because of a strained relationship with his supervisor, Mr. Pulley decided not to ask him for a reference.
"It would not have been an acceptable reference," says Mr. Pulley. Instead, he sought out another supervisor at the company who understood his circumstances. Mr. Pulley, who now has a consulting firm in Dallas, says he still lists that supervisor as a reference in proposals to clients.
4. Seek out a client or vendor:
Be creative with your references by reaching further into your network to associates you brought to the company or vendors.
"People always think they have to use their bosses as references instead of considering a client they found who brought in $5 million each year," Ms. Matias says. These supporters may be able to provide a different perspective than employers.
5. Use the human-resources department:
If you must verify employment but are worried that your boss may say something negative about you, list a human-resources manager at your former employer.
In most cases, company policies limit human-resources professionals to releasing only your title, length of employment and salary. "Many companies have strict rules and won't divulge why an employee no longer works there," Ms. Matias says.
If you have been fired or quit a job on shaky terms, the prospect of securing positive references can seem daunting. Employed job hunters face a similar predicament when they need someone to vouch for them but want to keep their search hidden from their immediate boss. Whatever the circumstances of their job hunt, professionals with a track record of success needn't be at a loss for supporters. Below are some tips for winning rave reviews when the usual sources aren't available.
Ideally, you should choose a strategy and put it into action at the time of your dismissal, before you even exit the building. If you haven't, review your options and then line up your references before you begin your job search. Just remember to contact your potential supporters before offering them as references, so they aren't caught off-guard when an employer calls.
1. Settle on a story:
Don't assume that because you were fired, you can't get a good reference from your boss. It isn't unusual for managers to put in a good word for employees whom they have dismissed, says Richard Bayer, chief operations officer in New York for the Five O'Clock Club, a national outplacement organization.
Mr. Bayer says his clients have been able to settle the details of their termination to their satisfaction and secure a positive reference from bosses who have fired them. Doing so allows both the employee and the employer to move on, he says. He suggests having a friend call under the guise of an employer to ensure that your former boss sticks to the agreed upon story.
When asking an ex-boss for a reference, pitch your assets. "Remind the employer of what you have accomplished, because they may just be thinking of the recent event that you were fired over and lose focus of the good qualities," says Linda Matias, president of CareerStrides, a career and outplacement- consulting firm in Melville, N.Y.
2. Ask a previous boss to be a reference:
When Leslie Macabeo, 33, of Westminster, Calif., resigned from her job as dean of academics at a Huntington Beach, Calif., college in April after severe criticism from her supervisors, she didn't feel comfortable asking them to be references.
As an alternative, she used the former president of the college as a reference, says Ms. Macabeo, who had been with the college for two years. She secured a new job within a week of the dismissal and is now director of development at the Creative Collection, an after-school arts program in Aliso Viejo, Calif.
If you haven't kept in touch with former managers, reopen the lines of communication. Update them on your situation and then ask for a reference.
3. Find an ally:
Chances are good some co-workers won't side with your boss and instead sympathize with your situation. It is important to ask these allies to be a reference immediately after you leave the company, while they are still friendly with you.
In 1999, Tom Pulley, now 56, was let go from a managerial position at an aerospace and defense company in Dallas after 25 years with the employer. Because of a strained relationship with his supervisor, Mr. Pulley decided not to ask him for a reference.
"It would not have been an acceptable reference," says Mr. Pulley. Instead, he sought out another supervisor at the company who understood his circumstances. Mr. Pulley, who now has a consulting firm in Dallas, says he still lists that supervisor as a reference in proposals to clients.
4. Seek out a client or vendor:
Be creative with your references by reaching further into your network to associates you brought to the company or vendors.
"People always think they have to use their bosses as references instead of considering a client they found who brought in $5 million each year," Ms. Matias says. These supporters may be able to provide a different perspective than employers.
5. Use the human-resources department:
If you must verify employment but are worried that your boss may say something negative about you, list a human-resources manager at your former employer.
In most cases, company policies limit human-resources professionals to releasing only your title, length of employment and salary. "Many companies have strict rules and won't divulge why an employee no longer works there," Ms. Matias says.
Will social networking help you get a job?
By Peter D. Weddle
Networking is one of the best strategies for finding a new or better job. Right? Right.
And, social networking clearly involves networking. Right? Right.
So, social networking is the new and improved way to land the job of your dreams. Right? Wrong.
It's hard to miss the buzz about social networking. The media has been all agog over the rapid rise of such sites as MySpace. They attract millions of visitors every month, providing lots of opportunity for individual interaction and relationship building. While this activity is indeed networking, the most important aspect of its description is the adjective that defines it -- social. That may be a ton of fun, but it's unlikely to get you hired.
In the past, I've used the term "e-networking" to describe electronic or online networking. But with the rise of the social networking, I've redefined it as "employment networking." E-networking -- employment networking -- is unlike its very social cousin in three important ways:
It has a different purpose.
It is done in a different way.
It takes place on different web sites.
Let's explore each of those distinctions.
Employment networking has a different purpose Boiled down to its basic purpose, social networking has a social goal: to find a date, to connect with someone who shares your hobby or other interest, or to expand your circle of friends with friends of your friends.
The purpose of e-networking, on the other hand, is to connect you with contacts who can help you land a new or better job. These contacts include current and former colleagues, former bosses and coworkers, and even recruiters. Of course, the interaction has a social component, and you should treat these individuals with the same courtesy and respect you would like to receive -- but its goal is employment, pure and simple.
Employment networking is done in a different way Social networking involves informal introductions and casual conversations in cyberspace. Think of it as a virtual "Truman Show" where people eagerly and pleasantly meet and greet one another online. There's no obligation to participate, no downside to not doing so, and no performance standard to meet if you do participate.E-networking, in contrast, requires active participation, and the quality of your effort determines the return you get from your investment of time. Why? Because the key to success in employment networking (whether it's done online or off) is giving as good as you get. You have to share your knowledge, information, and job contacts if you want others to share theirs.
No less important, that sharing must be done regularly so that it builds familiarity and trust among those with whom you network. Their confidence (in you) reassures them that they can safely refer you to a business associate or colleague. That reassurance is critical -- sharing friends on a social networking site isn't particularly risky; but putting someone in touch with a business contact is. It can damage reputations or even jeopardize employment, especially if the person you refer turns out to be less than business-like.
Employment networking takes place on different sites. Since the purpose of e-networking is to find a new or better job, you must do it where you're most likely to connect with people who know of or have access to employment opportunities. That means your professional peers and the recruiters who focus on your career field and industry. The best e-networking venues are the discussion forums and bulletin boards at web sites operated by: National and state-level professional associations and trade groups Technical school, college, and graduate school alumni organizations Some affinity sites that may be important to employers (such as women in technology, African American certified public accountants, and veterans)
To find the best associations and other networking groups for you, try:
WEDDLE's 2005/6 Guide to Association Web Sites. This book describes the networking resources at over 1,800 professional, technical, and trade associations in the U.S. and around the world.
Finally, please don't misinterpret my comments as critical of social networking; they're not meant to be. Social networking takes time, but it won't do much, if anything, to advance your job search. So, here's my suggestion: First, devote some serious energy to e-networking, and then, after that's done, go ahead and relax with a little social networking -- or better yet, get out and meet the neighbors.
Networking is one of the best strategies for finding a new or better job. Right? Right.
And, social networking clearly involves networking. Right? Right.
So, social networking is the new and improved way to land the job of your dreams. Right? Wrong.
It's hard to miss the buzz about social networking. The media has been all agog over the rapid rise of such sites as MySpace. They attract millions of visitors every month, providing lots of opportunity for individual interaction and relationship building. While this activity is indeed networking, the most important aspect of its description is the adjective that defines it -- social. That may be a ton of fun, but it's unlikely to get you hired.
In the past, I've used the term "e-networking" to describe electronic or online networking. But with the rise of the social networking, I've redefined it as "employment networking." E-networking -- employment networking -- is unlike its very social cousin in three important ways:
It has a different purpose.
It is done in a different way.
It takes place on different web sites.
Let's explore each of those distinctions.
Employment networking has a different purpose Boiled down to its basic purpose, social networking has a social goal: to find a date, to connect with someone who shares your hobby or other interest, or to expand your circle of friends with friends of your friends.
The purpose of e-networking, on the other hand, is to connect you with contacts who can help you land a new or better job. These contacts include current and former colleagues, former bosses and coworkers, and even recruiters. Of course, the interaction has a social component, and you should treat these individuals with the same courtesy and respect you would like to receive -- but its goal is employment, pure and simple.
Employment networking is done in a different way Social networking involves informal introductions and casual conversations in cyberspace. Think of it as a virtual "Truman Show" where people eagerly and pleasantly meet and greet one another online. There's no obligation to participate, no downside to not doing so, and no performance standard to meet if you do participate.E-networking, in contrast, requires active participation, and the quality of your effort determines the return you get from your investment of time. Why? Because the key to success in employment networking (whether it's done online or off) is giving as good as you get. You have to share your knowledge, information, and job contacts if you want others to share theirs.
No less important, that sharing must be done regularly so that it builds familiarity and trust among those with whom you network. Their confidence (in you) reassures them that they can safely refer you to a business associate or colleague. That reassurance is critical -- sharing friends on a social networking site isn't particularly risky; but putting someone in touch with a business contact is. It can damage reputations or even jeopardize employment, especially if the person you refer turns out to be less than business-like.
Employment networking takes place on different sites. Since the purpose of e-networking is to find a new or better job, you must do it where you're most likely to connect with people who know of or have access to employment opportunities. That means your professional peers and the recruiters who focus on your career field and industry. The best e-networking venues are the discussion forums and bulletin boards at web sites operated by: National and state-level professional associations and trade groups Technical school, college, and graduate school alumni organizations Some affinity sites that may be important to employers (such as women in technology, African American certified public accountants, and veterans)
To find the best associations and other networking groups for you, try:
WEDDLE's 2005/6 Guide to Association Web Sites. This book describes the networking resources at over 1,800 professional, technical, and trade associations in the U.S. and around the world.
Finally, please don't misinterpret my comments as critical of social networking; they're not meant to be. Social networking takes time, but it won't do much, if anything, to advance your job search. So, here's my suggestion: First, devote some serious energy to e-networking, and then, after that's done, go ahead and relax with a little social networking -- or better yet, get out and meet the neighbors.
2.09.2007
4 Books to start on the right foot
This afternoon, I've enriched my library with the re-edited version of the bestseller Think and Grow Rich, by Napoleon Hill. I can't really give a review of this book, since I've just started reading it. But I've already noted some interesting points by going quickly through the chapters.
I've been hearing about The 24 Laws Of Power, by Robert Greene for years before actually seeing one exemplary of the book. So I was excited to have it; I thought it would help me make my ambition & my creativity grow, I was also expecting to find the remedy to procrastination.Well, that's not what exactly happened. The laws are useful, but so obvious. It looks more like a history book to me.
Honestly, don't expect anything special from this book.
It could help you keep in mind the fundamental Do's & Don't 's in business, but not more.
Since some people said this book changed their lives, I won't tell you "Don't lose your time purchasing it."
One can't aspire to become rich if he doesn't undertand how economics work. There are things we have no control over & macroeconomics is one of them. Understanding how banking systems work, why rich countries are rich & poor countries are poor or simply how supermarkets and all the services we are paying for manage to vacuum the money from our wallets so easily are helpful. Being able to see the world through an economist eye will help you save a lot of money & even better, take advantage of the system. Don't just be a blind consumer who believe every discount rate is indeed a discount rate.
I am sure you want to stop rushing into those buy-one-get-one-free items.
Economics becomes interesting only from the moment you find how useful it is in your everyday life.
I recommend you FREAKONOMICS by Steven D. Levitt & Stephen J. Dubner. It's a funny book to read. Plus you'll learn a lot of interesting things like why drug dealers live with their mothers or the things estate agents and the Ku Klux Klan have in common (ummm, now I didn't fgure out that one yet, but I'm sure you're as curious as me now).
Another book I've just purchased today seems really interesting. The Undercov£r Economist by Tim Harford is the book answering all the questions we, as consumers NEVER ask ourselves. So, I'm reading it, I'll let you know about what this book teach me in few days. I expect to stop spending my money like crazy in 2 weeks. I'm not saying it, Steven D Levitt does, it is a REQUIRED READING. So go ahead & spend some money on it.
It would be interesting if you are reading or if you read any of these books to share your critics and also recommend good books you've read & that helped you in a way or another.
Enjoy your reading :)
2.04.2007
Five Principles for Happyness in 2007
Excerpts from David Bach's Five Principles for Happiness in 2007 article:
There are five basic principles involved in creating your Live Rich Factor:
Principle 1: Give Yourself a Break
We all tell ourselves the story of the one that got away. You can't move forward if you spend time focusing on what you shoulda-woulda-coulda done in 2006 or before. It's over, and its time to move on. The fastest way I know to do this is to write all of your regrets down on paper.
Make a list of all your personal and financial if-onlys. For example, "If only I had saved more money. If only I hadn't quit that job. If only I hadn't taken the job I have." You get the idea.
After reading the list aloud to yourself, get rid of it. Let it all go by literally burning the list (safely). Now you're ready for a fresh start in 2007 -- a new beginning.
Principle 2: Get Connected with Your Truth
The hardest thing to do is be honest with yourself. Asking yourself some key questions will lead you to some amazing discoveries, and possibly motivate you to do what it takes to create the life you envision for yourself.
I suggest writing your (honest) answers to the following questions in a new journal for the new year:
*What makes you happy at work?
*What makes you happy at home?
*What makes you happy with your friends and family?
*What makes you happy when you're by yourself?
*What do you love to do?
*What would you do with your life today if you weren't afraid of failure?
*What's not working in your life?
*What are you currently doing that prevents you from experiencing joy?
*What's working in your life?
*Who's not working in your life?
*Who in your life is subtracting value from and adding misery to it?
*Can you fix any of these relationships, or should you let them go from your life?
*What relationships are working in your life?
*If we were getting together one year from today, what would have to happen for you to be able to tell me that you now have more joy in your life?
*What's the single most important thing you've learned about yourself as a result of answering these questions?
You'll find that by putting your answers down on paper, they'll become clear more quickly and the actions you need to take more obvious and easier to initiate.
Principle 3: Stop Judging Yourself
Be nicer to yourself in 2007. Many people talk to themselves in a way they would never accept from a stranger, friend, or loved one. If this describes you, try stopping the negative conversations you have with yourself immediately.
For one week, simply commit to saying "stop it" when you think a negative thought about yourself. If you're in the habit of saying negative things to yourself, you'll find this is one of the most difficult exercises you'll ever do. Carry a notepad with you and make a mark each time you catch yourself thinking negatively. You'll find that as the days go by, your negative thinking can quickly be reduced.
Principle 4: Stop Judging Others
It's hard to be joyful when you're always judging others. In fact, it's close to impossible. Judging others creates a huge amount of stress in our lives. It affects our marriages and our relationships with our kids as well as the way we relate to friends, co-workers, and society in general.
We're not here to judge one another.
The next time you find yourself upset at someone or some situation, catch yourself and ask, "Are you judging?" Judging others is often an unconscious habit. But it's a habit that can be changed the moment you decide to stop doing it.
Principle 5 : Pursue Fun with a Vengeance
It's OK to pursue fun. It's what children do. My greatest joy these days is the simple pleasure of playing with my three-year-old son, Jack.
This holiday season with Jack taught me the simple power of pursuing fun -- again and again. What was fun for Jack this Christmas? It turns out it wasn't the Big Wheel that my wife, Michelle, and I stayed up so late building on Christmas Eve. And it wasn't the Star Wars Lego toy (although he was pretty excited about that).
Instead, what Jack found the most fun was a new game I made up to keep him entertained. The game was called Geronimo -- and it involved Jack jumping from the bed onto a stack of pillows yelling "Geronimo!" This silly little game ended up bringing us both hours of fun. The price of the game: nothing. The fun: priceless. And the laughs? Endless.
Why do we stop pursing fun as we get older? Fun shouldn't be squeezed into a few weeks of vacation each year. And it shouldn't be squeezed into the last chapter of your life when you "get to" retire. Fun deserves to be a part of your life now -- in 2007.
But fun doesn't just happen. You have to make it a priority in your life or it'll go missing. Life's too short to not have it.
So here's to a fun, happy, and healthy New Year. Cheers!
Beat Back Burnout
Five strategies to stay motivated
By Scott Westcott
Do you dread the morning? Is much of your day spent stressed or daydreaming about what you really want to do? Do you have trouble finding joy, passion, and motivation in your life?
If so, you're part of a national epidemic. A recent study by CareerBuilder.com found that more than 77% of workers feel burnout on the job. And 23% of survey respondents said that they feel burnout on the job.
Know when to walk away: Sometimes the only cure for burnout is a fresh start. If you're arriving at work at dawn and leaving after dark, it might be time to walk away. "One day I was driving home on the freeway thinking, 'I really hate being stuck in traffic,' and I realized that being stuck was an analogy for my life at the time," Cook recalls. So she spent a year attending an administrative fellows program at Harvard University and getting a clearer sense of her mission. "I gifted myself with a sabbatical," she says, "and it changed my life."
Take a trip: A change of scenery can provide you with a fresh perspective and allow you time to recharge and relax, says Suzan Johnson Cook, author of Live Like You Are Blessed (Doubleday; $17.95). She recommends scheduling time off from work after particularly busy times. Cook suggests taking a "sabbatical" every few years, to reassess your life and dreams. "One of the definitions of recreation is re-creation." she says. "Train yourself to recognize the signs that you're ready for a break, and then take the time you need for reflection and rest."
Get a mission: You're ripe for burnout when you have difficulty seeing beyond your current situation. The solution? Write a mission statement and specify short- and long-term goals. Verna Price, Ph.D., a motivational speaker, coach, and author of The Power of People (JCAMA Publishers; $14.95), has a personal mission statement to "empower myself to pursue excellence." When she drifts from that mission, she feels symptoms of burnout. "As long as you just 'have a job', you are going to experience burnout," says Price. "Because then you're just working for the money. But when you connect your job to your goals, dreams, and passions, then you have your life's work."
Explore your options: When you're burned out, you feel stuck. Knowing that you have other options can change that, says executive recruiter Virginia Clarke, head of the Global Diversity Practice for Spencer Stuart in Chicago. Clarke suggests connecting with a reputable recruiter to get a sense of your options -- and your worth -- in the job market.
Build a trusted network: Cultivate a reliable group of trusted colleagues. "These are the people who can help you see what you can't see about yourself," Clarke says. "You need to have people in your life who can say, 'you know, you don't look good, or is this job really working for you?" When Clarke was feeling burnout from her job, her father advised her to tell people what she wanted to get results.
B.E.'s Successpert Speaks
To find and keep balance in your life and fend off burnout, Verna Price, Ph.D., recommends the practice of "being present."
For Price, being present means giving your full attention to whatever you're doing at any given moment. That means not dwelling on tomorrow's big meeting when you're playing with your kids.
"Many people experience burnout because they never really go home from work," says Price, a motivational speaker, coach, and author of The Power of People. "The physical body may have come home, but the mind, heart, and energy stayed at the office."
By Scott Westcott
Do you dread the morning? Is much of your day spent stressed or daydreaming about what you really want to do? Do you have trouble finding joy, passion, and motivation in your life?
If so, you're part of a national epidemic. A recent study by CareerBuilder.com found that more than 77% of workers feel burnout on the job. And 23% of survey respondents said that they feel burnout on the job.
Know when to walk away: Sometimes the only cure for burnout is a fresh start. If you're arriving at work at dawn and leaving after dark, it might be time to walk away. "One day I was driving home on the freeway thinking, 'I really hate being stuck in traffic,' and I realized that being stuck was an analogy for my life at the time," Cook recalls. So she spent a year attending an administrative fellows program at Harvard University and getting a clearer sense of her mission. "I gifted myself with a sabbatical," she says, "and it changed my life."
Take a trip: A change of scenery can provide you with a fresh perspective and allow you time to recharge and relax, says Suzan Johnson Cook, author of Live Like You Are Blessed (Doubleday; $17.95). She recommends scheduling time off from work after particularly busy times. Cook suggests taking a "sabbatical" every few years, to reassess your life and dreams. "One of the definitions of recreation is re-creation." she says. "Train yourself to recognize the signs that you're ready for a break, and then take the time you need for reflection and rest."
Get a mission: You're ripe for burnout when you have difficulty seeing beyond your current situation. The solution? Write a mission statement and specify short- and long-term goals. Verna Price, Ph.D., a motivational speaker, coach, and author of The Power of People (JCAMA Publishers; $14.95), has a personal mission statement to "empower myself to pursue excellence." When she drifts from that mission, she feels symptoms of burnout. "As long as you just 'have a job', you are going to experience burnout," says Price. "Because then you're just working for the money. But when you connect your job to your goals, dreams, and passions, then you have your life's work."
Explore your options: When you're burned out, you feel stuck. Knowing that you have other options can change that, says executive recruiter Virginia Clarke, head of the Global Diversity Practice for Spencer Stuart in Chicago. Clarke suggests connecting with a reputable recruiter to get a sense of your options -- and your worth -- in the job market.
Build a trusted network: Cultivate a reliable group of trusted colleagues. "These are the people who can help you see what you can't see about yourself," Clarke says. "You need to have people in your life who can say, 'you know, you don't look good, or is this job really working for you?" When Clarke was feeling burnout from her job, her father advised her to tell people what she wanted to get results.
B.E.'s Successpert Speaks
To find and keep balance in your life and fend off burnout, Verna Price, Ph.D., recommends the practice of "being present."
For Price, being present means giving your full attention to whatever you're doing at any given moment. That means not dwelling on tomorrow's big meeting when you're playing with your kids.
"Many people experience burnout because they never really go home from work," says Price, a motivational speaker, coach, and author of The Power of People. "The physical body may have come home, but the mind, heart, and energy stayed at the office."
Black Wallstreet
Please pass this on to the Iota Family. It's an important part of history that every Black person should know, if they don't know already.
Ron Wallace: co-author of Black Wallstreet: A Lost Dream Chronicles a little-known chapter of African-American History in Oklahoma as told to Ronald E. Childs. If anyone truly believes that the last April attack on the federal building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, was the most tragic bombing ever to take place on United States soil, as the media has been widely reporting, they're wrong-plain and simple. That's because an even deadlier bomb occurred in that same state nearly 75 years ago.
Many people in high places would like to forget that it ever happened. Searching under the heading of "riots," "Oklahoma" and "Tulsa" in current editions of the World Book Encyclopedia, there is conspicuously no mention whatsoever of the Tulsa race riot of 1921, and this omission is by no means a surprise, or a rare case. The fact is, one would also be hard-pressed to find documentation of the incident, let alone an accurate accounting of it, in any other "scholarly" reference or American history book.
That's precisely the point that noted author, publisher and orator Ron Wallace, a Tulsa native, sought to make nearly five years ago when he began researching this riot, one of the worst incidents of violence ever visited upon people of African descent. Ultimately joined on the project by colleague Jay Jay Wilson of Los Angeles, the duo found and compiled indisputable evidence of what they now describe as "A Black Holocaust in America."
The date was June 1, 1921, when "Black Wallstreet," the name fittingly given to one of the most affluent all-black communities in America, was bombed from the air and burned to the ground by mobs of envious whites. In a period spanning fewer than 12 hours, a once thriving 36-black business district in northern Tulsa lay smoldering-A model community destroyed, and a major Africa-American economic movement resoundingly defused.
The night's carnage left some 3,000 African Americans dead, and over 600 successful businesses lost. Among these were 21 churches, 21 restaurants, 30 grocery stores and two movie theaters, plus a hospital, a bank, a post office, libraries, schools, law offices, a half-dozen private airplanes and even a bus system. As could be expected, the impetus behind it all was the infamous Ku Klux Klan, working in consort with ranking city officials, and many other sympathizers. In their self-published book, Black Wallstreet: A lost Dream, and its companion video documentary, Black Wallstreet: A Black Holocaust in America!, the authors have chronicled for the very first time in the words of area historians and elderly survivors what really happened there on that fateful summer day in 1921 and why it happened. Wallace similarly explained to Black Elegance why this bloody event from the turn of the century seems to have had a recurring effect that is being felt in predominately Black neighborhoods even to this day. The best description of Black Wallstreet, or Little Africa as it was also known, would be to liken it to a mini-Beverly Hills. It was the golden door of the Black community during the early 1900s, and it proved that African Americans had successful infrastructure. That's what Black Wallstreet was about.
The dollar circulated 36 to 1000 times, sometimes taking a year for currency to leave the community. Now in 1995, a dollar leaves the Black community in 15 minutes. As far as resources, there were Ph.D's residing in Little Africa, Black attorneys and doctors. One doctor was Dr. Berry who also owned the bus system. His average income was $500 a day, a hefty pocket of change in 1910. During that era, physicians owned medical schools. There were also pawn shops everywhere, brothels, jewelry stores, 21 churches, 21 restaurants and two movie theaters. It was a time when the entire state of Oklahoma had only two airports, yet six blacks owned their own planes. It was a very fascinating community. The area encompassed over 600 businesses and 36 square blocks with a population of 15,000 African Americans. And when the lower-economic Europeans looked over and saw what the Black community created, many of them were jealous. When the average student went to school on Black Wallstreet, he wore a suit and tie because of the morals and respect they were taught at a young age.
The mainstay of the community was to educate every child. Nepotism was the one word they believed in. And that's what we need to get back to in 1995. The main thoroughfare was Greenwood Avenue, and it was intersected by Archer and Pine Streets. From the first letters in each of those names, you get G.A.P., and that's where the renowned R&B music group The GAP Band got its name. They're from Tulsa. Black Wallstreet was a prime example of the typical Black community in America that did business, but it was in an unusual location. You see, at the time, Oklahoma was set aside to be a Black and Indian state. There were over 28 Black townships there. One third of the people who traveled in the terrifying "Trail of Tears" along side the Indians between 1830 to 1842 were Black people. The citizens of this proposed Indian and Black state chose a Black governor, a treasurer from Kansas named McDade. But the Ku Klux Klan said that if he assumed office that they would kill him within 48 hours. A lot of Blacks owned farmland, and many of them had gone into the oil business. The community was so tight and wealthy because they traded dollars hand-to-hand, and because they were dependent upon one another as a result of the Jim Crow laws.
It was not unusual that if a resident's home accidentally burned down, it could be rebuilt within a few weeks by neighbors. This was the type of scenario that was going on day-to-day on Black Wallstreet. When Blacks intermarried into the Indian culture, some of them received their promised '40 acres and a Mule,' and with that came whatever oil was later found on the properties.
Just to show you how wealthy a lot of Black people were, there was a banker in a neighboring town who had a wife named California Taylor. Her father owned the largest cotton gin west of the Mississippi [River]. When California shopped, she would take a cruise to Paris every three months to have her clothes made. There was also a man named Mason in nearby Wagner County who had the largest potato farm west of the Mississippi. When he harvested, he would fill 100 boxcars a day. Another brother not far away had the same thing with a spinach farm. The typical family then was five children or more, though the typical farm family would have 10 kids or more who made up the nucleus of the labor.
On Black Wallstreet, a lot of global business was conducted. The community flourished from the early 1900s until June 1, 1921. That's when the largest massacre of non-military Americans in the history of this country took place, and it was lead by the Ku Klux Klan. Imagine walking out of your front door and seeing 1,500 homes being burned. It must have been amazing.
Survivors we interviewed think that the whole thing was planned because during the time that all of this was going on, white families with their children stood around on the borders of the community and watched the massacre, the looting and everything---much in the same manner they would watch a lynching.
In my lectures I ask people if they understand where the word "picnic" comes from. It was typical to have a picnic on a Friday evening in Oklahoma. The word was short for "pick a nigger" to lynch. They would lynch a Black male and cut off body parts as souvenirs. This went on every weekend in this country. That's where the term really came from. The riots weren't caused by anything Black or white. It was caused by jealousy. A lot of white folks had come back from World War I and they were poor. When they looked over into the Black communities and realized that Black men who fought in the war had come home heroes that helped trigger the destruction. It cost the Black community everything, and not a single dime of restitution---no insurance claims-has been awarded to the victims to this day.
Nonetheless, they rebuilt. We estimate that 1,500 to 3,000 people were killed, and we know that a lot of them were buried in mass graves all around the city. Some were thrown in the river. As a matter of fact, at 21st Street and Yale Avenue, where there now stands a Sears parking lot, that corner used to be a coal mine. They threw a lot of the bodies into the shafts. Black Americans don't know about this story because we don't apply the word holocaust to our struggle. Jewish people use the word holocaust all the time. White people use the word holocaust. It's politically correct to use it. But when we Black folks use the word, people think we're being cry babies or that we're trying to bring up old issues. No one comes to our support. In 1910, our forefathers and mothers owned 13 million acres of land at the height of racism in this country, so the Black Wallstreet book and videotape prove to the naysayers and revisionists that we had our act together. Our mandate now is to begin to teach our children about our own, ongoing Black holocaust. They have to know when they look at our communities today that we don't come from this.
To order a copy of Black Wallstreet, contact:
Duralon Entertainment, Inc.,
P.O. Box 2702, Tulsa, Oklahoma 74149
or call 1-800-682-7975
Black Wallstreet: A lost Dream $21.95
ISBN 1-882465-00-8
Black Wallstreet: A Black Holocaust in America! video $29.95
Ron Wallace: co-author of Black Wallstreet: A Lost Dream Chronicles a little-known chapter of African-American History in Oklahoma as told to Ronald E. Childs. If anyone truly believes that the last April attack on the federal building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, was the most tragic bombing ever to take place on United States soil, as the media has been widely reporting, they're wrong-plain and simple. That's because an even deadlier bomb occurred in that same state nearly 75 years ago.
Many people in high places would like to forget that it ever happened. Searching under the heading of "riots," "Oklahoma" and "Tulsa" in current editions of the World Book Encyclopedia, there is conspicuously no mention whatsoever of the Tulsa race riot of 1921, and this omission is by no means a surprise, or a rare case. The fact is, one would also be hard-pressed to find documentation of the incident, let alone an accurate accounting of it, in any other "scholarly" reference or American history book.
That's precisely the point that noted author, publisher and orator Ron Wallace, a Tulsa native, sought to make nearly five years ago when he began researching this riot, one of the worst incidents of violence ever visited upon people of African descent. Ultimately joined on the project by colleague Jay Jay Wilson of Los Angeles, the duo found and compiled indisputable evidence of what they now describe as "A Black Holocaust in America."
The date was June 1, 1921, when "Black Wallstreet," the name fittingly given to one of the most affluent all-black communities in America, was bombed from the air and burned to the ground by mobs of envious whites. In a period spanning fewer than 12 hours, a once thriving 36-black business district in northern Tulsa lay smoldering-A model community destroyed, and a major Africa-American economic movement resoundingly defused.
The night's carnage left some 3,000 African Americans dead, and over 600 successful businesses lost. Among these were 21 churches, 21 restaurants, 30 grocery stores and two movie theaters, plus a hospital, a bank, a post office, libraries, schools, law offices, a half-dozen private airplanes and even a bus system. As could be expected, the impetus behind it all was the infamous Ku Klux Klan, working in consort with ranking city officials, and many other sympathizers. In their self-published book, Black Wallstreet: A lost Dream, and its companion video documentary, Black Wallstreet: A Black Holocaust in America!, the authors have chronicled for the very first time in the words of area historians and elderly survivors what really happened there on that fateful summer day in 1921 and why it happened. Wallace similarly explained to Black Elegance why this bloody event from the turn of the century seems to have had a recurring effect that is being felt in predominately Black neighborhoods even to this day. The best description of Black Wallstreet, or Little Africa as it was also known, would be to liken it to a mini-Beverly Hills. It was the golden door of the Black community during the early 1900s, and it proved that African Americans had successful infrastructure. That's what Black Wallstreet was about.
The dollar circulated 36 to 1000 times, sometimes taking a year for currency to leave the community. Now in 1995, a dollar leaves the Black community in 15 minutes. As far as resources, there were Ph.D's residing in Little Africa, Black attorneys and doctors. One doctor was Dr. Berry who also owned the bus system. His average income was $500 a day, a hefty pocket of change in 1910. During that era, physicians owned medical schools. There were also pawn shops everywhere, brothels, jewelry stores, 21 churches, 21 restaurants and two movie theaters. It was a time when the entire state of Oklahoma had only two airports, yet six blacks owned their own planes. It was a very fascinating community. The area encompassed over 600 businesses and 36 square blocks with a population of 15,000 African Americans. And when the lower-economic Europeans looked over and saw what the Black community created, many of them were jealous. When the average student went to school on Black Wallstreet, he wore a suit and tie because of the morals and respect they were taught at a young age.
The mainstay of the community was to educate every child. Nepotism was the one word they believed in. And that's what we need to get back to in 1995. The main thoroughfare was Greenwood Avenue, and it was intersected by Archer and Pine Streets. From the first letters in each of those names, you get G.A.P., and that's where the renowned R&B music group The GAP Band got its name. They're from Tulsa. Black Wallstreet was a prime example of the typical Black community in America that did business, but it was in an unusual location. You see, at the time, Oklahoma was set aside to be a Black and Indian state. There were over 28 Black townships there. One third of the people who traveled in the terrifying "Trail of Tears" along side the Indians between 1830 to 1842 were Black people. The citizens of this proposed Indian and Black state chose a Black governor, a treasurer from Kansas named McDade. But the Ku Klux Klan said that if he assumed office that they would kill him within 48 hours. A lot of Blacks owned farmland, and many of them had gone into the oil business. The community was so tight and wealthy because they traded dollars hand-to-hand, and because they were dependent upon one another as a result of the Jim Crow laws.
It was not unusual that if a resident's home accidentally burned down, it could be rebuilt within a few weeks by neighbors. This was the type of scenario that was going on day-to-day on Black Wallstreet. When Blacks intermarried into the Indian culture, some of them received their promised '40 acres and a Mule,' and with that came whatever oil was later found on the properties.
Just to show you how wealthy a lot of Black people were, there was a banker in a neighboring town who had a wife named California Taylor. Her father owned the largest cotton gin west of the Mississippi [River]. When California shopped, she would take a cruise to Paris every three months to have her clothes made. There was also a man named Mason in nearby Wagner County who had the largest potato farm west of the Mississippi. When he harvested, he would fill 100 boxcars a day. Another brother not far away had the same thing with a spinach farm. The typical family then was five children or more, though the typical farm family would have 10 kids or more who made up the nucleus of the labor.
On Black Wallstreet, a lot of global business was conducted. The community flourished from the early 1900s until June 1, 1921. That's when the largest massacre of non-military Americans in the history of this country took place, and it was lead by the Ku Klux Klan. Imagine walking out of your front door and seeing 1,500 homes being burned. It must have been amazing.
Survivors we interviewed think that the whole thing was planned because during the time that all of this was going on, white families with their children stood around on the borders of the community and watched the massacre, the looting and everything---much in the same manner they would watch a lynching.
In my lectures I ask people if they understand where the word "picnic" comes from. It was typical to have a picnic on a Friday evening in Oklahoma. The word was short for "pick a nigger" to lynch. They would lynch a Black male and cut off body parts as souvenirs. This went on every weekend in this country. That's where the term really came from. The riots weren't caused by anything Black or white. It was caused by jealousy. A lot of white folks had come back from World War I and they were poor. When they looked over into the Black communities and realized that Black men who fought in the war had come home heroes that helped trigger the destruction. It cost the Black community everything, and not a single dime of restitution---no insurance claims-has been awarded to the victims to this day.
Nonetheless, they rebuilt. We estimate that 1,500 to 3,000 people were killed, and we know that a lot of them were buried in mass graves all around the city. Some were thrown in the river. As a matter of fact, at 21st Street and Yale Avenue, where there now stands a Sears parking lot, that corner used to be a coal mine. They threw a lot of the bodies into the shafts. Black Americans don't know about this story because we don't apply the word holocaust to our struggle. Jewish people use the word holocaust all the time. White people use the word holocaust. It's politically correct to use it. But when we Black folks use the word, people think we're being cry babies or that we're trying to bring up old issues. No one comes to our support. In 1910, our forefathers and mothers owned 13 million acres of land at the height of racism in this country, so the Black Wallstreet book and videotape prove to the naysayers and revisionists that we had our act together. Our mandate now is to begin to teach our children about our own, ongoing Black holocaust. They have to know when they look at our communities today that we don't come from this.
To order a copy of Black Wallstreet, contact:
Duralon Entertainment, Inc.,
P.O. Box 2702, Tulsa, Oklahoma 74149
or call 1-800-682-7975
Black Wallstreet: A lost Dream $21.95
ISBN 1-882465-00-8
Black Wallstreet: A Black Holocaust in America! video $29.95
Be a part of AGLOCO community
At the height of the dot com bubble, I joined a website call AllAdvantage.com, the first of many similar programs. The idea was simple - they paid you to surf the web, while displaying ads on your desktop. The longer you spent online, the more money you earnt, and you could earn more if you managed to recruit others. I actually got paid for my time online - not a huge amount, but not insignificant either.
That was then... when the the bubble burst, AllAdvantage was one of many to fall by the way side.
Now, it seems that the original founders of AllAdvantage have started a new company called AGLOCO, based on the same ideas. They are working on a new version of their 'ViewBar', though it is still being beta tested at the moment, so the only thing you can do at the moment is build up your network of referrals.
I'm intriged to see how they'll do the second time round... hopefully the web technology available today is more advanced, and the advertising industry is healthier that it was then. There's even talk of shares being handed out to members. I invite you to join me in this new incarnation on: http://www.agloco.com/r/BBBT2175, I have a good feeling about this one. If it's as great as Adsense you can still kick my ass :p
That was then... when the the bubble burst, AllAdvantage was one of many to fall by the way side.
Now, it seems that the original founders of AllAdvantage have started a new company called AGLOCO, based on the same ideas. They are working on a new version of their 'ViewBar', though it is still being beta tested at the moment, so the only thing you can do at the moment is build up your network of referrals.
I'm intriged to see how they'll do the second time round... hopefully the web technology available today is more advanced, and the advertising industry is healthier that it was then. There's even talk of shares being handed out to members. I invite you to join me in this new incarnation on: http://www.agloco.com/r/BBBT2175, I have a good feeling about this one. If it's as great as Adsense you can still kick my ass :p
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