Maggie isn't my cat; I'm just taking care of her until she dies. For you to understand what I mean by this statement and to know why Maggie is such a special creature I must tell you another story. During the summer of 2009 I joined a Mastermind group led by Pat O'Bryan and frequented by Marlon Sanders, Joe Vitale, and others who were close friends with Pat. He had written a book two summers earlier, entitled Your Portable Empire: How to Make Money Anywhere While Doing What You Love. Today … [Read more...]
Refugee Children in the Classroom: Anca’s Story
My first year as a classroom teacher was very different from what I had been expecting. The school that had hired me was in North Hollywood, its own city in the San Fernando Valley section of Los Angeles. And even though the school was surrounded by well kept homes on tree-lined streets few of the students at my new school lived in them. Instead, my kids lived in the apartments several blocks away on crowded, noisy streets that weren't always safe. It was also my introduction to teaching refugee … [Read more...]
My Life in the Swimming Pool
I have discovered that I do some of my best work while swimming in the pool. I think of this as the unbearable lightness of swimming against the almost imperceivable current. This got me to reminiscing about an experience that took place more than half a century ago... It was the summer of 1960 when I first learned to swim. We were at the Riviera Hotel in Palm Springs for a long weekend, my mother and the man she was dating, David. That pool looked like the entire Pacific Ocean to five year … [Read more...]
I Don’t Want to Die With So Many Clothes in My Closet
I have more clothes in my closet than I can count. And unlike Wanda Petronski, the protagonist in The Hundred Dresses my clothes are real ones accumulated over the past two decades. I can only imagine Wanda's classmate Peggy demanding that I describe each item I own. Some tell a story, like the denim jacket I bought when my Rotary Club spent a week in Bishop, California hiking and fishing and enjoying the outdoors alongside the Rotarians from that area. Others sit anonymously on felt lined … [Read more...]
The Power Struggle
In August of 2019 I had been asked to be a panelist for an international summit on the topic of doing good in the world and making money. As one of eighty-eight experts and thought leaders from around the world I was thrilled and honored to be included. The hosts of this mega event were Sherry Watson and Tom Matzen, two people I had admired from afar for several years. This eight day virtual event was billed as the "Do Good and Make Money Super Summit 2019" and it was awesome. I was to be … [Read more...]
Taller Than Anyone Thought He Could Be
Part of my new life, after my reinvention in 2006 when I resigned from my job as a classroom teacher and gave away my real estate clients to people who could better serve them, includes spending time with people I may have never met in the past. Even though I'm an introvert I have found these experiences to be ones I would not trade for the world. One family I met was through my church. We first became friends in 2012 when their youngest children were nine and eleven. There is also an adult … [Read more...]
Fishing Off the Pier
There are few activities in life that provide for more personal and business self growth than fishing. When you go fishing off the pier your experience becomes even more valuable and insightful, due in part to the duality of interacting with the people coming and going while you are focusing on the water far below you as you attempt to catch a fish. It's usually the perfect storm for giving you time to think while also enjoying a day outside. It's late August, a Friday morning in Ventura. … [Read more...]
An Awful Howl
Hurricane Andrew crept in on little cat feet on the morning of August 24th in 1992. Or at least that was my memory of how the chaos began... I had been in south Florida twice before during hurricanes. The first time had been in late August of 1964 when Hurricane Cleo came through the area and the next was Betsy over Labor Day weekend in 1965. Both years my parents and I had been there to visit close friends on my mother's side of the family and we became caught up in the storm before we could … [Read more...]
Three Up, Three Down
In baseball there is a phrase that tells the story of an inning. "Three up, three down" means that three batters took their turn at bat and all were struck out by the pitcher and never made it to first base. This is every pitcher's goal when they take their place on the mound against the opposing team. In my online business I think of this "three up, three down" concept as being one where I share three paid offers and three free ones to make sure my community always has some training to move … [Read more...]
Duality Between Realism and Idealism
I was raised by a mother who was an idealist. She turned away from her Midwestern upbringing and moved to California with my father the day after they were married in a traditional wedding at the Francis & First Street Methodist Church near downtown St. Joseph, Missouri. California was a culture shock for both of them, but in different ways. My father was appalled at the aberrant behavior of the people he encountered. My mother was enchanted by the freedom for women to smoke cigarettes in … [Read more...]