As I sit here listening intently to my brother-in-law passionately talk about the Total Money Make Over. He describes with conviction, the changes the book has made in his life. I realize this is something special, this is a gathering that is free of the pressures of everyday activities an area where a bunch of successful men can talk freely together. This is not some bible study, but a good old fashion book club. There are many reasons why people deside to start a book club. In my case I started the book club for these reasons. I wanted to expand my knowledge, and grow in awareness. I set a goal at the start of the year to read 18 books for 2010 and having a book club would help me read at least 10 books for the year. Read some books that I wouldn't normal touch if you tied me down and force fed it to me. Good example is the Greatest-Salesman In The World. Bring together some friends who I enjoy their company and I felt could really learn from one another. I wanted to spark some conversation that was frank, where we could discuss freely openly, about every day issues and triumphs. More importantly ...

I sit here attempting to write this blog post. I know upstairs needs to be cleaned and I really should start the BBQ. My youngest son in running around pretending to be Iron Man, while the older one is playing some video games. I quickly glance over my shoulder while my wife whizzes by me rushing to get some cleaning in. She is running a jewelry party and has a long list of to-do’s that need to get done before the start of the week, I see that she is flustered and pressed for time. We both are very busy with work and home responsibilities. There are a lot of activities going on in our lives which is nothing new for a lot of families, but what has continued to be reduced in the last few decades is Margin. You may ask what is Margin? Margin: Restoring Emotional, Physical, Financial, and Time Reserves to Overloaded Lives is written by Richard Swenson.  “Margin” the author explains is, “the space that once existed between us and our limits.” Swenson suggests and I'm in agreement that progress has eliminated our margin creating stress, overload and complexity. At this is not abating in fact its growing at an exponential rate! Think about your life. Many of us have way too much activity, too ...

It has been over a year since I have written in this blog. A lot has happened in this time personally and professionally. New career path, travelling, speaking and meeting interesting people which deserves its own post! During this time, one of a couple central thoughts that has remained constant is to continually learn, grow and introspection, so on Saturday I ran into this quote from a book I thoroughly enjoyed which is Echarte Tolle A New Earth which stated. How to let go of attachment. “Don’t even try. It’s impossible. Attachment to things drops away by itself when you no longer seek to find yourself in them. ~ Tolle Growing up I was like the other kids I wanted the latest game system, nice expensive clothes, latest comics which later changed as I became older into more expensive things like, plasma TV, Tech gadgets, cars, big house. At the time, I had no idea why I wanted or needed those things. Now I know its for some of these reasons. I wanted to feel accepted by my peers I wanted to feel accepted within society I looking for stuff external to fill that insatiable need for more The egos insistent need to for grasping for things I was coerced by the marketing genius to purchase and want for things I have no need for I felt like I ...

I read an interesting article that was sent to me about Twitter. The main premise was Twitter is a fad and the retentention rate was very low when compared to Myspace and Twitter. Read more from  eMarketer. I've heard this argument with Facebook and MySpace as well. This is what we have to keep an eye out for that will kill twitter. As some may think It will not be low adoption rates, but any combination of thease items. Fail to quickly monetize twitter Continue to anger the developers that build 3rd party apps around their platform Get bought to soon by a large company like Google Fail to change their underlying structure to scale correctly and add new features quickly Facebook turns around and opens their platform up so people from the outside can follow you through Facebook Not figuring out a way to keep new users engated early once they first sign up Nielsen suggesting that the retention rate of 40% may be incorrect. Neilsen failed to account for all access points. Here is an article that rebuffs Neilson findings. The methods in which people communicate is decentralized and fragmenting. This fragmentation and is happening at a faster rate.  For companies that are trying to get into the space, ...

I love ted for many reasons. It expands my mind, causes me to rethink current ideas. Continually changes my perspective and all these great presentations are free! One of the recent TED speeches that bring me hope is the speech by Willie Smits. His Journey and mission is to save the rain forest using a holistic approach. He thinks about the whole and works from the bottom up involving and incentivizing the people throughout the process.   His speech was very powerful for me. Because he went out and made things happen. The road was difficult but he continued to push ahead even through adversity and the many challenges he faced his accomplishments are amazing!   After listening to his speech for the first time I wanted to sell the house pack up the family and move out there to help! But really... come on... I’m comfortable... I'm not going to do that. I'm in love with the idea. I believe in my life time we are in for some monumental changes where we will have to leave our comfy sofas and do something.   We are defiantly at a cross roads where we have to make some drastic changes if we want to insure our ...

I'm not a Republican or Democrat, I'm a concerned citizen. Their are certain characters in our government that stick by their principles and vote accordingly. One politicion that would get my vote is Dr. Ron Paul. Ronnie has talking about our broken montanary policy for years. He has mentioned many times about the feds inflating the money supply and their messing around which will eventully bankrupt the whole country for many years. If we listened to the congressmen we wouldn't be in half the mess we are in now.

I must say Jon Stewart is at his finest. He totally ripped apart John McCain Acceptance Speech.  The comparison between Bush and McCain are hilarious, although the same could be said between Barack and Bush and nearly any other politiction that was making an acceptance speech.  Check out the video.  

I do not support the bail out of Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. It looks like the bill will pass the Senate. The president who threaten to veto the bill will sign it into law. Lets cut to chase the consumers were stupid enough to buy a home that they couldn't afford thinking that the housing market would continue to apprciate in value and with all the cash that was floating around lenders naturally were going to take advantage. My take is if you can't afford the house don't buy it! I'm so apathetic, I'm totally flaccid! Let’s see what's really going on with the housing bill. ·         This is a band aid being put on a stab wound! ·         More money will be printed to cover peoples stupidity ·         The government is saying hey Fanny May & Freddy Mac go and take all the risk you want the tax payers will bail you out ·         300 billion dollars over the past year has been spent already bailing out the industry ·         Treasury bills are exchanged for Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac securities what a smart move, what’s backing our dollar now? ·         In the 600 page bill all credit transaction will be reported to the ...

If you are remotely interested in technology you've heard about the new iPhone 3G. I wrote in an earlier post about the announcement at the world wide developers conference. The release date for the phone was July 11Th. I was torn if I should get the new iPhone 3G, but Steve Jobs kept whispering in my ear telling me if you want to be cool, and accepted by society I must get this phone at all cost! Naturally I promptly obeyed his request and took the day off in hopes of getting the phone the first day it came out. With my relaxation chair in one hand, and my pattie in the other I went to my local AT&T store at 6:00 am. Now the stores didn't open until 8:00 am but I took the risk that there wouldn't be too many people in line. Well my assumption was correct. I was sixth person in line! The wait was very pleasant, everyone seemed to be excited about getting the phone, including myself and the excitement mounted as it got closer to 8:00 am. The doors were open promptly at 8:00 am and I was one of the first batch to get inside. I ended up getting the white 16 ...

Debating race is a series of conversations between Dawson and a wide swath of people from Scholars: Gary Orfield, Cornel West, politicians: John McCain, John Kerry and pop-political commentators Stephen Colbert, Bill Maher. They tackle many aspects in this book which is broken down into 7 areas.   Civil Rights Ethnicity Conflicting Loves Youth & Violence Black Masculinity Catastrophes Anatomy of A Conflict Why Bill Cosby is still wrong   Overall I found this book very powerful and presents a very deep dive into very controversial areas. Unfortunaly their is not enough dialog about those very serious issues. There is such a wealth of ideas presented in this book I could start a blog just tackling those issues. From reading the book here are a few thoughts.   The 7 areas discussed in his book, are not black and white but many shades of grey. I‘ve gained an appreciation of how complex each of these areas discussed in the book are.   The real struggle is about power and control. Those who have it the "ruling elite" and those do not "everyone else" To illustrate that example here are two facts. Latinos, Native Americans, Asian Americans and African Americans constitute about 25 percent of the population together. They have about 6 percent of our nation’s operating businesses. ...