“May heaven describe you as one of those rare people who live to achieve Great Things for the glory of God.”

That’s the closing sentence of Bruce Wilkinson’s The Dream Giver. Read it again slowly.

“May heaven describe you as one of those RARE people who live to achieve Great Things for the glory of God.”

It truly IS a rare thing, isn’t it?

To know someone — ANYone — who is unquestionably living their Dream, achieving tremendous success in this life, and radiating Christlike-ness every step of the way.

That’s my life’s mission: To qualify as that rare breed, and to help others qualify as well.

A while ago, I heard the brilliant Ken Glickman paint the following picture of life… Read the rest of this entry…

Posted on Sunday, 22nd March 2009 in Books, Life | Comments (12)

I just finished Mark Joyner’s simpleology on the 8-hour flight home today. I find it amusing that the process it took for me to read the book goes against the very nature of the book’s concluding principles.

From start to finish it took me about 30 days to read this thing.

I read for about an hour on a flight last month, another hour from my parents’ house 2 weeks later, and two more hours today to wrap it up.

Of course, along the way were countless distractions that took 100% of my attention away from the book’s message.

Each time I went back to pick up where I left off, I wasted time as I reread previous points I highlighted and attempted to refocus my attention.

The inevitable result is a dulled message and potentially life changing principles lost through infinite channels of distraction over the last 30 days.

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Posted on Tuesday, 7th October 2008 in Books, Business, Life | Comments (2)

Startled?

Don’t worry… this isn’t going to be any sort of scandalous, adults-only blog post! I just wanted to share a few recent lessons learned from the billionaire mastermind of the Virgin Group and the world’s greatest entrepreneur: Sir Richard Branson.

I just finished his autobiography, which shares the title of this post. It was a gift from a great friend & CEO of RealEstateInvestor.com, Colin Egbert.

While Branson’s early sexual promiscuity (he actually “wife-swapped” with his friend for a weekend) and his failure to recognize God as God certainly temper my respect, you can’t help but admire the way he did business.

Here are 8 notes I scribbled as I read the story of his success from 1950-2001…

1. A huge key to Branson’s success was his ability to leverage debt and protect his downside. For many years, the Virgin Group consistently overdrafted millions of dollars to finance their ventures. Why were banks willing to do this? Because of Branson’s uncanny sense of choosing the RIGHT ventures and his track record of success. Each of these ventures involved tremendous risk, but Branson was never without an awareness of where the risks were and rarely without a contingency plan.

2. He never shied away from competition. In fact, he seemed to thrive off of it. He entered the airline industry with a single plane when British Airways was dominating UK market share and eliminating smaller competitors left & right. He launched Virgin Cola, knowing that Coke and Pepsi held 70%+ of worldwide market share but seeing small weaknesses that he could exploit.

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Posted on Sunday, 27th July 2008 in Books, Business, Life, Marketing, Real Estate | Comments (1)

If I asked you to picture the “archetypal man,” who comes to mind?

By archetypal man, I mean a man who epitomizes everything a man was meant to be.

Who comes to mind? Stop and think about this.

How about Clint Eastwood? George Clooney? Russell Crowe? Denzel Washington?

It’s probably difficult to think of 3 men you actually have personal contact with because “real men” are - indeed - hard to find. Can I get an amen, ladies??

The problem is that, for most of us, Jesus probably didn’t immediately pop into your head.

Why is that?

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Posted on Sunday, 13th July 2008 in Books, Faith, Life | Comments (0)

I’ve always felt that the best comedians are the ones who put into words things that you’ve already observed about the world, but that - to that point - you’ve never actually put into words yourself.

They’re funny simply because they make you realize “that is so incredibly true.”

Chris Rock. Sinbad. Jerry Seinfeld.

I think this particular appreciation for one’s ability to “label reality” carries over into the authors I end up recommending as well. I just finished Malcolm Gladwell’s “The Tipping Point” and it certainly appeals to a similar part of me.

It’s the type of book that makes you think “Wow, if this guy hadn’t had the unique insight & passion to write this, I don’t know who else ever would have. And the world is a better place because he did it.”

It talks about the commonalities between the epidemics of this world; an epidemic being any sudden & rapid movement, upward or downward, of a trend.

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Posted on Tuesday, 10th June 2008 in Books, Faith, Life, Marketing | Comments (1)

I’ve been trying to read 30 to 60 minutes of fiction or autobiography every night before falling asleep. I find that it’s a good mind decompressor.

Last night I wrapped up The Alchemist by Brazilian author Paulo Coelho (which, by my best guess, is pronounced “quel-yo”.. like Ronaldinho). I’ve run across Coelho’s name a lot lately & I know he has some rabid fans, so I had to see if all the buzz was warranted.

I’d say it certainly is.

Coelho is a pretty enchanting storyteller who has a rare ability to say a lot about life - to even change lives - without wasting a single page on meaningless narrative. This particular book is an effortless read with a deep message about following your dreams.

Like Santiago, who leaves the simple comfort of a shepherd’s life in Spain to seek buried treasure abroad, we all have something we were meant to do. A passion that is rooted in the deepest fabric of our being.

The question: Are you living the fullest extent of your passion at this moment?

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Posted on Monday, 26th May 2008 in Books, Faith, Life | Comments (1)