By Josh Bowen, on Thu Nov 14, 2013 at 8:30 AM ET 
The Importance of Why
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”
Let’s think about the quote above. What is separating all of us from achievement? Is it us? Could it be that we are actually afraid of accomplishing what we set out to do?
Bingo!
Last week, I talked about the Power of the Why The Power of the Why and how to find it. Now lets discuss the importance if that why. As described previously, the why gives reason behind decisions and clarity behind things that are not yet understood. The importance of this is to initiate movement and action. Because in order to achieve any goal, you must have action. Your why will keep you motivated through the hard times, because there will always be hard times. Life is not perfect and neither are you. However, each and every one of us is powerful enough to accomplish anything we set out to do.
I have a lot of experience in training and motivating others, not just in fitness but in life. I have always had a sense that deep down people are not afraid of failure but rather afraid of achieving. When you achieve something people will expect you to do the same every time. This adds responsibility and adds the component of hard work. Now, don’t get me wrong I am not calling out people, talking about how lazy they are. Quite the contrary, I am saying that in our subconscious we have a deep fear that we CAN accomplish any and every thing that we set out to do.
So how do I perform reverse psychology on myself?
Here is the deal the first step to accomplishing anything is you have to believe it is possible. Here is an example; people once thought that running a mile in under 4 minutes was impossible. It wasn’t until 1954 that Roger Bannister broke the 4 minutes barrier, running a mile in 3 minutes and 59 seconds. 42 days later another man ran a mile in 3 minutes and 58 seconds. Fast forward to present day and the world record for the mile has lowered 17 seconds and now running a mile in under 4 minutes is the STANDARD by which all middle distance runners are judged.
 Do you see what happened there? Once one person did it, everyone else knew it was possible. You think that you are the only person in the world sitting there at your computer, reading this article with 50, 60, 70, 100 pounds to lose. The reality of it is people are doing it every day and so can you! All you have to do is believe.
The last step (yes I only have 2 steps here, this is not a 12 step process!) you have to have an undying commitment to your goal. Whatever the goal is, it does not matter you have to love it, marry it and live it. It is you and it is a part of you. Do what ever it takes, throw caution to the wind and do it! I believe in you, you must believe in you. Do not be afraid of climbing your personal Mount Everest! GO DO IT!!!!
So to summarize my two steps;
1. You must believe 2. You must commit
“JB you said things will get hard, what do I do?” Great question! The power and importance of the why is going to be your security blanket, your insurance policy and your get out of jail free card. They will drive you to unbelievable heights, if you let them. If you fall off the wagon, remind yourself of why you here in the first place. The constant reminder is a positive way of looking at bleak situations that we will all be put in. As I tell my clients all the time, “Don’t think, just do.”
By John Y. Brown III, on Wed Nov 13, 2013 at 12:00 PM ET 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 ……
That’s it.
Hey. Sometimes it is fun to do a countdown just for the rush of anticipation. It’s exciting.
Whether or not their is a pay off isnt nearly as important as it seems.
 Life is often anti-clamatic and we need to embrace that–and it doesn’t mean we can’t still enjoy the anticipation part. It’s often the best part…..
Let me catch my breath and we will do another “no pay off” countdown this afternoon.
By RP Nation, on Wed Nov 13, 2013 at 10:00 AM ET The Recovering Politician is proud to publish an EXCLUSIVE EXCERPT from an exciting and educational book written by Friend of RP Robert D. Hudson and his daughter Lauren Hudson, “Our Best Tomorrow: Students Teaching Capitalism to America.” Enjoy!
 Click here to review & purchase “Well, I was thinking that maybe we could make our software faster and more efficient by re-engineering…” Oh! Finally, you’re here. My name is Jacob but people call me Jake. “Okay guys, staff meeting dismissed. Go back to your daily business of coming up with the best ideas in the world!’’ I’m delighted you could at last come and enjoy the wonders my company has created for computers, gaming systems and smart phones.
How much money do I make? Well now, that is a difficult question to answer. Considering I designed the first software for my company, Kinetic Software, I usually do make a bit more than my workers here, but mainly, it depends on how many copies of the software we sell. Some years we do well and some years we don’t. If we don’t do well, I might not make anything!
How did I create this groundbreaking software? Well, when I was growing up, I was always interested in the way things worked. One of my earliest memories was sitting on the kitchen floor with an old phone and attempting to take it apart while my mother cooked me lunch.
My father would come home from his work as a dentist and watch me bang the phone on the floor and study it carefully. Pretty soon I figured out how to take it apart and put it back together. I can remember how excited I had been. I ran around screaming about my accomplishment.
“I got it! I got it, Mommy! I got it, Daddy! I got it, Sissy!’’ I yelled. My father walked over to me from the other room, scooped me up in his arms and swung me around. He had the broadest smile on his face, as if I had just won Olympic gold.
As I got older, I became interested in science fiction and how the world would work someday. I imagined computers and cell phones and space travel to other planets. I recall my sister, Annabeth, who was about 13, watching TV one day, when I came in, turned the TV off, and told her my latest idea. She called me a twerp, but I didn’t care.
“Go bother something else! Don’t touch the TV anymore, Jake!’’ she said in exasperation. With my head hanging low, I walked into my dad’s study. He had one of Apple’s first computers. When I saw that computer sitting on the dark mahogany desk, I knew what my next project would be. Little did I know that the project of trying to learn how this computer worked would lead to the some of the biggest accomplishments of my life.
It was only a matter of time before I had moved on to developing software to do my part to help change the world! You see, I love what I do, and I live in a country which gives me the freedom to do it. Yes, I work hard, but can you believe I get to make money doing something I love? All you need is passion and freedom – mix a little talent and hard work in there and you’ll have something special!
Capitalism Pointer – America’s Jobs Come From Capitalism
Read the rest of…
EXCLUSIVE EXCERPT: Lauren Hudson & Robert D. Hudson, “Our Best Tomorrow”
By Lauren Mayer, on Wed Nov 13, 2013 at 8:30 AM ET I’ve long maintained that the skills we develop as mothers could come in handy in all sorts of larger contexts, like international relations (“Israel and Palestine, if you can’t share the Gaza Strip I’m taking it away from both of you!”), industrial pollution (“BP, clean up that oil spill NOW!”), or political gridlock (“Congress, you’re in time out – with NO SNACKS – until you get something accomplished!”). And of course it didn’t surprise me that when we started seeing progress in solving the government shut-down, there were women from both parties leading the way.
Mind you, I’m not claiming female superiority, just pointing out that in general, mothers have learned to deal with everything from recalcitant toddlers who throw tantrums in grocery stores to sullen teenagers who swear we are ruining their lives. So a) we don’t sweat the small stuff, and b) we know how to handle bad behavior. Which makes it pretty clear that there is no one with those maternal skills advising Rand Paul.
For starters, a woman would remind him that tons of people have survived being accused of plagiarism – and it isn’t an attack on their personal character, just pointing out a fact. But to hear Senator Paul tell it, he is the victim of a character assassination by liberal ‘haters and hackers’ who are ‘spreading hate on me.’ Moms would tell him to stop over-reacting. (And my mom, the retired English teacher, would tell him to stop using silly cliches that don’t make sense.)
Moms would also advise him to admit his mistake gracefully, and to issue a genuine apology. Like we tell our kids, saying “I’m sorry, but it’s HIS fault” does not count. Neither does claiming that everyone is picking on you because you didn’t footnote your speeches.
Finally, a modern-day mom would remind Senator Paul that the Internet gives everyone instant access to, and records of, anything you put out there. So be careful about what photos from that crazy frat party you post on Facebook or what drunk texts you send to old flames (or what types of incriminating photos you text when you’re running for public office, Mr. Weiner . . . ) Which means if you lift entire paragraphs from Wikipedia, you really can’t deny it when you get caught.
Lacking such maternal wisdom, Rand Paul has not handled this fairly minor crisis very well, which isn’t great for his Presidential aspirations – but it’s been great for humorists! (And like I always advise my kids, teasing is mean most of the time, but if you’re a public figure who behaves in a ridiculous fashion, you’re fair game!)
By John Y. Brown III, on Tue Nov 12, 2013 at 12:00 PM ET Favorite first sentences of novels….
The easy ones are “It was the best of times; it was the worst of times” from Tale of Two Cities.
Or perhaps “Call me Ishmael” from Moby Dick.
But for my money, it’s hard to beat this opening line from Life, The Universe and Everything from Douglas Adams.
“The regular early morning yell of horror was the sound of Arthur Dent waking up and suddenly remembering where he was.”
By Erica and Matt Chua, on Tue Nov 12, 2013 at 8:30 AM ET When I saw the Capture the Color photo contest was going on again this year I was excited to dig through the photos from our trip and share a few with you. Not only did this contest give me an opportunity to reminisce about all the places we’ve been by reliving memories through our photos but I love the theme, it’s so simple, capture the colors Blue, Green, Yellow, White and Red in your photos. I have to admit the deal was sweetened knowing I wouldn’t be competing against some of the travel blogosphere’s most talented photographers: Ken Kaminesky, Abi King, Davefrom the Planet D, Christine Gilbert and Daniel Nahabedian, because they are the judges. You can enter too and have the chance to win £3000, an Arc’teryx voucher or other great prizes. Without further ado below are my five photos that Capture the Color:
WHITE
Huyana Potosi, Bolivia (19,974 feet)
As we carefully inched along the snowy trail on the exposed ridge of Huyana Potosi leading us to the summit the sun just started to peek above the horizon. It was a beautiful sight and a view I will never forget. Once we reached the summit I looked back on the path we had taken in the dark to reach our goal and realized how precarious of a position we had been in. As I watched another group of climbers descend I pulled out the camera to capture the trail with the sun highlighting the pristine white snow. The moment I took this picture I still couldn’t fully comprehend what we had just done to be standing at the top of a mountain overlooking Bolivia.
GREEN
Banaue Rice Terraces commonly referred to by the Filipinos as “The Eighth Wonder of the World”
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Erica & Matt Chua: PIctures that Capture the Color
By John Y. Brown III, on Mon Nov 11, 2013 at 12:00 PM ET When something you think is interesting isn’t really interesting to someone who tells you it is interesting. (Or things I learned today that I wasn’t expecting to learn)
Today I realized that when you explain what you believe is a uniquely clever and impressive insight and then eagerly wait for the response and your listener responds with only “That is very interesting. I had never thought about it that way before” the listener doesn’t really literally mean he thinks your supposed clever comment is, in fact, interesting.
He also doesn’t regret not having “thought of it that way before.” That is just a polite way to dismiss your imagined clever comment in the same way someone might say to you after you describe what you believe is a unique meal you just ate by saying, “I’d never thought about eating four day old succotash with sardines and ice cream before. That is very interesting.”
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An unhealthy desire to be affiliated with the Ivy League.
When you learn there is a Yale hospital when you are 50 years old and your first thought is “I wonder if I get sick if I could get in?”
And your next thought is, “I bet I could. Finally, a way into the Ivy League for me.”
But when your third thought is to post about it on Facebook, you are reminded that not everyone was meant for the Ivy League. Including you.
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What will happen next?
A friend who is concerned about our nation’s political stand-off and assumes I know a great deal more about politics than I do asked me if I thought things “Would get better soon?”
I wasn’t going to fully answer at first ….but after giving it more thought, will share what will happen.
Yes, it will get better. Only a little at first…but then, in due time, it will getnoticeably better.
Then it will get worse again.
And then after a short while things will briefly improve again –and then get much worse.
Then things will get really, really good. I mean awesome. Just… fantastic.
But then when we are starting to get used to really, really good times, it will all of a sudden get really, really, really, really bad. It will not be as bad as some will be saying but will be seriously bad for awhile. I don’t know the exact date when this really bad part will start….but trust me on this. Bad.
And then it will get better. Not good, mind you. Just better but it will seem like it got good because things will have been bad for so long.
They will stay that way for awhile and then really will get good. But just barely .
Then bad again. And then pretty good again and then very good.
And then we will die.
But stuff will keep getting good and bad; better and worse. But the specifics, to me anyway, start to get murky at this point.
Hope this helps.
By RP Nation, on Mon Nov 11, 2013 at 10:00 AM ET
 10-28: There comes a time when you realize you have a sickness. Most girls spend $20 on a new shirt. I bought a turkey.
Yes, a month before Thanksgiving every year, I get so excited that I can’t wait…and I buy a turkey. And I stuff it, and smother it, and baste it, and love on it, and eat the crap out of it until I pass out from Turkey Coma.
Yes, I could get a new shirt, but I bought a bird. Sickness? Nah. Priorities…
 10-29: I may or may not have tried on some of those old pageant dresses last night and finished carving the turkey in one…I figured I should dress for the occasion when I’m cracking and boiling bones. I used my ex for added inspiration when it came to hacking at it with the cleaver – great stress relief. Don’t get this confused – I do not wish to hack him up – but boy is it fun taking undistributed hostility out on turkey bones, while wearing a full-length gown, with opera music playing in the background. If you find yourself doubting the credibility here, I promise you: I can’t make this stuff up on my best day. This is full-on, unadulterated truth as I live and breathe it. Seriously though, this exercise to preserve mental fortitude comes highly recommended. I went to bed accomplished, slept like a baby, and woke up wanting to seize the day instead of attacking it. Thank you, turkey bird.
10-30: It has been brought to my attention that the creativity with which I crafted my previous post makes me look like a mixture of Carrie and Kathy Bates in Misery. Apparently, my pseudo-psychopathic depiction got so much traction, it was shared multiple times, by multiple people outside our company. Might I remind you, Kathy Bates won an Oscar for Best Actress, Sissy Spacek garnered the nomination, respectively, for portraying those maniacs.
My self-indulgent FB Acceptance Speech: Thank you to all the adorably-dense gossip addicts. I’m so humbled you have the time and energy to worry with little ‘ole me. If you ever desire to walk a mile in each other’s shoes, I warmly welcome you to enjoy the perspective that it’s okay to be yourself – and really fun to freak people out while doing so. De-stressing by roasting a turkey, being resourceful by chopping up it’s bones for stock, all while dressed in a gorgeous gown you still fit into a decade later is sheer bliss. I’ll wear your shoes and walk around all pent up and miserable, whispering passive-aggressive quips as some kind of elitist overcompensation mechanism. I’ll purse my lips and scowl with that trademark pinched look on my face. I’ll trade so you can experience true and simple joy, never to fear your reflection in the mirror, so you can feel the freedom of being you, loving you – crazy and all, and of course dancing barefoot – because I don’t even like shoes. So c’mon. Walk in mine, put your feet up and relax those pinched butt cheeks of yours. Otherwise, grab some popcorn and enjoy the show. (Exiting Stage Left before the pig blood gets dumped on my head)
By Saul Kaplan, on Mon Nov 11, 2013 at 8:30 AM ET You probably haven’t heard of Richard LaMotta but I bet you have heard of and enjoyed his innovation, the Chipwich ice cream sandwich. I rank the Chipwich right up there on my list of all-time favorite innovations along with Guttenberg’s printing press and Apple’s iPhone. Like most great innovations the Chipwich didn’t require inventing anything new, just recombining existing elements in a new way to deliver value. What could deliver more value than sandwiching soft vanilla ice cream between two, large chocolate chip cookies? As if that isn’t innovative enough add in the piece de resistance, rolling the whole thing in chocolate chips! Now that’s innovation. LaMotta died last week and his classic entrepreneur story is worth remembering and celebrating.
LaMotta was ahead of his time in 1982 when he deployed unheard of guerilla marketing tactics to take the idea for Chipwich from a retail confectionary store called The Sweet Tooth in Englewood, New Jersey to selling 200,000 per day across the country at its peak. The name Chipwich came from an early crowd sourcing effort when LaMotta held a contest offering a year’s supply of the product to the winning contributor. A student from New Jersey came up with the winning name and was rewarded not only with a year’s supply of the tasty treat but also put through college by the company for her contribution.
 LaMotta had a vision to take the Chipwich national but was told by marketing “experts” that it would take $50M in working capital that the company didn’t have. No worries, LaMotta took the campaign to the streets of Manhattan, literally, deploying street cart vendors complete with identifiable pith helmets and khaki pants. They created an innovative sales channel without the help of the experts establishing a new product category for premium handheld ice cream and an attractive new price point breaking the $1 barrier. Prior to Chipwich hand held ice cream products were low quality and low cost. Vendors consistently sold out of Chipwiches and the price point continued to move up. Fortune 100 food giants approached LaMotta to use the carts as a trial medium for their own products.
Chipwich went viral without the help of today’s social media platforms. Imagine the tweets. Chipwich received an estimated $50 million of earned advertising exposure receiving thousands of free endorsements. Mayor Koch even posed for a publicity photo, for no fee, as he took a big bite of a Chipwich. It was an attractive David vs Goliath story that the press ate up. LaMotta says he gained 30 pounds just doing free media interviews.
LaMotta learned the many hard lessons of entrepreneurship along the way, twice filing for and then emerging from bankruptcy, as the knockoffs came fast and furious. He also learned first hand what happens when an entrepreneur mixes it up with the world of large corporations. LaMotta laments what he called large corporate “analysis to paralysis” syndrome and cautioned aspiring entrepreneurs about the importance of non-disclosure agreements. In 2002 with a nationally recognized brand, more than a billion Chipwiches sold, and 3700 vendors in 36 markets, he sold the company to Coolbrands International, a Canadian distributor, who also owned the Eskimo Pies brand. Coolbrands then in turn sold both brands to Dreyer’s, a subsidiary of Nestle, who discontinued making the Chipwich because they already had another brand in the category. Like most entrepreneurs LaMotta struggled with losing control of his baby.
LaMatta was a classic entrepreneur who never quit. He said it best, “I got out there, I went for it, and persevered through the rough times.” He did indeed. Chipwich is a great innovation story. Rest in delicious peace, Richard LaMatta.
By John Y. Brown III, on Fri Nov 8, 2013 at 12:00 PM ET
Some people take sleep for granted. Like something that just happens naturally without thinking about it and without effort.
That’s not the case for everyone and advice to us about fluffing up our pillow, no caffeine after 4pm, not eating late and no watching TV in bed, isn’t very helpful. For one thing, we never make it to bed in the first place to not watch TV or fluff up our pillow. But thanks anyway.
That kind of advice, to a true insomniac, is akin to trying to house train a dog by explaining to the dog there is a restroom right next to their pen and to just use it as needed. But remember to put the seat back down when finished.
It’s just not in the cards for us. Or the dog.
And so as you wake up “bright and early” and are ready to greet the day with enthusiasm and see a colleague who looks like he is moving underwater and would have trouble following a multi-sentence conversation with The Dude from The Big Lewbowski, just look at him and smile to yourself and remember that if your friend were a dog you wouldn’t get mad at him for not putting the toilet seat back down in the restroom.
In other words, no advice, please. Just cut us a little slack.
And try not to be overly-chipper.
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Do you see what happened there? Once one person did it, everyone else knew it was possible. You think that you are the only person in the world sitting there at your computer, reading this article with 50, 60, 70, 100 pounds to lose. The reality of it is people are doing it every day and so can you! All you have to do is believe.
