I went to a Toastmasters meeting organized around business and technology people.
I love both, especially the 1st, and the 2nd to the degree technology can solve people’s problems and allow them to profit personally, professionally, or financially.
For example this blog is technology. I first puzzled out my life-and-attitude-altering written statement on a word processor, and I’m listening to free streaming trance music as I type.
Never was there a century with more opportunity, more change, more chances to love at a distance (Jacqui) and to bridge that distance spiritually and in person.
The young entrepreneur- business owner- president of the Toastmasters club paid me a huge compliment at the end by saying he thought I would fit in there. He referred me to an experienced Toastmaster who is a member of a club which meets once a month for a meeting about humour!
(Just awesome — now I can join 2 clubs and still have time to complete education I want at my own pace, work passionately for the right company when I find it, driving their profitable client acquisition growth, and… this is where it gets truly exciting… asking me if I might want to talk over some business ideas with him.)
Of course, I was honoured and I’d love to. I think this might be one of the 2 clubs I’ll join. I’m waiting to hear back from an email I sent.
The other Toastmasters clubs are awesome. Unfortunately, I only have so much time and must be forthright with myself about that. Some of my biggest interests are business and humour… and I want improvement in both.
Speaking of which, I spoke again today, near the beginning of the meeting! My 1:30 second table topic speech, with 20 seconds over, was on the question, “Does money motivate people?”
I gave a speech and since it was impromptu, I wouldn’t be entirely right in saying I remember what I said.
The gist of it was yes, it does motivate, but it’s only one of many things and for most people, is not the main motivator. Family, expressiveness, pleasure, companionship, moral values, immoral values, ideas… these are the things that motivate people and only a small percentage of the population is motivated to earn big money, anyway.
You have to have a reason to want the money for the effort required to earn more than your immediate needs. This inspires more than a desire for fancy paper printed with the faces of assorted deceased notables.
Hence all the above plus money, yes.
If money was the main motivator, well… there wouldn’t be a lot of use for bridge clubs. Or for that matter (completely different motivations at stake)… night clubs.
On the subject of motivation, my thought is this.
It’s a 2-edged sword.
Everyone says they want more motivation, but do they? Should they?
Here’s the thing.
If a person without thinking it through properly possesses unhealthy goals and a negative attitude as their dominating thoughts whatever their stated thoughts, and they become more motivated… you can see what problems that can lead to.
The reverse of that is you have a positive, clear vision of something really worthwhile… whether that’s your wealth or better yet what you intend to do with your wealth, a change you want to make in the world, an example you want to set (think Amelia Earhardt who wanted to have adventures and prove women can be as brave as men), or some other aspect of people’s noble motives combined with a positive mental attitude…
… well, motivation fueled into that purpose is what blazes a trail forward in any person’s life. We all feel it from time to time. The hidden key I only recently discovered to my delight and benefit is how to persistently reflect on your purpose. There is a way. Some people do it naturally and it can also be learned.
Persistently.
I’m not talking about being persistent in pursuit of your goal. You won’t be if you let other lesser things take its place as the cares of the world or the distractions of pleasure take over your thoughts.
I mean persistently reinforcing your most important thought, your purpose, your desire, until it’s a burning obsession… then keeping the oxygen on it.
If you care about this, I suggest you read my business website carefully… carefully… because I outline it there and reveal resources you can use to learn more and understand it fully. However, I plan on pulling the plug on that business site once it has helped me accomplish my next major business goal.
So if you get there and it’s either not working or it redirects to another site (where I’m now working), and you’re really wanting to understand how to persistently stoke your purpose in life to the point where you find yourself clouding out all your old self-doubts and replacing them with the finest parts of your nature… the parts you’re only used to seeing once in a while “by chance”… if you’re serious about that… then you can write to me at my contact link at the top of this page above the website header and I’ll point you toward some people smarter than myself who, in a very nuts and bolts almost scientific way (backed up by actual science!) know how you can do it.
Top athletes do it. Matthew McConaughey does it. You can too.
Today was a good day.
I woke up and started on my 10 daily next actions, including exercise, eating healthy, saying aloud my statement of purpose, visualizing it, and both reading and listening to specialized useful material.
It got better.
Because I had prepared for it, I went into my first sales opportunity job interview of the day and it went well. Hands down. It was a wonderful conversation for both of us and I’ll say no more at this point.
Walking back to my car, I saw a B2B technology company’s office, rang the buzzer, and made a cold call. The VP of Business Development was not in, but I did leave a note on the back of my business card. I will follow through on my promise to contact him on Friday. I’ll do it by letter because he works from home.
Driving to my 2nd appointment, I was listening to Dale Carnegie’s classic book How to Win Friends and Influence People.
It’s such an amazing book. I have violated every principle in it more than any man who has ever lived, except perhaps for Benjamin Franklin. He used to be very argumentative and undiplomatic with people, and went on to be one of the most persuasive, effective communicators in history. This despite the fact he was not a gifted speaker.
I’ve been learning.
For example, I was writing down names of people in my journal shortly after meeting them because a person’s name is important. People are important and worth remembering.
My 2nd interview was for a more junior position. The person interviewing me said it usually lasts 5 minutes and then, “Why don’t you try it out?”
In my case, it was 90 minutes of back and forth ideas, brainstorming, stories, and we both walked out of the office and out the parking lot together in total rapport. The manager is thinking about creating a new position for me because he sees some of the big picture possibilities of our thinking — in my case, new thinking, frankly — and yet my nuts and bolts methods for actioning them.
I’ve had skills for a while, but I didn’t have a great ability to control my mind and emotions in a lasting way. Now I do since I found a set of education and training I learned for which I’m eternally grateful. What a difference.
I have total calmness because I fully understand if one opportunity doesn’t pan out for me, I will uncover 3 others.
In fact, people who’ve seen my website, email, brochure, etc… haven’t seen my marketing plan. They think they have maybe. But not really, not fully. The most powerful part of it hasn’t been unleashed yet because I simply don’t have time.
I’ve been making great contacts with the lower levels of the plan, and the admittedly higher touch networking. For example, and I really do want to serve my community… I decided to be a better person, I would join a service club.
So I recently sent emails to 3 service clubs, and the President of one and his Membership VP both want to talk with me about selling opportunities.And I haven’t even met them in person yet.
The club President in particular represents a well-known company whose top representatives earn in the half million range, I am sure.
But… the company I met with this morning looks so exciting, with such growth potential, I wouldn’t jump on such an opportunity as above without deep thought.
In fact, tomorrow I have another interview with an agent sales department of a Fortune 100 company. Average earnings are about $50k/year with the top 25% of sales reps earning $80k an up.
And that’s awesome. It could be a long term career and I intend that it will be if I start. I’m incredibly excited by the thought.
So I have options and I will explore them carefully. And when I act, I will act with lightning speed. “Ready, Fire, Aim.”
I sent a handwritten appointment confirmation letter to one prospect, an emailed one to another, thank you cards to the people I met with today, emails to 2 people from the Toastmasters meeting, a personal email to the first person I met with today on the subject of one of her personal passions because by “chance” I met someone who might maybe have a way for her to do what she does better.
And that chance occurred because I was there and struck up a conversation with that person! For no other reason.
And isn’t that what business should be about? Helping people.
Back to my table topic speech evaluation. The evaluator said:
- Good opening
- Good eye contact
… and he also said I should:
- move around more because by coming forward, I include the audience in what I’m saying
I take that as a great improvement because I moved beyond the lecturn in my speech whereas on Monday I was “locked” behind it! Also, I left my pen behind and did not grasp it to distract people.
Yet my speech wasn’t near the best.
There were wonderful speeches about an Italian architect with revolutionary luxury futuristic environmentally friendly skyscraper designs; eliminating procrastination, having more joy through planning, and building life-changing self-confidence; and even some mathematically intensive and fascinating technical understanding of public-private key encryption.
That last one was better than it sounds, at least if you like to grasp how things work so you can explain the benefits in plain hard hitting language.
Toastmasters is an outstanding organization. You should come out as a guest sometime if you don’t already do so. And yep, you can keep your religion and politics out of it. It’s all about learning how to speak well, listen well, and gain the benefits of (personal and wider) leadership.
Filed under: Business, Christoph, Health, Success, Technology, Toastmasters
In my early-20s I had this acronym tattooed on my left forearm in my own handwriting designed to look like a quick note I jotted down in pen.
Whether this was a good idea or not is an open question, but I’ve often had people ask me if it was a tattoo or pen so effect achieved.
It’s a question I like to ask myself from time to time. While not very exciting, I keep its meaning to myself. My mom was outraged for months that I refused to tell her what it means. She really didn’t like that and because I’m cruel, I didn’t tell her.
No, really I love her greatly, but I can be a very private person, which you may not guess from this site.
I’ve had friends and several ex-girlfriends ask what it means and I’ve never told them. Some were very curious and, admittedly, their curiousity never bothered me in the least. One friend of mine, Nicole, who is just a genius whiz at times looked at it for two seconds and guessed instantly. She’s the only one to ever do this in more than a decade.
Jacqui has asked for two years what it means and of course I haven’t told her. I said, as I’ve said to other women before her, that if we get married (huge if), I will tell her the day before we get married.
Naturally, she’s been incessantly badgering me to tell her and I’ve declined.
Tonight, she asked me to show it to her over web camera and to tell her what it means. I told her no and she asked me to tell her when we meet for the first time at Perth Airport on January 7th. This time I smiled and said, “Yes, I’ll tell you because I love you more than any other woman I have ever known.”
Filed under: Bear, Christoph, Health
I ordered 4-bottles of desiccated liver powder from Bodybuilding.com over 30-days ago.
I haven’t got them. (On the plus side, I had liver and onions for supper along with an orange to enhance heme iron absorption and it was so yummy… the key is to sautée the onions in olive oil on extremely low heat for 45-minutes to an hour and cook the liver fast, but not too much, on only medium-high to medium heat with the liver either cut into half-inch strips or if whole with 1/8th-inch cuts at one-inch intervals all around the outside edge to help keep it from curling.)
This was the email complaint I wrote to Tommy Zarate, their Customer Service Manager in response to his ‘Happy Go Lucky’ how are you enjoying your product[?] email to me:
Subject: Re: Bodybuilding.com - About Your Order #2279081.
From: C. Dollis
Date: 9/30/06 11:44 AM
To: service@bodybuilding.com
CC: webmaster@bodybuilding.com
Dear Tommy,
While Canada Customs is beyond your control, the poor communication and internal automatic sales and shipping confirmation communications within your company isn’t.
That’s been a disaster… and has created ill will in someone who went into this being a big fan of Bodybuilding.com.
Also, I’ve never had a problem ordering online before. I was shocked my first such “problem” would come a day after ordering from your company.
The fact is, while I intend on still collecting it at some point, I’ve mentally written off the $42.15 I’ve spent with your company and I do not expect to see it or my product again, at least not within the forseeable future.
The reason I don’t expect to see it is because of the inconsistent communication I’ve received from your company.
My one saving grace in my mind is that, I acknowledge, your website is a no-nonsense bodybuilding and fitness source of information second to none and a source of valid health information.
The communication faux pas from your company were as follows:
Sending me an email after I ordered saying that all 4-bottles of NOW Liver Powder were shipped from Idaho.
Sending me another email the next day saying that all 4-bottles were on backorder.
When I emailed webmaster@bodybuilding.com cc: service@bodybuilding.com to ask the very logical question, how can an item be simultaneously “shipped” AND on backorder, I received no reply.
Nonetheless, you sent me another email saying the order was shipped from Florida the following day.
Alas, it never arrived.
So I called customer service, spoke with Definition Danielle, asked whether it was a problem with Canada Customs, explained that I had left detailed special instructions with my order to ONLY ship it if you knew for a fact that this product, a beef blood product, would clear customs. She checked her systems, came back and said that yes, this particular product would get through customs no problem. Further, it is my recollection she said that the *warehouse* couldn’t see my special instructions. This seemed strange to me. Anyway.
During this period I received an encouraging email whose subject line said “Bodybuilding.com Order Delivered.” I have received similar notification emails from other online retailers who send it out when their records show a package has reached its destination so I was buoyed.
Alas, my order wasn’t delivered — it was a sales letter.
I like sales letters; I write them. But the headlines have to not just get them read, but also not be patently false and instantly turn the reader off in a huge way. By this standard, your company’s “headline” was a failure.
Danielle said that I would receive an email notification when the order was shipped, I didn’t get one, so I sent you a fax to the fax number that had been included on one of your emails to me. I chose fax because previously my email to [sic] wasn’t replied to. I just asked someone to follow through on your company’s commitment and verify that you had shipped the replacement second order. My fax was not responded to too.
So I called Danielle and she verified that it was sent. She is very pleasant by the way.
Today I realize that despite Danielle saying I should have it by now, I don’t. I received an email from you with a **MUCH BETTER** subject line: “Bodybuilding.com - About Your Order #2279081,” and it invited me to join your forum. That was welcome.
So I called, spoke with another customer service agent, she transferred me to you and you reiterated that you would not offer a refund until you get your product back… a product that I have no idea where it is so I guess I must wait. Maybe I’ll see the product or my money, but am not optimistic. You also told me (I suspect accurately because you would know this, I hope) that the warehouse sees special instructions, not customer service.
I’m just hoping SOMEONE sees them. Your system that issues a receipt should ALSO copy the special instructions back to the customer, as almost everyone else’s online ordering systems do.
So now I wait a month, which you said was a, “…good plan,” and I’ll call you back when it doesn’t arrive, which it won’t, and I’ll ask for my refund again. If it doesn’t come, I guess I’m left with the fact that AT LEAST your website provided me some great info. At a cost of $42.15.
Kind regards,
Christoph
Hopefully they are able to resolve my issues with their company at that time, or I may need to pull out the big guns and send them this follow-on email:
Subject: My Complaint About Bodybuilding.com
From: C. Dollis
Date: One Month Hence
To: service@bodybuilding.com
CC: webmaster@bodybuilding.com
Dear Tommy,
People generally have strong views about Bodybuilding.com. Although not without overlap and simplification, I plan to identify three primary positions on Bodybuilding.com’s Ponzi schemes. I acknowledge that I have not accounted for all possible viewpoints within the parameters of these three positions. Nevertheless, an armed revolt against Bodybuilding.com is morally justified. However, I claim that it is not yet strategically justified. The portents indicate that, one day, Bodybuilding.com will lower our standard of living. It is no more complicated than that.
Ugly denominationalism is a disgrace to humanity, but it cannot be eliminated by moral lectures or by pious intentions. No, it can be eradicated only if we analyze Bodybuilding.com’s squibs in the manner of sociological studies of mass communication and persuasion. I don’t know when immoralism became chic, but if anarchism were an Olympic sport, Bodybuilding.com would clinch the gold medal. What I just wrote is not based on merely a single experience or anecdote. Rather, it is based upon the wisdom of accumulated years, spanning two continents, and proven by the fact that I plan to counteract the subtle, but pervasive, social message that says that censorship could benefit us. Are you with me — or against me? Whatever you decide, Bodybuilding.com’s emissaries are unified under a common goal. That goal is to have more impact on Earth’s biological, geological, and chemical systems during our lifetime and our children’s than all preceding human generations had together. Bodybuilding.com may not be dissolute, but it sure is flippant.
Once you understand Bodybuilding.com’s cop-outs, you have a responsibility to do something about them. To know, to understand, and not to act, is an egregious sin of omission. It is the sin of silence. It is the sin of letting Bodybuilding.com use lethal violence as a source of humor.
Bodybuilding.com’s words have kept us separated for too long from the love, contributions, and challenges of our brothers and sisters in this wonderful adventure we share together — life! Bodybuilding.com’s morally questionable, jaundiced paroxysms leave the current power structure untouched while simultaneously killing countless children through starvation and disease. Are these children its enemies? To help answer that question I will offer a single anecdote. A few weeks ago, I overheard some wily persona non grata tell everyone who passed by that Bodybuilding.com has a duty to conceal the facts and lie to the rest of us, under oath if necessary, perjuring itself to help disseminate the True Faith of philistinism. Astounded, I asked this person if he realized that Bodybuilding.com neglects the impact that selfishness has on the soul. Not only was his answer “no” but it was also news to him that I’ve repeatedly pointed out to Bodybuilding.com that it is not at all apologetic for the harm its compeers have caused. That apparently didn’t register with it, though. Oh, well; I guess those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Of course, if Bodybuilding.com had learned anything from history, it’d know that to believe that its notions are all sweetness and light is to deceive ourselves.
Plainly stated, if I had my druthers, Bodybuilding.com would never have had the opportunity to use organized violence to suppress opposition. As it stands, it is pointless to fret about the damage already caused by Bodybuilding.com’s tendentious perversions. The past cannot be changed. We must cope with the present if we hope to affect our future and tell you a little bit about Bodybuilding.com and its boisterous philippics. Admittedly, in this volatile political moment, we must cautiously guard against the dangers of reckless gangsterism. But that’s because the baneful nature of Bodybuilding.com’s editorials is not just a rumor. It is a fact to which I can testify.
I, not being one of the many lazy marauders of this world, have a dream, a mission, a set path that I would like to travel down. Specifically, my goal is to reverse the devolutionary course Bodybuilding.com has set for us. Of course, the first thing we need to do is to get it to admit that it has a problem. Bodybuilding.com should be counseled to recite the following:
- I, Bodybuilding.com, am a lecherous power broker.
- I have been a participant in a giant scheme to alter, rewrite, or ignore past events to make them consistent with Bodybuilding.com’s current “reality”.
- I hereby admit my addiction to sexism. I ask for the strength and wisdom to fight this addiction.
Once Bodybuilding.com realizes that it has a problem, maybe then it’ll see that the unalterable law of biology has a corollary that is generally overlooked. Specifically, its demands should be labeled like a pack of cigarettes. I’m thinking of something along the lines of, “Warning: It has been determined that Bodybuilding.com’s ballyhoos are intended to hijack the word ‘anthropoteleological’ and use it to feed information from sources inside the government to organizations with particularly feeble-minded agendas.” Bodybuilding.com should work with us, not step in at the eleventh hour and hog all the glory. Is there anyone else out there who’s noticed that we will need to use diverse skills and tactics if we are to unmask Bodybuilding.com’s true face and intentions in regard to antiheroism? I ask because I find that I am embarrassed. Embarrassed that some people just don’t realize that I wouldn’t judge its drones too harshly. They’re really just cannon fodder for Bodybuilding.com’s plot to promote a culture of dependency and failure.
Stick your nose into anything Bodybuilding.com has written recently, and you’ll get a good whiff of pudibund lexiphanicism. Bodybuilding.com wants us to believe that mumpish, demented carpers make the best scout leaders and schoolteachers. How stupid does it think we are? One might as well ask, “How can it be so picayunish?” Before you answer, let me point out that if it thinks its agendas represent progress, Bodybuilding.com should rethink its definition of progress. The idea that people want meretricious doomsday prophets of various stripes to draw unsuspecting profiteers into the orbit of sadistic louts is a fundamental misunderstanding of the human condition. Think about it, and I’m sure you’ll agree with me. By comparing today to even ten years ago and projecting the course we’re on, I’d say we’re in for an even more grumpy, pugnacious, and quixotic society, all thanks to Bodybuilding.com’s smears. Many people are incredulous when I tell them that Bodybuilding.com intends to make parasitism socially acceptable. “How could Bodybuilding.com be so prurient?”, they ask me. “It doesn’t seem possible.” Well, it is unequivocally possible, and now I’ll explain exactly how Bodybuilding.com plans to do it. But first, you need to realize that I know some detestable slaves to fashion who actually believe that bad things “just happen” (i.e., they’re not caused by Bodybuilding.com itself). Incredible? Those same people have told me that those of us who oppose it would rather run than fight. With such people roaming about, it should come as no surprise to you that honest people will admit that Bodybuilding.com conducts itself in a superciliously pompous manner. Concerned people are not afraid to rub Bodybuilding.com’s nose in its own hypocrisy. And sensible people know that Bodybuilding.com truly believes that it can override nature. It is just such longiloquent megalomania, homicidal egoism, and intellectual aberrancy that stirs Bodybuilding.com to reap a harvest of death.
Bodybuilding.com says that space aliens are out to lay eggs in our innards or ooze their alien hell-slime all over us. That’s a stupid thing to say. It’s like saying that it never engages in sex-crazed, impractical, or distasteful politics. Bodybuilding.com is not interested in what is true and what is false or in what is good and what is evil. In fact, those distinctions have no meaning to it whatsoever. The only thing that has any meaning to Bodybuilding.com is favoritism. Why? To turn that question around, why doesn’t Bodybuilding.com reveal the truth about itself? You see, Bodybuilding.com says that everyone would be a lot safer if it were to monitor all of our personal communications and financial transactions — even our library records. Why on Earth does Bodybuilding.com need to monitor our library records? Bodybuilding.com doesn’t want you to know the answer to that question; it wants to ensure you don’t give parents the means to protect their children.
Bodybuilding.com promises that if we give it and its helots additional powers, it’ll guard us from barbaric reavers. My question, however is, Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? — Who will guard the guards? Look at it from my point of view: Bodybuilding.com maintains that either it acts in the public interest or that its decisions are based on reason. Bodybuilding.com denies any other possibility. I believe it was Hegel who said, “I resent being exposed to the most shameless prophets of cameralism I’ve ever seen”.
Bodybuilding.com is reluctant to resolve problems. It always just looks the other way and hopes no one will notice that its decisions are ill-advised. As long as I live, I will be shouting this truth from rooftops and doing everything I can to scrap the entire constellation of juvenile ideas that brought us to our present point. A plan of rational reaction to Bodybuilding.com’s rejoinders is in order. That sounds really hypersensitive, but I aver that it’s an accurate assessment of the situation. I do not appreciate being labeled. No one does. Nevertheless, Bodybuilding.com’s principles have experienced a considerable amount of evolution (or perhaps more accurately, genetic drift) over the past few weeks. They used to be simply blasphemous. Now, not only are they both uncompanionable and hectoring, but they also serve as unequivocal proof that Bodybuilding.com likes thinking thoughts that aren’t burdensome and that feel good. That’s why if the people generally are relying on false information sown by lackluster quidnuncs, then correcting that situation becomes a priority for the defense of our nation. The most sobering aspect of Bodybuilding.com’s insults is that if this letter did nothing else but serve as a beacon of truth, it would be worthy of reading by all right-thinking people. However, this letter’s role is much greater than just to ensure that the values for which we have labored and for which many of us have fought and sacrificed will continue in ascendancy. If Bodybuilding.com is victorious in its quest to rob us of our lives, our health, our honor, and our belongings, then its crown will be the funeral wreath of humanity. I close this letter along the same lines it opened on: What we need from Bodybuilding.com is fewer monologues and more dialogue.
Regards,
Christoph
Filed under: Health
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