Posts Tagged ‘Abraham Lincoln’

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This is what we talked about on The Invisible Mentor Blog this week: All Fall Down by Megan Hart, Abraham Lincoln, 16th President, Led America through the Civil War and 21 Quotes to Inspire you in 2012.

Adventures in Learning

After I read All Fall Down by Megan Hart, which I will talk about tomorrow on Booked for Mentoring, while I was having a delayed reaction to the book, living fully seeped into my consciousness, and it seemed appropriate that that’s what I should be focusing on for 2012. I knew without a doubt that living fully is my guiding light for 2012. I often hold myself back and play it safe, and now is the time to step out in a very big way.

Living Fully is my Mantra for 2012

Booked for Mentoring

Sometimes when we resist things in life, we need to probe further, to see if it’s time to step out of our comfort zone. All Fall Down by Megan Hart is a novel about the Family of Superior Bliss, which is a cult, led by the charismatic zealot, John Second. Originally, the basic belief of Family of Superior Bliss was to take care of the earth and our bodies, which they call “vessels”. They did this through taking care of the environment and not consuming toxins. Along the way, the message got twisted and they lost their focus.

Booked for Mentoring – Book Review: All Fall Down by Megan Hart 

Wisdom of Life

Abraham Lincoln was born in Kentucky in the early 19th century during the time when much of America was still wilderness. Lincoln attended school for less than a year where he learned the basics in reading, writing and arithmetic – he received most of his education by reading books. Lincoln got his first look at slavery when he made flatboat trips with James Gentry’s (He owned a store which became a trading centre) son in 1828 and 1831 when they took produce down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers to New Orleans.

Wisdom of Life: Abraham Lincoln, 16th President, Led America through the Civil War 

Interviews for Mentoring

Next week we’ll return to the regular schedule with The Invisible Mentor interviews. Enjoy

12 Blog Posts People are Reading on The Invisible Mentor and 21 Quotes to Inspire you in 2012.

How can you use this information? What do you have to add to the conversation? Let’s keep the conversation flowing, please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the right hand side) by email or RSS Feed.

Wisdom for Life: “Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.” Excerpt from Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, November 19, 1863.

Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address

If you cannot view YouTube video of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address click here.

Name: Abraham Lincoln

Birth Date: February 1809 – April 1865

Job Functions: Lawyer, Politician and America’s 16^th President

Fields: Politics and Law

Known For: Leading American through the Civil War, Gettysburg Address

Abraham Lincoln was born in Kentucky in the early 19^th century during the time when much of America was still wilderness. Lincoln attended school for less than a year where he learned the basics in reading, writing and arithmetic – he received most of his education by reading books. Lincoln got his first look at slavery when he made flatboat trips with James Gentry’s (He owned a store which became a trading centre) son in 1828 and 1831 when they took produce down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers to New Orleans.

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In 1831, Lincoln moved to New Salem, Illinois where he continued his self-education, as well as work at odd jobs. He started to study law but his attention was diverted to politics. In 1832, Lincoln ran for the state legislature as a member of the Whig Party. During the campaign, the Black Hawk War erupted and Lincoln enlisted in the local militia and was elected by the volunteers to become their captain. Because he was distracted by the war, Lincoln lost his first election to the legislature, but had better luck in 1834, and was subsequently re-elected in 1836, 1838, and 1840.

Lincoln was an excellent orator, and used his skill to win the 1834 election. John Todd Stuart, the Whig Party leader of the county, and also a lawyer, was very impressed with Lincoln’s intellectual and oratory skills and decided to mentor him. Stuart suggested to Lincoln that he should study and practice law. Lincoln bought and borrowed law books, which he studied diligently, and in September 1836, he was admitted to the Illinois Bar. In 1837, Lincoln became Stuart’s law partner in Springfield, Illinois, but they dissolved the partnership in 1841, and he entered into a new partnership with Stephen T. Logan.

Once again the partnership was dissolved and Lincoln entered into another partnership with William H. Herndon. From childhood, Lincoln knew what it meant to work very hard, and as an attorney, he did the same, representing railroad companies and other businesses, and argued many cases before federal courts and the Illinois Supreme Court. And during his time practicing law, he was also involved in politics.

In 1847, Lincoln was elected to the US House of Representatives as a member of the Whig Party. While in the US House of Representatives, he opposed the Mexican War, which his constituents did not receive favourably. Lincoln’s opposition against the Mexican War, coupled with his cry to abolish slavery brought him sharp criticisms from people in Illinois. He decided not to seek re-election and worked on Zachary Taylor’s presidential campaign. When Taylor won, he did not award Lincoln with a prominent presidential appointment, so he was disillusioned and returned to build his law practice.

In 1854, Senator Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois, a Democrat and rival of Lincoln, drafted legislation which revoked the Missouri Compromise of 1820, which meant that settlers in Kansas and Nebraska could allow slavery to exist. The passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act incensed Lincoln, and many who were against slavery in the Whig and Democratic parties. Lincoln was once again steeped in politics. He decried slavery, and there was turmoil within the Whig party. In 1856, Lincoln joined others opposed to slavery from the Whig and Democratic parties, in the newly formed Republican Party. In 1858, the Republicans chose him as their candidate in the senatorial race against Douglas.

Once again, Lincoln’s oratory skills shone in what is now known as the Lincoln-Douglas debates, a series of seven brilliant debates between the two contenders. Lincoln believed that slavery was unjust and pledged loyalty to the union. It was during this time that he gave his seminal speech, “‘A house divided against itself cannot stand.’ I believe this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free.” Though the Republicans got a larger number of the popular votes, Lincoln lost the election because of the way the legislative seats in Illinois were apportioned.

Despite losing the Senate seat, Lincoln’s national reputation was bolstered by his antislavery stance. He was urged to run for the president in 1860, and in May of that year, Lincoln defeated William H. Seward for the nomination. During that same time, there was disharmony in the Democratic Party, which resulted in two candidates – John C. Brekenridge and Douglas. This split allowed Lincoln to easily win the election and was re-elected in 1864.

When Lincoln was sworn into office in March 1861, seven states had seceded from the union and formed the Confederate States of America with Jefferson Davis as their elected president. In his inaugural address, Lincoln stated that secession was anarchy, and that the union could not be legally broken apart. This posed a dilemma for Lincoln, and he sought solutions other than war, that would preserve the union. He allowed supplies to go to Fort Sumter, a Union base located in the harbour at Charleston, South Carolina, and the Confederates viewed this as an act of war. On April 12, 1861 the Confederates attacked Fort Sumter and the American Civil War began, which lasted until April 9, 1865.

Lincoln fought the Civil War to keep the Union together, not to end slavery even though he was against slavery. However, pressures of the war forced him to move toward the emancipation of slave. Lincoln had limited military experience, but as the president, he was expected to organize an army and devise a winning military strategy, so he did what he has always done well, and that was to self educate. In addition, his career as a lawyer, allowed him to analyze difficult situations, and deal with difficult people. And his political experience had schooled him in how to win a fight without creating enemies. In this tough time, Lincoln faced numerous criticisms and had a really hard time maintaining order – he faced insubordination and incompetent army generals. He also had to be flexible and often had to rethink his position on various issues.

During the Summer of 1862, Lincoln prepared an Emancipation Proclamation, following a narrow union victory in the Battle of Antietam in Maryland. He revised and re-issued the Emancipation Proclamation in January 1863. “[Lincoln] believed he was striking at the

Confederates in two ways: First, the proclamation would deny southerners their slaves, and second, it would also deny them the workforce that kept the Confederate army going. The proclamation was limited, however, affecting only those parts of the South that were in rebellion and out of the Federals’ reach.” The Emancipation Proclamation changed the purpose of the American Civil War ensuring there would be no further compromises on slavery. Lincoln lobbied Congress to adopt the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which totally abolished slavery. Congress approved a constitutional amendment banning slavery in January 1865, and its ratification lifted emancipation above court scrutiny.

In 1863, Lincoln delivered his famous Gettysburg Address at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania at the dedication of a national cemetery for soldiers who had died in the bloody conflict. “The speech summarized the tragic and human aspects of Gettysburg and distilled Lincoln’s resolve to protect the Union.” The Civil War was long and dragged on, and it was not until 1864 when Lincoln gave Major General Ulysses Simpson Grant the post of general-in-chief that the senior commander brought the war to a successful close. In 1864, the nation faced another presidential election and Lincoln was re-elected as president.

In his inaugural address in March 1865, Lincoln was willing to forgive the Southern states for their rebellion and called for a speedy end to the war and “to bind up the nation’s wounds.” On April 9, 1865, Confederate general Robert E. Lee surrendered to Union General Ulysses Simpson Grant at Appomattox, Virginia. Lincoln was preparing a new Reconstruction Plan when he was assassinated shortly after the end of the Civil War. On Good Friday, April 14, 1865 while watching a play at the Ford Theatre in Washington, DC, John Wilkes Booth shot Lincoln, who died the next day.

Abraham Lincoln lived through three major American wars: the War of 1812, the War with Mexico (1846 – 1848) and the Civil War (1861 -1865). There were other events that contributed to the bloody Civil War, in addition to Lincoln allowing supplies to go to Fort Sumter. “The lava was already bubbling at the bottom and the Civil War was the volcano erupting.” For instance, in 1850, the US Congress drafted the Compromise of 1850, which came out of discussions on the issues of slavery. One concession to the southern whites was an enactment of the Fugitive Slave Act was designed to make it easier to recapture slaves who had ran away. The passing of the Fugitive Slave Act angered many Northerners.

Harriet Beecher Stowe (see her Profile in Wisdom), an abolitionist, responded to the Fugitive Slave Act by writing her famous book Uncle Tom’s Cabin, which originally came out in serial form from June 5, 1851 to April 1, 1852. The first printing of 5,000 copies of the book sold out in two days. During the first 5 years of its publication, Uncle Tom’s Cabin sold half a million copies in America and two million copies in ten years.

Beecher Stowe and her son Charles Stowe visited President Abraham Lincoln at the White House in November 1862, and according to Charles, Lincoln said to his mother, “So this is the little woman who wrote the book that made this big war.” The book President Lincoln was referring to is Uncle Tom’s Cabin and the big war was the Civil War.

Abraham Lincoln’s Steps to Success

• Self education lasted throughout his life.
• Worked very hard.
• Was flexible and willing to change his point of view.
• Excellent oratory skills and a great debater.
• Stood up for what he believed in.
• Had the unique ability to analyze difficult situations, as well as deal with difficult people.

Why Abraham Lincoln’s Contribution Matters

Abraham Lincoln stood up for what he believed in, and took action.

Pearls of Wisdom from Abraham Lincoln

• Self-education is a lifelong activity.
• Take the time to understand the situation so that you can make an informed decision.

Interesting Tidbit about Abraham Lincoln

“It has been claimed, [that Abraham Lincoln] was influenced in his decision to free the slaves by Spiritualist experiences. Immediately after his election to the presidency, an article was published in the Cleveland Plaindealer based on statements of medium J. B. Conklin, who identified Lincoln as a sympathizer with Spiritualism.”

Please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the right hand side) by email or RSS Feed.

Works Referenced/Cited

Americans at War 1816 – 1900

Encyclopedia of World Biography

UXL Encyclopedia of World Biography

West’s Encyclopedia of American Law

International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences

Encyclopedia of Occultism & Parapsychology

Encyclopedia of the American Constitution

American Civil War Reference Library

Video Credit: Uploaded by cparsons2005 on Mar 20, 2008

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This is what we talked about on The Invisible Mentor Blog this week: DIY Mentoring Program, the most impactful book for 2011, and Annemie Ress, Senior HRD eBay & Global Engagement Lead at eBay.

Mondays at the Salon

This is a series of posts on how to create your own mentoring program. In the first instalment, we looked at how to determine your mentoring needs, and in this episode we will take a look at a variety of mentoring models. To create your personalized mentoring program, you have to understand your needs and you also need to know what your options are. While you are learning about the various mentoring models, make note of the ones that would work in your situation.

Adventures in Learning: DIY Mentoring Program, Episode Two 

Booked on Tuesdays

I have read a lot of really good books this year, and because I am at active reader, I always learn at least one thing from the books that I read. This is the time of year when you find the various lists for the best books of the year. I already gave you the list of some of the books that I have thoroughly enjoyed. But, I have also been thinking about which book was most impactful and practical for me.

Booked on Tuesdays: Musings of a Book Addict – and the Most Impactful Book for 2011 Is…. 

Wisdom Wednesdays

A highlight in young Charles Stowe’s life was when he accompanied his mother Harriet Beecher Stowe to the White House to meet President Abraham Lincoln in November 1862. According to Charles, Abraham Lincoln said to his mother, “So this is the little woman who wrote the book that made this big war.” The book President Lincoln was referring to is Uncle Tom’s Cabin and the war was the American Civil War which broke out in 1861 between proslavery Southern states and antislavery Northern states and lasted until 1865. Though Beecher Stowe was a prolific writer, penning about 30 novels, Uncle Tom’s Cabin was her most widely acclaimed book.

Women of Wisdom: Harriet Beecher Stowe, Abolitionist and Author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin 

Perspective Thursdays and Workshop Fridays

This week we featured Annemie Ress, Senior HRD eBay & Global Engagement Lead at eBay. Ress shares many nuggets of wisdom with us, and her greatest accomplishment would be to be able to always live in the here and now. Here are Part One and Part Two of Annemie Ress’ interview.

How can you use this information? What do you have to add to the conversation? Let’s keep the conversation flowing, please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the right hand side) by email or RSS Feed.

Book link is an affiliate link.

Related articles

• Women of Wisdom: Harriet Beecher Stowe, Abolitionist and Author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin (theinvisiblementor.com)
• The Chief Mentoring Officer Interviews Annemie Ress, Senior HRD eBay & Global Engagement Lead at eBay (theinvisiblementor.com)
• Booked on Tuesdays: Musings of a Book Addict – and the Most Impactful Book for 2011 Is…. (theinvisiblementor.com)
• The Chief Mentoring Officer Interviews Annemie Ress, Senior HRD eBay & Global Engagement Lead at eBay, Part Two (theinvisiblementor.com)
• Adventures in Learning: DIY Mentoring Program, Episode Two (theinvisiblementor.com)

A highlight in young Charles Stowe’s life was when he accompanied his mother Harriet Beecher Stowe to the White House to meet President Abraham Lincoln in November 1862. According to Charles, Abraham Lincoln said to his mother, “So this is the little woman who wrote the book that made this big war.” The book President Lincoln was referring to is Uncle Tom’s Cabin and the war was the American Civil War which broke out in 1861 between proslavery Southern states and antislavery Northern states and lasted until 1865. Though Beecher Stowe was a prolific writer, penning about 30 novels, Uncle Tom’s Cabinwas her most widely acclaimed book.

Name: Harriet Beecher Stowe

Birth Date: June 1811 – July 1896

Job Functions: Author

Fields: Literature

Known For: Uncle Tom’s Cabin

Harriet Beecher was born in Litchfield, Connecticut, the seventh of 13 children. While she was growing up, she enjoyed reading, and one of her favourite books was Magnolia by Cotton Mather. When she was almost 12 years old, she wrote an essay, “Can the Immortality of the Soul be Proved by the Light of Nature,” which was read aloud. A big topic for a preteen.

Her father, Lyman Beecher, a Puritan minister, was an abolitionist and always told his children that slavery was a sin. The Beecher family moved to Cincinnati in 1832 because Lyman Beecher accepted a position as president of Lane Theological Seminary. While living in Cincinnati, Beecher Stowe got the opportunity to visit a plantation in Kentucky to observe first hand how the slave system operated there.

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Stowe had several children with her husband, Calvin Ellis Stowe, a professor of literature. Her husband and sister knew her capabilities as a writer so they encouraged her to write to supplement the family’s meagre income, and not just write to become a better writer. At the time, Beecher Stowe was a published writer, with pieces appearing in Western Monthly Magazine, Harper’s and The Boston Miscellany. Her husband was quite impressed with The Mayflower, which was a collection of short pieces published in Harper’s.

In 1850, the US Congress drafted the Compromise of 1850, which came out of discussions on the issues of slavery. One concession to the southern whites was an enactment of the Fugitive Slave Act designed to make it easier to recapture slaves who had ran away. The passing of the Fugitive Slave Act angered many Northerners. Isabella Jones Beecher, Beecher Stowe’s sister-in-law was very indignant and incensed by the Compromise, which prompted her to write Harriet.

“Hattie, if I could use a pen as you can, I would write something to make the whole nation feel what an accursed thing slavery is.”

Harriet responded, “I will write something. I will if I live.”

And this was the genesis of Uncle Tom’s Cabin.

Uncle Tom’s Cabin first appeared serialized in the anti-slavery journal National Era, a publication edited by Dr. Gamaliel Bailey, which came out of Washington D.C. Beecher Stowe was contracted to write 40 instalments which ran from June 5, 1851 to April 1, 1852. The instalments were so well-received that publisher John P. Jewett agreed to publish the serial in book form. Uncle Tom’s Cabin came out in two volumes shortly before the final instalment of the series was published, and Beecher Stowe was promised 10 percent royalty on all sales.

The first printing of 5,000 copies of the book was sold out in two days. In the first year, 300,000 copies were sold in the US and another 200,000 in Britain. There were several dramatizations of the story which aided in the sale of the book. In four months, Beecher Stowe received $10,000 in royalty, a respectable sum in 1852. And during the first 5 years of its publication, Uncle Tom’s Cabin sold half a million copies in America and two million copies in ten years.

In Books That Changed the World, author Andrew Taylor wrote, “Uncle Tom’s Cabin, or Life Among the Lowly gives an uncompromising insight into the appalling cruelty of slavery in the mid-19^th century, through the intertwining stories of several African American slaves in the South who are bought, sold, beaten and killed.”

Beecher Stowe became world famous at the blink of an eye. Literary giants such as Henry W. Longfellow and John Greenleaf Whittier congratulated Beecher Stowe. In 1856, she and her husband visited England where they got the opportunity to meet Queen Victoria, Charles Dickens, Lord Palmerston, George Eliot and Oliver Wendell Holmes. While in England she also met Lady Byron (1792 – 1860) and Lord Byron (1788 – 1824), who were separated, and the parents of Ada Lovelace (1815 – 1852), the first computer programmer. Lady Byron was committed to the abolition of slavery, and prior to her death, she shared her story about Lord Byron’s incestuous relationship with his half-sister Augusta Leigh.

Not everyone was delighted with Stowe’s Uncle Tom Cabin. The Southerners did not like the way they were portrayed. And some believed that Stowe was too critical of the Christian Church. Beecher Stowe responded to the criticisms by writing A Key to Uncle Tom’s Cabin which documented the facts of her novel. And in 1856, Beecher Stowe wrote a slave novel, Dred: A Tale of the Great Dismal Swamp.

Uncle Tom Cabin made Beecher Stowe a wealthy woman, and for the most part it didn’t change her. In 1864, she and her husband built an expensive house in Hartford, which they sold in 1873. They bought a smaller house next door to Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain).

In 1869, Beecher Stowe published “The True Story of Lady Byron’s Life,” in the Atlantic Monthly, which was in response to Lord Byron’s last mistress Countess Guiccioli’s book, which ostracized Lady Byron. Of course Beecher Stowe’s article created a furor in England, and she followed up with Lady Byron Vindicated, which was published in 1870. Lord Byron had been loved deeply in England, so Beecher Stowe alienated some of her followers when she made public what Lady Byron had told her.

Beecher Stowe penned just over 30 books, but even though many of them did quite well, none reached the critical acclaim that Uncle Tom’s Cabin experienced. In 1889, she helped her son Charles Edward Stowe to collect her papers to publish her biography, The Life of Harriet Beecher Stowe.In my opinion, Harriet Beecher Stowe was a wise women and someone that we can all learn from.

Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Steps to Success

• Harriet Beecher Stowe loved to read and was an excellent student.
• Though she had seven children, Stowe made time to write. She often wrote at nights after her children had gone to bed.
• Looked at what had been done before. Prior to writing Uncle Tom’s Cabin, she read American Slavery as It Is by abolitionist, Theodore Dwight Weld, and she also corresponded with former slave and abolition leader Frederick Douglass.
• Built on her success instead of slowing down and taking it easy.

Why Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Contribution Matters

• Uncle Tom’s Cabin gave people in the North the inspiration they needed to join the fight against slavery.
• Uncle Tom’s Cabin was one of the first books to demonstrate that black characters were similar to white characters – they had the same hopes, dreams strengths and weaknesses.
• Uncle Tom’s Cabin raised people’s awareness of the terrible injustice of slavery.
• In the late 1860s, Stowe and her husband spent the winter months in Florida, where one of their sons ran a farm. She opened a school and taught former slaves how to read and write.

Lessons from Harriet Beecher Stowe

• Anyone can use what they are good at to make a difference in the world.

Some of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Books

• An Elementary Geography (1835)
• The Mayflower: or, Sketches of Scenes and Characters of the Descendants of the Pilgrims (1843). The title was subsequently changed to Let Every Man Mind His Own Business.
• Uncle Tom’s Cabin: or, Life Among the Lowly (1852)
• Dred: A Tale of the Great Dismal Swamp (1856)
• The Minister’s Wooing (1859)
• Pearl of Orr’s Island (1862)
• House and Home Papers (1865)
• Little Foxes (1866)
• The Chimney-Corner (1868)
• Lady Byron Vindicated (1870)

Sources Cited/ Referenced

Encyclopedia of World Biography

Books That Changed the World, Andrew Taylor

Women in World History, Volume Fourteen

The Cambridge Biographical Encyclopedia

American Civil War Reference

American Women Writers

How can you use this information? What do you have to add to the conversation? Please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the right hand side) by email or RSS Feed.

Book links are affiliate links.

Interviewee Name: Steve Kayser

Company Name: Cincom Systems

Website: http://www.cincom.com/, http://expertaccess.cincom.com, http://radio.cincom.com 

Avil Beckford: Tell me a little bit about yourself.

Steve Kayser:  A non-PR, non marketing, non-writer type running a national PR department for Cincom Systems, a global software company.

Avil Beckford: Tell me about your big break and who gave you.

Steve Kayser: Just one? I have had big breaks all my life. Every day. Every month. Every year.

Tom Nies gave me my latest big break. He asked me to run PR for Cincom Systems North America. When I told him I didn’t know anything about PR he said, “Read this book – you’ll be fine.” The book he gave me was The Fall of Advertising and the Rise of PR, by Al Ries. I read it. Then called Al Ries. Explained my situation and asked his advice and also asked him to contribute to a fledgling online E-Zine I was developing called Expert Access. He did become a contributor and we went from 5,000 subscribers to 25,000 in about 1 month because of it. Al Ries (and his daughter Laura Ries) have done several interviews and articles with me … And,  Al Ries was also one of the first guests we had on Expert Access Radio — http://radio.cincom.com.

One of the lessons I took from that — People at the top value great thinking. They pass it on. If you take advantage of their thinking (in this instance Al Ries’ book) it can change everything for you. But you have to teach yourself – learn yourself. No handholding allowed.

It’s the biggest thing I would look for in new employees or partners now. Are they autodidacts? Can they teach themselves new things – continuously?

Avil Beckford: What’s one of the toughest decisions you’ve had to make and how did it impact your life?

Steve Kayser:  Having a baby in my 50’s. It was tough. Greatest thing that ever happened to me. Joy – Grace – Love. Beauty. All rolled up into one.  (I have 5 kids. Oldest son is a lawyer getting ready for the FBI. Youngest son is in Japan teaching English. My oldest daughter is a freshman at Ohio State. Then I have an 11 year old and a 1 autodidacts old.

Avil Beckford: What are three events that helped to shape your life?

Steve Kayser:

hahaha —

1. Being born. Seriously. What magic. Why me? Why you? Why here? Why now?
2. Being an MP in the Military  overseas- ( discipline/focus/)
3. That business failure mentioned above.

Avil Beckford: What’s an accomplishment that you are proudest of?

Steve Kayser:  Haven’t done them yet. I am immensely proud of my kids’ success in life so far.

Avil Beckford: How did mentors influence your life?

Steve Kayser:  Wow – where to start. See above. Some of those guys were. But I also read 3 to 5 books a week and find great mentoring there.

Avil Beckford: What’s one core message you received from your mentors?

Steve Kayser: CANEL – Continual and Never Ending Learning. Teach yourself. It’s the only way to reinvent yourself and stay relevant over time.

Avil Beckford: An invisible mentor is a unique leader you can learn things from by observing them from afar, in the capacity of an Invisible Mentor, what is one piece of advice that you would give to readers?

Steve Kayser:  Advice I stole from John Wooden. The two sets of 3.

Don’t Lie.  Don’t cheat. Don’t  Steal.

Don’t complain. Don’t Make excuses. Don’t Whine.

Avil Beckford: How do you integrate your personal and professional life?

Steve Kayser: Now there’s a tough one. How do you do it? It’s hard. Everyone has their own means of doing that.  I try to disconnect. But it’s hard. However, having a new baby makes it much easier. Nothing like a stinky diaper to keep you in the here and now. 

Avil Beckford: When you have some down time, how do you spend it? 

Steve Kayser: Playing piano. I play the piano bumpers for our radio shows. It’s a great stress reliever.

This one is called Enchantment -  there’s a  story behind it – comes from an interview I was doing with Guy Kawasaki…

http://www.writingriffs.com/2011/03/22/one-take-on-enchantment/

The music is at the bottom – 36 seconds.

Avil Beckford: What are five life lessons that you have learned so far?

Steve Kayser:

1. Don’t Lie.
2. Don’t cheat.
3. Don’t  Steal.
4. Don’t complain.
5. Don’t Make excuses.
6. Don’t Whine.

That’s 6. Sorta like a baker’s 1/2 dozen.

[Note from Avil] For those who English is a second language, a baker’s dozen is 13.

Avil Beckford: What process do you use to generate great ideas?

Steve Kayser: I find Vodka to be a great creative idea generator. But those ideas never seem to pan out so well.

Avil Beckford: What’s your favourite quotation and why?

Steve Kayser: It’s a tie.

• “This is so simple a child of 5 could figure it out. QUICK! Someone fetch a child of 5.”  Groucho Marx

• “Few things are harder to put up with than the annoyance of a good example.”  Pudd’n Head Wilson (AKA Mark Twain)

They fit so many situations. How could they not be your favorites too?

Avil Beckford: How do you define success? And in your opinion what’s the formula for success?

Steve Kayser: Wow – this is getting to be an in-depth psychological profile – am I’m flunking?

Success: Loving, being loved, enjoying life — and breathing. Breathing has a lot to recommend itself. You never really appreciate breathing and oxygen till you don’t have it. I know.

Avil Beckford: What are the steps you took to succeed in your field?

Steve Kayser:

Stumbled. Staggered. Fell.  Those are kinda the steps.

No failures = no success

To succeed you have to fail at some time. No way around that I think.

Since I’ve literally reinvented myself 5 times during my life and am in the process of doing it again – I can only say what steps seem to be common in all of those endeavors:

A Joie de vivre  – a joy for living & loving life, learning, re-learning. I need to throw a quote in here.

“The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.”Alvin Toffler

Avil Beckford: What advice do you have for someone just starting out in your field?

Steve Kayser: See above quote. And never quit. Unless you die. And that might be just another opportunity to re-invent yourself.

Avil Beckford: If trusted friends could introduce you to five people that you’ve always wanted to meet, who would you choose? And what would you say to them?

Steve Kayser:

1. Abraham Lincoln: “And the War Came” – ask him about those four words in his second inauguration. The four most powerful words ever written.
2. Mark Twain (Samuel Langhorne Clemens): Ask him about his daughter’s elegy – his most poignant words ever written.
3. Oscar Wilde: Really? What did he think he was doing dying so early?
4. Nikola Tesla: Ask him where the diagrams/plans were for his wireless free energy. I know where most of them are. But I want it from him. And then I’d tell him “Nik — you should have married – and why weren’t you nicer to JP Morgan’s daughter?
5. Paul McCartney: How about us doing a ragtime gig together?

Avil Beckford: Which one book had a profound impact on your life? What was it about this book that impacted you so deeply?

Steve Kayser:

• Man’s Search for Meaning. Read it. Viktor Frankl.  It was originally to be published anonymously but his friends told him he should put his name on it. 60 million copies and years later … It still will shock the senses.
• The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles – By Steven Pressfield. A friend.  A mentor. Anther person I would have never met if I wouldn’t have failed miserably.  And this book is a contribution to all writers/artists/entrepreneurs.  It’s your roadmap to getting things done. Read it. You.

Here’s a synopsis I did with him:

http://www.writingriffs.com/2009/10/05/the-power-of-story-in-business-and-life-lessons-learned-from-bestselling-authors-steven-pressfield-robert-mckee-and-skip-press/

Avil Beckford: You are one of the 10 finalists on the reality show, So, How Would You Spend Your Time? Each finalist is placed on separate deserted islands for two years. You have a basic hut on the island and all the tools for survival; you just have to be imaginative and inventive when using them. How would you spend the two years? The prize is worth your while and at this stage in the game there really aren’t any losers among the 10 finalists, since each are guaranteed at least $2 million?

Steve Kayser: Working out. Getting the abs tightened up. Practice my ballroom and break-dancing.  Try to beat myself at checkers. Wait a minute. I’ve already done that.  Does anyone get to come with me? See — that’d change my answer probably.

Avil Beckford: What excites you about life?

Steve Kayser: Breathing. Adventure. Being alive at this time – in this place – with the people in my life -is an amazing opportunity. One to be excited about. You too?

Avil Beckford: How do you nurture your soul?

Steve Kayser: Been on a diet there. I’m malnourished- maybe spiritual anorexic right now. But … I try to pray every morning. In case the “Ultimate Greatness” isn’t paying attention I try to be quiet and listen sometime too. That’s called mediation I believe. But the chattering monkey minds are hard to quell – no? How do you do it? If I can find a special way to express kindness in a quiet, non-visible way to someone, I try to do it.

Avil Beckford: If you had a personal genie and she gave you one wish, what would you wish for?

Steve Kayser: An explosion of creative ideas that would make a dent in the universe. And … that she look like J-lo. Wait a minute. She better look like my wife – or I’d get in trouble.

Avil Beckford: Complete the following, I am happy when…..

Steve Kayser: I complete 31 questions on any form – especially the IRS form – but this one as well.

This reminds me of a psychological personality profile the head of our Global HR made me take one day because he realized I had avoided it for 10 years – and suspected I was hiding from it (I was).  The test took 3 hours.  When it came back he went over the results with me.

In his best (which isn’t very good) deadpan attempt at humor he said,

“According to these scores you flunked.  You technically don’t have a personality”

I said “GREAT, That qualifies me for your job. I needed a break from all this hard work. When can I start?”

How can you use this information? What do you have to add to the conversation? Let’s keep the conversation flowing, please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the right hand side) by email or RSS Feed.

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Related articles

• Protected: Marketing Lesson from the Grateful Dead – How to Steal a Great Name? (writingriffs.com)
• http://www.writingriffs.com/2009/10/05/the-power-of-story-in-business-and-life-lessons-learned-from-bestselling-authors-steven-pressfield-robert-mckee-and-skip-press/
• http://www.writingriffs.com/2011/03/22/one-take-on-enchantment/
• “Say Yes to Life,” A Review of Man’s Search For Meaning by Viktor Frankl