The Invisible Mentor

Posts Tagged ‘Ayn Rand’

This is what we talked about on The Invisible Mentor Blog this week: The Early History of the Airplane by Orville Wright and Wilbur Wright, Wisdom of Life Profile: Ayn Rand, Philosopher, Author of Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead, and Senior Account Executive, National Speakers Bureau, Jeanne-Marie Robillard.

Adventures in Learning

An assortment of blog posts with information to help you in a variety of ways.

Adventures in Learning: Learning Tools and Resources to Help You Succeed in Today’s Fast-Paced World 

Booked for Mentoring

The Early History of the Airplane by Orville Wright and Wilbur Wright is a great book for mentoring because it teaches us to question everything, and not accept things as fact.

Booked for Mentoring: The Early History of the Airplane by Orville and Wilbur Wright 

Wisdom of Life Profile

Before the Russian Revolution, Rand and her family traveled across Europe – Austria Switzerland, England. She was a voracious reader, taught herself to read at age six, and was influenced by The Mysterious Valleyby French writer Maurice Champagne, and the writings of Victor Hugo and Walter Scott.

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Wisdom of Life: Ayn Rand, Philosopher, Author of Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead 

Interviews for Mentoring

This week we featured senior account executive for National Speakers Bureau, Jeanne-Marie Robillard. After her first year at university, while Robillard was working at a summer job, she attended a party and saw Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau standing by himself. She approached him and introduced herself. Read the interview to find out what happened. Here are Part One and Part Two of Jeanne-Marie Robillard’s 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 links are affiliate links.

Wisdom of Life: It’s seldom that anyone moves straight to the top in their career. Ayn Rand wanted to become a writer, however, she had to work as a movie extra, junior screenwriter, filing clerk, head of the wardrobe department, freelance script reader to achieve her goal. But she always made sure that she carved out the time to write.

Introduction: While getting a taste of American life via the American films she watched in university, Ayn Rand knew that she would some day live there. While living in Chicago for six months with her relatives, she changed her name from Alissa Zinovievna Rosenbaum to Ayn Rand. She took Ayn, a variant spelling of a Finnish author because she simply liked the way it sounded and Rand from her Remington Rand typewriter. Rand had always had a brilliant mind, and a country which offered many opportunities, allowed her to spread her wings and soar. Ayn Rand developed a branch of philosophy called objectivism and was the author of the international bestsellers Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead, which are often selected as books that have a profound impact on the lives of others.

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Name: Ayn Rand (Alissa Zinovievna Rosenbaum)

Birth Date: February 1905 – March 1982

Job Functions: Author, Philosopher, Lecturer

Fields: Literature, Philosophy

Known For: The Fountainhead, Atlas Shrugged

Favourite TV Programs: Charlie’s Angels and Kojak

Favourite American Author: Mickey Spillane

Short Biography of Ayn Rand

Born in St. Petersburg, Russia, on February 2, 1905, Alissa Zinovievna Rosenbaum later known as Ayn Rand was the first of three daughters. Her father Zinovy Zacharovich, a chemist, owned a pharmacy business which he had built by himself. After the Russian Revolution in 1917, the communist government which was now in power, took ownership of the pharmacy – the reason being that one should live for the state and not for the self. In the blink of an eye, the fortunes of the Rosenbaum household changed and now there was little money.

Before the Russian Revolution, Rand and her family traveled across Europe – Austria Switzerland, England. She was a voracious reader, taught herself to read at age six, and was influenced by The Mysterious Valley by French writer Maurice Champagne, and the writings of Victor Hugo and Walter Scott. The works had “man as hero” as their underlying theme, which later formed the basis for Rand’s objectivism philosophy and her other works. It was on those vacations that Rand knew that she wanted to become a writer. Rand always had a strong interest in literature and films, and as a child, she wrote stories which emphasized heroism.

After completing high school in 1921, Rand attended University of Petrograd where she studied history with a minor in philosophy. While attending university, Rand got the opportunity to watch American movies, and she saw how different the two countries were – America versus Russia. Rand graduated from university in 1924, after which she started gathering the necessary paperwork that would allow her to travel to the United States. She had relatives living in Chicago who invited her to visit them there. While gathering the paperwork to visit the United States in 1924, Rand studied screenwriting at the State Institute for Cinema Arts.

Rand left Russia in January 1926 and never returned. On February 18, 1926, she arrived in New York City with $50 then traveled to Chicago where she stayed with relatives for six months. Her next stop was Hollywood, California where she worked as an extra on King of Kings a film directed by Cecil B. DeMille. Rand met actor Frank O’Connor whom she married in April 1929. She became an American citizen in 1931.

Pontius Pilate Judges Jesus in Cecil B DeMille’s King of Kings Pt 1

If you cannot view Pontius Pilate Judges Jesus in Cecil B DeMille’s King of Kings Pt 1, click here.

 Rand worked in various jobs in the film industry – movie extra, junior screenwriter, filing clerk, head of the wardrobe department, freelance script reader – but she always made time to write on the weekends. She sold Red Pawn in 1932 to Universal Studios though it was never produced, and she wrote the play The Night of January 16^th in 1934, which was ran in Hollywood and then spent seven months on Broadway in New York. Though she completed her novel We, the Living in 1933, it was accepted for publication in the US and England in 1936.

Rand and her husband moved to New York City in 1934 where she spent time mastering English, writing screenplays, short stories (Anthem (1938)). Her hard work and talent as a writer paid off because two of her screenplays appeared on Broadway.  Rand gained international acclaim in 1943 when The Fountainhead, which took seven years to write, was published, but it was Atlas Shrugged which was published in 1957 that was her literary masterpiece. She used her novels to express her objectivism philosophy, which espoused that “…reason is human being’s means of survival. Only through a process of reasoning – cold, hard, scientific, logical thought – can an individual understand the world and thus survive and prosper in it.”

The Fountainhead – Howard Roark Speech (Ayn Rand)

If you cannot view the YouTube video click here.

Because Rand witnessed the introduction of communism in Russian and her father losing a business he built up, she was very anti-communism, and had a strong sense of individualism. In 1947, she testified in front of the US House of Un-American Activities(HUAC) about communist penetration in the film industry. The process of the HUAC committee hearing resulted in people being blacklisted and that whole era is known as the McCarthy Era.

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Rand and O’Connor moved back to Los Angels in 1943 to write the screenplay for The Fountainhead. She and her husband returned permanently to New York in 1951. After writing Atlas Shrugged, Rand stopped writing fiction and became a visiting professor to Yale, Princeton, Columbia, the University of Wisconsin, Johns Hopkins, Ford Hall Forum, Harvard, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the United States Military Academy at West Point where she lectured on her philosophy. She edited and published The Objectivist, and refined her philosophy over the years.

While Rand was writing Atlas Shrugged she met Canadian psychology student, Nathaniel Branden, who was studying for a doctoral degree in psychology. Both Rand and Branden were secular Jews who had changed their names. It is reported in many sources that Rand had a torrid affair with Branden, 29 years her junior. The affair lasted for 14 years. Rand encouraged Branden to develop a lecture series based on her novels – Rand’s basic philosophical principles. The initiative resulted in a 20-lecture course called “The Basic Principles of Objectivism,” offered through the Nathaniel Branden Institute (NBI). Branden charged $3.50 for each lecture or $70 for the entire series, which began in 1958.

Ayn Rand, along with Branden, his wife Barbara, Alan Greenspan, and a few others had launched the Objectivist movement. The cause was very successful and prosperous. In 1968 when Branden decided he wanted to split with Rand because he’d taken another lover, she was furious and expelled him. There were other incidents and activities going on the movement that Rand was against. The split between Rand and Branden resulted in the demise of the Nathaniel Branden Institute.

Why Ayn Rand’s Contribution Matters

A 1991 survey sponsored by the Library of Congress and Book-of-the-Month Club found that after the Bible, Atlas Shrugged was the most influential book in the lives of Americans. In 1998, a poll by Modern Library where readers chose the best 100 novels of the twentieth century, Atlas Shrugged took first place, The Fountainhead, second place and Anthem and We, the Living took seventh and eighth place.

Ayn Rand’s Steps to Success

• Knew what her passion was and pursued it relentlessly.
• Rand not only renamed herself, but also reinvented herself when she came to the US.
• Even when Rand worked odds jobs she wrote on weekends.
• Today it’s not uncommon for films or other literary works to have two endings. Rand wrote two endings for The Night of January 16^thbecause it required 12 people from the audience to act as jurors, so the ending would depend on whether or not the jurors found the defendant guilty or innocent.
• While writing The Fountainhead, Rand worked at an architectural firm in New York without pay so she could understand the way the business worked to make her novel authentic.
• Didn’t give up: The Fountainhead was rejected 12 times before Archibald G. Ogden, a young editor at Bobbs-Merrill accepted it for publication.
• Right or wrong, Rand had the courage to live what she believed.
• Ayn Rand, Joseph Conrad and Vladimir Nabokov were among a few writers to attain literary success in a language other than their own.

Pearls of Wisdom from Ayn Rand

• Take the time to discover what your passion in life is and pursue it relentlessly.
• Make whatever changes you need to make to become the person you were meant to be.
• Find time to practice and master your craft.

Why Ayn Rand Makes an Excellent Invisible Mentor

When you observe people, it’s important to pay attention to their good, and not-so-good traits. Confucius emulated the good qualities he observed in others, and checked himself for their not-so-good qualities. Ayn Rand created an impressive body of work, which we should aspire to do. And she pursued her passions relentlessly.

Ayn Rand’s Works

• We, the Living (1936)
• The Night of January 16th (1936)
• Anthem (1938; revised 1946, 1995)
• The Fountainhead (1943, film version 1949)
• Atlas Shrugged (1957)
• For the New Intellectual: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand (1961)
• The Virtue of Selfishness (1964)
• Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal (1966, 1976)
• Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology (1967, 1990)
• The Romantic Manifesto (1969, 1971)
• The New Left: The Anti-Industrial Revolution (1971)
• Philosophy: Who Needs It (1982, 1984)
• The Early Ayn Rand: A Selection From Her Unpublished Fiction (1986)
• For the New Intellectual: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand (1996)
• Ayn Rand’s Marginalia: Her Critical Comments on the Writings of Over 20 Authors (1996)
• The Letters of Ayn Rand (1997)
• The Ayn Rand Column: Written for the Los Angeles Times (1998)
• The Journals of Ayn Rand (1999)
• The Ayn Rand Reader (1999)

Works Cited/Referenced

American Women Writers

Encyclopedia of World Biography

Modern American Literature

Encyclopedia of Science, Technology and Ethics

Concise Major 21^st Century Writer

Women in World History

Encyclopedia Judaica

Cold War Reference Library

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.

YouTube Video Credit: Uploaded by GoldenSilents on Mar 28, 2009, Uploaded by Sidewinder77 on Aug 10, 2006

Book links are affiliate links.

Related articles

• How Ayn Rand Seduced Generations of Young Men and Helped Make the U.S. Into a Selfish, Greedy Nation (alternet.org)
• What Ayn Rand Told Me (harveyardman.wordpress.com)

Interviewee Name: Delane Cooper, Goldsmith

Company Name: Delane

Website: http://www.delane.ca

Avil Beckford: Tell me a little bit about yourself.

Delane Cooper: I am a goldsmith and jewellery designer. I used to be in technology for a couple of decades helping build datacentres. I started off in California, lived in New York, got married and moved here to Toronto.

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

Delane Cooper:

1. Have a focus.
2. Just do it.
3. Find meaning.
4. Think differently.
5. Stay on target.

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

Delane Cooper: I spend it meditating and reading

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

Delane Cooper: I sit, pull out a design journal that I have, and I put these words down and actually work on them: Focus, Act, Connect, Deviate and Evaluate and I go through that process on a regular basis for all designs when I am sitting at my bench.

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

Delane Cooper: My favourite quote is by Mary Anne Radmacher, and it goes like this, “Live with intention. Walk to the edge. Listen hard. Practice wellness. Play with abandon. Laugh. Choose with no regret. Appreciate your friends. Continue to learn. Do what you love. Live as if this is all there is.” And I love this quotation because a very good friend of mine shared it with me while we were having a cup of tea. And it was one of those bad, entrepreneurial days, and I asked her, “How does one stay motivated? How does one have life balance?” because I felt I was putting so much work into my business but not spending enough time with my husband. This quote just seems to summarize what I was experiencing, what I was feeling in these short couple of sentences. I basically read this quote out of my calendar every second day.

Avil Beckford: How do you define success?

Delane Cooper: I will use the quote from Albert Einstein, “If A is success in life, then A = X + Y + Z. Work is X, Y is play and Z is keeping your mouth shut.

Avil Beckford: In your opinion what’s the formula for success?

Delane Cooper: Once again, I will use the quote from Albert Einstein, “If A is success in life, then A = X + Y + Z. Work is X, Y is play and Z is keeping your mouth shut.

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

Delane Cooper: I made the hard decision and went back to school, which took about three years. I went online and learned from others. I continue to seek out other entrepreneurs from other fields and learn from them as well. There is a great website http://www.sprouter.com and what’s fantastic about it is it connected me with a lot of entrepreneurs from all over the world. Each entrepreneur may have a different type of business whether it be technology, selling some sort of widget, to someone like myself being creative creating jewellery. As entrepreneurs, we all experience the same ups and downs and hurdles. It’s a great place to seek resources and that’s been quite helpful.

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

Delane Cooper: Identify what you have fun doing and make sure you enjoy the ride. The ride’s going to have a lot of ups and downs, but know that if you are in it for the ride, the benefits are going to be fantastic in the end.

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?

Delane Cooper:

1. John Lennon: Thank you for giving us words through music when words could not be said.
2. Georgia O’Keeffe: Thank you for bringing colour into our lives.
3. Ayaan Hirsi Ali: Thank you for sharing the story of your life and for being brave.
4. Albert Einstein: I would like to know what kept him motivated every morning. I read a lot of his quotes, and he must have been a fantastic individual, not only intellectually, but very self-motivated to get up and continually do experiments on a regular basis, whether they failed or were met with success. I would say, “Thank you for failing your way to success.”
5. Gandhi: Wanting to know how to put people first, and just groups of people, their lives, their livelihood, calling governments when they are doing wrong. Gandhi was very inspirational. “Thank you for sharing your fears and insecurities.”

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

Delane Cooper: The book is called Illusions: The Adventures of the Reluctant Messiah by Richard Bach. What I got out of this book is that life is an illusion and it’s all about how we choose to take part in it. This book was given to me when I was 20 years old and I have read it probably eight times since, and I’m 41 now.

Avil Beckford: If you were stranded on a deserted island, what are five books that you would like to have with you and why?

Delane Cooper:

1. Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah, Richard Bach
2. The Fountainhead, Ayn Rand (Ayn Rand Box Set)
3. The Prophet, Kahlil Gibran
4. Pride And Prejudice, Jane Austen
5. Love, Illustrated and designed by Gian Berto Vanni, Story by Lowell A. Siff

I would say the books were all suggested by my mother, very close friends or my husband. When I read these books, I feel like I’m experiencing what my husband or my mom or my friends experienced, and that they are there with me reading these books.

Avil Beckford: What one music CD and movie would you like to have with you (on the deserted island) and why?

Delane Cooper: The CD would be All The Seasons of George Winston Piano Solo. I find that the piano is a very unique instrument and this compilation reminds me that life is all about the seasons. There is always a winter, followed by spring, which then is followed by summer and fall. The movie would be Cinema Paradiso, which reminds me to never forget where I came from and always know where I’m going.

If you cannot view this George Winston Thanksgiving (Piano Solo) 1998YouTube video click here.

If you cannot view the Cinema Paradiso YouTube video click here.

Avil Beckford: What excites you about life?

Delane Cooper: Not to be simple, but life itself. There is just so much going on when one wakes up. You never know what’s going on, from the joy of my husband telling me, “I love you,” to getting an amazing email from a client, and then sometimes you have some of the tragedies that we have recently witnessed like in Japan.

Avil Beckford: How do you nurture your soul?

Delane Cooper: Through meditation and enjoying the company of friends, my husband and my lovely dog Pelasso.

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

Delane Cooper: I would wish or at least hope that my mother who adopted me knows that she saved a child who has blossomed to be a participating adult in this world. That’s what I would wish for.

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

Delane Cooper: When I’m with my friends enjoying a great meal, and sitting at my jewellery bench creating a beautiful piece of jewellery to be part of someone’s life.

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 links are affiliate links.

Interviewee Name: Roger Dacre, Medical Doctor

Company Name: Dr. Roger I Dacre

Website: http://www.doctordacre.com

Avil Beckford: Tell me a little bit about yourself.

Dr. Roger Dacre: I was born in London, England and when I was about six years old my parents moved to Barbados. A year or so later they sent me back to attend boarding school in the UK. I attended medical school in the UK, in London, England and then I emigrated to Canada and did residency or specialty training in family medicine at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. After that I worked for 10 years in my own family practice in Cambridge, Ontario and moved to Toronto about 16 years ago. I opened the practice that I am practicing in now and was practicing there initially alone, and subsequently over the last 10 years with Dr. Lise Paquette.

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

Dr. Roger Dacre: I have a good group of friends and a supportive partner. That partner recognizes that my medical practice is important to my life, but the time is also important. I’m fortunate in that my partner, my friends and in many ways my patients seem to recognize that there are more parts to my life than just dealing with them.

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

Dr. Roger Dacre:

• Be true to myself.
• Find meaning for your life.
• Find and work to support yourself.
• Look for and cherish friends.

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

Dr. Roger Dacre: I’m a very avid theatre goer. I love movies. I like going to restaurants and I love going for walks, and I do a lot of traveling.

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

Dr. Roger Dacre: I think this is one of the things that Ruth Bowden taught me, she said, “You can allow yourself to just sit and think, relaxing.” I usually listen to music when I’m doing this, but there are other ways to allow yourself to process and to generate ideas that will allow you to see things in a different way. You see something working the opposite way than we do here in Canada or they do it in the UK and it works, so often it’s having a fresh way of looking at things that helps me to generate great ideas.

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

Dr. Roger Dacre: “You have the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” which as you know comes from the American Constitution. I like this because it summarizes what is a right and what is something you need to go out and earn for yourself even though you should be free to do it. It’s not saying you have the right to happiness, it’s saying you have the right to try and find happiness. That summarizes how I look at life. I expect to be given the right to live my life and to be free, but I don’t expect more than that from the world. I expect to have to earn the rest from the world.

Avil Beckford: How do you define success?

Dr. Roger Dacre: Living a life that actualizes your full potential. That would be success to me, so you could be successful in any job. It just depends on your skills and other things.

Avil Beckford: In your opinion what’s the formula for success?

Dr. Roger Dacre: It’s not a secret. I think that integrity and hard work are the formula for success in any part of the world where you have the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

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

Dr. Roger Dacre: Attending all the lectures and going to all the things at university was an important part. I find that I learn a lot from practicing physicians, as well as books. And for my own practice of medicine, running into a problem is often a learning experience for be and can end up being a very enriching experience for me and hopefully the patient.

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

Dr. Roger Dacre: Start out how you mean to continue. I think you should use the same ethics and the same work practice, right from the beginning of your career and not feel that these are some things you graduate to later. When I started my practice in Cambridge, Ontario the seventh and eighth patient that came to me were drug addicts and I refused to take them on as patients. When I was telling my parents about it, they said, “Why do you have to turn anyone down at this time can’t you wait until later?” And I said, “When do you suddenly get ethics, how many patients?” And of course they couldn’t give me a number, because you either have ethics from the start or you don’t.

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

Dr. Roger Dacre: I decided I was only going to choose living people.

The Queen of England: I would like to find out from her how she’s managed to work so hard and for so long and to reconcile that with her sense of self. She’s been the victim of criticism and various other things and she seems to have done this with a peacefulness that I find very admirable.

Margaret Thatcher: She is a person who has a huge conviction and she fought against much larger forces than herself and remained true to her convictions. That’s something that you can’t say about many politicians.

Nelson Mandela: When he came to power he could have been filled of hatred, anger and negativity and he showed us how living a positive life and forgiving people is beneficial to the victims and perpetrators.

Bill Bryson: He is a writer. He manages to inject such a fascination into so many facets of life

Richard Dawkins: He is a scientist who has written many books for people who are non-scientists. I admire him for looking for simplicity in complex situations because I think in the end it’s the simplicity that impresses me rather than the complexity.

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

Dr. Roger Dacre: The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand was probably the most profound book that I read and I think it’s about believing in yourself and your work, and that this is a legitimate way to live your life.

Avil Beckford: If you were stranded on a deserted island, what are five books that you would like to have with you and why? Summarize the book in two sentences.

Dr. Roger Dacre:

1. The first of the books would be The Fountainhead for the reason I’ve just given.
2. I’d also like to have Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand which is all about not allowing yourself to be used by other people for ends rather than your own. I think that’s a useful idea to have.
3. There is another book, The Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson which I really enjoyed.

Avil Beckford: What one music CD and movie would you like to have with you (on the deserted island) and why?

Dr. Roger Dacre: I’d like to have Elton John’s Greatest Hits because they have always spoken to me. He was starting his fame when I was a teenager and he has continued to produce music all through my life so far and I have enjoyed almost all of his music.

I didn’t bring as many books because I wanted to bring more movies. I like the movie Brief Encounter, which is a movie about an unconsummated love affair, the longing of love that’s not consummated. It’s just one of those things that always spoke to me. I love the movie A Man for all Seasons which is about a principled man who loses his life because he wouldn’t become corrupt. I would also take Lion in Winter, which is another movie about someone who is brave in the face of almost certain defeat. And I would take two gay-themed movies. One is called Beautiful Thing which is about a young boy who discovers he is gay and how his mother does not reject him, and the final one is The Wedding Banquet which is actually a Chinese movie and again it’s about parents who are accepting of their gay son even though he didn’t have the courage to tell them about it. It’s an amusing yet telling story.

If you cannot view Elton John’s Greatest YouTube video click here.

Avil Beckford: What excites you about life?

Dr. Roger Dacre: New experiences shared with friends. New experiences in new countries. New experiences in the theatre. New experiences in a restaurant, that sort of thing excites me about life.

Avil Beckford: How do you nurture your soul?

Dr. Roger Dacre: I like music, I love beautiful places, and I enjoy the love of my partner and friends.

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

Dr. Roger Dacre: I’d wish for great personal, physical and mental health.

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

Dr. Roger Dacre: In the company of friends and family enjoying a shared experience. I’m happiest at work when I’m efficacious.

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 links are affiliate links.

Here is Part Two of Diana Gallo’s interview. I learn so much from each interview that I conduct, and this one is no different. After you’ve read both parts of the interview, what are your five takeaways? What information can you use right away. Pay attention to Diana’s advice to someone wanting to start out in her field. Even though the information is about social media, the advice is valid for any field.

There are many times in life when you see information that’s not related to your field so you devalue it, but never do that because you may find the next great idea for your business. I interview people from different walks of life to give you a breadth and depth of knowledge. Our journey together is to become smarter.

Tell me a little bit about yourself.

I’m very passionate about what I do which is a good thing. I am in the digital media space both interactive and social media. Outside of that, I love movies and music and I try to see as many films and attend as many concerts as I possibly can. While I am very independent and have difficulty asking for help which at times does work against me – and see career as very important, I love my boyfriend (who I live with) and respect and appreciate all his support. He, family and friends are very important to me. I love Toronto, though if I had to live anywhere else, New York City and London, England would be my choice, they are my two favourite cities, and would probably move in a heartbeat if the opportunity allowed it. My addictions would be coffee and magazines, I love reading magazines. I am a kid at heart and regardless of my age I try to keep that. I think people sometimes take things too seriously.

What are three events that helped to shape your life?

A few years ago my dad fell really ill, he is feeling great now, but at the time it was one of the reasons that I had to say no to that trip to England. It made me realize the importance of not only family, but of taking care of yourself. Without your health you cannot do the things you want to do and from that, to never hold a grudge because you never know what can happen, and it might be too late for an apology.

I moved out a decade ago and refused to rent so I decided to buy right away not even having the funds to do it, but creatively found a way to do so. But what the experience taught me was true responsibility and it shaped me quickly. I grew up overnight.

The death of my grandfather was another event that helped to shape my life because he was my best friend. I was about 12 years old when he died. He told me stories and was always that person who I could lean on. He is the one that got me to love history. He had a way of teaching me how to stand up for myself without talking back to my parents. He was my “everything” and when he passed away it took a lot out of me. And it was also the first time that I dealt with death in a real way. I didn’t cry because I didn’t know how I was supposed to react to his death.

How do you integrate your personal and professional life?

Part of what I do in my professional life is work in a social media space. When I’m at home, I continue that but on my personal profile. During the day it’s a way for me to communicate with end-users, our movie goers, but in the evening it’s the way I stay engaged with my friends.

What’s a major regret that you’ve had in life?

There was a period in my life when I didn’t appreciate what I had, and looking back I had it really good. I didn’t have the right to complain or feel as bitter as I did. So I regret not appreciating my accomplishments and the things that were happening around me as much as I should have.

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

1. The best leaders are the ones who empower their team so they can perform their jobs successfully and give them opportunities to flourish
2. Appreciate every day as if it’s your last
3. Regardless of who the person is, don’t undermine them because everyone has something to offer
4. Don’t go to sleep angry because it could be your last
5. Listen and act on what you’ve heard

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

I’m online, and in the last couple of years I have spent a lot of time catching up on my favourite television shows, and a lot of them happen to be either on Showcase or HBO. I also listen to a lot of music, watch a lot of movies and read a lot of magazines. A lot of these activities happen by myself, or with my boyfriend, or with friends and family

What process do you use to generate great ideas?

I put on my iPod and listen to music and have a doodle pad. I don’t know if the music influences, inspires or triggers something. That for me is the best way for me to generate great ideas.

What’s your favourite quotation and why?

It changes and part of what I do on Facebook is to change them according to how I feel. I think the one that I’ve got that’s been top of mind for a while now is “I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it,” by Pablo Picasso. The first time that I read this quote I thought, don’t ever fear trying something new, it’s exciting to try something new because it’s the only way you can learn about what you don’t know because if you continuously do what you do best, the things you already know, are you really learning? And my favourite quotes change depending on the stage that I’m at in my life.

How do you define success?

You define success by what it means to you. Sometimes I define success because there are measurable metrics in place and if each one of these metrics is met, then success has happened. But most of time, even if those metrics are met, I ask myself if I did the best that I could have done, and it’s about how I feel. So if I feel really proud, and really good about what I did, for me that’s success on a personal front. If it’s a team effort, which a lot of times it is, if the people around me who worked on the project feel the same way, then that too is a success. I think it’s the measurable, and how I feel, and that could be very different from the measures themselves.

In your opinion what’s the formula for success?

In terms of defining success I believe in setting realistic goals and timelines, so if I want to achieve a goal, I want to make sure that it’s very realistic because I’ll disappoint myself if I don’t. Break down your goals into smaller components, so instead of achieving this one goal that seems impossible, which may or may not be, if you achieve each one component independently, all collectively for that end goal whatever that is, it makes for a better formula in terms of how to achieve success. I think a lot of the time what happens is that we try to attain something that is really impossible and if we think it’s impossible we start worrying about it and get overwhelmed and never meet it and are always disappointed. So I think sometimes it’s simply a matter of breaking it down and say I’m going to do this.

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

A lot of it was really about understanding what’s happening in the field. I am immersed in what I’m preaching so I’m always in the social media and online space talking to people, reading articles to keep me on top of what’s happening and questioning the things that I don’t know.

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

For anyone starting out in the social media space before they take the plunge and say, “I want to be a social media ‘something’,” they should participate in the space and see if it’s something that they really want to do. They have to really understand it because they are going to have to practice what they preach.

They should also speak to people at various level who are in that space, so they can talk to community managers who are posting and engaging with the users, speak to someone that’s doing the strategy for social media, and speak to people who are using social media in very different ways. They should speak to some people on a personal front, some on a professional front and it could even be someone in a not-for-profit, because for some people, social media is a way to raise awareness for a good cause. They have to really understand how social media can be used, then step back and see if it’s something that they are really interested in doing and at what capacity. And I think they won’t know until they have talked to people and immersed themselves into it.

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?

Sorry if I sound shallow, but there are certain celebrities that I’d like to talk to. I’d like to speak to:

Trent Reznor from Nine Inch Nails

I’d say I love his music, but the big one for me would be how he feels about what he has done for the music industry. He said “FU” to the middleman, which is pretty much the music labels and said I’m going to reach my audience directly, I don’t need you to interfere and he engages with his audience and gives them what they want, and that’s what is making him so successful. I want to know when there was a turning point for him, when he said to himself,” I don’t need or want the music label, I want to give my audience access to my music, I want to engage with them because they are the ones who come to my concerts, the ones who are passionate about my music and I want to give them what they want.”

Johnny Depp

I love Johnny Depp as an actor, he is an amazing actor, but he has the knack for taking on really different roles and exceed at those roles regardless of how the movie does, so I’m curious about how he does that. I find that quite amazing and it shows talent and adaptability.

Martin Scorcese

I would say, thank you for making such fantastic films throughout the year – and continue to do so. Your passion, dedication and talent are obvious in all your pictures; it’s no wonder every actor wants to work with you. Tell me something: what drives that passion and what is it about Leonardo that makes you want to work with him every time?

Steve Jobs

For Steve Jobs, I’d say, with all the success you’ve had to date – yeah with some hiccups along the way – the innovation seen in the products launched, and so on, what is it that keeps driving you, Apple, to develop the products you do? I would like to believe that as a multi-millionaire, it isn’t all about the money.

Ivanka Trump

A great role model for young business women. You might be thinking why, i.e. she was born into money etc. Well, she is a smart business woman who has proven that she can run a business, has the drive and smarts to do so, without always depending on her dad, Donald.

Let’s face it, she may have it easier than you and I, but she could have just chosen the path to do nothing and just enjoy the family riches Iike Paris Hilton and others. You don’t see her name on tabloids, entertainment gossip shows. If there is one ‘celebrity’ that a young woman wanting to get into business should look at, I would say she’s one.

I would ask her the following:

• I believe she wrote a book for young women starting out and wanting to succeed – how is the book doing, why did you decide to write it and have you received any feedback from readers – both positive or negative?

• Are your business smarts, drive all a product of her DNA, who she was born to and upbringing or is this something she really is interested in, something she wanted to do.

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

The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell, which is a fantastic book that really makes you think about change and how it can happen so quickly and unexpectedly. Gladwell talks about social epidemics and then goes into explaining these. Another one is Anthem by Ayn Rand which was about not losing sight of individuality, and that the collective is not necessarily the best way to go. You as an individual should not be dominated by the collective thought. This was an amazing book which really impacted me and I’m a big believer in you as an individual first and foremost. And I don not mean this in the context of working in teams, I’m talking about collective thought versus you as an individual having your own thought. You can be persuaded by others, you can agree with others, but you should have your own thought.

If you were stranded on a deserted island, what are five books that you would like to have with you and why? Summarize the book in two sentences.

1. Anthem, Ayn Rand
2. Catcher in the Rye, J D Salinger
3. Touching From a Distance, Deborah Curtis
4. Any edition of Calvin and Hobbes

What one music CD and movie would you like to have with you (on the deserted island) and why?

The music CD would be Nick Cave’s Murder Ballads and the movie would be Say Anything.

YouTube Video of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – Red Right Hand

If you cannot view the YouTube Video of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds click here.

YouTube Video Say Anything Movie Trailer

If you cannot view YouTube Video Say Anything Movie Trailer click here.

What excites you about life?

What keeps me excited about life is just learning. There is so much that I could still be doing, and there is so much that others could be doing, and that is exciting for me knowing that there is so much out there. I get off by seeing people happy and I mean genuinely happy, not just being content and settling.

How do you nurture your soul?

It’s sitting back, reading and listening to music. I can’t stress enough how important music is to me.

If you had a personal genie and she gave you one wish, what would you wish for? Or, if I gave you a magic wand, what would you use it for?

If I had one wish, there are a bunch of kids at Sick Kids Hospital who might die within one week, or they may have three months, but it’s not a long life and my wish is to grant them their wishes.

Complete the following, I am happy when…..

I’m happy when I accomplish things. Happiness is contagious, so when I see someone happy, I’m happy even if I do not know why they’re happy.

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 side) by email or RSS Feed.

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