The Invisible Mentor

Posts Tagged ‘books that influence’

Interviewee Name: Lally Rementilla, VP Finance and Administration

Company Name: Nulogy Corporation

Website: http://www.nulogy.com 

Avil Beckford: Tell me a little bit about yourself.

Lally Rementilla: I’m a senior finance professional who has had a longstanding career in the technology and media industries. By day, and most recently, I’m about all things tech and digital, and by night I’m a mother with two young kids who is trying to have lots of fun with her kids along the way.

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

Lally Rementilla: Every so often, I would say every five years, I formulate a vision of myself and encapsulate it into a couple of words or phrase and make that the criteria by which I conduct myself. I’ll give you an example – back in the year 2000 I went through this exercise of identifying what that vision was going to be, and I called that vision Hip Accountant. Dare I say it was like a brand, though not necessarily The Brand, but it’s really that catchphrase of what I wanted to use as a criteria by which I was going to be conducting myself, and the criteria by which I made decisions whether they be for career, social or personal in nature, so I had Hip Accountant.

A couple of things contributed to creating that vision, at this point I had pursued and completed my CMA (Certified Management Accountant) designation so that’s the accountant piece. It was also around this time that I made the move from Lucent to Lavalife, and Lavalife was such a hip company with a great brand that encapsulated a lot of the values and personality that was in that Hip Accountant vision that I had. Personally I moved closer to the downtown area because I just wanted a lifestyle that fits with the vision that I had. And I also took on a lot of board memberships across a variety of different not-for-profits, but again to fulfill that vision I actually joined an arts board at that time, and getting the designation, moving to a company that was hip and happening, physically relocating myself and being involved in the community that was more related to the vision that I had, and was a way for me to integrate my personal life with all other aspects of my life. And to this day, I go about having that vision and basing the decisions of those criteria. 

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

Lally Rementilla: Being a very busy working mother, I would say downtime is what I define as time for myself. There are three things that I do. Obviously, one of them is practicing my yoga. Another one is I read, so on a day-to-day basis I read light business biographies. When I need something that’s more escapist in nature I read a lot of chick-lit, and sometimes I cannot peel myself away from it because it is such a way for me to relax and unwind. The third thing I do is travel. Friends I’ve known since nursery school we have tried to make it a point to get together and do a Girl’s Weekend or Girl’s Week at least once a year.

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

Lally Rementilla:

1. Keep things simple. It’s the KISS mentality and something that I have learned that really works. I don’t think we achieve anything by making our lives complicated. I think it’s all a matter of keeping things simple and streamlined. I guess it’s the minimalist in me talking.
2. Don’t be too greedy. I’ve seen a lot of really bad decisions being made because of greed. Having lived in both a Third World country and a First World country has given me a real appreciation of the things that are really important in life and I shake my head every time I see decisions being made because of greed.
3. In taking risks, 99 percent of the time you have nothing to lose in doing something that’s risky in nature. It’s relative, and that’s the beauty in having lived in both a Third and First World country is that you see the perspective of what’s the worst thing that can happen in life. People are going around thinking that they have so much to lose and there is not a lot in life that we can lose except obviously life itself.
4. Network, Network, Network! The power of human relationships I found is something that’s fundamental to humanity itself. In whatever we do, we should always strive to build a network of people around us, again whether it be in our professional life or your motherhood or your personal life or your social life. I think it’s always of great benefit and great strength to us to have a network around us.
5. Location, Location, Location! Obviously it works in real estate, but I also think it works well in being able to identify opportunities. I’m a believer that things happen for a reason, and a lot of it is being in the right place at the right time.

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

Lally Rementilla: I tend to take a more creative perspective in idea generation and therefore when asked to come up with an idea, I always try to identify the most unique and out-of-the-box way of doing things. And I don’t limit myself, it’s a practice of doing self-brainstorming and I let my ideas and my imagination and my brain go without filtering and I let it come out because I know that eventually I’ll see the relationships and be able to connect the dots to generate something that’s great and will be relevant to the problem or issue that I’m needing to face.

Most often than not, I take my time on things, not to say that I don’t rush to make quick decisions. Ideas tend to be more organic in nature and sometimes ideas can just happen and therefore I always keep my mind thinking and open to generating ideas as I go.

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

Lally Rementilla: When I was in high school, I remember the second year I had a religion teacher  because I went to a Catholic school. My religion teacher had always inspired us in different ways, taught us to look at the world in different and innovative ways and sometimes quirky ways. But when she gave us this quotation and the quotation by the way is “Collect then select,” she meant for it to inspire a generation of young women who were socially programmed to follow a particular path in life. But what she really inspired us to do was to collect, meaning to take the energy and the time and the opportunity to have as much opportunities as possible to be involved in something and to take the time to immerse ourselves in different ways and different walks of life, different perspectives of doing things, and then make a decision at the end that we’re going to be committed to.

The reason why she taught us this and the reason why this is something that’s resonating with me and I’m sure with some of my other classmates at that time was that she talked to us about this quotation in the context of dating where she said, “You’re young, you’re only in the second year of high school, try to meet as many boys and men as you can in your life then make a selection when you find “the one”  and stick with that decision and then commit yourself to that person.”

I found that that perspective goes beyond dating and men. I think it’s something that can be applied in life in general.

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

Lally Rementilla: For me success is the ability for you to look yourself in the eye and say to yourself that you’ve maximized every potential talent or asset that you have within you to make a difference in the life of people and it doesn’t necessarily have to be all the people in the whole country. But at least you’ve made a difference in at least one other person’s life. This is a definition that transcends the business world, so it can be applied in a personal or social setting.

As far as the formula to achieve success is concerned, the first is the relentless pursuit of excellence and not settling for what you have, and trying to use your talents for the greater good. There is a lot of hard work associated with this, especially people who are overcome with a lot of challenges have to work extra hard to address those. Integrity I think is going to be very key, it’s staying true to yourself because when you are there maximizing your potential, your assets, your talents, it’s essentially working with one main ingredient and that’s your integrity and you’re going to have to be happy in a very deep way with all the decisions that you make in order to achieve the success.

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

Lally Rementilla: The step I tend to take is to constantly be learning and to do that both formally whether it’s achieving a designation or informally. When I graduated from university I had a BA, but as I worked I took my MBA part-time. I did a CMA designation and I pursued a lot of other training opportunities that my organizations had supported me with. And there is also informal training whether it be immersing myself or taking on a very difficult assignment which I had no qualifications to do and that’s one way for me to learn.

The second step is to have a real strong support system both in business and in my personal life.

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

Lally Rementilla: I alluded to that earlier, which is when you start out, take time to identify your strengths. If you take my advise to play with your strengths, and collect and select which is my favourite quotation, if you put them all together, I think that’s the perfect recipe for those starting out, which is you collect opportunities, you collect different experiences, and then identify your strengths, select them then run with them.

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?

Lally Rementilla:

1. Warren Buffet: I believe he is one of the world’s greatest investors and one of the most down-to-earth persons that I know. I would ask him if he could take the time out to help me pick some stocks for my kid’s portfolios so they are pretty much set to go.
2. Isadore Sharp the founder of Four Seasons: I would like to let him know that I really appreciate his vision in putting the level of customer service as something that’s key to building a successful business.
3. Vincent van Gogh: I had a chance to visit the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam last March and I think it was a big loss to the art world for someone like him who was so driven and talented to have such a  short and limited time as an artist. I would tell him that I greatly admire what he achieved in the little time that he had.
4. Arianna Huffington: I would tell her she is one of the most fearless people that I know.
5. Sheryl Sandberg: I would invite her and say, “You go girl, you define what it is like to be a female in technology.”

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

Lally Rementilla: A lot of the business biographies that I read have had an impact on me, but if there is one that has made a practical impact in my life, it would be Never Eat Alone by Keith Ferrazzi, which is a book about networking. I also think it’s a book about humanity, relationships, having personal values and living and integrating your life. What I liked about the book, is first of all it was practical in nature, but it was also a great success story, and it taught me to be more fearless. It taught me to reach out to people more in my career. I borrowed it from the library and I loved it so much that I bought it and bought a second copy just in case I need to lend it to someone for their own inspiration.

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. You are allowed to take five books, one movie and one music CD, and whatever else you take has to fit in one suitcase and a travel on case. What would you take with you and how would you spend the two years? T he 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?

Lally Rementilla: I would spend the two years trying to get off the island.

Avil Beckford: What excites you about life?

Lally Rementilla: I think of life as an opportunity for us to make changes, and the ability to change things within the sphere of influence that you have and be able to change that sphere of influence as well as you grow.

Avil Beckford: How do you nurture your soul?

Lally Rementilla: I have a very deep Catholic background so I pray a lot. I also try as much as possible to talk to my kids because talking to kids and seeing the potential in them, and seeing the way they view the world I think is something that can ground people and make them feel really good about themselves, and it really nurtures your soul.

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

Lally Rementilla: I have been working with so many spreadsheets in my life that I would wish for a perfect vision to last me for the rest of my life.

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

Lally Rementilla: I make someone laugh!

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Interviewee Name: Chris Kulbaba, Career and Employment Counsellor, Public Speaker

Company Name: London Employment Help Centre

Website: http://linkedinheavyweight.com

Avil Beckford: Tell me a little bit about yourself.

Chris Kulbaba:  I consider myself to be first and foremost a family man so that’s really my focus. I have six children between my partner and I so family is very important. The next thing is that I consider myself to be a helper and a collector. I was told very recently that I collect people and information, and I thought that was a very appropriate description of me. And the last thing is I consider myself to be a social media fanatic – I love that stuff.

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

Chris Kulbaba: I try to keep portions of my personal life very private, however, I also try to keep pieces of my personal life very public. As I’m facilitating I do some self-disclosure. I want to build rapport and trust, and as a mentor, if I’m willing to share some of my struggles and admit some of my own mistakes I truly believe that that lets other people know that everybody makes mistakes, everybody learns through this process and as I give people pieces of personal information I’m sharing with them but I want to keep some pieces of my life private.

As an example, if I’m going to the beach I would not necessarily tweet that I’m going to the beach. I would just go to the beach. 

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

Chris Kulbaba: I’m an enquiring, extroverted, feeling perceptive, so if anyone is familiar with the Myers Briggs dichotomy I love learning so figuring out how to do something a little bit better or to involve myself in learning is what I like to do. I have several clients who are Spanish so I have been teaching myself how to speak Spanish. I can speak a little bit of Spanish but I’m learning as I go.

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

Chris Kulbaba:

1. Everyone that you meet is fighting some sort of battle. So remember that and just give them some patience.
2. The more that you give away, the more that is going to come back to you. I never set out on any activity wondering what’s coming back I just concentrated on helping other people.
3. Everybody perceives things their own way. That’s fine! Just because I see something and I am happy about it and someone else sees something and is not, I don’t have to go and fix that.
4. There is always something to learn: There are always teachable moments around us and you just have to be open to them.
5. You never ever laugh too much

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

Chris Kulbaba: I listen. I listen to other people and ask them “what’s a challenge you are having?” I ask them “what’s going on right now that’s really frustrating to you?” because a real motivation for me is to help people. For me to have a great idea, if I have a great problem and I can meet with someone to discuss things then we can bounce ideas off each other, that’s how I generate great ideas is trying to think of ways to help other people.

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

Chris Kulbaba: My favourite quotation is a Nigerian proverb, “It doesn’t matter what you are called, it only matters what you answer to.” The reason I really like that one is that it talks about how you define yourself. It doesn’t factor in very strongly for me what other people want to call me, what resonates with me internally is what I decide I am going to answer to.

I also like “Beer is proof that God likes us,” I guess I really like beer. And that’s by Benjamin Franklin.

Note from Avil: The quote about beer is a common Benjamin Franklin misquote. What Franklin said was, “Behold the rain which descends from heaven upon our vineyards, there it enters the roots of the vines, to be changed into wine, a constant proof that God loves us, and loves to see us happy.” Source: http://urbanlegends.about.com/b/2008/09/15/misquote-ben-franklin-on-beer.htm.

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

Chris Kulbaba: I define success by when I am networking, or working with someone, how much success do they feel that they got. So as we are working together, their success is my success. If they are working to get another job, working to increase market share, get more clients, that’s where I perceive my niche, my superpower for a better word is collaborative success. In my opinion, the formula for success is to listen twice as much as you speak. I’m not arrogant enough to think that I have all the answers so I have to ask questions to figure out what is the root issue so that we can grow and be successful.

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

Chris Kulbaba: The first thing I did was find a mentor in the field. I asked around about who I should be following and when the same name kept on coming up again and again I approached that person and asked to get some advice on what he thought was best for me. I followed the advice then went back and asked for more. I also asked if there was anyone else who would help me out. They gave me a few contacts so I set several daily goals, weekly goals, monthly goals and long-term goals.

As I met one of those goals I re-evaluated to see what my next steps would be. The steps I took to succeed were putting all the pieces into place.

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

Chris Kulbaba: Think about what you do that other people say, “You made that look so easy.” Think about something you do, either at work or at home that you enjoy doing. Take a moment out of your day, sit there, close your eyes and think back to a story that you are really proud to tell somebody and think about what is involved, who is involved, and think if there is a way you can do this at work.

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?

Chris Kulbaba:

1. The first person I would want to meet is Leonardo da Vinci. I have always been fascinated with Leonardo da Vinci because he was able to see so much hidden beauty. He was dyslexic but ambidextrous – he had a drawing of the submarine and the airplane as and the list goes on. One of the first questions I’d like to ask him is what motivates him, I’d like to figure that one out.
2. Another person I’d love to meet is Abraham Lincoln and I’d like to ask him how he felt about criticism, how he internalized criticism. He is a man who fought for what he believed in, the Proclamation of Emancipation. It took him years to get to the White House amongst a Civil War, mental breakdowns and other failures in business. He really had a dream and a vision.
3. Another person I would enjoy meeting is Benjamin Franklin. I think he had a very interesting life and I love many of his quotations – they seem very witty. He seems like a very amusing person and the one question I’d like to ask him is, “Knowing what you now know, nearing the end of his time what would he have done differently?”
4. I would like to meet Bill Gates for the simple fact that he had a real vision. He started Microsoft with software that he bought from somebody else. He started it by telling people he would do something that had never been done before, he didn’t know how he was going to do it but he just did. The only question that I’d like to ask him, “What made you say in those few moments that you could do something that had never been done?” How did he know that? How did he have that much vision inside himself, and who were his mentors?
5. The fifth person I’d like to meet is Oprah Winfrey. I would love to meet Oprah, talk about a force to be reckoned with. I think that she singlehandedly has changed millions of lives. She had a clear vision; she had a clear direction of what to do, but I think the only thing that I would really want to ask her is, “What’s next?”

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

Chris Kulbaba: It’s not a big book. It’s not groundbreaking, but to me it was simply life altering. It was The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch. This book is about a man who is dying from pancreatic cancer and is giving the last lecture of his life as a university professor. But the book is not a story about being sick or dying, it’s a story about the celebration of living life, always being willing to embrace change, being excited about who you are. I literally had to put the book down a dozen times because I was so emotionally involved in this book. It’s not a big book, it’s maybe 150 pages.

Last Lecture Revisited

If you cannot view the YouTube video please click here.

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. You are allowed to take five books, one movie and one music CD, and whatever else you take has to fit in one suitcase and a travel on case. What would you take with you and how would you spend the two years? T he 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?

Chris Kulbaba:

Five Books

1. One of the books I would take is How to Learn Spanish in Two Years.
2. I would bring the Bible even though I’m not overly religious. I would like to read about several life lessons and I think the Bible has many good stories.
3. I would like to bring a scrapbook of my family and friends so that would be a memory book for me.
4. I would also like to take War and Peace which is a big book and I would bring it because it’s a literary classic. It might take me a while to read but I’ve got the time.
5. I think I would bring Tony Robbins’ Awaken the Giant Within which talks about how to be good to yourself, neuro-linguistic programming and stuff like that.

The movie I would have to bring is Cast Away with Tom Hanks. The music CD would have to be a mix of different music. I would like some quiet music, energizing music, and some music that’s just plain old fun, and maybe some music where my kids are singing a few songs.

Cast Away Official Movie Trailer

If you cannot view this YouTube please click here.

For the two years, I would practice my Spanish of course. The first thing I’d like to do is just spend some time every day to meditate, relax and realize I’m in a beautiful place. I don’t really need or want for anything and I would like to get to know myself. In my suitcase I would bring some journals and I’d like to write down my thoughts and I’d like to see if I could devise a schedule on what I’ll do when I get home. I’ve got $2 million so how am I going to spend it, what will I do? I would also spend some time daydreaming; that would be a fun activity.

Avil Beckford: What excites you about life?

Chris Kulbaba: Everything. Learning, learning, learning. There is always something to learn. There is always something to do. There is always someone to meet. Helping someone to be better than they are is exciting.

Avil Beckford: How do you nurture your soul?

Chris Kulbaba: I play with the kids. I love goofing around with the kids. That’s a soul nurturing activity to be silly with the kids. I always try to find humor in everything I do. Not that I take life lightly, but there is always something to be grateful for and enjoy. The simple fact that I have a job and enough to eat puts me in the top 10 percent of the population in the world.

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

Chris Kulbaba: I think that I would wish for the ability to heal my partner from her chronic pain. She suffers from a car injury and has broken her shoulder twice. She lives in chronic pain all the time.

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

Chris Kulbaba: I’m happy when I’m helping other people. I’m happy when I’m helping someone do something that makes them feel good.

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.

YouTube Video Credits: Wall Street Journal Digital Network

Interviewee Name: Kevin Popović, Communications Director

Company Name: Ideahaus

Website: http://www.ideahaus.com

Avil Beckford: Tell me a little bit about yourself.

Kevin Popović: My job has evolved. I call myself a communications director so I help my clients direct all their communications – marketing, strategy, corporate identity and branding, advertising, design issues, public relations and quite a lot of social media these days. Quite simply, I help my clients figure out what to say and how to say it to their target markets.

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

Kevin Popović: It’s never been un-integrated. I’m very transparent on both sides, many people are not. I have never felt the need to differentiate. Who I am as a professional is who I am personally. The things I do professionally are the things I would run home from school to do, and to do for free. I joke that I have been very fortunate to get my clients to pay me for the things that I’ve always wanted to do as a kid.

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

Kevin Popović:  I’m actually writing a book on that and I’ll keep you posted if I ever get it done.

1. If you don’t ask you don’t get.
2. We take care of our own.
3. Don’t believe your own bullshit.
4. There should be honor among thieves. Many of us are trying to do the same things and to that point, a man or a woman has to have a line that you are not just willing to cross. Some people don’t have that line and I think that will be their downfall.
5. When you leave the house remember whose name you take with you.

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

Kevin Popović: I surf. I ride my motorcycle really fast. It’s usually exercise or some sort of physical stimulus because my job is so mental, that I have to think so much, so with surfing I don’t have to think so much. Riding my motorcycle fast I can’t think about anything else but staying on that motorcycle. Or I watch a lot of the Simpsons.

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

Kevin Popović: I get in front of my computer and turn the music up really loud and I’ll get a Red Bull or pick up a coffee or a Mountain Dew, some kind of caffeine and I click through the tunes until I find one then I start singing. Everything kind of falls into place. My process is very mental, I need to be in good spirits and I need to not be distracted.

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

Kevin Popović: “Never give up, never surrender,” and it’s a quote from the Tim Allen movie Galaxy Quest. It is one that my father and I joke about frequently, so I think it is my favourite because it instils persistence, and because it is a shared laughter with my father it means more to me.

Avil Beckford: How do you define success?

Kevin Popović: Getting what you want out of life.

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

Kevin Popović: Doing what you have to do to get what you want out of life.

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

Kevin Popović: I’ve always tried to keep moving forward, lateral at worst, never backwards.

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

Kevin Popović: Eliminate the excuses as to why you don’t have the next thing you need to succeed.

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?

Kevin Popović:

1. I always wanted to meet David Ogilvy, but I think the poor man has passed. He is the father of modern advertising. And I’d love to just talk shop with him.
2. Groucho Marx because I find his insight as well as his wit outstanding.
3. Matt Groening just because I’m a Simpsons fan and I would love to know how he keeps his team so motivated after 21 years.

Outside of that I think I’ve met everybody that I’ve wanted to meet so far.

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

Kevin Popović: My minor was psychology and the book was Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion and it helped me to understand why people do what they do. At the time, I was 19 when I read it and thought it was one of the more insightful things and it explained so much to me that it helped me understand how to communicate better to people.

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.

Kevin Popović: If I’m on a deserted island I want five empty books and a box of pens because I’ve done a lot of reading, but I’ve got so much to write and I never have enough time to do it without distraction.

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

Kevin Popović: The soundtrack from Oh Brother, Where Art Thou? I would take both the CD and the movie.

If you cannot view the YouTube video of Oh Brother, Where Art Thou? click here.

Avil Beckford: What excites you about life?

Kevin Popović: The fact that I feel that I can do anything that I honestly want, and that’s not in a financial sense. It’s more in a decision-making process. Quite honestly, under this umbrella that is Ideahaus I can justify exploring and investigating just about anything. My mother likes to say that is my spoiled inner child, and my father thinks it is my low threshold of boredom, but it works out for me.

Avil Beckford: How do you nurture your soul?

Kevin Popović: I live at the beach, I go surfing. I surround myself with good, happy people.

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

Kevin Popović: I would wish for money but just enough to pay my bills and have a couple extra dollars in the bank so I could pay attention to life and my work. I don’t need millions and millions of dollars, but I would sure like to be not distracted by the responsibilities of bills and paying things so I could focus on my work.

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

Kevin Popović: I have nothing to worry about.

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: Mary Schnack

Company Name: Mary Schnack & Associates

Website: http://www.maryschnack.com

Avil Beckford: Tell me a little bit about yourself.

Mary Schnack: I was born on a farm in Iowa, played basketball in school, and was a journalism major in college. I was a practicing journalist for eight years before I went into public relations. Now I have my own public relations consulting business. I’m based in the Washington DC area after living in Los Angeles and Arizona for almost 35 years. And I also travel around the world doing speaking engagements and communications training: Business communication training like PR, media training, crisis communications, and branding at conferences, and seminars that are particularly set up for a business audience or for women’s groups.

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

Mary Schnack: I’m glad you use the word integrate because I really hate the word work-life balance because I do think it’s work-life integration. I work hard and I play hard. I think my biggest problem is I don’t give myself much downtime. I definitely schedule time for friends and I’m a big movie goer. I’m big at doing things outdoors, I love sports, watching them as well as participating, and I make sure I carve out time to do those things that I love to do.

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

Mary Schnack:

1. How important teamwork is. I totally depend on my friends for my life and value them tremendously.
2. Advocate, not to sit back and complain about what’s going, but to get out and advocate, whether it’s for yourself, or your child, for your community. Look at what needs to be done, be active and be involved.
3. Celebrate when things go well. Take the time to celebrate that things are going well, that you have a success today, that you impacted somebody’s life or whatever that might be.
4. Bounce back. Being a seven-time cancer survivor I can’t wallow in my grief, I need to bounce back and keep moving on. Sometimes the message I give myself is just to put one foot in front of the other. Simplify that message however you need to. Some days that message for me is what got me out of bed rather than pulling the sheet over my head.
5. Continue to learn. Be open to learning and to education and be open to differences.

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

Mary Schnack: I go to a lot of movies. I really enjoy independent films and documentaries so I love going to the festivals. I like being outdoors. I think nature has a tremendous healing power and the good endorphins to just really lift your spirit. I love it, experiencing different cultures, so as much as I can when I travel, I will make sure that I really have a cultural experience. And then just being with friends and having great discussions, that’s a great deal of inspiration for me.

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

Mary Schnack: Brainstorming! Having that mentor, having that business coach, having a partner or a good friend and brainstorming. I think that’s where the best ideas come from.

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

Mary Schnack: My favorite quotation is from Madeline Albright which says basically, shame on women who don’t lift up other women. And I think that that’s so true, and then Katharine Graham who was the head of the Washington Post-Newsweek also had a quote that said to “Enjoy what you do, what more matters,” and I greatly feel that way that I have to look forward to each day and fortunately I have work. I created that work so I’m excited about what I’m doing.

Avil Beckford: How do you define success?

Mary Schnack: Inner peace and happiness, and for me a thriving child. I don’t think I could have inner peace and happiness if my child didn’t have the same, so you are at one with yourself, and you’re happy.

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

Mary Schnack: Keep putting one foot in front of the other and looking for the all the positive things out there because no matter how negative things are, there are positive things going and just celebrating in that joy of what’s happening.

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

Mary Schnack: I was a good writer so I had a lot of the basics, and I was a creative thinker. I would say those are the two things that have helped the most with success.

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

Mary Schnack: They should have some good basic business skills. Not that they necessarily need to have all the skills, but whether it’s finance, writing or strategic planning, strategic thinking. They have to have some good basics as their foundation and then to go out and network and meet people, and talk and explore. I think those would be the most important things.

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?

Mary Schnack:

• Hillary Clinton: I would ask her what she thinks the timeline might be for women’s growth in equality, for women to grow to an equal seat at the table, what other steps need to be taken, what are the most important step for us to take to do that.
• President Bill Clinton and President Obama: Your questions are great. I probably would ask them a lot of the questions that you’ve asked me.
• Winnie Mandela: It would be a tough choice between her and her former husband but I think that would be great. I think it’s taken a long time for her story to be told, and I’d like to know how she reacted when Nelson Mandela was put on such a high pedestal, which I really think he deserves, but in many ways she was left off of it, and how she felt about that, how she’s continued persevering over the years, how do you not care about what other people think but keep moving forward in the work that you’re doing.
• Wangari Maathai: She was the Nobel Peace Prize winner in Kenya several years ago, an environmentalist.  I would want to ask her what inspired her to get started, what she thinks are the most important things an individual can do to help the world and I would ask her how she sees the environmental issues serve the worldwide peace process.

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

Mary Schnack: The Women’s Room by Marilyn French. It’s definitely a feminist icon book and I think I read that before I could truly call myself a feminist, and it really opened my eyes to how we needed to continue to advocate for women’s rights.

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.

Mary Schnack: I would like to have Nelson Mandela’s and Eleanor Roosevelt’s biographies. Those are two iconic figures in history and I have not read their biographies yet. I know those are books that I would like to read. I would like to take the latest book by John Irving. I love John Irving’s writing and have fallen out of step with keeping up with his books, so I’d like to do that. There’s a book out of England called Cross-Cultural Business Communication so to be quite honest I’d really like to take that book because that’s a book that I very much want to read. I found out about it through The International Alliance for Women. I would also take The Poisonwood Bible. It’s one of my all-time favorite books and I’ve only read it twice and I think I would like to read it a third and fourth time.

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

Mary Schnack: The movie that I like watching over and over again is Out of Africa. I love that movie. I like the romance, I love the adventure and exploration, I love the human dynamics, I like the way she fought against the odds. I could watch that movie over and over forever. The music CD would probably be something by Bonnie Raitt. I really loved her music and still listen to it once in a while, but rather than picking somebody that’s a new artist I think I’d want to pick somebody that I know their music is going to endure with me.

If you cannot view Out of Africa YouTube Video please click here.

Avil Beckford: What excites you about life?

Mary Schnack: Meeting new people and experiencing new cultures, I just love that.

Avil Beckford: How do you nurture your soul?

Mary Schnack: By helping others, the women I work with around the world, and the communications trainings I do. I also started a business called Up from the Dust where I import items made by women in developing countries and bring it here to the United States to sell.

I was giving a communication training to women from Rwanda and Afghanistan and I happened to mention that I was a six-time cancer survivor and this woman from Afghanistan who is a doctor in the Kandahar area which is where heavy fighting is going says, “How do you go on?” I just looked at her, it was like how could this woman asked me how I go on, I wonder how she goes on with everything she faces on a daily basis. I just looked at her and said, “Because of people like you. You nurture my soul you are my inspiration. If you can do what you do then I can easily do what I do.”

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

Mary Schnack: I would wish for financial stability because then I would have more money to donate to good causes. I would be able to look at doing more charity work, really being able to focus less on paying bills and doing what I want to do.

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

Mary Schnack: I am happy when I’m with friends.

One Action to Take After Digesting the Interview

Mary Schnack: I would really like them to look at how they can let their voices be heard, what is a topic or issue that is important for them, and how they can use the power and impact of their voices to change something whether it’s their own personal level of happiness, whether it’s something that’s happening in the community that isn’t right, whether it’s a worldly issue, but my goal is to help people let their voices be heard, and inspire them to do it.

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.

Interviewee Name: Sean Ward

Company Name: SeanWard.net

Website: http://www.seanward.net/

Avil Beckford: Tell me a little bit about yourself.

Sean Ward: I’m an artist and an entertainer from Toronto, Canada and I’m doing stuff that I always dreamed and swore that I was going to be doing and I just have a lot of fun. I’m trying to make and retain products both in print and stuff to watch that I hope people can watch and enjoy so it gives them a tickle and gets them thinking about certain ideas that are going to lead to joy and a better world.

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

Sean Ward: I’m the wrong person to ask that because I don’t do a good job maintaining that work-life balance at all. I think that phrase is a handy one for people who somewhere along the line got caught in that trap, that what you do for money is somehow separate from that person who is doing it and that you can keep your life separate. Everything that we do during the day shapes us and turns us into who we are, who we’re going to be and I think a lot of people have this attitude that they can resist this force and they can’t. I think that a lot of people take comfort in the idea that they can resist that force and lead them to a place of feeling that they can get around to it later, the whole business of improving yourself and trying to shape the world.

My personal and professional life are so entwined and so the same thing that they are pre-integrated. Even if I’m going to sit down and watch a TV show or watch a movie or something, the selection of what I’m going to watch when I’m relaxing is something that I need to watch for work for one reason or another. It’s research, or giving me stuff that I can use in my work so I’m always on the clock until something else distracts me for a while.

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

Sean Ward: I try not to mess around with the word or the concept of regret, but I guess the only thing I could say to get close to a regret would be not getting started earlier. That applies both to the very beginning of my career when I was out working jobs that had nothing to do with anything that I wanted to do with my career. Then I had that realization that time was going by and I needed to start putting work into fulfilling all these promises that I was making to myself while I was growing up.

I wish I had started that process earlier and also the process of getting up and going again after I had that tumble that I described. In either case not getting started earlier would be the major regret.

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

Sean Ward:

1. Always present an attractive package to the outside world. That is to say, take an interest in fashion, take an interest in getting to be a people person. I realized a long time ago this whole notion of first impressions are very powerful and the fact that something that counts for so much is under our control so easily is very invigorating and inspiring to me. So always dress sharp.
2. Don’t be late for anything because when you’re late people make assumptions about what that means about you even though you try to tell yourself that it doesn’t.
3. None of the things going around us actually matters in the grand scheme of things so what we are here to do is to have fun and make stuff whether literally or figuratively will somehow make the world a better place. So put a value on what we are doing here.
4. No one is going to take as much interest in what you’re doing as you’re going to have to and that goes for everybody. Partners are great when you need them but at the end of the day, you’ve got to be your own best partner.
5. Nobody is watching as closely as you think they are. Everybody is too interested in what you are doing so do what you want to do and fail in a spectacular fashion because no one is paying attention and nobody cares.

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

Sean Ward: Music is a big thing for me so listening to music on my iPod when I’m taking my dog for a walk or chilling out and catching up on some of my TV programs.

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

Sean Ward: It’s all about me having classic spiral bound notebooks. The 400 page ones, I have to have one of those close by because writing stuff down and drawing diagrams around stuff is how I think and I often notice a really big improvement in the quality of the ideas that I’m having, and how easily they come since getting another book. I have a trunk in my mother’s attic with 15 volumes of these notebooks that I have been keeping over the years. But late last year and early into this year moving around the way that I was doing, I didn’t have one of these notebooks on the go so now that I’ve got another one I’m noticing a really big improvement right away on the quality of the ideas that I’m having and how speedily they come. So the process is to get out the 400-page notebook and start writing down and doodling.

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

Sean Ward: “If being an egomaniac means I believe in what I do and in my art or music then in that respect you can call me that. I believe in what I do and I’ll say it” by John Lennon. At the time the quotation was slipped to me, I was having a really difficult time with people misunderstanding and mischaracterizing me and what I was doing and as coming from ego, as being very self-centered, as being egotistical I think people were catching my hard sell in the very showy way that I was selling myself and selling what I was doing and without knowing much about it. It was easy to write me off as being that way. The people who actually got into the work realized that I was only shouting as loud as I was because I was that excited to get the word out about these things that I thought I had discovered and that I thought I knew and was trying to share in the work. That quote got slipped to me by a girl who buys my books regularly. I wrote the quote with a marker on a t-shirt, and wore it a lot of the days when I was selling at the corner. It helped me stay positive and hopeful and still having fun in the face of people not wanting to buy a book, not wanting to stop and talk whatever, calling me names on the Internet.

Avil Beckford: How do you define success?

Sean Ward: How I define success changed recently. I would have said before that money doesn’t matter, passion is what matters. Living grandiose and making art is what’s important. But I’m also seeing now that there are other world events that are of concern that have to be taken more seriously than I had taken them in the past so I would say that now, success is the sum total of how the work you are doing is affecting people and what they are getting out of it. So if you take stock of audience reaction to the work that you’ve done and the feedback is indicating to you that people are getting from it what you want them to get from it then that’s successful, on whatever scale and it’s just a matter of blowing it up to take it to greater heights so you don’t have to take the rinse and repeat philosophy. If you’ve got something that you’re putting out on offer to get three people to check it out and you find that one person who is into it, success is what happens when you make a point to go out there and find the other people like that one in three who will be into it, and not get bogged down that the two out of three didn’t care for it.

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

Sean Ward: Start right away, stay busy, and let your work speak for itself and maintain faith. It’s time plus effort is what equals your reward.

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

Sean Ward:

• The first step is the hardest which is making the decision to get going and take it ultra seriously because a lot of times people put it off and when they do get into it they dabble so it’s really important for me to take the first step of taking things very seriously and saying, “This is what I’m going to do, no matter what.” This isn’t what I’m going to do ONE day, it’s what I’m doing TODAY. That was the first big step that I took.
• In a lot of ways in my darker moments I feel down about my compulsions, and the ways that I’m weird and the things that keep me feeling that I’m separate from my fellow man. There was never a point where I felt I should stop drawing comics and stop making videos and go try be a banker or whatever, I’m not cut out for that. I’m the kind of person where I get thinking about something, or get it in mind to do something and then I just have to do it, and it doesn’t matter what challenges are in the way, or how difficult my life around it is going to be to get it done.

I just got to do it and that’s always the way for me to get things done. That’s really the steps that I have taken, have been to get moving number one. Number two was to find good mentors who could arm me with both information and inspiration. So to find people who have that success attitude to surround yourself with, and finally to be out where people who can learn from, and try to work that into your art somehow.

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

Sean Ward: The big trick is to get down and do it. We can spend forever learning how to do it, and learning about the technical side of it, whatever it is, but there is no substitute for getting down to work on it, so that is the advice that I always have for young artists, anybody whoever, going back to the beginning of my career, anybody who treated me with that respect, looking at what I do with that reverence, that they are asking me, as if I’m an authority, what advice I would have for them. Well the first question is, “What are you doing right now?” You get people who want to be a movie director, but they are learning all they can about lighting or whatever, people who want to be a comic book artist they’ve got a part-time job at a record shop. The advice is to get moving, get out of your own way.

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?

Sean Ward:

1. Charlie Chaplin: As big a Beatles fan as I am, the way that I see it, Charlie Chaplin invented the template for the art that he did in the business even more to a greater degree than the Beatles did. With that in mind, Charlie Chaplin would be the number one person that I’d want to meet because he did it. What I’d say to him, “This is how I see your career trajectory and what fascinates me about it Mr. Chaplin is how if all this would have taken place today going from the short subject films that don’t have a plot really all the way up to multi-reel pictures and on into feature films it’s fascinating how you career trajectory, if it happened today would have played out the same way.” If Charlie Chaplin hadn’t happened in the early 20^th Century, it would fly the exact same way on the Internet and his career would have been the same. So to find out what his secret was to that is what I’d say to him.
2. Paul McCartney: Even though John Lennon gets the props as the creative genius, the true A-Artist of the Beatles, Paul McCartney was the one who understood that it’s not just about making work that shakes things up or is radical, there is a consideration to be made for what the audience will be receptive to. So it’s actually Paul’s tempering influence on John was a big part of why the Beatles were able to be as huge as they were. If it was left up to John he would have been content to try and piss off everybody that he could everywhere he went so I would try to say something to Paul to get the secret of how he was able to have such a keen eye and ear of what was going to be a hit and how to package it.
3. Hugh Hefner: Another one of our great 20^th Century success stories. He created an empire.
4. Jesus Christ: What we attribute to be his ideas and concepts played and continues to play such a huge and defining role in our lives and in the culture. It’s unarguable as to who is the number one force that has shaped the culture that we live in as much as we try to reject and resist the crap that Christianity had piled on top of it. The message itself is timeless, what the Guy was about, revealed itself to be the truth again, again and again. Whatever form it shows up in, whether we want to attribute it to another person or another prophet, it’s the same idea expressing itself again and again. That’s just the Guy who expressed it for this part of the world and this culture.
5. Walt Disney: He was an artist who designed a business and an industry from scratch out of nothing, but his own sweat and ideas

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

Sean Ward: I had a book recommended to me again by a girl who was buying comic books from me on the street back when that was what I was doing. She hit me to that book called Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill, and I’ve always been, especially in my adult years, the kind of person who is always watching for coincidences, and believing that mysterious forces are putting sign posts along the way for us and putting things in places where we’re going to need them later, and that these mysterious forces are responsible for a lot of what we can easily dismiss as coincidence. I would say that sometimes it’s easier living if I would let things go and chock it up to coincidences but I’m so apt to wonder the meaning of this, that and the next thing. I can literally drive myself crazy with it.

But when this book came on to my radar, I had never heard about it, never seen it in a bookstore, nothing. That same day, I went into the Beatlemania Shoppe, a store that sold everything that you can think of with Beatles on it, and I was using the back room of the store as the place where I stashed my little podium and all the gear I use for selling comics on the street. So the guy who ran the store, Peter Maniaci who I told you about earlier, his accountant Ron maintained an office also in the backroom in the store.

There was a big stack of books, old beat up paperbacks, on top of Ron’s filing cabinet that were never there before so I said, “Hey Ron, what’s up with the books?” And he said, “Oh I’m trying to get rid of them. I’m going to take them to a used bookstore and try to sell them.” So I started going through the books and he had a copy of Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill in this pile of books. Never heard of this book before, never knew it existed and all of a sudden the same day that this girl recommended it to me making it sound good, here it is in this pile of books in Ron’s office.

So I said, “Hey do you mind if I take this one before you get rid of the pile?” And he said, “Sure take it.” And I took it and that copy of the book is now so beat up, so dog-eared because I’ve read it so many times. I have bought it as a gift for so many different people for so many different occasions. And the reason why it stands out, and the reason why it’s the one that I single out was because it gave form to so many things that I felt like I knew already in terms of knowledge that I came into this world with but it hadn’t yet found a way or encountered a way to communicate things. It sort of made me feel that a lot of the ways that I was living my life were destined and preordained on high and here is this book that’s like helping me get in touch with these things that were already living very deep inside of me. I’m probably talking really esoteric and strange but this is where I go with these things.

Think and Grow Rich  laid out a blueprint and instruction manual for conducting oneself in the world and it’s helped me. And even though I have gone to other books and got interested in other authors who writes these kinds of things, other approaches to that kind of material, it always ends up going back to that book as the one that is the most right, and the one that is most accurate, and the one that is least filled with the author’s personal bias.

After reading this book, getting along in the world was a lot easier after that.

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

Sean Ward:

1. Think and Grow Rich because it’s not just about how to be successful at a business venture, it a blueprint for how to monitor your head and keep it screwed on from day-to-day living in the world.
2. Fantastic Four / Iron Man: Big in Japan (Fantastic Four (Marvel Paperback)) is a graphic novel from a few years ago, which was released from Marvel Comics. On the surface it’s about Ironman and Fantastic Four having to deal with an invasion in Japan kind of like Godzilla style monsters, but what’s lurking behind that is a really astute, entertaining and enlightening deconstruction of both comics as a medium but also art itself. For something masquerading as junk food pop entertainment to be so thick and charged with this really esoteric and insightful stuff was nothing short of a revelation to check that book out.
3. The One Minute Millionaire: The Enlightened Way to Wealth because it’s one of those books that teaches you how to live, how to think, and how to conduct yourself day today in the world.
4. The Bible but not just the Bible it would have to be a particular translation of the Bible that I enjoy. It’s a modern day translation and they have done a good job without losing the deeper meaning. And it was that translation of the Bible coming into my possession that got me really excited about those concepts, those characters and that kind of thing.
5. Charlie Chaplin My Autobiography by Charles Chaplin and that’s before even any of those books Think and Grow Rich type of books came into my head, when I was a teenager I found a beat up copy of the hardcover of Charlie Chaplin’s autobiography in a used bookstore, and bought and devoured it. Thinking back on it now, and knowing who I was at the time I had that book, I’m kind of surprised that I read the whole thing because it was a big, heavy, thick book about this world that I had no connection to in the late 1800s and early 20^th Century. The guy’s story was so inspiring, there is so much to his family history that rang through with me that I could relate to, and then the whole thing of learning how huge his success was and getting those details of how he made it happen was very eye opening, was very inspirational and I was very sad to report that I no longer own that book.

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

Sean Ward: For my CD I will take the Beatles One because it has the hits and if you’re going to have nothing else to listen to, why not listen to the best music ever recorded. For the movie I would have to take 2001 A Space Odyssey.

Avil Beckford: What excites you about life?

Sean Ward: The trajectory that we are on, the point in history that we’re at, this kind of feeling that we’re the underdog in a movie and rooting for us to succeed in the face of these challenges that we’re facing. That’s what excites me about life, the louder it gets, the more colourful, the more pumped full of stimuli we are, the more interesting that story gets. I just feel in so many ways really deeply, passionately lucky to be alive right now, to be born and be here for this show, I love it. It excites me to be here when so much is moving and changing so fast.

Avil Beckford: How do you nurture your soul?

Sean Ward: I do that in a few ways. Number one is to do work that is an outlet for these kinds of things that I think about and that I feel and to try and do right by my work, and to try and do right by my soul and keep them as tied together as I can. I place a very high value on my alone time, being an artist, an entrepreneur I spend so much time alone I think it would be interesting to see some kind of study on the amount of time on average people spend by themselves because most people they go to work someplace where there are other people there, and they go home and most people have a family, so they’ve got a spouse, they’ve got kids, or they still live with their parents, that’s probably the norm so for someone to spend so much time alone as I do, probably they’d be a little bit crazy and the reason why I feel like I don’t relate well to my fellowmen. But at the same time I wouldn’t trade it for anything because it allows me to keep certain parts of the inside of me quiet, and focused and listening. So I try to nurture my soul by not being caught up in the world of man, to be in it but not of it as they say. I try very hard to perpetuate love and acceptance that the great literature espouses.

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

Sean Ward: I would wish for some kind of property or compound like a place where my family could go and be and not ever have to worry about paying rent or mortgage, or having any responsibility. I’ve had this picture developed over the last few years of trying to set my family up and being able to know that they are just not taken care of and looked after, but to know that they are happy and having fun and know that they have resources available to them to improve themselves and stimulate their soul, their imagination. My one wish is to know that that’s there for them.

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

Sean Ward: I’m happy when I’ve just released a new product in the world. That’s probably the greatest feeling. That high that comes after releasing work and before you’ve had the chance to start taking it apart seeing what you can do better next time, that’s a beautiful moment and there is no substitute for it. And that comes into the importance of getting down to work and cultivating your talents as quickly as possible as you can because you want to get to that feeling as quickly as you can.

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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