The Invisible Mentor

Posts Tagged ‘Joseph Campbell’

The book list is comprised of books that profoundly influenced interviewees, desert island books as well as the books that I have reviewed. There is a lot of books on the list so I do not expect you to read them all.

Books That Influence

The Bible

The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Joseph Campbell

Gone with the Wind,  Margaret Mitchell

Zen and The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Robert Pirsig

Desert Island Books

Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth

Fall On Your Knees (Oprah’s Book Club), Ann-Marie MacDonald

The 1001 Arabian Nights

Don Quixote, Miguel  de Cervantes

Short stories by Alice Munroe

A Summons to Memphis, Peter Taylor

New Hart’s Rules

The Mitfords: Letters Between Six Sisters, edited by Charlotte Moseley

Books Reviewed

The Skinny on Time Management, Jim Randel

The Skinny on Success: Why not you? Jim Randel

If you have read any of the books on the list please let me know what you thought of them. Choose at least four books from the list. Find ways to connect them even if they appear to be unrelated. Remove all barriers and let your creativity flow. What are five takeaways, and five great ideas that you can immediately apply?

Keep the conversation flowing. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the left side) by email or RSS Feed. I created a Mini Learning Toolkit and you can grab a copy by clicking here.

For your research and writing needs, consider my firm Ambeck Enterprise for white papers, articles, fact sheets, anniversary booklets, you name it. Since I am the best kept secret you may not know this, but I have over 15 years research and writing experience. I KNOW content. And if you cannot figure out which books to read for professional development, I am your WOMAN, I can assist you with that too.

Note: All book links are affiliate links

On Wednesday and Thursday we present an interview with Duke Redbird, First Nations Ojibwe Elder. It is my intention to bring to you a diversity of interviews so that we may all learn and grow. It’s amazing how much we can learn from others if we are open. Interviewees who are different from us can direct our thinking in new directions. For example, when talking about disappointments in life, Duke says that if the glass is half-full he simply gets a smaller glass, so now that glass is full. I wouldn’t have thought of that. We are socialized to choose between half-full and half-empty so it doesn’t occur to us that we can add another choice and that is to get a smaller vessel. What are your thoughts?

Tell me a little bit about yourself. Tell me a little bit about your company and where the idea for your business came from?

I am a First Nations Ojibwe Elder from Saugeen, a small reserve located in Ontario. I was born in 1939 so I’m 70 years old and will be 71 in March. I lived my entire life between the sacred and the profane, and I see the sacred as anything that has been created by the creator and nature, and the profane as anything that has been created by human beings. So when I am in the sacred I try not to profane it, and when I am in the profane, like I am today, I try to bring something sacred to it, so that’s my rule and prime directive.

What’s a typical day like for you?

I mentor faculty and students at the Ontario College of Art and Design, I am also a mentor for students at the University of Toronto, I am doing a totem impact project at York University, and I work on my film and television projects.

How do you motivate yourself and stay motivated?

Motivation is just waking up in the morning and realizing that you are alive and have things to do. We are here for a purpose and we have to fulfill that function whatever we find it to be. It is sort of like Joseph Campbell says about following your bliss.

If you had to start over from scratch, knowing what you know now, what would you do differently?

I would never have touched alcohol or cigarettes in my youth. In my youth, holding your liquor and smoking appeared to be social badges of maturity. Though I quit drinking 25 years ago, and I no longer smoke, those were very poor choices. I wish I had had a mentor to steer me in another direction.

What’s the most important business (or other) discovery you’ve made in the past year?

The most important discovery that I made was to recognize the shift of consciousness that’s taking place around the planet, and it’s taking place with all the discourse that’s going on about developing more spiritual context to engage the world that we live in. It’s like a quantum leap has taken place in a new kind of reality. It’s no longer about money and power, it’s about self preservation, and romance is becoming integrated into those ideas.

What’s one of the biggest advances in your industry over the past five years?

Technologies are constantly improving. We are on the cusp of a whole new technological society, and it has to do with things like making a movie on your cell phone and being able to project in on a screen, 3-D on your laptop. Now we have floating keyboards and you don’t even need a keyboard in front of you, just a little projector projecting one on your table, or some empty space, and it works on your computer. Whenever we come up with a new technology we have no idea how it will affect us as human beings.

What are the three threats to your business, your success, and how are you handling them?

Can’t think of any.

What’s unique about the service that you provide?

There is nothing particularly unique about the service that I provide, except that I am engaged in broadcasting as an Arts and Entertainment reporter, and I act as a mentor elder and advisor to students.

What do you observe most people in your field doing badly that you think you do well?

I think the fact that television is becoming planned and not as creative as it once was. I look at old programs, what we called the Golden Age of television and classical TV and things have gone downhill in terms of what we call infotainment, it’s information and entertainment combined, but it’s not real news.

Describe a major business (or other) challenge you had and how you resolved it.

Every decision that one makes is a challenge to get it right, and I saw most of the challenges that I faced on the basis of discovering whether they were wise decisions. I realize that the past is over, it’s gone and so one shouldn’t dwell on the past. You face a challenge based on the information you have at the moment, and then you try to solve it on the basis of wisdom, and how they might affect  your condition, your health, your attitude and personality, all those things.

What lessons did you learn in the process?

Most of what we consider to be civilized activities are nonsense, and so we have to make our way through a maze of bad decisions that people are making on our behalf.

Tell me about your big break and who gave you.

Moses Znaimer gave me the opportunity to work in television, and York University gave me a lot of help when I went to university. I have had so many it’s from a series of people.

Describe one of your biggest failures. What lessons did you learn, and how did it contribute to a greater success?

To tell you the truth I cannot think of a big failure, nothing comes to mind.

What has been your biggest disappointment in your life – and what are you doing to prevent its reoccurrence?

I cannot think of a disappointment. I would view something as a disappointment if I wanted to do something and was stopped. That hasn’t happened to me. I was having a discussion with Ron LeBlanc and he asked me if the glass was half full or half empty. When a glass is half full, I simply reduce the size of the glass, and it becomes  full so you do not become disappointed if you have that approach to life.

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

A few years ago I decided to go and live in the North, and I actually bought a business in the Algonquin Park area. For all intents and purposes I made up my mind to live up there permanently, and one of the hardest decisions I had to make was when I realized that it was impossible, and that I would have to come back to the city [Toronto] to fulfill the obligations that I had, my art and my career, and so that was difficult.

What are three events that helped to shape your life?

Being born, being orphaned at nine months, and going through non-Native American foster homes as a child. These people were taking in orphaned children as a business and not for compassionate reasons. Going through that experience as a child, I realized that I was a commodity and not a person, and that I represented an income. These things defined my personality, character and how I approach life. Another event is when I chose to celebrate my culture and also get involved on social and political levels to establish a more equitable life for First Nations people.

What nuggets of wisdom have you gleaned from Duke’s interview? How might you apply his responses to your situation.

Keep the conversation flowing. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the left side) by email or RSS Feed. I created a Mini Learning Toolkit and you can grab a copy by clicking here.

For your research and writing needs, consider my firm Ambeck Enterprise for white papers, articles, fact sheets, anniversary booklets, you name it. Since I am the best kept secret you may not know this, but I have over 15 years research and writing experience. I KNOW content. And if you cannot figure out which books to read for professional development, I am your WOMAN, I can assist you with that too.

Today we present part two of Ron LeBlanc’s interview. Ron loves the concept of the hero’s journey so it’s no surprise that the one book that profoundly impacted his life is Joseph Campbell‘s The Hero With a Thousand Faces. To generate great ideas, he immerses himself in art and hangs out with “great” people. This makes sense because a study by INSEAD business school revealed that networking is one of the five discovery skills for innovation.

Tell me a little bit about yourself.

I am a 58-year old Canadian and the Chairman of Madacana Holding Inc, a fairly major player in the gem business in Madagascar. I have a sapphire mine and land bank in Madagascar. We’ve been in Madagascar since 2004, and I took over operation and control of the mine in 2006, which is located in the south of Madagascar. Prior to 2006, I was a gem buyer.

Madagascar is a complex place, but I have experience doing business in Africa and I enjoy it. Madagascar is probably the best place in the world for gems so it was the right place and the right time. I am a low functioning polymath and I have done a lot of things: I’ve been in bars, restaurants and I have been in the aesthetics business for a long, long time. After two years of exploration, I am ready to go into serious mechanized mining in the gem business in Madagascar.

As an Invisible Mentor, what is one piece of advice that you would give to readers?

Follow your bliss, follow your passion and stay current at all times. You are always unfinished, you are always working on something you want to be and will be. Have a leading kind of curiosity that gets you access to all the information in your particular sector. You have to be passionate, and if you are not, the universe will conspire against you. You want the universe to support you. The intelligent universe will support someone who is operating within their passion and following it.

How do you integrate your personal and professional life?

It’s together and I think in some ways the guys who are surviving here do not separate their personal and professional life, it’s all integrated. But when I say that, there has to be sacrifices. But most powerful people don’t see it as a sacrifice.

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

I don’t really have any regrets. I think I will have regrets when I finish having life. While you are in life you do not have regrets. Regret is the illumination you get by looking back when you have finished having life. I do not have regrets because I keep moving forward.

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

1. Follow your bliss, follow your passion: when you follow your passion you find that the universe conspires to help you along the way
2. Notwithstanding that passion, you need an honest assessment of the possibilities within the choice which you have taken. If your passion is to move piano you know there is a limitation there. If your passion is to be a head of a company you know that’s a different thing completely so you have to have a realistic view on your ambitions
3. Once your way has been chosen, the lesson in life is that you have to be the best. Every individual is unique in some way and has unique sets of talents of experiences and that uniqueness has to be shored up by all the information possible. You have to know what you are doing and be efficient in the career that you’ve chosen.
4. You cannot expand your business without co-operating. One of the imperatives is survival of the co-operatives. Every expanding business needs a level of faith and you need trusting people around you. You need to be able to give up some of the power and co-operate.
5. You can be wrong, and you have to be able to take a bullet, be candid about it and say that you are wrong. You have to be quick about it. That’s the best way forward. Meet those challenges, meet those failures with candor.

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

I read at least 50 books each year. I am constantly reading and going to the theatre. I do this because I need the balm of escape so when I am in the theatre I just lose myself. I need that. The driving consciousness during wakefulness that I need for my business is nice, but the balm of escape allows me to get relief from that.

What process do you use to generate great ideas?

I hang out with great people, I read a lot, and I find that there is sympathy between what I’m reading and what I’m thinking, so the topics and the ambience is often found in the literature. I often go to the arts that I personally choose, or the friends that I hang around with, when I need to generate great ideas.

What’s your favourite quotation and why?

“Man plans, God laughs.” Yiddish proverb

It’s difficult to make a plan. You need a vision for it moving forward and you need to place milestones and you better be ready to adapt because making plans is like trying to predict the weather.

How do you define success?

I think success really is living with your passions. If you are a busker on the street and you’re playing music, or you’re trading on the floor or you’re being a mother, if you are doing what you want to do, that’s success. Living to your talents and your passions is really the measure of success.

In your opinion what’s the formula for success?

If you are blessed with a clearly defined and delineated passion, the formula for success is to be brave and to jump into that passion of interest.

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

Straight and unmitigated courage and confidence in my own talent and intelligence but also I have learned more and more that I need a supporting group of professionals as I move forward, education and professional support and a great deal of courage. Go for it!

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

Collect all the information possible about the field, look at it and really be mindful of how the field moves you, and make sure that it is field that you want to be in. Look at yourself and make sure that it is the place for you. You only have one life so you want to be sure.

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?

Barack Obama: I think he is a fascinating and interesting character

Joseph Campbell: I would like to have met Joseph Campbell and talk to him about the mythological state of  man and the power of myth

Albert Einstein: I would have liked to meet Einstein because I am interested in science and math and would have liked to talk to him about gravity

Georgia O’Keefe: She is an interesting and fascinating painter and of course I’d like to talk to all the painters. I’d like to talk to Clinton, Van Gogh and a few of the other guys. I’m also interested in the impressionists.

Bill Gates: He has an interesting view on things. Steve Jobs would also be interesting too because he has an innovative and creative mind

And I would like to say to them, “What have you learned?” I think every character has a place of pure experience and I would love to learn what they have learned over and above everybody else.

Which one book had a profound impact on your life? What was it about this book that impacted you so deeply? Did you have an emotional or intellectual attachment to this book? Why?

The Hero With a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell. I see myself as being on a low grade journey and I’ve always been out in the world doing deeds,  and I guess this is a self mythology and Joseph Campbell without question has  gathered quite clearly all the pan-global myths and has articulated a pretty distinct underpinning of man’s journey, a kind of hero’s journey. He talks about Prometheus, Jason and so on. He talks about all these journeys and he really spoke to me. I have been out there on this mythological journey. I think it is very true and we are all mythological beasts and we follow the stages of mythology whether we know it or not.

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.

Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth

Fall On Your Knees

1001 Arabian Nights

Don Quixote, Miguel  de Cervantes

Short stories by Alice Munroe

Bill Moyer’s Interview with Joseph Campbell, Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth: He asks the pivotal questions and collates the information for us

Ann Michael’s Fall On Your Knees: I love poets who become writers. The story is about the Canadian experience, very richly articulated.

Short stories by Alice Munroe: I love Alice Munroe. She can make even the most mundane experience a kind of graceful experience. She is regarded as the best short story writer in the world.

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

Movie: The 2001 Space Odyssey

Music: The Greatest Hits of Leonard Cohen

What excites you about life?

Beauty

How do you nurture your soul?

Beauty, I am in the gems business

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?

I have got most of what I want so maybe I wish to be more tolerant, less hostile,  and to be more compassionate

Complete the following, I am happy when…..

I am beginning a project, the creative first few days of a project. And after a long night of dancing

What gems of wisdom can you glean from this interview? What aspects of the interview can you apply to your situation? Let’s keep the conversation flowing, please comment. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the left side) by email or RSS Feed. I created a Mini Learning Toolkit and you can grab a copy by clicking here.

For your research and writing needs, consider my firm Ambeck Enterprise. Since I am the best kept secret you may not know this, but I have over 15 years research and writing experience. I KNOW content.

Note: All book links are affiliate links

Do you ever enter contests? For the past 2 1/2 years I have been entering competitions and I have won a few. I have lost more than I have won, but for the writing competitions, just by entering, my writing has improved. No one likes losing, including me, but I still enter them.

In September 2009 I saw a notice to enter a contest to rewrite Sleeping Beauty for the launch of Enchanted Conversation, a blogazine. I went to the website and there were various ways to rewrite the fairy tale and I chose to rewrite it from the perspective of the villainess. While I was working on my submission, I was laughing and enjoying the experience and I understood what Joseph Campbell meant by following your bliss. I enjoy writing and I get better as I practice my craft. What are your thoughts, is this the same for you? Are you following your bliss?

I was one of the winners of the contest and the Enchanted Conversation website went live on January 1, 2010. Read my version, Sleeping Beauty Unplugged and let me know what you think. Do you enter competitions. If yes, why do you enter them? What are your best sites to find competitions?

If you’d like to enter a few competitions, here is a website that I frequent:

Prize Magic

Also, Hope Clark has a weekly ezine where she announces competitions, and freelance opportunities, see her website at http://www.fundsforwriters.com.  And, Gary McLaren also announces competitions in his ezine  Worldwide Freelance http://www.worldwidefreelance.com/

Let’s keep the conversation flowing, please comment. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the left side) by email or RSS Feed. I created a Mini Learning Toolkit and you can grab a copy by clicking here.

Photo credit: Via Apture

Bookmark & Share

Today is Part Two of the Brian Johnson interview. I’m sure that once again you’ll glean information that you can act on. I have found Brian to be a very happy person and his interview will inspire you to be the best that you can be.

Tell me a little bit about yourself.

I love wisdom, and that makes me a philosopher. I also love creating cool businesses that allow me to do what I love in service to the world and that’s why I’m currently focusing my energy on PhilosophersNotes where I’m sharing the Big Ideas from the world’s greatest teachers that I hope will inspire and empower people to live their greatest lives.

How do you integrate your personal and professional life?

That presupposes they are separate.

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

There are a number of relationships it would be nice to go back and handle more gracefully and wisely, but it’s clear that all the experiences I’ve had were exactly what needed to happen when they happened (as evidenced by the fact that they happened), so I prefer to celebrate and embody the lessons learned.

Which one book had a profound impact on your life? What was it about this book that impacted you so deeply? Did you have an emotional or intellectual attachment to this book? Why?

I’ve been deeply inspired by so many books and talk about how each of them have inspired me throughout the PhilosophersNotes!

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.

Current mood says I’d bring:

The PhilosophersNotes Workbook – Imagine 1,000 of the best “Big Ideas” from 100 of the world’s greatest self-development books neatly organized into 100 separate 6-page mini-books put into a sexy workbook—turn to any page and get inspired with a Big Idea that can literally change your life. If I could only take one book, it’d be this one.

Ralph Waldo Emerson’s collected essays – Emerson is my hero. He’s pretty much the great-great-grandfather of the self-development movement and his integration of eastern and western philosophy is amazing.

“The How of Happiness” by Sonja Lyubomirsky – This is, in my opinion, the best, most comprehensive yet totally readable look at what we know scientifically works to boost our happiness (and why we should care). I didn’t have a “what one book would you recommend book” before this one.

“A Joseph Campbell Companion” – I love Campbell. Gotta have some of his mojo with me on the island and if I could somehow bind everything he’s written in a big collected works book, I’d take that.

“The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success” by Deepak Chopra. This is one of the books that catalyzed a big change in my life so I’d bring it, too. Another asterisk here that if there was some way to put everything he’s written into a big book, I’d want that.

Have you read any books that inspired you to start a business, service or invent “something”? If yes, which book?

I’d say “How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci” by Michael Gelb inspired me to create my ideal life when I read it in 2001, so let’s go with that.

Complete the following, I am happy when…

I am most happy when I am being true to my Highest self and living the ideals in which I believe.

Now that you have read the entire interview, what are your thoughts? How can you apply some of Brian’s wisdom? Let’s keep the conversation flowing, please comment. If you got to this post via search engine, please consider subscribing.