• Subscribe Via Email

  Enter your email address:

• Recent Posts

  • Happiness ~~ VS ~~ Unhappiness: The Road Not Taken
  • Rocky Balboa & F.F.B.S.
  • The Power of Art and Money
  • Which B(ee) Are You?
  • The Crocodile Sheds No Tears

• Archives

  • July 2010
  • June 2010
  • February 2010
  • December 2009
  • November 2009
  • October 2009
  • September 2009
  • November 2007
  • August 2007
  • July 2007
  • June 2007
  • May 2007
  • April 2007

• Categories

  • Entrepreneurism
  • Leadership
  • Management
  • Miscellaneous
  • Sales
  • SEO / SEM

• Blogroll

  • How To Change The World
  • Reinventing Erica
  • Semple Ideas

• Entreprenuership Links

  • Entrepreneur’s Organization
  • Junior Achievement
  • Marion Kauffman Foundation
  • The Business Makers Radio Show

• Leadership Links

  • Vistage

• Technology

  • Pop Labs, Inc.
  • The Moleskin
• Search for:

As Robert Frost said in the last sentence of his poem The Road Not Taken: “Two roads diverged in a wood, and I — I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.”

Every day we are greeted with issues, decisions, challenges, and options. Each of these is a prime opportunity to face the divergence in the road and decide: Good or Bad. In truth, the decision in front of you is simply two moves on the chess board of Life. Each leads to another move from your opponent (Unhappiness), and then another move, and another, and so on. If you are not 99 years old, deaf, dumb, and blind…there is good news: you have a CHOICE.

Should I be happy or should i be ____(something else)_____?

Buddhists say that everything is void of Good or Bad. That it depends on your perception of the situation; and your situation as it relates to the actual occurrence.

That doesn’t mean that your life is a random event; like some macabre carnival game, pitching our fate with a random roll of the wheel. It means that the determination of Good or Bad is in the hands of the Beholder.

Because no matter what you Perceive to be obvious, you have a choice to behave un-obviously.

This is called Faith.

Faith is choosing to Believe in something you do not see at present. There is no factual data to support the Belief. As you deal with the vagaries and uncertainty of life, Faith gives you the option to Choose. Which path shall I take?

The common path, which is usually that of the flotsam and jetsam of humanity, or the less common path: The Road Not Taken.

The Road Not Taken is Faith & Optimism. Deciding to see the choice you made, whatever it may be, as Happiness. Then taking action, taking that first step down the road, which is: Strength, Empowerment, Life’s Journey, Intuition, Clarity, Power, Subconscious Victory, Will Power… all of which lead to Self-Mastery.

There are two alternatives to this Decision to Accept Happiness. One is that you see the step taken as something that chooses you; an Action you were not in Control of making: Destiny, Fate, Self-Defeat, DNA, Spiritual Forces, The Will of God, Familial Obligation, Race, Gender, Situational Economics. The other is to choose to do the same thing you have Always Done. This has the false appearance of being empowering for some people. If it’s the same thing you always say or do, then it is not empowering you.

Anything that dis-empowers you, that takes Control out of your Hands, and puts it into the hands of anyone or anything else (including your own habits), is dis-empowering. It is the Actions Leading to Self Mastery that Empowers you, and leads to Happiness.

For example:

* I drink too much. I will choose to slow down. (ding: a decision). * I will act upon this decision (ding: action). * I recognize failure is human (ding: reality). *I forgive myself before failure happens, if it happens; although not avoiding responsibility (ding: self-acceptance). * And I am taking this journey, this Step…because I BELIEVE I can Win (ding: Happiness through Self-Empowerment).

Try choosing to walk the Road Not Taken: not even necessarily the one not taken by others; but the road not taken by you, the last time you faced this very same issue. I know when I am finding problems in front of me and behind me, I go left or right. And if yesterday I stepped on dog-shit on the left, my decision is pretty easy.

Try Different-ness.

“If you don’t like something change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude.” – Maya Angelou

Some related links:

The Road Not Taken – Robert Frost

Meaning behind Shinedown’s Sound of Madness

Shinedown – Save Me video

Shinedown – acoustic version of Simple Man

DC Talk – Consume Me

It Ain’t About How Hard You Hit – Rocky Balboa

I was raised by an artist.   In the 70’s my Mom cut hair at a salon that also taught belly-dancing.  Nonetheless, she was an artist of hair.  Later, she became a nationally recognized Interior Designer.   Later still, a more conventional artist, with oil paints and a canvas.

My house, growing up, was always changing.  One day we had French doors that were white; the next day we had something else.

As a kid, I remember going to visit her at Ethan Allen, where she worked earlier in her career, and playing on the carpet samples for hours and hours.

Roles shifted, and as a young adult and fledgling entrepreneur myself, I convinced her to go into her own business www.janicemccubbin.com. This scared the crap out of her; yet further developed both her art and the quality of her client base. Read more

There are three types of employees. You are likely one of them:

Category A - These people bust ass. They work virtually all hours; from home, via Blackberry, on weekends. Whenever needed. They expand their skills and their job role to encompass what the employer needs at that moment, not necessarily for the employer… but for their selfish desire to move ahead AND their personal desire to scratch that internal itch called Pride. They do this happily, without warning, forethought, or demand.

These folks never need to be asked to do X, Y, Z… Read more

One thing I realized long ago was that no matter how competent I was (or thought I was), I needed the help of others to achieve my dreams and goals. These “others” fell into many categories: mentors, investors, support network, clients, vendors, friends, drinking buddies, peers, wife, kids, and…employees. All of them played crucial roles in my development; tons of amazing stories. However, many moons ago I learned the concept of leverage through the use of something called a fulcrum, which produces a mechanical advantage when utilized properly.

Now… I’m not trying to get all engineering on you here. But it is really this simple; I was a very small kid…super short. Even as an adult, I stand now about 5′5″ and a half (and a HALF damn it). So… I had to learn how to make things work for me when nature simply had not/did not/would not/wasn’t planning on providing. Same principle that causes many fat people to be funny (see: John Candy, John Belushi, Chris Farley, Jack Black, etc, etc, etc). Anyway… fact is, you gotta figure another way to get what you want if the standard apparatus doesn’t achieve the goals. Read more

Ok, ok… I admit it. Despite having made fun of the ‘weak’ people who see or have seen a therapist of some sort… I have been to one on and off for the last couple years. He says I am crazy. I already knew that; can I get a refund?

I will admit it’s nice to be able to just gab, blab, and blubber in someone else’s paid and professional care. Men who habitually pay for female companionship know exactly what I am talking about…a lesser known skill taught at pole-dancing school is listening to the client B&M (Bitch & Moan) about their often self-perpetuated self-abuse.

That said – let me sum up professional therapy, and the Champagne Room counseling session, and save you thousands or even tens of thousands of Benjamins: Read more

I haven’t posted on this blog for over a year.  Lots of reasons why; but it starts with my life was “messy.”  Someday I’ll have the guts to put it all out here, but for now, I don’t.  Let’s let it suffice to say that I have had some major life changes and been through many humbling life learning experiences.  Those that are applicable to business or personal development, I promise to someday share. In the interim, I have decided to start re-posting on this blog, and to re-focus the intent of my postings. So first, let’s assess WHY I am posting and to WHOM I am focusing my message.  These messages are not for the nameless sea of faces we call the “internet,” but for the people I refer to as friends, employees (current, past, and future), and family.  I want them to learn from my experiences and my viewpoints.  Right or wrong, I hope they can benefit from the learning opportunities I have had, resulting from the decisions I made and actions I took when difficult problems presented themselves in my business at Pop Labs.

Read more

I love people sometimes; they come up with every possible excuse and self justification for their own actions. Usually focused on how somebody else’s actions or thoughts are the REAL reason they turned into a sloppy, irresponsible, broke jerk wad. So…I decided to sum up some of the more effective methods of thinking and acting like a loser. The next ten steps are not in any particular order, you can choose any combination of the ten below in order to prove to the world how awesome at NOT being awesome you really are:

Read more

I’ve taken way too long to list out ten simple rules…but here are the last two. I’m currently at the San Jose Search Engine Strategies Conference and about to attend the Google Dance…so I gotta type fast…Mecca calls (at least for my industry). Remember, these were in order of task completion or at least as you will become aware of the issue they address as your business evolves from wild-ass idea to something you can pass on to your kids (or dog if you are a loner):

Read more

Your people…that’s who!!! What people? Employees, vendors, investors, and customers. Note: I did not put the customer first. The customer does not ALWAYS come first…because some customers are better off being sent to your competitors. Great post on that right here…I’ll write more on my vehement belief that customer service is crucial but clients do not always come first. Back to that later; on with the countdown: Read more

Next Page →