• 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

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

Continuing the list, Number 4: If it is good enough for Rudyard Kipling, it’s good enough for me -

The Five W’s (and one H) of SALES. Many a great idea has died a slow and painful death due to no cash to buy food and drink for the human beingswho are building this new enterprise, many an army has lost the war before ever entering battle from a lack of supplies. Business is no different. Cash is oxygen. Cash flow is created through the production of sales. I must admit, this is a subjectI can wax poetic about for a while. Sales can be one of theleast appreciated, albeit oftentimes highestpaid, career paths in existence. Bottom-line though is this, new businesses need to generate cash. Cash can be easily generated from sales. Sales don’t happen by accident though, and they rarely happen virally. They happen through a planned target for customer acquisition and servicing. Thus…Rudyard Kipling’s poem:

I keep six honest serving-men
(They taught me all I knew);
Their names are What and Why and When
And How and Where and Who.

Read more

I occasionally speak at the Prison Entrepreneurship Program (PEP) to new ’students’ on consideration or ruminations related to starting their new gig. A few weeks ago I was speeding up the road, running late , in my oh-so-smooth new car (Jaguar XK-R) and my wonderful devoted wife was scribbling notes I was dictating to her as I kept Jelly-watch between Houston and Huntsville. After I gave my little speech, to a crowd of aspiring entrepreneurial hopefuls, I felt this was something worth sharing for all… so here are ten thoughts to consider, in rough order, if you want to start a new business:

Read more