Life Lessons

How I built a global tech business with no funding — 7 lessons

On Twitter, I am best known as a curator of African tech news and in general as someone promoting tech entrepreneurship in Africa. In fact, many think I am a blogger or a journalist. What many don’t realize is that I am…

How to Get What You Want

A Crash Course in the Art of Human Possibility

Let’s cut through the noise. Whether we call it leadership, power, influence, we’re die-hard pragmatists. It’s us against the world. What we really want to know is how to get what we…

What I Learned From Temple Grandin: Recognizing the Strength of a Brain that Works Differently

When people ask me who the most brilliant person was I`ve met in my 20 years as a reporter, the answer is easy for me: Temple Grandin. Today, she is celebrated as one…

My First Day In Prison

This IS my first day in prison at San Quentin State Penitentiary. I pulled this directly from my book, Prison Diary(a): A San Quentin…

Don’t Let Your Struggle Become Your Identity.

Life isn’t always easy and it can throw you a few very difficult challenges.

My Friend is Ditching Comic Book School To Become a Buddhist Monk (revised version)

My Life in Collections: Travel Dolls, Age 7

Practicing adulthood through the things I collected during my childhood.

Lessons Learned from Elwood P. Dowd

After watching (three times) the North Central High School production of Harvey by Mary Chase —…

Things I learned by the age of 23

About myself, relationships, careers and life..

- Life is not about the big events in your life but rather it is about the living in the moment to the fullest and appreciating the smallest things.

Becoming a Moral Leader

I’ll never forget it. It was October 5, 2005 and I had the opportunity to accompany Jacqueline Novogratz and a group…

An Anxiety Attack Of Advice When You Realise She Is No Longer Your Baby

Sobre a vontade de ver o mundo com os próprios olhos

Women Who Reign: Maya Ganesan

“You live longer once you realize that any time spent being unhappy is wasted. “ — Ruth E. Renkl
~~~~

Planning Something Big: 10 steps for turning Awesome Ideas into Real Things

Let me be mega clear: I hate planning. I am not the type of war room strategist I am picturing right now as I write this — tasseled uniform, gravelly voice, jabbing my finger at a map of the world…

Почему мы не можем себя простить.

Почему-то для многих людей простить другого намного легче, чем себя самого. Некоторые из нас…

You shouldn’t need an excuse not to drink

I went to a dinner tonight where I’d decided I didn’t want to drink. As it was a hosted event, it was an open bar with cocktails on arrival. As soon as I walked in I realised with an internal ‘hmmph’ that my decision not to drink was going to be a bit of a…

5 Parts of Culture Shock that seemed negative but, in short, were really good.

How does the first resignation feel?

So hello, we meet again. It’s been a while, I know. But with so much happening in my life, I thought it was better to take a small break from writing and get back to it when the heart pleaded. And it has, now.

Overcoming Adversity

By Darrion M. Willis, M.Ed.

“Yes, I am marketing expert”

“Yes, I am marketing expert” — the most popular lie

The Apartment of Your Dreams

Why It’s Okay to Push That Dream Off For a Bit

Does travelling make you age faster?

As I slog up the stairs Monday morning, having just arrived at work, I feel my body in a way I…

Great Expectations

“I have been bent and broken, but — I hope — into a better shape.” — Charles Dickens, Great Expectations

Let me start by saying that although Great Expectations was a part of my assigned reading list in 10th grade, I absolutely spark note(d) my way through that novel…

How I Got Over My Fear of Emojis at Work

I’d been working with Erin, my Muse manager, for three months before she used her first smiley face.

Erin: Great job on this post! :) I just did a little rearranging to put the sections in order of most interesting to least.

The heart has no wrinkles

Yesterday my husband and I bumped into an old man that I used to go to church with. I haven’t seen him in years…

A Letter To My 15-Year-Old Self

Dear 15-year-old self,

What Comes After Falling In Love

To the person who has fallen in love with the most magical person in the world. He/she is perfect…

The Illusion of Control

It is our inherent nature to assume everything is in our control. Getting control out of chaos is what drives us. But…

Introspective

We are flawed and fallible, yet faithful

Never fake

You are just one step away from mastery

Yet most of the time most of us turn a blind eye to it

Stop and Reflect? I did. Now what?

The Importance and Limits of Self-Reflection

Right before I met my…

Why I publish every day and why you should too

It’s about consistency, mastery and habit

10 Life Lessons Strong Women Understand

It’s only natural to reflect back on the previous years of our lives. For some, the past…

Mind Programming

Do you own your life? Are your thoughts really yours? Are the choices you make everyday your genuine desires?

Every day we experience attempts to influence us. TV commercials, Internet ads, movies and TV shows, music clips, news, magazines— these are just a few examples of…

Man has given me love

Man has taken my love

Man has cherished & taken me for granted

Rant

Feeling completely alone and rejected, as little as I could ever feel.

Not sure if I can recover from this pain, because it is a pain that is so internal that just thinking about it makes my skin crawl.

Seasons of Life and Sand Castles

One of my best friends sent me a quote a few weeks ago, and I’m gonna share it with you guys:

“What really matters at the end of the life?“

I don’t think any one particular entity can be a answer to this question.

You won’t be happy if you have huge bank balance, but no single friend to share your happiness or sorrow with. 
You won’t be happy if you have so many…

Defining a set of objectives for one’s life

Right now, I happen to have some time, and so I’ve been assessing what it means to live a good and productive life. There’s an exercise that I’ve seen in several books that is aimed at helping one articulate this. It goes something like: “Say you’re very…

4 Reasons that Optimists Rule the World

Water tastes better from a glass half-full.

Fruits of Our Labor

A message to college graduating seniors

What else ‘they’ don’t want you to know: Advice à la DJ Khaled

3 Reasons You Should Trust God

3 Of An Infinite Number That Is

Creative Artist Spotlight: Become a Chump and Change Lives

5 Tips for Success as you enter the “Real World”

I had the pleasure to recieve a tour of Laughlin Constable’s Milwaukee office for class today. We also heard from a panel of three driven, compassionate, and smart women who work for LC.

Pursuit

“Evidence of desire is Pursuit” Mike Murdock

Smart or Pretty? You Can’t Be Both

Girls and women should be pretty. You need to be easy on the eyes, easy on the nerves — be nice…

Overcoming Addictions

While cruising into work the other day at a steady 12 mph due to the morning rush hour traffic, I was listening to…

Day 179 — My resignation letter

It took 5 minutes to write and I was puzzled. The response was unexpectedly positive. “Your resignation…

Years that Answer

On Turning Thirty-Four

Today, I turned thirty-four. I believe that this officially puts me in the mid-thirties category. It might be the last year that I can check off some boxes on surveys. I have also most certainly stopped being able to pass myself off…

Why you should never give up on yourself

or how I climbed out of a dark hole

You might be asking yourself why I wrote such a personal post. The reason is that I want to let you inside of my struggle. Maybe by sharing this I can help someone else…

Being in the same place for so long. I don’t know how to say this without coming off negative. It can’t be avoided. Negativity keeps coming my way, taking different forms. It’s…

My Priviledge — a pispective

I live a life of privilege — and to be perfectly honest, I’ve not always been aware of it or the deep and…

11 things I learned from Zig Ziglar

A question I am often asked: “Which sales book is your favorite of all time?”

Dear Friend:

I grew up in Oxford Place Apartments in Houston, Texas. I lived there pre-urbanization, post-gentrification. This was my home for eleven years. After some traumatic events, my mother decided it was time to move, it was a dramatic overnight move. However, I was so excited for a change in scenery. I had…

Three things you should know before you turn 30

Day 22 — Timeout

Time is so precious to me. I hate being late and missing out on things and I appreciate what the minutes in the day have to offer me. Today it felt like I barely had any time to be alone. That’s not necessarily a bad thing but it can make it hard for me to decompress from life at the end of the day.

Have you found your passion?

When 1st time I got a job, I didn’t think about passion at all.

Burn the Box

I’ve spent a lot of time
Allowing my value
To be determined
Based upon
My successes.

I Wish I Could Protect All The Children

God. I do.

Playing chess with friends across borders

I was recently standing on the US-Mexico border for an international art and music…

Just Go Do It.

For so long I used to be in a position wherein I knew what I wanted to do but battled between what people “encouraged” me to do…

I want to stop my boyfriend marriage

How To Get Your Ex Boyfriend Back By Vashikaran, Enemy Died Mantra, Love Vashikaran Specialist Baba Ji, Get Love Back Mantra, Lost Love Back ,Get Back My Ex Friend, Hypnotism Specialist Astrologer, Get Your Girlfriend Back ,Get Lost Love Back By Vashikaran, Lost…

Death Lessons

Death sucks. It doesn’t matter how it enters your life. Whether it gives you time to prepare, to say your good-byes. Whether it comes swiftly and without warning. Whether it ends terminal suffering or erupts out of nowhere. Death. Just. Sucks.

The Unexamined Life

Socrates once said that the unexamined life is not worth living. The Apostle Paul told the Galatian people, “make a careful…

To be great broadcaster (or anyting actually) you need to do stuff that makes you uncomfortable!

Easier said that done — Being non-judgemental

A peek into a small conversation with a friend last night, that left me, kind of unsettling and more surprised, this morning. A statement “seeking validation”.

The Life of an Unemployed Freelancer

Frustration. That’s the word I describe the moment you’re unemployed and you’re a freelance web designer. I still can’t believe it’s been three months without any work and I’ve begun to doubt myself. Am I not good enough? Does my work suck? I’ve been told at some…

Struggle should never be forgotten.

I was at the house warming of the home that my parents had built back at home, in Trivandrum. I reached a day before and the final cleaning work was in progress. There was one man cleaning the tiles on the first floor, diligently. His name was Murugan. Overhearing my parents speak, I…

Why You Should Experiment With Your Life

Your life is an experiment. It’s one big experiment made up of many smaller experiments.

Give Back to Your Community and Reap the Health Benefits of Volunteering

“Why does fear always seem to make dreams run aground around here?”

“Has To Be Right” vs “Has To Grow” — Which Side Are You On? The Truth About Eliminating Toxic Relationships That Have A Startling Effect On Your Potential

“Success has less to do with what we can get ourselves to do and more to do with keeping ourselves from doing what we shouldn’t” — Kenneth Cole

No going back

Almost everyone has heard the phrase “one step forward; two steps backwards”. For most that means that they can never seem to get ahead no matter how hard they try. But what if you weren’t meant to get ahead at that moment?

Epiphany

The dots connected, the blocks fell in place, the path straightened, the fogginess lifted and the vision cleared. There was euphoria, and…

April 21, 2016 Journal

Thursday, April 14,2016, 11am-12:30pm: Lecture

In this lecture, we discussed envy a little bit further. We focused on the interchange between Cyrus and Cyaxares. I found this lecture extremely interesting because although I think Cyaxares was acting really…

Intro

We all strive to be great, but the true definition of greatness we ignore. Greatness isn’t fame or power, it’s enhancing the lives of others. Be…

From Monday

Wrapping up our workout, my friend Kirk and I head for the locker room to freshen up. As we walk to our lockers, we see a gentlemen who seemingly needs help. We stop, but keep walking, as we were unsure if this gentlemen indeed needs help. We get to our lockers, I turn around and notice the man, but this…

T.G.I.I.

Thank God It Is…time for another day to begin, time for a moment to reflect, time to execute a plan, time to dust off my wings….Thank God there is a moment to appreciate all of this.

My child is not colorblind and research supports neither is yours

(All names have been changed)

My nearly four-year-old son came home from his first soccer practice excited and exhausted. I had stayed home with our daughter, so he was filling me in on all I…

Seems like the original article is conflating two different ideas, and you’ve highlighted one of the two. One is the process to master something, while the other is the commitment to achieving mastery. Even if you follow kaizen, if you only spend an hour a week, you’ll never make it before you meet your maker. That’s where taking the leap plays a…

Where does your faith lie? In creating the mountains? Or moving them?!

When we believe in something that is our “faith” and we have the choice to move the…

Do the things you can not do.

Comfort zone is one place you should get away from. It’s easier to think that you can not do it. Or that…

The Other Side of Perfectionism

A simple google search about perfectionism doesn’t return anything different than the standard connotation which roughly states: “Someone who strives for perfection in who they are and what they do”. When most people think of a perfectionist they think of an artist who toils away at their art…

The fear of regret.

I couldn’t allow myself to die wondering.

The fear of regret was bigger and louder and stronger than any fears I had to stay the same.

I recently attended a talk given by Chris Guillebeau. He’s an author of several best-selling books and he’s…

BEAUTIFUL — LIZA

Beautiful liz .. why is there no fear?

Thorny words

Emotional abuse

Tears rolling

Legs shaking

Struggled thick hands

On complaining

I really don’t like complaining. At all. And so when I do complain I do it to a select few people I can trust. And especially if I can turn it into something useful. So when something pretty annoying but pretty unimportant in the grand scheme of things, it left me furious. And I was furious that I was…

How to reach financial freedom

Confidence and secureness comes from knowing who you are. That’s why it’s important to have at least some…

Depression relapses, Pain & Your physical body

If you have a history of fighting depression as long as I have, you probably know about the relapse thing. Ok, so you’re having your medication, you’ve found your personal recipe of how to unwind and to keep yourself relaxed and comfortable, and…

Hooked On a Feeling

It’s taken me years, but I’ve been very responsible lately. All these years of being patient with developing, growing, understanding who I am, what I really want, and how I can make it happen. There’s been a voice, an awareness I had, a feeling, since I was in my late teens, of how the world…

Does anyone care about racial purity anymore?

It’s the symbols. The center of balance symbols. His is opposite of hers. The orgrinal “Star Trek” had an…

Have you ever Smelled success?

I just got a whiff of Peanut Butter, but i am not sure that means success…

Cómo tomar mejores decisiones en el trabajo y la vida

1 NO LO HAGAS POR DINERO

Hace un año, recibí la llamada de una amiga. Me comentó que le ofrecieron un 30% más de su salario a la quincena en otro empleo. Así que renunció para aprovechar la nueva oportunidad. Fue muy honesta al decir que su…

Let’s Change This World for the Good

I like wearing pants. It means I have pockets. These pockets can be used for a key or a phone or a wallet. All the basic essentials that a human needs to feel secure:
1. A key for shelter (for your home).
2. A phone to connect to your friends and family.
3. A…

Women can’t fly planes

Believe it or not, aviation is just a Man’s thing!

What is motivation?

Where does it come from?

How does it feel?

Important Information on Venture Tours

An adventure can just be described as a very unconventional and exciting encounter. Most of the times, it is a daring and a risky go on to go on adventure travels. There is always a hint involving uncertainty. Adventures may also be defined as activities which may have a few life taking…

#Lifehits

A list of things I have enjoyed over the years and think you should know about.

Books: The art of learning. I don’t read nonfiction unless they come highly recommend by some of the key influencers I follow. So when Tim Ferris interviewed Josh Waitzkin twice which without fail…

Calf roping at 66 and staying cancer free

Why I Took up Calf-Roping at 66

Yes on every level. As an entrepreneur, I took the ‘leap’ about 6 years ago, quit my day job, and started learning how to make money as a filmmaker.

But I also saved up 2 years worth of continuous, self-guided study without the need to make income . Now the important caveat:

Managing Hot Buttons

I walked into the doctor’s office and approached the receptionist. After taking my name and checking her computer, her first words were: “Your deductible is not met, and we need to take a copy of your credit card.” She said more, but her rapid fire monotone made it all but impossible to make…

Acceptance

Over the course of time, as I started observing, understanding everyone around.

Passion is a fleeting emotion, true. What I believe is also interesting is the obsession of making things happen. Bringing ideas to life through obsessive passion of creating. Regardless of the field or purpose. Awesome piece

Why being still is so hard.

Something that is extremely hard for me to do is to sit down in a chair, leave my phone in the other room just…

A Weekend Alone

My husband travels regularly for work and has for the last several years. Last time he took one of those trips I took a moment and realized that this one felt different.

Throughout our relationship, I would dread these times at home alone. I would hide away at home eating…

To Hell and Back and Still Standing

The current conception of the ideal is to have the perfect day where you can speak, do, think and act from your highest potential of who you are. Sounds good to me! We try our best to be patient with situations, tolerate difficult people, go the extra mile to get…

Food Addiction * The Reason Why We’re Excess fat?

Given the obesity charges in this country there are a lot of people who are dependent on food. Food addiction can be very similar to alcohol and drug addictions. The difference in between an over eater with an addict is the above eater simply eats too much, but could stop if…

avocado bowls and life changes

I’m sitting in a “real food, fast food” restaurant in Boston on a Tuesday night and I just paid 9.99 for a grilled avocado quinoa bowl. It seemed like a good (read: healthy) idea at the time, but now that I’m sitting here it seems so cliche and, as the millennials would say…

The Need To Please

There is this constant pull for people in a relationship.

It’s the need to please.

Do you feel that pull from time to time?

If you are single, perhaps you feel it from your closest friends, or family members, even.

Stop Playing The Blame Game

“When you think everything is someone else’s fault, you will suffer a lot. When you realize that everything…

I Got 99 Problems But Fear of Failure Ain’t One

“What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything?”

Whirlwind Blues

Whispers@Dawn

Consumed.