The last three days of my life have been an explicit example of how unpredictable, wonderful, and challenging life can be. Get ready for a story......
On Thursday afternoon, I jumped on a plane to Utah for a short 1/2 day meeting on Friday with
The Zrii Team. My flight was delayed for two hours because of a massive snow storm that hit Salt Lake. As a result of the weather, it was a particularly fun flight. The guy next to me lost his dinner. In addition to life being a roller coaster, the plane seemed like one as well.
Arriving at Zrii headquarters on Friday morning, I was warmly greeted by their executive team. As I walked around the building to meet the staff and scope out the space, they showed a slightly overwhelming sense of gratitude for my visit. It wasn't disingenuous. It felt authentic. But to be honest, I was having a hard time understand why they seemed so intent on showing their appreciation. But after speaking for a bit to their group, a light bulb in my mind went on as to why they were giving me so much energy. I had something they really, really, really wanted - awareness about how to be balanced and happy.
These hard working, financially stable, sweet people were out of balance and stressed. As a result, they were sick, anxious, and wound up pretty tight. How do I know? A number of them came up to me after my talk and told me - flat out." I'm overweight. I don't sleep well. I don't have enough energy. I keep getting sick."
Whether it was true or not, they saw a solution in me. I had knowledge that could break them free from their patterns. I could help. This was inspiring to me for a number of reasons.
1) If the corporate executives of Salt Lake City Utah are ready to be more conscious, I see that as a sign that the rest of the world is ready to wake up.
2) If you have something valuable to offer the world, age doesn't matter. For years of my life, I believed that people wouldn't listen to wisdom from a young mind. But the more time I spend teaching around the world, the more I recognize how untrue that is. As I step into my own power, the world embraces it.
3) It gave rise to a new business idea that I will share with you at a later date. My mind is always turning......
So I flew back to San Diego on Friday night only to leave for Los Angeles on Saturday morning. I had meetings lined up all day. The first was with a married couple that started their own PR firm. We met at a raw foods restaurant in Santa Monica where we spent the next three hours interviewing each other. The meeting was inspiring and enlightening on a couple of levels.
1) I was impressed by their synergy as a married couple / business partners. They fed off each other beautifully and respected each other's perspectives. The traditional paradigm would say never mix business with pleasure yet I have come across a number of examples that bash that to pieces. It seems as though when love dominates, everything else falls into place.
2) The PR world is crazy. The people move too fast, talk too fast, and don't really listen. So when they go to pitch a story about getting centered, they might be saying all the right things but sending the wrong signals. The result is stories that don't accurately reflect who we are or what we do. Up until this point, finding people that play in the PR world but are also selfcentered has been a task. Assuming that their references check out, I think we've found a diamond in the rough.
3) the food was good.
So I left that meeting to meet up with
Noa Winter Lazerus - the genius sound sculptor behind Musitations. Noa is an amazing man with an unmatched talent. Besides being the most talented musician / producer I've ever met, he's genuinely good hearted. I went to meet with him because we've been bouncing back and forth about some legal issues around our creations.
Since the first moment I met Noa, I've thought of him as a partner in this project. He is an invaluable member of the team. Yet lawyers have a hard time with the concept of partnership. I don't think they truly understand that it means both people win because (from Noa's side), the contract clearly didn't reflect a joint venture. Looking at the language together, I could see his point. So we agreed upon some points and enjoyed a cup of tea together. There were a couple of inspiring things that came out of this interaction.
1) selfcentered is creating a new paradigm for business that is truly based upon mutual respect and appreciation. The traditional model of business is: "what can I get out of this relationship?" Our approach is "how can we support each other?" It's the first time in my life that I have 100% freedom to exercise this approach and it feels really right.
2) I have come to believe that this type of approach will actually create more abundance, even though it might not look that way on paper. Giving away more doesn't seem like it would generate more. But when people take full responsibility for the value, creativity, and quality of a product (whatever it is), then it has no choice but to succeed. It's challenging to get people to do that when they don't feel like partners. When they do, the sky is the limit.
After Noa, I took off to go visit my dear friend
Alexis Neely in Hermosa Beach. I love spending time with Alexis because she's a VERY savvy business woman with a huge drive. She's got a strong vision and a lot of heart. I'm always inspired by her charisma.
But what I love most about Alexis is her ability to be totally open to other points of perspective. In fact, she constantly welcomes feedback. She'll make a bold and convincing statement like: "I need to sell my law firm!" only to be quickly followed by "don't I?" Some people do that because of self-doubt. Alexis does it because she genuinely wants more feedback. It's very refreshing to be around someone so successful and intelligent who is also so open-minded. Here's what I took away from her:
1) As a result of her openness, I was more inclined to ask for feedback as well. She put down her wall, I put down mine. What ensued was brutally honest conversations about money, strategy, technology, and life. I would make a statement and then ask for her opinion. It was a very easy exchange even though we were talking about issues that usually carry a lot of charge. Open up and it will reflect.
2) She's a mom with two children, a thriving business, a sturdy long distance relationship, and a good heart. It makes me happy to know that we've got some very solid women role models in the world. Strong women kick ass.
On Sunday morning, we went to
Agape...and what an experience that was!! The energy was high, the music was great, the message was clear, and the love was flowing. You definitely left the room feeling alive. Personally, I took away the following:
1) if you create a community with love as the foundation, you are bound to succeed. At Agape, more then any other place I've ever been, love and connection was the strongest message. They did a very special little ceremony for all of the "first timers" where we stood up and each person in the congregation basically showered you with loving energy and smiles and some cool music played and Michael preached away.
2) Community is the most powerful resource for growth. there is something so special about being surrounded by 1,000 people that just want to have more love, give more love, and create more love. Yes Michael was cool, but what really stood out in my mind was the strength of the community.
Ok, so everything was cool up until this point of the story. I felt inspired, creative, connected, and all that good stuff. And in one moment, the roller coaster dropped.
I was leaving to go back to San Diego in my brand new Honda Civic that I just bought on Wed. I was about a block away from the 405 when traffic started to move. Right as hit the gas, a friend of mine sent me a text message. It slightly startled me and my phone (which was sitting on my lap) fell to the floor. I looked down for one second and BAM!!!!, I hit the car in front of me. Oh ***.
Smoke started rising into my car from I'm not sure where. As I got out to see the damage, I was devastated to find that the front of my car had crumbled. My bumper got pushed so far into my car that it popped up the hood and bent the side panels. It was un-drivable. ***.
That feeling of despair welled up inside of me. I had just wrecked my brand new car, I was up in Los Angeles on a holiday weekend, the poor woman I crashed into was complaining that her neck hurt, and to make matters worse, I was on my father's insurance. For the first time in as long as I could remember, I physically couldn't speak. I was so choked up that I could squeeze any words out of my mouth. Why might you ask was this so traumatic? Let me explain:
1) I have put my entire life savings into The selfcentered Tour. While I am not in the least bit concerned for the future of the Tour, I am very strapped for cash right now. I've put everything in and nothing (at this point) is coming back. So the thought of having to spend more money (that I don't have) on my new car was devastating.
2) As a way to help me out, my father allowed me to stay on his insurance policy. Unfortunately, I got two tickets within the last twelve months which effected his rates. That alone made me feel terrible so I vowed to be more careful. So what did I do? I crashed my new car. Nice. When I called him, he wasn't too happy (understandably). After he finished lecturing me about my driving karma, we agreed that I would have to find my own insurance moving forward. He shouldn't have to suffer for my mistakes.
I ended up having the car towed to a city impound lot so that the insurance inspector could come check it out. My angel Alexis came and got me and graciously drove me to Orange County where my friend Colby swooped me up and took me the rest of the way home. Interestingly enough, I became aware of how difficult it is for me to ask for personal help throughout all of this. Good to know.....it's something new to work on.
To be honest, I am still not clear on what I'm supposed to learn from this incident. As I sit with it a little more, I'm sure the answers will come to the surface and I'll post another blog about it. But for now, I'm just feeling sad.
So that's my story. What else can I say but life is a roller coaster........hang on.
Posted
Dec 23 2007, 05:45 PM
by
Max Simon