Tag Archives: Strategy

David Brooks: Well Planned vs. Summoned

David Brooks nails it again.  The guy is a national treasure.

In his latest column, he writes about two different ways in which people plan their lives.  The first he calls the Well-Planned Life, and he references this article by Harvard Business School professor Clayton Christensen (It’s a brilliant piece in itself, so please check it out.  Actually, I was thinking of blogging about this article by itself, but time constraints are preventing me.  I might do it in the future.  Maybe.  No promises.).  Christensen planned his own life by spending an hour a day thinking about “why God put [him] on this earth.”  Through dedicated effort, he found his purpose.  Brooks correlates this mindset with Christensen’s Christianity.  This to me was very interesting since Kobukson recently spoke about how Christianity affects culture.

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Assembling the Team and 2010 Resolutions

Last year I only had two resolutions.  One was fitness.  I think I achieved that.  I trained and ran the Hood to Coast.  I was at my lightest body weight in years.  I can’t say that I’m a gym rat, but hey, that wasn’t the goal.  My other resolution was to help improve this site.  Whether I achieved that is debatable, as it always is.  What is not debatable is that the readers and commenters of this site became closer and more active.  We raised $250 for Sam Yoon and over $100 for the AALDEF.  Good stuff.  Thanks to you all.

Posted in Activism, Portland, Strategy | Tagged | 2 Comments

Perception vs. Substance (Talent, Pt. 3; Alpha-Beta, Pt. 2)

picture-12

Over in the Alphas vs. Betas thread, Robert and King were (were? are? Is Robert still on vacation?) having a discussion on what it means to be “Alpha,” and whether or not the term should even be used among humans. King submits that the term as it applies to animals does not work with humans–humans have so many criteria on how they judge, and there is never only one Alpha male–there are many factors involved, and people’s roles differ depending on the situation.  I volunteered the word “leadership” instead, and Robert opted to use the word “value.”  The conversation moved towards examining the difference between perception and actually being a person of value.  This topic has come up from time to time in diverse posts such as Talent, Hate Crimes, and, of course, PUA–what is the difference between being real and just presenting an image or illusion?

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Lesson from Kofi Annan: "Don't Crawl" (Tila Part 3?)

Kofi Annan

Kofi Annan

(pic from here)

I think my conservative side has been coming out with a lot of this Tila talk.  I’m not conservative, of course, but I really do believe that people often get what they ask for.  If there’s a logistical problem–”I want to meet women by playing Warcraft”–it won’t happen.  But in general, if there’s a desire (Tila’s desire to be famous) along with a vehicle (MTV), people get what they ask for.

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Life Without Fear

This is an old concept, even older than FDR who told us that we had nothing to fear but fear itself.  In my last post, I talked about two men who run a billion dollar corporation, one of whom asked, “What would your life be like if you could eliminate the fear of failure, and where would you be at this point in life?”  Fear and doubt go hand in hand.  I’ve met so many people who don’t want to do anything because they fear failure, and I’ve met so many others who define their world by what they and others can’t do.  Can’t and fear are both four letter words.

Posted in Activism, Strategy, Uncategorized | Tagged , | 3 Comments

Starting a business when young

Ephren Taylor, in the CNN video above, talks about starting a business. He started his first business at 12, became a millionaire at 17, and is now the youngest African American CEO of a publicly traded company. He’s written a book called, “Creating Success from the Inside Out.”

I like what he says about starting a business.  He says that college is the best time to do it, when you have no kids, no mortgage, tons of friends around you, and lots of expert professors.  He says that when you’re young, everyone wants to help you.  Man, he should’ve told me this fifteen years ago (when I was eighteen, and he was 11…oh wait, that was before he started his first business!)!

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Effective, not Popular II

In my previous post, I mentioned the advice of being effective, not popular. In the post, I attached a picture of the sumo wrestler Asashoryu.

Check out the video above. Asashoryu is a very good example of effective-not-popular. Sumo is a traditional Japanese sport, one which is as much sport as tradition to the Japanese. When Asashoryu became the 68th Yokozuna (Grand Champion), he was the first Mongolian ever to attain the rank and the third non-Japanese yokuzuna after Akebono and Musashimaru, who are both Samoan. Currently, he is the only active yokozuna, along with Hakuho, who is also Mongolian. There have been no Japanese Yokozuna since Takanohana retired in 2003.

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Be Effective, Not Popular

"Asashoryu (R) throws down Chiyotaikai"

"Asashoryu (R) throws down Chiyotaikai"

(pic from here)

See Alpha Asian’s blog post here.

Following up on our last Motivation and Strategy post, here is the next installment: Be Effective, Not Popular, advice from Scott Boras.

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3 Steps to Novel Writing

typewriter_1_md(pic from here)

Continuing our Strategy and Motivation series, Alpha-Asian has written about Overcoming Writer’s Block.  As you all know, Alpha is a successful writer for bodybuilding magazines, as well as a successful self-publisher of fitness books.  As an author, he has achieved what most of us dream of achieving.  If you’ve got writer’s block, definitely check out his post–there’s lots of good info there.

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Musts and Shoulds


As mentioned in yesterday’s podcast, we’re going to enter a discussion on strategy, motivation, and getting things done.  We’ll probably be posting stuff like this throughout August.  Alpha Asian, and maybe others, will be joining in next week (Edit: See AlphaAsian’s post here), and we’ll be strategizing and offering ways to help our readers achieve things.  These pieces of advice could be applied to activism, career, or anything that you’re trying to achieve.

There are a few reasons why I’m going this route.

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