Ted Tuesday: Do you love what you do for a living?

"There is never a job shortage for good people! There is an endless number of jobs that you could do successfully, and make a good living doing them. You never have to feel stuck in a particular position, company, or industry. You deserve to do what you love for a living." ~~ Brian Tracy

Good Morning Folks,

Brian Tracy made a very motivational post on Facebook (see above) that made me wonder if he ever given a TED talk.

I couldn't find a TED talk, but my online search led me to this timeless gem on YouTube (24 Techniques for Closing the Sale) that is a must for anyone in sales to watch or watch again. This being a long weekend, you might simply bookmark the link and hope to find time to consume it.

 

Have a GREAT day. Love LIFE!

Mitchell D. Weiner
Chief Happiness Officer

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"Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. 

Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great." - Mark Twain

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Ted Tuesday: Rita Pierson— Every Kid Needs A Champion

"Simply outstanding and relevant to all those who dare to struggle and dare to win in the game of Education."

Good Morning Folks,

On this Ted Tuesday, I'm excited to share this inspiring talk from Rita Pierson.

Pierson, a teacher for over 40 years, has seen all sides of education. Both of Pierson’s parents and grandparents were teachers, and since 1972, Pierson has taught elementary school, junior high school and special education. According to Pierson, the most important component of learning – what keeps kids in school and passionate about reaching their goals – is simple: relationships. “Every child deserves a champion,” says Pierson,”an adult who will never give up on them, who understands the power of connection, and insists that they become the best that they can possibly be.”

Rita Pierson is one of the best educators i've ever seen! Her powerful voice is also inspiring me. I bet this talk is strong enough to stimulate the educators all over the world!!

She has such a passionate, compassionate, witty way of bringing her ideas through! She made me think about the teachers I had who were there for me and my class mates. Our champions...I will never forget them.

Rita Pierson, a teacher for 40 years, once heard a colleague say, "They don't pay me to like the kids." Her response: "Kids don't learn from people they don’t like.’” A rousing call to educators to believe in their students and actually connect with them on a real, human, personal level.

Indeed, it’s heroes just like Pierson and the educators we honor today that are these very champions. “Is this job tough? You betcha,” says Pierson. “But it is not impossible. We can do this. We are educators. We are born to make a difference.”

I hope you enjoy Pierson’s TED Talk as much as I did.


Have a GREAT day. Love LIFE!

Mitchell D. Weiner
Chief Happiness Officer

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"The question isn't who is going to let me; it's who is going to stop me."

~~Ayn Rand

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Ted Bonus: A Talk to Cheer You Up On Hump Day

"Take a moment this Wednesday to be thankful for all the wonderful things in your life. "

Good Afternoon Folks,

I thought that on hump day something to lift the spirits would be in order.
Louie Schwartzberg’s TEDxSanFrancisco talk “Nature. Beauty. Gratitude.” from June 2011 is an excellent mediation. 

Schwartzberg’s talk is a beautiful embodiment of these virtues, and while it’s not a typical presentation, there are certainly elements in it that we can use to better ours.

Most of the power in Schwartzberg’s presentation lies in his use of visuals. Arrestingly beautiful video plays in the background as an accompaniment to his words. Smartly, he avoids use slides riddled with bullet points and words, instead harnessing the power of the incredible photography and video he has collected over years. His visuals fit ideally with the topic at hand, and they do a great job of keeping the audience enthralled from start to finish.

With that said, take a moment this Wednesday to be thankful for all the wonderful things in your life. As Brother Steindel-Rast points out: we so rarely take time to look at the sky and at the faces of other people. Spend a few moments this upcoming holiday season letting gratefulness wash over you, and allow yourself to fall in love with nature’s enduring beauty.

For I am deeply thankful and grateful for all of you reading this right now!

Have a GREAT day. Love LIFE!

Mitchell D. Weiner
Chief Happiness Officer

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"The key is to keep company only with people who uplift you, 
whose presence calls forth your best." - Epictetus 
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Ted Tuesday: Dan Pink— What Motivates People

"You should watch this because it is influencing the conversation about what makes a great workplace. It can help you do a better job as a boss" 

Good Morning Folks,

On today's show, career analyst and author of the best-selling business book Drive, Dan Pink, examines the puzzle of motivation, starting with a fact that social scientists know but most managers don't: Traditional rewards aren't always as effective as we think. Listen for illuminating stories -- and maybe, a way forward. 

The talk contains the substance of this book. If you're a boss or concerned about leadership, you need to become familiar with that message. The ideas are important. Pink's rendering of them, for good or ill, will define and influence the discussion of motivation in business for quite a while. He does get the big picture right. He says that people would prefer activities where they can pursue three things.

==> Autonomy: People want to have control over their work. 

===> Mastery: People want to get better at what they do. 

==> Purpose: People want to be part of something that is bigger than they are. 


Pink delivers many key ideas that matter. 

Key Idea: There is a difference between extrinsic and intrinsic motivation. 

Key Idea: Intrinsic motivators are more powerful. 

Key Idea: If you use monetary rewards to get people to perform the way you want, those rewards may have the opposite effect. These are important things for a boss to know. 

Bottom line: "You should watch this because, it is influencing the conversation about what makes a great workplace. It can help help you do a better job as a boss."

Now let's join Dan Pink for "The Puzzle of Motivation."

Have a GREAT day. Love LIFE!

Mitchell D. Weiner
Chief Happiness Officer

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“People may not always remember what you said, 
but they will always remember how you made them feel."
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TED Tuesday: Forget Mindfulness.Try Nevermindfulness: Bruce Turkel at TEDx

"At FSO we strive to surprise, delight and WOW you every day. Our brand is not about what we do, but built on what we can do for you."

Good Morning Folks,

My friend Bruce Turkel, whom we featured here recently, makes brands more valuable. He's worked with Bacardi, Discovery, Philips, MetCare, Miami, spoken at MIT and Harvard, and discusses branding on FOX Business.

In his TED talk "Forget mindfulness.Try nevermindfulness" he helps us understand that a brand is more than just a logo or a sign; that it is the entire experience of interacting with a company at every touchpoint. He argues that great brands make themselves all about you whereas less successful brands lose touch with the customer by having it backwards.

At FSO we strive to surprise, delight and WOW you every day. Our brand is not about what we do, but built on what we can do for you.

Have a listen to Bruce's brief talk. It can change how you approach your job and how your leaders can better understand their challenges.


In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.* (*Subject to certain rules and regulations)

Want to read more from Bruce? Visit his blog at TurkelTalks.com

Have a GREAT day as I look forward to seeing all of you soon.

Mitchell D. Weiner
Chief Happiness Officer

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 "“Customers are hard to build and easy to loose”

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Ted Tuesday: The Science of Stage Fright (and how to overcome it)

Interviewing for a job? First day in a management position addressing your team? In the military and standing up in front of dozens of soldiers and trying to maintain your composer while trying to keep trying to keep their attention and respect? How scared do you get before speaking in public?

Good Morning Folks,

One thing can strike fear into the heart of the fiercest warrior, the most powerful CEO and the smartest person in any given room: having to speak in public. The thought of it makes the palms sweat, the heart beat faster and the limbs start to shake. An estimated 75% of people have a fear of speaking in public, and it’s something that nearly everyone who takes the TED stage must work hard to overcome.

 Mikael Cho

Heart racing, palms sweating, labored breathing? No, you're not having a heart attack -- it's stage fright! If speaking in public makes you feel like you're fighting for your life, you're not alone. But the better you understand your body's reaction, the more likely you are to overcome it. Mikael Cho advises how to trick your brain and steal the show.



This TED-Ed lesson, the science of stage fright, just might help. In the lesson — which is taught by educator Mikael Cho and directed by animator Robertino Zambrano of KAPWA Studioworks — looks at stage fright not as an emotion, but as a physiological response. In other words, it’s not so much something to be overcome as to be adapted to.

“Humans are wired to worry about reputation. Public speaking can threaten it,” says Cho in the lesson. “It’s the fight-or-flight response, a self-protective process seen in a range of species.”

The lesson explains exactly what happens in the body before speaking in public and, of course, gives suggestions on how to calm stage fright. The obvious: practice, practice, practice. The not-so-obvious: stretch your arms above your head before you go on to trigger a relaxation response in the hypothalamus. (Yeah, it kind of reminded us of Amy Cuddy’s idea of power posing too.)

The best way to not get stage fright is to not care what people think about you to begin with. The easiest way to do that is to simply run through the worst possible scenario that's outside of your control, then ask yourself "So what if this happens? Is it THAT bad?".

Now, of course, you may end up in a loop by imagining worse and worse scenarios as consequence, but remember that we're talking about stuff you can't control. The moment you reach something that you DO control, imagine you make it!

Have a GREAT day as I look forward to seeing all of you soon.

Love Life!

Mitchell D. Weiner
Chief Happiness Officer

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“Truth alone will endure. All the rest will be swept away before the tide of time.” ~~Ghandi.

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Guest Post- Bruce Turkel: The Simple Precision Of Language

"Remember Gershwin when you’re writing to be understood and when you’re writing to be influential. Your reader most certainly won’t read your text the way you want them to read it; instead they’ll bring their own pacing, emphasis, and meaning to your words. To build your brand value it’s important that your intention be so clear that your audience will internalize it no matter how they pace their reading."

Good Morning Folks,

Today's guest poster will help anyone who makes Power Points, sales calls or other presentations to avoid audience confusion and misinterpretation to be more effective communicating their intentions.

He is Bruce Turkel, founder and executive creative director of the brand management firm, Turkel Brands. Buce has helped create some of the world's most compelling brands including Miami. Bruce has worked with Hasbro, Nike, American Express, Charles Schwab, Citicorp, Discovery Networks, Bacardi, Sol Melia Hotels, Azamara Club Cruises and many more great companies.

A captivating speaker and author, Bruce has spoken at MIT, Harvard, TEDx, and hundreds of corporate and industry conferences. Bruce appears regularly on FOX Business and has been on CNN, ABC, CBS, and NPR. He has been featured in The New York Times, Fast Company, Communication Arts, and AdWeek.

Bruce, over to you:

Do you know how to read musical notation? If you do you know that when you’re reading music you’re actually reading at least two things simultaneously. Written music tells you what note to play and when to play it.

Written language, on the other hand, only tells you one thing – what letter to pronounce. Of course, punctuation helps indicate pacing – pause at a comma, stop at a period (I’m not really sure what to do at a semicolon) but it’s still up to the reader to interpret how the author wanted the piece paced.

For example, read the following sentences aloud and place the emphasis on the bold faced underlined word. You’ll see how the pacing, and the meaning, can change based on where you choose to place the emphasis.

I didn’t say you should leave now.

I didn’t say you should leave now.

I didn’t say you should leave now.

I didn’t say you should leave now.

I didn’t say you should leave now.

I didn’t say you should leave now.

I didn’t say you should leave now.

Music notation is not like that. The composer provides the note to play, the time signature to play it in, the exact time each note should be played, the way the note should be attacked and the volume with which the note should be played. That’s why an entire orchestra can play a piece of music simultaneously and get it mostly right on their first reading. Of course the conductor can add flavorings and nuance, as can each player, but the basic structure still provides instructions for every part of the composition.

At the same time, musical notation has a way to allow the musician to add his or her own ideas, or improvisation, to the piece. Here the composer might suggest what the musician should play but also provides for the instrumentalists to create their own music and explore their own musical ideas by playing what they feel, and hopefully, what fits into the structure of what the rest of the ensemble is playing.

Ironically, written language, which doesn’t put nearly the same restraints on interpretation of prose, has no such flexibility. Sure, a rabbi or minister might halt their liturgical reading to allow parishioners to riff on a theme (they call it private mediation) but when was the last time you were reading a novel and the author inserted a few blank pages for you to add your own thoughts? There’s no room for readers to add their own words to a written piece.

That’s why sarcasm and irony seldom works well in print or static online advertising. It’s one thing for the copywriter to add their own inflection to a headline when they present it to a client but it’s quite another to expect a reader to add that same emphasis. Instead, the language of ads must be clear, simple, and to the point. Hopefully this will cause an emotional response without depending on a specific interpretive performance from the reader.

Imagine if Gershwin had e-mailed the lyrics of his famous song to his manager:

“You like potato and I like potato,

You like tomato and I like tomato,

Potato, potato, tomato, tomato,

Let’s call the whole thing off.”

Say what? Call the whole thing off just because we both like the same vegetables? Clearly something was lost in the transmission.

Remember Gershwin when you’re writing to be understood and when you’re writing to be influential. Your reader most certainly won’t read your text the way you want them to read it; instead they’ll bring their own pacing, emphasis, and meaning to your words. To build your brand value it’s important that your intention be so clear that your audience will internalize it no matter how they pace their reading.

And by writing simply and clearly, the results of their interpretation will be music to your ears.

Want to read more from Bruce? Visit his blog at TurkelTalks.com

Have a GREAT day as I look forward to seeing all of you soon.

Mitchell D. Weiner
Chief Happiness Officer

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 “Life Begins At The End of Your Comfort Zone”

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Ted Tuesday— Malcolm Gladwell: The Unheard Story of David and Goliath

Moral of the story: The Goliath might not be strong and David might not be weak. Things are not always the way they seem to be. So "don't bring a knife to a gun fight." (FSO competitors take notice)

Good Morning Folks,

Today's TED Talk is a religious story but also is a metaphor for our mission here at FSO. It's about innovation. (re)IMAGING. Change and finding the power within oneself to believe that you can be all that you can be.

Moral of the story: The Goliath might not be strong and David might not be weak. Things are not always the way they seem to be. So "don't bring a knife to a gun fight." (FSO competitors take notice).

In this video, a young shepherd, a mighty warrior, an impossible victory. But, asks Malcolm Gladwell, is that really what the David and Goliath story is about?

It's a classic underdog tale: David, a young shepherd armed only with a sling, beats Goliath, the mighty warrior. The story has transcended its biblical origins to become a common shorthand for unlikely victory. But, asks Malcolm Gladwell, is that really what the David and Goliath story is about?

Detective of fads and emerging subcultures, chronicler of jobs-you-never-knew-existed, Malcolm Gladwell's work is toppling the popular understanding of bias, crime, food, marketing, race, consumers and intelligence.

I think that one way to read the story of David and Goliath is as a parable about advances in technology and the loss of an old way of war. For a long time, in Ancient Greece, the archers and cavalry were an afterthought to the infantry. But then, advances in technology (better saddles, stirrups, and bows) started to make cavalry and archers valuable. They started to turn the tide in battles (Alexander conquered the world with cavalry). And this took away a lot of the face-to-face, "honorable" engagement of war. So Homer, wanting to commemorate the great old heroes of yesteryear, made them all infantryman. And he made the cowardly villain an archer (Odysseus also uses a bow, and tellingly, he wins Achilles' armor from Ajax--a giant infantryman-- further symbolizing the death of the old way of war).

For the Israelites, perhaps, technological advances (better slings, etc.) were what allowed them to hold off against neighboring tribes. So the slinger (David) becomes a hero, instead of a villain, for killing off the great fighter of yesteryear (Goliath).

This same parable still gets told about more modern warfare. In Kurosawa's masterpiece, Seven Samurai, most of the samurai (who each represent a samurai of legend) are killed by modern guns.

Have a GREAT day as I look forward to seeing all of you soon.

Mitchell D. Weiner
Chief Happiness Officer

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 “Customers are hard to build and easy to loose”

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Ted Tuesday— Simon Sinek: How Great Leaders Inspire Action

 “People don’t buy what you do; they buy why you do it.”

Good Morning Folks,


Behold the power of the Internet. Millions of others have already watched this video you probably never heard about until today.

In the fifth and final installment in our five-part Ted Tuesday series for Job Inspiration, Simon Sinek presents a simple but powerful model for how leaders inspire action, starting with a golden circle and the question "Why?" His examples include Apple, Martin Luther King, and the Wright brothers -- and as a counterpoint Tivo, which (until a recent court victory that tripled its stock price) appeared to be struggling.

There are bosses, and then there are leaders. Simon Sinek explores how inspiration creates action — all by using a circle. Utilizing the idea of the “Golden Circle,” Sinek, a professor at Columbia University and author of Start With Why, believes that the key is to discover not only what people and organizations do or how they do it — but most importantly, why. As Sinek summarizes: “People don’t buy what you do; they buy why you do it.”


Simon Sinek is also an optimist. He teaches leaders and organizations how to inspire people. From members of Congress to foreign ambassadors, from small businesses to corporations like Microsoft and 3M, from Hollywood to the Pentagon, he has presented his ideas about the power of why. He is quoted frequently by national publications and is a regular contributor to The Huffington Post and BrandWeek. This is his first book.



As you know job hunting is kinda boring at best, grueling and soul crushing at worst. Sometimes your unemployed friends need a little lift when they’re perpetually applying to job positions. 

This is just a small sampling of the many great TED talks. Watch some as you continue your job hunt, and you’ll be motivated to not only keep applying, but you might just discover some new things about yourself along the way.

Thanks for sharing this article. and....

Have a GREAT day as I look forward to seeing all of you soon.

Mitchell D. Weiner
Chief Happiness Officer

*Hat Tip: Mashable

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 "Chase the dream, not the competition"

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Ted Tuesday: Jason Fried: Why Work Doesn’t Happen At Work

"Think about it: When was the last time you ever had eight hours to yourself at an office?"

Good Morning Folks,

Behold the power of the Internet. Over 5 million others have already watched this video you probably never heard about until today.

In the fourth installment in our five-part series for Job Inspiration, Jason Fried offers a radical theory of working: that the office isn't a good place to do it. At TEDx Midwest he lays out the main problems (call them the M&Ms) and offers three suggestions to make work work.

Think about it: When was the last time you ever had eight hours to yourself at an office? Co-founder and President of 37signals, Jason Fried, theorizes that if you really want to get work done, the office is the last place you should be. 

He explores the idea that in-office workers have traded in their workdays for “work moments” and that similar to sleep, everyone needs uninterrupted time in order to get things done properly. He blames the lack of in office productivity on the “M&M’s” — and we’re not talking about the candy kind.


As you know job hunting is kinda boring at best, grueling and soul crushing at worst. Sometimes your unemployed friends need a little lift when they’re perpetually applying to job positions. But instead of clicking on funny YouTube videos like “Dog Plays Dead To Avoid Bath Time,” suggest that they cruise on over to TED.com to give themselves an emotional boost — and some much-needed career inspiration.

Thanks for sharing this article. and....

Have a GREAT day as I look forward to seeing all of you soon.

Mitchell D. Weiner
Chief Happiness Officer

*Hat Tip: Mashable

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 "Chase the dream, not the competition"

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