Ted Tuesday: Matt Killingsworth Want To Be Happier? Stay In The Moment.

'People want a lot of things out of life, but I think, more than anything else, they want happiness. Aristotle called happiness "the chief good," the end towards which all other things aim. According to this view, the reason we want a big house or a nice car or a good job isn't that these things are intrinsically valuable. It's that we expect them to bring us happiness."

Good Morning Folk,

Today I’ve decided to share a TED that is relevant to what I want this blog to be, and my role in life as the Chief Happiness Officer. This talk hasn't broken the Internet, nor has the popularity of the Grump Cat, but with over 3 million views in its own right, its worth a look.

Everyone on this planet deserves to be happy, nobody deserves sadness. You and you alone have the power to change your thoughts, feelings, actions and everything else about yourself that you want to change. If you want to be happy, the only thing stopping you is you.

I watched an amazing TED Talk a while ago titled Want to be happier? Stay in the moment by a guy called Matt Killingsworth. According to Matt:

"It’s an important question but one that science has yet to fully answer. Yes, people are generally happier if they make more money rather than less, or are married instead of single, but the differences are quite modest." 

My research is driven by the idea that happiness may have more to do with the contents of our moment-to-moment experiences than with the major conditions of our lives. I

A few years ago, I came up with a way to study people’s moment-to-moment happiness in daily life on a massive scale, all over the world, something we’d never been able to do before. This took the form of trackyourhappiness.org, which uses iPhones to monitor people’s happiness in real time. 

My results suggest that happiness is indeed highly sensitive to the contents of our moment-to-moment experience. And one of the most powerful predictors of happiness is something we often do without even realizing it: mind-wandering. 

Among the surprising results: We're often happiest when we're lost in the moment. And the flip side: The more our mind wanders, the less happy we can be. 

Now in the last 50 years, we Americans have gotten a lot of the things that we want. We're richer. We live longer. We have access to technology that would have seemed like science fiction just a few years ago. The paradox of happiness is that even though the objective conditions of our lives have improved dramatically, we haven't actually gotten any happier 

As it turns out, people are substantially less happy when their minds are wandering than when they're not. Now you might look at this result and say, okay, sure, on average people are less happy when they're mind-wandering, but surely when their minds are straying away from something that wasn't very enjoyable to begin with, at least then mind-wandering should be doing something good for us. Nope. As it turns out, people are less happy when they're mind-wandering no matter what they're doing. For example, people don't really like commuting to work very much. It's one of their least enjoyable activities, and yet they are substantially happier when they're focused only on their commute than when their mind is going off to something else. It's amazing.

So how could this be happening? I think part of the reason, a big part of the reason, is that when our minds wander, we often think about unpleasant things, and they are enormously less happy when they do that, our worries, our anxieties, our regrets, and yet even when people are thinking about something neutral, they're still considerably less happy than when they're not mind-wandering at all. Even when they're thinking about something they would describe as pleasant, they're actually just slightly less happy than when they aren't mind-wandering. If mind-wandering were a slot machine, it would be like having the chance to lose 50 dollars, 20 dollars or one dollar. Right? You'd never want to play. 

My hope is that over time, by tracking people's moment-to-moment happiness and their experiences in daily life, we'll be able to uncover a lot of important causes of happiness, and then in the end, a scientific understanding of happiness will help us create a future that's not only richer and healthier, but happier as well."

The lesson here isn’t that we should stop mind-wandering entirely—after all, our capacity to revisit the past and imagine the future is immensely useful, and some degree of mind-wandering is probably unavoidable. But these results do suggest that mind-wandering less often could substantially improve the quality of our lives. If we learn to fully engage in the present, we may be able to cope more effectively with the bad moments and draw even more enjoyment from the good ones.

So.... stop worrying about your future, what will happen will happen and you have little control over it until the moment arrives. Stop dwelling on the past, the past is the past and it’s now over. There is no need to dwell on it because you cannot change it now. Live in the present moment. You won’t regret it.

I want fanatical happiness to be way that YOU can make yourself happier. 

Have a GREAT Day,



Mitchell D. Weiner
Chief Happiness Officer  

Ideas are not set in stone. When exposed to thoughtful people, they morph and adapt into their most potent form. TED Tuesdays on MitchWeiner.com highlights some of today's most intriguing ideas. Look for more talks on Technology, Entertainment and Design -- plus science, business, global issues, the arts and much more— HERE.  

About FSO Onsite Outsourcing
Recognized on the Inc. 5000 list of the nation's fastest growing companies for the third consecutive year, and lead by industry pioneer, Mitch Weiner, FSO's growth and success can be attributed to making a positive and powerful impact on their clients' bottom lines, as well as their employees' careers and lives.

Ted Tuesday: An Economist Walks into a Bar: TEDx Talk by Robert Litan

"Business models and structures that have contributed to the success of endeavors such as Cupid.com, Priceline, Google ads, Amazon, and sabermetrics in sports. "I think economists deserve some respect," Litan said.

Good Morning Folks,

In this TEDx talk, Robert Litan, a nonresident senior fellow in Economic Studies, tells the Kansas City audience "how economists and their ideas have contributed to the rise of the entire Internet economy and to some of the iconic companies within it." Litan reviews the contributions economists have made to business models and structures that have contributed to the success of endeavors such as Cupid.com, Priceline, Google ads, Amazon, and sabermetrics in sports. "I think economists deserve some respect," Litan said. Watch below or on tedxtalks.ted.com:



Litan is author, with Ian Hathaway of Ennsyte Economics, of the recent papers, "The Other Aging of America: The Increasing Dominance of Older Firms" and "Declining Business Dynamism in the United States: A Look at States and Metros."

This talk was part of an event titled "Changing the Narrative," held on August 9, 2014.

Have a GREAT Day,



Mitchell D. Weiner
Chief Happiness Officer  

Ideas are not set in stone. When exposed to thoughtful people, they morph and adapt into their most potent form. TED Tuesdays on MitchWeiner.com highlights some of today's most intriguing ideas. Look for more talks on Technology, Entertainment and Design -- plus science, business, global issues, the arts and much more— HERE.  

About FSO Onsite Outsourcing
Recognized on the Inc. 5000 list of the nation's fastest growing companies for the third consecutive year, and lead by industry pioneer, Mitch Weiner, FSO's growth and success can be attributed to making a positive and powerful impact on their clients' bottom lines, as well as their employees' careers and lives.

Ted Tuesday: Matt Killingsworth's "Are We Happier When We Stay In The Moment?" TEDTalk and "Happiness" App

"When are humans most happy? To answer this question, researcher Matt Killingsworth built an app, Track Your Happiness, that let people report their feelings in real time. Among the results: We're often happiest when we're lost in the moment."

Good Morning Folks,

As your Chief Happiness Officer, over the past months, I've chosen TED talks to share here about the path to happiness and self-fulfillment that will enlighten and inspire you in unexpected ways. 

These short lectures explore why we’re often unhappy, why we feel happy when we do, and how we can overcome the many opposites of happiness so that we can live every day of our lives in a positive, enriched, and deeply fulfilling way. 

What is it that makes us happy? We’re told that money that doesn’t buy it, or success, or even love. Can happiness be created, or must it be discovered? Does the path to a happy life require certain ingredients—self-discovery, confidence, a loving group of family and friends, spiritual guidance, the opportunity to fulfill one’s dreams—or can anyone be truly “happy?” 

We spend our entire lives on the pursuit of this elusive state, which we so often think we recognize in others, and which we constantly struggle to find for ourselves. Thousands of years of philosophy, psychology, and sociology have studied what it means to be happy, but what if it could be a whole lot simpler than that? 

In today's talk, seen by almost 3 million on You Tube and Ted sites, by Matt Killingsworth, a doctoral candidate at Harvard who studies the nature of human happiness, is “Want to be Happier? Stay in the Moment.” Though the title might recall the clichéd “live in the moment” philosophy, Killingsworth is actually referring to the fascinating research he has done on studying the moment-to-moment happiness of research subjects to help him and other scientists learn what makes us happy and unhappy. 

Through his website trackyourhappiness.org, Killingsworth has made a research tool that allows him to track people’s responses to questions such as: “How do you feel?” “What are you doing?” “Are you thinking about something other than what you’re currently doing?” 

His research has shown that 47 percent of the time, people are thinking about something other than what they’re doing in that moment, and that there is a direct correlation between people’s “mind wandering” and their feelings of unhappiness. In other words, no matter what we’re doing, we’re substantially happier when we’re aware of and engaged in the moment than if we’re cluttering our minds with other thoughts. In this short, concise lecture, Killingsworth shows us how his statistics have the power to reveal when we’re the happiest, and how maybe being happy is a lot easier than we think. - 

When are humans most happy? To gather data on this question, Matt Killingsworth built an app, Track Your Happiness, that let people report their feelings in real time. Among the surprising results: We're often happiest when we're lost in the moment. And the flip side: The more our mind wanders, the less happy we can be. (Filmed at TEDxCambridge.)



Thanks to NPR and SpiritualityHealth.com and, most of all to you for “caring” (and sharing!).

Have a GREAT Day,



Mitchell D. Weiner
Chief Happiness Officer  

Ideas are not set in stone. When exposed to thoughtful people, they morph and adapt into their most potent form. TED Tuesdays on MitchWeiner.com highlights some of today's most intriguing ideas. Look for more talks on Technology, Entertainment and Design -- plus science, business, global issues, the arts and much more— HERE.  


About Matt Killingsworth

Researcher Matt Killingsworth designs studies that gather data on happiness. While doing his Ph.D. research at Harvard, Killingsworth invented the Track Your Happiness app.

He's now a Robert Wood Johnson Health and Society Scholar examining such topics as the relationship between happiness and the content of everyday experiences, the percentage of everyday experiences that are intrinsically valuable, and the degree of congruence between the causes of momentary happiness and of one's overall satisfaction with life.
track your influence!

About FSO Onsite Outsourcing
Recognized on the Inc. 5000 list of the nation's fastest growing companies for the third consecutive year, and lead by industry pioneer, Mitch Weiner, FSO's growth and success can be attributed to making a positive and powerful impact on their clients' bottom lines, as well as their employees' careers and lives.

Ted Tuesday: A Selfie on Steroids— Sergei Lupashin: A flying camera ... on a leash

"Fotokite is a unique solution for versatile aerial photography. We are building a safe, intelligent flying camera that anyone can deploy in under a minute."

Good Morning Folks,

Let's admit it: aerial photo drones and UAVs are a little creepy, and they come with big regulatory and safety problems. But aerial photos can be a powerful way of telling the truth about the world: the size of a protest, the spread of an oil spill, the wildlife hidden in a delta. Sergei Lupashin demos Fotokite, a nifty new way to see the world from on high, safely and under control.


Thanks to you for “caring” (and sharing!).

Have a GREAT Day,



Mitchell D. Weiner
Chief Happiness Officer  

Ideas are not set in stone. When exposed to thoughtful people, they morph and adapt into their most potent form. TED Tuesdays on MitchWeiner.com highlights some of today's most intriguing ideas. Look for more talks on Technology, Entertainment and Design -- plus science, business, global issues, the arts and much more— HERE.  

About FSO Onsite Outsourcing
Recognized on the Inc. 5000 list of the nation's fastest growing companies for the third consecutive year, and lead by industry pioneer, Mitch Weiner, FSO's growth and success can be attributed to making a positive and powerful impact on their clients' bottom lines, as well as their employees' careers and lives.

Ted Tuesday: Is the obesity crisis hiding a bigger problem? - Peter Attia

"This guy remembers what medicine is all about: treating people. That should always guide the conversation, never politics, money, or government. There are many skinny 12 year olds that have diabetes.. We live in a world..where looks matter..and fat is ugly and gross..if it was vice versa..doctors and the media, would be talking about a SKINNY Epidemic.. And how were going to be dropping dead by 35..."

Good Morning Folks,

We are a company that moves, innovates and constantly (re)Imagines. 

We are also a company that cares about its people. We're growing faster than any of our competitors, so it's more important than ever that we encourage our employees to take pride in their health and happiness.

Many people spend their lives waiting to be happy. You may think, “if only I had more money,” or “could lose weight,” or you fill in the blank, then I would be happy.

Well here’s a secret: you can be happy right now. It’s not always easy, but you can choose to be happy, and in the vast majority of circumstances there’s no one who can stop you except for yourself.

That's why I am so excited to present Dr. Peter Attia's very different take on diabetes, a subject many of our talent force are facing firsthand.

As a young surgeon, Peter Attia felt contempt for a patient with diabetes. She was overweight, he thought, and thus responsible for the fact that she needed a foot amputation. But years later, Attia received an unpleasant medical surprise that led him to wonder: is our understanding of diabetes right? Could the precursors to diabetes cause obesity, and not the other way around? A look at how assumptions may be leading us to wage the wrong medical war.



Here is a clip from the transcript that really hit home for us: 

“This is a really subtle distinction, but the implication could be profound. Consider the following analogy: Think of the bruise you get on your shin when you inadvertently bang your leg into the coffee table.

Now, imagine we thought bruises were the problem, and we evolved a giant medical establishment and a culture around treating bruises: masking creams, painkillers, you name it, all the while ignoring the fact that people are still banging their shins into coffee tables.

How much better would we be if we treated the cause — telling people to pay attention when they walk through the living room — rather than the effect? Getting the cause and the effect right makes all the difference in the world.”

Proactive vs. Reactive Health Awareness 

What if we treated our personal health the same way: working to prevent sickness and disease, rather than reacting when it’s already too late?

ou should watch this even if you don't care about diabetes. Peter Attia is a doctor who has developed a deep, empathic humility. It is motivating him to question how we currently view diabetes and obesity. The story is personal, but also clinical, and it may change the way you see doctors.

Back to diabetes, Attia has found that insulin resistance causes obesity, rather than obesity causing diabetes. This is a huge difference and it turns our conventional wisdom about obesity upside down. Fat people are becoming obese and diabetic because of another process that is going on - NOT because of overeating and lack of exercise.

This other process, the cause of insulin resistance, may be the consumption of processed sugars and grains. It may be due to consuming too much corn syrup and our over-glutenized wheat. These are both relatively new foods for us, popularized by convenience foods that emerged in the 1950's and have now come to dominate our food supply. Fortunately for us, Dr. Attia has stepped up and is working on a research team that is looking into different aspects of this problem.

Said one commenter on the Ted site, "Wow - incredibly powerful - His theory definitely needs more consideration - the obesity crisis is destroying humanity. I for one haven't been able to figure out why my diet of 1500 to 1800 calories a day of whole foods - and exercising at least an hour or two strenuously every day keeps me at 270 pounds - at 6 feet tall - and I'm 62.  Three slices of pizza causes me to gain 4 to 5 pounds."

According to the Kaiser Foundation, the cost of employer-sponsored health coverage for families has increased nearly 100% during the past decade. In addition, total health spending accounted for approximately 18% of the U.S. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2010.

Bottom line: Staying healthy not only costs a lot of money but requires an investment of time. The investment pays off in employee productivity, morale and high performance. Smart companies are starting to direct energy to educating employees to maintain a healthy lifestyle. It's good for employees, and it's good for business.

We are a company that moves, innovates and constantly (RE)imagines. We are also a company that cares about its people. We're growing faster than any of our competitors, so it's more important than ever that we encourage our employees to take pride in their health. 

But the benefits of health no longer have to be restricted to FSO employees only. What better way to encourage employees to take care of themselves than by using social tools? After all, we have our phones and tablets with us all the time. Here is a link to 5 Social Apps To Encourage Employee Health and Wellness so you can take full advantage of the connectivity to improve your health and well-being. 

My commitment to my employees and their future is paramount, hence why we are continuing make to these types of investments in our talent.

Thanks to you for “caring” (and sharing!).

Have a GREAT Day,



Mitchell D. Weiner
Chief Happiness Officer  

Ideas are not set in stone. When exposed to thoughtful people, they morph and adapt into their most potent form. TED Tuesdays on MitchWeiner.com highlights some of today's most intriguing ideas. Look for more talks on Technology, Entertainment and Design -- plus science, business, global issues, the arts and much more— HERE.  

About FSO Onsite Outsourcing
Recognized on the Inc. 5000 list of the nation's fastest growing companies for the third consecutive year, and lead by industry pioneer, Mitch Weiner, FSO's growth and success can be attributed to making a positive and powerful impact on their clients' bottom lines, as well as their employees' careers and lives.

Ted Tuesday: David Pogue: 10 Top Time-Saving Tech Tips

"Pogue knows what his audience wanted. If he did a typical 17-minute TEDTalk about 30 to 40 tech saving tips you'd walk away remembering 5-10 at most, or you'd stop watching the YouTube video halfway through. Five minutes is all we'd be willing to invest in this topic, but he knew that we'd have other things to do."

Good Morning Folks,

With 4 million views ion the Ted site alone,this is a fantastic TED Talk by David Pogue with some fantastic tech time saving tips. I encourage you to take 5minutes out to watch this… it will save you more than 5 minutes in the long run.

David Pogue, the New York Times' tech columnist, delivered an informative TED Talk earlier this year outlining 10 time-saving tips to help people with everyday technology use. These clever tips aren't ground-breaking or revolutionary by any means, but you will definitely have an "aha moment" after hearing how they can make your daily life a little less annoying and bit more efficient.

I remember the moment I discovered that pressing the letter "t" on my Blackberry took me to the top of my email list. It was a welcome reward for accidentally poking my keyboard. Those old phones were tough enough on the thumbs.

I probably only know 20 percent of what my current smartphone can do for the simple reason that, like most people, I do not read instructions. I expect my technology to be intuitive.

I am exactly whom David Pogue is talking to in his insightful 5-minute TEDTalk about time-saving tech tips. He explains that today we are expected to learn to use technology via osmosis.

I would say, more accurately, we expect technology to teach us using osmosis. The most amazing technological advances for everyday life would never see the light of day if the interface needed instructions.

There isn't really a manual that is short enough (or exciting enough) to entice people to learn the many ins and outs of their fancy gadgets. As Pogue states in his presentation, "Nobody ever sits down and tells you, 'This is how it works.' …They just sort of give you your computer and then kick you out of the nest."

We live our lives side by side with technology, but we rarely think about ways that can make our interaction with technology easier, faster and more efficient. In this talk, journalist and tech guru David Pogue introduces 10 simple, clever tips for computer, web, smartphone and camera users. And yes, you may know a few of these already -- but there's probably at least one you don't.


Companies value efficient workers with excellent time-management skills. Professionals can use all the time-saving tech tips they can get, in order to improve day-to-day job performance, impress their managers, and advance in their careers. Now that you're a certified time-saving tech genius, what are you going to do with all this free time you have?  

Indeed, all of Pogue's tips in his TEDTalk session are easy to figure out. You only have to accidentally hit the space bar once to notice the webpage you are reading then scrolls down. Pogue himself mocks instructions when he points out that he does not need a 30-second voicemail prompt to tell him how to leave a message.

As a professional communicator and marketer, I am in the business of helping my clients interface with their customers. Regardless of what industry you're in or what product of service you are selling, the key to success is connecting your brand with your customers. Every point of contact must be choreographed. Your customers must feel that you understand the way they think.

Apple is the world's most valuable brand today largely because Steve Jobs understood that fingers like to touch and explore technology.

And what do we ultimately want from technology? Paraphrasing Pogue's underlying message -- people today are looking to technology for ways to get some time back. Ultimately technology has done wonders in the realm of efficiency. The problem is, all the efficiency and time saved isn't used for leisure. Instead most of us end up doing more.

The desire to get more done, achieve more milestones or the infamous 'catch up' for my time off is a widespread by-product of great technology.

Let's all go make things happen today. I look forward to seeing you soon.

Love Life!

Mitchell D. Weiner

Chief Happiness Officer  

Ideas are not set in stone. When exposed to thoughtful people, they morph and adapt into their most potent form. TED Tuesdays on MitchWeiner.com highlights some of today's most intriguing ideas. Look for more talks on Technology, Entertainment and Design -- plus science, business, global issues, the arts and much more— HERE.  

About FSO Onsite Outsourcing
Recognized on the Inc. 5000 list of the nation's fastest growing companies for the third consecutive year, and lead by industry pioneer, Mitch Weiner, FSO's growth and success can be attributed to making a positive and powerful impact on their clients' bottom lines, as well as their employees' careers and lives.

Ted Tuesday: The Incomparable Seth Godin "Tribes We Lead"

Mass marketing, according to Seth Godin, requires average ideas. Because to sell in volume, you must cater to the average consumer. 

But what if you what to be remarkable?

Good Morning Folks,

In this 2009 presentation with over 1.5 million views, the legendary Seth Godin talks about the merits of not just a great idea, but how to find the right people to help that message spread. It's easy to look online and find every social media pundit blogging or tweeting about community management and building a strong brand evangelist platform, but many get it wrong. What we're looking to do is to build tribes of like-minded people. 

Seth Godin argues the Internet has ended mass marketing and revived a human social unit from the distant past: tribes. Founded on shared ideas and values, tribes give ordinary people the power to lead and make big change. He urges us to do so.

Godin has some really good news for you. With the Internet, you can share your product or idea without targeting the masses. Instead, you can build your own tribe.

"Seth Godin may be the ultimate entrepreneur for the Information Age," Mary Kuntz wrote in Business Week nearly a decade ago. "Instead of widgets or car parts, he specializes in ideas -- usually, but not always, his own." In fact, he's as focused on spreading ideas as he is on the ideas themselves. 

After working as a software brand manager in the mid-1980s, Godin started Yoyodyne, one of the first Internet-based direct-marketing firms, with the notion that companies needed to rethink how they reached customers. His efforts caught the attention of Yahoo!, which bought the company in 1998 and kept Godin on as a vice president of permission marketing. Godin has produced several critically acclaimed and attention-grabbing books, including Permission Marketing, All Marketers Are Liars, and Purple Cow (which was distributed in a milk carton). In 2005, Godin founded Squidoo.com, a Web site where users can share links and information about an idea or topic important to them.

Blogs Samantha:

Looking back on Seth Godin’s speech, I remember feeling very inspired. He made me want to get up and do something, change something, become something. It sounded perfectly clear once he spoke it, why hadn’t I seen it before? There are a lot of different things we can do for our tribes, groups that can be based on many different things. We could choose each other based on a common interest, favorite something or a goal we all want to achieve. 

I personally don’t know what I would want to be grouped for. To be honest, I feel like I’m riding a Mary-go-round, always doing the same things everyday. I want to change that, but I’m not sure how. I don’t believe I’ve found my purpose yet. Maybe this project will help me find myself. 

One of the things said during this TED talk was, “Tell a story. Make a Connection. Lead a group. Make a change.” Eventually that small group can grow into a big community, full of other people who can relate to you all because you have one interest in common."

Seth Godin is one of those individuals who really inspire change, this talk and his book are no difference and Seth Godin is probably one of the best examples of a tribe leader.

Connecting with your own tribe is such a powerful and clear call to action. Nobody explains the power of new marketing and new business thinking better than Seth:

Each of you can benefit from watching this. Something to share with your colleagues and friends! Please pass this along to others!

Let's be thankful for the Internet and Ted where we can be inspired by great keynotes that in the past were only accessible to lucky few (or hard working President's Club winners) at expensive conferences. 

Speaking of inspiration, this morning is a morning to get fired up about and what we stand for. We have a new COO with Mr. Bomsi Billimoria, promotions abound like never before with Missy, Chelsea, Shalaine and our Chief of Staff and SVP, Corporate Strategy, Denise Ngeow is back today from maternity leave - a big welcome back to Denise.  

We are a tribe at FSO and we are remarkable, not average. Personal, Passionate and Productive, and we get the job done to perfection every moment and every day.


To a bright and successful day!

Mitchell D. Weiner

Chief Happiness Officer  

Ideas are not set in stone. When exposed to thoughtful people, they morph and adapt into their most potent form. TED Tuesdays on MitchWeiner.com highlights some of today's most intriguing ideas. Look for more talks on Technology, Entertainment and Design -- plus science, business, global issues, the arts and much more— HERE.  


About FSO Onsite Outsourcing
Recognized on the Inc. 5000 list of the nation's fastest growing companies for the third consecutive year, and lead by industry pioneer, Mitch Weiner, FSO's growth and success can be attributed to making a positive and powerful impact on their clients' bottom lines, as well as their employees' careers and lives.

Ted Tuesday: Meet The Happiest Kid In The World

"Adults ask kids, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” Adults want to hear I want to be an astronaut or neurosurgeon. Us kids will answer surfer, Minecraft player, skateboarder or something we are more stoked on, what we think is cool.. what have experience with.. and that’s usually the opposite of what adults want to hear.”

~~Hackschooling Makes Me Happy:Logan LaPlante at TEDx University of Nevada

Good Morning Folks,

You have Marketing Intern Emily Bowen to thank for introducing me to 13-year old Logan LaPlante, a kid genius whose Ted Talk already has 6 million views and will show you how a great presentation is done. This young man is impressive in every single way. You have to see and hear the happiness he expresses in what he is doing in his life for such a young age. 

Talk about some one born for the role of Chief Happiness Officer! A "mini" me!

When 13 year-old curious and creative Logan LaPlante grows up, he wants to be happy and healthy. He discusses how hacking his education is helping him achieve this goal because he wonders why happy and healthy aren't subjects taught in traditional schools. He really deserves a Nobel for this. The most common sense and intelligence I have seen in some time. 

He combines the “hacker mindset” with a network of do-it-yourself friends, family, and community organizations to optimize for health, happiness, creativity, and wisdom. He calls it “hackschooling”.

Blogs Emily:

"As I was scrolling through my Facebook timeline, I came across a video that had been shared of a thirteen year old boy speaking at a Tedx Talk event. The boy's name is Logan Laplante, and he was taken out of school to be homeschooled. His impressive public speaking ability (at such a young age) wasn't the only thing that caught my attention. Like all good presenters, his story and message were intriguing and made me think about a few things. 

Unlike many children or teens who are asked the question "What do you want to be when you grow up?", he not only had an answer- but also a plan. The overarching theme of Logan's talk was how his goal is to [continue to] be happy and healthy. Through what he calls "hackschooling," Logan is able to tailor his education and style of learning to be focused on what interests him. According to him, hackschooling includes four things: a creative hacker mindset, experimental classes & camps, technology & online resources and the 8 researched tactics to being happy and healthy. By not being a part of the traditional education system that we know today, Logan has the opportunity to achieve his goals by learning through real life experiences. 

Much like Logan’s thesis of learning about what interests you and things you are passionate about, I believe everyone should have the opportunity from day one of college to get the most value for their money. Given the chance, I could have spent more time taking marketing and other supporting courses that would be more relevant to my field, such as Graphic Design."

And now here's "Hackschooling Makes Me Happy:

Logan LaPlante at TEDx University of Nevada

Logan loves skiing and is on the Alpine Freestyle Team where he enjoys competing in the big mountain Junior Freeskiing Tour and USASA Halfpipe and Railjams. As an intern at Bigtruck Brand in Truckee, Logan is working on developing his design, sewing, and business skills. Logan has performed in Young Chautauqua for the past 4 years as the notorious “Billy the Kid”, Sir Edmund Hillary, and most recently the psychopathic yet infamous Al Capone.

Logan enjoys public speaking and has been watching TED videos for as long as he can remember. He hopes that with his opportunity to speak at TEDx he can inspire some kids, parents, and educators to think differently about education and to make health, happiness, creativity, and wisdom a priority.

At the end of the day, a degree is a sheet of paper- a very expensive, needed one. It is how you take what you’ve learned, no matter how relevant, and apply it to real life that will test whether it was worth the time and effort.

We need more “hacker” mindsets in our society today, and it is enlightening that there are people like Logan who can have such a clear vision at such a young age.

Each of you can benefit from watching this. Something to share with your parents and friends! Please pass this along to others!

Like Logan, how lucky are we to be able be given new chances to improve ourselves, improve the way we serve our clients, improve the way we work with our staff, as well as to improve the way these opportunities are spread among all levels of employment at FSO. This is important. 

Let's all go make things happen today. I look forward to seeing you soon.

Love Life!

Mitchell D. Weiner

Chief Happiness Officer  

Ideas are not set in stone. When exposed to thoughtful people, they morph and adapt into their most potent form. TED Tuesdays on MitchWeiner.com highlights some of today's most intriguing ideas. Look for more talks on Technology, Entertainment and Design -- plus science, business, global issues, the arts and much more— HERE.  


About FSO Onsite Outsourcing
Recognized on the Inc. 5000 list of the nation's fastest growing companies for the third consecutive year, and lead by industry pioneer, Mitch Weiner, FSO's growth and success can be attributed to making a positive and powerful impact on their clients' bottom lines, as well as their employees' careers and lives.