Hello again to my friends, family, colleagues, and clients. Many of you know me personally through work, networking or through one of my speaking engagements related to sales skills, professional networking and personal development; and some of you may know me only by email and telephone. Welcome to everyone that’s new to this distribution list.
There are a lot of very smart and interesting people that I am fortunate to network with. We share books, movies, music and ideas that stimulate us. I'm always interested to learn what other people that I respect are reading, watching and listening to. This is my monthly email newsletter with books I’ve recently read, movies seen, music devoured, ideas and other things that may be of interest to you. If you find this interesting and would like to pass it on, please feel free to do so. If you’d like to be removed from this list just let me know. If someone forwarded this newsletter to you and you would like to be added to this distribution list or if you’d like to view previous newsletters, please email me and let me know.
A number of people have asked that I insert an announcement indicating whether I have any upcoming speaking engagements that are open to the public. I do have a few public speaking engagements this month in Colorado. If you have an interest in dates, times and speaking topics, please let me know.
Happy Labor Day! Hey, are you working? Put down that work and go get yourself a chimichanga and a margarita. You’ve earned it.
Did you watch the Olympics as much as we did? Holy cow- there are some amazing athletes out there. The US Olympic Fencing Team is a client of mine and they not only won the first US medals of the games, they did it by sweeping the Gold, Silver and Bronze in the Women’s Sabre. Way to go, ladies! With the US Olympic Training Center located here in Colorado Springs, it’s a very exciting time to be in Southern Colorado.
The kids are back in school, it’s getting darker earlier, the evenings are getting cooler and it’s already started snowing in the mountains. Where else can you golf and ski in the same day? Wait….wait for it…..hear that sound? That’s the sound of me thanking God that I moved to Colorado almost five years ago. What a beautiful time of year to be in Colorado Springs!
A BOOK TO PUT ON YOUR MUST READ LIST
Law of Success- Napoleon Hill
Most people have heard of “Think and Grow Rich” and its author, Napoleon Hill. Hill is the man whom Andrew Carnegie commissioned with studying the most successful people in America from 1908-1928. He spent 20 years interviewing and learning from the 500 most wealthy and successful people in America at that time. In 1928 he published “Law of Success”, and it’s not a quick read at 1035 pages although the concepts and ideas presented are not complicated. Although many people have criticized this book over the years, there are a tremendous number of people who have credited this book as a significant factor in their attainment of success. By the way- there has never a statue erected to a critic and the people that say that things cannot be done should stop wasting the time of the people that are doing them.
In 1937, Hill condensed the book into the classic, “Think and Grow Rich”. I have been promoting TAGR for a long time and having just finished “Law of Success”, I can say that LOS is the better book if you commit to reading it.
Hill describes the 17 laws of success in detail and explains how to apply and utilize them in your life. A lot of this will be considered common sense by some, but the thing to remember is that common sense is about the most uncommon thing in the world.
Here are some great Napoleon Hill quotes:
· Whatever the mind can conceive and believe it can achieve.
· Knowledge has no value except that which can be gained by its application.
· Action is the real measure of intelligence.
· If you do not conquer self, you will be conquered by self.
· Procrastination is the bad habit of putting off until the day after tomorrow what should have been done the day before yesterday.
· Who said it could not be done? And tell me what great victories does he have to his credit which qualifies him to judge what can and can’t be accomplished?
· One of the main weaknesses of mankind is the average man’s familiarity with the word ‘impossible’.
· More gold has been mined from the minds of men than has been taken from the earth.
Even though this book is almost 100 years old, there is nothing new under the sun. People are people and laws are called laws because they are never changing. The laws of success are just as immutable as the laws of gravity. People can deny that they exist just like they can deny that gravity exists as they plummet to the ground when jumping off a building. The good news is that if you understand and use the laws of nature they can help you achieve so much more than if you didn’t understand or use them for your benefit. Take the time to read and apply the lessons contained in this book and you can only be much better for it. How could you lose? That’s the best deal you’ve had all week!
http://www.naphill.org/
A VERY HELPFUL TOOL
Two friends of mine, David Fein and Jim Green recently called me and recommended that I look at a site and sign up for a free version of a great business and life tool. The site is Jott.com and I think that you may find this site very useful. There are many uses for this site and I’ll just highlight a few.
Jott.com is a site and a service that allows you to manage to-do lists and reminds you of tasks. You can call Jott.com on your phone and speak a reminder and Jott.com will ask when you want to be reminded and then you will receive an email and a text message reminder at the appointed time. You can also speak something that you don’t want to forget and it will show up in your email as a message. Once you play with the service a bit you will discover many uses for it. Don’t worry if you’re not technical, the site is very intuitive.
Take a few minutes and go to the site and sign up for the free version. You will really use this a lot when you’re driving as a way to take notes and create reminders. If you’re like me (thinking of 20 things at once) you will find this service to be great! Matter of fact- Jott reminded me to send out this newsletter.
Thanks David and Jim. I appreciate you thinking of me and please keep the great ideas coming!
www.jott.com
MUST GET MUSIC
Yo Yo Ma Plays Ennio Morricone- Yo Yo Ma
Movie soundtracks have some of the most beautiful music ever written and Ennio Morricone is undeniably one of the best soundtrack composers of all time. Once you start listening to this wonderful CD from 2004 you will recognize some great pieces. The disc starts with “Gabriel’s Oboe” from The Mission and works through pieces from Cinema Paradiso, The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, The Untouchables and Once Upon a Time in America among others. As many of you may know, my wife and daughter are competitive figure skaters and have often competed with these great, melodic pieces playing in the background. You may have seen some skaters on TV skating to these pieces as well. (No, not in Blades of Glory)
Yo Yo Ma has been the best cello player in the world for many years and he just gets better and better. His tone is as pure as crystal and just as rich. The cello orchestrations of these timeless pieces that Ennio wrote specifically for Ma really highlight the cello and allow it to soar. Lush is a great word for this CD and even though these gems come from the movies, they are all stand-alone masterpieces.
Here’s a great clip of Ma and Morricone during the recording of this great music:
http://www.youtube.com/wat
GREAT GOVT MULE CLIP
Karin and I went to a Govt Mule concert at Red Rocks last night with our friends Brandon and Tammie. I have been a huge Mule fan for over 15 years. Warren Haynes is one of the best blues guitarists in the world and years ago he used to be a guitarist in The Allman Brothers. Seeing a concert at Red Rocks is an event and last night was fantastic. It was a beautiful late summer evening with a light breeze. To see the rocks rising hundreds of feet above you with Denver’s lights twinkling in the distance is amazing.
The Mule was in great form and as always it was like a mini-Woodstock. This is a jam band’s jam band. They played a lot of their own songs and also did a number of covers. Here’s a clip of Govt Mule playing about 5 years ago. Get a lava lamp, light some incense and enjoy this clip. (Ask me sometime about the time that Karin and I had a few beers with Warren and he signed a golf ball of mine at The Stanhope House in NJ after an acoustic show. You can’t make this stuff up.)
http://www.youtube.com/wat
VERY COOL AND INTERESTING SITE
I like genealogy and find the thought of knowing where all the Knebls are, very interesting. There is a brand new website that almost does this. It doesn’t scour the entire planet, but a pretty good portion of it. You probably don’t care where the Knebls are (8.33 Knebls per million people in Austria), but you may want to find your own family.
Click on the link below and you will read a newspaper article and within the article is the link to the site. Very cool, and I believe that over time this will help (as many other things are doing right now) to make the world smaller and smaller. You may find some information that might really matter to you. Enjoy.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/
A TREMENDOUSLY INSPIRATIONAL CLIP
This clip of Patrick Henry Hughes is sure to move you. It truly is amazing what difficulties people can overcome. How can we complain about anything? I hope you enjoy this as much as I did. Thank you, Martha, for sending this to me.
http://www.youtube.com/wat
A GREAT SUCCESS CLIP
This clip has Napoleon Hill explaining his meeting with Andrew Carnegie and the resulting creation of his “Law of Success” philosophy.
http://www.youtube.com/wat
WINNER OF THIS MONTH’S HILARIOUS VIDEO CLIPS AWARD
In keeping with the spirit of the Olympics, I share with you three clips of Paulette Huntinova. She is a little known Russian acrobat that the International Olympic Committee may have to create a new medal for. Thanks to my father, Karl, for these clips. You rock, dad. These are hilarious.
http://www.youtube.com/wat
http://www.youtube.com/wat
http://www.youtube.com/wat
HISTORIA-DE-UN-LETRERO (THE STORY OF A SIGN)
This is a nice short film that teaches a lesson about the fact that it’s often not what you say, but how you say it that counts. Thank you for this, Melanie.
http://www.adnstream.tv/vi
FUNNY AUSTRALIAN COMMERCIAL
This is a funny clip. Remember, you’re only as old as you think you are- even though my kids think that I’ve been around since the earth was cooling. Thanks for this clip, Dennis.
http://www.youtube.com/wat
SOME GREAT QUOTES
“Truth is always the strongest argument.” Sophocles
“The future is much like the present, only longer.” Dan Quisenberry
“Do not wait for leaders; do it alone, person to person.” Mother Teresa
“Every man serves a useful purpose: a miser, for example, makes a wonderful ancestor.” Laurence Peter
”In the simplest terms, a leader is one who knows where he wants to go, and gets up, and goes.” John Erskine
“Creative minds have been known to survive any kind of bad training.” Anna Freud
“They can because they think they can.” Virgil
“Winning may not be everything, but losing has little to recommend it.” Diane Feinstein
“No person was ever honored for what he received. Honor has been the reward for what he gave.” Calvin Coolidge
“Two paradoxes are better than one; they may even suggest a solution.” Edward Teller
“When you lose, don’t lose the lesson.” Unknown
“Adversity leads us to think properly of our state, and so it is most beneficial to us.” Samuel Johnson
“A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort.” Herm Albright
If you think that this will be of interest to someone that you know, please feel free to forward it on. If you have any thoughts or opinions on any of these recommendations or have recommendations of your own, please let me know- you never know where the conversation will go from there. As always, if you’d like to reach me, the easiest and fastest way is either by email or mobile phone.
To your success,
Kevin