Category: Life

A few weeks ago, I saw the movie Slumdog Millionaire which I highly recommend. It’s a very graphic and sometimes disturbing but very powerful story about a teenager from India who became a contestant on the Indian version of “Who Wants to be a Millionaire?”

When the 18 year old is one question away from answering the final question and the show breaks for the night, the police arrest him on suspicions of cheating. They don’t understand how he knows all of the answers being that he’s an orphan from the slums of Mumbai.

The movie is about his tragic experiences and how and why he knew the answers he did.

During the movie, I kept thinking about how lucky I am! The opportunities and privileges we have are endless.

The opportunities to be or do anything you want have never been greater. I don’t care how badly you think you have it.

Yet, it seems as though more and more people feel sorry for themselves. So many people seem less than thrilled with their lives and jobs.

The tools are endless, the wealth of knowledge is staggering and the amounts of people out there that can (and want to!) help you get to where you want to be are in abundance.

There is no excuse for you not to have your dream life. Your dream relationship. Your dream job. So what if you fall short? If you aim for the stars and reach the moon that ain’t so bad.

In fact, I feel it’s an obligation for you to at least try. How can you not? How can you not go after your dreams?

But still it’s so easy to blame someone or something for how bad you have it.

Maybe we have too many opportunities? Are we too lucky? Are we too comfortable?

Is it easier for someone like Eminem to become ‘Eminem’ because he wasn’t giving up a six-figure job. He wasn’t going against the grain. There were no expectations for him to be successful.

Do people who have nothing to lose have an advantage over those who have something to lose?

I get emails constantly from people who want to switch careers. But they have endless excuses because they feel they have too much to lose. And because of that they have endless rationalizations.

So essentially, they believe they have too many opportunities and too many privileges.

No matter what you have to lose, as far as I know, you only get one shot on this Earth. I don’t remember ever being here before. You might as well make the best of it, right?

And there is only reason you won’t become the person you want to become.

Because of the limitations you set on yourself.

Limitations = excuses = rationalizations = never getting to where you truly want to be.

The question isn’t if the rationalizations will happen. The question is: are you going to be brutally honest with yourself.

Only you are holding yourself back no matter how much you think you have to lose.

Only I am holding myself back.

My favorite Apple Computer Ad campaign by far:

Here’s to the crazy ones.

The misfits.
The rebels.
The troublemakers.
The round pegs in the square holes.
The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules.

And they have no respect for the status quo. You can praise them, disagree with them, quote them, disbelieve them, glorify or vilify them.

About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things.

They invent. They imagine. They heal.
They explore. They create. They inspire.
They push the human race forward.

Maybe they have to be crazy.

How else can you stare at an empty canvas and see a work of art?

Or sit in silence and hear a song that’s never been written?

Or gaze at a red planet and see a laboratory on wheels?

We make tools for these kinds of people.

While some see them as the crazy ones, we see genius.

Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.

Pardon the interruption. Our original programming will not be airing today. Instead we’re going to focus on dealing with criticism. We’re also going to focus on the pathetic individuals who feel the need to constantly criticize and bash other people.

I wasn’t going to write this but I feel it’s very important and very timely for many reasons. One of my friends just sent me a terrible write up about his (very successful) restaurant across the country and he’s pretty upset about it. It almost seemed like a personal attack. Another one of my friends is getting slammed for his new advertising software that is changing the local advertising game. And of course, Barack Obama has faced intense criticism.

So, I told them I’d write a post about me and one that they can hopefully refer to when they feel down and out. I’ve gotten slammed a few times on my blog and if I can help my friends I’m all for it. (Oddly, by people who don’t even really know me. But that’s the way it works.) I also hope this post helps anyone who is (or is thinking about) really putting themselves out there.

In fact, on my post “The Number one quality we should look for in our President” there was a comment waiting for me. I deleted it because it’s not even worth sharing. If it was, I’d share it with you. But it’s not even that juicy.

After reading the comment though it made me smile. Because it means I’m on the right track! But it also made me sad. Let me explain why.

The difference between a person like you (someone who feels the need to constantly criticize other successful people) and a person like me is that you desperately wish you had the guts and the courage to go after your dreams. But you’re scared. You’re timid. You’re afraid of ridicule. You’re afraid of failure. You would keel over if someone said something bad about you.

I’ll tell you a little secret between you and me. I used to be like that too! But the huge difference between a person like you and a person like me is that I never knocked down people who were successful. I learned everything I possibly could from them. I studied them. I emulated them. I admired them! Heck, I even became friends with them!

But yet it absolutely kills you to see other people going after their dreams and making them come true. It kills you to see other people succeed. It destroys you. You are so scared of being disliked that you rather knock other people down then build yourself up. I know. I know. It must hurt.

It really saddens me that you rather spend your precious time (your precious time I said!) writing pathetic comments on my blog then going after your own dreams.

See, I want to (no, I must!) live the life of my dreams. Or at least try! Here’s the thing though. I’m going to die. And one day you will too.

How can you sit back and be timid? How can you not, at least try to, go after your dreams? So what if you fail? It’s the journey where all of the fun is anyway. It’s inexcusable. It’s unforgivable. We get one shot on this Earth buddy.

What are you waiting for? Oh that’s right. You don’t have the guts. You lack self-confidence. You don’t even trust yourself!

I love quotes. And I have a quote framed on my wall that says, “If you’re remarkable, it’s likely that some people won’t like you. That’s part of the definition of remarkable. Nobody gets unanimous praise – ever. The best the timid can hope for is to be unnoticed. Criticism comes to those who stand out.”

Every single successful person I have ever met in my entire life that is mega-successful from billionaires to young entrepreneurs who are running multi-million dollar businesses to my favorite authors to my favorite bloggers have one thing in common:

They are remarkable.

And even you would be amazed at some of the people I’ve met. I pinch myself sometimes. It’s freaking unbelievable.

These guys and companies and blogs have thousands and thousands of loyal fans. They are loved and respected and admired by so many people. But guess what!?

They are ridiculed and criticized by people too. Every SINGLE successful person I have met in my entire life and studied has (and had) people who try (tried) to knock them down…constantly.

And you know what all of these friends and mentors tell me? Don’t pay attention to them for even a second. They tell me to pay attention to the people who love and respect and admire my work.

And here I am spending my time writing a blog post dedicated to you! That’s how much I care. That’s how much my mom had an impact on me!

It’s taken me a long time to get to where I’m at. I wrote a post a while back entitled “Being Absolutely Fearless.” That was when I started my quest to have really thick skin. Because without it (at least according to these very successful people I know) you have no shot at living a remarkable life.

Jealousy my friend is a very powerful emotion. Being jealous tells you something. But it’s also a very wasteful emotion. Don’t be jealous. Instead, admire!

Being jealous says, “I wish I had or could do or be what this person does or has!” in my opinion.

But the difference between a person like you and a person like me is that you’ll keep hoping and wishing. I’ll keep trying and learning.

You’re so full of yourself that you can’t stand to ask someone for help. You can’t stand to be seen as someone who doesn’t know something. Instead you’ll stay stuck trying to knock people down instead of building yourself up.

You know why I love my clients to death? (Well, there are many reasons actually!) Because they aren’t too proud to ask for help. They don’t want to make excuses anymore. They don’t want to rationalize anymore. They don’t want to be stuck anymore.

Raise your hand in the air. Now raise it one inch higher. See – we can always be pushed a little harder.

But instead you’ll spend your entire life rationalizing excuse after excuse to yourself. The difference between successful people like my clients and you is that they seek help when they need it. You just try to tear people down. Newsflash: It’s much easier to talk than do!

I also get the comment that I’m full of myself on my blog once in a while. I’d like to address that here once and for all.

There’s a huge difference between being full of oneself (some might call that being an egomaniac) and full of confidence.

I think that blogging requires you to have a healthy respect for your opinions, as well as the generous desire to share them with others. That’s not a negative social trait… If you don’t respect your opinions, who will?

And if you don’t want to share the ideas you admire or believe in or even think about, you’re being selfish, aren’t you?

In any case, did you read the words on the top left hand corner? ‘Adam Gilbert’s Entertaining Ideas on Business, Fitness and Life…’ They are just that. Ideas! It doesn’t say ‘Adam Gilbert’s Entertaining ANSWERS on Business, Fitness and Life…’ does it?

And I love hearing other points of view! That’s why I have comments on my blog. That’s why I write some of the posts I do. I’m genuinely curious to hear what other people have to say. I love to make people think. Even if I’m going to get bashed for it. It’s a risk I’m willing to take. I’m willing to put myself out there.

Besides, if you don’t like my blog STOP READING IT! Use that back button or X out of it.

So what are you going to do my friend? Continue to write pointless comments on my blog? And continue to spend your Friday nights trying to knock people down?

I’m going to say it’s a safe bet I’ll refer back to this post many times in my career. In fact, I hope to. That means I’m succeeding!

Are you going to keep sitting there and keep hoping and wishing you were someone that you aren’t? You going to keep rationalizing? Or you going to get some advice and help and make your dreams come true so one day you, too, can be successful? (By the way, I define successful as being extremely happy.)

And you know how I know you’re not successful? I don’t know one successful person who stays in on a Friday night trying to bring down other people.

Instead they’d be working their asses off on their own dreams and their own happiness.

[Nice comment over at BrazenCareerist.com.]

The December 17th issue of Time had some startling statistics on voters. According to Time, Democrats picked good judgment 33% of the time and Republicans picked it 21% of the time, when asked what the most important quality of a candidate is.

The other choices were leadership, character, experience and caring about people.

Call me crazy but how is good judgment not the top choice by a landslide regardless of what party you’re affiliated with.

If you have bad judgment experience means absolutely nothing. A person with good judgment would consult with people who have experience. Clearly, judgment is more important than experience.

Leadership and caring about people are fairly silly concepts that have little to do with presidential job performance. Obviously you don’t want a wimp or a sociopath in the White House but I think the bar is already set low. And all of the candidates clear it with room to spare.

Character is important in exactly the same sense that good health is important no? You need a minimum of both to be a suitable president. But the bar isn’t set that high for either health or character. You can have polio, or be a liar, and it doesn’t seem to have much impact on job performance. Both McCain and Obama have enough character, and health (I think), for the job.

So don’t you think good judgment should be the most important quality in a president? But how often do you hear someone say that a candidate has good judgment?

Which leads me to who I’d love to see be President.

Unfortunately, he’s not running.

You would think the strongest quality a successful business person has to offer is good judgment. In most cases, if you start with a little money, and end up with a lot, you have obviously made a lot of good decisions along the way.

But let’s get back to reality for a second. Is the President going to affect my life that much? Is this election that much more ‘historical’ than any other besides a black man running for President and a woman running for VP?

Big deal. It’s 2008!

It’s about time. I could care less what gender or color our President is.

I watched part of Obama’s 30 minute infomercial last night. He keeps talking about hope and these tax breaks he’s going to give to people. And he keeps profiling these people who are in debt up to their eyeballs and can barely afford anything.

Sad story indeed. But Obama nor McCain are miracle workers. They aren’t going to make your life that much better or worse. Only you can make your life better or worse.

The amount of faith and hope people have in Obama (and McCain) is frightening to me. He’s not the answer. He’s not going to miraculously change your life if you’re desperately struggling.

This era of complete irresponsible consumption like buying homes you have no business living in because you can’t even come close to affording it or maxing out your credit cards thinking it’s free money is mind-boggling to me. Who do these people think they are?

Who do you think you are?

It’s these same people who depend on a President to make their life better as opposed to themselves.

Whatever happened to personal responsibility in this Country? Like taking responsibility for your own actions? Your own life? Like buying things you can afford. Like living at, or dare I say, below your means!?!

Whoever wins, wins.

But I’ll be voting for the best decision maker.

And the making my life better part? I’ll leave that up to yours truly.

[Some nice comments over at BrazenCareerist.com too!]

The thought of space is totally mind boggling to me. The idea that space doesn’t end and that that universe is still expanding just doesn’t make any sense. What do you mean it doesn’t end?

No walls? Nothing? Okay maybe there is a wall. But what’s on the other side of the wall?

It doesn’t make any sense whatsoever. That’s okay. It’s not supposed to make any sense.

This is just one of those mysteries that will never, ever, be solved. At least not by us, humans.

I read this article about UFOs today because that stuff really intrigues me. But, I have to say when it comes down it, I don’t believe for a second, UFOs or ‘Aliens’ (which is what we’re really interested in) have ever made it to Earth.

(Very big difference between UFOs and Aliens. Unidentified Flying Objects mean nothing to me if there are no ‘Aliens’ in it.)

I do believe there is life outside our solar system considering there are about 100 billion galaxies in the universe. And movies like Contact certainly make you think.

So here’s why I don’t believe ‘Alien’s’ have ever made it to Earth:

One. If you traveled at 100 km/hr, (which is about 62 miles per hour) it would take you 60,000,000 hours to reach our most distant planet.

To break that down even further, it would take you 6849.3 years to reach Pluto going 62 miles per hour. And if I’m not mistaken Pluto is no longer even considered a planet.

Two. A jet traveling at 1000 km/hr., which is about 621 miles per hour, would have a 6,000,000 hour flight.
How many years is that? That’s 684.9 years!

Three. We know there is no life inside our solar system besides here on Earth. And the closest galaxy is 2 million light years away.

For your edification that would mean you’d have to travel at the speed of light for 2 million straight years. And if you remember in physics, you can’t travel faster than the speed of light. (Of course, physics as we – humans – know them.)

If you were traveling at the speed of light, a light year would be the distance that you would travel in one year. Specifically, light travels at 300,000 km/sec, therefore distance traveled in 1 year = (distance traveled in 1 s); (60 sec/min); (60 min/hr); (24 hr/day); (365 days/yr.) = 9.4608 x 1012 km (that’s as far as I can go but you’d be going 300,000 km/second or 186,411.357 miles per second.)

Four. Therefore, ‘Aliens’ would have to be traveling at 186,411 Miles PER second for 2 million straight years. That means they’d have to be able to cook food in this vehicle, reproduce over and over, and be fully self sufficient and self containing while going this speed for 2 million straight years without stopping.

All to just crash in a desert in Nevada?!?!?!

Until some of these folks in these hokey towns actually meet an ‘Alien’ I’m not buying it.

Sorry to say, but I’m pretty sure our fantasies (or nightmares) of ‘Independence Day’ like heroism will never have to occur.

Of course they are fun to think about and fun to write about but I’m starting to get a headache thinking about all of this and it’s time to get back to reality.

Although, reality is an illusion…

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If you liked this post you’ll probably enjoy this ‘Do you believe in God’ post I wrote almost two years ago already.

Yosemite National Park is gorgeous. I went there in early September and I had an incredible time hiking in the pristine trails and surreal surroundings. (Pictures to come.)

While hiking, I discovered a new passion and I’m now obsessed. It’s called Bouldering. I’m already planning a trip to get back there for a long weekend. It’s a rock climber’s heaven.

So here are 11 life lessons I was reminded of while Bouldering:

One: Be Curious

I’m naturally a very curious person. I love knowing how things work. “But why?” is a question my mom is probably tired of hearing already. But I can’t help myself!

The World is a fascinating place!

While hiking up the trail, we walked over a bridge and there were giant boulders below us and all around – leading up the river bed. I was amazed by them. It was like a giant jungle gym. I really wanted to climb them…

Two: Take Risks!

I was drawn to them. It just looked like so much fun! So on the way back down from the trail (about 3 hours later) I handed my camera to my mom and told her I was going to meet her back down at the bridge. “Adam, you sure you can do this?” my mom kept saying. “Just be careful please!!!”

Three: Don’t listen to what people say (unless it’s your mom)

Especially, if you really believe in what you’re doing. I just had to do this. Even as I was climbing down from the trail into the river bed (which was one of the most dangerous parts) I wasn’t sure of what I was getting myself into.

Four: Enjoy the journey

Enough said. The days are long. The years are short.

Five: Take it one rock at a time

The bridge was my destination. But I knew I could only get there by climbing one rock at a time.

I tell this to my clients all of the time. One meal at a time. One workout a time. One day at a time.

They shouldn’t worry about next week’s meals or even tomorrow’s because you can’t control tomorrow’s meals today. Start with your very next meal and your very next workout.

This especially rings true with the turbulent stock market and economy right now. One day at a time!

Six: Impress yourself!

There were some very dangerous and sticky parts that I conquered. And if I fell it would have been pretty ugly. I was proud of myself. And I felt amazing all by myself.

Impressing yourself is what it’s all about. Not other people.

Seven: You don’t push yourself enough

We can always work a little harder and do things we don’t think we can do.

Raise your hand in the air. Now raise it one inch higher.

See, you can always work a little harder!

Eight: There is no lesson #8.

Nine: Sometimes life doesn’t go your way

How are you going to react? Things you can’t control….you can’t control!

So, it’s how you react that makes all of the difference. Maybe there should be a lesson # 8 or maybe there should be a giant boulder right here so I don’t have to go in this cave or maybe she should’ve done this or maybe he should’ve done that.

It’s not what happens to us that affects us. It’s our thoughts about what happens to us that affects us.

Worry about what you can control!

Ten: Celebrate your successes

Life is about 2 things: Relationships and experiences. Celebrate your successes (which are your awesome experiences) with your relationships. My mom and step-dad, Warren, were both really proud of me and excited for me when they saw my little head pop up from the boulders. It was fun to celebrate my little accomplishment.

(These pictures were taken by Warren from the bridge.)

Eleven: Life is one big jungle gym

You might as well have fun. Life is an adventure.

So much so that this weekend I’m going camping with my brother-in-law in Lake George with his buddies. Sleeping outside in a tent, cooking food by fire, and being in the middle of nowhere in frigid temperatures for 2 nights with a bunch of married 30 year olds should make for an interesting experience (and some interesting blog posts)…

There are 3 things you know:

The things you know. The things you know you don’t know. And the things you don’t know, you don’t know.

I love learning about things I don’t know, I don’t know.

Being exposed to something that is totally foreign to me is awesome. It gets me thinking in totally different ways about things I never thought about and I love that.

I find that when I learn about things I don’t know, I don’t know; I look at the things I do know, with a fresh set of eyes and it’s very refreshing.

One of the things I didn’t know, I didn’t know was about airplane racing. I also didn’t know how big of a deal it is for so many people. Millions and millions of dollars are poured into these hobbies (or really I should say obsessions) by extremely wealthy aviation enthusiasts who love flying and love speed.

My mom (a retired high school English teacher) has an aviation apparel company with my step-father, and part of what they do is travel around the country to different Air-shows selling aviation apparel to these die hard aviation enthusiasts. You probably don’t know what an Air-show is.

That’s okay. I didn’t either.

An Air-show is, well, a show where Aviation enthusiasts go and they watch their favorite planes or helicopters do demonstrations. So like the F-14 Tomcat (made famous in Top Gun) or the F-117 Nighthawk (easily one of the coolest planes on this Earth), or the B -2 Spirit (by far my favorite aircraft) or the CH-53 Super Stallion helicopter and on and on.

It’s fascinating to watch these planes in action and it’s even more remarkable to find out the price tag for some of these planes.

Did you know that the B-2 Spirit Stealth bomber plane reportedly costs $2.1 billion as of 1997?!?!? $2.1 billion dollars per plane.

Did you know that an estimated $23 billion was secretly spent for research and development on the B-2 in the 1980’s? That’s our tax dollars at work. But hey – if it keeps our country safe I am all for it!

So tomorrow morning, I’m flying out with my mom and meeting my step-dad in Reno, Nevada for the 45th Reno Air Races and Air Show where they will be a vendor.

Supposedly John Travolta flies in every year on his own Boeing 707 who is obviously a die hard aviation enthusiast.

The show ends on Sunday and then we’re headed to Yosemite National Park which I’m really excited about. I fell in love with the outdoors when I went to Lake Tahoe a few years back. The hiking there is insanely gorgeous and you don’t believe the scenery is real. Words or pictures don’t describe it, at all.

I loved the thoughts I was thinking while there a few years back. And my mom tells me Tahoe is nothing like Yosemite so I’m really pumped.

I always come back from vacations (although this is going to be 80% work) even more fired up and I expect with the scenery I’ll be seeing in Yosemite this time definitely won’t be any different.

The deal with my mom is a free vacation for free work. Done deal.

And as they say in Reno, “Fly Low – Go Fast – Turn Left!”