Lucky: a misunderstanding

I chuckle when someone sees my success and says, "wow, you are lucky." Or when I start something new, "Good luck with that". It's not luck. It never was luck. I was not born rich. I cultivated it from within.

I have bloody my hands working, literally. I have lost money. Felt dispare, anguish. I have felt like I let people down. I have gone hungry. I have worked eighteen hour days. I am lucky.

Freedom is not luck. At least it isnt for me. I have made and lost money. Then made it again. Each time refining the process. The mental game that happens inside me. This is the battle that one faces who isnt not born into entitlement. It wasn't luck.

When I left my job to be a real estate investor. My friends and family thought I was crazy, "you're a punk kid". Ha, weren't they right, I was. I still made a million dollars. And, when I lost everything including my spirit. When I felt the universe or god was out to get me, or as if It had taken my power -I am sooo unlucky.

And, when I facilitated over 400 people in the art of real estate and financial literacy, of course they too said, "You are so lucky."

And, when I said I am starting a real estate hedge fund. They said, "Isn't it a bad time for that?" The nice way to say,  you're crazy. 

And, when I am sitting on my patio looking on as the sun is swallowed by the pacific. As that green flash catches the arch of the earth and that fireball disappears into the sea. I will think, again, it surely must be luck. Oh, I am sooo lucky




photo credit pburzynski

Power vs Force

I recently picked up this book again. Funny how such a cosmic book gets accolades even from someone such as Mr. Sam Walton. I am reminded of the fragile nature of force. It's seeming relationship to winning. In my experience I have successfully won the game using force. But, as the author David R. Hawkins points out this win is not without a cost.

The Mayan Calendar, Hat Tricks, Web Apps & Happiness

Sometime, I just let it flow. I write from a reservoir of information that pours from my fingers. It explodes from someplace outside of me and my lil' hands can't keep up.

I wonder if all great writing comes from this place. I wonder if writers feel this and are moved. Like touching god. Then they lose it and call it writers block. I wonder because, for me, the greatest joy of writing is watching the words unfold, not knowing what will come next.

The year 2011 was an interesting year.  Strange movement and seeming stagnation, and a web app that is rocking my business.

I wonder if time will stop. If the calendar ends this year and all the world is eaten by a black hole. Or maybe our way of thinking is weighed in a new direction. Personally, I think it's the latter.

Let's Get Married

A chapter of our life, in the biography section -naturally.

Okay, so yes, we have been living in sin, since forever. But for the past six months I've been planning this bit of madness, err genus.

I know what you are thinking, a bookstore? You got married in a bookstore? Being the dazzling romantic that I am I have entertained all sorts of grand ideas about how and where to marry this woman.

Ultimately, it occurred that the best place to ask –and it turns out to also marry– is at the very place we met four years ago on a June Saturday.

Walking on Fire

I talk a lot about fire. I may be talking about passion, but sometimes I'm talking about the real thing.

Photo Credit: solong_mariana

The first time I walked on fire was July 2003. I attended a Tony Robbins: Unleash the Power Within event. It was a three day deal, But, Tony asked 3,000 people to walk on burning hot coals just hours after arriving, day one.

Making Money in a Crab Pot

photo credit: stingray

When I decided to change who I was. When I decided to get into real estate, to become an investor. My fiends and family told me I was crazy. To become rich from simple roots requires courage and conviction.  To become rich requires fortitude and to quote Napoleon Hill, it requires definiteness of purpose.

To date I have seen the crab pot in many areas of business and life. It happens because, as we are part of nature –we gather. At a small level this is what plasma is. Plasma is simply a collection of charged particles that respond strongly and collectively to electromagnetic fields.

Coworking: No, it’s not an Office

[I wrote this post for the Global Coworking Blog and have reposted it here.]

I’ll get to the meat quickly but first you must know, my passion for coworking erupted like many house fires, unexpected in the night.

One early morning between 4:00 AM and 9:00 AM this blinding surge became a blueprint to open a coworking space in downtown Salt Lake City. I don’t know where the idea came from… it was just there. I don’t remember ever hearing the term coworking before, but one thing was clear, it was time to open a coworking office.