12 Things Successful People Do Differently

There you are sitting at your desk, mulling over your bills, tired from a day at work filled with aching shoulders and employees who seem much more concerned with their time off than that end-of-day deadline for that latest campaign for that Bakery outside Boston.

You want more! You want greater heights to explore who you are as a business, as a boss, and as a creative being! 

So how can you do all this without killing your time or your energy and maximizing effectiveness in all areas?

Here are 12 things successful people do differently to achieve maximum results in their businesses and lives without going over their limits.
 

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Wednesday Wisdom: Dan Lok Explains the Difference Between Reading Books and Using Books

"I don't read books, I use them. That's a big distinction."

Entrepreneur Dan Lok explains the difference between just reading books and and using books to gain knowledge and using knowledge to gain wisdom that carries you throughout life and business! Check It out!

Dan Lok - Why I Don't Read Books

FreelanceMikey's Summary:

Knowing how to gain valuable experience comes from trying and figuring it out through implementation of information, not just knowing information. From experience comes wisdom. Be willing to mess up and learn from it. Wisdom, according to Lok, is also knowing what to leave out so you can simplify your understanding and deepen that understanding.

Be well!

 

#MondayMotivation: Drake Gave Away a Million Dollars In 'God's Plan' Music Video

Drake Gave Away a Million Dollars In 'God's Plan' Music Video

In this installment of #MondayMotivation, we see what happened when hip hop superstar Drake decided to give away his $996,631.90 music video budget to everyone in a struggling black community: from a college essay winner and shoppers at your neighborhood grocer to your average Joe and Jane on the street.

It's something I've even considered doing in my own life (upon reaching my future business goals at FreelanceMikey and beyond). In saying that, it occurs to me that there's really no reason any of us can't decide to give away a smaller amount to another person in need. $20 well shopped can buy dinner for a single mother of two. It's clear (to me at least) that this wasn't done to self-agrandize on Drake's part. I believe he's showing we can all do one small thing to change our neighbor's world if we want to do it. Let's do good because we want to and we can. 

Why the Creative Thinking of Your Childhood Is the Basis for All Real Learning

The following is a revamp of a blog I wrote a decade ago that strangely but propitiously fits in our current creative culture in America.

Elementary art teacher Ms. Escobal documents one child's moment of innovation with certain found objects.

Elementary art teacher Ms. Escobal documents one child's moment of innovation with certain found objects.

“I admit that twice two makes four is an excellent thing, but if we are to give everything its due, twice two makes five is sometimes a very charming thing too.” -Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Notes from the Underground

 

Think back to your childhood. Did you play? Did you run around your house in your underpants pretending to be your favorite hero or heroin trying to save the world from an evil scientist? Did you ever build anything: a house of cards, a tower of crackers, maybe a simple fort? Did you ever play cop and fight imaginary villains and try to thwart a robbery? Maybe you were the one who pretended to have a family of five, a beachfront vacation home, and an office in the city. Even if you did none of these, back when you were six, nine, eleven years old, your mind wandered if your normal day-to-day got too boring.

Now contrast your play life with that of school. First, the adults made you go. There was no compromise, no voting and no writing to your local senator or the ACLU about how you feel your parents may have violated your constitutional right to stay home and eat Fudgie the Whale ice cream cake all day (or maybe, it was Count Chocula… whatever). You had to go to school. No amount of negotiating would change that. You rode your school bus, arrived at school, and soon thereafter would learn whatever the day had in store: spelling, grammar, math and history for which you had no point of reference. Flashcards were equally monotonous—you sat in your chair memorizing each card to the point your brain would just shut off and proceed to rattle off answers like a Pavlovian pup waiting to be rewarded with that peanut butter and jelly masterpiece your mother prepared while you were negotiating the Fudgie the Whale particulars.

Then, it was lunchtime! Lunch was great because you could always compare the other kids’ food with yours. Even if yours was crappy, the kid at the end of the table who ate crayons for money would devour your cafeteria meatloaf like a vulture on a deer carcass! Lunch was a time to talk about your favorite pastimes. Baseball was popular with the boys and for some unknown reason, fortune telling was the girls’ thing with little paper-folded demon machines which always said something like “You smell like pee and have a hairy butt!” Recess would follow and someone would always get maimed by a dodgeball or innocently and precociously chased by a member of the opposite sex (usually) and another kid would get inadvertently beaten with the double dutch ropes.

Next, you’d have more science work to do, memorizing ten categories of plant life or you’d learn how to type like a speed endurance champion, or maybe go to a gym class, art class, music class (These all varied depending on your school’s budget). But these were the times that seemed most free. In art class you could paint the sky purple and no one could tell you it was wrong. Music class had all those silly 1920s “flappertastic” classics that you by all accounts hated—but at least it didn’t have any long division or decimals! On the days you had gym, you ran in a circle for ten minutes and then perfected your volleyball serve to a tee while you gave your best Olympic-style grunt. Ah, those were the days, heh?

It is, without question, sadly prophetic that I should speak in the past tense about your and my collective school experience because right now as I speak to you, even in 2018,  there are serious numbers of K-12 aged students who do not receive regular physical education—and art classes, while the highlight of many a child’s day are now a luxury. This is largely due to the 2001 No Child Left Behind Act which brought about stricter and more streamlined testing standards for schools nationwide that focus primarily on math and literacy skills. Kids are tested three times a year and thus have to spend a considerable amount of time preparing for tests. But the evidence suggests that without the arts and exercise, U.S. Children may be actually losing their ability to process, analyze and dissect information in ways that are essential for innovation in business, science, engineering, and medicine.  Centers for Disease Control data has long suggested that children who get at least 60 minutes of physical play or exercise per day do better in all general aspects of learning and cognitive function (Read here). The arts have been shown to be even more paramount to healthy brain function. Playing music, for instance, requires vigorous processing on both sides of the brain (Read about music and the brain here.) while creative expressions in writing and visual arts require critical thinking and an ability to view the world and its problems in new and uncharted ways for the fact that art is not usually restricted to 2 + 2 = 4 (More here). This was probably best expressed in the words of Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoyevsky in his existential classic Notes from the Underground when he opined, “I admit that twice two makes four is an excellent thing, but if we are to give everything its due, twice two makes five is sometimes a very charming thing too.”

What No Child Left Behind (and rigorous core testing in general) robs from children’s education is the imagination of childhood and also fails to cultivate that all important physical instinct to run, jump, climb, push, and explore which physical exercise provides. Children have an uncanny and innate ability to conquer their world just by looking around it, exploring, digging, running or playing make-believe. It is just that simple. In this way, children who make art are the future architects and engineers. The most curious minds are often among those who cure diseases or build spaceships and the best actors are often the best undercover investigators on the face of the earth! Then there are the entertainers who make you and me smile at the end of a bad day, artists who allow us to look at our lives with newborn eyes, or athletes who make us realize that our human bodies have oh, so much untapped potential! It is, my friends, these elements which compose the human being in all his/her/their glory and you and I have known this ever since we first began to play. So I say to you: Play on, create, and imagine. Imagination is after all, your most sacred tool with which to discover the Universe of possibility which lies before you!

 

Buy Books and Donate Books at betterworldbooks.com!

Buy Books and Donate Books at betterworldbooks.com!

Hey guys, this is a great cause that I really love! Check it out:

You can support reading and literacy in underserved communities with a great company called Better World Books. Literacy charities are a big cause for me, and I'd like to share this video with you to encourage you to help give a book to someone in need by going to Better World Books' website here or at the link above. For every book sold, the company gives a book away to someone who needs a book to read in literacy programs all over the world. I love this cause, and I encourage you to use the site to buy your books or go to their Better World Books Amazon storefront and give there. All books get FREE STANDARD SHIPPING as well!

I just bought a book I can't wait to read called The Renaissance Soul: Life Design for People with Too Many Passions to Pick Just One by Margaret Lobenstine. I'll let you guys know how it is when I'm done reading it. :)

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Thanks in advance and happy reading!

How to be happy (in business and in life)

How to be happy has always plagued us, but the search for how to be happy ultimately comes down to a being and not a searching. How to be happy in business or in everyday life is a discision you and I must make. The only way to be happy is to be being it as much as possible. Be the thing that makes you happy by doing the thing that makes you happy! The following excerpt is from a several-decades-old lecture from the late Alan Watts. It's called "Why you're not Happy."