Uncovering Self-development wisdom for us all

Self-development is crucial for personal growth and fulfilment. It involves enhancing your skills, knowledge, and abilities to achieve your full potential. By investing in self-development, you can improve your career prospects, build better relationships, and enhance your overall well-being. It empowers you to set and achieve meaningful goals, adapt to change, and navigate life’s challenges with resilience. Ultimately, self-development leads to a more enriched and purposeful life, allowing you to contribute positively to society and create a lasting impact.

The following are interviews intended to share insight, wisdom, and knowledge. Read below to learn more!

 

Tommy Friman

‍Finland, Norway

‍My life has always been about finding out more about myself and developing and becoming happier. Going through life, I’ve learned a few things along the way that have come to strengthen me a great deal. These are some of the inner and bodily teachings that my journey has brought about.

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Drink enough clean, purified and warm water

Your body is not a desert, and the life-form that you represent has evolved from living in the ocean. Your body is a system that depends totally on water. You need to get enough of it to maintain a high level of energy and flow. It’s very important for the water to be clean, neutral and free from germs. For this you need an active-coal filter and preferably also cook the water before drinking. Drink the water as warm, not hot, not cold. This will save your body tons of work and it will be absorbed straight into your system. The effect of clean water filling your body to the right amount is clear: more energy! Don’t overdrink, however, keep yourself hydrated throughout the day.

Make sure you get enough of real, clean and powerful nutrition for balanced and strong health

When your body gets all of the things that it actually needs to function properly and optimally, things will start to change. Your body is an extremely intelligent and precise instrument in more ways than you can imagine. You need to start giving it that, and only that which makes real sense. This means real food like organically grown vegetables, fruits, meat, fish, sprouts and other grown foods, as fresh as possible, and as little processed and cooked. Eating toxic chemicals, sweeteners, refined sugars, coloring substances, pesticides and petrochemically produced fertilizers is just not an option. Just eat only the best and you will see the difference soon enough.

Learn to know yourself better

The Oracle in Delphi said exactly that. No one really knows how she came to develop her abilities as an oracle, but I’m certain she believed in this one Truth. Why? Because this is an evident, ultimate Truth. Most of us operate using our “ego”, the essential package consisting of varying aspects that keep us alive. The personal illusion of ”what I am”, ”what I do”, ”what I need to be happy” is for many a way to avoid an underlying and hidden set of painful experiences that keeps on running your life like a hijacked airplane. Actually, starting to look more at what is going on inside of you will be one of the most rewarding things you can ever do in life. If you feel that it would be of help, try to find a professional person that you honestly feel very good and confident about working with, to clear out these issues from your system.

Try less to be something – be more of that which you already are

You or We are all fabulous people. We have, internally built, all the basic riches that we were given when we came to this earth. We all have immense capacity for showing the world who we really are. Most people are living inside a protective ”bubble” of being afraid of the world around them, people and life itself. Which occurs when we are born into an environment that isn’t naturally rewarding. Nevertheless, you are not what you have become accustomed to thinking about yourself. We are all equipped naturally with a great super-sense of humour and greatness that you know from being a child.

When you need help, go to the absolutely best at what you are trying to do

Don’t try to re-invent the wheel. When you set out to do something, don’t try to learn everything by yourself from start to finish. You can, of course, but it’s a complete waste of time since you can just as easily simply go and learn from someone who is extremely good at what he does. As a result of that you will instantly learn so much more than you could have even imagined when you set off, and things will instantly start to become clearer. When you don’t know something, the biggest mistake you can do is to think that you actually know it before you do. Find an experienced person in that field whom you feel you can trust and respect, learn from them what you can to help you move forward. If you have even a little feeling that this is not the right person for you, then keep looking.

Your are only the path for a certain chain of events to unfold

When you are striving to achieve something, you need to keep in mind the following: The creation process is oriented around simply creating the right prerequisites for a certain chain of events to unfold. This applies to anything and everything that you do. A chain of events unfolds when the right things are done for it to naturally do so. An engine is simply an arrangement of parts that has a certain chain of events unfolding in a specific way. Same thing if you’d like to lead water from a pond into the garden that you harvest – you dig a little ditch, bit by bit, so that water can run freely.

Get good, in-depth physiotherapy from the best people you can find

You body stores a tremendous amount of information. Most of this information consists of emotional tension going back as far as childhood traumas and covering a whole lifelong line of experiences. When you start working with loosening up the tensions stored in the body, you will set free powers of both intelligence and life-changing insight into your own self, providing you with the power to act differently. A normal massage does a little, but the best is to get a really experienced and trained person to help you find these problems in the body and getting them fixed.

Eyes are the mirrors of the soul, not the mouth

This world is full of people of all kinds, and they will all tell you or try to tell you some things that may or may not be true. However, when it comes to people, and trusting people, you need to stop listening to what they say with their mouth and look deeper into who they are and what lies within them. This you can only see in their eyes. You will know a good and honest man by his eyes and the kind light that shines in them. The eyes of every person have a ”glow” and this glow will tell you all you need to know. If you sense darkness or dishonesty in the eyes of a person, do not trust them no matter what or how they try to convince you.

When you give, you are blessing yourself

You are in this world as a part of it. Everything that you see around you is part of who you actually are in totality. The more you give to this world, the better you will feel about yourself, as that is the true nature of who you are. Being happy comes when you decide to love every person around you for no reason whatsoever and to do what you can to help him or her. But also keep in mind to love yourself, you are not for sale, no person is entitled to take advantage of you and you don’t need to work for free unless you choose to do so.

Finale: You only live twice, but choose wisely at least the second time.

Sincerely,

Tommy Friman

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Toby Weston

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It’s 3pm on a Monday. I walk out my office, and I’m so uneasy that my stomach feels like it’s twisting. Earlier that day, I’d picked up the annual report for my organization. I looked at the financial statements and compared it with the actual expenses.

We were committing fraud. I needed a walk.

Before I left, I smiled to the boss and said “I think you made a mistake on this. Weren’t we operating at a loss last year.”  An urgent smile betrayed him. “I know. I can’t report a loss. My Board would start asking too many questions.” Then, he laughed.

I had expected a different response. One where his eyes would open wide, like he’d seen a ghost. After all, this report had been circulating for about a month. Instead, no hesitation; no remorse. Not even a hint of guilt.

Three days earlier, I’m having lunch with a friend; a junior associate at a mid-sized firm. He tells me his company is going through a rigorous audit procedure, and that his boss is “scared shitless.” Well, thankfully, I thought, my organization would never be in a “scared shitless” state over an audit. That’s because we aren’t a private company. We’re a registered charity!

Oh, how silly me.

This took place 14 months ago. It was after that smile and laughter did I begin to realize that I had stepped into what I would soon discover to be a pervert clandestine society: the charitable sector.

Let me begin by saying that I do not mean that charities operate under false pretences, or that all are conducting some fraudulent scheme. To the contrary, most embark on commendable missions to achieve a greater good. That there are so many charitable organizations is what has unfortunately led to this clandestine society. There are some who take advantage of limited oversight, stemming from thin resources of the overseers of charitable organizations, i.e. governments.

The Ponzi Scheme, Charity Edition:

A fraudulent investing scam promising high rates of return with little risk to investors. The Ponzi scheme generates returns for older investors by acquiring new investors. This scam actually yields the promised returns to earlier investors, as long as there are more new investors. These schemes usually collapse on themselves when the new investments stop.

Source: http://www.investopedia.com/terms/p/ponzischeme.asp

Here’s how the clandestine charities operate. A donation comes in from X and to be used for purpose Y within 1 year. Instead, it’s used for purpose Z (something else the Charity wants to spend money on). The charity hopes another donation will come from another place within that year, and will then use that later donation to fulfil purpose Y; basically, new money pays for old obligations. But what if the money stops coming in?

A common fundraising strategy is to apply and budget for a program in a way they think the grantor will approve, even if they already have 100% of the funds required or even if the application is not a true representation of what the charity will do. If the application is successful, they will use that money however they want. Most grants/donations require a written evaluation to be completed at the end of the project period. When the clandestine charities fill out those evaluations, they will simply say that they spent the money as proposed in the application, even though they did not.

Bullshit, one would say to this story. After all, where is the oversight? There are several of reasons they can get away with this. Among them:

They acknowledge and take advantage of a shortage in staff from grant makers, foundations, CRA, etc, to do audits or spot checks;

‍Some have friends who work for grant makers. In the words of one person who’s job it is to oversee the financial expenditures of charities receiving money from a government fund: “The requirements say that I may ask for receipts to confirm the money was used for that purpose. It doesn’t mean I will.” Let’s not forget, there’s also a reason that the clandestine charities operate on a Ponzi scheme. CEO’s from these charities get paid well, and it’s tough for them to find donors willing to fund their sometimes ridiculous salaries. The CEO who smiled and laughed operated in a major metropolitan city, and made twice the average income of the city’s population. His charity only ran two community programs and he only worked four days a week.

The stupid Board of Directors. “I never present a deficit to my Board. In fact, I don’t tell them much of anything.

A charity must have a Board of Directors. Boards have a duty of financial oversight. The common strategy of the clandestine charities is to convince their Board to elect members who they know do not have the knowledge to detect fraud. In quite a few cases, I’ve seen the cover of “Let’s find new immigrants and give them an opportunity to be on a Board.” … A very noble gesture. However, this should be combined with an offering (or at least a recommendation) of acquiring some type of training or awareness as to what the duties are of Board members. These charities do not do that. Instead, they  keep their Board members stupid. That way, they don’t ask questions, and they stay out of their business.

Old age.

Clandestine charities are usually small-sized charities. They don’t operate large budgets because if they did, they’d be more prone to spot checks from government auditors. If they keep their budgets small, they aren’t worth an investigator’s time. This means they tend to last a long time and with the same people at the top – the aging CEO’s. Often, those CEO’s don’t live in the communities they serve. (Usually, they serve poor communities, whilst they live in affluent areas). They also don’t spend much time in those communities; rarely leaving their offices. Unfortunately, it means that their ideas for community development are severely out of touch. Their ideas suck, but because they have many years of experience they are always given the benefit of the doubt of being the ‘experts’ of the deficiencies of the communities they serve.

For those with no exposure to the charitable sector, or with limited exposure, the very concept of the clandestine charity society is absurd. After all, why would they still keep getting money for so many years?

The answer: Activities, not results, are rewarded. Say you’ll do a gang intervention and exit program for at-risk youth, and you’ll get money for it. It doesn’t matter that you aren’t currently doing it, or can’t guarantee results. It doesn’t matter that you only have an idea of what it would look like at this stage. They’ll give you money for setting it up, and ask you for a written evaluation once you’ve used up the money. An evaluation which, by the way, rarely, if ever, get’s audited for accuracy. It doesn’t matter what you say. It just has to sound believable.

I wish I were joking. I really do. But that’s the charity world I was living in for some time. So I did what a noble person would do. I exposed them. I told their donors. Surely, if their donors knew, there would be an end to this. Donors would stop giving money.

And then I found out another answer: They know and they live with it. In their eyes, the clandestine society is comprised of a much larger group of charities than I initially thought. And they’ve had to deal with them for a lot longer than I have. In their eyes: these charities are at least doing something beneficial for communities. If they get shut down for shady finances, the people who suffer, really, are communities. And the advice I received: “This is how it is and you’re just going to have to deal with it. There’s no point in trying to do something about it.”

Well, that triggered another piece of advice I received when I was rather young. A good man told me some very special words, and prefaced them by telling me that I was too young to understand the true value of what he was saying, but would understand better once I grew up and entered the working world. He was a multi-millionaire, so I figured he knew what he was talking about and that his advice would be incredibly valuable one day. He looked me in the eye and said:

“When someone tells you that you can’t do something or that what you are trying to do is hopeless, just look them in the eye, close your eyes and pause for a moment, and tell them as firmly as you can…. Go to hell.”

Those are words I shall never forget, and neither should you, my dear reader. Don’t let people bring you down to a level you don’t want to be. Just tell them to go to hell and keep marching on. Keep your dignity; it’s one of your biggest self-motivators.

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Simon Riddick

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In order to unlock the door to self-improvement, all we need do is look to our inner selves. In doing so, we will be able to metaphorically wake up to who we really are. Yet many of us are trapped within an illusionary dream, brought on by our own fears. However, we must realize that fear is not our jailor – all we need do is to take the necessary steps to wake up from this limiting, dream-like state of mind.

All too often, we are unable to connect with our inner selves; as though we were living two distinctly parallel lives. As a result, we fail to reach our true potential, and inadvertently, often overlook the lives we could have lived. Ironically, the first step to moving forward is to taking a step back into the past. By taking the initiative, we will be able to think about everything that has truly inspired us. In turn, this will serve as a benchmark for our future goals and to reaching our true potential.

Do you remember those times in your life when you were able to exude your true potential and make a difference? Can you conjure up the memories of your happiest experiences? Maybe you can think of a time where you were able to change your life for the better? It is important to focus upon the achievements of which you are most proud, as opposed to the negative. By failing to acknowledge your achievements, you will be trapped within a self-limiting perspective on life.

Therefore, you should trust in your abilities, as these are the key to achieving your goals. By focusing on the negative, such as your shortcomings and your failures, your self-esteem will suffer over time. For this reason, those who view the world from a more optimistic perspective are far more likely to become successful. In fact, by allowing your inner light to shine, you will automatically encourage others to do the same.

However, upon making the necessary adjustments to our overall perspective, you must realize where to set the bar.  While many of us are geared toward perfection, we must first find a balance.  This is for reason of the fact that we must learn to walk before we can run.

For example, when I began my career as a designer, I would take considerably longer than necessary on most projects, simply due to my own personal desire for perfection. Of course, the additional time was completely unnecessary. As a consequence, I would find myself with far less time to focus upon other projects; invariably missing deadlines. Therefore, I learned to find a balance – I would base my attention to detail upon the desires of my clients, as opposed to my own desire for perfection.

Another self-limiting mindset that clouds our journey is worrying what other people think. While constructive criticism can be useful, viewing our choices from the outside-in will always be a pointless exercise. Instead, we must learn to judge ourselves by our strengths, weaknesses, and most importantly, our achievements.

For this reason, I am going to assign you a motivational task. In this case, I am asking you to attempt something that you are afraid to do. It can be anything – from skydiving to picking up a rattlesnake (under the appropriate supervision, of course). Are you afraid of flying or swimming in the ocean? By continually challenging yourself, you will continue to boost your overall sense of accomplishment – even if you fail. This is because the benefit does not come from your success, but from momentarily stepping outside of your comfort zone. As a result, you will feel an incredible sense of self-achievement – regardless of the outcome.

Having defined our long-term goals, we should separate our outward persona from that of our inner self. We can do this by taking into consideration our values, goals, strengths and weaknesses; together with our inspiration. In doing so, we will be able to thrust ourselves toward a lifestyle that is ideally suited to our needs. This is in sharp contrast to an alternative cookie-cutter shaped lifestyle, which bears no resemblance to who we are. By adhering to our values, we are able to unlock the door to happiness, which will in turn release our true potential.

In conclusion, we may liken our situation with the analogy of a large mansion house, with many exciting rooms to explore. While we should consider these rooms to represent the many opportunities that lay before us, we instead decide to remain in the basement. However, by failing to take the initiative to explore the house’s true potential; we miss out on all it has to offer.

Therefore, we should continually challenge ourselves, which will allow for us to unlock the doors that we never knew existed!

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——

Terry Jang

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In order to unlock the door to self-improvement, all When a person has seen the worst of things, he/she builds a strong tolerance for other misfortunes in life.  We’ve all gone through hardship in varying degrees, and I find them worst of them to be the most empowering thing in my life.

My story starts in 3rd year university, I was eagerly seeking my 4th internship opportunity.  The internship in the University of Waterloo provides students with valuable industry experience, as well as much needed income for poor students to fund their education.  As usual, I went through the interviews and was given an offer by a start-up technology company.  I was happy with the match, at least from what I learned in my limited research and what transpired during the interview – The company specialized in electronics for the hospitality industry, and I was happy with the sort of projects that are anticipated to take place during my 4 month stay there.

It wasn’t long after I started my internship there when I learned that the company was in financial distress.  I was accepting and understand after the CEO promised over and over that money will be coming in and people will get paid.  At the same time, I have also signed my rental contracts and cannot easily move away from the area seeking other opportunities.

Long story short, over the course of 4 month, I was compensated $500 dollars in total, when my contractual salary was about $15000.  To this day, I am still fighting to claim my dues, but challenges persist.

$15000 may be less significant to me now, but it was certainly every significant for me when I was a student.  I have lived the 2 years after that event in strict budgets, often times with close to 0 balance in my bank accounts, and building debt from multiple sources.

The story is by no means the most tragic thing anyone has heard, but the consequence of the experience is game changing.  That particular experience should define the rock-bottom of the financial aspect of my life.  Given what I know and possess now, nothing in the future will bring me to a new low.  Then, if I can live through that experience, no failures can keep me down.

Coming from a tradition Chinese family, I’ve long desired a traditional/simple path of life.  But through that experience, I am much more willing to break away from traditions and take bigger risks.  After all, if things go sour, I would likely be financially sound than I was as a student.  So, ask yourself the question, how bad can things be? If one can tolerate the consequences of a choice, then why not make life interesting by taking some chances.

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Vanessa Azzoli

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The year is 2003, I’m a journalism college student and I’m sitting in my third-year reporting class lecture. The only reason I decided to study Journalism was because of the movie, “Almost Famous”, released a few years prior. The movie somehow came up with a way to tie together my love for writing with my love for music. As an impressionable 17-year-old, I thought, “I can do that.”

So, I’m sitting in this class listening intently to the professor – today’s topic is dealing with newsworthy deaths, and how to cover them as a reporter. A topic I don’t think anyone would really enjoy. The professor says, “if someone is murdered, or their death is otherwise newsworthy, you, as a reporter, need to go to the funeral. You won’t be alone; there will be other news outlets. That’s where you’ll get the most emotion, the most content for your story. This is what will make you a great reporter.” I remember my jaw dropping, as I knew that was not in me. It just wasn’t my character. I looked around the lecture hall and saw everyone scribbling down notes, and nodding their heads in agreement. It was at that moment that I knew I was heading in the wrong direction. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not knocking journalists; I actually commend you for being able to do that. I just knew it wasn’t in me, I wasn’t a natural reporter.

I finished the degree just to get that “piece of paper” that said I hadn’t completely wasted three years of my life. But I just didn’t know what to do with it. Loving the concept of media, I made the decision to go back to school – this time for marketing. I would be able to take my knowledge of the media, and how it worked and my love for writing and tie it all together. I’d be pushing my love for music to the side, more as a hobby. But that’s ok, right? Nobody makes money (or a living, at least) in the music industry. It’s all a façade thrown in our faces… RIGHT?

I completed the two-year marketing program as a full-time student, while working 35 hours a week at a lousy call-center. I did my homework between calls, or at 2 am when I got home from work, I averaged four hours of sleep per night. I worked six days a week, had school five days a week, meaning I was on the go every single day for two years. The summer breaks from school were nice, but it gave me opportunity to work overtime. I’d average 60 hours a week over those four months; the maximum amount of hours we were legally “allowed” to work.

When graduation came in 2007, I was so happy to finally be done school for good. I landed a neat “transition” position, doing email support for a popular online music store. But the shock hit me hard, and quickly. Being so accustomed to being on the move for 20 hours in a day for so long, I was now working only eight. How did people do this? What kind of lifestyle was this? What did “normal” people do with ALL this spare time? I started to realize what sleep felt like, what regular meals tasted like, what friends were, and what happened on television. A world that I never totally understood before.

Then came the downward spiral – I got lazy, stagnant and lost – all within a year of graduation. I hated my job, my apartment, the city I lived in and I found myself miserable and snapping at the people around me who I loved dearly. This wasn’t me. I wasn’t a “9-to-5er”.

For change of scenery, I made the (difficult) decision to move back home… for a minute. I quit my job and moved. I didn’t have a new one yet, but I had a bit of money saved so that I could take my time in finding a new one. Funny… because it took three days. THREE days. I got a marketing gig at a small company that distributed geothermal furnaces across Ontario, Canada. Cool, on a couple levels; one, renewable energies were becoming a huge trend, and two, they didn’t even have any marketing people, this was new to them. My time to fly. And I did. I stayed with this company for four years and I grew as much as I possibly could in an office of nine people. But let’s not jump the gun, I’m missing an important landmark.

In 2010, I reconnected with an old friend. We started hanging out regularly again, and through these exchanges, he started to explain a business idea he had. As a home security contractor, he had NO idea how to market anything or where to even start with how to function as a business. He only had an idea (I would later find out that it wasn’t even his idea, but that’s neither here, nor there.) I sat down with him a few times, explained and outlined what his demographic would be, what research needed to be done, how to get a head-start, and different channels of marketing this idea. It was second nature stuff to me, but it impressed him because he started telling some of his friends in Toronto what I was helping him with. Unbeknownst to me, one of his close friends was a successful music producer in Toronto that was actually on the look-out for someone to help him with some basic marketing for a project he was working on.

So, my friend asked if I’d be interested in meeting his friend to see if I was the right fit for his company. I accepted. Obviously… it was music.

Off to Toronto we go – a Wednesday night in October. We end up at a music studio, something I had only dreamt of being in before. The meeting was incredible. We all got along really well, our energies worked well together, and I was finally getting a taste of the “music industry.” A step, right? The gig wasn’t paid, but it was part-time. Casual part-time, when I was available. This is the start of King Luck Music, easily one of the most important decisions I’ve ever made.

Over the coming months, my relationship with the two owners of King Luck Music developed, almost to a friendship. I had known the two guys for a few months now, we grew to be pretty tight. March 2011 – one of the guys announced that he had a death in the family, and had to fly back to Europe to help deal with estate. He said that he could be gone from two to four weeks. No problem, right? We could deal on our own for a short while. That meeting would be the last time I would ever see him. He abandoned us right at a time when we needed him most. We had one of our artists just about ready to close a deal with a major record label, and things were moving so quickly. KLM had consumed my life.

Every meeting I was in, every workshop I attended, the courses I took, I would immediately think of how they would help me in helping KLM grow. Regardless of the fact that my full-time job was paying for a majority of these. I realized that this was it. I found my meaning. My reason.

I was travelling to Toronto two to three times per week after work or on weekends. It was an hour and a half drive – without traffic. I was getting home at 2 am, and having to get up at 6 am for my full-time job, but who cares… I was happy. I was busy, I loved what I was doing.

One day, the founder of KLM, producer King Luck, sent me a message asking if I could call him on my lunch break. Not out the ordinary, it had become second nature to talk to him at many points throughout the day, even for blips of five minutes here and there when we had ideas. I stepped outside and called him, he opened with, “I know you don’t have much time, so I’m going to make this quick. I’ve been thinking a lot and I have a proposition for you. I know you’ll have to think about it for a bit….” he asked me if I wanted to become a partner in the company. Think about it, for real? I cried. I stayed silent, while he was talking away telling me that he understood I needed to think… but I cut him off. “YES!”

Over the following days, as I had explained this decision to close family and friends, everyone said the exact same thing, “this was made for you.” And it was.

So, I started a serious hunt for a full-time gig to get me living in Toronto so I could put my focus more on the company, and help it grow. I think I was applying to 20 different places a week, without even so much as a call-back.

Through this time, KLM went through A LOT. Confused artists, money challenges, shady business partnerships, record label dreams (and let-downs) – our emotions were constantly in flux. Luck and I had grown SO close, he had become one of my best friends. We told each other everything, and dealt with business and personal issues together. We went through break-ups, moving, deaths, friendships and multiple propositions as one cohesive unit. We were a package deal. The KLM team was always changing, people would want to work with us, then they’d either change their mind or we’d change our mind and they’d be gone. One thing was always consistent, it was him and I at the core. I know he helped me grow, as much as I helped him grow, our business had come to new levels.

Two years went by, I was still living an hour and a half away from Toronto, still applying to many different jobs, still working full-time with geothermal furnaces and was getting at my wits’ end. Something needed to give. KLM was growing way too large for me to be living so far away.

My cousin, who I was really close with, had been helping her boyfriend look for a job in Toronto as well, and every time she saw the word “marketing”, she’d send me the link. It was actually starting to get a bit much, until one day, I glanced at the posting, and in the description, it said I’d be reporting to the VP of the music division. Ha! Of course I applied. Exactly 11 days and two interviews from the night I applied, I had an offer letter sitting in my inbox saying that I had just gotten the position in the marketing department of Yamaha Music Canada. One of the largest music instrument manufacturers in the world.

So here I am. I live in Toronto by myself. I don’t remember what it feels like to relax and watch television. But that’s not for me anyway. King Luck Music has grown to new heights, we’ve got an incredibly talented roster of musical artists, and we have a hungry, dedicated, motivated team. I see the passion ignited in our eyes, and we are all aligned to continually move forward as we have ALWAYS been able to do. I’m currently sitting on the jury for a Canadian governing board that awards grants to musicians across Canada. And, I am happily contributing to the marketing team of Yamaha Music Canada. When I have a spare minute, what do I do for fun? Scout. Go watch musicians to see if we can work with them. I am seemingly eating, sleeping and breathing music every waking minute. Exactly what I dreamed of when I watching “Almost Famous” at 17 years old.

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Felipe Vasco

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Growing up, I was a victim of physical, psychological and verbal abuse. One of my earliest memories I have of my father is of violence and harsh words towards me. Due to my father’s reputation for having a strong temperament and past abusive actions towards those close to him, I grew up without close family. While in college, after many years of endured truculence, I was kicked out of my home with nothing but two small boxes containing my personal possessions.  With a severely battered body and wrecked mind, I found myself destitute, without family, and without a home.

That was the turning point in my life.

At that moment I had a choice to make: I could either feel sorry for myself, and let my unfortunate situation define my future, or I could take action and finally grab on to the helm of my life and produce a plan for personal success.  For a short period of time, I chose the former, and not the latter.

We are a society of instant gratification – it has been instilled in us to anticipate our wants and wishes to happen instantaneously, and when they don’t, we relent and move on to something that’s more attainable, but less rewarding. This common behavior is known as “taking the path of least resistance”; we are inclined to do what’s quicker and easier, rather than what is difficult and crucial for success.

Being young and fallible, I succumbed to my circumstances. In retrospect, it’s hard to admit that I felt it was easier for me to give in and wallow in self-pity rather than to have the courage and strength to seemingly unsolvable problems. It was only when I decided I had enough, when I let my pride down so I could have an objective look on my life, that I found a way not only to get my life back on track, but to succeed and thrive in all aspects of my life. Looking back, there were four key fundamentals, which helped me with my achievements:

Accepting Change

Regardless of the structures we build in our lives and good habits we have, there will always be things that we cannot control that can affect our lives, such as people, events, and forces of nature. If we do not accept changes made by things outside of our control, they can be a huge source of anger, frustration and stress. Embracing change requires abdicating how we think life should be, accepting what we have, and trusting that we will grasp why changes happens.

Always attempt to view change as an opportunity for personal growth. Growth can never ensue without change, so change should be viewed as a something positive rather than negative.

Change is a catalyst of personal development, which, when embraced, can vastly improve your circumstances.

‍Personal Responsibility

It’s important to accept that you, and only you, are responsible for your life. It is important to realize what the scope of personal responsibility is for your own life. Whether you are, or feel that you are bound by circumstances outside your control, you are responsible for what you choose to feel or think.

You choose the direction for your life. You are 100% responsible for all of the choices you have made, and will make. You are responsible for determining who you are, and how your choices affect your life. It’s only after accepting personal responsibility, and destroying the rationalizations for why others are responsible for who and what you are, that we can start making positive change. You owe it to yourself to be solely responsible for thinking and believing positively and confidently about yourself. Remember: many of the reasons people do not successfully achieve their goals are actually internal, not external.

Setting Goals and Making Plans

One of the most important parts of setting goals is to make sure that these goals motivate you. As someone striving for success, you must find the value in achieving your goals. If your goals are not germane to your life, or if the results will not be truly significant to you, then chances of you actually putting the effort to make these things happen will be close to zero.

Once you have the motivation to move forward, write down what you will ultimately want to accomplish. Don’t worry whether you think these goals are currently feasible right now; in fact, I encourage you to idealize. If you had all the money, educations, and connections necessary, what would you do? Buy a new car? Get a dream job? Become a famous singer or actor? No goal is too big.

Now that you have your goals, work backwards to identify all of the abilities, education, experience and materials needed for you to accomplish your goals. Are you planning on going to graduate school? List all of the schools you will want to attend. Do those schools have entrance requirements? List of the requirements and standardized tests you may need to take in order to be considered. Do you need to ace these tests in order to be accepted to your dream school? List ways, such as taking prep courses, in which you can effectively be prepared for test taking. It’s important to focus more on the smaller, individual steps than the ultimate goal, especially if you have a long-term objective. Once you start accomplishing the smaller goals, it will be easier to see your progress towards your goal, and be even more motivated as you progress.

It’s also very important to set realistic deadlines for each of your smaller steps. Remember: there are no unreasonable objectives, only unreasonable deadlines.

Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, make the decision to never give up on your goals. Every time you accomplish an objective, you will become a stronger and better person by overcoming failure. In little time you will see how this will do wonders for your confidence and self-esteem. And if your plans fail, don’t be disappointed – no one is perfect! Revise your plans and keep trying!

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Knowing the Right People

I’m sure you have heard the old adage: “It’s not always what you know, but who you know”. If your goal is be not only successful but to thrive in whatever you decide to do, knowing the right people is more important than you may realize. If you think back, it won’t be hard to realize major events in your life that were accompanied by someone who helped you succeed, or the lack of that someone to assist you with your success. There is a proven direct correlation between the number of people you know and how successful you can be.

When accomplishing your goals, your ability to make bright decisions, learn from experts and professionals, surround yourself with the right people, and have access to the right resources at the right times, can make all the difference in whether you struggle to survive or thrive. Meeting and being in contact with the right people, or networking, will allow you to build an interactive information system which will be at your disposal at any time. In order to grow and improve this dynamic system it is imperative that you network at every opportunity.

Knowing the right people will also help you develop a better perspective in life – being exposed to different cultures, values, styles and points of view will allow you to cultivate maturity and confidence, both which are great leadership qualities.

The number of people who know you, like you, and are willing to assist you will directly determine how successful you are in accomplishing you goals.

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——

Scotty Ze

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Your heart holds all the answers to every question you have ever wondered or ever searched for. This I can guarantee.

It’s the irony of life that man searches far and wide, conquers worlds and questions authority, tackles storms and climbs mountains (which is super fun btw).. and yet, the answers he seeks are still out of reach. We have gone to the moon (questionable) and satellites fly around in space sending signals of information to the world.. yet wisdom is still not found. Every great spiritual teacher has guided us within. Jesus, Buddha, the Prophet Muhammed, Krishna, Lao Tzu and every great sage of our time (trust me, I have asked them through their teachings) and they all tell us to look within.

Great wisdom. Now how the bloody hell do I do that?

It’s like reading a foreign language at first. I remember moving to Japan at the age of 21 to learn the Japanese culture and language. Wow, was I confused at first. At times I could make out maybe 20% of what was being uttered at me. Other times up to 50%. Yee Hah I felt on top of the world when I comprehended the location of the nearest bus stop. Small steps.

After 5 years of studying Japanese language both in Japan and back home in OZ, I could understand it quite well. Still at times I struggled, depending on the circumstances.. Same as the language of the heart. No matter how much you learn to comprehend, you will always have some doubt of what is being said. Faith fills in the rest.

At first there is more faith than knowing.. “I think he said the station was this way..”

After which understanding surpasses and it gets easier. It does get easier.

Following the wisdom of the heart is a two step process. First, you need to learn to listen. To feel. To acknowledge. To trust. Then to understand. The second is to Act. Yeah. There’s the catch right. It’s one thing to hear the calling of the heart.. but I tell you in all honesty it is a really hard thing to act on everything she guides me to do. To say. To be. It is scary and I don’t recommend living from the heart to the faint hearted. It’s scary. It’s tough. But it is so totally worth it.

Don’t jump unless you know you can fly.. or at least believe you can

One day my heart told me, ‘cause I listened, that I had to move to California to make a TV series inspiring young people to reconnect with nature and realize their divine selves.

Great. Too easy right. Sounds good to me.

Problems: I was in Japan. Staying in a one room apartment with a guy in the bed next to me. My ex-girlfriend was in hospital having just had a bone marrow transplant. I had less than $1000 to my name. And I was freaking out because the ‘signs’ from nature were getting so strong they forced me flat on my face in surrender to God pledging my full service to His cause.

Yeah. Let’s go to the US. Sounds like a fun holiday. NOT!

It did sound fun. Fun like jumping off a cliff into the abyss of the unknown beyond. I just really hoped there was a parachute on my back. Turned out there was. Phew. Nothing 50 Grand and a Green Lit TV series couldn’t execute. I’m still in debt of them both.

Trusting your heart is not always easy. Nah, f*^k that! Living from the guidance of your heart is the hardest f’n thing you will ever do in your life! But I tell ya’… the alter-native of living a bullshit lie of an existence, pretending that making money and striving for some sort of material success, pleasing the outer world and getting pats on the back from everyone around you, making out like it’s all awesome when you just wish you could be living the calling that wakes you up in the middle of the night, that comes to your day dreams when you’re sitting on the can reading this book.

Stop pretending that you don’t already realize that this life is all you got. Live the fucking adventure! Go for it! Do what’s in your heart. Say what you want to say. Have the tenacity to dream big and fall flat on your face every now and then. Screw it. What have you got to loose? Nothing! Ask any old man or woman.. they will tell you.. it’s not what they did that they regret.. it’s what they didn’t do!! So do it!!

Yeah, it’s hard as shit! It’s sometimes near impossible to understand what those little Japanese ladies were saying to me at the fruit shop. But I tell you.. I had faith and it got me through the hard times. Have faith and God will see you through. Jump in feet first and sometimes head first just for the fun of it. Just jump.

The alternative is not worth it anymore! You know that. You can feel that. I know you know that. So stop pretending that it’s all ok just as it is.. and do what makes you happy. Let happiness be your compass and follow it as if your life depends on it. Because maybe it does.. maybe it really does. Maybe there’s no run  after this lifetime. Maybe this is it. Get playing the game for real, or get the hell out. No more room for space takers. Only real players from here on out. The dark ages are gone people. The Love is stronger than ever. It’s time to match the vibration or disappear with the tiny ripples on the edge of the lake. Make your choice. Or life will make it for you.

Trust me. She will.

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