I read an article on success in life and wanted to share some wisdom. If you think about it everything we do in life is a choice and everything we don’t do is also a choice. In MBA school they teach you opportunity cost with trade-offs per limited time & resources. If you do path A it can come at the cost of not being able to do path B which may be the better path.

Every day we choose  things that move us closer to our goal or don't move us closer to the life we want. If the quality of our lives is shaped by the choices we make, and those we don’t make, then the secret of making wise choices is to live by core principles. A lot has been written about the principles for a meaningful and happy life for centuries. Ray Dalio, billionaire investor and hedge fund manager said, “Principles are fundamental truths that serve as the foundations for behavior that gets you what you want out of life. They can be applied again and again in similar situations to help you achieve your goals.”

These are a few you can use to refine your personal principles. The most important thing is that you develop your own principles and know them clearly to live by.  Ray writes “Think for yourself to decide 1) what you want 2) what is true and 3) what you should do to achieve #1 in light of #2. ”  Understanding and following these underlying principles is key to living your best life. I hope this helps you.

Don’t spend your life preparing for life.
Charles Darwin once said, “A man who dares to waste an hour of time has not discovered the value of his life.” Life is too short if you spend it meaningfully and do what gives you a sense of accomplishment. Life is too long if you spend all your time worrying about the unpredictable future or the regrets of the past.   But, only a few people consciously choose to live in the present every day. The future can provide hope, and the past can provide closure but focus on either one obsessively can be hurtful to your mental and emotional well being. In her collection of essays, The Writing Life, Annie Dillard explains: “How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives. What we do with this hour, and that one, is what we are doing. A schedule defends from chaos and whim. It is a net for catching days.... it is a peace and a haven set into the wreck of time; it is a lifeboat on which you find yourself, decades later, still living. Each day is the same, so you remember the series afterwards as a blurred and powerful pattern.”

Accept your imperfection and vulnerabilities.
Humans are flawed. Perfection is beyond us so accept and be ok with not being perfect. However, it does not hurt to strive for it. As the saying goes,  "Shoot for the moon for even if you miss you will fall among the stars!" We are all at times scared, unsure, regretful, longing and living with mistakes. This recognition should inspire compassion for ourselves and others. When you’re willing to be seen as someone who has flaws, you’re telling yourself being human who errors isn’t something to be ashamed of rather an opportunity to learn and do better next time. If you are constantly worried about your vulnerabilities or dwelling on them, chances are you're paying too much attention to negative information. Take action on it to improve vs. dwelling.

The real world doesn’t reward perfectionists rather rewards people who get things done and  make progress. It’s easier to play to your strengths than wasting time on your imperfections. No matter how many mistakes you make, or how slow you progress, you are still way ahead of people who spend most of their time making excuses because of their weaknesses.
Give yourself time to wonder what’s possible and to make moves in that direction. The alternative to perfection isn’t failure, it’s to make your peace with the idea that you are ‘good enough’ and a work in progress. Then take action to be your best! Fall seven times, stand up eight!

Life is not elsewhere; it is, fully and properly, here and now
We can’t change the past and we certainly can’t predict the future. The only thing within your control is today. The only important moment is the present moment that is why it's called a gift.  For anyone who is worried about the future, Seneca, a Roman stoic philosopher advises, “Everyone hustles his life along and is troubled by a longing for the future and weariness of the present. But the man who … organizes every day as though it were his last, neither longs for nor fears the next day… Nothing can be taken from this life, and you can only add to it as if giving to a man who is already full and satisfied food which he does not want but can hold. So you must not think a man has lived long because he has white hair and wrinkles: he has not lived long, just existed long. For suppose you should think that a man had had a long voyage who had been caught in a raging storm as he left the harbour, and carried hither and thither and driven round and round in a circle by the rage of opposing winds? He did not have a long voyage, just a long tossing about.”

There is no substitute for persistence
How persistent are you about pursuing what you really want? One of the  secrets of success is learning to keep moving despite your doubts. There is probably no better example of persistence than the story of Abraham Lincoln. He failed in business at 21, lost a legislative race at age 22, failed in business again at 24, and lost a congressional race when he was 34. At 45 he lost a senatorial race. He failed in an attempt to become Vice President at 47. But he was finally elected President of the United States at age 52. Lincoln never quit. Every failure was a stepping stone until he finally assumed the highest office in America. Don’t give up too soon. As long as you are still actively trying after every failure, you have not failed yet.

Give up the desire to be liked and accepted by all
People’s opinions of you are not who you are. Eric Hoffer, a moral and social philosopher once said, “A man is likely to mind his own business when it is worth minding. When it is not, he takes his mind off his own meaningless affairs by minding other people’s business.”
It is human nature to want to be accepted, hence the pursuit of conformity. But you can make a conscious effort to stop caring what others think so much; to let yourself free. It’s a skill that can be practiced like any other skill. Once you understand how to let go, you will see the world from an entirely different perspective. The key to the good life is about what’s important to your growth, career and total well being in loving yourself and neighbor. When you stop caring so much about what people think, your self-confidence will blossom and you can be more your authentic self. You’ll start believing in yourself and what you can offer the world, without letting outside influences stop you or sway your decisions.

Life isn’t linear: not everything goes as planned
You won’t achieve every goal. But it’s important to make plans and move toward them upward and onward anyways. Spend just as much time learning what to do when things inevitably stray off your path as you do to create the plan in the first place. Your best strategy when making a plan is to make contingency plans for when life will not unfold according to plan.  
Don’t approach life with expectations of how things should or shouldn’t be. Don’t get attached to a plan on how things should or shouldn’t work. It’s alright to have goals, but you don’t have to be set on a particular outcome — adapt when necessary.

Stop worrying about things you can’t control
We all as human beings tend to stress  about things we can do nothing about — the past, the future, people’s perception of us, their decisions, thoughts, their happiness, success, and every natural change around us. When you spend your time in “what if” mode, wishing things had been different, you stop making progress. We can only prepare ourselves today for what’s ahead. The only thing you have control over is your thoughts, decisions, attitude, and reactions. When you understand what’s within your control, life becomes easier to handle.v
You can influence people and circumstances but you can’t force change in others. If you find yourself worrying about things you can’t control, focus on changing your behavior. By putting your effort on what you can impact, you can make a bigger difference.

I hope this life principles are helpful to you. Keep the faith. Believe. And try, try again. Upward and onward. Wishing you the best, God Bless, Keith  Washo

​Nobody can be uncheered with a balloon.” — Winnie the Pooh

Are you happy? Do you see happy people around you? Sometimes easy, sometimes hard, but keeping happiness going can be challenging. The root of any sustaining happiness is joy which is a deeper spring of contentment and peace that fuels happiness overall. Think of happiness as fleeting when you are happy for a moment, but joy is that deep feeling of satisfaction and peace that all is well in which like water can lift up the happiness float!  

Some top traits of happy people for you to ponder and implement into your life are as follows:

1. They don’t judge others.
The minute you find yourself judging or looking down on others pause and ask yourself is that really making you feel good?  Happy people are able to make a distinction between standing up for what they believe in and judging others. As the wise words of Wayne Dyer say, “judging a person does not define who they are. It defines who you are.”  To be happier be true to your values and have genuine empathy for the plights of others, but  save your critiques for the one person you have ownership over — yourself.

2. They don’t attach to what others think of them.
Happy people understand that in life it goes with living that there will always be people who don’t like them/ They’re not dismissive of negative feedback (because they know it can be useful) but they don’t take it personally and take it with a grain of salt; they don’t attach to others’ opinions, and they don’t feel driven to react to them. They’re open, not defensive. They don’t stay stuck in the past, they don’t hold grudges, they let go. They get on with their own lives and plans and allow others space to do the same.  What I like the say happier people do the "Teflon Pan" effect to let things just slip off and just move on with good cooking!

3. They‘re okay with being (slightly) out-of-control.
The need to be in control of everyting is a recipe for misery because it's just not possible. Happy people understand that control will never fully be ours, that the best laid plans are often thwarted and that no-one is immune to the trials that will happen. So they take charge of the things they can and back themselves to roll with the inevitable punches life will throw at them.
Happy people really know and live the serenity prayer, "God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference."

4. They make space for fun.
Happy people have challenges and rough spots just like everyone, but as a general rule they’re playful in mind, body and spirit. They get a joke. They make efforts to find and have fun from the wild and adventurous to having a laugh around the kitchen. They’re up for enjoying the Moment. You know that hanging out with them will be good time —that it’ll add to your life, not subtract from it. Take time to smell the roses and have a sunset cheers!

5. They don’t over-indulge — in anything.
Moods, emotions, alcohol, drugs, gambling, sex, gaming, social media, work, sleeping — whatever — over-indulgence can lead you down a dark and troubled path, not just for yourself but the people who love you. Happy people self-regulate to keep all in balance. Everything in moderation.  This way you never have cause to regret actions or the way you have treated people. They don’t have to worry about what (really) happened the night before. So they can live easily with themselves — and that brings them peace. Plus saying I'm sorry and confessing is a good thing for the moments when we do go over the edge. Then pick up the pieces and move on with anew upward and onward! 

6. They “do and give” stuff.
Happy people usually have goals they are striving for and blend it with content to live day to day, to get on with whoever and whatever’s right in front of them to do their best at the task at hand.  The key is happy people have a drive to “do” things — not to the point of exhaustion or martyrdom, but to be proactive in the world, to make a contribution and be a light. Whether it’s to landscape a garden, play games with their kids, make music, play sports, cook a delicious meal, teach or mentor someone, fix a tech problem, tackle some chores, write a story or paint a picture, build or craft something. Happy people give, and they understand the value of achievement, even on a small scale — and how good it feels to deliver their own little drop of peace, love, and beauty into the world.

7. They hold life lightly.
It’s easy to get caught up in the whirl of building a career (and an image and a brand and a reputation), and to overthink the importance of our place in the world. But ashes to ashes and all that — we’re all ending up in the same place. Nothing is an important as we think — not even ourselves. Happy people know this instinctively. They hold life lightly and know there is a bigger purpose and a heaven and eternity mindset at play.

If you do these 7 thing It can make you happier. I hope the sharing of this light and wisdom blesses you and makes you have a not just a happy life, but overall a more joyful life that enables more happiness to be in your life. Enjoy, Keith Washo

 You are not born instantly smart! Nurture vs. Nature. Nurture wins in smartness over time!
You may have seen a child prodigy who can play any classical piano piece at age 7 or a kid who can speak 14 different languages.  We we sit back in awe of the talent, but to begin to think that was just a gifted talent or "high levels of intelligence" without any work, practice or discipline is way off. 

We are all blank slates when we're born. We inherit some inherent above average abilities from our DNA and talents from God, but ultimately our futures depend on our work ethic, practice, and discipline. There are many super smart people who never amount to much, because they lacked the desire to refine their talents and hone their intelligence. And, on the other side of the coin, there are people we all know who had the odds stacked against them and went on to do amazing accomplishments. Point being, people aren’t born smart .People learn how to work with what they’ve got, and become smart as a result. Here is a top 5 of how to be smart!

1. Smart people read a lot!
As the quote goes, "Leaders are readers". Now it's amazing when someone who can download books into their brain and remember every single piece of information. But don't compare yourself to them. They are outliers! For most people, reading has to be a practice and a habit.
Reading is a skill just like any other. Go too long without reading and stretching your brain, and you’ll find the task to be  difficult — especially when it comes to recalling what you’ve read.
Smart people read often. And with practice they get better over time.

2. Smart people hang around other smart people.
If you want to become smarter, you have to spend time around people smarter than yourself. Remember this quote, “If you’re the smartest person in the room, you’re in the wrong room.”
When you spend time with smart people, their drive, their knowledge, their awareness inherently rubs off on you. It raises the standard you hold for yourself. It stretches your brain in ways you can’t get elsewhere.   Hold dear to this quote. “You are the reflection of the five people you spend the most time with.”

3. Smart people are ok with making mistakes
People who understand how intelligence is cultivated understand that “mistakes” are part of the process in learning. Every misstep is an opportunity to learn a lesson, improve, and move forward. Par of becoming “smart” is not fearing mistakes and instead embracing them. Just try to learn more from other people's mistakes hence the importance of reading!

4. Smart people see value in all types of knowledge.
Smart people think, “That’s interesting. I didn’t know that. Tell me more.” Always be curious and see opportunities to learn. There are never enough hours in the day to know everything, so look for golden minutes throughout your day to learn. Smart people embrace random moments of learning, and see them as opportunities to expand who they are and their awareness of the world.

5. Smart people work (very, very) hard.
Being “smart” is not a cake walk. You ever hear the phrase it takes 10,000 hours to be an expert. There is a reason for that as practice makes perfect. Hard work to dig into your craft and really learn it inside and out is the key to smart! Smart people don’t shy away from this sort of discipline. They create a life and a schedule that encourages it, forcing themselves to get done what they need to get done in order to remain in a constant state of growth.
This is the key to improvement, and to intelligence in general. It doesn’t just “happen.”
It takes hard work.

In summary, read, hang around with other bright people, be open to failing per process of learning, be open to all wisdom, and work hard. You do this and you will be smart! Enjoy! Keith Daniel Washo

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/good-wisdom-advice-live-keith-washo-mba-m-a-author

​https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/7-profound-skills-drills-learn-quickly-improve-your-keith

Today NC IDEA, in conjunction with the Governor’s Entrepreneurial Council (GEC), hosted the inaugural North Carolina Entrepreneurial Ecosystem Summit with the ambition to catalyze entrepreneurship as an economic development strategy for the state of North Carolina. The Ecosystem Summit is an official event of Global Entrepreneurship Week where from November 12-18, as part of GEW, 10 million people in 170 countries will take part in 39,000 events, and activities that help make it possible for anyone, anywhere to start and scale a business.

The Ecosystem Summit brought together the people and organizations who support, encourage and nourish North Carolina’s entrepreneurs to share what is working; address issues and concerns; meet and network with those doing similar work in other communities; and celebrate and promote entrepreneurs and their successes across the state. One of the most interesting presentations was the, The Entrepreneurial Mindset Imperative. In this talk the perception was shared on how the world has changed in ways that now require everyone to be more innovative and entrepreneurial regardless of their chosen path. The theory goes, if we are to adapt and thrive in a rapidly changing world, we must recognize the entrepreneurial mindset as a teachable framework for thinking that can empower anyone to succeed. We enjoyed a great message from Gary Schoeniger, Founder and CEO, The Entrepreneurial Learning Initiative. Here is a summary of some key points shared to support your life and career:

• Rate of technological advancement is starting to exceed our human capacity and human infrastructure (institutions) to adapt. Time for us all to think and act with entrepreneur mindset.
• Entrepreneurial Mindset = Creative, Optimally Engaged, Have Little Fear, Act and make things happen when path not clear, Persevere, Maximize Power of Choice, Proper Smartly Allocate Time, and constantly change and adapt.
• Entrepreneurial Mindset is a Life Path and Prized Life Skill! Its a way of thinking and living!
• What can we learn from entrepreneurs? How can we be more innovative in our own lives?
• Four Buckets Of Entrepreneur Perceptions: First venture backed high growth entrepreneur path like Silicon Valley model. But tiny fraction of a single % of new business is supported by this VC high-growth model. 2nd Model: Small business development centers and bank branches that help new businesses. 94% of all new jobs created by small businesses with 19 employees or less. The challenge is this path focuses on management of assets versus entrepreneurship innovation and growth. Third bucket view is agnostic toward entrepreneurship or carries negative perception thinking is about greed. The fourth bucket thinks entrepreneurship is irrelevant and not important to life per other traditional career paths.
• Most founders of Inc 500 companies today started off with no real big idea or unique IP, did not have much money, and did not have much startup experience. For example: Walmart, Waste Management, Apple, and HP. They started with 3 Fs support and funding: Friends, Fools, and Family.
• Must Read Book for entrepreneur mindset. Who Owns The Ice House? Uncle Cleve presented in book gives 8 key principles to entrepreneurship success. Like:
• 1 CHOICE: “Perhaps the greatest lesson Uncle Cleve left behind is that it is the choices we make that ultimately determine the outcome of our lives.”
• 2 OPPORTUNITY: Smart entrepreneurs are problem solvers. Just like Uncle Cleve, they recognize that problems are opportunities. Identify problems and find solutions for other people, and you will prosper.
• 3 ACTION: “Entrepreneurs …understand that if they do what they have always done, they will get what they have always gotten,” While good ideas are certainly a hot commodity, it’s actually taking action that really counts when it comes to starting a business of your own.
• 4 KNOWLEDGE: While Uncle Cleve never had any formal schooling, “he sure did know how to treat people the right way,” He also always emphasized the importance of seeking knowledge and embracing curiosity. He was a very wise man who was not afraid to learn and who sought information and insight anywhere he could find it. “Knowledge—combined with effort—is the engine that drives entrepreneurs,”
• ​5 WEALTH: As Uncle Cleve used to say, “You gotta save to have,” and “You don’t need everthing your eyes want.” Uncle Cleve made his money, and then he held on to it. He “saw money as a tool to invest in his future, a tool that would enable him to create wealth,”. “He was willing to live beneath his means because he valued financial freedom (his goal) more than he valued the opinions of others
• 6 BRAND: Uncle Cleve’s word was his bond. His integrity as a businessman was rock solid. He treated everyone with the utmost respect, even if they did not return the favor. He made buying from him an enjoyable experience. He left early and arrived on time. While he could never control others’ opinions of him, he could control what they observed of him, and that made a world of difference in his success.
• ​7 COMMUNITY: Uncle Cleve was part of a community that would have encouraged him to settle for the status quo, if he let it. But he didn’t. Instead he chose very carefully how he wanted to respond to his circumstances. Social influence, or so-called peer pressure, can be an extremely powerful deterrent for anyone who wants to break free of the boundaries placed on them by their upbringing, surroundings or social status. But your community does not define you unless you let it.
• 8 PERSISTENCE: 35th President of the United States Calvin Coolidge once said that, “Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence.” He was right, especially where entrepreneurship is concerned. People who are successful in owning their own businesses do not give up. They don’t quit

• We must recognize that there is a teachable cognitive framework to entrepreneurship. Everyone has desire to be engaged and have autonomy for their life that leads to good contribution to world. We must recognize that every worker and student needs entrepreneurship mindset. We need to shift entrepreneurship from the fringe of what we do to the core of education and teaching.
• The entrepreneur spirit is the human spirit. It's not just for some of us, it resides in all of us!

Special thanks to NC Idea, Thom Ruhe leading the charge alongside his team that put on this Summit and GEC for great event. Thanks to the sponsors to who made for a wonderful occasion.

We enjoyed a great night, with great content from featured speaker Doug Kaufman, former CEO of Transloc. Doug shared a message for all salespeople around this theme, "if you want to make serious money, stop focusing on money".  Doug is a serial entrepreneur with great experience and shared some good wisdom. Here is summary of some key points to help you with your journey!

• To be good in sales, you must know your "Why". Why do you like selling what you are selling and what gets you excited about it per helping and serving others. Know the "Why" on how you can help someone or a company and "why" you are excited to sell it! Know "Why" you can create value for people!
• Read "Brave New Work" by Aaron Dignan. Human beings can't thrive in a work culture that uses burnout and 'being always on' as proxies for dedication and success. This book shows us that, in fact, workplaces that empower people to take care of themselves are far more likely to deliver sustainable performance and happiness.
• Microwave Capitalism is creating a pressure environment to get return as quickly as possible. This is sometimes hindering longevity to company and healthy decision making. VCs want their money back within 3-5 years. Money out and money in quickly. This causes hardship on companies and an ideal selling process. High pressure selling with artificial timelines and false expectations creates low employee morale and poor engagement. To sell well you need healthy expectations, vision, support, and realistic timeline to close! 
• Sales is not about BtoC, BtoB, BtoG! Sales is about P2P! People to People!
• Joe Girard, #1 sales person in the world who sold average 6 cars a day for entire career said the #1 thing to sales success is: Trust & Empathy. "People Buy People Not Things." You must play the long game. It's about relationships. A sale is not the end of the party, It's just the beginning. Remember it's about People & Relationships. Show in your actions and words, "I Like You".
• The keys to BIG Money: Empathy, Trust, People, and The Long Game
• Don't be old school hunter who thinks of "ABC" and "Coffee Is For Closers". Think about caring first. Empathy for people to build trust and see every person as long term relationship to service and make happy customers.
• If you focus on commissions and money you start to think short term. This makes you miss real and bigger opportunities and more likely to do bad deals. Customers can smell you coming a mile away if it's only about closing. Bad deals result in more churn which hurts the company.
• To achieve great growth. Think Big! Don't sell to one account at a time. Think how you can you sell to bigger groups like a consortium that sells into all these accounts. Focus on the big strategic sale!
• Sometimes you need to give things away for free to win the bigger picture. Lose the short term revenue battle to gain more market-share and secure more data per winning the bigger valuation growth war! For example, running a test pilot for free to show value to win bigger partnership contract down the road can be a good strategy for longer term growth & valuation play.
• Remember reputation takes 20 years to build and 5 minutes to destroy. Integrity and character come first!

Special thanks to Vince Beese and Eric Boggs with T-Rex for putting on this nice event, speaker Doug Kaufman for presenting, and tasty pizza from sponsor DeMos with support from Will Barfield with "Barfield Revenue Consulting"!

Tom, author of the book, "Evolve or Die: Lessons for World-Class Innovation & Creativity" delivered an innovative keynote that entertained and educated giving practical knowledge to impact your business and personal life. Some of the topics discussed at AlphaGraphics were:

• How do you drive innovation and leapfrog your competition?
• How do you develop a culture of creativity that transforms your business?
• What are the differences between a company calcifying into mediocrity and one having a real impact?

Enjoy some key wisdom shared to support your professional and personal life growth:

• Emerging Technologies to Watch:
  • AI is going to be cheap, powerless, and ubiquitous. Planetary in dimension, embedded, and connected.
  • Robotics: Everything that can be automated will be automated. Humans= Work hard and long and think. Computers can now do this and more, but still struggle with ability to think ahead and be creative. A rise ahead in robotics and AI so be prepared
  • Ubiquity in Technology: Internet is a service like a utility. It's ubiquitous. In future always connected to products, services, intelligence, and each other. 
• Being connected makes the unimaginable possible. Think Wikipedia with thousands of people distributed across the world creating millions of entries for free to give biggest depository of information. Think "RedHat" and  power of open source. 
• Hard work, incremental improvements, and team work collaborating well leads to success
• Every extraordinary performer intentionally evolves. Purposely making intelligent advances.  Nature vs. Searcher. Continually improve and innovate.  Discover. To find is the thing. Picasso said, "I'm always doing that what i can't not do so I can learn how to do what I aim to do"
• Pixar definition of success for a company with their executions, iterations, crafting and refinement for films taking 3-5 years in which they continuous evolve. 
• First start what you aim to achieve. Then apply your creative genius and growth factor. The growth factor is the continuous learning and improvement. 
• Regain creative genius. Unleash your 5 year old self. Use more AWE. Use more AWE. (Abundance Of Ideas.) (Withhold Criticism) (Exercise Your Creativity). Increase in capability. Evolve! Increase in capability. Evolve!
• Picassos's favorite period of all time for art is then next one. 
• A team working hard collaboratively together like stones banging up against each other makes everyone more polished and beautiful. 

Thank you Tom Triumph and Eric Webb  from Alpha Graphics for hosting.

It's always great to know habits that affect happiness, health, productivity, and success. I been reading on these related topics for years to gain wisdom to apply toward a good life! I read a good article by Andrew Merle that shared insights on this succinctly and they match my own reading and personal experience! Here are top 20 best habits for happiness, health, productivity, and success to support you and your endeavors! Hope this helps!


20. Be generous — Spending money on other people leads to greater well-being and happiness than spending it on yourself.


19. Ask more questions and listen. Paul Sloane, author of "The Innovative Leader", says asking questions is the single most important habit for innovative thinkers.

18. Make Your Bed — Making your bed starts a chain reaction of other productive habits throughout the day.


17. Celebrate — Pause to enjoy your successes before moving on to the next thing. David Campbell, former senior fellow with the Center for Creative Leadership, notes: “Celebrations are the punctuation marks that make sense of the passage of time; without them, there are no beginnings and no endings. Life becomes an endless series of Wednesdays.”


16. Smile — The simple act of smiling reduces stress and increases happiness, even if you need to force a smile. Putting on a happy face actually makes you happier.
15. Buy experiences, not things — Research shows that experiences actually bring people more happiness than material goods.


14. Say no more often — Trying to do everything usually means not doing anything very well.
13. Be on time — Being on time is one habit that accomplishes two important things — it melts away stress and improves relationships at the same time. Consider adding a 50% buffer to the amount of time you estimate something will take in order to show up on time.


12. Choose a good attitude — Attitude is a decision that we make every day. Strengthen relationships and increase your chances of success by deciding to have a good one.


11. Block off time on your calendar to think — Take inspiration from top leaders like Jeff Bezos & Bill Gates by building uninterrupted thinking time into your schedule.
10. Don’t check email first thing in the morning or last thing before bed — Email first thing derails your priorities for the day and email right before sleeping gives you insomnia.


9. Do one thing at a time — Do one thing at a time and pay attention while doing it. Giving our attention only to the task at hand enables us to accomplish more while feeling less anxious and less scatterbrained.


8. Wake up early — Get a jump-start on the day and tackle your most important task first-thing.
7. Limit your daily to-do list to your 3 most important items — And watch your productivity skyrocket. This habit is one of the absolute best ways to positively impact your work and life on a daily basis.


6. Write down the 3 things you are most grateful for at the end of each day — Having an attitude of gratitude has been shown to improve mood and physical health. Lewis Howes, author of The School of Greatness, says “If you concentrate on what you have, you’ll always have more. If you concentrate on what you don’t have, you’ll never have enough.”


5. Eat Food. Not Too Much. Mostly Plants. — This is the philosophy endorsed by leading food researchers. Eat your way to health with this optimal nutrition plan.
4. Read — Reading is one thing all successful people have in common.


3. Get 8 hours of sleep per night — Anything less is not good. Experts recommend sticking to a consistent sleep schedule, going to sleep and waking up at the same time every day.


2. Maintain close relationships — Social connection is the greatest predictor of happiness
1. Exercise — “The single-most powerful tool you have to optimize your brain function,” says John J. Ratey MD in book Spark. Exercising daily can change your life.


Hope you enjoy those 20 best habits for happiness, health, productivity, and success. Learn more wisdom like this at TechAndWisdom.com

The Innovation Summit is here bringing people together to re-imagine the way we live, work, and play. The conference brought together business owners, thought leaders, change-makers, and entrepreneurs to discuss, challenge, and learn about innovation in a cross-disciplinary environment. The focus for this year's conference was around sustainability. The event defined sustainability as it relates to individual industries per socio-cultural, economic, and ecological initiatives. A wonderful conference packed with engaging interactive talks with audience-generated content, hands-on workshops with resources as takeaways, and connections with industry experts in an accessible, open forum. We went beyond conversation and took some new first steps to break barriers, build relationships, and forge a better future. Here is some key wisdom points shared from the speakers:

• Where do good ideas come from? Real break-through in ideas come from a collision of people and diverse minds coming together to do idea creation.  MetLife started a "Sprout" internal program dedicated to idea creation and new business generation coming from people at the company who dedicated time and conscious thought to create new business. In 10 years they have done 150 challenge runs and 18,000 employees engaged and hundreds of managers trained on process.  Now they have "Ignition" program investing and incubating startups that look outside the company via co-innovation. 90 test launches and 37 contracts signed with startups over last 6 years. Now active with 27 venture funded investments in this startup partners.
• 4 Lessons Learned: "All I need to know, to successfully innovate, I learned in kindergarten"

1. "When you go out into the world and cross streets, hold hands, look out for traffic, and cross together". The key is to form good friends & allies. Don't waste time with non-believers. Do a few things well to gain early wins and celebrate them. Use those wins to build momentum and recruit those on the fence.  Leverage your network to get warm intros (advisers, mentors). Ensure you communicate in ways that is all about the people you are communicating to and how you can help them achieve their goals and improve their life. 
2. Innovation is a team sport. Win or lose together. Form innovation teams. Understand the goals of partners and sponsors and find unique ways to achieve them. Know the customer priorities and focus. Show how you add value and make things simpler and do not create duplication or add clutter. Make their life easy and business better through your differentiation.
3. Successful take-off do not necessarily mean successful landing. Need a clear plan and clear target. Define the value proposition on your program. Align metrics/goals to those of your partners and customers.  Breakdown and link large objectives to small, measurable goals.  Agree to target outcomes and how metrics will be measured afterward.
4. Flush!  Know when to walk away. You have precious time, don't waste it.  Fail fast and inexpensively. Incubate ideas to understand key assumptions, then execute small tests or Proof of Concepts (POCs). If the POC fails, strongly consider walking away. Understand the business case and talk costs before investing heavily. 

• Never stop learning.  Stay humble, hungry, and keep open mind to learn and grow!

Magical Combo In Marketing Success: Clarity, Community, and Testing!

• Clarity, look out for "can't see the forest from the trees".  Strategy is what you say no to as much as to what you say yes to.  You need to be clear in who you are and what you stand for that sets you apart. What are you the best at and focus on that clearly. 

• Community: Invite people to be part of something bigger.
• Testing: Know your audience and then test the different platforms to see what works best for reaching them and securing engagements.  Test strategies like "Hype". Need to know someone to get you in or discount. Test "Influencers" to share your message. "Talk Triggers" per strategy around word of mouth marketing. For example, Double Tree word of mouth around their fresh baked cookies. Use cool quotes and talking points that result in "Talk Trigger". Example, "Just Salad", we give you your own reusable bowl, fastest service, and 10 items for under 10 dollars.  Talk trigger when you walk into boutique womans' store, "would you like a Raspberry Margarita or bubbly to sip on while you shop?"
• FYSO (Figure Your SH*T Out), stop and take time to grind out and get through things needed to be discussed and items needed to be done. 

Best practices in "DESIGN SPRINT"-Framework for solving problems. Involves prototyping via Idea, Build, Launch, and Learn. (2-5 day process to answer question or test hypothesis). There is normally 5-7 people for ideal sprint team. Know why they are there and intentions.

• Monday-Map, Tuesday-Sketch, Wednesday-Decide, Thursday Prototype, Friday- Test. Have CEO ("Chief Energy Officer" to cheer team on through all)

1. Map: Map the problem and create a shared brain. Do lighting talks with experts. Get leaders in on your subject matter in early and gain informed mindset upfront. Outline goal trying to achieve or problem to solve. Do Empathy Building Exercises. For example use sticky notes and start with question "How might we...." Then Build Success Metrics. Have KPIs. A realistic facade is all you need to learn from customers. Know when enough is enough. Don't aim for perfection rather what is good enough to understand people through reactions. (ABC method. Always be capturing. Write down useful things to sprint)
2. Sketch: Crazy 8s, divide 1 piece of paper into 8 squares, and draw 8 sketches of ideas in 8 minutes. "Creativity loves constraints and time is a great constraint." Have solution sketch.
3. Decide: What to prototype and build to test. Make group decision. Democratize. Allow for debate. Low impact collisions are healthy. Heat map voting. (Green, yellow, red stickers).
4. Prototype: The origin of great design is great responsibility. Quickly build to validate ideas. Storyboard, Assign Tasks, Prototype.
5. Validate: 5 customer interviews is enough to get confident assessment otherwise diminishing returns. Test with real people and gather feedback you can act upon.

How To Be A Vulnerable Leader that can create a sustainable business and raving fan base for your brand.

• Instead of focusing on what you have to do. Think about who you have to be! That is your unique value prop and special key.
• The more authentic and vulnerable you can be, the more people message resonates with. Be real and attract real people. The more human you can be, the more impact you can have.
• Think of confidence spectrum, Dependent-On the opinion of others vs. Independent-of the opinion of others. Goal is to move over to your independent side of spectrum. The way to be more confident is to have more strength in your skills, talents, and abilities in which you know that you know your as good at or better then most or close enough!
• Know your goal and steps needed to accomplish. Every moment counts. Do the things you need to do to propel you and your confidence will be boosted.
• Your thoughts create your reality. Focus on what you can control to build your confidence.

Your Brand- The Screen Play

• Your brand is your promise to fulfill expectations
• Branding as a business discipline is: The process of coming to conviction about the expectations you want established, understanding every mechanism that affects those expectations, and managing those mechanisms to deliver a consistent, positive promise at every point of contact
• Ask yourself is your brand bingeworthy? Like "Stranger Things". 
• Make people want to be engaged so much in what you are doing that they want to be a part of it and support it. Bingeworthiness= Sustainability (Good to community, Good To Employees, Good business model)
• Great stories end up making history. Like "Rudolph The Red Noised Reindeer". 
• Good story makes you feel something and is universal. If a commodity tell your story moving them with laughter or pulling at the heart strings.
• Strategy first then build content that support your brand building strategy.
• Brand comprised of: Purpose, Positioning, Values Of What You Offer and What You Stand For!

• Think of the Hero Journey in your story telling....From normal world to unknown world....First Just do it and start the journey to leave the known behind to go into the bigger aim unknown, Keep walking in your journey to cross the thresh-hold when times get hard, 3rd get the diamond and reward
• Most important three elements in story telling are: Theme, Character, and Plot. The theme drives the character through the plot!
• For example, The theme is what business you are really in and what you are really offering. Know your "Why". Disney is= keeping alive the magic of childhood. This is the "Why" they get up each day and deliver!
• Plot is around your Brand Positioning. Three things to execute on your positioning. Know your: Target Audience, Competitive Category, and Difference.

• Think of the Hero Journey in your story telling....From normal world to unknown world....First Just do it and start the journey to leave the known behind to go into the bigger aim unknown, Keep walking in your journey to cross the thresh-hold when times get hard, 3rd get the diamond and reward
• Most important three elements in story telling are: Theme, Character, and Plot. The theme drives the character through the plot!
• For example, The theme is what business you are really in and what you are really offering. Know your "Why". Disney is= keeping alive the magic of childhood. This is the "Why" they get up each day and deliver!
• Plot is around your Brand Positioning. Three things to execute on your positioning. Know your: Target Audience, Competitive Category, and Difference.
• Remember your brand personality is who you really are, the human traits that acts out in your brand persona and perception to the world. 
• Don't tell your brand story, show how your brand makes someone feel or adds value and promise is delivered. "Show & Tell".
• Ensure story makes emotional connection and covers human elements to pull at the heart strings.

Emotional Stability:

• When you know better, you can do better!
• Stay calm and carry on. Be mindful of your state and do not get stuck in "Fight or Flight" mode that leads to extra stress resulting in poor health. 
• Try putting your phones down and make real human to human connection. Look at people, smile, and say hello.  Be connected to people not disconnected from people. 
• Take time to play! Do things you love that make you smile and laugh! 
• Go outside more and be around nature. 15-20 minutes outside gives us more vitamin D and helps refresh & reset the brain. Do walking meetings. 
• Play and nature is our medicine! Community and connection is our medicine!
• Nurturing relationships can help you be healthier and thrive! Form great relationships!
• Take time to look up and connect!