This brief story from The Big Book of Small Business, a book I wrote with Tires Plus founder Tom Gegax, is an excellent reminder to avoid being so self-absorbed that we fail to consider what the person in front of us is going through.
Several years ago, I found myself hunched over my laptop on a flight from Minneapolis to San Diego. I was trying to nail a deadline under less than ideal conditions, made worse by the oaf in front of me who fully cranked his seat into my lap. Agitated over this guy’s boxing in my six-foot, two-inch frame, I sank my knees, already pressed into his seat, a little deeper to send a message. Forty-five minutes later, a woman Read the rest of this entry »
Wednesday morning couldn’t come fast enough. It was October 1987 and I was itching to experience the thrill of opening City Pages, a free weekly Minneapolis newspaper, and finding my very first byline.
My first published piece was a short one, only six paragraphs long, that recounted the story of Pat Anthony, a 48-year-old South African woman who gave birth to her daughter’s test-tube triplets. As the world’s first surrogate mother of her own grandchildren, Anthony signed a lucrative deal with The Mail on Sunday, a British newspaper, which granted it exclusive rights to the story.
I was excited to see this particular story in print because the Minnesota Twins were in the thick of a pennant chase that would eventually culminate in their first World Series title. The confluence of these two seemingly disparate stories presented me with a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to pull off a rare triple pun. Cackling at my cleverness, I closed the piece by Read the rest of this entry »
Love this story by Arthur Rosenfeld, which was posted in the Huffington Postin December 2008. Can you imagine the shock of the guy in the car who was leaning on the horn? Ha! Good for him for recognizing he was acting like a jerk and keeping the “pay it backward” chain going.
PAY IT BACKWARDS: AN ACT OF COFFEE KINDNESS
Just before Christmas of 2007, almost exactly a year ago, I steered into a Starbucks drive-thru line for a cup of tea on my way to teach a morning tai chi lesson. There were a few cars in line, and I got in behind them. When my turn came I gave my order at the billboard menu and moved up as far as I could while waiting patiently for the cars in front of me to get through the cashier line. While the South Florida weather would probably have felt tropical to much of the rest of the country, I was a bit chilled and was looking forward to my hot drink.
The fellow in the SUV behind me reached the menu. Dissatisfied with the alignment between his mouth and the microphone, he laid on his horn, leaned out his window, yelled an insult and exhorted me to move up. There was nowhere to go. I was in a line, and mere inches separated my car from the one in front of me. Indignant at rudeness, I felt my temper come up, and because I am a pure and enlightened being who entertains nothing but positive thoughts, I reached for the door handle with the intention of popping out of the car, taking a few steps, reaching into his open window, and sending him to the dentist for a holiday visit.
I’ll show you what happens to rude and impatient people, I thought. I’ll teach you that a martial artist is Read the rest of this entry »
I received a nice unexpected surprise today when I stumbled upon an enthusiastic testimonial about my book, Sixty Seconds: One Moment Changes Everything, by Lindsay Brown, managing editor at Beyond Words, which published my book. I had no clue she was going to write this. I only found out about it through my Google Alerts subscription. Here is what Lindsay wrote:
LINDSAY’S STAFF PICK
Managing Editor Lindsay Brown, shares with us her favorite book; the one she most enjoyed not only reading, but working on.
One of my ultimate favorite Beyond Words titles I’ve ever edited is Sixty Seconds: One Moment Changes Everything. This collection of inspiring and intimate stories was tirelessly compiled by author Phil Bolsta and offers the reader forty-five unique personal accounts told honestly and without fluff.
Out of the hundreds of books I’ve edited in my career, Sixty Seconds has always stood out in my memory. Why? I Read the rest of this entry »
I had the pleasure and honor recently of meeting Dr. Kou Vang face to face. I had interviewed Dr. Vang more than two years ago for an article for Twin Cities Business magazine. After the article was published, Dr. Vang was awarded the Minnesota Dental Association’s Humanitarian Service Award in April 2008.
While interviewing Dr. Vang for the article, I was awestruck at the depth of his humanitarianism and commitment to selfless service. If Mother Teresa had gone to dental school, she would have shared a clinic with Dr. Vang. He is a true hero to the Hmong community and beyond. I cannot remember ever being more Read the rest of this entry »
Like wisdom, integrity matures as you do. You can possess only as much as the level of your consciousness allows.
In shallow men the fish of little thoughts cause much commotion. In oceanic minds the whales of inspiration make hardly a ruffle. Hindu scriptures
Every day brings limitless opportunities to shore up and strengthen your integrity. Every right choice makes you likelier to continue making right choices.
On the mountains of truth you can never climb in vain: either you will reach a point higher up today, or you will be training your powers so that you will be able to climb higher tomorrow. Friedrich Nietzsche
Your integrity is the revelation of your personal power. Personal power, the polar opposite of power over others, is defined by your capacity to live in harmony with the divine mind.
He who does not desert his principles when threatened with the loss of every earthly thing, even to the loss of reputation and life, is the man of power. James Allen
You reach every decision, choose every action as if God’s hand were on your shoulder. Day by day, the foundation of your integrity grows ever stronger.
Good character is more to be praised than outstanding talent. Most talents are, to some extent, a gift. Good Read the rest of this entry »
On Sunday morning, December 11, 2005, a crab fisherman about eighteen miles off the coast of San Francisco spotted a female humpback whale that had gotten tangled in the nylon ropes that link crab pots. The rescue team that was quickly assembled discovered that the whale was so entangled that the only way to save her was to dive beneath the surface and cut the nylon ropes that were ensnaring her. James Moskito, one of the rescue divers, reported:
I was the first diver in the water, and my heart sank when I saw all the lines wrapped around it. I really didn’t think we were going to be able to save it.
Mokito said about twenty crab-pot ropes, which are 240 feet long with weights every sixty feet, were wrapped Read the rest of this entry »
Are you living the life you long to live? If not, why not? Yes, there are certainly valid reasons—raising children, significant debt, poor health—why your options may be limited.
But chances are that the brick wall you see in front of you might just tip over with a good shove. The question is, Are you so passionate about living your dream that you are willing to accept whatever consequences await you on the other side of that wall?
For instance, if you are more interested in doing than having, perhaps it’s time to move into a smaller space to reduce your monthly overhead. If that appeals to you, what’s stopping you from following through?
I was very impressed with Joel Theisen when I interviewed jim for an article in Twin Cities Business magazine. I interview lots of businesspeople and entrepreneurs and Joel stood out as someone who was doing what he was doing because he sincerely cared about people and wanted to help them. That kind of authenticity and genuineness is all too rare and it comes through loud and clear. Here’s the profile that resulted.
JOEL THEISEN OF AGEWELL HOME CARE
While working for a large national home care company in the ’90s, registered nurse Joel Theisen decided there was a better way to care for seniors. His growing frustration with the wait-till-it’s broken-then-fix-it mentality of the healthcare industry only added to his resolve. In 2004, Theisen raised seed money from family and close friends to launch Edina-based AgeWell Home Care LLC, a company devoted to keeping seniors healthy and living independently.
Who among us has not found ourselves in a job that drains our soul, in an activity that no longer serves us, or in a relationship that has clipped our wings instead of enabling us to soar? Yet instead of ending what needs to end, our fear of the unknown and (often) misguided sense of obligation keeps us tethered to that which saps our strength and blocks our enjoyment of life.
The hard truth is that no matter how determined you are, you cannot keep a situation that has already begun to unravel from unraveling. Your intentions may be pure, you may expend enormous amounts of energy scrambling to maintain the status quo, but you might as well be Read the rest of this entry »
Click here to watch five short videos of Lori on Guideposts’ website.
Click here to watch my first video interview with Lori.
"Lori's Leap of Faith" pendant
Click here to order Lori’s books, EVEREST: Climbing Beyond Our Limits and On Top of the Bottom of the World. By purchasing these books as well as “Lori’s Leap of Faith” pendant, you will be helping raise funds for the Empowerment Through Adventure Scholarship Fund, which Read the rest of this entry »
Every event has a purpose; sometimes you get to see the reason, sometimes you don’t. Unplug from the need to know why something happened and trust that behind the event is a message of divine love and empowerment.
The universe is like a safe to which there is a combination—but the combination is locked up in the safe. Peter DeVries
Train yourself to look beyond the illusory “negative” aspects of events to discover the divinely directed lessons embedded within.
Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it. Confucius
For as long as I’ve been alive, I’ve been aware of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech, but I had never watched it or read in in its entirety. I should not have waited so long to do so. It’s a speech that every American would do well to listen to every so often.
The video may be in black and white and it may be nearly fifty years old, but in so many ways it is timeless. From our vantage point in 2010, knowing how history would unfold, the video is both chilling and soul-stirring. What a different place this world might be had King lived.
I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation. Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of captivity.
But one hundred years later, we must face the tragic fact that the Negro is still not free. One hundred years later, the life of Read the rest of this entry »
Before a painter puts a brush to his canvas he sees his picture mentally. It is the mental concept that he externalizes with the help of paint and canvas. If you think of yourself in terms of a painting, what do you see? How do you appear to yourself? Is the picture one you think worth painting? You are what you think you are. You create yourself in the image you hold in your mind. Thomas Dreier
What do you see when you imagine yourself gazing at your self-portrait? Do you see a smiling, vibrant friend to all or a Read the rest of this entry »
This brief story from The Big Book of Small Business, a book I wrote with Tires Plus founder Tom Gegax, is an excellent reminder to avoid being so self-absorbed that we fail to consider what the person in front of us is going through.
Wednesday morning couldn’t come fast enough. It was October 1987 and I was itching to experience the thrill of opening City Pages, a free weekly Minneapolis newspaper, and finding my very first byline.
I was excited to see this particular story in print because the Minnesota Twins were in the thick of a pennant chase that would eventually culminate in 
Are you living the life you long to live? If not, why not? Yes, there are certainly valid reasons—raising children, significant debt, poor health—why your options may be limited.
Who among us has not found ourselves in a job that drains our soul, in an activity that no longer serves us, or in a relationship that has clipped our wings instead of enabling us to soar? Yet instead of ending what needs to end, our fear of the unknown and (often) misguided sense of obligation keeps us tethered to that which saps our strength and blocks our enjoyment of life.
