Outside Forces that change the course of your life.
 

Dien has written about Newton’s Laws, and I hope he writes some more, I find it very interesting.

One of those laws has to do with a body in motion will remain in the direction it is going until acted upon by an outside force.

WE humans have outside forces and inside ones too.

I’d like to share a few of the outside forces that have shaped my life, especially in the last few years.

These forces could come from anywhere at anytime, even from a post on a forum like this one…

In fact, one force that IMPACTED me was a post on my old forum…it changed the flow of my life. So here is that old post and my response to it.

Posted by Anthony Blake on July 27, 1998 at 07:18:29:
In Reply to: Mary Campbell's CAVE. posted by Gordon Alexander on July 26, 1998 at 23:13:14:
Gordon...
After reading this and many of your messages on this board, after being entertained and transported by your words, something struck me that I hope maybe you see too.

My friend, I consider you an able marketer, but to be honest, I feel that you are toiling in the wrong field. You see, you are a natural storyteller, you have the gift of "gab," the ability to spin yarns, tell stories, recount memories and adventures that geniuses like Mark Twain had.

Your stories are filled with metaphor, with truths, with lessons learned from the heart and shared with love and joy...

And so, I offer this simple and I believe loving recommendation... marketing may be good, but the world needs more storytellers... and you my friend should investigate every avenue as to providing your well honed product to the masses...

I see you in the vein of Garrison Keillor, Tom Bodett, or Calvin Trillin... I can imagine your voice, on radio or tape, your words in a printed book or magazine short story, recounting stories of your childhood, of lessons learned, of the foolish things we adults sometimes do... of times both good and bad, of the joys and disappointments in life, of seeing the beaming face of a young child or the streaming tears of a saddened senior...

Done right you could make Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio as famous as Lake Wobegon...
I see this as your TRUE calling, and I know that others see this too... You have the ability to make your world come alive in the readers minds... of taking them down paths filled with entertainment and lessons...

Your fortune, my friend, is laying right before you... you have the ability to right volumes with massive ease, to become the next sage that we can learn life lessons from...

I know that I'll be the first person in line at my local Barnes & Noble to buy your book... or to read your stories in the New Yorker...

Just a suggestion from a friend that sees a diamond in the rough that's begging to be shaped and formed and polished and set out for everyone to discover its magnificent glory...
Success!!!
Tony Blake

And here was my response to the post:

Thank you Tony Blake,
It is where I would like to head too. Have much work scattered throughout the house. Now, do I need a good agent? Or is this the type of work that you can self-publish? I guess I need to watch the Canfield tape?

Would like to pursue this as time allows, therefore I am NOW for sale. To the highest bidder. Any offers?

I'm going to print all these nice things out and head down to the cave later.
Thank you Tony, and everyone for the nice comments.
Gordon Alexander

This was a couple of years ago. Now, Tony Blake is a MASTER marketer, and as I’ve posted recently at another forum, if marketing were golf, then Tony Blake would be a Jack Nicklaus type, and me? I’d be more of a Rod Funseth…and if you said who?

Then RIGHT ON.

I’m not a marketer, although Tony was right, I am an able marketer. I dabble. I am not a pro. I had the good fortune to learn from a pro, and I’ll get to Ben Suarez in a minute.

But when someone like Tony Blake says these kinds of things, you have to take them into serious consideration. And I did.

So, Tony Blake was one of those outside forces that deflected my direction. He had an IMPACT on me, and still does. I am, after all a student of the Masters. So I learn all I can about my mentors.

There could be a post here at sowpub that might impact you the same way as Tony’s did me a couple of years ago. Maybe even change the course of your life too.

I guess it was about 6 years ago, Ben Suarez stood on a stage at Walsh College and offered me a position with his company.

Now I’ve written extensively about that, at first I turned SCI down. Then did some work under contract and eventually I went inside for a short while to LEARN everything I could.

I am not the corporate type. I knew my days inside SCI were numbered from the start, so I worked hard to learn, for myself, all the workings of a major marketing company.

There were three people who had a huge Impact on me at SCI, the first was Rod Napier, who runs the company and is one of the ELITE marketers in the world.

Rod has written copy that pulls in millions of dollars a year, and has a control that has never been beat.

And I had the good fortune to have Rod looking over my shoulder and making suggestions. LOOK, you can’t pay for that kind of education.

The other men were Paul “Chip” Klingaman, an Executive Director and my NPGS NEWSLETTER editor, Chris Yochens.

I owe all three of these men a great big THANK YOU, for they taught me more in one year than I ever could have learned in a lifetime, I think.

See, what happens to most people when they take a job, is that they learn that job.

But I was free to roam SCI, taking any and all assignments that others didn’t want.

I got to talk to and learn from ALL the different divisions. And I was an oddity at SCI.

They didn’t quite know what to do with me, because I was the proverbial round peg, and they had a whole bunch of square holes to fill…but their dilemma was my good fortune.

So, I learned and studied and EDUCATED myself, while getting paid to boot. Life was good.

But the reason Ben Suarez asked me to join his company that day at Walsh College, was because I did a project and he detected some “talent”, he saw, perhaps the rough diamond like Tony Blake alludes to.

These were two incidents instigated by other people that changed my direction and course.

I’ll have more to say on this later, but I’d like to hear from you, what kinds of outside sources, events, people, etc. changed the direction of your life?

I know Julie Jordan Scott has an interesting story, one which I’ve read at her site, about how a death threat (or two) was an outside force that changed her direction.

Would you care to share yours?

Gordon Alexander

PS. I’ll have more on this later, I owe Tony Blake, and perhaps some day I can pay him back. You just don’t know where the outside forces that impact your life are going to come from…so keep reading…it could be right here at sowpub.

Re: Outside Forces that change the course of your life.
 

Gordon - excellent food for thought! My major epiphanal moment came when I was a marketing VP for Lockheed on my third trip from DC to LA in ten days. I was tired, fed up with the corporate life, but still in the golden handcuff rut of so many professionals.

Instead of going directly to the LA office, I instructed the young guy that picked me up to head for Gladstones for Fish (a restaurant overlooking Malibu Beach) to get a couple beers. I needed a break. While there, we perused the gorgeous views of the ocean, beach and naturally, healthy, tanned and beautiful ladies running up the beach. I reflected on my youth (five years prior!) when I too used to run on the beach.

When I went to the mensroom to recycle some beer, I saw my "seventy year old" reflection in the mirror (I was then about 35!) and had an instantaneous realization. The job was killing me and I had to make a change.

The rest is history - I started my own business within three months and am still there ten years later. With all of it's ups and downs, for me doing what I do has provided learning, adventure and the freedom to choose. I'm forever grateful to Gladstone's and have memorial libation there on each LA trip!

So, the moral is, you never know where outside forces may strike to change your course - even in the bathroom mirror of a bar on the beach!!!

Regards, Bob

Some influences on me....
 

Thanks Bob and Gordon for sharing those life-changing moments!

It's hard for me to pin down just one thing which have affected me.... I believe various books have had quite an impact on my life so far....

Regarding business, one of the first books I bought on business is "Making It!" by E. Joseph Cossman and William A. Cohen. That book really opened my eyes to what is possible. Before that, I had no clue about business whatsoever (and I'm still learning a lot).

Reading a book by an expert is like the next best thing to having a personal consultation with that expert. Gordon spoke about Harvey Brody before, and he said that apparently Harvey Brody was one of Joe Cossman's students (if I remember right)....

Another book which has impacted me was the book "The Warren Buffett Way" by Robert Hagstrom, Jr. This is a book which purports to show you some of Warren Buffett's investment techniques.

(I've linked to this book below for those who are interested....)

I mastered what the book teaches - including being able to mathematically reproduce the various results which Robert Hagstrom, Jr. gives you in the tables in the back, but which he never clearly explains in the book. I created my own spreadsheet, based on this method, for picking stocks, and I've been picking stocks (with pretty good success) ever since. I know that if I could build up a "nest egg" of around $200,000, that I could probably retire quite comfortably and securely on what I could make simply by investing that money. (That is, if I wanted to retire -- which I probably wouldn't. :)

I'm thinking about turning my spreadsheet into a software product, along with a manual on how to use it to pick good, safe, solid growth-stocks that are currently undervalued (which means that they are selling for a lot less than they are worth)....

The technique is mathematical, so the idea would be to have the software do the mathematics for you. :)

Well, there's a lot more than that.... I think things have generally been more gradual for me in my life. I tend to make changes after long considerations.... :)

Dien




The Warren Buffett Way....

The serendipitous birth of my creative adventure...
 

Hello old friend!

Gordon, it is so great to see you back on the net. It gives so many of us the opportunity to soak up more of your wisdom and enjoy your touching stories. I am very grateful to Dien for making you the 'star of the show' at this site...at least for this moment in time.

You, of course, know my story of how a tragedy took me down a totally different path and led to unimagined success with an uncommon art-form. In fact, you were gifted with one of my creative works a year or so ago.

But for others whose path I've never crossed...In 1990, my life took a tragic twist when one of my 4 sons passed away. I was devastated.

Only a few weeks later, I also lost the use of a leg when my knee was torn up and my leg was fractured in a game of tennis. (don't ask...yes, I was playing a pretty agressive game at the time)
It was one of those flukey things that can happen now and then.

As fate would have it, the accident happened on my birthday. I indulged in a pity party since my life was already going pretty badly for me. My plan had been to escape a depression, resulting from the death of my son, by staying active and fully engaged in life.

But after the surgery to repair the knee and set my leg into a unattractive ankle-to-hip cast, I must confess that I slipped into the blue funkeys.

My well being had been seriously threatened. I needed to do something. But what?

I prayed...and allowed myself to daydream - a lot!
I began considering things I could do to pass the time during the lengthy recovery process and my fracture enforced inactivity. I couldn't very well hang out at the shopping malls to window shop. What seemed like a 100 pound cast on my leg kept me reclusive while my leg healed.

So, eventually I let my imagination come 'out to play'. I really needed to escape the sadness of my reality while I was putting Humpty Dumpty back together again - me!
I began to remember the joy that my creative endeavors had often brought through the years.

And, one thing I knew for certain. I desperately needed to feel a sense of joy again.

I decided to think of something that I could create with my hands to allow my mind to go into that wonderful state of 'flow' that all creatives know and love. Time passes quickly in that state of mind.

I decided that I wanted to make little gifts for the people who had surrounded me and my family with such love during our crisis with the loss of our son and brother.

With that decision, I began to get outside of myself as my thoughts turned to what I could do for other people and my desire to bring a little unexpected joy into their lives.

That WAS the turning point in my emotional recovery. Now, all I had to do was to decide what I would make for them.

After more daydreaming, I decided to buy some equipment to do glass engraving. In my search for equpment, I came across a photo in a magazine of a pierced and carved eggshell. The man had originally used a dental tool to achieve the results. But now there was more sophisticated equipment available to make delicate cuts on even very small eggs - such as the paper shell thin chicken eggs.

*Bingo*, I thought...that's it! I enthusiastically made the decision to purchase the equipment and do whatever it took to teach myself that delicate art form.

Initially, this was only to be something that occupied the hours of my life during my healing time. However, after spending about a thousand hours, in my workshop, I began to fall in love with this new passion. My ability to draw and use my freehand art with the tool came in useful...making each shell a 'one of a kind'.

To shorten my story somewhat...one thing led to another. Before I knew it, I was no longer focusing on a painful reality, but was excitedly preparing my little 'gifts' for my friends and loved ones.

Also, while working away in my new craft, I had plenty of time to reflect as I came to understand, even more fully, just how fragile our lives are. Just like an eggshell, one minute it is...and then 'oops...it isn't!' All of this led me to a deeper appreciation for the gift of life. I didn't want to waste any more of the precious
moments I had left. My peace of mind was being restored. Ah, serenity. It's priceless!

Yes, as I realized that just as I was turning something that is normally thrown away...a duck or goose egg...into a thing of beauty...a miraculous thing was also going on inside of me.

The 'almost end of the story'...my friends and acquaintances loved my gifts and raved about the uniqueness of each shell. They strongly encouraged me to show my work to the world. At first I hesitated.

After a time, I began to get calls as word spread about what I was doing. I was invited to participate in a fund raiser for our local historical museum. I was flattered. And, my donated eggshell carving brought them a lot of money - for a good purpose. That was neat.

So, I continued to contribute my artworks for a time to other charitable causes. Watching the reception of the excited buyers of my work boosted my self-esteem. I did have a purpose! I was doing something good for my fellow man while I was taken 'aside' in my own life. That realization gave me the self confidence to broaden my journey with the eggshells.

In 1994, I worked up the nerve to enter into a world-wide competition with other eggshell artisans. My carved Swan egg won the award in my division. It was purchased, immediately, by the Franklin Mint of Pennsylvania. Cool.

That was such an honor. But I knew that I would have never pursued this uncommon work without being 'stopped' in my path...and turned in another direction due to the circumstances in my life at that point in time. (I had never been patient enough to sit and learn such a tedious skill prior to that time.)

Yet, as many creatives have experienced, I had become too successful and was in jeopardy of experiencing 'burn out' - a real threat that can rob the joy from the endeavor.

Once again, fate intervened and for the past year and a half, I have taken a 'sabbatical' from my work after another event of a disasterous nature interfered with the momentum I had going. But, for everything there is a season.... So true.

Yet, in spite of my dropping out of the 'art scene' for a time, the requests for my shells have continued. That has led me to believe that I AM truly on a path where I belong.

I know that I would have never come to this place in my life without the tragic circumstances that took me out of life's mainstream for a time. I was set on a totally different course that I probably wouldn't have ever imagined traveling...before I gave myself permission to open my mind to doing something 'different'.

My daydreaming -- and then taking action... set into motion the possibility of re-discovering a 'gift' that has always come naturally to me - creative expression that flows from my heart.

But I had often ignored it; thinking instead of using my time for more 'serious' things, only.

For years I had pushed myself into ventures that weren't always really 'in tune' with my nature...but I pushed myself, anyway, to become more in step with what I thought the world expected of me. Something more conventional.

It was like coming home again to finally give myself permission to explore an artistic talent that had been sitting idle for years. I had years of art training as a child, my parents thought it was wasted money UNTIL now. It just took a good part of my lifetime to discover the 'perfect' medium that was 'just right' for me. Perhaps the timing was perfect, indeed, for me to awaken to my 'inner calling'.

Later this year, I will be bringing my art to the internet. My son has just begun to create a web site for me to present my eggshells to the world.
I'm getting excited all over again.

But most importantly, I want my web site to be a place where others can freely share their stories with the world. I want to know how their daydreams came true and the wonderful serendipitous changes that others have experienced when something wonderful came out of the ashes of their lives. That is what I am REALLY getting excited about.

My journey with my art is not complete. I sense it. It has already opened many doors and allowed me to explore an avenue that I never took seriously before all this happened. As they say, when one door closes...another opens!

Gordon, tell me true...is your eggshell carving still in one piece? It was an expression of my gratitude for all the joy you have brought into the lives of many who have become acquainted with you via the net.

Dien, once again...thank you so much for creating such a wonderful forum. I wish you much success!
I look forward to my daily visits here.

Stay true to your heart... and always celebrate life!
Amber


Not ready for prime time...but if anyone is wondering what a carved eggshell looks like, you can see

YES, it's on my mantle, I'll take a picture and post...ATTENTION all you guys (and girls too)...
 

If you want to give your hard working wife (pay attention Richard D.) or a loved one a real

TREASURE...

Ask Amber to start making one for you today.

It is a prized possession and a real treasure, just like Amber is.

I couldn't believe it when I first opened it, I was scared to death to touch it, but it has a secure resting place on the mantle, it is one of the most beautiful and neat objects I own.

Thanks Amber, I truly hope all is going well again, I look forward to your site, and let me know what I can do to help you get all the business you want, it would be my sincere pleasure...

Thanks for taking the time to find me over here...

hope I get to stay on-line for awhile this time...

You have made my day, and I'll get the camera out and take a picture from every angle...

Warmest regards,

Gordon Alexander

Re: Amber, I'm not sure if you realize...
 

>I'll get the
> camera out and take a picture from every
> angle...

> Gordon Alexander

... how the IMPLICIT personal endorsement and recommendation from Gordon can -- almost by itself -- serve to revitalize your business, once he "lovingly and respectfully 'showcases'" your creation on his mantle, here!

If you want more business, look out; and even if you don't want more biz -- look out too! :-)

Paul

Gordon, I'm touched and flattered...
 

Gordon,

I'm flattered. And almost speechless by your response. Your favorable opinion about my art work means so much to me. A heartfelt 'thank you' for your very complimentary remarks.

I remember your kind note of personal thanks to me after you received the eggshell, but I had no idea that you gave it such status...to put it on your fireplace mantle. Wow...

I want to say one more important thing. I remember when Tony Blake initially posted the 'special' note to you (shown above in your post ) on his forum. It duly praised your talent and skills as a story teller. And so many of us nodded in agreement!

At that time, I remember thinking that you also reminded me, in some way... in some of your writings, of the famous author, Og Mandino.

One of the highlights of my life was getting to meet - and have a conversation - (and even share a cup of tea) with Og Mandino when he was in Houston back in the 80's for a speaking engagement. I think that you also exude that same ability to enchant. And that is saying a lot. (Gosh, was I ever a big fan of Og! He was one in a million.)

When I first crossed paths with you out here in cyberville - wasn't it about three plus years ago now? hmmmm...maybe longer even - I was just one of hundreds...maybe thousands who immediately saw something almost 'magical' about your writing. It has that amazing ability to hold people 'spell-bound'.

Yes, you certainly DO have a very special 'gift' and Tony Blake verbalized, very well, what so many others were simultaneously picking up on. Hooray for Tony for saying it so eloquently!

And, now, it will be so wonderful - and give so much pleasure - to the crowd of us who will surely gather here to experience your genius... continuing to 'unfold' before our eyes on a daily or weekly basis.

We're all very fortunate. Indeed.

Thank you, thank you Dien!

Sincerely,
Amber

> If you want to give your hard working wife
> (pay attention Richard D.) or a loved one a
> real

> TREASURE...

> Ask Amber to start making one for you today.

> It is a prized possession and a real
> treasure, just like Amber is.

> I couldn't believe it when I first opened
> it, I was scared to death to touch it, but
> it has a secure resting place on the mantle,
> it is one of the most beautiful and neat
> objects I own.

> Thanks Amber, I truly hope all is going well
> again, I look forward to your site, and let
> me know what I can do to help you get all
> the business you want, it would be my
> sincere pleasure...

> Thanks for taking the time to find me over
> here...

> hope I get to stay on-line for awhile this
> time...

> You have made my day, and I'll get the
> camera out and take a picture from every
> angle...

> Warmest regards,

> Gordon Alexander

Cooking a chickpea....
 

Amber....

Thank you so much for your touching story....

When I visited Gordon about 2 1/2 months ago, he also showed me the shell you carved. I remember also being afraid to hold it -- it looked so fragile and beautiful. I had never seen anything like it....

Amber, you really have a gift. :)

I agree with you that tragedy can change the direction of our lives, and sometimes cause us to grow in ways we never expected.... Even though the feelings may be painful, sometimes it is how we grow....

This reminds me of a poem I've read....
A chickpea leaps almost over the rim of the pot
where it's being boiled.

"Why are you doing this to me?"

The cook knocks him down with the ladle.

"Don't you try to jump out.
You think I'm torturing you.
I'm giving you flavor,

so you can mix with spices and rice
and be the lovely vitality of a human being.

Remember when you drank rain in the garden.
That was for this."

Grace first. Sexual pleasure,
then a boiling new life begins,
and the Friend has something good to eat.

Eventually the chickpea
will say to the cook,
*****"Boil me some more,.
Hit me with the skimming spoon.
I can't do this by myself.

I'm like an elephant that dreams of gardens
back in Hindustan and doesn't pay attention
to his driver. You're my cook, my driver,
my way into existence. I love your cooking."

The cook says,
*****"I was once like you,
fresh from the ground. Then I boiled in time,
and boiled in the body, two fierce boilings.

My animal soul grew powerful.
I controlled it with practices,
and boiled some more, and boiled
once beyond that,
*****and became your teacher."

(From "The Essential Rumi" translations by Coleman Barks with John Moyne, p. 132.)

Amber, it is people like you as well as many others here -- who have been "cooked" and have found their "flavor" -- who (in my view) have found wisdom....

Thank you for sharing some of it with us :)

Dien

Dien, thank you for the lovely comments... (DNO)
 

Re: The serendipitous birth of my creative adventure...
 

Hello New Friend!

We have much in common, Amber, I am thrilled to meet you!

My first daughter died at birth in February of 1990. My life has not been the same ever since. She has had a huge impact on my life, and my three daughters lives as well.

Your creative venture is rather amazing! WOW! The metaphor is completely enlightening as well.

And as I said when addressing a group last week, "My story is NOT over. I have no idea what it will bring next. But I do know, I will live with purpose and passion no matter what happens. I have made that choice."

Thanks for being YOU, Amber, you are a blessing to the world.

With Purpose and Passion,

JULIE


My Project in Creativity