30th Anniversary of the GJA SQ1 SQUARE ONE WORKSHOPS

[GordonJ]

Thinking how to celebrate.

30 years ago, beneath the Lake Worth Pier, the smell of Benny's lunches wafting through the air...

A guy named Manny, drew little pictures in the sand. He told me they showed how life worked, and how I could once again get my life working (at the time, it wasn't).

For a couple of months before this I was in a manic state, writing for 10 hours a day, 7 days a week and by May 10, 1993 I had written over 1200 pages, almost a case of paper, most of it single spaced.

After Manny, I threw that "manifesto" in the trash and ended up with 12 PICTOGRAMS, or Diagrams...later to be called PictoGrigms...and whatever they are called, they look like something from a very untalented second grader.

In fact, I'd bet most second graders can do better.

But those chicken scratches I had put down on paper matched the pics that Manny drew in the sand with his walking cane. This old Greek (god looking, silver hair, statuesque build, dark tan) millionaire, who looked like a cross between Aristotle Onassis and Charlton Heston, gave me the swift kick in the butt I needed.

On May 20th, the SQ1 MASTER PICTO-GRIGMS were complete.

More would be added later like the POP (Pyramid of Persuasion) and POA, Plan of Action, but all were based upon the original 12.

For me, the biggest takeaway at the time was...GET BUSY LIVING or keep busy dying. RESPONSIBLITY.

Pure, plain, simple with no sugar coating. Manny said I was the only one responsible for what happened next.

So coming off major disasters; failed marriage, loss of business to unethical partners, loss of health to bad habits/thinking...I came back home to Akron, OH and started digging out of the grave my rut had been carving out.

And it didn't take long either. Not once I had ACCEPTED the responsibility AND daily went over the SQ1, getting to see the hidden layers, the secret codes, the beneath the surface messages he had given me.

To say a light bulb went off is like saying ol Phil of Punxsutawny came out of his hole and had a 1000 camera lights go off at the same time.

In a matter of months, I was back to where I was before all the stuff hit the fan, and in the next couple of years, had explosive growth.

So, that is the brief history of the GJA SQ1, they have been posted here for two decades until covid, I took them down, but here is a link to them, for now, to see what you've missed out on.

After Bob did such an excellent job with the POP, I may have all the PictoGrigms updated, at least from the second grade to middle school.

Don't want to get too fancy.

Anyhow for NOW, but not for long:

https://www.sowpub.com/sq13/

Gordon Jay Alexander