Hello Everyone,
Fall has crept up, causing many of us to reflect back on summer and wonder… what happened? My wife and I actually had a pretty eventful summer, and before I continue I would like express my gratitude to Darren Pujalet for his assistance during this time. When we left Manhattan Beach for the Bay Area we initially attempted to rent out our primary residence and ultimately ran into some trouble when our first experience as landlords meant dealing with a broken lease. Faced with a depreciating asset and lack of positive cash flow we were quite confident that, at best, we would have to attempt a short sale. I’ve quite a few successful friends in real estate through my Leadership Manhattan Beach efforts, whom are all quite capable, but ultimately we felt the most comfortable having Darren assist us with the sale. I believe that positive reciprocity is an important aspect of the human experience, so I ask for forgiveness in this public display of appreciation, however real estate is a referral business and in the end (although we still came out a bit in debt) Darren saved us from a short sale and ultimately commanded a selling price not seen in our condominium complex since 2008. For that effort alone he deserves mention, plus he is simply one heck of a guy. His website is www.yourownmls.com.
After three years of effort on this project a few of you have, in good-nature, called my motives into question inquiring if the aim of Live Life Love is some sort of reinvention. My answer: sort of. To be sincere, I haven’t evolved that much: I still think farts are funny, I still drink too much beer, and I’m still learning the socially established duration acceptable for taking notice of a beautiful stranger and enviably miss the mark by one or two seconds each time. If any evolution has taken place thus far, then it has been a concerted effort to actively happily achieve as opposed to achieving to be happy. And further, to try and foster this collectively with the relationships I cherish. The economics of this summer have changed me a little bit but not in the way you might imagine. It has actually deemphasized my focus on monetary concerns. In fact, my wife and I have both taken decreases in income to improve our well-being. Although this has required adjustments to our standard of living, I believe we’ve both experienced an increase in our level of happiness. Another acknowledgment goes out to Deena Varshavskaya for passing along the recommendation to read Stumbling on Happiness, which has provided the science my skeptic brain needed to confidently broadcast that this is not an ill-fated course of action. Ultimately, time will be the judge. Anyway enough for now, here are this quarter’s deliverables:
Entrepreneurship: Hammad Zaidi is this quarter’s business interview. He is the CEO of Lonely Seal Releasing, a film and television distribution company that has represented over 40 projects, including Julian Lennon’s Whaledreamers and Harrison Ford’s Dalai Lama Renaissance. He is also a great friend, mentor, and role model. Our discussion is about taking calculated risks. My interview with Hammad Zaidi about calculated business risks can be found here.
Wellness: This summer I reconnected with a high school classmate, Brodie Burris, for this quarter’s wellness interview. Brodie is the President of the Michigan Association of Oriental Medicine, the Founder of The Lotus Center of Ann Arbor, and a standing member of the American Association of Acupuncture & Oriental Medicine. He is a seasoned acupuncturist and our discussion centers around acupuncture’s place in sport medicine. My interview with Brodie Burris about acupuncture and sport injury can be found here.
Life Experience: Intrigued by seeing a constant barrage of automotive bumper stickers in the Bay Area promoting the Mystery Spot on my way to work each morning this summer I made the trek. The Mystery Spot is an interesting little tourist trap hidden in amongst the trees on the way to Santa Cruz.
Contribution: This quarter it was my pleasure to contribute to Thom’s effort in the Bike MS Bay to Bay Tour 2010 and also to give a little something back to NPR since the station has become such a welcomed companion during my commute.
As always, thanks for taking a look at my quarterly posting. Wishing everyone a beautiful fall!
Warm regards,
Michael