Just Do It

Just Do It

Let me tell you, almost everything in “business” is simple, but not easy.  What’s Nike’s slogan?  Just do it.  It’s that simple.  What makes people successful?  How are these people able to accomplish what others do not?  Based on my knowledge and experience, successful people have determination and self-discipline, but mostly just the former.  Sure, some of the extremely successful people are borderline genius, but for the most part the successful people you know or hear about, just don’t give up on their dreams.  They don’t take no for an answer.  If they want to start a business, they just do it.  If they want to become a lawyer, they just do it.  If they want to write a novel, they just do it.  Everything is easier said than done, but if there are barriers to your dreams, there are ways to overcome them.  If there is a will there is a way.

I do my best.  Not just in terms of running a business, but I do my best at everything.  Don’t you owe it to yourself, if not others, to do your best?  I’m not saying be competitive or work all day every day, but when you do work, work your tail off.  At the end of the day, the same amount of time would have elapsed, whether or not you worked at your highest capability.  Working effectively or hard can save you time to do other things and I’m assuming I don’t have to explain the value of time.  If you have a must do, just do it!  Why procrastinate?  Just do it.

If you can’t do your best, maybe you just don’t like what you do.  So quit.  Do something you are passionate about, so you can work hard and feel good about what you do.   It took me a long time to realize this, even though the objective on my resume read, “to find a position I am passionate about.”  If you have a passion for shoes, sell shoes.  If you have a passion for sushi, start a sushi blog and sell sushi products.  My old friend always told me “choose a job you love and you will never have to work a day in your life.”

Do as you say and say as you do or practice what you preach.  Putting these words into play is a simple solution to self-improvement.  If you talk about these standards, you better hold yourself accountable to them.  In this day and age, I couldn’t care less about what people say.  I put much more weight in their actions than their words.  What are the odds when somebody tells me they want to start a business that they will actually do it?  If I had to choose a number, I’d say 5%, and to think that I surrounded myself with motivated and intelligent individuals.  If I see anybody trying to put their words into action, I am certain that one day they will be successful.

Nike, in 1964 was merely a distributor for a shoe maker.  But today Nike, represented by that slick-old swoosh symbol (designed in 1971), sells athletic equipment that has seamlessly integrated into our everyday culture.  Currently, Nike has a market cap of over $40 billion and is estimated on average to sell about 2 billion shoes a year.  Before 1964, Nike was known as the Greek goddess of victory.  I’ll end with a Nike Ad from 2007:

Sooner or later, you start taking yourself seriously.
You know when you need a break.
You know when you need a rest.
You know what to get worked up about and what to get rid of.
And you know when it’s time to take care of yourself, for yourself.
To do something that makes you stronger, faster, more complete.

Poker is a Full-Time Job.

Finally. I’m running good again. Life is pretty much the same but with more sushi. Winning for any serious poker pro is expected so running good really isn’t a life changing experience, which is compounded by the fact that us poker players mainly spend our money on poker. Losing any amount however, just sucks. If winning one dollar gains 1 happy unit, losing one dollar is like losing 10 happy units. Poker is mentally tough in that regard. It’s interesting to note though that when I am running good, it becomes increasingly difficult to do other tasks, such as studying, and developing other skills I want like HTML and the ability to speak French.

Poker is a full time job. As a shark, you have to wait around for the fish to come. So although you may not always be playing, you do have to sit around at the computer for hours at a time. When you’re losing you need time to recoup yourself and de-stress yourself. It’s hard to be productive after losing a grip of money. Currently, I am studying for the GMAT and its hard to justify studying when I could be making upwards of $100/hr.  Poker isn’t as easy as it seems.  Many professionals struggle with balancing their lives.

Review Your Flight Options

Review Your Flight Options

Once you have become clear about who you are, what you want, and what your true goals are in each area of your life, you can begin to evaluate all the different routes by which you can reach your destination. Now you can determine the strategies and tactics that you can use to achieve your goals and arrive at your destination on schedule.

Develop Options Continually
One of the most important rules that I have ever learned is this: You are only as free as your well-developed options. Before you can plan your time and your life, you must be absolutely clear about both the hourly rate that you are earning today and the hourly rate that you want to earn in the future. Every hour that you spend on a low-value or no-value activity is costing you $25, $50, or more.

Determine the Highest and Best Use of Your Time
Whatever job you choose to take, company you choose to make with your money, or time you choose to spend on a particular activity, think it through carefully in advance and be certain that you are making the highest and best use of your time and resources.

Refuse to Settle
Abraham Maslow once wrote, “The story of the human race is the story of men and women selling themselves short.” Many people, because of fear and timidity, settle for far less than they are truly capable of achieving. They stay in jobs they don’t like. They stay in relationships that don’t make them happy. They invest their money in things they don’t understand and leave their money there long after they realize they’ve made a mistake. If you are not satisfied with any part of your life, with your current seat selection, remember that you can always pay a price to be free.

Ask for What You Want
In business and in your personal life, remember that every term or condition that you are ever offered has been decided by someone and can be changed by someone else. Whether this involves the pay and conditions of a job, the terms of a contract, the costs of products or services, rental or lease rates of offices or equipment, or bank terms for loans of credit, if you are not happy for any reason, don’t be reluctant to ask for something different.

Cast a Wide Net
The rule with ideas is this: Quality is a function of quantity. This means that the more ways you achieve your goal that you consider before you embark on your journey, the better will be the quality of the choice you make. Cast a wide net. Don’t fall in love with the first idea that occurs to you. You must continually remind yourself that emotions distort evaluations. This means that the more emotional you become about a course of action at the beginning, the less able you will be to make the best decisions and determine the best way to reach your destination.

Action Exercise
Imagine that you are a consultant who has been brought into advise yourself on the very best course of action for you to take to achieve a goal or reach a destination. As your own consultant, force yourself to remain calm, cool, and objective about the advice that you give to yourself.

Pros & Cons of Being a Poker Pro

I’m having a hard time of deciding whether or not I should continue to be a poker pro or just get a normal job.  If I have a big pay day, I want to be a poker pro my whole life, but when I lose or break-even I feel like I need to find a job.  Clearly, it all depends on what job I would be getting.

Pros For being a Poker Pro…

1) Freedom:  In my opinion this is probably the biggest difference between a poker pro and a normal profession.  As a poker professional, I have no obligations, other than those to my family and close friends.  I can travel the world, and go out every night as I choose.  I am free to do whatever I fucking want.

2) Money:  This comes to no surprise.  Any job I could land now would probably only pay me $35-50K, which quite frankly isn’t a lot for a decent poker professional.

3) Workless:  Poker pros are spoiled.  Let’s face it.  We sit there and make more money than the respectable hardworking people.  Many would probably argue that poker is the best job in the world.  Certainly one of the best jobs that you don’t need a degree for.

Pros for getting a real job…

1) Worth:  I don’t know about most poker pros, but I feel pretty worthless waking up everyday and going to the casino or logging into a computer and playing cards.  I believe that every person should contribute to society, and quite frankly playing poker and donating a few bucks here and there for charities doesn’t cut it.  Poker players in my opinion, as a poker player, are worthless to society.

2) Financial Security:  A real job would have better financial security, in my opinion.  You don’t know how many poker pros I know that have gone from filthy rich to dead broke.  In fact, Johnny Chan asked my buddy for money a few years ago, which really opened my eyes.

3) Challenge and Growth:  I believe that if I stay a poker player, I won’t grow as a person due to the lack of challenges that I will encounter.  Challenge is a sign of progress. As cheesy as it sounds, personal development means a lot to me.  Other than people and poker skills, as a poker professional you won’t be honing many other skills as you probably won’t be challenged.

Mary Jane

Why I Support Legal Marijuana

We should invest in effective education rather than ineffective arrest and incarceration.

By George Soros

Wall Street Journal, October 26 2010

Our marijuana laws are clearly doing more harm than good. The criminalization of marijuana did not prevent marijuana from becoming the most widely used illegal substance in the United States and many other countries. But it did result in extensive costs and negative consequences.

Law enforcement agencies today spend many billions of taxpayer dollars annually trying to enforce this unenforceable prohibition. The roughly 750,000 arrests they make each year for possession of small amounts of marijuana represent more than 40% of all drug arrests.

Regulating and taxing marijuana would simultaneously save taxpayers billions of dollars in enforcement and incarceration costs, while providing many billions of dollars in revenue annually. It also would reduce the crime, violence and corruption associated with drug markets, and the violations of civil liberties and human rights that occur when large numbers of otherwise law-abiding citizens are subject to arrest. Police could focus on serious crime instead.

The racial inequities that are part and parcel of marijuana enforcement policies cannot be ignored. African-Americans are no more likely than other Americans to use marijuana but they are three, five or even 10 times more likely—depending on the city—to be arrested for possessing marijuana. I agree with Alice Huffman, president of the California NAACP, when she says that being caught up in the criminal justice system does more harm to young people than marijuana itself. Giving millions of young Americans a permanent drug arrest record that may follow them for life serves no one’s interests.

Racial prejudice also helps explain the origins of marijuana prohibition. When California and other U.S. states first decided (between 1915 and 1933) to criminalize marijuana, the principal motivations were not grounded in science or public health but rather in prejudice and discrimination against immigrants from Mexico who reputedly smoked the “killer weed.”

Who most benefits from keeping marijuana illegal? The greatest beneficiaries are the major criminal organizations in Mexico and elsewhere that earn billions of dollars annually from this illicit trade—and who would rapidly lose their competitive advantage if marijuana were a legal commodity. Some claim that they would only move into other illicit enterprises, but they are more likely to be weakened by being deprived of the easy profits they can earn with marijuana.

This was just one reason the Latin American Commission on Drugs and Democracy—chaired by three distinguished former presidents, Fernando Henrique Cardoso of Brazil, César Gaviria of Colombia and Ernesto Zedillo of Mexico—included marijuana decriminalization among their recommendations for reforming drug policies in the Americas.

Like many parents and grandparents, I am worried about young people getting into trouble with marijuana and other drugs. The best solution, however, is honest and effective drug education. One survey after another indicates that teenagers have better access than most adults to marijuana—and often other drugs as well—and find it easier to buy marijuana than alcohol. Legalizing marijuana may make it easier for adults to buy marijuana, but it can hardly make it any more accessible to young people. I’d much rather invest in effective education than ineffective arrest and incarceration.

California’s Proposition 19, which would legalize the recreational use and small-scale cultivation of marijuana, wouldn’t solve all the problems connected with the drug. But it would represent a major step forward, and its deficiencies can be corrected on the basis of experience. Just as the process of repealing national alcohol prohibition began with individual states repealing their own prohibition laws, so individual states must now take the initiative with respect to repealing marijuana prohibition laws. And just as California provided national leadership in 1996 by becoming the first state to legalize the medical use of marijuana, so it has an opportunity once again to lead the nation.

In many respects, of course, Proposition 19 already is a winner no matter what happens on Election Day. The mere fact of its being on the ballot has elevated and legitimized public discourse about marijuana and marijuana policy in ways I could not have imagined a year ago.

These are the reasons I have decided to support Proposition 19 and invite others to do so.

Mr. Soros is chairman of Soros Fund Management and founder of the Open Society Foundations.

 

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303467004575574450703567656.html

 

Charisma

There is a close association between personal charisma and success in life.  Probably 85 percent of your success and happiness will come from your relationships and interactions with others.  The more positively others respond to you, the easier it will be for you to get the things you want.  The Law of Attraction In essence, when we discuss charisma, we are talking about the law of attraction.  This law has been stated in many different ways down through the centuries, but it basically says that you inevitably attract into your life the people and circumstances that harmonize with your dominant thoughts.

In a sense, you are a living magnet, and you are constantly radiating thought waves, like a radio station radiates sound waves, that are picked up by other people.  Your thoughts, intensified by your emotions, as radio waves are intensified by electric impulses, go out from you and are picked up by anyone who is tuned in to a similar wavelength.  You then attract into your life people, ideas, opportunities, resources, circumstances and anything else that is consistent with your dominant frame of mind.  The law of attraction also explains how you can build up your levels of charisma so that you can have a greater and more positive impact on the people whose cooperation, support and affection you desire.

The critical thing to remember about charisma is that it is largely based on perception. It is based on what people think about you. It is not so much reality as it is what people perceive you to be. For example, one person can create charisma in another person by speaking in glowing terms about that person to a third party. If you believe that you are about to meet an outstanding and important person, that person will tend to have charisma for you.

One of the most charismatic people in the world was Mother Teresa of Calcutta. In a physical sense, she was a quiet, elderly, frail woman in poor health, and she wore a modest nun’s habit. She might have been ignored by a person passing her on the street, were it not for the tremendous charisma she developed and for the fact that her appearance was so well-known to so many people as a result.

If someone told you that he was going to introduce you to a brilliant, self-made millionaire who was very quiet and unassuming about his success, you would almost naturally imbue that person with charisma, and in his presence, you would not act the same as you would if you had been told nothing at all. Charisma begins largely in the mind of the beholder. Lasting charisma depends more upon the person you really are than upon just the things you do. Continually look for ways to improve other’s perceptions of you so that you can be more influential with them. Be a living magnet.

Here are two things you can do immediately to put these ideas into action. First, be clear about the messages you are sending and the perceptions you are creating in others. Are these perceptions consistent with the impressions you want to make? Second, see yourself and imagine yourself every day as an important powerful and charming person. Treat others as you would if you were already strong, famous and influential. Fake it until you make it!

Quality not Quantity also applies to Friendships

I have never been a “popular” creature.  It may be because I do not care for glory, attention or fame.  I care about myself and my good friends.  I don’t care what people think of me.  I just want my friends to have a good time which in turn will give me a good time.  Of the few lessons I have learned, picking your friends is a good skill set to have.  I have had many idiotic friends, who have put me in unnecessarily bad situations I would not have been if they had common sense.  Since this realization, I have avoided hanging out with unstable, careless and reckless people.  Stupid people put themselves in stupid situations.  The friends I enjoy hanging out the best are usually the ones I have known the longest.  So my advice would be to make good friends not a lot of friends.  A friendship is one of the best investments out there.  I won’t even justify the benefits of having a good friend you can count on and trust.  One-thousand decent friends can’t compete with one good friend.

No longer going to be drinking 3 cokes a day…

Colas 13 New Ways To Ruin Your Health

Monday, July 12, 2010 7:53 AM

Sylvia Booth Hubbard

Whether sweetened with sugar or artificial sweeteners, sodas are playing havoc with your health. The sugars and chemicals in both regular and sugar-free colas combine to create a witch’s brew of health dangers that create problems in your body from head to toe.

1. Obesity

A British study found that when a child’s fat cells mature, if fructose is present, more of the cells mature into fat cells in belly fat. And researchers at Princeton University found that rats who were fed high-fructose corn syrup gained 47 percent more weight than rats who were fed an equal number of calories, but without corn syrup. Diet drinkers aren’t safe from weight gain, either. A study at the University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio, found that people who drink soft drinks don’t lose weight; they gain. And the risk of obesity was even higher among those who drank only diet sodas.

2. Cancer

When sodium benzoate, used for mold prevention in many soft drinks, is mixed with vitamin C, it creates a carcinogenic substance called benzene. Researchers at India’s Tata Memorial Hospital found a “very significant correlation” between soft drinks and an increased risk of esophageal cancer, and other studies have linked soft drinks to the risk of deadly pancreatic cancer.

3. Bone fractures

Phosphoric acid, which give drinks their “bite,” leaches calcium from the bones. Diet sodas are just as much to blame as those sweetened with sugar. A study done at Walter Reed Medical Center found that diet sodas leeched both calcium and phosphorous from the bones of healthy women, putting them at risk for osteoporosis.

4. Yellow teeth

Phosphoric acid, in addition to leaching calcium from bones, causes tooth enamel to erode, leaving yellow teeth. Normally saliva is slightly alkaline, but the phosphoric acid lowers the pH of saliva and causes tooth enamel to corrode. The result: yellow and rotting teeth.

5. Cholesterol

A study published in Circulation, the journal of the American Heart Association, found that people who drank one or more soft drinks each day were 25 percent more likely to develop high blood triglycerides (a type of fat), and 32 percent more likely to have low levels of “good” cholesterol.

6. DNA damage

British researchers also found problems with sodium benzoate — they found it may be able to switch off vital parts of DNA called mitochondria, the “power station” of cells. The result could eventually causes cirrhosis of the liver and other degenerative diseases, such as Parkinson’s.

7. Diabetes

Research at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston suggests that women who drank one sugary drink each day doubled their risk of developing adult-onset diabetes when compared with women who drank fewer than one a month. And information from the Framingham Heart Study found that drinking one or more sodas a day, whether regular or diet, increases the risk of metabolic syndrome, a group of risk factors which increase the odds of both diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

8. GERD

Studies have shown that people who drink sodas suffer more from gastroesophageal reflux disease than those people who didn’t drink sodas. Sodas boost acid levels and often require medication. Sodas also cause other gastrointestinal problems: Chronic high-acid levels can inflame the lining of the stomach and duodenum.

9. Brain damage

More than 92 side effects are associated with aspartame, a sugar substitute used in diet sodas. They include brain tumors, emotional disorders, and epileptic seizures. But the brains of those who drink sugared soft drinks aren’t safe either: A study at Georgia State University found that a diet high in fructose impaired the memory of rats.

10. High blood pressure

Researchers at the University of Colorado found that a diet high in high-fructose corn syrup increased the risk of developing high blood pressure by 87 percent. And a recent study of volunteers who consumed 74 grams of fructose daily, the equivalent amount found in four soft drinks, showed that a third of them had borderline high blood pressure, and 8 percent had hypertension, even though none had experienced blood pressure problems.

11. Kidney Stones

Numerous studies have shown that drinking colas enhances the formation of kidney stones. One study published in the journal Epidemiology found that drinking two or more cola drinks each day, whether regular or diet, doubled the risk of developing chronic kidney disease.

12. Fertility issues

A study published in the American Journal of Epidemiology found that men who drank more than a quart of cola daily had a sperm count 30 percent lower than those who didn’t drink soda at all, putting them at risk of becoming infertile. And research funded by the European Union found that one cola a day containing artificial sweeteners increased an expectant mom’s risk of miscarriage by 38 percent: Four or more cans a day increased the risk by as much as 78 percent.

13. Gout

Researchers from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver and Harvard Medical School in Boston found that men who consumed the highest levels of fructose — found in large amounts in sugar-sweetened colas — more than doubled their changes of getting gout.

Exponentially speaking…

I used to attach exponential growth to poker.  You play for pennies but once your bankroll gets higher you eventually will be playing for thousands.  Back in the day the rate for moving up stakes was way faster than it is now.  And in today’s games they .50/1 games are harder than the 25/50 games back in the day.  It might have been better for me to invest my  time in real skills that would apply to the rest of my life instead of poker because of its exponential factor dying after the gold rush.

NICHE

Everyone has their own niche.  We all have to specialize in something.  I have realized that one of my favorite feelings in the world is playing live high stakes poker.  At the felt is where i feel most dominant and most enjoyable.  I play to win, not only at poker but at EVERYTHING.  I like niches that I dominate, because winning is fun.  So everything I do, I must be at the top of the ladder because I hate to lose and when I crush at something it is soooo fun.  So if you do something just strive to be the best.