God Stepped In For This Appearance At Jobseekers PTC

God clearly had His hand in my recent talk at Jobseekers.  I recorded it on my iPhone without a microphone so the audio is a bit muffled in places.  Turn your speakers up and see what God did to ensure I didn't miss a very important day.

God Stepped In For This Appearance At Jobseekers

You won't hear the full joke at the beginning but the end of the joke ties in nicely with the introduction so I preserved it.  You also won't hear the conversation as I was leaving with a gentleman who is related to Jane Brenner, a lady I knew while living in Punta Gorda (you'll understand the irony if you listen to the full talk).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSQKFkMlC38&feature=share&list=UUMYARjsZs7ePj6pLBSpC4Jg

 

 


The Brand You

Whether we are aware or not, each of us has a brand that is singularly ours. I recently shared some ideas on how to better develop a personal brand with a group of Jobseekers.

Free help with personal self introduction click here

Just as we all have a brand, we are all constantly seeking connection with someone. Jobseekers are seeking connection with employers. Salespeople with customers. Single people with potential spouses. While targeted at jobseekers this talk can help anyone with their personal branding. See the short video below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKD2Q-C20hY&feature=c4-overview&list=UUMYARjsZs7ePj6pLBSpC4Jg

 


A New Citizen Explains what it means to be an American

I pray we all would understand what it means to be an American as well as this new citizen does.

Last year I had the privilege of witnessing the ceremony for new American citizens and hearing one new citizen, Ed Camargo, owner of StoneArtMasterpieces.com explain what it meant to him.  Below is the speech he gave (printed with permission).  I think we all can learn a lot about what it means to be free from this text.

I am honored to be here today and also by the invitation to address you, The New American Citizens. Thank you Judge, for the introduction. I would like to say that it is a privilege and an honor to be here today and to be able to speak to you about what it means to be an American citizen.

The fact that I am also an immigrant to the United States, and went through the same process that you are now finalizing, and my life experience, allows me to understand and relate to you. Today we celebrate this achievement. Welcome to the land of the Free and the home of the Brave.

America my friends, is a Capitalist nation and we welcome your Human Capital which is: your knowledge, your unique skills, your diversity, and your culture will enrich our way of life, all of you have something different to contribute to America.

This wonderful country called America has been the greatest model of Liberty, the greatest spreader of freedom and the greatest preserver of Liberty that the world has ever known.

We love our freedom so much that The president John F. Kennedy famously expressed this believe in his inaugural address in 1961 proclaiming: “Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of Liberty.”

Here in the United States of America, you are going to be able to achieve and accomplish all the things that you never could. The dreams that you had when you were young, and were impossible to achieve, now they can become a reality, now there is no limit on how far you can go, because now you are an American.

Look at me. I am standing behind a podium in front of a room giving my first speech. I was able to start my own business and prosper with my ideas and the strength of my muscles and the dexterity of my mind.

My family was originally from Italy and after the Second World War, they immigrated to Brazil.  I grew up in Brazil and graduated college with a civil engineering degree.  I worked while I also studied and I learned a lot about the business world.  I decided that English would be an important tool so I came to the United States to study.  I ended up meeting my wife and becoming a citizen over 20 years ago.

Today, I am the proud owner of Stone Art Masterpieces.  I design and create luxury mosaic tables and floors from natural stones.  I had an idea and I worked at some other jobs until I had saved enough money to open my own business.  I was able to do the research and got the ideas of what the market needed and was able to fulfill that segment.

America my friends is the land of the entrepreneur and it is the place that welcomes new ideas.    It is through very hard work that you can accomplish your wishes. Here in America you can set a goal to be anything that you want to be, and if you put a lot of dedication, inspiration, commitment and have a good attitude towards your purpose in life, the chances are that you will accomplish your dreams.

Everything that is really inspiring is created by the individual that can work and leave in freedom.

We are a special people, because we have been united not by a common race or ethnicity. We are bound together by common values.  Today you are facing a new beginning in your life, and the story of those that came before you remind us that America has always been about new beginnings. America is the story of everyday people who did extraordinary things. We are a people that continue choosing the principles written down by our founding fathers, to solve the challenges of our time, and as long as we continue living by those principles specified in the Declaration of Independence, this miracle of freedom that is the United States will go on for another generation to inherit.

Please keep these words close to your heart ---all men are created equal, that we are endowed by our creator with unalienable rights such as: Life, Liberty, the pursuit of Happiness, and Property that is the fruits of our labor. This cannot be said often enough. Everything important flows from these words.  These words are the foundation for people determined to govern themselves.

In America we have three very important documents: The Declaration of Independence, The Constitution, and the Bill of Rights, and you should get yourselves acquainted with all three. All the words in these documents say what they mean and mean what they say.

I would also like to repeat the words of a past great American president: Abraham Lincoln, he said: “America is the best hope of earth”. It was true over 100 years ago and it is true today.

The United States of America, this country is the only country in history born, not of a chance or a blind tribal warfare. This country was founded as a rational product of man`s mind.

In the year when I first came to America as a student, it was in 1984, and my other favorite American president was in power and I will never forget his words about Liberty. Ronald Reagan said: that your freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We did not pass it to our children in the bloodstream. We must fight to preserve our freedom, we must protect our freedom and hand it on to our children so they can do the same, or if we continue taking it for granted one day we will find ourselves spending our sunset years, telling our children and our children`s children, what it was once like in the United states where men were free.

One last thing that you need to know is that now that you are an American citizen, you have the privilege to vote in the elections, and you need to register to vote.

In the United States we have two major political parties and a few smaller parties.

Therefore you will need to understand what they represent, and decide where you belong.

Use wisely your power of choice. Being an American is not just a blessing, it is also a responsibility.

Thank you for this opportunity and good luck to you all.

Congratulations!


What Freedom Really Means

School is out. Many will graduate. Hot days at the pool, lake or beach, warm nights cooking out, and a well-deserved vacation. Summer, the time of freedom is here.

FreedomFreedom. Just utter the word and Americans immediately stand proud. It has a ring too it, a sweetness of sound that only a free people can understand. And as free people we know that freedom isn’t free. It comes through and with sacrifice, some on our own and some on our behalf. Someone always pays the price for freedom.

Freedom is a word we throw around a lot but when analyzed few of us know what it means. We may be able to define the word but finding it’s meaning is challenging because freedom can mean so many things. A simple search of the word returns over 396 million hits. From schools and towns named freedom to Webster’s multiple definitions, freedom is a word that has varied definitions but perhaps one uniform meaning.

Today you’ll choose what you will have for lunch, and for some, you’ll choose nothing at all. You had freedom in lunch. Lunch wasn’t free, but you had the freedom to choose if you would have lunch, what you would have for lunch, and if you would pay the price for lunch. In this example you might conclude that freedom means choice. And sometimes it does.

However, let’s say you are gluten intolerant. You are at a meeting and non-gluten free pizza is being served. Your only choice is to eat and become ill or not to eat and be hungry. You still have a choice, but is this really freedom? By any definition this example at least limits freedom. Most definitions of freedom include “without confinement, coercion, or restraint”. This is why we must find the meaning and not just the definition of the word.

As I have come to understand the meaning of freedom, the best, all-encompassing meaning is that one has control. The extent of freedom you enjoy is directly attributable to the degree of control you have in a given situation. And for the most part we enjoy a great deal of freedom.

I cringe when I hear people say (myself included) “I have to go to work.” Think of all the wrong messages in that one line we recite all too often. The sacrifice of freedom indicated in that six-word sentence is evident. “Have to” means we wouldn’t choose to if we had a choice. Is that really true? What does that say about us? Are we willing slaves to our labor? Have we build lives of quiet desperation, purchasing our confinement by our financial dependence on work we “have to” do?

Sadly for many this is the case. They head off to work they never intended to do. Somehow they landed in this job they tolerate but wouldn’t do if they had a choice. That’s the way they see it; they have no choice.

Which brings us around to the meaning of freedom. Control. Ask any of those people who go to work because they “have to” and you’ll find they truly believe they have no choice. Upon further inspection however you’ll find they have chosen the life they lead willingly, without coercion, as a better option than the unknown alternative. In this way they may not realize it but they are in control. At any moment they could, given the need, change the work they are doing or and find something else to do. If they only understood their need they would pay the price to change. But they choose not to. They are in control.

They see themselves as the fly on the windowsill. Feverishly exhausting their efforts on a task at which they will never succeed. Freedom is just beyond the glass and yet the harder they try, the closer they come to losing their freedom and their lives. If only they would turn around and see the open door behind them, if they would just fly a bit higher and find the open window, they could enjoy the freedom their work has provided.

Of course there are those among us, far too many, who have no work. While it may not seem like it, this is a great time of freedom. In this moment they have the ability to clearly choose their path. While many will take whatever they can get and fall into the cycle again, some will break free and chart a new course, find fulfilling work, or even start their own business.

For those of us who are fortunate enough to have work, we should examine the choice we make each day to engage in it. A simple shift in our attitude toward the work we do can make a huge difference in our results. Fly a bit higher, or perhaps fly in a different direction. You are in control. And that is really what freedom is all about.


Is This Country Worth The Sacrifice?

Arlington National CemetaryOn this Memorial Day, would those who fell in order to secure and maintain our freedom find the sacrifice worth it? Do those families who will look across the table and see an empty seat feel their loss is being honored?

On virtually every issue we are a country divided. From gays in the Boy Scouts to the IRS snooping around in the personal telephone calls of reporters, those who are informed fall squarely into two camps on each issue. But that’s not the division. The real division in our country is those who are informed and those who are not.

Our citizens for the most part are pitifully undereducated. Not in the traditional sense, although many feel that is true as well, no this void of education is in the ways of the world and what is happening beyond our sphere of influence that has a dramatic impact on us. What happens elsewhere has long-lasting, often irreversible consequences.

Sadly, most of our nation is wrapped up in the exploits of Kanye and Kim, the sensational trial of Jodi Arias, and the day-to-day challenges of just getting by. It is truly astounding that the Boston Marathon Bombing story is almost completely forgotten until a person of interest is shot and killed by interviewing authorities. And just as quickly it will be forgotten again. Yet, whether Jodi lives or dies dominates the airwaves as if her story and life will impact any of ours. Let me help you – it won’t. It’s chewing gum for the brain, nothing more.

Which begs the question, “Was the sacrifice of our fallen soldiers and their families worth it?” Is this the country they thought they were defending when they gave their all?

Sacrifice is something our country has forgotten as well. We believe that sacrifice is cruel and fail to recognize the honor and duty in sacrifice. This is the motivating factor for a young man or woman to join our armed forces as it was in past generations. I recently heard a story of a man who served in World War I and the tried to reenlist for World Ward II at the age of sixty. Somehow I don’t think he was the only one. Many of our wounded warriors return to active duty.

We have forgotten sacrifice in part because it is so painful to bear. And we have most certainly decided that pain is unacceptable in any form. Therefore, we avoid the pain of sacrifice at all costs. But we’ve also forgotten sacrifice because we cannot begin to understand someone who would die for us. This is why so many have a problem with Christianity. Why would God send his Son to die for our sins? It makes no sense. Not only are we not worthy, but he’s God! He could do anything he wants.

And there’s the crux of the problem with sacrifice. We know deep down that we couldn’t do it. And yet there they are, the miles and miles of white tombstones in cemeteries across this land, marking the place where a soldier rests. A soldier who died for us.

This Memorial Day, as you chat at the backyard barbecue or listen to the news, whether you find great pride or you find anger and frustration in what is happening in our country, whether you sit in disgust over the behavior of those on the other side of the aisle from you or whether you find amazing collaboration, whether you find yourself unemployed, under employed, employed, or financially blessed, and as you wonder why so many people are so uninformed, you may begin to wonder if their sacrifice was worth it.

But this is what they died for. You have the freedom to speak you mind and the freedom to practice your faith. You have the freedom to learn all you can learn or to be completely uninformed. And you have the freedom to recognize and honor their sacrifice. One way to honor their service is to sacrifice some of your time and become informed. Freedom requires an informed, engaged, and committed electorate that understand the issues, contacts their representatives, and exercises their right to vote.

But particularly on Memorial Day, you can honor their sacrifice by visiting a cemetery or a family who has lost someone through service in our Armed Forces. Perhaps spending some time on line looking up your ancestors would reveal sacrifice in your family tree. Or you could just put out a flag and say a prayer. Do something to enlighten you and your family to the sacrifice made on your behalf. You may have to sacrifice a bit, but it will honor theirs.

Most will celebrate by going to the beach, visiting friends and relatives, a quick dip in the pool, or a cook out. Aside from a day off work they’ll barely know it is Memorial Day, much less the purpose of the holiday. They’ll go about our day with barely a thought of those brave men and women this day is celebrating.

And that’s exactly what they died for. They died so you and I may have the freedom to choose. We can choose to be as informed or uninformed as we please. If you choose not to decide you still have made a choice.

You may think this country isn’t worth the sacrifice, isn’t worth the lives lost, but the brave men and women who died for you and me did and that is what really matters.