There’s a famous expression: “It only hurts when I laugh.”
I’m a believer it should be rewritten: “It only hurts when I can’t laugh.”
For me laughter is the best therapy for difficult times. Laughter lightens up my emotional load-then swoops in as “enlightenment aid”– helping me to see ways out of supposedly blocked situations.
I know there are many people who might say today’s financial crisis is no laughing matter — that there’s absolutely nothing funny about our regulatory failures, sovereign defaults, asset-liability mismatches, subprime mortgage problems, and bankrupt banks.
To which I say: Hahaha!
I believe — now more than ever — we need to guffaw it up over our economic challenges! Finding humor in our financial pain is exactly what we need right now to motivate us to want to face the truth about where we’re at — and face the truth about what we need to do to improve our precarious economic situation.
I think we need to laugh our way out of our banking crisis instead of whine and cry our way out of it!
Enter Minyanville.
And what an entrance Minyanville has made!
Minyanville, a financial fitness franchise conceived in the aftermath of the September 11th tragedy, won an Emmy Award last year for new approaches to business reporting and is widely known for it’s intelligent content, global community and entertaining critters, the first such time the Wall Street bull and bear have been branded.
You know that expression: “A picture says a thousands words.”
I’m a believer it should be rewritten: “A viral video is worth a few million words — and a few million loyally hooked viewers.”
I’ve included links below to Minyanville’s wildly popular viral videos and a brief sampling of their written content so you can see why I’m hooked as one of the millions of “Minyans” around the world!
Minyanville’s hilarious segments, featuring Hoofy the bull and Boo the bear, feel like the wacky offspring birthed after Walt Disney shared a few too many margaritas with Wall Street — and then did what Wall Street has done to mainstream America.
In reality, these critters are the brainchild of founder and CEO Todd Harrison, a Wall Street veteran who left a high profile perch as president of a $400 million hedge fund with a mission to effect positive change through financial understanding.
What started as a “company of one” evolved into a collective effort laced with passion and purpose. Kevin Wassong, Minyanville president and the former CEO of digital@jwt , joined in 2005 and in Todd’s words, turned “a seven-figure hobby into a media franchise.”
Others, including Charlie Mangano (former head of global brand management at Merrill Lynch), Tom Eggers (former CEO of Dreyfus), Kevin Depew, Laurie Peterson, Jon Schwartz, Justin Rohrlich and Bill Meehan are among the staff of almost 30 full-time employees and 40 contributing “professors.”
I purposefully listed a few names here, not only because I’d love to applaud these talented people for what they’ve done but also because “appreciation and gratitude” are among Minyanville’s core operating philosophies.
Minyanville runs its day-to-day operation with an instantly felt “We Are Family” spirit — a loving energy which is evident in the air during a day at their office and continues into the night at their staff outings and community events to benefit children.
I immediately sensed the feisty family ethos the moment I walked through their midtown doors and was led by a series of energetic employees to the office of Todd Harrison.
Todd (aka: Toddo) greeted me in jeans and sneakers — a drastic dress code difference from a renowned Wall Street career that led him from a seven-year stint at Morgan Stanley to several well-known hedge funds. He looked entirely more relaxed — but every bit as focused — as when he traded billions of dollars worth of stock.
In 2000, at the young age of 31, Todd was named president of the legendary Cramer Berkowitz hedge fund. He continued on that track until 9/11 when he found himself running from the smoke of the burning towers — and he continued to run after enduring tremendous personal and professional challenges, eventually arriving at the helm of both Minyanville and the Ruby Peck Foundation for Children’s Education, which he started in memory of his beloved grandfather.
Todd’s story is one of virtue, faith, tenacity and inspirational transformation. In fact, he recently released the first few chapters of an 18-part eBook series entitled “Memoirs of a Minyan” that is released each Wednesday on Minyanville.com and discusses the false idolatry of money as we edge into this age of austerity.
According to Kevin Wassong, Todd’s business partner and best friend of 22 years, “Todd’s much different than he was back in his hedge fund hay days. Back then, he was mostly known as a raucous, money loving party boy. Nowadays Todd’s a contemplative, philosophical, people loving leader, a charismatically warm guy who at times is Buddha-like in his spirituality and scarily prescient with his thoughts.”
“The purpose of the journey is the journey itself,” Todd told me in his office that day as he offered me a bag of Minyanville chocolate chip cookies to nibble on. “As painful as those trying times were, I’m glad I forced to endure those obstacles. After being conditioned to believe success could be found in a bottom line or bank account, I awoke to the realization that net-worth isn’t self-worth and there is a massive difference between having fun and being happy.”
Todd then quoted Lou Manheim, in the movie “Wall Street”:
“Man looks in the abyss, there’s nothing staring back at him. At that moment, man finds his character. And that is what keeps him out of the abyss.”
“Man, I love that quote,” Todd shared enthusiastically, a twinkle gleaming in his sparkling eyes. “Let me tell you, Karen, The greatest wisdom is bred as a function of pain. The definition of professional nirvana is to do what you love with people you respect while serving the greater good. I would never have found it if I continued along the path I was on.”
You can palpably feel Todd’s passion for Minyanville emanating from the computer screen when you tool around the site. Minyanville is full of playful liveliness, good humor and an excited “let’s-get-real” eagerness to share important foresight to help people live financially empowered lives.
The Minyanville content offering spans from the ABC’s to 401(k)’s, which includes www.minyanland.com, a massive multi-player online game for children, to a plethora of daily long-form articles to the Buzz & Banter, a real-time subscription service, along with a host of premium products and services.
“If Walt Disney can brand two rodents as cultural icons, we can brand the Wall Street bull and bear and effect positive change through financial understanding,” Todd said as he swiveled in his chair.
In my opinion, he’s well on his way. With such wittily written yet incredibly helpful content, it’s no wonder that Minyanville readers are cult-like in their following, proudly proclaiming themselves “Minyans” and priding themselves as being part of this most necessary social solution.
It’s about time somebody created a trusted choice for a business voice, a place for people to come to be informed about our world’s harsh economic truth — but delivered with feisty humor, making reality a lot more palatable.
“People are so thirsty for the truth, in the absence of water they’ll drink the sand.” Harrison said before we concluded our meeting, “But they don’t drink the sand because they’re thirsty, they drink the sand because they know the difference.”
“The irony,” Todd continued, ” is that the folks with cartoons got the market right while many of the people who were supposed to get it right acted like cartoons.”
Minyanville’s Related Stories and Videos:
http://www.minyanville.com/audiovideo/660/
http://www.minyanville.com/articles/10/1/2007/index/a/14299
http://www.minyanville.com/articles//9/17/2008/index/a/18996
http://www.minyanville.com/articles/8/2/2006/index/a/10892
http://www.minyanville.com/audiovideo/673/1/
http://www.minyanville.com/audiovideo/31/34/
http://www.minyanville.com/articles//12/8/2008/index/a/20251
http://www.minyanville.com/articles/index/a/23134
del.icio.us · Slashdot · Digg · Facebook · Technorati · Google · StumbleUpon · Yahoo
There’s a psychological belief: You become psychologically the same as the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with.
Do you think this is so?
If so, who are your 5 — and how might you re-think your 5?
Let me know what you think here - or join in on the conversation at my FACEBOOK WALL.
Some comments at FB so far have been….
that’s pretty interesting karen. my husband & i were going thru a really bad time for a while there and he blamed it on the friends i was hanging out with…all of them were having MAJOR problems in their marriages too … said i should try hanging out with friends that have more solid relationships and that maybe ours would get back on track. problem is, who isn’t without problems, right? i think when you hang out with people that are like you, it gives you a better understanding of who you really are…the good, bad & ugly.- Jaimie
****
Jamie, that’s REALLY true. My wife and I get along famously, and the friends that we have that have issues are always trying to get us to start fighting with each other…. Potentially toxic!
****
****
Happy with my five, they’ve been a great source of counsel and inspiration…
****
another study shows that 1 out of 4 people have some sort of mental problem, so if 3 people you hang out with seem normal then its most likely you …
****
There are many more comments you can read on my FACEBOOK WALL — so friend me at FB — and maybe you’ll meet some new cool 5 people on my wall who will bring you more fun, love, wisdom, laughter and insights into your life!
del.icio.us · Slashdot · Digg · Facebook · Technorati · Google · StumbleUpon · Yahoo
I believe the purpose of your life is to find and do the purpose of your life - your truest passions. For me, it’s writing self-help books. For others, it’s creating new technology, designing various products, learning medicine — and at least one person was put on this planet to invent that little plastic doohickey which holds up the pizza box.
I recognize there are many challenges on your path to greatness, and you can offen grow discouraged. But far too often it’s not outside circumstances which stop you - but your internal beliefs. Far too many people get in their own way of greatness - by telling themselves what I call “Blame Excuses” and “Mythtaken Thinking.”
For example, right now you might be telling yourself you’re too old, too broke, too inexperienced to snag your passions. If so, let me tell you about a guy named Colonel Harland Sanders.
When the Colonel first tried to sell his chicken recipe he was 65 years old — with only a small pension — a tiny bit of money in the bank — and an old Caddie roadster. His first plan was to sell his chicken recipe to restaurant owners, who’d give him a residual for every chicken piece sold — a nickle per chicken.
He knocked on the first restaurateur’s door, and was greeted by a NOPE. Second door: NOPE. Third door: NOPE. In fact his first 1008 sales calls all served up a NOPE. Still, the Colonel continued to call on owners as he traveled across the USA, sleeping in his Caddie to save money.
It wasn’t until prospect number 1,009 that the Colonel received his first YES. Then, after two years of making daily sales, he had only signed up a total of five restaurants. Still the Colonel kept knocking on doors, staying passionately focused in the belief that his golden fried chicken would create a big pile of gold.
Finally by 1963 the Colonel procured 600 restaurants across the country to sell his Kentucky Fried Chicken! In 1964 he was bought out by a multi-millionaire — who made The Colonel a multi-millionaire himself.
I love this story - because it’s an “against all odds” tale. The Colonel was a senior citizen, with no money, entering a new field - and yet he succeeded! How? He knew how to fuel his greatness instead of fueling his fears, insecurity and excuses.
Robert Louis Stevenson said it well when he said: “To know what you prefer, instead of humbly saying amen to what the world tells you that you ought to prefer, is to have kept your soul alive.”
Below are some soul-energizing, FUEL YOUR GREATNESS Tips:
1. WRITE MAKES MIGHT: I’m a big believer in the power of writing lists, writing in a journal, writing in a schedule book. Writing helps to clarify and organize your scattered thoughts and goals. If you never write down your thoughts and goals, they remain wishy washy vague ideas. And wishy washy vague ideas become wishy washy vague plans which bring wishy washy lousy results. It also helps to put your motivational lists and crystallized goals in places where you might see them often — and thereby not fall off the Greatness Bandwagon
2. KNOW THAT “SEEDING IS BELIEVING.” Overnight success rarely happens overnight. But it doesn’t mean it’s not a-comin’ when it’s slow in a-comin’. You know how if you plant seeds, it takes time for the fruits of these seeds to grow — push up through the ground’s surface? Ditto on your new thought seeds and habit seeds. They take time to manifest into the change you are seeking. Hence, while you’re on your path to greatness, it’s important to keep reassuring yourself that what you see with your limited short-term lens is not necessarily what you are getting in your long-term future. It’s essential to recognize that seeing is not always believing. However, SEEDING IS BELIEVING. What you seed is what you get. If you are seeding positive thoughts and positive habits, then success will eventually blossom. Remember: The universe’s delays are not necessarily the universe’s denials.
3. REMEMBER: MONEY DOESN’T BRING YOU HAPPINESS, BUT HAPPINESS BRINGS YOU MONEY. Studies show that the more positive you are, the more positive results you achieve in life. Some of this is because of “The Law of Attraction.” And some of this is simply “The Law of Logic.” After all, happy people have more energy and positivity to jump over obstacles in a single bound - or a few bounds. Plus other people prefer to work with positive peeps. Whatever the reason being happy literally PAYS. A recent study reported by Marci Shimoff stated: “People who are happy earn $750,000+ more in their lifetime than others.”
How can you keep yourself joyful during your challenging pursuit of greatness?
a. Eat lots of fish, for starters. Dr. Joseph R. Hibbeln preformed a study which showed that high fish-eating countries like Japan and Taiwan have very low rates of depression, while low fish-eating countries like Germany and the U.S. have high rates. Indeed, overall, major depression is 60 times more prevalent in countries where little fish is eaten. Preferably eat your fish in a “supercharged meal” - which means having your healthful fish, with some healthful carb (brown rice), and some healthful greens (salad or spinach).
b. Plus whenever you’re stressed/depressed it’s especially important you take empowering vitamins, minerals, herbs and supplements. I particularly recommend supplementing with NatureMade’s SAM-e. Basically SAM-e is a naturally occurring molecule produced in your body that is there to help regulate your mood. When you’re stressed, SAM-e gets depleted, which increases moodiness and irritability — two success-busters you want to avoid!
If you do all the above, you’ll be destined for greatness for sure. And not only will you achieve absolute pride in your fabulousness, you can also achieve a little added fame (be in a documentary film) and fortune (win one thousand buckeroos) by submitting your tale of greatness story in this Fuel Your Greatness contest here: www.NatureMade.com. Go get ‘em, tiger! Remember: No Blame Excuses and Mythtaken Thinking allowed!
