Category: inspiration

Enjoy the great results of taking just a little action every day.

Success is a stacking exercise. It is about taking a little action every day. (The way Elvis Costello wrote the book.) Just take a little action, day after day. And watch the results stack up.

Here are the types of actions you should take every day.

Reading. Read a page a day, 5 pages a day, or 10 pages a day. At 5 pages each day you will read over 1500 pages in a year. At 10 pages you will read 3650. That’s a lot of knowledge gain in the membrane.

Exercise: Exercise strengthens your body and helps you burn calories. By taking a little action every day, you stack strength gains and weight loss, or weight control. And look better naked.

Meet Someone New. If you stack a new person into your life every day you will meet 365 new people this year. That would transform your life, both personally and professionally. It would also increase the cost of your Christmas cards. And you would need a bigger budget for ham sandwiches at your funeral. But the rest is upside.

Reach out to someone in your friend circle or network every day. Make contact, rekindle a friendship, or start a conversation every day. That’s relationship maintenance. And it’s just as important as making new friends, in the same way that it used to be important to not just take pictures, but get the film developed back before digital photography came along and ruined my analogy.

Write. A journal, book, plan, blog, play, movie, whatever. Writing a little each day will help you create. And it will help you improve your own thinking. Writing my ideas down helps me more than it helps those who read what I write. Sorry.

A step on a master plan. You have a big plan, goal, or idea. I know you do. Commit to taking one action towards it every day and that master plan will come to life. That’s exactly how I built my business, The Weaponry, from dust. It’s how I wrote my book What Does Your Fortune Cookie Say? And it’s how Eric B. and Rakim went from thinking of a master plan to getting paid in full.

Play an instrument: Playing an instrument every day for just 5 or 10 minutes will stack into a valuable and enjoyable skill. Anyone can do it. You can teach yourself with learn-to-play books and online videos. Start now and you’ll be able to play Christmas songs by Christmas time. Especially if you play a kazoo.

Learn a new word in a different language. When you travel internationally you realize how many words there are to know beyond your native tongue. If you add 365 new words in Spanish, Chinese, French, Norwegian, or the language of your choice each year you would add significantly to your understanding of the world and your ability to communicate with people. Plus it’s the best way to avoid ordering Veau or Escargot if you are not into such things.

Key Takeaway

The rewards of simple actions, done every day, stack into huge and powerful piles of value. Just like money saved and invested. And little by little, they transform your life. So start today. It doesn’t take much. It just takes a little every day.

*If you know someone who could benefit from this message, please share it with them.

+For more of the best life lessons I have learned check out my book, What Does Your Fortune Cookie Say? from Ripples Media.

5 Fast reads to get you fired up the day after Labor Day.

The day after Labor Day is one of my favorite days of the year. It’s not because we no longer have to wear sunscreen. (We don’t, right?) And it’s not because wearing white pants is now the sweetest taboo.

I love this day because it is the real start to the new year. All students are finally back in school. Football is back at all levels. And today, offices return to full strength after being down players throughout the summer.

From today until Thanksgiving, pumpkin spice joins the realm of gold, frankincense and myrrh the way Neil Young once joined Crosby, Stills and Nash. (Side note: Did you know Neil Young is now married to Daryl Hannah? How weird is that?)

I have written a lot about how freakin excited I am about this real new year. If you need a little motivation to kick off your September-centric year, here are a few quick and timely reads I suggest checking out.

5 Motivational Post-Labor Day Reads

  1. Why September 3rd is the real New Year’s Day.
  2. Why September 6th is the most important day of the year.
  3. Right after Labor Day is the best time for all professionals to do this.
  4. Two questions to refocus your career every Labor Day.
  5. Why there has never been a better time to wear white.

Have a great day! Have a great year! Keep rocking those white pants. And enjoy the no-sunscreen days! (Unless you value your skin health and prefer to avoid those avoidable diseases.)

*If you know someone who could benefit from this message, please share it with them.

+For more of the best life lessons I have learned check out my book, What Does Your Fortune Cookie Say? from Ripples Media.

One of the keys to accomplishing a lot is lazy time.

Like Morris Day, I am trying to make the most of my time.

So I try to stay busy and do a lot of stuff.

  • I am an entrepreneur. (TheWeaponry.com)
  • I write a blog and publish 3 new posts every week. (adamalbrecht.blog)
  • I have published 2 books and am working on a third. (You can find them here.)
  • I travel the country as a professional speaker. (That is still awesomely weird to write.) 
  • I coach youth football in the fall.
  • I coach high school track in the spring.
  • I have 3 kids that I try to parent right.
  • And I have a great wife that I love spending time with, and that I really want to keep.
  • Plus I try to work out at least 4 times per week.
  • And I am trying to read 3 books every month.

During my talks I am often asked how I get so much done.

Ironically, one of the keys to doing a lot is rest. (Although, like Alanis Morissette, I may have used ironic incorrectly here. Maybe it’s a paradox. Or maybe even 3 dox.)

Rest

Rest means getting good sleep at night.

It means taking quick naps in the afternoon or evening when I can.

And it means enjoying downtime. 

Sometimes downtime means a lazy few minutes, or a few lazy hours. 

Sometimes it means a lazy day.

Or a vacation.

Regular rest allows you to sustain your efforts over a longer time. It helps you avoid burnout, Spicoli. And it helps you look forward to getting back to work.

I plan to take some lazy time this weekend to rest, recharge and prepare for a strong push to the end of the year. I encourage you to too. And if Bono and The Edge are reading this, I encourage U2 to too. 

Key Takeaway

Rest is an important part of any success program. It may be counterintuitive, but rest allows you to maintain a stronger, faster and more sustainable pace.

*If you know someone who could benefit from this message, please share it with them.

+For more of the best life lessons I have learned check out my book, What Does Your Fortune Cookie Say? from Ripples Media.

How to be wildly successful through 7 seconds of effort.

This fall marks my 6th year of coaching football. I never had any interest in coaching. I started when my son Magnus’ flag football program needed parent coaches. It was only a Saturday morning commitment back then. But like the mythical slowly boiled frog, who forgot to jump out of the pot, I am now the defensive coordinator for Magnus’ 7th grade tackle football team. Which is an everyday-in-August commitment. Oy.

As a coach, I am really a student. I am trying to learn as much about football as I can to help my players play well, have fun, and be safe. But like Uncle Rico, I still have a strong desire to win.

Back to School

2 weeks ago I had a great opportunity to learn some new things about the game of football. On Varsity Day, Coach Tom Price, President of Cardinal Football, brought the local Varsity football players from Homestead High School in Mequon, Wisconsin to practice to work with the 5th-8th grade players in the Cardinal football program that feeds players into Homestead. While the high schoolers were working with our athletes, one of the outstanding Homestead football coaches on Head Coach Drake Zortmans’s staff talked to the Cardinal coaches about football.

The coach, Dan Juedes, is a 70-something who is not only in the Wisconsin Football Coaches Hall of Fame, he is in the National Football Coaches Hall of Fame. He coaches at football camps across the country, including at many of the Big Ten schools. In fact, Dan has been coaching so long that when he started the Big 10 conference only had 5 teams.

Coach Dan Juedes looking very coachy.

Dan’s Lessons

As the novice coaches gathered around Dan, he shared a few gems about coaching football. His first lesson had been passed along to him by the legendary Bo Schembechler, the former head football coach at the University of Michigan. Dan told us:

‘The average football play lasts 7 seconds. All players look pretty much the same during the first 2 seconds. What separates great players from the ordinary is what they do in seconds 3 through 7.‘

-Coach Dan Juedes

When Dan shared this I felt like I had heard Einstein explain the Universe with E= MC2. Because Dan’s 7-second rule took a very complex game and broke it down into a very simple formula for success.

Coach Juedes carried off the field, presumably because he was tired from coaching so hard.

Josh Hunt, our 7th-grade teams’ head coach, and I couldn’t wait to share this valuable insight with our players. So once we were reunited with our athletes (and it felt so good) we eagerly shared our new insight with our team. And we have been resharing the 7-second secret every day since.

Applying the 7-Second Success Formula

On Saturday we had our first game of the season. The last thing I told the players before they took the field was to give a full 7 seconds of effort on every play and great things would happen.

But the much bigger opponents overwhelmed our team out of the gate. They ran around us and over us until they were knock, knock knocking on the endzone’s door.

But with our backs to our own endzone, defending a first and goal play from the 6-yard line our team gave a 7-second effort. My son Magnus fired across the line from his defensive end position and engaged with a tight end. He shed the blocker at 2 seconds and attacked the opposing team’s quarterback. What happened over the next 5 seconds changed everything.

Magnus sprinted after the quarterback, and not only did he tackle him deep in the backfield, he punched the ball out of his hands in the process. Our middle linebacker Jaden Daniels was also giving a 7-second effort and pounced on the loose ball. This meant that we went from our opponent having the ball on first and goal from the 6-yard line, to our team having a first and ten at the 17-yard line. Boom!

Then our offense became a 7-Second Squad. We put together an 83-yard scoring drive that led to a 6-0 lead.

It turns out that’s all we needed to win the game. Because thanks to our 7-second efforts we held our formidable and much bigger opponent to 0 points. A shutout.

Me and Magnus after our opening game win.

The 7-Second Life Lesson

Dan’s 7-second rule teaches us to go hard to the end of every play. While everyone starts out doing the right thing on nearly every play, at some point, most people stop giving maximum effort and forfeit the advantage to those who go hard until the whistle blows.

But the 7-Second rule doesn’t just apply to football. The basic concept applies to success in all areas of life. Most people start out strong. But they give up too early. They stop or quit just when their effort is needed most. It is true in sports and in your career. It is true in marriage and in parenting. And it is true anywhere effort is needed to create results.

Key Takeaway

The difference in life is not made at the start. It is what you do after the start. Don’t stop 2 seconds in. That’s when most people let up, thinking they have done their job. Don’t fall into that trap. True success comes from your effort during seconds 3 through 7. So play the full play. Give a full effort every time. That effort and the advantage it creates compounds, play after play, day after day, year after year. Play until the end. And the end will be sweeter than you could have imagined. Just like the donuts I will bring my team today to celebrate the donut they put on the scoreboard on Saturday. Boom!

Final Note

Over the weekend as I reviewed the game film to provide feedback, I saw the 7-second rule over and over again. The great plays were made by those playing hard for 7 seconds. The best results of all came when the entire team played hard for 7 seconds. And as a proud Dad-Coach, I saw that Magnus had 3 sacks in the game and the game-winning tackle on 4th down in the 4th quarter. All of which came from giving full effort all the way to whistle. And I was amazed as I counted to 7 seconds over and over on our biggest plays. It turns out that Dan and Bo really know what they are talking about.

Also, I want to note that Dan Juedes and Tom Price have been a great help to me as track and field officials running the shot put and discus events at Homestead’s home meets in the spring. Thanks guys!

*If you know someone who could benefit from this message, please share it with them.

+For more of the best life lessons I have learned check out my book, What Does Your Fortune Cookie Say? from Ripples Media.

The great power in pounding away at your goals every day.

In 2016 my family and I moved from Atlanta to Milwaukee. While Atlanta is a great city, it also has its not-so-great parts. By that I mean the ridiculous traffic problem. One of the things I love about living in Milwaukee is the lack of traffic. That and cheese curds 24/7.

However, right now, the 17 miles of I-43 that I drive on my commute to work every day are all under construction. They are adding another lane to the interstate in both directions over that entire stretch. Which means they also have to tear down and rebuild every bridge that crosses over the interstate to accommodate the wider freeway. I haven’t seen this much bridge destruction and rebuilding since I stopped watching The Real Housewives or Orange County.

One of the upsides of the slow-moving traffic is that there is plenty to look at. My favorite piece of equipment that I pass is the massive pile driver near Nicolet High School in Glendale. Every day I see and hear it pounding away in the median between the north and southbound lanes. It’s driving pilings for a new bridge support deep into the bedrock like Fred and Barney would do.

A non-WWE style pile driver, like the one I see on my commute.

A Role Model For Success

As I slowly drive by the loud, methodical bang, bang, banging of the pile driver and watch it make its mind-numbingly slow progress, I find myself inspired. Because that machine shows you exactly how you drive results in anything.

You just keep hammering away.

• Life has taught me that if you want to get stronger, you have to hit the weights, day after day, after day after day.

• If you want to create a successful business you have to keep pounding away at the fundamentals of business development, customer delivery, and employee support, day after day after day.

• To be a good parent you have to share the importance of good habits and good morals day after day for a minimum of 18 years. You also have to remind yourself not to run away and leave those children behind every day.

• To read a book you have to read word after word after word for days, weeks or months. There is no other way.

• If you want to write a 50,000-word book you have to write word after word after word. And then rewrite the book over and over again, like Nelly and Tim McGraw said.

• If you want a successful and happy marriage you have to work at it day after day after day until one of you dies.

• Athletic success requires you to put in the practice and training day after day for years and years.

• You become wealthy by steadily saving and investing your money and letting that interest compound day after day after day. (And if you accumulate too much you can always share it with me.)

Key Takeaway

Keep pounding. Success doesn’t come easy. Results don’t come overnight. The outcome you are after is built through a slow and steady accumulation of effort. Be patient. Be persistent. And just don’t stop. That is the simple yet proven formula for all great accomplishments.

*If you know someone who could benefit from this message, please share it with them.

+For more of the best life lessons I have learned check out my book, What Does Your Fortune Cookie Say? from Ripples Media.

The best thing to do when you don’t feel ready to face a daunting task.

Earlier this week my daughter Ava and I were at the gym lifting weights. She is hyper-focused on smashing her high school’s 44-year-old discus record next spring. (She was only 2 feet off the record as a junior.) I was in the gym because I don’t want Hans and Frans to pick on me.

Ava had a leg day workout, and she had reached the most challenging part of her training week. She had already done 3 sets of power cleans and had finished 2 sets of squats. Which meant that her last and heaviest set of squats was next. If you are the type to throw up while working out, this is a good time to have a garbage can within spewing distance.

At this point in your leg day workout, you are as tired as you ever feel in the gym. Yet you still have one more set to go. It’s the toughest part of the day. The toughest part of the week. It’s when you search your music playlist for your most Eye-Of-The-Tigerish song to help you Rocky up.

I asked Ava, ‘Are you ready for your last set?’

She shot back, ‘No, but I’m going to do it anyway.’

As Ava’s Dad-Coach, I swelled with pride. Because that comment, those 8 simple words, demonstrate that Ava has the mindset required for great success.

Go Anyway

Life does not often present ideal conditions. And when you’re trying to do hard things, you often put yourself in positions where you feel not yet ready for the next task. But to be successful you have to go anyway.

I know that mindset. I had to rely on it in athletics when I entered major competitions after a rough week of practice. When I was fatigued, sore or mentally drained.

I have tapped into that mindset at work after promotions that stretched my skills and abilities. And when I was about to undertake a daunting Blair Witch-type project.

I embraced that mindset when I wrote my first book, What Does Your Fortune Cookie Say? Because I didn’t know anything about writing books, or how to get a tiny printer inside a fortune cookie.

And I certainly adopted the not-ready-but-I’m-going-to-do-it-anyway mindset when I launched The Weaponry, the adverting and ideas agency I started in 2016. Because the key to entrepreneurship is taking action even when you don’t feel ready to entre or preneur.

The secret to success is not to be fully prepared. It is to be fully prepared to go anyway. To go when you don’t feel good, informed or ready.

Simply stepping into the arena, conference room, or squat rack will force you to focus and summon your best effort.

Remember, it isn’t always Ready, Set, Go. Sometimes it is Set, Go, Ready.

Oh, and not only did Ava crush her last set of squats, she added extra reps too. Because big goals and strong desires are great fuel. Especially when you are running on fumes.

Key Takeaway

You won’t always feel totally ready for the challenge in front of you. Go anyway. The challenge of the moment will often ready you as you go.

*If you know someone who could benefit from this message, please share it with them.

+For more of the best life lessons I have learned check out my book, What Does Your Fortune Cookie Say? from Ripples Media.

Why my last speaking event was more rewarding than usual.

In January of this year, I got a fun email from Miriam Crosby, the Director of Superfoods at The Peanut Institute. In her note, Miriam invited me to speak at the USA Peanut Congress, where leaders from all sectors of the peanut industry get together to discuss all things peanut. The event is kinda like that scene from Forrest Gump where Bubba talked about all things shrimp. But for peanuts.

The Peanut Institute had a slot for a speaker at the event and they wanted me to come and share some life and career lessons from my book What Does Your Fortune Cookie Say? I was thrilled and thought I might even get to meet Jif, Skippy, and Mr. Peanut.

Not only was I excited about the opportunity, and honored to be invited, the location was going to be amazing! The event was on Amelia Island in Florida at the Ritz Carlton Hotel. And the Ritz people are even better at making Carlton hotels than they are at making crackers. Which is pretty amazing.

Sunrise at the Ritz Carlton on Amelia Island, starring the Atlantic Ocean.

The Event

The event was in mid-June. And it was incredible. The entire peanut world was there. The Weaponry, the advertising and ideas agency that I lead, has several great clients in the peanut industry. So I knew a lot of special people at the event. And I met a whole lot more.

Me sharing life lessons and telling the audience that in Milwaukee I eat peanuts with my left hand.

My talk was titled Nutrient Dense Life Lessons. I talked about how the little peanut, packed with energy and full of goodness, sets a great example for us all and has inspired me since I was in high school. #TrueStory

Adam’s talk was inspirational!  He is such an engaging, high-energy speaker…the audience was on the edge of their seats waiting for the next life lesson to drop.  Well done!

–Miriam Crosby

The audience was great. The team from The Peanut Institute, including Miriam, John Powell, Samara ‘Dr. Peanut’ Sterling and Kirsten Collins from the American Peanut Shellers Association were helpful and supportive. The room itself at the Ritz Carlton was perfect. Did I mention the food was outstanding? (It was!).

What Was Even Better!

But what made this experience even greater was that my wife Dawn was able to join me in Florida. The timing of the event in mid-June meant that my kids were out of school so Dawn could come with me. After the thousands of hours I have spent alone writing blog posts and books over the past 7 years, it was great to be able to have Dawn enjoy the rewards of both the work and sacrifice.

Dawn and me enjoying the Ritz Carlton. Check out my fun straw that looks like the Hilton Head lighthouse.

The Evolution of a Passion Project

I started writing this blog when I first launched The Weaponry. No one asked me to do it. It was a passion project. It allowed me to share my experiences, observations and lessons. 5 years after I started the blog I published my first book. Writing the book led to speaking engagements all over the country.

It is interesting to see where your passion projects take you. When you deeply care about what you are creating and offer value to others first, you will receive value in return.

Thank you to The Peanut Institute for inviting me to speak. Thank you to the USA Peanut Congress for putting on such a great event in such a beautiful setting. The whole experience created a fun new memory for both me and Dawn.

Key Takeaway

Pursuit your passion projects. You never know where they may take you. And if they take you somewhere good, be sure to bring your loved ones along for the ride.

*If you are looking for a speaker to bring energy, fun and valuable lessons to your next event, shoot me a note at adam@theweaponry.com.

+For more of the best life lessons I have learned check out my book, What Does Your Fortune Cookie Say? from Ripples Media.

Why the 4th of July should be thought of as Pursuit of Happiness Day!

On the 4th of July, we take a moment to reflect on our freedoms. That includes our right to vote, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, our freedom to wear skimpy American flag swimwear, and our freedom to protest beer companies who get too un-beery.

But today it is important to think about your pursuit of happiness. This inalienable right, as spelled out in the Declaration of Independence, is the most important freedom of all.

It is not only your right but your responsibility to determine what makes you happy.

That includes:

Surrounding yourself with people that make you happy.

Finding work that contributes to your happiness.

Discovering your happy places, and spending more time there.

Recognizing the activities that enhance your happiness, and finding more time for them.

Discovering and enjoying your happy meals, with or without Grimace and The Hamburgler.

Happy doesn’t mean easy. Or stress-free. The things in your happysphere can be strenuous or even grueling. But ultimately, they make you feel happy for having completed them. This could include hard work of all sorts, from physical exercise to mental, emotional, or psychological activities that lead to exhaustion before they lead to happiness.

Today, consider the great undertakings of your life that you have not yet started or completed, that will increase your happiness. Think about the travel you always wanted to do. Consider the business you always wanted to start. The organization you wanted to create. The book you wanted to write. The great challenge you wanted to take on. Or the music you always wanted to make. And make a plan to pursue it, and the happiness that comes with living the life you imagined.

Key Takeaway

Eliminate the limiting beliefs that prevent you from pursuing your own happiness. Surround yourself with people that help contribute to your happiness. Fill your mind with things that contribute to your own happiness. Remember, no one else on the planet is responsible for your own happiness. It should be your number one priority. And it is one of the core beliefs that our great nation was founded on. Happy 4th of July! (Emphasis on happy.)

*If you know someone who could benefit from this message, please share it with them.

+For more of the best life lessons I have learned check out my book, What Does Your Fortune Cookie Say? from Ripples Media.

How you can make great improvements the easy way.

When I was a kid there was a lot of motivational material around our home. Most of it was in the form of cross-stitch art. Because during my childhood cross-stitch was a popular form of philosophical expression. And my home was a hotbed of the cross-stitch movement.

Over the past several weeks one of those pieces of cross-stitch motivation has been sparkling my brain again. Here’s the memorable and rhymey message:

Progress by the yard is hard. But by the inch, it’s a cinch.

As an entrepreneur, I love this message, because it reminds me that we can build a successful business brick-by-brick, action-by-action, and day-by-day. As long as we bring the IRS along for the ride.

As a writer, it reminds me that my books and blog posts are created word-by-word. Even my 290-page book What Does Your Fortune Cookie Say? was created one word at a time. (Ok, so it was actually written one letter at a time, but that would be measured in fractions of an inch, and that makes for a clunky cross-stitch message. So we will stick with words.)

As a coach, this message reminds me that great performances are built on tiny improvements in technique, strength, explosiveness, speed, endurance, focus and mental toughness. These are almost imperceptible individual improvements, that add up, in aggregate.

As a discus thrower in high school, I improved by 30 feet each year. When you convert 30 feet into inches you get 360. Which is an inch of progress every day for 1 year. (While also allowing a day off for Christmas, New Year’s Day, My Birthday, Thanksgiving, and Tubestock on the Connecticut River.)

As a person who wants to lose weight, the inch-by-inch approach translates to an ounce-by-ounce approach. This mindset has made it fairly easy for me to lose 20 pounds in the past 11 months. I’ll be sharing more about what I’ve done to accomplish this as I reach the 12-month mark of my weight-eviction plan. (Unless I accidentally lose all of my weight and have nothing left to type with.)

As parents, my wife and I teach the progress-by-the-inch mindset to our children. It has helped them excel in academics, athletics, music and hair growing.

Key Takeaway

Set long-term goals. And create a long-term, inch-by-inch action plan. Small gains made day after day add up to big differences over time. Because the easiest way to make great gains is simply by focusing on the smallest increments of progress.

If you know someone who could benefit from this message, please share it with them.

+For more of the best life lessons I have learned check out my book, What Does Your Fortune Cookie Say? from Ripples Media.

Why you should set a great example for other people to follow.

I am always looking for good ideas on how to live a better life. We are only here for a limited time. Like the McRib. So, in the words of Alexander Hamilton, or at least the words that Lin-Manuel Miranda put in his mouth, I am not throwing away my shot.

The latest idea I have been thinking about is what I am calling Exampleism. Which is like the word example, but with an ism at the end. And the idea is this:

Live in a way that everything you do is a great example for others to follow.

This is a great and valuable challenge. The best example I know of this is Jesus. He showed that if you are successful, not only will people follow in your ways, they will live better and more fulfilling lives, and they will get into heaven, buy your book (The Bible), and wear your merch (WWJD bands).

I find that when evaluating my actions and behaviors with the Exampleism criteria, I am a good example of many things most of the time, and I am a bad example of other things too often.

However, just like the Golden Rule encourages us to always think about how we treat others, Examplesism shows us every day where we are going right, and where we are going wrong, and need to improve.

  • When you encourage and support you are a great example.
  • When you smile at others you are a great example.
  • When you work hard you are a great example.
  • When you give your time, talent and Takis you are a great example.
  • When you neglect your health you are not a great example.
  • When you lie, cheat or rob casinos with 10 of your friends you are not a great example.
  • When you lose your temper at something your kids did instead of showing your disappointment and teaching them the right way, you are not a great example. I sometimes get this right and sometimes get it wrong. But I am working on being a better example every day.

Key Takeaway

Set your standards for all actions and behaviors. Then live up to your own standards. When you live in a way that sets a great example for others to follow you are pursuing the greatest success, and creating a great model for others to follow. That model, your example, will be the greatest impact you have on the world. And that impact will last as long as your example is followed. Which could be forever.

*If you know someone who could benefit from this message, please share it with them.

+For more of the best life lessons I have learned check out my book, What Does Your Fortune Cookie Say? from Ripples Media.