How to feel like a winner even when your basketball team loses.

March is a thrilling month for sports fans. The NCAA basketball tournaments for both men and women provide an exciting distraction from the weather that never seems to be as warm and Marchy as the March in my head.

The basketball tournaments, affectionately known as March Madness, are fun to watch. Until they aren’t. What we fail to remember each year when the brackets are announced is that of the 64-ish teams in the tournament, all but one of them will end their season with a loss. That’s bad news, bears.

I pull for 3 teams that made the tournament: my home state University of Vermont Catamounts, my current hometown’s Maquette Golden Eagles, and my alma mater, the University of Wisconsin Badgers.

All 3 teams lost this weekend.

UVM and Marquette lost in the opening round. The 3-seed Badgers got bounced by the 11-seed Iowa State Cyclones after our starting point guard went down with a brankle late in the first half. (I don’t know what the official diagnosis was, but it looked like something broke in his ankle.)

Yes, I was disappointed by the losses. But I have noticed something very interesting in my adulthood. Unlike the lingering, long-lasting disappointment of my younger years, my disappointment today is very short-lived. By this, I mean that I bounce from a loss very quickly. In fact, I would say that I consistently move past my team’s losses within about 10 seconds. Which means a major loss now feels more like a mosquito bite than a bee sting or a Pamplona-style bull goring.

The Secret.

I know that the reason I bounce back from disappointment quickly now is that I feel like I am winning on my own scorecard. I engage in many personal and professional challenges and competitions. My progress, wins and successes in those arenas help minimize the negative impact I experience when my teams lose.

Here’s a list of some of my current challenges and competitions:

  1. I own a business. As an entrepreneur and owner of the advertising and idea agency The Weaponry, every day is an exciting challenge to win and get better than the day before.

2. I have written a book. In December I published my first book titled What Does Your Fortune Cookie Say? It features 80 of the most important life lessons I have learned, packaged as simple, memorable fortune cookie fortunes. Promoting the book and related speaking events are fun ongoing challenges. (I currently have 8 speaking events in the works and would be thrilled to do more.)

3. I am coaching high school track and field. The improvement of my shot putters and discus throwers at Homestead High School in Mequon, Wisconsin is a major outlet for my competitiveness. I am challenged to get better as a coach every day. I am constantly trying to improve my processes, systems and coaching techniques. And I have found that I have way more influence over the outcomes of my track athletes’ performances than I do with the college basketball teams I support.

4. I coach youth football. The growth and development of our now 5th-grade boys are way more important to me than the wins and losses of a college basketball team. Which means I can enjoy a Marquette win, but I quickly shrug off a loss. (I am talking about Marquette basketball. Their football team can’t buy a win.)

5. I work out. My personal exercise routine and its impact on my health, strength and fitness is an infinite game that I play every day. I get quick feedback and great returns on my investments in my health.

6. More books. I have more books in the works. Writing a book is a major challenge. So when you make regular progress on major challenges like this it is hard to get thrown off by an external event like a basketball loss.

7. Appalachian Trail. My wife Dawn and I are planning to hike the entire Appalachian Trail in a decade. It is good to have future challenges planned. It gives you something to look forward to. The planning and preparing for this type of challenge makes you feel like you have an ever-expanding life.

Key Takeaway

The best cure for sports fan sadness is to have wins in your personal life. Make sure you are still competing and winning. Set goals and challenges for yourself both personally and professionally. Create your own scorecard. Play your own games and win. Start a business, side hustle or volunteer organization. Exercise. Enter competitions. Write a book. Enter a race or any other challenge that makes you feel like you are pushing yourself to do more. These will keep you focussed on your own wins. Which minimizes the impact, duration and magnitude of external losses.

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

+If you’re interested in other messages on how to live a happier, more positive life, check out my book What Does Your Fortune Cookie Say? from Ripples Media. Heck, reading the reviews alone sounds like a win to me.

It’s never too late to start doing what successful people do.

There is a great way of doing everything.

  • Work
  • Exercise
  • Sleep
  • Cleaning
  • Whoopeeing
  • Saving
  • Eating
  • Volunteering
  • Tax preparation
  • Brushing your teeth
  • Investing
  • Treating your spouse well
  • Etc. (That simply means there is a lot more stuff on this list. Not that there is a great way to et cetera.)

There is also a far-from-ideal way to do everything. In fact, there are many far-from-ideal options. They make for good reality TV, bad dental hygiene and something we now call comorbidities.

What Successful People Do

Successful people do things the right way. They develop strong habits. They create great processes and systems that ensure that things are done the right way.

Join The Club

But success is not a private club. The doors are always unlocked. And we all have an open invitation.

To join The Successful People Club just start doing things the right way. The way you know they should be done.

Take the actions you know you should take.

That builds momentum.

Success is a result of momentum.

Momentum is a result of executing good habits.

Habits are simply doing the right things the right way regularly.

But it all starts by doing the right things once.

You can do that today.

Then do it again tomorrow.

It’s easier than you think.

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

+If you like this type of message, you will like my new book What Does Your Fortune Cookie Say? from Ripples Media. It shares 80 life lessons the universe is trying to share with you.

How highly successful people win even when they are tired.

Sunday was the first day of Daylight Saving Time in America. We all gained an hour of sunshine but lost an hour of sleep. Which is a pretty good trade, unless you are a vampire.

Late Sunday afternoon I told my 14-year old son Johann that it was time for us to go to the gym. Not surprisingly, he told me he didn’t want to go. He said he was tired. I told him that I was too. But that we were going to go lift weights anyway.

When we got into the Jeep I knew it was time for a Father-Son talk. Thankfully, it wasn’t going to be one of those Father-Son talks where you have to use all the anatomically correct language and try not to giggle.

Me and Johann the moment I first held my book.

As we pulled out of our neighborhood and headed towards the gym I told Johann that I was about to share one of the most important lessons I would ever share with him. And I wanted him to listen closely. Here is what I said:

The Daylight Saving Day Lesson

You will always be tired. For the rest of your life, you will be tired every frick’n day. And being tired will always be an excuse you can use to get out of doing anything.

But if you use the ‘I’m tired’ excuse you will never accomplish great things. You will never have big successes. You will never break away from the massive pack of average.

When you are tired, you have to go anyway. Work anyway. Compete anyway. Exercise anyway. Maintain your best habits anyway.

Become the type of person who does things despite being tired. And you will build momentum. You will separate yourself from others who use being tired as an excuse to not do what they know they should do.

You will do special things. You will make something great of yourself. You will make your parents proud. You will make yourself proud. And you will know that you are a badass. A badass who gets tired, like everyone else. But when you are tired and don’t feel like doing hard work you do it anyway. That’s how you win at life.

-Dad

Key Takeaway

You will always be tired. Don’t use it as an excuse. Go anyway. And use it as proof that you are a tough mofo who does the necessary work, even when you are tired. Because that’s what great people do.

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

+If we are on the same frequency, you’ll also enjoy my new book What Does Your Fortune Cookie Say? from Ripples Media.

Surround yourself with rockstars who have already done what you want to do.

In 2016, after having been an employee of three successful companies for 19 years, I became an entrepreneur. I left behind the predictable employment, the benefits, the 401(k) and the Free Lunch Fridays.

I pushed all my chips to the center of the table and bet on myself when I launched the advertising and idea agency, The Weaponry. (The chip reference was supposed to be a poker thing. Not a potato chip thing. #JustClarifying)

Me and a wall at The Weaponry.

But when I left my job as the Executive Vice President and Executive Creative Director of the largest advertising agency in Atlanta to start my own business it never seemed crazy to me. Because I knew a lot of other people who had started successful businesses. They seemed a lot like me. And they all looked like they were fed, sheltered and clothed. (Wait, yep, they were definitely clothed.)

My man Troy Allen started a design agency before starting the wildly successful Rise Brands.

I knew a bloggle of bloggers before I launched this blog.

I knew a stockyard of people who invested in stocks before I bought stocks.

I knew a neighborhood worth of people who owned rental property before I properly rented my property.

I knew dozens of authors before I wrote my book, What Does Your Fortune Cookie Say?

Writing my own book didn’t seem hard. Not even the hardcover.

Always Remember:

You Are Becoming More Like The People You Spend Your Time With.

Your peer group is your mirror group. To upgrade your likelihood of success upgrade your friends. Surround yourself with doers and diders. It creates positive peer pressure that pushes you to do better, more impressive things. The Joneses I know are badasses. And I want to keep up with all they are accomplishing. (Shout out to Bryan, Jill, Adam, Patti, Garrett, Kristen, Sharon, Courtney, Arnita and Rachel! Sorry you guys didn’t make it into that new truck commercial.)

My college teammate Bryan Jones is hard to keep up with, but I am trying.

Key Takeaway

Your friends are your on-ramp to success. Surround yourself with others who have already done the next big thing you want to do. It decreases the perceived degree of difficulty. It increases the odds of you successfully completing the same challenge. And the more successful your peers are the more insight they offer to all you can accomplish in your lifetime.

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

+ If this type of thinking resonates with you, you will also like my new book, What Does Your Fortune Cookie Say? from Ripples Media.

Do you have a role model? Mine may surprise you.

We could all use a good role model. Someone to model our behavior after. Someone who has work and life figured out. Someone who inspires us to think better about the big picture. For some that person may be Jeff Bezos, Sara Blakely, Jesus, Kim Kardashian, or Willie Nelson. To be clear, not all role models are created equal. No judgment. (Ok, a little judgement.)

If you are looking for a role model to pattern your thinking after I have a suggestion. Look to Hedge Fund Managers. (You thought I was going to say Bezos, didn’t you?) Like Jeff Bezos, the people who run hedge funds are among the wealthiest in the world. They bring in clinically insane amounts of money for their funds and their investors.

But the money itself is a lag indicator. It is a result. Which means you have to jump in the DeLorean and go back to the original lead indicator to see what makes the hedge fund manager so successful.

At the foundation of the hedge fund is a very simple philosophy. It’s a mindset that any of us can follow. The hedge fund is built on this basic belief:

No matter what happens, I will win.

-Hedge Fund Managers

The fund managers place Big Ben-sized bets on what they expect to happen. They place educated bets that derive from studying the past. They place data-driven bets on the future. And they place smart bets that I assume come from eating a lot of Smarties.

Yet all investment funds do this.

What sets hedge funds apart is the hedge. (Not the popular landscaping boundary made of bushy greenery.) The hedge in hedge funds means that you also place bets that things will go the opposite way that you expected or intended. Which means that you put contingencies in place to capitalize on shifts in markets, conditions, and trends. Or to protect yourself in case a dictator with small tators decides to invade a peaceful neighbor and jack up the world economy.

The hedge fund manager expects the unexpected and expects to win anyway.

I am an entrepreneur. But if you cut me open (please don’t) you’d probably find a hedge fund manager. Because I believe that I will win no matter what happens.

2020

2020 was considered by most to be a doo-doo dumpster fire year. But there were many people who ended up benefitting from the pandemic in significant ways. I was one of them. Because the pandemic created new opportunities. My business, The Weaponry, did well because of how we responded. My personal life benefited from more time with my wife and children. I had more time to exercise than I usually do. I used the gift of time during the lockdown to write my first book, What Does Your Fortune Cookie Say? Because I simply decided that no matter what happened, it was going to benefit me.

Key Takeaway

In every situation, there is a way to win. Find it. Think like a hedge fund manager. Find your way to profit no matter which way the wind blows. See the opportunities disguised as bad news. Swim when the sun shines. Read when it rains. There is always an upside. Find it. And make it work for you.

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

+If you’re on a personal growth journey check out my new book What Does Your Fortune Cookie Say? on Amazon. It features 80 life lessons the universe is trying to share with you.

10 Reasons to read my new book on Spring Break.

Let me be totally clear with you. As the author of What Does Your Fortune Cookie Say? I am totally biased towards this book. After all, I shared some of the best advice and nuggets of inspiration I have ever received in this book. Which is why I think What Does Your Fortune Cookie Say? from Ripples Media is the perfect Spring Break book.

So, what exactly makes this book so perfectly Spring Breaky? I’m glad you asked via that last sentence I wrote.

10 Reasons Why What Does Your Fortune Cookie Say? is the perfect Spring Break book.

  1. It contains 80 valuable life lessons the universe is trying to share with you. So if you are tired of books that only contain between 1 and 79 life lessons, this book will finally live up to your demanding expectations.
You can fill time waiting for the water show at the Bellagio with my bookagio. (Thanks for the pic Heather Scufsa!)

2. It was written to help readers learn a little, laugh a little, and lift a little. And who couldn’t use more L’s in their life?

3. The book fits easily into carry-on, checked, and road trip luggage. Best of all, this book is book-sized. So it is designed to fit easily anywhere books typically fit easily.

Whether you are traveling to Paris or Vegas this book wants in on your adventure.

4. It’s packed with inspirational quotes from such notable thinkers as JFK, Peter Druker, Lincoln, Annonymous and My Kids. (Who occasionally say really smart and profound things by accident.)

5. You can learn inspirational personal growth techniques in as little as 1 minute of reading. Because this book is like the Minute Rice of Inspirational Books. In fact, you can sneak in full chapters of WDYFCS between naps, kid interruptions, or the cabana boy coming to ask if you would like another pina colada. (Fun fact: Pina Colada literally translated means ‘Ef-yeah I want another pina colada!’)

All I do is Wynn, Wynn, Wynn, Wynn, Wynn when I read this book, book, book, book, book!

6. You can simply read the Last Bite summaries at the end of each chapter and get the gist of the book in about 25 minutes. However, the Last Bites are not funny. Because in the bare-bones summations of the Last Bites there was no room for the funny bone.

7. Each chapter provides an easy and actionable life lesson you can implement while still on vacation. Or as soon as you return to your regularly scheduled programming at home.

There is plenty of goofy stuff in the book too! (Thanks for the pic Jennifer Willeck!)

8. The book is funny. I sprinkled funnies throughout to keep people reading in the same way a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down. The humor and pop culture references will have you smiling and laughing. And they will have everyone else asking you ‘What’s so funny?’ If you don’t believe me read this.

9. The book features 82 easy-to-read chapters. So you can read a lot of pages quickly. Which will make you feel like you got something out of that Evelyn Wood speed-reading class.

Maybe you are heading somewhere cold but cozy for spring break, like my friend Sheila Konz. The words in the book are designed to hold up in both hot and cold conditions. Like the McDLT.

10. The book itself has a very high SPF rating. Holding it between the sun and your skin will augment your sun protection program. All without lotions, sprays or a zincy schnoz.

Bonus Round!

11. The book already has 38 5-star ratings on Amazon. Which is even more ratings and a better overall score than Sara Blakely’s book. And she’s a self-made billionaire. (You can check out Sara’s great book here: The Belly Art Project: Moms Supporting Moms.)

How fun is this pic of Liz Matkovic? She looks so happy! It’s lucky she had that book or she would have been miserable in that setting. Photo Credit to my man Victor (V-Babe) Matkovic.

Key Takeaway

Leaving for Spring break without a book is like taking a bath without a rubber ducky. Sure, you could do it. It just wouldn’t be as fun. And there would be no reason to sing that Rubber Ducky song from Burt and Ernie on Sesame Street. So pick up your copy of What Does Your Fortune Cookie Say? today. Or find out more about the book and the author at FortuneCookieBook.com.

*If you know someone who could use a good Spring Break book, please share this with them.

+If it is too late to order from Amazon before your spring break, and you are in the Milwaukee area, stop by Winkie’s in Whitefish Bay, or shoot me a message and I’ll get you a book for your trip. I’ll happily sign it for you too.

Need a great book for spring break?

It’s March. Which in the Northern Hemisphere means spring. It’s time for us Northern Hemis to get out of the cold and into some warmth and sunshine before we become the inspiration for the movie Frozen 3: Cold and Pasty.

Spring Break is the perfect time for a great book. The right book makes time fly on the airplane. (Ok, so technically everything flies on an airplane. But you know what I mean.) If you are road tripping, a great book pairs perfectly with Funyuns and a Squishy.

Books are great at the pool because they can make you feel like you are doing something productive while you lie in the sun, doing nothing productive. Books are magical because not only are they great conversation starters, they also help defend you from unwanted conversations. And a good spring break book will send you home smarter and more motivated than when you left.

Need A Good Book To Pack?

What Does Your Fortune Cookie Say? from Ripples Media is the perfect spring break book. It is a personal growth book that shares 80 valuable life lessons the universe is trying to teach you. Like the fortune cookies referenced in its title, the book offers a quick, positive and inspiring look at your future. The bite-sized and actionable insights will help you look at your life through a new lens of expanding possibilities. And you will be able to put the lessons you learn in the book to good use before you even have to reapply sunscreen.

Adam Emery enjoying What Does Your Fortune Cookie Say? in Saint Croix. (If someone saint me there I wouldn’t croix.)

But don’t just take my word for it. Here is what other readers are saying About What Does Your Fortune Cookie Say? I have linked the reviews below to the actual reviews on Amazon so you know they are totes legit.

Want to be motivated and inspired? Read this book!

‘How can I adequately describe this book other than I keep it with me at all times and send its special messages to friends and family. Adam’s gift of telling a story, making you laugh and possibly cry, but always encouraging you to be your best and do all you can to “win at life” is why this book is magical. Thank you, Adam!’ –Karri Schildmeyer

Karri took her book on a ski trip to West Virginia. Yes, that is really a thing.

 Brilliant!! A total game changer!!

‘If you’re looking for inspiration and humor, this book has it all! This will be my go-to gift for graduates! Relatable pearls of wisdom and funny anecdotes that will open your mind and your heart! Well done Adam Albrecht!’ –Amy Urowksy

Amy reading cuddled up with her book by Dam Albrecht! (Was that on purpose, Amy?)

 Great Self-Help Book Re: Moving Forward in Life.

‘I just finished reading this fantastic book written by Adam Albrecht, a local author near Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It is chock-full of excellent, thought-provoking, helpful, and inspiring, practical lessons for moving forward in life. It’s the best self-help type book I’ve read in a long time.’ –Heidi Hilby

Genie Sprau sent this picture of her book in Golden Canyon, Arizona. Which sounds like Golden Crayon to me.

 Thought-provoking, easily digestible

‘As an Olympian and Marriage and Family Therapist, this book checked all the boxes for me. Love the motivation and accountability this inspires, as well as the upbeat tone to the fortune cookie concept. Can be read straight through in the easy-to-absorb format, or flip through randomly for nuggets as you are able! Recommending to teammates, clients, and friends!’ –Kesley Card

2 time Olympian Kelsey Card with her book in Arizona by a non-Olympic sized pool.


 The new age Bible

‘I absolutely love this book. Funny, motivational, sensitive and grabs your attention from page one. A book you can open daily and reread to discover a deeper meaning of your life through your own interpretation of each chapter. You are able to rediscover your own connection to inner spirit through the messages. Canada truly needs this book in each home.’ -Rosie Patterson

Rose Patterson with her Canadian copy of What Does Your Fortune Cookie Say, Eh?

College Student Approved!

‘I’m currently reading What Does Your Fortune Cookie Say? and it’s really good! It’s the first book I’ve read that wasn’t required for school since 7th grade and as a college student I’ve found it inspirational’. – Abbie Ravanelli

That’s Abbie on the left, nailing the selfie, which is an essential spring break move.

Key Takeaway

Spring break is a great time to catch up on your personal reading with a great book. So pick up a copy of What Does Your Fortune Cookie Say? It will make you laugh. It will inspire you to do more with your free time. And the lessons learned from this book may be the most valuable souvenir from your vacation.

*If you know someone who could use a good spring break book, please share this with them.

+To order your copy today simply visit this Amazon link. If it is too late to order from Amazon before your spring break, and you are in the Milwaukee area, shoot me a message and I’ll get you a book for your trip.

My 3 driving desires.

Life is an all-you-can-eat buffet. And I want to devour it all. My mouth is watering every morning when I wake up. My alarm clock is like Pavlov’s dog’s dinner bell. It has me rising each morning like Drooly Andrews to the sound of that music.

There are 3 areas of life’s buffet that interest me most. And none of them are Charlie Sheen-ian.

My 3 Driving Desires

  1. I want to know everyone.
  2. I want to read everything.
  3. I want to visit everywhere.

I know this trifecta is impossible to accomplish. Probably. I can’t actually go everywhere, read everything and meet everyone. After all, I am not the Pope. (The hat doesn’t work with my hairdo.) But even unfulfilled, these 3 desires are important drivers. Like Donald and Minnie.

Key Takeaway

These 3 food groups are essential to your growth, wisdom and creativity. These are the 3 great sources of knowledge. The person who devours the most will know the most. Because the more you know about people, places and things the more you know about life. And the more you know about life the more you know yourself.

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

+If you would also like to read everything you will dig my new book What Does Your Fortune Cookie Say? from Ripples Media.

A fun thing happened to me on a recent flight.

Last week I was on 8 different airplanes. Not at one time of course. On 7 of those 8 planes, I didn’t talk to my seatmate. But on my flight Wednesday evening from Detroit to Columbus I had a great conversation with a fun and friendly woman traveling from Greensboro, North Carolina. When she asked me where I was coming from I said Milwaukee. She replied that she was a traveling nurse and that she had recently traveled to nurse people in Milwaukee at Ascension St. Mary’s Hospital

I told the woman that one of my great friends was an emergency room doctor there named Dr. Michael Brin. She said, “Oh, yes, I definitely know his name.” She probably found it on a list of the smartest, funniest, and sexiest E.R. doctors in Milwaukee named Michael Brin. Because he would totally dominate that list.

After establishing that she lived in Worthington, Ohio (Which is Columbus for those of you not down with the 614) she asked me what I did for work. But as soon as I opened my mouth to answer, the flight attendant cockpit-blocked me by jumping on the mic to make her unnecessarily loud announcements.

So I waited a moment. And during a break in the announcements, I tried to respond to the question. But the flight attendant came right back with more announcements.

This pattern repeated comically for quite some time. It reminded me of that scene from Austin Powers when he goes to the bathroom for the first time after being frozen for 30 years. And he keeps interrupting the voice declaring ‘Evacuation Complete’ with more tinkle noise.

After awkwardly trying to share what I do for work for about 2 minutes with no success, I noticed the copy of my book, What Does Your Fortune Cookie Say? that I had tucked into the seatback pouch in front of me. I reached down, slid the book out of the pocket, opened it to the author bio page on the inside back cover and handed it to my seatmate. I said, ‘Read this.’

That’s my book on a plane. Which sounds much less ominous than snakes on a plane.

My seatmate questioned, ‘Is this your book?’ I nodded ‘yes’. Then she proceeded to read the efficiently crafted story of me on the About the Author page.

I quickly recognized that having my book bio handy was the most efficient and effective way to introduce myself to a seatmate. In fact, we should all write an airplane bio, and have it added to the airline’s app. It should be accessible to the people sitting adjacent to us on our flights so that we can know who we are sitting near, what we may have in common, and whether they are on the sex offender list.

My seatmate asked if she could read the reviews on the cover. Which of course I encouraged her to do. I said, ‘Read anything you want. In fact, flip to the table of contents, find a chapter title that interests you, and read that. It was a fun experiment for me to see what someone who stumbles upon my book may find interesting.

The first chapter she picked out was ‘Fill your attitude with helium.’ Which is a great chapter. Within 10 seconds of flipping to that page, she laughed out loud. I asked what made her laugh. It was the reference to all the painstaking research I had done to discover that life is hard. She LOLed several times during that chapter. Each time I asked what made her laugh. It was fun primary research for an author on what kind of humor works in a book.

The next chapter she explored was very important. Chapter 63, Everything changes when you exchange names. This chapter is about how we transform from strangers into friends when we exchange names. Which was odd, because we hadn’t yet exchanged names. But during the reading of this chapter, she stopped reading, and she told me her name. Suddenly, she was no longer my seatmate. She was my new friend, Leslie, from Worthington, Ohio.

Me and my new friend Leslie. And a very tiny woman over my shoulder.

Leslie and I spoke the rest of the flight. We talked about our shared experiences. Our travels and our spouses. We took a selfie, just in case I would need it for a blog post. Which of course I do.

After we deplaned like Tattoo from Fantasy Island we walked through the CMH terminal together and decided to take another selfie by a Columbus sign. She then shared, that she would like to buy a copy of the book, and asked if Amazon is the best way to do it. I said that was a good way (and for most people around the world Amazon is the best way to buy my book.

I then said, ‘But, if you are interested, I have a couple extra copies with me, and I have a QR code that you could scan to pay instantly.’ She said, ‘Yes! Let’s do that!’

Me and Leslie in Columbus. But you probably figured that out without the caption.

I handed her a new copy of my book. She scanned the QR code, which popped open a simple payment field. Then Leslie asked if it would be awkward to ask me to sign the book for her. I said, ‘That’s not awkward. Everybody asks that. It’s like signing a high school yearbook.’

So I pulled out my trusty non-smeary-smudgy Sharpie pen. Because I always carry one now for such occasions. I grabbed a nearby seat and signed my new friend Leslie’s book. After I handed her the book, we hugged. Then she headed to the baggage claim and I headed to the rental car shuttle.

As I sat on the shuttle bus, waiting to leave the terminal I was thinking about what a fun experience that was on a random Wednesday night flight to Columbus. Then I got an alert on my phone telling me that Quickbooks received payment for a book. Imediately after that, I heard a voice say, ‘Hey stranger!’ It was Leslie and her baggage claim bag. She once again sat next to me. This time it was by choice because we were friends. I took another pic to chronicle this chapter of the story.

Leslie and her new book. (Which sounds like a children’s book title.)

Apparently, the universe had us well magnetized that day. Because we ended up walking to the same rental car counter too. (I rent from Hertz, because of OJ). But soon, we were in our rental cars and separated for the first time since Detroit. And I was thankful for the whole experience.

Key Takeaway

The greatest thing about writing a book is the new people I have met as a result. From the people at Ripples Media to the people that I meet at book talks, signing events, or on planes. It is the people who reach out to me because they have read the book, or got it as a gift and plan to read it. Writing a blog a book or a good social post can help introduce you to more people around the world. And at the end of our days, the only thing that will matter is the impact we had on each other. So put more good into the world, and more good will come back to you. And much of that good is likely to be good people. People like my new friend Leslie. From Worthington.

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

+If you would like to check out my new book What Does Your Fortune Cookie Say? for yourself you can find it at FortuneCookieBook.com.

How to use your 3 currencies wisely.

There are 3 currencies in life.

There is money, time and energy. You can use any of the 3 of them to acquire the things you want.

The exchange rate for these 3 currencies can vary greatly. And just like wampum, travelers checks and Chuck E Cheese tickets, there are good uses for each.

If you use money, you can have things quickly.

If you use energy you can force the things you want into existence.

If you use enough time you can get anything you want. But squander your time and you will get nothing, and not like it.

The combination of time and energy creates force. It is the amount of force you create that determines how quickly you attain the things you want. Including money.

Key Takeaway

Understand your currencies. Know which of them is most accessible to you right now. Know which one is most valuable for each of your needs. And budget them to get everything you want in the proper order.

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

+If you’d like more nuggets of inspiration, insight and Chuck E Cheese-type references, check out my new book What Does Your Fortune Cookie Say? from Ripples Media.