Carrying the Bags of a Zen Master

Before we get into todays main topic I want to dig into the value syndicate mail bag and answer a question from a listener. The value syndicate is, of course, what I call our subscribers who get the free bonus episodes that I put out occasionally. We get lots of email and private messages on facebook and I always respond to every message I get but I don’t always have time to answer them on the show and many of them are great questions that lead to some great discussions. This one was from Bill who has initiated a conversation about my daily schedule. We had a nice discussion about how I run my day, some suggestions on how to structure and change a few things in his day, and then we chatted about my morning routine, which is what I felt was the foundation of my whole day so I’ll share that briefly. Not because I think its anything special, but because I feel like it sets the foundation for how I think, feel, act, behave and produce throughout the day and it allows me a bit of freedom and productivity that I tend to think few have. Again, not that I’m anything special, I’ve just developed some of these habits over the years and have whittled them down to what works best for me and helps me be who I want to be most days.  ​

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My mornings typically begin between 5 and 6. I say typically because I play hockey one or two nights a week, depending on the league schedule, so there are some nights I come home exhausted and a little beat up so my next morning may begin at 7 instead of 6. As I’ve mentioned in other episodes, I have two boys in high school that are with me half of the week so I generally wake up with them on those days. They’re both pretty self sufficient and don’t need my help getting ready for school but its nice time to spend with them making breakfast or just chatting and what not. Once they’re off to school I typically sit in meditation for 20 to 30 minutes to get my breathing and mind right. I’ve generally already had some coffee by then so I’m waking up and ideas are starting to flow a bit. Of course, I’m trying not to get attached to any thoughts while I’m meditating so I don’t really focus on anything but my breath during that time. After meditation I typically jump on my bike, which sits on a fluid trainer in my living room, and ride for 20 to 30 minutes to burn some calories and sweat a bit.  
 
I do this for a couple reasons. One, of course, is the sheer fitness and health benefits. No need to say more than that. But two is that, after meditation, exercising a bit and sweating helps me get rid of any latent stress that’s hanging around from the previous day and it helps me think a bit more and get creative, which is really what my whole morning routine is about because after I get off the bike, still sweaty and breathing heavy, I sit down in my living room with my iPad and I start writing. Sometime I don’t even have an idea or plan, but I start writing. Sometimes its developing my thoughts and ideas for the podcast, sometimes its chapters for a book I’m writing, sometimes its coaching and mentoring thoughts or practices I want to employ, sometimes its mastermind ideas or thoughts that bubble up from a previous meeting, and sometimes its just sheer gibberish. What I know though, is that by sitting down, turning on my computer or ipad, and just putting my fingers on the keyboard and forcing myself to come up with at least 500 words of something helps me be creative and unleash whatever is in there. It also helps me to connect with whatever and wherever anybody who likes to be creative connects with to get ideas. I cant honestly say that everything comes from me and I believe when we’re disciplined about something, we connect to a greater collective of minds and ideas. This is, by the way, the mastermind principle in action and Its worked for me for several decades.  ​

I will generally write for about an hour or so and then close up the iPad, grab some coffee, make my spinach protein smoothie, and get to work. Nope, I don’t take a shower yet, if that’s what you were thinking! I like to organize my work day at this point and THEN I take a shower. Maybe that’s too much info for you but I wanted to just emphasize the value of the routine and how it works for me. Its not for everybody and not everybody needs it to be. Some people are great in the later evening hours when and if it comes to creating. I, personally, don’t like working out in the morning other than jumping on the bike to sweat. I have a killer home CrossFit style home gym in my garage that my whole family, including my girlfriend, works out in and we typically do that in the evenings. So I say all of this just to tell you, and maybe encourage a few of you listening, that there are enough hours in the day to get it all in, and more importantly, if you want to do, be or have something else in your life, you have to make time to do it and then have the discipline to get it done. There are a bunch of creative people among us who are stuck in a failed routine and maybe not making the most of their day. They’ll complain about not having enough time to do the things they want to do but aren’t necessarily making the most of their day or have a routine that allows them to be their best self. My routine works great for me and, but I’d love to hear what works for some of you! I’d love to hear your comments below the podcast or over at the Real Value podcast facebook page. Its small at this point but if you want to comment there, feel free. Lets get on to the meat of todays topic.  

This week we’re going to chat about leadership. I mean, we talk about leadership often even if I don’t actually use the word leadership, but of course, any time we talk about being a better you, building a better business, understanding the world around you a little bit better, at the core, we’re talking about leadership. Leadership is what I call a passion topic of mine, not because I see myself as a leader or aspire to be a leader in some particular area but because I learned from some of the best in the world that, on any given day and in any given activity, we’re really only ever being one of three things; a leader, a follow, or standing still. By the way, to all the listeners who are working for somebody else, I strongly encourage you to see yourselves as future leaders within the organization and not just followers of the leaders of the organization. That particular topic is bis enough for a whole episode on its own, but until then, just know that how you see yourself and the actions you take are far more important than your title. So when I use the word follower, I’m not referring to anybody who is not the leader of their company because not everybody in every company is being a follower. When I use the terms leader, follower, or standing still, I’m more referring to a state of mind, a belief system, and an attitude than I am a position or title. I’ve worked for organizations where the employees exhibited more leadership than the owners because of their attitudes and actions and I’ve also been part of an organization where I was a follower of a particular individual’s vision, skills, and methodology because I was a leader in training, which is what this week’s episode is all about.    
I wrote about this topic and have done several podcast episodes on this topic back in 2015 for one of my other podcasts and I’ve been teaching on this topic for over 20 years based on my experience in the live-in student program took part in back in the 90’s. The leadership lessons and seeds that were planted while taking part in that program have been manifesting and evolving everyday since, which, by the way, is one of the benefits of studying under a great leader. I was super fortunate to have had the experience I had back in my early twenties and, although I was too young and without enough relative life experience to understand fully what I was getting at the time, I was fairly cognizant of the fact that it was a once in a lifetime experience to study leadership in what I consider to be its highest form, which is typically referred to as servant leadership. If you’ve heard the term before, I congratulate you and hope that you are actively practicing servant leadership. If you’ve never heard the term before, I’d like to offer you one of my stories of how I was kind of introduced to the philosophy hardcore Japanese style. 

When one is a committed student of a particular art, skill, or practice, you may choose to or you may get invited to follow or travel to see your teacher teach to others. In a martial art, zen, calligraphy, and a variety of other arts, on occasion, and if you’re lucky, you’ll have the opportunity to travel with your teacher (often called the sensei) to another school, maybe another town, and maybe a weekend seminar or workshop. You might be going to take part in the training but you may also be asked along to help the teacher in some way. In the martial arts specifically, there are two sides to every training experience because there is always one person who makes the attack and then the person practicing a particular technique on the attacker. The attacker is called the uke, and the one doing the technique to the attacker is called the nage. More appropriately, the one receiving the energy and learning how to take the falls is called the uke and the one doing the throws is called the nage. This is an important distinction, even for those who have never done martial arts because in martial arts, especially Aikido, there is a whole art and philosophy to being the Uke, or again, the one receiving the energy and taking the fall. You’re not just being a technique dummy for the person practicing, you’re actually learning how to take punishment and pop back up better for the experience (very dumbed down explanation).  

It was often taught by my teacher that you learned more as the person taking the falls for the teacher, or your partner,  than you might learn being the one doing the throwing because when you are getting thrown around and taking some punishment, you are learning to feel through your whole body the unspoken aspects of the technique. You get to feel the power of the person applying the technique. You get the opportunity to flow with their movements to protect your own body, and you get to learn without having to use your ears, eyes, and brain in the same way that traditional learning requires. It’s like the difference between somebody saying that they love you and that same person grabbing you, squeezing you tight, giving you a big kiss, and showing through their physical and emotional actions that they love you. One of those experiences is a somewhat intellectual one while the other is an emotional experience. One of them is more likely to have a long lasting, if not life long impact while the other dissipates rather quickly.

The one that dissipates rather quickly, of course, is the verbal expression where the one that was expressed with a physical interaction backed by some emotion is the one that lasts a lifetime and has the biggest impact. In the aikido example, when you’re the one being thrown around, you’re receiving energy through your body and learning how to translate it, absorb it, and transform it into useful positive energy that benefits you and your partner. You learn how to take the falls, get beat up a bit, roll around, get your arms and legs twisted up and still pop up off of the mat a little better for the experience. What you’re also learning when you are the uke, again, the one doing the attacking and the one taking the falls and the punishment is that without you, there is no true practice and no opportunity for growth for either party. Without you being the uke, your partner has nobody to practice the other side of the techniques on or with. So that’s the uke nage relationship in Japanese martial arts and I wanted to set that stage, if you will, to explain how this idea of leadership and learning through sacrifice is taken to the next level. 

So, as I mentioned earlier, when one is a very committed student of a teacher and one places themselves in the apprentice role under the mentors guidance, you’ll have the opportunity to travel with the teacher. If you are a student of the Japanese art of Ikebana, which is the art of flower arranging, or Chanoyu, the art of the tea ceremony, or a student of a particular martial art like Aikido or Karate, these opportunities come up and a student or students are either asked by the teacher, or the student already knows that this is their role, to go with the teacher on their travels. Again, it could be simply traveling across town to another school or some kind of workshop where the teacher is teaching or speaking, or it could be traveling to another country for several weeks while the sensei travels around teaching and conducting business. In my case, my teacher was the founder of a large martial arts and zen organization with schools all around the world so, as a live in student, you basically had signed up for this opportunity to travel with the teacher on these excursions. Either because the instructor needs a good uke in order to demonstrate proper technique to the seminar participants or simply to help out with the itinerary, carry bags, make the coffee, keep the sensei company, etc. 

This duty is often referred to as Otomo. Otomo in Japanese translates as ‘Friend’ but in the martial arts world Otomo means something far beyond ‘friend’. As a live-in student, you are, to some degree, an Otomo for the sensei at all times. When you sign up to be mentored in this type of program, whether you know it at the time or not, you’re signing up to be the personal assistant to a very demanding and sometimes cantankerous person. But you’re also signing up to get the absolute best leadership training in the world through something called servant leadership. 

I had occasion to be Otomo for Toyoda Sensei on several trips both in the US and internationally. The Otomo is traditionally the one who travels with the sensei and tends to their needs, carries the bags, opens doors, and so on. At the time and as a 21 or 22 year old kid, I had very little experience doing this kind of task so it was always a nerve wracking endeavor but, fortunately, I got good advice and advance instruction from one of the other, more experienced, live-in students at the time who taught me about the role of the Otomo. What I learned is that the Otomo is to be more than just a slave who carries the bags. The role of the Otomo is one that carries with it much more responsibility, as well as opportunity to grow, and one that I credit for some of my greatest growth opportunities over the past 30 years or so. 

What I learned is that the Otomo, traditionally, was the one who walked behind the sensei carrying the bags but was also expected to be a protector, should somebody confront the sensei. So, even though the sensei was more experienced at martial arts than the Otomo, it was just expected that the Otomo would sacrifice his own safety to protect the teacher. This kind of relationship meant there had to be tremendous trust between the two as well as tremendous respect for the teacher by the Otomo. If the respect wasn’t there, the sensei would recognize this and know that the Otomo may be lax in his or her duties to protect the sensei or maybe deliberately slow to respond and leave the teacher vulnerable to attack. So, you could basically infer from just witnessing an Otomo do his or her duties that there was an implied trust and respect between the sensei and Otomo because the lack of either one of those traits would immediately exclude one from being chosen for this role. 

I remember on many occasions making jokes myself, and hearing comments from others, that we were basically slaves for Toyoda Sensei since they only knew what they saw, which was typically the otomo carrying his bags or his briefcase, or both, taking almost all of the falls and abuse during a week long seminar, being responsible for sensei’s uniform and weapons, handling the paperwork and money at an event, maybe taking registrations, getting the sensei tea, rubbing his feet when they got sore, making sure his beer never got below a certain point, and anything else that needed to be handled in those settings. 

So these were just a few of the roles of the Otomo though. The other role was to be somewhat of a social go between. Being a sensei meant that their time was very valuable and likely also in demand. There were people who wanted to engage in conversation with the teacher that the teacher may have no interest in talking to. The Otomo was to be there to place him or herself in between these types of engagements and save the sensei from having to engage in small talk, discuss mundane topics or things that might be boring to the teacher, and also to not be questioned about technical aspects or secrets to a particular art. Of course, I don’t think Toyoda Sensei had any fears of revealing supposed secrets but there were certainly lots of people who wanted access to a person like this and it was the job of the Otomo to save him so as to protect his time and availability.   
Now, of course, Toyoda Sensei also didn’t really require any of us to necessarily be his protector, although there were a couple of times I remember being scolded by Sensei for not stepping between a person casually walking into his office or somebody looking for him at the front office. In a sense, if you worked for sensei, which I did at one point in my tenure there, you were to a degree Otomo even when not traveling. You were expected to keep his business private, protect his privacy, not let people past a certain point in the dojo, and of course, all the typical daily duties like getting coffee or carrying his briefcase across the mat. It was the job of the Otomo to be always on alert for opportunities to serve the sensei BEFORE he needed your services. Awareness was a huge part of being Otomo because the sensei wouldn’t always point out what he needed or ask for something that would send you running. No, the job of Otomo, just like the job of the leader, is to see things BEFORE they are seen or perceived by others. To jump at opportunities before they are recognized by everybody else in the room, especially the sensei. And sometimes your job as Otomo was to create new opportunities that didn’t exist, or at least were not perceived before that. That’s what leaders do which is what allows them to lead. Leading implies being out front of situations and it also implies having followers. There is a saying, A leader with no followers is merely taking a walk. 

This, to me, was one of the greatest lessons of the whole Otomo training experience. Not only did we get to travel with him, carry his bags, and be privy to business conversations and meetings, you got the opportunity to be always vigilant and aware of any impending event, which could be something as simple as hearing sensei coming up the stairs from his basement office and trying to determine what was needed so that you could get it or get there before you were actually needed. If Sensei had to call for you, you were too late. If somebody else saw the same thing as you, you were too late. If the sensei’s tea wasn’t on his desk before he arrived at it, you were too late. If sensei’s beer got to the bottom of the glass and you hadn’t kept it filled, you failed and the sensei was dead! Not really,  of course, but that was the meaning behind this kind training. Always being hyper aware and hyper vigilant for opportunity. In this case, the opportunity was in taking care of and protecting this one individual, but the greater lessons, which were always being pointed out to us by the sensei, was that these little things we were doing were representative of the universe of possibilities out in the world. Either the possibility of some kind of danger or potential for failure, or the potential for innovation, success, creativity, new business, new relationships, or whatever we were able to perceive due to our heightened awareness to these opportunities. And all from serving another! 

This concept was, of course, totally foreign to me at the beginning and, although everyone who has experienced it gets used to it, I didn’t really realize the value this training had on everything else I did until I started my own dojo and working in leadership positions professionally. When I had the opportunity to begin leading and developing others around me and developing my students in the zen and aikido world, it all really started to become crystal clear just how valuable this servant leadership model was and the extreme value my experience as a live-in student was having for me in life and business. It became especially clear once I started my own live-in student mentorship program and tried to instill in them this same sense of care taking, not for my own ego, but for the value that it has on negating one’s ego and expanding one’s awareness in all directions. Being Otomo for one’s sensei, or even considering oneself to have that role, is a whole other level of training beyond what takes place on the mat. It expands the realm of training from the determined and somewhat narrow parameters of the martial arts mat space to the whole world in a sense because it gives the Otomo the opportunity to have something to focus on besides themselves and their own technique.   
Although I didn’t see it at the time, the effect that role was having on me was profound in that it was teaching me more about leadership and the real role of a leader than being in a position of authority would, or could, ever teach me. 
There was a movement in the leadership arena in the last 30 years or so taking an ancient concept and applying it to the modern day corporate realm called Servant Leadership. The concept of servant leadership basically entails what one would infer from the term, that the leader sees him or herself, not as an autocratic and dictatorial bully or order giver but instead one who is in a position to serve a greater good, to serve as well as develop those within the organization, have goals and a mission that extends beyond just making a profit, and to take the moral high ground in all situations. 

One of the most important qualities of the servant leaders is that they see building up others around them, at all levels, and the leaders in their midst, as paramount to their own success. In fact, one of the core beliefs of a good servant leader is that everybody is a leader or teacher waiting to be developed. Of course, some never reach their potential, and others become suited for other things, but the servant leader takes the approach, much like the law of the onion, that everybody jus needs some of the layers peeled away to reveal the leader, or the more evolved you if you will, within everybody. Much like a good martial arts instructor who recognizes the greatest compliment to be a student who goes on to be an instructor themselves, and potentially even exceeding or surpassing the sensei in ability. Only the most humble and visionary of teachers, leaders, and mentors are able to, not only see and understand that potential scenario, but then to treat his/her students with an expectation that they will for sure surpass the sensei. This takes real ego management and a vision for others that goes way beyond what the student can see for themselves.

Not just in the martial arts, but in almost every business setting around the world, its not uncommon to have very insecure leaders and managers always on the lookout for those coming up and nipping at their heels and then looking for ways to keep them down out of fear that they’ll be surpassed by those under them. They are more interested in keeping others down than in building them up and potentially revealing somebody who may be even better at what they themselves do. The servant leader, really any good and true leader, tries to see the potential in everybody and recognizes that there are likely those in their midst, or in their employ, that could succeed them and do a better job than they are doing. But the servant leader has no fear of this because that’s exactly their mission! They put people and principle above everything else! 

I read several books on the topic back in my 20’s and later, as a vice-president of one organization and shortly after, president of another, was able to take part in several weekend workshops for business owners and leaders on how to be a servant leader. I found the concept to be very compelling at the time and also found myself well suited to thinking in the ways that were being taught. It seemed to suit my personality and I found the whole concept resonated with me for several reasons. One of the reasons being that, after being part of the martial arts world for a couple decades by that point, I didn’t relate well with what I would call ‘unmotivated’ individuals or people who needed to be managed. I had done it and was fairly good at managing people in a task based world with timelines and definable and measurable outcomes, but wasn’t very good with those who didn’t have much drive to excel or be anything other than what I felt was average or mediocre. I preferred to exist in and be surrounded by people who were far more driven and able to set their own goals, timelines and create their own inner drive to succeed without the carrot and stick being used to motivate. So this concept of servant leadership had some value in the world I was working in at the time because the model emphasized cooperation, collaboration at all levels, trust, empathy, and an ethical and moral, not to mention judicious, use of one’s power and authority. And again, it emphasized the top leadership building up other leaders.  
So how does this apply in the real estate world? Well, its actually quite simple, yet one of the most difficult things to learn due to human nature and our egos. Although I’ve been using my martial arts experience to a large degree as a way to express my thoughts on leadership, I’ve also been using this concept in my businesses as well. Since this idea of service others and being a leader at the same time became ingrained in me through those experiences, I’ve gone into every business I’ve been a part of since that time with an eye for developing talent and raising up others. I don’t say this to boost my own ego, its big enough as it is! I say this because I learned relatively early just how successful an organization can be when those in management and leadership positions help others reach their goals. It’s one thing to focus on the numbers and make sure everybody is hitting their quotas, whatever those may be in an organization. It’s another thing altogether to look at each individual as a future leader, manager, division head, independent business owner or whatever they may develop into thanks to your help and vision.

You see, it does nobody any good to keep others where YOU need them. If they have more in them than what even they see, it is incumbent upon you to help them see it and help develop them in that area. When you do this, one of two things happens: either you unveil and unleash massive potential in others that, of course, may end up being extremely useful and helpful to you and your organization, OR you help unveil and unleash massive potential in them that is beneficial somewhere else and to somebody else and keeping them around in your organization and for your own benefit means you have people around you that are not at their full potential, ever. They may seem happy, they may be grateful for what you give them or allow them to do, but you aren’t really helping them grow, which, in my opinion, should be one of the main goals of every organization. Even if you help somebody grow out of your company and help them on their way to what they're truly good at, passionate about, and more useful, allowing them to realize their full potential, you’ve helped develop another human being and you’ve likely created a powerful ally in your expanding circle.  

In real estate sales and the lending business, this means looking at things besides just numbers. This means helping agents and L.O.s develop into or out of the business. I’ve said it often regarding the appraisal business, if I can help somebody out of the appraisal business because they realize its just not for them, its like earning a Boy Scout merit badge and doing my good deed for the week. I haven’t created more business for myself, I’ve helped another human being realize more of their potential and move closer to what they might possibly be best at. In the appraisal business this, of course, has huge benefits in how we we mentor our apprentices. If you look to apprentices just in how much they can do for you, you may cut a little of your workload in the near term and pick up some extra business for a period of time. But until you look to help them actually develop into their full potential, which means potentially out of your business and into their own, you will always be fighting against an unforeseen force in the universe which is the natural inborn human drive to expand and experience more than we are being or experiencing. I’m not saying everybody has this naturally oozing out of them. Oh no! To the contrary! Most people are lazy, apathetic, boring, safe thinking comfort seekers looking for a paycheck and a bag of Doritos. But I believe only because that’s what their programming has taught them.  
  
Teach somebody how to do, be, and experience more and you unleash potential unknown and unseen by those who knew them previously. I know this to be fact my friends because I’ve been practicing and developing on this form of leadership and training for almost 30 years now and had my own personal development labs, if you will, with my aikido and zen center, my families companies, and my appraisal firms over the years. I’ve had the awesome opportunity of testing out these theories with literally thousands of people over a 30 year period and have seen its success potential. There are dozens of businesses and people in the world today that have a direct link back to our dojo, our companies, and leadership training that I can proudly say we helped get there. Some of them could be considered direct competitors of ours, but of course we don’t see things that way. Many have gone on to start businesses in other towns, other states, and some in other countries. And of course, there are many many more than aren’t in businesses but would credit their time in the dojo or having gone through some of our leadership and personal development trainings and mentorship programs who simply say life is better because of the growth they initiated. Lest you think I am taking credit for all of those, I am not. One of the principles of servant leadership is that you DON’T take credit for others successes because it is truly THEY who created and developed it, we just helped them take off the mental shackles in some cases. We maybe help end them realize they could do, be, and have more and they chose to move in that direction. I know this too to be the case because out of the thousands who have come through my dojo or businesses over the years, the sheer numbers show that an extreme minority actually use the concepts to grow. Most never overcome their programmed complacency or ever have the desire to be more than comfort seeking. This is ok, by the way. Many of those people will simply go on to say they’re better for having crossed paths with you and, in my opinion, this should be the goal of every servant leader.  
  
Last week we asked the question of our businesses, “will they miss me when I’m gone?”. This week we ask the question of every person we come in contact with, “how can I make them better for having crossed my path?”. How can I give to them in a way that makes some kind of difference, however great or small. Of course, it could simply be letting someone cut in line and giving a smile or positive comment. It could be paying for the person behind you in line and encouraging them to pay it forward. And It could be putting aside your own needs, wishes, and desires to help another person reach their’s. To make one’s own desires and needs subordinate to another means to detach from the desire for personal gain and recognition. And its only from this place of no ego and expanded awareness, as well as putting somebody else’s needs above one’s own, that real growth occurs. The ego almost always gets in the way of things and judgments about the way things should or shouldn’t be can cloud one’s ability to really take in new information and grow from it. We live in a world where selfies, trying to impress the world with fake snapshots, showing the whole world what we had for dinner or how special our kids are has become the thing to do. It’s a world all about us and making the rest of the world believe its not. It takes a special strength to stay detached from all of this and focus on the growth of others. In essence, we need to redefine every definition of success you may have in your head from one based maybe in numbers, appraisal orders, loans closed, real estate sides successfully completed, to one of how many others you’ve helped reach their goals and potential, even if it costs you. Every relationship cant be transactional. Look for ways to help others that have no way to help you back. Look for ways to help others grow even if it means you’re potentially helping a competitor. When you start to think like this you eliminate competition from your life and your business and you start to build a karmic army, if you will, of energy that somehow, some way, always comes back to you multiplied.  

What you out out to the world always comes back multiplied. This goes for the bad just as it does for the good. This goes for the negative just as it does for the positive. It’s simply a universal law my friends and as the great Zig Ziglar always said, you can have anything in life you want as long as you help enough other people get theirs. I would change the sentiment of the quote just a bit because I think Zig was just a tad off in this regard. His version of the quote makes it sound transactional and that you’ll get if you just give. What I would say is that it’s a far higher goal to simply help enough other people reach their goals… just stop there. It doesn’t matter if you have goals of your own. Expect nothing in return and simply do it because you can. In essence, I would break Zig’s quote into two separate quotes. You can have anything you want in life(period). And also, ‘help enough people get theirs’. One may effect the other but it shouldn’t be the goal or intention for helping others. Helping others is the goal in itself. Servant leadership my friends, study it, become it, and start transmitting it in everything you do. 

Thanks again for being part of the Real Value Podcast and the value syndicate my friends and for spending your most valuable currency with me, and that is your time. I will do everything I can to create a return on your investment but ultimately it is up to you with what you do with the information that just entered your ears and hopefully your heart today. Go out in the world and create some value for those around you with no expectation of return and see what it does in your life.  

I love you all and I seriously look forward to hanging with you again next week! Make it the best week you’ve had since last week…I’m out!