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What If The World Finds Out I’m A Fraud?

I am willing to pay whatever the price may be, for being unabashedly me.

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So… What’s Your Biggest Fear?

I was with a friend the other day, and as I was about to leave she asked me a simple question.

She looked me straight in the face, and asked me what I was afraid of.

She caught me a little off guard with that question, and I said to myself, “This bitch is trying to be my mamma.”

I couldn’t tell if I was bothered because of the nature of the question, or because I felt like maybe she could already see the answer.

I puffed my chest out like a proper macho-man and said, “I am not scared of anything!”

But then, I started to think

My heart sunk into my stomach as I came to the realization that I did have a fear. A huge fear.

One that I have trained myself to ignore, but a fear none the less.

But let’s back up for a second, I have a confession to make.

I am a total failure

I actually admit that proudly, and like to get it out of the way early.

I don’t usually lead with it, but hey, this is a blog, and not an HBO special, so I don’t have much time for character development.

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I have failed repeatedly in my personal life, my professional career, and definitely in my political perspectives.

Quite frankly, I’m sure I will continue to make mistakes. Lots of them. I’ll continue to stumble, because this is the life I have chosen to live.

I will never apologize for being who I am or how I am, but this does not answer the question at hand.

I’m really good at faking it you see

I can twist you and bend you however I want.

The power of coercion is strong in this one. It has been since I was young.

Maybe that’s why I found the world of sales so comfortable. I felt right at home in a world where all that mattered was whether or not I made the sale.

It was easy for me

Living in a lie seemed normal. It seemed like everyone was doing it.

I’d do whatever needed to be done in order to get what I wanted. The problem was, I had no idea what I wanted.

Maybe that’s what led me to build a house of cards on top of all of those lies.

Maybe it’s that line of thinking that led me to believe that I could be happy in the life I was building, or maybe that is why I sat there that day with a gun in one hand and a phone in the other, wondering whether to pull the trigger or call for help.

Maybe that is why I am writing this article today. Maybe I was unwilling to admit it back then.

Maybe I was unwilling to admit that I was wrong, so I pushed forward. I pushed with no regard for the price that would one day have to be paid.

But that was then, and this is now.

That price has been paid.

In fact, I am still paying. It cost me 10 years, a wife, some strife, and almost my life.

It has pushed me to accept and reject many things about myself and the world around me.

It has forced me on this path that I am on, but this, again, does not answer the question at hand.

You want to know what I am afraid of now?

You want to know what I’m scared of today?

I fear that one day I will become successful, and the world will look at me as if I were a total joke.

I fear that one day I will stand at the top of this mountain I am climbing, and people will say that I lied, cheated, and stole to get here.

I fear that they will say that I hurt others in order to help myself.

I fear that the whole world will get to look at the person that I really am, and then decide to destroy me because they can no longer control me.

You see, I have faced all of my fears

I can honestly look you straight in the face and tell you that the only thing I fear anymore is finding out that I actually am a fraud.

That I am incapable of doing what I set out to do.

I am scared that at some point, I will have to turn back and admit defeat.

I am afraid to find out that the guy who “faked-it-til-he-made-it,” actually made it, and he won’t know that it is okay to stop pretending.

I am afraid that I won’t recognize success, and that I will keep on thirsting for more.

I am afraid that I will never find true happiness because of my inability to truly let people in.

I am afraid that I will be unable to realize that once you fake something for so long, it’s no longer fake, it’s just you.

I am afraid that one day it will all come crashing down again, but that this time I won’t be strong enough to handle it.

But even that doesn’t really scare me

Up until now, I’ve done this all before. I have been on this road, and I know where it leads.

I might not be able to see around the bend, but I have memorized the map.

I adjusted my approach in order to come around the corner just right: at just the right speed so as not to fly off the edge of the cliff.

I will make the turn, hammer the gas, and never look back.

This time is going to be different.

This time, I am becoming successful by being myself, and that is what scares me.

I am scared to be walking around this world naked – emotionally, and otherwise, completely unprotected, yet somehow entirely prepared to take the arrows and to face the consequences.

I am willing to pay whatever the price might be, for being unabashedly me.

There will be no shield, no barrier, no buffer between me and the real world.

No one to blame for my failures but myself…and that, my friends, is absolutely terrifying.

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What is your biggest fear? Let’s talk about it in the comments below.


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The Truth About Happiness

Happiness is not what you think it is. 

Dave Myers takes you soaring adventure, talks with Raymmar about finding happiness and explains how to maintain a positive attitude in life.

You may think you know happy because you have a good job, live a healthy life and have a few friends but guess what…

It could all be gone tomorrow.

In the blink of an eye you could lose it all and then the true test would begin. Then we would all get to see how strong you really are.

In a moment of broken brilliance, you would have to reassess everything you thought made you happy. You would be left looking deep into the dark abyss of what used to be your life and wonder what went wrong.

You would have to reach deep into your soul and have an honest conversation with yourself about what it is that truly makes you happy and you might just find out that you have had it wrong all along.

Maybe then you would realize that It’s is all up to you!

In that dark moment you might realize that happiness is more about understanding that you are perfectly flawed as opposed to thinking about flawlessly perfect you might be.

It is about understanding that you are not the picture of perfection you try to present to the world. You will find that it’s about understanding you’ll never be perfect and learning to embrace yourself anyway.

Happiness is the ability to know how imperfect you actually are and still being able to stand up to the world like none of it really matters.

Why? Well… because at the end of the day, very little of it actually does. In the real world, the only thing that matters is what you want to matter. What you decide to make important in your life.

“Happiness lies somewhere in between desperation and motivation and it often waits until we quit looking for it before revealing itself to us.”

You have to attack happiness by understanding that you were put on earth with a mission to do something amazing. However, you must also understand that it doesn’t have to be that way. It is up to you to you to make sure it goes down in the history books just how you see it. You, and no one else.

Doing that thing you love.

The power of doing or even chasing something you love is highly underrated. People talk about it all the time but very few actually do it. Fewer yet follow through and find fulfillment and financial independence doing what they love but for those who can it is a beautiful thing.

Most people are caught up in their own lives, trying to scrape by, feed a family, enjoy a day off once in a while and then waking up to do it all again the next day. Stuck in the status-quo, unwilling to let go.

Unwilling to jump into the deep end, fearing the water below might be too shallow. Feeling as if they cannot make the jump while watching others walk right up to the edge and take that leap of faith.

You sit there and watch others dive head first into happiness, while sitting back pretending to enjoy it for yourself from the sidelines. Fearing the failure that might just lead you to finally find it.

But, but, but… you just don’t understand…

Oh, I understand all too well. I understand that there is something in your life that you think is holding you back. Something that you honestly believe is keeping you from becoming the person you know you are supposed to be.

We all have our Kryptonite. Maybe a better description would be to say that we all hold on to what we think is our Kryptonite. Thinking that we are Superman and must succumb to its power. Not knowing that this is the real world and what we perceive as Kryptonite is really just a stupid weight we carry around in our heads.

“It’s an excuse you idiot, not some magical rock that has somehow hindered your ability to fly.”

We place these obstacles in our own path as if we were not resourceful enough to find a way around them. As if deep down we didn’t know that we could just walk around, step over, crawl under or otherwise get past this one thing that just seems to keep holding us back.

The reality is that we are often the only ones holding ourselves back. More often than not, you, and only you, are the reason for a lack of amazing accomplishments in life.

It’s all in your head.

You may not want to admit it yet but you know it’s true.

You know that these little voices inside your head are just the different versions of you, fighting among themselves to try and find a place inside of your consciousness. Fighting to find a place in a world of thought that begins and ends with you.

The more you get to know them, the more you can understand how to use them to enhance one another as opposed to letting them interfere with your life. You have to be willing to acknowledge the evil thoughts as well as the good ones. You have to accept the fact that you are after all, only human ,and that might make you feel weak.

But you are wrong. Knowing these things should make you feel strong. It should make you realize that the voices are just other versions of your personality. Why wouldn’t you have to learn how to interact with your own personality; it is just as important as learning to interact with the personalities of others.

In order to find happiness you have to learn how to take this power away from the people around you. You must learn how to live with yourself but this is just the beginning, learning how to let others live with you is step two.

Sometimes you don’t have a choice.

Sometimes failure just smacks you in the face.

No matter how you prepare or plan, life has a way of keeping things interesting that way. No matter how solid you think your foundation might be, there is always an earthquake brewing somewhere waiting to shake you from the foundation. Waiting to bring everything around you crumbling down in a moments notice.

Some people make it through life never having to face their 100 year stormbut some get to face them all too often.

Ours is not a choice of “if”, but more often than not a choice of “how”.

How will you react when your storm does hit because you cant buy insurance for that type of catastrophe.

The only thing you can do is learn how appreciate the scars because more often than not, they define who you are.

So you grind.

When life knocks you down, sometimes you just have to grind. Sometimes you just have to stay low, stay out of the way for a while and just survive.

These are the moments where we are reminded of how fragile our existence actually is.

This is when you discover how susceptible we truly are to the influence of the world around us.

In these moments you get to see how delicate the world can actually be ,but it is in these same moments when we most often find ourselves.

It is so often in these moments where we get tired of hiding from the world and become comfortable exposing our true selves to not only the world but to ourselves.

And then you find it.

Then you discover that even with the weight of the world on your back, you can make it.

You find out that even with the drag of depression, or the struggles of suicide, you can survive life.

You can decide to let the happiness find you. You can allow it to fill you and to flow through you completely.

It is in this moment that you discover your invincibility.

It is in this moment of desperation that you can show the world how strong you really are.

It is in this moment of weakness that our strength is truly tested and our resolve must be resurrected.

It is in this moment that we discover the true adventure of life, when we discover what this whole thing is really all about.

Fun because, once you have discover how to look this hurt in the face and still stand to hold your place, you will begin to see the emergence of real life super powers.

Powers you never knew you had.

The power to influence others and pass on the gift of happiness.

The power to pass on thought and move others through emotional empowerment, and the ability to help others understand their own path to happiness. A path you must explore for yourself. One we must all discover at our own pace.

Image Credit — Sumit Mantaporn

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Raymmar.com Gets A Face-lift

I did it all for you…

So take some time and explore the new site or I will send cyborg chipmunks to chew off your toes.

But seriously…

Over the last few months we have seen some explosive growth on Raymmar.com and I have been trying to make it easier for people to find the content they want.

With our new pod-casts becoming popular and having so many different outlets for all of our content it was important for me to make the site easier to navigate and shift the focus of the site towards the content and away from my personal portfolio.

I thought this was an important step in the evolution of the website as I aim to transition Raymmar.com away from a personal website and more to a content engine.

That being said, there are now 5 main sections on Raymmar.com –

Grow

Grow: These are articles about improving your life. Whether professionally or personally, you can find stories that help you be the best version of you possible. Explore the Grow circle


Listen

Listen: A few weeks ago we launched our pod-casts and now that we have the equipment, we will be making more of our articles multimedia friendly by allowing you to listen as well as read any of our content. This section is full of auditory enjoyment. Explore the Listen circle


ReadRead: This is the basic blog roll. All articles on Raymmar.com can be found here. Since most videos, podcasts, etc come with accompanying articles you can find them all here. This is the most diverse of all the circles. Explore the Read circle

 

WatchWatch: In this circle you will find all of the videos I have produced as well as the videos from other content contributors on Raymmar.com. Videos and only videos in this circle. Explore the Watch circle 

 

ThinkThink: Exercise your brain muscles. Start questioning the world around you and think for yourself. These articles may include multimedia posts so there may be some overlap from the other sections but these are our most thought provoking articles. Get your think on

I am always trying to improve the website and find ways to increase our viewership. We are getting hundreds of thousands of views per month across all of our different platforms so I am overwhelmed and humbled by your support. Thanks for sticking around and hang on, this ride is just getting started.

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Redefining American Politics: Meet The Conservative Hippie

“What happens when both parties are completely corrupt and the ivory towers are falling down?”

A Little background on me and my upbringing

I am a rare breed to say the least. A breath of fresh air for some and a pain in the ass for others.

Unwilling to succumb to the status-quo, determined to bring about real change. Dedicated to proving that America is, was, and always will be the greatest country ever know to man.

I was raised in a Christian home by loving parents who emigrated from Puerto Rico in the early 80′s. Puerto Rican born citizens are automatically citizens of the United States but other than that, the similarities between my family story and any modern day immigrant are eerily similar.

My dad: was a poor country boy, who grew up in New York until he was 7 and then moved back to Puerto Rico where they lived with no running water or electricity. I’ve seen the house and it always blows my mind when I think of what that must have been like.

My mom: was the rich city girl (if you can call Guayama PR a city) who fell in love with the country boy. They decided to get married and come to the states for my dad to finish his degree. I was already in the womb when they came over. Apparently I was a journey man before birth.

They were on a quest to make a better life for themselves and open doors for their children that had never been opened for them. They were as lost as a couple from a small island might be after moving from their homeland, to a much larger city, learning to cope with the cold winters, and mostly just trying to figuring out how to survive.

We lived a simple life…

My parents took us to church most Sunday’s while we were growing up (against my will most of the time), but I learned the bible and its message all while rebelling in my own way.

I was a renegade from early on. I remember always questioning authority and giving my parents a hard time. You could say I was the text book case study on how to be a black sheep.

My sister is a few months and a year older than me and my brother is about 3 years younger. There I sat, right in the middle of a five person household, in a modest cape cod style home (with only one bathroom, I-might-add). The house sat one block away from some of the rougher neighborhoods on the north side of Columbus Ohio.

The rules I learned to play by

Ever since I can remember, I’ve played this game called life by my own rules. Running around questioning authority and pushing the limits of acceptability; often crossing over the proverbial line-in-the-sand which usually carried it’s own own set of consequences.

Most of the time, my efforts lead to a tanned hide at the hands of my moms favorite wooden spoon or my fathers leather belt which was branded with his name. Something he had picked up on a recent trip to Mexico.

No matter which of them was reminding me how much of a screw up I had just been, I learned early on that decisions had consequences. I learned that the choices I made, were not un-makable and that once I did what I did, I would get what I had coming.

“I know I have something special waiting for me when I eventually have children because of the nightmares I must have given my parents growing up.”

Sometimes I deserved every bit of the whooping I got, but most of the time, I deserved more.

How much have I really learned?

I can’t say I really learned anything because I still make all sorts of mistakes. However, the way I see the world is what they truly affected. I might mess up once in a while but they instilled good values. They taught me the most important things and left it up to me to learn the rest.

I didn’t realize it at the time, but now I can appreciate that tough love more than ever, as I watch a culture of idiocy sprouting up all around me, I wonder if I will do half as good a job raising my children as they did raising me.

There are so many children running around unchecked by neutered parents, unwilling and unable to be restrained. Entitled to everything, working for nothing and otherwise raising themselves in a society that becomes more and more unrecognizable as time goes on.

Lost, wandering around aimlessly, unprepared for the rude awakening that will surely find them one day soon. Unaware of the backhand that awaits around one of the next corners in their maze called life. The smack down they desperately need and undoubtedly deserve.

Growing up liberal, err… creative.

I have always been a man of the arts. I remember on one of our family trips to Puerto Rico as a child, my mom tried to bribe me with bubble gum to sing for random members of the family. I was part of at least 4 different choirs growing up, attended a Commercial Arts program my senior year of high school and would attend a prestigious design school to study industrial design when I graduated high school.

My mom would later tell me that at times she worried I might turn out to be gay… Me? I just loved to create and capture my ideas. First visually, then later through my words. It would become an addiction I would never break.

As a child I remember drawing all the time. It started when I was younger. I used to copy characters (X-Men mostly) out of the comic books I used to collect. One time I remember showing one of the drawings to my dad. He looked at it and told me there was no way I could have drawn it. He said that I must have traced it. I persisted and showed him the comic book I had copied it from. When he compared the drawings and saw that the scale didn’t match he had nothing left to do but apologize for telling me he thought I traced it.

My time as a liberal…

Lasted about as long as a blink of an eye in the grand scheme of things.

I still remember thinking at one point, that money was silly and that people should just have what they needed and give what they could. I never studied Marxism formally but there was a time in my life where I believed in the ideology of socialism and the principles of communism. I think it is a natural progression in the development of a curious mind. The exploration of a truly ideal society is appealing to everyone at some level.

Even to this day I understand the appeal of that ideology. I understand the desire to believe in a Utopian society where people are always good, have everything they need and there is no suffering anywhere.

I quickly discovered that this utopia I dreamed of would be impossible to actually pull off. There is no chance for a perfect society, and there can be no equality in life, whether talking about outcome or income. America was the closest man will ever come to a true Utopia and we are doing all we can do to destroy it.

Later in life I would get an opportunity to chase my dreams, but I also learned early on that it would be the hard work that paid off in the end. The road would be bumpy and success would be no ones responsibility but mine.

I quickly realized that there would be no one there to hold my hand or make sure I didn’t get hurt in life. There would be no do-over’s or mulligan’s. I discovered that I would have to fight, claw and suffer in order to truly be the man I thought I was destined to be. I learned that I would have to lose it all before there was any chance at having anything real.

A constitutionally conservative libertarian

I actually remembering helping my parents deliver newspapers early in the morning and hearing Rush Limbaugh on the radio. I don’t ever remember listening to it and I am sure I even protested it at times but that was before children ran all over their parents so mine just told me to shut-up.

It wasn’t until much later in life that I stated to really explore politics and learn about American History on my own. I had this thirst to understand the founding of this country and to understand other parts of world history. I wanted to know about the rise and fall of the other great societies that came before America.

I wanted to know why we were different and why, over the last 200 years America was able to grow technologically and economically like no country before it.

I am sure I studied the constitution growing up, and I’m sure I even memorized the preamble without ever really understanding what it meant. But, for some reason, at this point in my life, I had a genuine desire to know more about what it all really meant. I wanted to understand the political and ideological philosophy of the great leaders and nation builders of the past.

When I made the switch

I was carving my own path as a freshman sales professional at a Toyota dealership in Bradenton Florida, and I was finally making some real money. I started paying attention to the world and wanted to understand business and economics.

These were all things I might have learned in college… had I stuck it out. Instead, I would be forced to discover my own path. I would explore the world for myself and appreciate what it meant to live in a free country. I decided early on that I wanted to be my own king and build my own castle.

I learned to learn, and I learned to love it. I read book-after-book, not only discovering the foundation of this country but the demise of other great nations throughout history.

I wanted to understand the background for what is now the progressive political movement in America. The spawn of Marxism, Communism and Fascism. A movement that has been patiently executing a long-con on the inner workings of our entire political system.

I wanted to know everything about everything. I finally stepped out of the bubble, started exploring for myself and learned that the world is an amazing place. I saw that there was so much to know and learn about it and the human species. So much to learn about our behavior and habits as social beings.

I need to understand how and why these behaviors are constantly manipulated and how they are used to move entire sections of society. I wanted to learn more about how we are socially engineered on a mass scale and why anyone would want to corrupt the most brilliant social experiment on the face of the earth.

I wanted it all.

I started learning about political philosophy and life itself. I mixed everything I read with my own life experiences and then started to understand why someone would want it all for themselves.

I started to understand why a group of people would eventually want to take it all for themselves and turn the rest of us into their slaves. Leaving us all ultimately unable to change the national decision making process by neutering the power of our entire political system.

I saw how both of the political parties had corrupted the entire system from the inside out, and how they desensitized everyone to politics as a whole. I discovered a religion of government being built right underneath our noses and that we were falling for it hook line and sinker. I saw that it was more of a battle to protect their power than to govern under the constraints of the constitution. Or even under the pretense of protecting the people.

I saw corporations greasing the wheels of a political machine that runs the vehicle of progress that is America. I watched them pervert the word progress as a whole and dictate the entire premise of any debate.

I began to see their master plan and started to wonder when they would finally pull the rug out from under all of us. When they would have enough leverage to pull the cloak over the entire country and finally flip the switch.

I wondered if we even had a chance to stop and turn things around. Whether we even had a chance to save the country I had fallen in love with all over again.

I’m still a liberal at heart

In the truest sense of the word I am a liberal. I believe in maximum freedom and limited government. I believe in personal accountability and even used to call myself a liberal until I realized how badly the word had been bastardized.

My Struggle with the current political establishment

I don’t really know what I am when it comes to a current political affiliation. At least in the sense of using one of their popular labels.

I am usually able to understand both sides of most of their arguments, I even think there are some pretty logical solutions to many of our current political problems. I am just utterly appalled at the current state of affairs in America. It seems as if we are incapable of playing nice with one another. As if for some reason the system was set up to get us to fight among ourselves. Almost as if they were purposely dividing us in order to distract us while they ran away with unchecked power.

They have lulled us to sleep and put us all inside of boxes. With their political labels they have branded us and we are to conform or be crushed. We must fall in line with popular opinion or fall under attack. As if for some reason, all of us should somehow be ok with getting put into one of their boxes and never speaking out.

We should all live under the name of one of the labels they give us and never question a thing.  We are all bridled in political correctness, unable to express an opinion for the fear of being labeled a bigot or racist. We are to throw common sense out the door and instead follow only their direct instruction. We are to trust in them with as much faith as any religion and we are not to ask questions.

I for one think that’s an utterly absurd premise and refuse to accept it. I am unwilling to succumb to the pull of one established political party or the other. In my eyes the political parties in this country are both irreversibly corrupt. Both sides pulling us towards a tyrannical state in which we will all be left at the mercy of our beloved king.

The only difference is that we will refer to our king as president. And his kingdom will be capital hill.

 

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Why All Conservatives Are Actually Pro-Choice

“Oh no he didn’t…”

“Oh yes I did!”

Let’s start with a question:

How many ways are there to make a baby? Naturally that is.

I say naturally, because I am assuming someone who is getting artificially inseminated is probably not making an abortion decision so lets presume I am also using common sense for the rest of this article as well. If you are incapable of forming logical thoughts, you should probably go read something else.

Now back to the question at hand…

How many ways are there to make a baby?

There is only one way to make a baby naturally; last time I checked at least. A male puts his penis inside a woman’s vagina and ejaculates. The sperm and the egg do some high five shit and next thing you know cells are splitting.

9 months latter a little version of you is screaming all night keeping you from your precious 8 hours of sleep. (Parents, feel free to use that as your birds and bees speech!) #YoureWelcome

So now that we understand that…

We send you back to your regularly scheduled programming, which is already in progress:

“Uhh oh…. I don’t want a baby” said someone somewhere, after a drunk night of playing hide the salami. But, isn’t it already too late?

Couldn’t you argue that at this point the decision has already been made. That you have already done the deed. “Made-your-choice”, if you will.

You had sex; you knew what you were doing. You decided not to use a condom, take the pill or otherwise protect yourself from the one specific result that the act you committed is designed to produce. You may think sex is about the orgasm but really it is about the insemination and propagation of your species. If you cannot understand that concept then do us all a favor and please stop reproducing.

Cant you see that the entire abortion argument is based on a false premise. One where pro-life is different than pro-choice? Cant you see that they have succeeded in getting us to spend our time fighting among ourselves in an attempt to change the wrong part of the system altogether?

We scream at the state for their meddling while we collapse internally as a family? As our entire society rots from the inside out?

Sex is fun but it is also a huge responsibility.

Much like drinking alcohol or doing drugs, deciding to have sex is not something that should be taken lightly.

Think about it. If you go get drunk and kill someone on the drive home, you don’t get to just decide at some point during the trial that you just want to pay some money and erase the entire event from the timeline that is your life.

You don’t get to tell the judge that you made a mistake and that you don’t want to face any of the consequences. Instead, you get to sit in court and probably spend some time in jail. You get to live with what you have done and try to make the best of it.

The difference is that in this case you get to see the pain you caused. You get to look the family of the person whose life you took in the eyes, and feel their pain course through you. The baby has no choice, no day in court and his only family is the one sentencing him to death.

Sure, you can come out of jail and try to get your life back on track and make sure you don’t make the same mistakes again, but you can never go back. You cannot change the past. You can never take it back.

Back to the point

I go back to my article title… “Why All Conservatives Are Actually Pro-Choice”. Conservatives are typically pro-life which happens to be the other CHOICE when deciding to abort or not. Why is that choice diminished among our current pop-culture?

Why is the choice to chose responsibility looked at with scorn or somehow relegated to anything other than what it is… Responsible.

Why is ending life the only “choice”? Why is the argument fought as if there were only one choice to make when facing the decision of an unexpected pregnancy.

I would even argue further, that it takes more courage to keep the baby, but don’t run out of here thinking I am completely complicit with the entire conservative ideology on this argument.

What about rape?

The whole abortion discussion is such a touchy issue. There are so many nuances and you almost always upset someone’s ideology, which is often the collection of everything that makes them, them.

I acknowledge all of these things. I am just trying to approach it with a level head and some rational thought. Anyone who screams at you like abortion is supposed to be a cut-and-dry, black-and-white issue is just plain ignorant.

I could never pretend to tell a woman who had been raped that she has to keep the baby.

That is not my decision to make. I can love her and support her and encourage her to give thought to the choice of life.

I can encourage her to bring the child into the world and at least let them fight for themselves.

I would try to convince her to give them the chance to go out and make something of themselves. To let another family give her unborn child the childhood that she doesn’t want to, or cannot provide.

I would push her to think about the weight of this decision. A weight she will have to carry from that moment forward, but at the end of the day, it is not my body. It is not my decision to make. It is ultimately her choice to make.

The beauty of being human, is that we have to make our own choices. We have to live with our decisions and we are the only ones who can make them. That’s what makes this a pro-choice vs pro-choice debate! One which we must wage on a level stage of ideas and away from emotional attacks.

If there were only one option it would not be a choice. You cannot then, argue the issue from only one side of that choice! You cannot simply discredit the other side of the argument simply because you disagree.

There is a choice to be made, and allowing it to be argued on any premise other than the ones of that specific context is just plain disingenuous.

I still struggle with this issue

I know there are a million other issues at play here. There are a lot of places this thing could go next but I am just trying to start a conversation. I am just trying to get you to think about the premise of the entire debate and understand how we allow these issues to divide us as a nation!

All I am saying is that there is only one way to make a baby, and we all know what it is.

There are some situations in which the process is taken out of the hands of the woman (forced sexual relations, rape, date rape, etc) but for the most part, people having abortions are there because they already made one bad choice. Because they chose pleasure over sense. Because they had sex and got pregnant, and now are either not prepared or are unwilling to accept the results of their actions.

Instead, they are sitting in the courtroom, signing a contract with the judge, trying to erase history. Cashing in on one of the few instances in life where you can actually apply for a mulligan.

So… I’ll leave you with a couple questions:

Does that mulligan come at the expense of a potential life?

And, is that a choice you are really ready to make… especially for someone else?

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Red Rocket? What’s That In Your Pocket? [Podcast]

From 90’s porn to taking the world by storm.

This impromptu podcast will have you laughing, screaming and thinking about life like you have not done in a while. Explore your past and join us as we discuss some other experiences that are sure to hit close to home.

Remember trying to load pictures with a 56K modem? That is where it all starts out and then we dive into a host of issues including some insight into the darker thoughts inside my head, and how they help me look at the world differently.

I introduce parts of my sales theory in this podcast and talk about how everything in life is a sale. We discuss how I developed my sales skills, understanding how your upbringing can help shape the person you become and how looking at the world from multiple angles can really help you stand out.

We also delve into the way businesses track your every move inside their stores and the way you need to think about the information that these companies continually connect with you.

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Do You Believe In Love At First Flight?

You Never Know Where A Friendly Gesture Might Lead You

“This is my favorite part” I said sarcastically to the redhead in front of me as we grabbed our belts, shoes and other miscellaneous belongings from the trays that run through the x-ray scanners at the airport security check point.

It was something I might have said to anyone in front of me in the same situation, but I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t noticed her seconds earlier as she went through the body scanner before me. I guess you could say that this was my comedic attempt at pre-flight flirting.

She was stunningly beautiful. She was wearing a tight white shirt that left little of her figure to the imagination, had a brilliantly red head of hair, and a smile that snatched my gaze as if there was nothing else in the entire airport worth looking at.

“Oh yeah, I wish I could do this every day…” I continued, flirting casually while collecting my belongings.

The encounter was brief, nothing out of the ordinary. We were at an airport after all. The Reagan International Airport in Washington DC. I was headed back to Florida and as far as I knew, she was heading to some far off land, never to be seen again.

After the brief exchange I walked towards the gate, not even paying attention to which way she went.

I didn’t think much of it at the time. Just a little playful banter with a random stranger. A little airport humor to lighten up the all too intrusive process of the pre-flight screening.

We Meet Again

As I waited to board the plane, I noticed that she was standing right behind me.

Pleasantly surprised to see her again I said hi and introduced myself formally.

As we walked down the aisle of the airplane I noticed that she was still right behind me. I know because I kept looking back and checking to see when she would peel off and find her seat.

“You following me?,” I asked as I looked back a third time to see if she was still there. It was the perfect continuation of the playful flirting that had started at the airport security checkpoint.

As we walked further down the aisle and got closer to the back of the airplane I started thinking to myself that I might actually win the airline lottery for once.

The Airplane Lottery?

You know what I am talking about. You get on an airplane, sit in your seat and watch all of the people coming down the aisle; trying to determine which of them will fill the empty seat next to you.

You mentally will someone normal to sit down next to you (maybe that hot girl you were flirting with earlier) but they always end up walking past you. More often than not, you end up with some overweight mouth breather that wants to talk to you about online video games for the entire flight.

I Happened to be traveling with a friend this time, so I knew at least one of the people I’d be sharing the row with but there was a wild card third seat, and the cute redhead from the security line was still behind me. There was still a chance.

Ben and I sat down and she kept walking. It was over. She would be rows away and I would have no chance to get to know her further.

Not A Total Loss

“21 F” said some guy behind me. Apparently someone was sitting in his seat. I look back briefly and when I did, I realized that all was not lost. There she was in the row directly behind me. Between some old man and an teenager who must have thought he was the airline lottery jackpot winner when he saw who he would be sitting next to for the entire flight.

Our eyes met again and by this point I was starting to get the feeling that there might actually be a little chemistry between us.

Over the next few minutes I looked back at her at least three or four times. I finally said, “Quit looking at me.”

I Was Obviously Kidding

I had been joking with some of the other people around me on the plane and while a number of us were laughing and talking back and forth, I found myself looking back in her direction way too often. I just couldn’t seem to help myself. Her smile was addicting.

When the pilot turned the cabin lights off I looked back at her again and said “Well… This is not exactly how I pictured our first date…” which not only got a laugh out of her but from a few other passengers sitting around us that heard the witty one liner.

As the airplane took off, I leaned over and asked Ben if he would switch her seats when the pilot turned off the fasten seat belts light. I felt like I said it too loudly and hoped she hadn’t heard me. At that point I wasn’t sure how I was going to ask her to make the switch and I wasn’t even all that confident that she would actually agree to do it.

The Switch

I sat and thought about it for a while before turning to ask her “Hey, want to switch my buddy seats so we can make this first date official?” It took her a second to register what I was asking and I actually thought she might say no for a second, but she didn’t.

The time between asking her and making the actual seat swap felt like forever, but it was probably closer to 15 minutes. There was quite a bit of turbulence and I remembered the captain telling us to keep our seat belts on so I prodded Ben to just get up and make the swap.

We spent the rest of the flight chatting away. Not an awkward moment between us for almost two hours. At one point I remember wishing that the flight was a little longer so that we could keep the conversation going. Mostly I just wanted to know more about her. I wasn’t ready for it to end.

Second Date?

“Do you have a boyfriend?,” I asked as we began our descent.

“No” she replied. I followed up by asking her to go on a real date with me sometime soon.

I handed her my phone with a new contact entry screen open to exchange information during the descent. After her name she typed Airplane Date. It was her turn to be funny and I appreciated the humor.

Walking from the plane towards the baggage claim, we said a few final words as we prepared to go our separate ways. There was a little awkwardness at this point, at least in my mind, as I decided if this interaction had been hug-worthy. I decided not to push my luck. Her car was parked in a different lot than ours and she had not checked a bag. This would be goodbye for now.

What’s Next?

I’m not sure where this road leads or if we will ever even see each other again, but it’s too good a story to not think about how we might tell it at some party five years from now.

Maybe we are married and someone asks, “How did you two meet?”

We might look at each other and say, “Funny you should ask actually.”

Maybe she starts to tell the story of our security line encounter and then turns to me and says, “No you tell it honey, you tell the story so much better!”

Or…

Maybe I’ll never see her again. Maybe this is just a fun little story about a chance encounter.

I kind of hope that’s not the case because I would love to see that smile again, but this is life after all, and whom among us knows how any of our stories will actually end.

P.s. I am well aware that there are dozens of other outcomes to this situation, but none of them would have made as good a story. However, I would like to hear your thoughts on this experience, so leave them in the comments below. 

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This Video From UpWorthy Exposes A Cobweb Of Communism In America

An expose on progressive politics in America

Things Might Not Get A Lot Better…

And Its Time We Talked About It.

That was the headline they came up with on the UpWorthy homepage for this this video, produced on behalf of the Post Carbon Institute.

It was produced in conjunction with New Society Publishers which is another openly progressive book publisher with ties to the author of a number of book about progressive activism, one of which inspired the video in question.

The video is directed by Dalton Crosthwait who now works at MONSTRO. Two strands in what is quickly becoming a cobweb of closet-communism, spread across the internet, disguised as small business activists and community organizers.

I Start To Dig

As I began to follow their trail and connect the dots of association and involvement, I started to see that the people who produced the video were the same people trying to sell you these books, and then trying sell you on becoming active in one of their post carbon cult communities.

After a click on a featured partners links I come across a website called Balle – Be A Localist.

Balle is another large online network of businesses working together in their communities to build a network of like minded organizations.

I love a little online collaboration between creative communities so I wanted to know more, but something still felt off about the message in this video.

I still felt like there was an underlying message connecting the mission statement of these organizations and helping to unify their cause but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it.

I Dig Deeper

As I explored the Balle website, I found a list of their partners in their online efforts towards social sustainability.

At first glance they all seem to be pretty cool. Conscious companies trying to make a difference in their communities, through their products, by creating an economy around a sustainable environment.

Sounds Awesome! Tell Me More!

The first on their list of partners was a company called Etsy.

Now, I have a few friends who use the Etsy platform to sell their products online, but I don’t know a whole lot about the company itself. I hear their name in the world of eCommerce fairly frequently, so being the good little online marketer that I am, I decided to take this as an opportunity to learn more about them.

The Etsy about page proudly touts the B Corp certification that some of the other partners on the Balle site also had in common.

Having seen it a couple times now, I decided to learn more about B Corporations and their overall mission.

The B-Corp homepage claims that they are a network of “people using business as a force for good”.

I was all “F*@k Yeah!” because I thought I had finally found a place where businesses with a conscience could come to trade high fives online. I immediately wanted to become a part of the B-Team!” until I actually stopped to think about what I had just read.

I asked myself this question:

“Does that mean that all the other people on earth are using their business for evil?” And also… Who the hell wants to be on the “B” team? Just saying.

Poor Them

That all sounded a little too cold blooded, so I gave them the benefit of the doubt again.

I know that some people have a twisted view of capitalism but there is no way that these guys were saying that there are only 967 awesome businesses in the whole world… are they?

Maybe they just hadn’t found all of the other amazing businesses yet. Maybe they just need some kind of big announcement in order to get the word out.

If only they could find a huge platform to stand on globally in an attempt to reach the masses.

I Wanted To Believe

I was literally about to give up and admit defeat when I found the connection to the Clinton Global Initiative.

I wanted to quit digging, satisfied that my gut feelings had been wrong, but as I suspected, it was too good to be true.

I was starting to finally understand why I felt so sleazy when I initially watched this video. I realized that it was my gut telling me that I was not being entertained or educated. It was my brain sending up a red flag letting me know I was being indoctrinated.

They almost had me too, I was skeptical but bought in, waiting for the other shoe to drop. Then the oil tankers fell off the side of a flat earth and I actually laughed-out-loud at the irony of them using that visual representation as their metaphor for the entire argument.

The Earth Is Definitely Flat…

Sike.

Because-Economic-Growth-is-over-a-cobweb-of-communism-700x462

It became apparent that this video was part a coordinated message.

Not specifically from a single group of people, sitting in a room plotting this specific video script or colors for the animations, but as a direct result of the efforts of the same people that are responsible for the global warming hoax, the green movement and the perpetuators of Agenda 21.

It didn’t take long from me to string this video back to a group of high level political activists who will stop at nothing to spread their message of globalism and social justice.

When you look at this video through that lens, you can quickly start to see it as another attempt to convince us that the current state of affairs is permanent and insurmountable.

You can then see it as a bold statement that from here on out, America will begin to move away from the A-equals-awesome column to the A-equals-average list of countries in the world.

I Barely Scratched The Surface

I could have kept going.

As I looked at the list of founding members there were a few that immediately jumped off the page with ties to the United Nations but I had already seen enough. I had already uncovered enough of a connection to at-the-very-least,  justify my initial skepticism about the message behind the video.

Am I Totally Off Base?

Can you imagine a situation where the same people running around screaming about the structure falling apart are the ones actually chipping away at its foundation; socially engineering the collapse that they are supposedly saving us from.

That they are trying to fundamentally transform our country into a pseudo-socialist state, controlled by the same special interests and political powers that they pretend to protect us from.

What makes this time any different?

These guys are trying to close the door to prosperity and success, and will seal it shut if we don’t act now to stop it. If we don’t acknowledge that the principles of small business have been co-opted by these closet communists in an attempt to fool us once again with their manufactured message of mediocrity.

One that they secretly feed us in the form of conscious capitalism, but be warned… things like this are rarely what they seem.

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ACLU Sues, Defends Mans Right To Marry “Comput-Her”

January 22, 2064 – Associated Depressed – Image Credit

NEW YORK CITY — The American Civil Liberties Union has sued the state of New York over the issue of digital marriage rights, saying the official decision to refuse benefits to a man trying to marry his home built “comput-her” is a violation of his rights as a citizen of the new United Americas.

The Lawsuit filed Tuesday says the state has put hundreds of couples in virtual limbo as they wait for the case to go through the appeals process.

“This decision is just devastating.” said one hopeful bystander, “We were all eagerly waiting to move forward with our engagements, but now we have to wait even longer. It’s just not right!”.

There is a press conference scheduled this afternoon where the ACLU will discuss the lawsuit filed on behalf of J. Erkoff and his digital debutante.

New York Gov. Jason Grestaki did not respond to numerous voicemails left at his state house office.

More than 1,500 couples, all across New York, have filed for provisional digital marriage certificates in preparation for what they thought would be a “landmark victory” today in court.

Peter P. from upstate New York told Raymmar.com: “We are extremely disappointed. We had hoped to get married online in a few months and it looks like we will have to postpone our wedding, yet again”.

The state made it clear that it would automatically extend the expiration date on the provisional digital marriage certificates, but would not recognize them as “official” until the legal process has a chance to “play out in court”.

A spokesperson for the court stated that “The validity of any other pre-existing marriage certificates will ultimately be decided by the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals.”, which is waiting on the proper paperwork in order to process the appeal.

“I just want to move on with my life.”, said Erkoff as he left the court. “This is not a new issue and it is about time the courts recognized these marriages as legal.”

The controversy over digital relationships started shortly after the movie “Her” was released back in December of 2013. Highlighting the life of a lonely writer who fell in love with his operating system, the movie was a harbinger of things to come.

Over the last 50 years we have seen the romantic lines between humans and computers dissolve. The issue has made news recently because of the proliferation of artificial intelligence, and the fact that humanoid machinery has become a larger part of our every day lives.

These digital assistants, which first entered our houses as nannies, maids and personal chefs, have crossed the line from convenience to controversy in recent years. There have even been reports of ruined marriages due to affairs with machines.

“It’s just filthy and unnatural; God will surely punish the wicked” said one opponent to the digital marriage act. “First them gays got married, and now this; What the hell is this world coming to?”.

Some, such as singer/songwriter and influential pop icon, Phem Enisst are taking a completely different stand on the issue. She recently posted this message on her Instawall:

“We should be so lucky as to have men marry machines, we’d no longer have to be slaves to the male species and that is defs a world I could live in.” #MachineSex #DMequality.

In the last 50 years the ACLU has made considerable progress in the fight to defend individual liberties. “We will continue to fight against this injustice until the courts rule in our favor.” said Steve Ignant, legal director of the ACLU in New York. “We will take this all the way to the Supreme Court if we have to!”.

“This is just one of a number of lawsuits we will be spearheading across 5 different states in defense of the digital marriage act.”, Ignant told me as he walked away, “There are currently only 5 (states) that recognize provisional certificates, and that’s just not good enough. We will win… we are going to win this battle… you’ll see; we always win.”.

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7 Reasons Why You Will Never Do Anything Amazing With Your Life

A unique perspective on what it takes to succeed in life.

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Why I Upgraded To Evernote Premium

A Brief Disclaimer:

I am in no way affiliated with Evernote however, I just felt strong enough about it to tell you that:

“Evernote might just be the one app you didn’t know you couldn’t live without!”.

Download Evernote

Enough Ass Kissing; Let’s Get To It.

Since May 2005, I have been journaling, writing, typing and documenting my thoughts, life-experiences and ideas. I used to actually write in physical journals but after I got my iPad I decided to make the switch to digital note taking. I was looking to find the best note taking app on the market. Preferably a free one.

I instantly fell in love with the simplicity of Evernote. Not just to take notes, but to actually use them in a productive manner. You see… I still have stacks of journals with some of my deepest, darkest thoughts sitting inside of them. Full from cover-to-cover with troves of beautiful words and thoughts never to be explored again. Unless of course, I decide to thumb through them but we live in a digital world and who wants to deal with paper anymore.

“I am actully using Evernote to digitize all of my old notes. By using the scanning feature in Evernote I can take pictures of my handwritten notes and convert them to searchable documents inside of Evernote”. I’ll cover that in a future article – Subscribe to make sure you don’t miss it.

Evernote Helps Me Remember Everything

I know that’s a play on their tagline but it just so happens to be true. I rarely ever went any further back than a week or two in order to review notes, business concepts, client interactions or anything else I wrote down daily in any of those journals over the years. I would write in the book and each new page would separate me from the last by as many new words as I decided to add that day.

It took a little while to get used to typing my thoughts instead of writing them all down but now I wonder how I ever survived before. I still use the Moleskin journals to jot quick notes or to capture a sketch but for the most part I use my iPad, iPhone or laptop to access the Evernote app. I love that I can have all my thoughts with me on any device at any time.

My Favorite Evernote Features.

Here is a short list of my favorite Evernote features in no particular order. Most of them are available on the free version so what are you waiting for?

Offline Notes: 

Now that I am an Evernote premium user I can set notebooks to be available offline. This allows me to have access on my devices even if there is no internet or cellular connection. It’s like special note taking app magic that allows you to work on everything everywhere.

Multiple Notebooks:

I used to always carry a single physical journal. I would write all my notes in the journal and try to differentiate the pages by folding them over to create partitions, using headers at the top of each page and then folding different corners, in different directions in order to mark the importance of any given note. With Evernote, I can have as many notebooks as I want and they are all brilliantly accessible and crossed linked through the app. Now… with Evernote Premium, I can even share notebooks and allow others to edit and update the notes inside of them.

*New Feature* – Notebook Stacks:

Now you can take your notebooks and organize them into stacks. This is a great feature because it gives me another level of sorting functionality. For example, before this feature was available, I had separate notebooks for each of my clients but they were all scattered around (Evernote sorts notebooks alphabetically), but now I can drop them all in a single stack and keep them in one place. You could even sort your contacts by importance or start a writing folder and then have separate notebooks for your blog, poetry, jokes, short stories, etc. That’s the beauty of Evernote, you can pretty much make it do whatever you want it to do. If you get creative Evernote can even help you do business better.

Tags:

As a self proclaimed “WordPress Ninja”, I was already familiar with the concept of adding tags to my content. I always thought it would be cool to be able to add tags to my notes, and then be able to search by those specific tags. The tags even work across multiple notebooks so you can further interconnect your notes and then sort them easily and intuitively. 

Tag usage example: the tag “video ideas”  can be used on notes in my client notebooks as well as my “Blog Concepts” notebook, or any other notebook for that matter. This allows me to sort my notes by those tags and look at notes across all of my notebooks that use each specific tag. 

Business Card Scanning

One of their newest features, the business card scanning functionality is pretty revolutionary. For the professional networker, dealing with stacks of business cards can get annoying real quick. They pile up everywhere and much like your handwritten notes, often get left to gather dust. With Evernote Premium I can scan a business card and have the information converted to a contacts note inside of Evernote. I can even have it add the contact to my iPhone contacts instantly. Add a quick If This Then That recipe to the mix and all those contacts are instantly invited to connect on linked in. Seriously, it is that easy. Scan. Add. Invite. It’s pretty much like a cheat code for life.

Another useful tip:  Evernote can sync with LinkedIn to supplement the contact information for the scanned in cards. Freaking brilliant.

Presentation Mode:

This new feature is quickly becoming one of my favorites. Simply put, it gives you a clean read-only view of whatever note you are in so that you can read or share your note without distractions from the editor interface. It formats the articles in a streamlined fashion that fits right into my business workflow. I especially appreciate this functionality with my Apple TV as I can use it with airplay to share my note without having people climb all over me to see the screen on my phone. You could even use it as an impromptu teleprompter with the Apple TV and use your iPhone as a remote to control the scroll. You’re Welcome.

Geo-Tagging:

I work for myself. I don’t have a corporation behind me with robust relationship management software to help me track sales calls, territory management or any other aspect of my sales process. Out of necessity, Evernote has become my default Client Relationship Management (CRM) system. The ability to review my notes based on my GPS location is great for tracking on-location interactions with clients and prospects alike. This means that I can review all of those interactions on a map from any location. This is an invaluable feature for the on-the-go sales rep.

Whether I am talking to a cold call or sitting with an established client I always have my iPad in front of me with Evernote open and a fresh note waiting to document the conversation. I can even use the voice record feature and attach an audio account of our meeting to that particular note. I have used customized, CRM software that is not as user friendly or as robust as Evernote… just saying.

Evernote Inspires Me Be To Build A Better Business

Once in a while you come across a company that just gets it. A company that isn’t out wasting their money trying to buy market share with advertising or trying to interrupt your daily life with the story of their product. Instead they chose to create a better product. Bravo Evernote, bravo!

I have been watching Evernote over the last few years. I have experienced a few iterations of their software, I have watched them innovate, collaborate and elevate themselves to a true player in the world of cloud based note taking software. As an aspiring techie myself I look at companies like Evernote with the utmost respect. They are doing everything I preach about when it comes to social sales, amazing products, beautiful user interfaces, customer support to match and a culture of innovation.

“Other companies and start-ups would do well to look at Evernote as a model for how companies should think about creating, marketing and selling their products; online or otherwise”.

I used the free version of Evernote for a long time. I have sent countless invites to friends, family and even strangers. I am really just now learning all the intricacies and deeper functionality of Evernote. I am discovering  the true potential locked inside this powerful app and I absolutely love it. I always tell my friends that “Evernote will change your life if you let it” and, for that alone, I’ll pay for an Premium account for as long as they sell them. Why? Because I know they will only get better as time goes on. How do I know this? Well… because that’s the only thing they’ve ever done.

Download Evernote

Do you use Evernote? Did I miss your favorite feature? Tell me what you think down in the comments section. 

The links in this article are affiliate links. If you got some value out of this article or decide to download Evernote, help a brother out and use the links above so I can get credit for the referral.

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The Night I Met Molly

My friends have been trying to introduce the two of us for a while now; I just haven’t been all that interested in meeting anyone new lately. I have never actually seen her but she has quite the reputation. I hear she is not much to look at, but they assure me we will get along fine, apparently we have a lot in common; we are both awesome and unpredictable.

I am a little worried because I hear she gets around. I’m not one to judge, or jump to conclusions, but I’m not in a hurry to feel like a whore either. I don’t want to be just another notch on her belt, though; I am rather curious to see what all the fuss is about. Surely she can’t be everything they say she is… can she?

The Decision

I keep telling my friends that I am not looking for a relationship but they assure me that she is not the relationship type. I figured, “what the heck”. I’m in need of a distraction in my life right about now, so I selfishly set my apprehensions aside and agreed to meet her. What’s the worst that can happen?

I selfishly set my apprehensions aside and agreed to meet her. What is the worst that can happen?

Later that day, I found myself debating whether I would truly be ok using her for my situational gratification? Could we really just enjoy each other casually, without attachment? Could I calm my concerns and simply enjoy her company, no-strings-attached? One date would not be so bad… would it?

Part of me is getting a little nervous. I am not looking to fall in love, but If she is half as amazing as everyone makes her out to be, then how will I ever resist a second date? What happens if I fall hopelessly in lust and find myself unable to control my composure.

We Meet

We decided to meet at a friends house. We picked a neutral site so there would be no unnecessary pressure on either of us. Mutual friends would be close in case things got awkward. We figured, worst case scenario, we would meet, feel each other out and then go our separate ways if things didn’t work out.

But the conversation was effortless, and before long we were lost. Oblivious to our surroundings, enthralled in the experience of each other’s company.

She Makes A Move

Every so often her leg would brush up against mine and I knew she was doing it on purpose. At one point she put her hand on my thigh and it was as if she had reached right through my skin, down to the bone, squeezed a nerve, and sent a chill running through my spine, up into my brain, culminating in a shiver that shook my entire body.

I had been warned about this; I knew she was making her move. I resisted the temptation to run off alone with her; there would be plenty of time for that later. Instead, we just sat there and enjoyed the moment. Slowly building on the tension that was quickly filling the air between us, growing stronger, growing evermore intense as the night went on.

My jaw clenched and my body quaked at the indecision of the emotions that were filling my head. The music coursed through us as if the radio knew just what we needed to hear at exactly the right moment. I looked around at one point and noticed that no one else was around us. We were alone with each other but surrounded by something I could not explain.

As time passed we grew closer still. By the end of the night we were in a full embrace, unable to keep our hands off of each other, consumed by the night, and in that moment I saw myself for the first time. Unencumbered by the constraints of society or the judgement of the people around me. It was like she reached down my throat, grabbed everything good that had ever been inside of me and smacked me In the face with it; setting me free, if only in that moment.

It was like she reached down my throat, grabbed everything good that had ever been inside of me and smacked me In the face with it; setting me free, if only in that moment.

My friends were right. 

She was not the prettiest girl at the party and I’m not sure there is any real long-term potential, but there was definitely something irresistibly attractive about her. She understood me and made me feel like we had been friends our whole lives. She wasn’t everything they told me she would be but I definitely want to see her again.

What do you think? Have you had an experience like this? Let me know about it in the comments below!

Image credit: https://s1300.photobucket.com/user/ShurshCrazy/media/Random%20Pics/null_zps1faa528e.jpg.html

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How To Open A Stocking

This is how we do Christmas!

Tirado’s have a knack for doing things a little different than most. Christmas is no exception. Merry Christmas from Raymmar.com 2013

How did you celebrate your Christmas? Let me know in the comments.

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The Evil Inside Me

I am a parasite, I live deep within you. I make it impossible for you to stay true.

A cancer in your soul, no cure, no treatment! I feed on your peace and your moments of weakness.

You call out for change but I know you don’t mean it; you beg me to stop but but I can’t hear you scream it.

 

We know each other and we coexist but deep down you know you cannot resist.

The pull of my power, the draw of my name, your deepest desires to relish in pain.

The pain of others, a pain you can spread, a pain that sparks, the dark thoughts in your head.

 

Where do I come from? You haven’t a clue, but still, here I sit, deep within you.

Waiting, hoping, stalking my prey, counting and pacing as you run away.

Knowing that no matter how hard you run, you will never escape me because you and I, are one.

More Poetry

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Stuck In Love – The One That Got Away

Have you ever met someone who just gets you… understands you… completes you?

Someone who, although you were in your darkest hour, made you feel like you were doing exactly what you were meant to do and being everything you were meant to be.

A person who free’d your heart from the shackles of shame and allowed you to begin living your life again. Someone who made you feel like you were in exactly the right place at exactly the right time and in that moment, nothing else mattered.

I can’t imagine it happens more than a few times through the course of our lives.

If we are lucky, we recognize the importance of this person before it is too late. But unfortunately, I feel like all-too-often, we are left looking back, wishing we had done more, wishing we had fought harder, plead stronger and held on longer.

“What do you do when this person leaves your life? How do you move forward?”

What if you were the one who walked away, knowing the pain you would cause and conversely have to endure?

What if you understood that the only way to move forward was to move on?

What if you were wrong?

I need you to know this.

In my darkest hour we met, and shortly thereafter, I left.

You might never know how much it hurt me, how many tears I spilled, wondering if I had made the right decision; the sleep I lost thinking about you.

The sleep I still lose thinking about you.

I don’t know if I will ever publish this but if I do and you happen to read it then I need you to know these things.

I will always love you!

I was so lost, wandering through life. Unwilling or unable to move past all that had happened before. Stuck, as if frozen in time, clinging to pain and darkness as if it was all I had left.

But, you knew the way. You taught me to forget. You replaced those memories.

You stood next to me when everyone else ran away. How will I ever express the debt I can never repay?

You fixed me. You rescued me from myself.

You didn’t reach down and try to pull me from the hole I was in, you climbed down and sat right next to me until I was ready to leave.

You showed me that no matter how hard it rained, we could always move past the pain.

You restored my hope in the world, pulled me back from the edge of a cliff and made me smile like I had never smiled before.

From the first time I saw you I loved you and you unlocked my heart with that first kiss.

You were exactly what I needed at exactly the right time.

I wish circumstances would have been different. Oh, what I would give to have things turn out differently but we both know that can never happen.

There is a part of my soul that will never heal from having let you into my life. I wonder if I will ever be able to feel completely whole again without that piece of me, but I would never ask for it back.

I would live in pain forever before risking an existence without the memory of you.

I am scared for the one who comes next.

I tell myself I am over you but part of me will always wait.

Like some sick romantic comedy I will move on, because that’s life, and eventually, time heals all pain, but you could come steal my heart at any time.

With one touch you could make me melt. I would be completely defenseless against your advance, and on that day, I would stand in the rubble and smile at having had one more moment with you.

I truly hope you are happy.

I hope you think of me on occasion.

Maybe one day our paths will cross again but for now I am going to try to forget you.

I am going to try to remember the worst of you so that I might have some chance at knowing happiness again.

But it will never work, I will never forget you.


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Why Does Grocery Shopping Still Suck?

A few ideas that I think could revolutionize the grocery shopping experience. Read more

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South

A Mostly factual account of the events that precipitated my move from Ohio to Florida. March, 2004

New Feature: Listen instead of read!

You can still find the full text below but I know most people don’t really like to read so…. your welcome!

Be sure to let me know what you think about this new feature down in the comments below.

[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/121412515″ width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]

Full Text:

There is no real ambition amongst most of my friends, no drive and no desire to escape this lower middle class monotony that we call life. I have a little side gig making fake ID’s out of my bedroom at my parents house. One of many skills I picked up and perfected during a short stint as a student at an overpriced art school in Detroit. I specialize in Georgia, Michigan and Ohio drivers licenses, and all of my friends have them. I can even replicate a hologram using this pearlescent paint I found online. They aren’t perfect but they work well enough and people pay whatever I ask, so I’m not really complaining.

I also work part time as the head lifeguard at an indoor pool where I oversee some of the lifeguard staff, manage some of the minor pool maintenance and coordinate a portion of the aquatic programming. Outside of work, whenever I am not making ID’s, I spend my nights bar hopping, trying my luck at various pool tournaments around town or drinking with friends late in to the night.

I sleep in most mornings. I’ll wake up with just enough time to do it all over again the next day. I recently found out that one of my regular ID customers is using them to cash stolen social security and tax return checks. I thought it was strange that he would need so many ID’s from me, all with different addresses, but I didn’t put two and two together until the friend who referred him to me spilled the beans.

“Do I really care?”

He pays me $150 per ID and orders multiple times per week. I know it’s not right but the money is good and it’s tax free. Between that and the steady referrals from friends and underage college kids, it’s all I can do to keep up with the demand.

I have already been warned that if I continue to make the ID’s my parents are going to kick me out of the house, not to mention the criminal charges I might face if I get caught, but I keep making them. I’ve actually been considering investing in a professional grade card printer. I found one online that will print both sides of a real plastic card and even encode all of the information on the magnetic strip. Right now I print them on photo paper, glue the two sides together and then laminate them together to get that plastic card feel.

I know it sounds sketchy but they are actually pretty realistic and will pass most random inspections. If the bouncer starts bending it, trying to fold it or really looks closely you are pretty much screwed. Most of the time a bouncer will just tell you to get lost and keep the fake ID but if there is a cop around you’re probably going to get arrested. I recommend you try another place if there is a cop by the door and eventually you’ll learn which places are the most lenient.

“If you do get caught it’s on you bitch! Drop my name and I’m coming after you hard.”

***

It’s hot. Not unreasonably hot for a local, but for a guy born and raised in the Midwest, it’s verging on unbearable. I wasn’t even supposed to be here right now but my brother couldn’t make the trip so I came instead. Mom and I on Spring break in Sarasota Florida. One of many trips to visit my dad who moved down here a year ago. They are still together but who knows for how much longer. I am not sure if they are still together to protect us from the pain of divorce or if they’re just waiting for my brother to finish his last year of high school. I don’t think they can tell but I know it’s over, it’s just a matter of time.

It’s been a long time since I was on a vacation and considering my recent decision not to return to college, it is a welcome escape from my typical routine. It’s not like I really need it. My whole life is pretty much a vacation right now. But still, here I am, relaxing in the pool, working on my tan while Dad is at work and Mom reads the paper.

“Wait… Where the hell did she get a newspaper?”

She never reads the newspaper and we don’t get it delivered to the house so it seems a little strange to see her reading it.

“Come look at this” she shouted across the pool. I make my way over to where she was sitting to look at an advertisement for a sales position at a local car dealership.

$36,000+ guaranteed first year income it read.

They would be accepting applications for the next few days and there were immediate openings for their next sales training program.

I hadn’t planned on looking for work while I was down here, not to mention that I have no sales experience whatsoever, but she insisted that we stop by and at least grab an application on the way back from the beach that afternoon.

“What the heck” I thought to myself. “That’s more money than I make now, even with the ID’s”

I’ve been complaining about not doing anything with my life. I just dropped out of school, and I don’t really have anything (legal) going for me back home. I figured “Why the hell not?”.

***

I walked up to the car dealership wearing a white button up collared shirt, half unbuttoned with the sleeves rolled up to my elbows. It was wrinkled as if I had just pulled it from a beach bag; because… I had just pulled it out of a beach bag. I was wearing my favorite shorts over top of a damp swim suit so there was an outline around the seat of my pants from sitting in the car on the ride over.

Before the sliding glass doors to the showroom had opened completely I was greeted by a salesman who approached me as if I was there to buy a car.

“I am here to fill out an application” I told him as I walked into the showroom.

He looked at me as if I was stupid or had just smacked him in the face and told me to “go see the receptionist” and he went back to his post, waiting for his next victim.

“Was this really the change I was looking for?”

“This is how you dress for a job interview?” Said the guy behind the table as I introduced myself.

“What? No, I…” stuttered as I tried to tell him that I was just there to pick up an application. Turns out that had I “read the fine print” I would have known that they were holding interviews on the spot.

“I can come back” I explained but he told me not to worry about it.

“Just fill out the application and have a seat over there.”

Gary came over to greet me and give me the once over. After giving me a little more grief about my attire, he invited me back to his office for the interview. I’ve always been a smooth talker so I just told him what I thought he wanted to hear, answered his questions to the best of my ability and crossed my fingers through the whole thing. I still wasn’t sure I wanted the job but I wanted to be the one to make that decision so I put my best game face on during the entire interview.

I’m not that worried, they are looking for a hustler after-all, and I’ve been hustling since I was knee high to a grasshopper. I used to help my mom deliver newspapers in the snow and I even had my own paper route by the time I was 11. I always understood the value of working hard but liked the idea of working smarter instead. I didn’t figure telling them about the fake ID’s would win me any points so I left that out during the interview, all in all, I left the dealership thinking it had gone pretty well.

The next day the phone rang. It was Gary, apparently I did enough to overcome my inappropriate attire and he wanted me to begin the sales training course this coming Wednesday.

“Holy moving too fast batman!”

It was all good news but there was one problem: my flight back to Ohio was scheduled for Thursday. It was life-changing decision making time.

I had to decide whether to:

A: postpone the flight, take the training and make a spontaneous, cross-state, move to Florida

or

B: Pass on this opportunity and fly back to my outlaw lifestyle of lameness in Ohio.

It wasn’t much of a decision really. I called the airline and pushed my flight back to Saturday so that I could take the training course. I still wasn’t sure wanted the job but I figured I would take the class and get a taste for the type of work I would be doing before fully committing.

I quickly realized that there were other hurdles I would have to overcome. Basically, I don’t own any dress clothes. Considering I am expected to show up in a shirt and tie for the training class this poses a serious problem.

Dress clothes are expensive as hell and I have about $100 bucks to my name right now. Mom saved the day though and with a quick trip to Wal-Mart, I realized that everything would be ok. I picked up a few of the tackiest ties I could find, a couple pair of cheap dress pants and dress shirts and I was ready to rock! #ThanksMom

The training was a breeze, I soon discovered that I was a natural at understanding the sales process and quickly became the teachers (Alex) pet. He was the same guy who had questioned my attire when I first came for the interview, the man behind the table that I talked to before being turned over to Gary.

We laughed at that experience as I explained the entire situation in more detail. I had fun in the training, thought selling cars would be something I’d have no problem doing and decided that I would in fact embark on this adventure.

My flight landed in Columbus mid-afternoon Saturday. I promptly loaded everything I owned in to the back of my Hyundai Tiburon and wondered how this adventure would play out over time. I had called work from Florida and let them know that this Sunday would be my last day. Short notice for sure, but I had a world to explore. The next day I went to work at the pool for the last time before my long drive back to Florida.

***

Every Sunday was Service Industry Night at one of the bars/pool halls we frequented. My friends and I would go each week for the cheap drinks and free pool. We had become friends with the bartenders over time and decided it was only natural to throw down at our favorite Sunday spot considering this would be the last time we would all be able to hang out for a while.

Family friends, childhood friends and a number of other people I hadn’t seen in a long time stopped by to say goodbye and wish me luck. We got drunk early, pounding shots, chugging beers and smoking cigarettes. I was on a mission to drink any doubts about my new adventure under the table. Everything was happening so fast.

A girl I had met before but didn’t know too well saw us all in the corner of the pool hall and came over with her friend to hang out with us for the night. There had never really been anything between us other than flirtation, but this night felt different. Maybe it was the excitement of the new job and move to Florida or maybe it was the six shots I had already thrown down but I knew I was about to get lucky. As the night passed I could feel the sexual tension between us growing. We drank more, eventually started making out and next thing you know we were at her place across the highway from the pool hall.

“Do you like to party?” She asked for the third time.

“Sure” I replied wondering why she was asking me so much considering we just left “my party”.

I would soon discover that my definition of “party” and her definition of “party” were from two different planets. Eventually, I figured out that she was trying to discreetly ask me if I wanted to snort cocaine with her. I had never done it before and I was definitely curious. Between the booze and the voices coming from my little head, my big head was having a hard time deciding what to do. I was verging on the edge of adventure.

I didn’t do it. I know I’d love it, but knowing me, I would have been instantly addicted. Within a week I would be on the corner of some crowded intersection offering to suck random dicks in order to get enough money for my next fix.

Later on I would regret not letting her snort a couple lines of coke of the shaft of my dick, but I was way too drunk to be that creative.

Instead it was off to the couch for me while she ran to her room to snort the 8-ball all by herself. There I sat in the darkness of her living room; alone, drunk, slightly erect and more than just a little pissed off.

When I woke up she was still crashed out in her room. I knocked but couldn’t wake her. I worried for a moment about her safety and then about how I would get home. She never woke up but I did get a hold of a good friend who had been with me the night before and asked him to come pick me up.

I sat there waiting for him to show up and couldn’t help but notice her purse sitting wide open on the coffee table. Right on top was a hundred dollar bill, maybe one that she had used to snort coke at some other time in her life.

I don’t know why I did it: maybe because she didn’t have sex with me, maybe because I was broke or maybe because I really am just that big an asshole. Regardless, I snatched that hundred dollar bill from her purse and walked right out the front door to meet my friend in the parking lot.

I would never see her again. Fuck it.

***

The drive began early Monday afternoon. My tiny car packed tight with everything I owned. Some miscellaneous clothes, computer and fake ID equipment along with a small TV. I had to leave some stuff behind, not knowing or really caring whether I would ever have a chance to come back and get it all.

I was looking in one direction and one direction only. Forward.

The doubts that creep into your head on a drive like this are terrifying. “What If I fail? What if I suck at selling cars? When will I make new friends? Where will I be in 5 years? Am I making the right decision? Should I turn around? What the hell am I doing?”

My bank account had a hundred or so dollars in it. I had the Franklin from the prude coke-head last night sitting in my wallet but there was no back-up plan. I’ve never been a saver, most all of my money is spent on drinks, partying and gambling on the pool table. I would be getting a small paycheck form the pool this coming Friday which will hopefully get me through to my first commission check from the car dealership.

I hate stopping on long drives. I just want to get from point “A” to point “B” as quickly as possible. This is the first trip of this length I have ever done alone but driving solo is nothing new to me. Thankfully the car is reliable and I had no mechanical issues to worry about on the way down. I do however, have to worry about exhaustion. I’m hung over and tired, but the excitement of new opportunities far outweighs my fatigue. For now.

***

I woke up to the horn of a truck honking at me from the next lane over. Half asleep, I realized that part of my car was no longer on the road.

Whizzing by on my left were the stanchions supporting the median divider. I had already passed over the rumble strip designed to alert me in precisely this situation. I could feel the lack of control in the steering wheel as the tires underneath me transitioned from asphalt to grass. My heart hit the top of my throat and I braced for the impact that was certain to follow. It never came.

I was somehow able to regain control of the car without rolling or even having any of my stuff fly all over the place. With only 60 miles left, this was all the adrenaline I needed to stay alert for the rest of the drive. It was about 7:00 am and I had driven straight through the night. I got to my Dad’s apartment as he was getting ready to leave for work. It was Tuesday morning.

I fell asleep on his bed when he left for work. I decided I would unpack the car later on after a nap. Not like there was much to unpack anyway. I had to rest, my sales life was about to begin.

 

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Where’s All The “Collaboration”?

How collaboration usually works:

Other Guy: “Oh hey, you are really good at that thing you do. Want to come sprinkle some of that awesomesauce over here so we can all be awesome together?”

You: “Yes! Definitely. I’ve been working really hard for the last few years trying to be a boss and I’m not quite there yet. I think I might be on to something big though. I would love to work with you guys and see what we can build together!”

Same Guy: “Sweet…      ……..        Derp!”

You Again: “So. . . . . Hey, I was thinking” – Awesome idea… awesome stuff… more awesome stuff – “So how do you think I can plug in? Do you think we can figure out how to build a transformer of awesomeness right here in sleepy ass Sarasota?”

That other guy again:  ……Well we have to (mostly you though) do this and that and the other thing…… and once that is done then you might be able to do this and that for us, but you’ll probably never get anywhere that matters because we take all the credit for the good ideas and by the way, would you stick your nose right here, no not there, here… Right here, smack in the middle of my @$$………

How Collaboration should work:

Legit Guy: “Oh hey, you are really good at that thing you do. We are doing some pretty cool stuff over here too. Want to play together?”

You: “Booyaka! I’ve been working really hard for the last few years trying to be a boss and I’m not quite there yet. I think I might be on to something big though.”

Still Legit: “Sweet. – Here is what I can deliver and what I will expect from you. Why don’t we find a time where we can get together in a collaborative environment and take some time to figure out how we can work together.”

You Again: “Man that would be amazing. Here is what I think I can bring to the table ” – Awesome idea… awesome stuff… more awesome stuff – “Let’s figure out how to build a transformer of awesomeness right here in sleepy ass Sarasota?”

Too Legit To Quit: “Oh snap son, bring that badness. Let’s work together to drop atomic bombs of creative catastrophe on the lesser beings!”

And then… You both do that shit! – The end… Kind of.

Good story but why should I care?

If that story gets under your skin then may be you are the awesome guy, or maybe you are like the rest of us who try, in vain, to collaborate with the cool kids. But if that story does not strike a cord, then it might mean that you are the worst of all possible frauds, the kind that doesn’t even know he is one.

Everyone is talking about collaborating these days but few are actually doing any of it productively. So many people run through life throwing their collaboration credit card around as if they were racking up collaboration credits to cash in on a frequent failure program. For some reason they pretend to be this thing they are not and when it comes time to roll up their sleeves and get to work, there is always a hiccup, there is always a road-block standing in the way of actually getting anything done. So many people pretend to be collaborators when all they are is time and resource wasters.

As an early stage creative entrepreneur, you find it more and more difficult to find the people you can truly trust with you collaborative credit card. Issuing too much debt to the wrong content creator can leave you holding the bag for a much larger obligation. One which you are unwilling or unable to fulfill. Be careful of who you chose to collaborate with in business. New ventures are often lethal to weak friendships, especially in the face of any adversity which is almost impossible to avoid in the early stages of a start up.

So… what you’re saying is?

I have no real agenda. Like most of the rest of my blog, this article started with a question and a desire to explore that curiosity. I am really just thinking aloud about my collaborative experiences up to this point in my career. Using my diverse experiences as well as my interpretation of the behavior of others along the way, in an attempt to show you that there is a system to all of this. That it is all part of one big system and it is all tied together by a few principles that you already know about. You just do not know how to use them to get what you want.

You either do not know or are unwilling to admit that by following a few simple suggestions about creative collaboration (among other things) you can begin finding ways of plugging into the community of creativity that probably already surrounds you. You can learn to leverage the world around you in a mutually beneficial way in order to help everyone involved get what they need. You’d be surprised to discover what other people are capable of if you actually give them a chance to do it. You will be surprised at how much you can gain in life by just helping people get what they want. It is a simplistic approach to collaboration and life in general but it works.

All that being said, here are a few tips to make sure that your next quest for collaboration is a productive one.

Avoid These 9 Common Collaboration Mistakes:

  1. Terrible communication: Both people need to be on the same page in order for effective collaboration to take place. You can use a note sharing app like Evernote or google docs to share ideas and work through the planning stages together.
  2. Failing to plan: Collaboration is fun when it is spontaneous and you just happen to stumble across it but planning a meeting at least a week ahead allows people to better fit it into their schedule. Considering participation is key to collaboration, giving people a real opportunity to participate is vital to doing it right.
  3. Selfish Collaborators: You must be willing to let people show you how they can contribute. It is impossible to discover anyone’s hidden (or not so hidden) talents if you don’t provide an environment for them to freely express and explore their creative faculties. Collaboration should not be sidestepped due to ideological interjections. People need to be free to explore the collaboration in whatever method makes them most creative. Judging books by their cover is a good way to miss out on a great collaboration experience. Do not let any insecurities prevent you from opening doors in life wherever you go. You never know who might be standing behind it.
  4. Loud Mouths: You know who you are. I am not talking about the guy in the corner who knows what he is talking about and interjects with useful contributions. I am talking about the ignorant tweedleberry who just likes hearing the sound of his own voice in a room with more than just himself sitting in it. Please know what you are talking about or don’t talk about it. Nothing will strip you of your credibility faster than bloviating on a subject on which you have only a marginal understanding. Shut your mouth, take a few notes and go Google that shit. Then maybe next time you can contribute something meaningful to the conversation instead of wasting everyone’s time.
  5. Participation Trophies: If you say you are going to do something or be somewhere or get something done, then do it. It is that simple. Do not expect the other collaborators to cover your quota. You must be engaged and willing to deliver on your word. You do not get credit just for showing up!
  6. Keeping Quiet: If something is bothering you then speak up. How is anyone supposed to fix anything if they all think its working fine. Leadership means speaking up. You might be surprised at who stands with you. This doesn’t mean you throw a creative coup, just that in order for this to be a meaningful collaboration you have to feel satisfied as well. In order to make sure this happens please refer back to miscue number one!
  7. Too Much Structure: It is important to guide the collaboration but not necessarily to control it. Too much of an effort to control the collaboration can result in an unhappy group. Also, be flexible with how people are compensated/rewarded for their efforts. Some people might need to make money from their collaborations and others might just be looking to pad a resume, gain a little experience or build some new relationships.
  8. Political Posturing: I am not talking about Washington DC politics. I am talking about back office, highschool clique style politics. You are not the only person with good ideas and there are often many solutions to every problem. Just because the collaboration is not taking place around your personal idea does not mean you get to run away from the table. You can’t run off to mommy every time someone gives you some harsh criticism. Learn to delegate and step back once in a while. One of the hardest lessons for a leader to learn is that in order to lead you must first know how to follow.
  9. Sabotage: This is the worst of all of them and is the only one that involves malicious behavior. Do not take advantage of someone under the pretext of collaboration. Do not steal an idea from your fellow collaborator only to pass it off as your own. Do not waste the labors of others with tedious repetition or futile propositions. You are hated amongst all of us in the creative world who would share our trust and knowledge with only the expectation of reciprocation, only to be slapped in the face by a sneaky saboteur. This is not cool and might even call for public humiliation. Maybe a titty twister in times square or an indian burn by Chuck Norris. Either way, it should hurt because you make it infinitely more difficult for the rest of us to do our thing.

That’s all for today class!

Take a deep look at how you really collaborate. This article touched on the creative side of collaboration but you could easily apply these principles to any collaborative setting in your everyday life. When you are looking for collaborative projects be sure to look for projects that you can get passionate about, find something you are really good at and then find someone who is really good at something else and come up with a way to work together. Like any creative process the first way may not always be the best.

Collaborations do not have to happen over night and the most productive collaborative relationships are built over time. To be truly productive in collaboration you need to build trust and deliver on your word. Sometimes that takes more than a few months but that doesn’t mean you cant get started today. I challenge you to find someone who you can lean on collaboratively. Someone who can give you just as much as you expect to get from them and always look to bite off a little more than you can chew. This is how you learn. Test yourself, try new things and always deliver your best possible work regardless of the compensation. If the project has your name on it then it should be the best you can make it. Otherwise, take your name off the project.

What do you think? Any collaboration nightmares you would like to share with the class? Leave your thoughts in the comments. 

Your Life is a lie master

 

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