Watching Being in the World, a small film about some pretty big ideas, opened my eyes to the state of philosophy in the 21st century. It had everything from Plato to Creole cooking, Heidegger to juggling. Modern day philosophers weighed in on the age old question of the meaning of life as well as what makes us human. Artisans and masters in their fields of work shared what they do best and how it brings them alive.

There were more than a few sessions of brain aerobics as I attempted to follow the rational roads of philosophic ponderings laid out by such mental masters as Hubert Dreyfus, Charles Taylor, and Mark Wrathall. After relating the story of MIT’s 1960’s foray into artificial intelligence and Dr. Dreyfus’s admonition that a computer could never be intelligent, John Haugeland, a professor of philosophy at the University of Chicago, said something that resonated with sublime simplicity. What makes us unique, what sets us apart from any computer is that we give a damn. It’s ultimately our give-a-damnness that makes us human.

In the film Leah Chase, a New Orleans chef, shared her recipes, but also that the ingredients and directions on paper wouldn’t guarantee the same cooking results as hers. Manuel Molina only plays flamenco on a handmade guitar because that is where he touches another’s humanity. The colours of wood Hirosui Sakaguchi uses in his buildings speak to him as a lover speaks to their beloved. It is in our caring for what we do and for who we encounter that meaning can emerge in life.

The lesson is in allowing the master within ourselves to emerge whether we are washing a dish or conducting an orchestra. A meaningful life doesn’t depend on what happened in your childhood or even a minute ago. Meaning comes with the next breath, the next step, the next moment of wonder that arises within us. It’s in following inspiration, in allowing the best of us to witness the best in each other. To show up with every cell in our being for this show we call life.

And I think that’s worth a damn.

Being in The World Movie Trailer

Click here to view the embedded video.

Photo Credits

Feature Image – Microsoft Office Clip Art Collection

Thumbnail and Image in Post are Screen Caps From The Video – Being In The World

Being Human is a post from: Life As A Human

When they first started, hardly a trail was seen
Many then passed, a road now gleaned.
Deeper still, water they bore
Making them dangerous lore
Now I find my wheels caught still
By the ruts of habit, against my will
Pulling out is the hardest task
Harder still not falling back.

Photo Credit:

“insentient ruts.” Flickr creative commons. Some rights reserved by tetsu-k.

First published at: Opinions of Eye

Also published at: Broowhaha

Guest Author Bio

Drew Sager
I think and think and 99 times I’m wrong. But on the 100th time, I’m right. – Einstein

I blog, play music, body surf, hang out with bikers, and occasionally go to church.

Blog / Website: Opinions of Eye

Rut is a post from: Life As A Human

“In the blink of an eye wealth disappears,
for it will sprout wings
and fly away like an eagle.”
~ proverb

I believed that an abundance of possessions would make me happy. I bought friends, my entourage following me around faithfully as long as the money and parties flowed. I took security in my future by how much I could stash. During these anxious moments, I felt pressured. Pursued by the need to get more, to be more, to gather and gather until my storehouse was overflowing. The more I gained, the greater the need to protect my belongings. I started packing guns and rigging traps. Becoming obsessed with security, holding on to my little corner of the world. Sorry man I was, now that I had all this, money, women, “friends”, pretty things and wild times, I felt burdened with the care of a shaking empire. The weight bore heavy on me, knowing that if I skipped a beat I would lose it all. Responsibilities put their chains on me and whipped me into submission.

The pressure slowly drove me down. Finally, in an economic suicide, I began to let all these things fall through my fingers; every moment of letting go felt like razors drawn across my soul. Left with nothing, but a hurting body, tortured by abuse and late nights; I found myself there, broke, lonely, hurting, and questioning. My prayers turned from, “protect my stuff lord”, to “thank you for this beautiful day and health”. Slowly as I turned from my selfish pursuits and let my “stuff” go, I rebuilt my life. Things are building again, however, I hold them loosely. I am more than my things and my friends. This time I am going to be successful, without the burden of having to be a success. Let go, look for those things which are above what you can see. You’ll then have riches without sorrow.

“The blessing of the Lord makes one rich and He adds no sorrow to it.” ~ Proverbs

Photo Credits

Microsoft Office Clip Art Collection

First posted at: Opinions Of Eye

Guest Author Bio

Drew Sager
I think and think and 99 times I’m wrong. But on the 100th time, I’m right. – Einstein

I blog, play guitar, body surf, ride a Harley, and occasionally go to church. Oh, and I live in Hawaii!

I’m an apologist and an apostate. I’ve been knocked down, way down, and fought my way back up, way up. I’ve been an advocate of peace and a destroyer of the same, in a word, I am dichotomy. A battle of polar opposites.

Blog / Website: Opinions Of Eye

The Stairway To Heaven Is Not For Sale is a post from: Life As A Human

We all have them from time to time – strong, emotionally-colored urges to act in ways that make no rational sense and are counterproductive in our current modern society. Our forbears, and conservative Christians even today, ascribed this to “Original Sin” and prescribed prayer and penance as a countermeasure. Classical psychiatry presumes that the roots of such behavior lie in early childhood experience and suggests uncovering the experiences that planted seeds of present maladaptive habits as a cure.

In recent years anthropologists and evolutionary psychologists have been paying more attention to the possibility that many troublesome urges are the hard-wired product of evolution – that they have a basis in our human genes and are there because for most of the history of the species, they were adaptive. This makes intuitive sense to me, and is more in keeping with my own experience than the psychiatric model.

One current area of active research in evolutionary psychology deals with disgust and its role in disease avoidance. Disgust is distinct from fear and hatred. It produces nausea and a strong urge to avoid physical contact, not a fight or flight response. Smells are more powerful triggers of disgust than sight or sound, suggesting, among other things, that more primitive parts of the brain are involved and that disgust responses have very deep evolutionary roots.

There is much anecdotal evidence and some scientific data suggesting that disgust reactions are stronger among pregnant women than among the general population. It has been suggested that morning sickness, for example, once served an adaptive function by making pregnant women less likely to eat toxic or contaminated foods at a time when the developing fetus is most vulnerable to toxins or disease. Substances tend to be disgusting more or less in proportion to the likelihood they will spread human disease. Rotting meat and human or carnivore feces are disgusting; rotting vegetables and horse manure merely unpleasant. A person disfigured by the scars of trauma provokes a very different reaction from one with oozing sores.

When I was pregnant, I experienced a strong negative visceral reaction to severely handicapped children, which was something of an embarrassment since it ran counter to everything I had been taught about proper compassionate behavior. It required considerable exercise of will to keep from crossing the street to avoid coming in close proximity to a child with cerebral palsy. In retrospect I think it was that atavistic portion of my brain processing the handicap as something possibly contagious, and urging me to keep at a distance to protect my unborn child.  In this instance, overriding the instinct was clearly the right thing to do. At other times, listening to one’s “gut” may not be such a bad idea. Pregnancy, for example, sharpened my normal aversion to certain artificial sweeteners that are now suspected of having undesirable effects on adult human metabolism at high levels and could have corresponding effects on a developing fetus.

Further Reading:

Natural News contains a compendium of information on links between artificial sweeteners and a variety of health problems including metabolic changes and premature birth.

Science Daily features an article on the role of disgust in evolution and its possible role in moral judgments.

Photo Credits:

Photo courtesy of Martha Sherwood.  Public Domain.

Listening to my Gut is a post from: Life As A Human

Personification of Bad Government from a fresco by Pietro Lorenzetti, Siena, circa 1330.

Photo credit:

Photo Courtesy of Martha Sherwood

Pathogenic Evil is a post from: Life As A Human

In Be Responsive, I described an important way to separate yourself from your competition. I have been meaning to write an article on other ways to differentiate yourself for some time now. I just needed a spark …

A few months ago, I found an oddly shaped package sitting on top of the rest of the mail in the mailbox. It was from Ontario. I took the mail upstairs, placed it on the kitchen counter and made myself a cup of coffee. That done, I turned my attention to the mail. Bills and solicitations were the order of the day but there was still this interesting package from a mysterious address. When I opened it, I was at once amazed and delighted to discover that its content was none other than a big package of Silly Bandz! I opened the package, placed one on my wrist and ran upstairs to my office to send a certain Ryan Hupher a big thank you.

Ok … let’s rewind the clock.

When we launched Life As A Human, one of my first priorities was to find a good company to partner with to help us serve up ads. I had done a lot of research and found a few possible suitors. I contacted these companies but was told we were too new and that I should ‘reach out’ again to them in 6 months. Six months later, I did just that … and never heard a thing back from them. Frustrated ( and a little annoyed ), I decided to look for other potential solutions which is when I found a company called Isocket while checking out what ad-platforms sites like TechCrunch use.

I contacted Isocket. Ryan Hupher replied almost immediately. We scheduled a call to discuss our needs. He gave me as much time as I needed and was genuinely interested in knowing more about Life As A Human, how it all started, what our vision was … you know … all the stuff a good executive wants to know so that he can present the best possible solutions to a potential partner. Though for now at least, we are small potatoes compared to some of his other clients like Mashable, TechCrunch & Grooveshark, Ryan was nonetheless courteous, professional, informative, and a lot of fun.

So what does this all have to do with Silly Bandz and separating yourself from the competition? A few weeks before the mysterious package arrived, I had been speaking with Ryan on the phone. During that call I asked him why his status message on one of his social media channels says:

“Yes, I’m Wearing A Silly Bandz”

He asked if my kids had ever played with Silly Bandz. I told him that to the best of my knowledge, my kids, now grown ups, had never played with Silly Bandz. Ryan explained to me that Silly Bandz were all the rage where he grew up and he described them to me in detail. I told him I would have to check them out. We chatted a bit more then said our goodbyes and I went back to doing my work, forgetting altogether about Silly Bandz.

A few weeks later, I am e-mailing Ryan a thank you note while actually wearing a Silly Bandz. While getting the package was very cool, that Ryan thought to do it in the first place is a testament to his character and his customer relations skills. You see, Ryan intrinsically understands that building strong relationships that are based on trust and respect are more important than simply providing a service. He recognizes that developing a relationship has greater lasting value than just knowing how much content we have, or how many page-views we get, or who hosts our site. On a playing field replete with self-centered, self-serving and non-responsive people, these attributes set him apart. They differentiate him and by extension, Isocket from what can at best be described as an ocean of mediocrity. Because he cares, he pays attention. Because he pays attention, he knows I am also a musician which is why he sent me the RockBandz.

Isocket is a young, creative and innovative company that have a great product for publishers and advertisers. But no matter how great their product or service might be, ultimately, it’s their people that make the difference. Apparently, they understand and have fully embraced this key differentiator.

Great job Hup!

Photo Credit

Photo From Silly Bandz Web Site

Yes, I’m Wearing A Silly Bandz! is a post from: Life As A Human

To do two things at once is to do neither.
Publilius Syrus, Roman slave, first century B.C.

Don’t look now, but there’s something else you need to do.

The problem is there is always one more thing to do, one more task to add to the endless list of tasks to be completed in any one given life span. Are we really meant to do so much in a progressively smaller and smaller window of time?

This week I read an intriguing article in The New Atlantis by Christine Rosen entitled “The Myth of Multitasking.” It was written a few years ago, but I can’t help feeling that the urgency of its message is more profound today than ever before. I know myself that I have proudly boasted my multitasking prowess at every job interview for the last couple of decades and I seriously thought I was accomplishing more than one thing at a time as I answered phone calls, typed email messages and passed off pantomime instructions to nearby co-workers.

Truth be told, there’s no such thing as multitasking. Really. It’s physically and psychologically impossible. Attempts at multitasking carry with them their own litany of risks. Driving while using a cell phone is one. Mounting stress to do more and more is another. The constant shifting from one activity to another has fostered a new condition called “attention deficit trait”. One writer believes multitasking is leading us into an attention deficit recession  and in a 2005 research study funded by Hewlett-Packard and conducted by the Institute of Psychiatry at the University of London, it was found that “Workers distracted by e-mail and phone calls suffer a fall in IQ more than twice that found in marijuana smokers.”

When I first drafted this article I included 10 steps to aid in unplugging ourselves from the Machiavellian multitasking machine. For better or worse its turns out I’m not a 10 steps kind of woman. I just don’t think life’s answers are that easy. I don’t have a checklist of the perfect mate or the ideal job or what will make me happy. I suppose that goes back to my Buddhist leanings, realizing that there will always be something else beyond the list to be craved, to be yearned for, something in the future that is pushing its way into the present.

With that in mind and shifting our view of multitasking as a myriad of future tasks vying for our present attention, try to treat them as a buffet of choices. If there are too many things screaming for your immediate attention then stop, take a few breaths and sort them by time-lines and priorities. If 12 things must be completed today, which of those tasks need to be done before lunch, before 10am, and so on. Can something be delegated to someone else or wait until tomorrow? Is there a way to combine the tasks or even eliminate a few? Some things, after all, don’t really even need to be done. Many are leftover from the “we’ve always done it that way”closet and they just don’t fit anymore. Wish them well and send them to the appropriate refuse container.

More than anything, be gentle on yourself. Make space in your day for a good heartfelt chat with a friend, a replenishing walk in nature or time spent in reflection and meditation. And never forget the power of a long, relaxing bath. It will set multitasking on its ear, and that’s not such a bad thing.

Additional Reading & References:

The Myth of Multitasking by Christine Rosen, The New Atlantis, Spring 2008.

The Autumn of the Multitaskers by Walter Kirn, The Atlantic, November 2007.

Study funded by Hewlett-Packard and conducted by the Institute of Psychiatry at the University of London – source BBC News, April 22, 2005.

Definition of “human multitasking from Wikipedia.

Photo Credit

Hands of Worker by Victor Bezrukov

You Really Can’t Do It All is a post from: Life As A Human

I recently picked up a copy of Dr. Stephen Hawking‘s latest book, The Grand Design, and I was looking forward to learning about the latest developments in theoretical physics. I hadn’t even finished the first page before I was tempted to throw the whole thing in the garbage. On the very first page, Dr. Hawking has, unintentionally, revealed in stark clarity the serious danger facing the scientific community: intellectual irrelevance.

The first paragraph muses, mildly poetically, on how humans have always wondered about the nature of the Universe. And here is how the second paragraph starts:

Traditionally these are questions for philosophy, but philosophy is dead. Philosophy has not kept up with modern developments in science, particularly physics. Scientists have become the bearers of the torch of discovery in our quest for knowledge.

I was stunned that so intelligent and accomplished a thinker could draw such a small-minded and ignorant conclusion. Really? Philosophy is dead? Science is all that there is? If that is truly your belief, Dr. Hawking, then I pity you.

Now before anyone labels me a Creationist or assumes I’m a member of the Hollow Earth Society, relax. I’m a huge proponent of science and embrace the advances in human knowledge it brings. For the record, my father, whom I respect greatly, has a PhD in physics and if it was possible to get one without having to do math I’d have one myself. Fascinating stuff. But for all its success in recent centuries, science is hardly the be-all and end-all of human discovery.

International Physics Conference, 1911

Here’s the critical thing that unfortunately some scientists just don’t get: not only does science not have all the answers, science can’t even form all the questions. Science is a tool at our disposal, very well suited to exploring certain aspects of our existence. It is completely incapable of exploring other, equally important aspects of our existence. Unfortunately, it seems that some people who have devoted their lives to science, such as Dr. Hawking and that particularly sad and laughable figure Richard Dawkins, have decided that anything which science cannot address simply doesn’t exist.

This is the very real danger facing modern science, and physics in particular. Believe too much in the superiority of your own specialty and you will lose connection with the rest of reality. This ultimately leads to intellectual irrelevance, as the rest of the world carries on addressing the full spectrum of knowledge that exists. It’s ironic, and sad, that some of the brightest minds around today are becoming the very thing that they criticize so vocally.

Philosophy is not dead, Dr. Hawking. But if too many of your colleagues adopt the extremes that you appear to have, theoretical physics will be. It will be replaced by a relevant school of thought that encompasses rather than excludes.

Originally published at Virtues of War

Photo Credits:

All photos courtesy of Bennett Coles

The Danger Facing Modern Physics is a post from: Life As A Human

Spring is here, summer is sneaking up quietly behind. I can feel the warmth of summer on my back. The long days of summer, I am eager for them to start. It has been an unusually cruel and brutal winter it seems to me, a never ending stream of dark days. The sun it seemed had abandoned us.

Then the temperature changed and so did my feelings. I could feel that kid in me again, as my joints warmed up in the sun. I was back, back to a time where my body was never sore, where my joints never ached, back to a time where I could run and jump and skip and seemingly all at the same time.

My pixie cut head bleached by the sun, I reveled in the summer months playing trucks in the sand that seemed to form by the curb of the sidewalks. I took my trike out for a spin up and down the sidewalk, my mother making sure I was safe even though at the time there was never it seemed a car in sight.

I called on my friend Dawn and we played from morning till night, cowboys and Indians when such a game would not be politically incorrect but just a game that kids played.

I could spend hours with pie plates and dirt. Making molds of mud, pouring and adding and filling and pounding. Clay squishing through your fingers, it went everywhere, splat here, splat there, the driveway covered in mud.

Then there were the rain dances. I can still feel in my body the absolute joy of those dances in my friend’s side yard. We would grab hold of a tree with one arm and hoop and holler, yodel and yell, skipping and jumping up and down in an ancient yet childish dance for rain. The wind would pick up and funnels of dirt and sand and tiny stones would swirl around us as we chanted and sang verses calling on the gods to bring us rain. The clouds would gather in the distance and my friend Dawn and I would look at one another and smile and away we would go again with the same sing song praying for rain as we danced around the tree. We would then see lightning in the sky and we would both scream in terror or joy … did we do that? When the rain finally came we would laugh and yell and continue our dancing until we were called in by our parents.

Oh the simple joys of being a child and embracing the absolute freedom of summer and its magic, the trips to the park, swinging up into the sky, trying to touch the clouds. I would go to the pond with a mason jar and try to catch tadpoles. Some days were spent just lying in the sweet soft grass in my back yard looking up at the sky and daydreaming for hours. There was no rush, no phones, no video games, the pace was slow. The summer it seemed to me lasted a lifetime when I was a child.

My body in constant motion, sun baked skin, bruises and scrapes on my knees. All signs of unbridled freedom, to explore and just be a kid. When you were hungry you ate. When you were tired you slept. There were no rules. Summer gardens flourished and so did we, us kids, growing up when we did. Our parents never seemed concerned when we were gone for hours on end.

I still enjoy the mud pies although I have expanded on the theme somewhat and can spend hours in my garden, digging and planting. Often when I am at work in the garden those vivid memories come back to me of playing in the dirt, the soil our great mother earth. I smile and am thankful for that opportunity I had so many years ago to be one with nature and to be totally engrossed in the magic of summer.

Although I don’t do any rain dances anymore I know that child in me can still enjoy the pleasure of sharing such a moment with a friend. Moments that encompasses man and nature. moments when those two entities seem to be one.

It’s those amazing memories that endeavor to show you just how truly connected you are to the child that roamed the neighborhood, much like the ancient dinosaur. That child still lives in you, embrace her and don’t ever let her become extinct.

 Photo Credits

Microsoft Office Clip Art Collection

Guest Author Bio

Martha Farley
I am a daycare Technician at the Lester B Pearson School Board and when I am not working I write.

I have had several articles published in the Montreal Gazette as well as the West Island Gazette.

I also received the honor of being one of the writers published in a book that Mark Abley edited featuring many writers from the Pointe Claire area celebration the 100th anniversary of our city.

I have also had several poems published in anthologies.

Follow Martha: Facebook

Mud Pies And Rain Dances is a post from: Life As A Human

A week ago, I shared a life success coach’s perspective on optimism, and the difference between optimism and the desire for happiness. The point was that, although optimists are “positive people”, they aren’t stuck on an idea that they need to be happy 24 hours a day. I thought I’d share a comical experience to illustrate how and why optimism works in the real world, and why most people are actually quite resilient in the face of all sorts of difficulties.

Around New Years, my mastermind group meets to create our visions for the coming year. This year we decided on meeting in Arizona. The thought of a cushy hotel surrounded by Red Rocks and the rest of Sedona’s grand, picturesque beauty, seemed perfect. However, we decided to “rough it” by camping out in Maricopa National Park.

I can’t begin to describe how ridiculous four city guys look, trekking out to the desert with our laptops. We looked more like Star Trek extras on an “away team” mission.

Captain Kirk, eat your heart out.

So, we’re getting comfortable in this foreign landscape and I start my own little exploration.

I examined every inch of the landscape trying to figure out what made this place ‘tick’. (I guess as a life success coach I do the same thing with people.)

As I completed my detective work, I found this beautiful cactus. It’s about waist high and looks completely innocent, especially compared with one of the 20 foot high Saguaros.

I’m a touchy-feely sort of character. I can’t figure things out with a quick look. I’ve got to get my hands on it. True to my “hands-on approach” to life, now I can’t keep my hands off this cactus. I’ve got to EXPERIENCE the cactus.

Real smart.

Proud of my careful approach, I gingerly place two fingers in a tweezing motion around one of the many spines coming out of my new cactus, and give it a tug.

The cactus didn’t budge.

I give a firmer tug, and a whole SECTION of the cactus came off, and because of the momentum caused by my tinkering tug, the cactus ‘attacked’ my hand, driving its’ spines into my fingers.

OUCH. This cactus hurts, especially while it impales my fingers.

Can a Life Success Coach Survive “Cactus Hands”?

It gets worse.

I attempt to remove this thing from my hand (some weak flailing) and no avail. My nearby mastermind friend takes hold of it with a pair of credit cards to keep his hands a safe distance and I pull pretty hard, but no luck. This cactus has so many spines embedded in my fingers that no amount of general pulling will remove it without taking my fingers with it.

Now my friends are laughing at my plight and I’m walking around with a cactus attached to my hand. I look like “Edward Cactus Hand”.

My friend Scott breaks out the first aid kit. Luckily, we find some plastic tweezers and I begin to painfully pull each cactus spine out of my fingers.

Here’s the punch line: I’M LAUGHING THE WHOLE TIME.

1. I’m in pain.
2. I don’t know what the consequences are of having this cactus in my hand (Infection? Poison? Who knows?)
3. And, I’m laughing about it.

Seem strange to you? It shouldn’t after my explanation.

Why was I laughing?

Even though I wasn’t happy about my predicament, I was focused on a few things that were even more important than my happiness and comfort at the time.

#1 – I Was Living Life Fully

I want to feel that I’m getting the full experience of life. Even the bad stuff… I want to experience that too.

Even though I want to avoid pain, at some level, I’m actually interested in it.

Aren’t you interested in some potentially painful situations?

Don’t you walk into situations from time to time that you think will provide some discomfort or pain?

If you have ever entered into an intimate relationship more than once, you likely knew you that pain was inevitable. You knew it was going to hurt, but you did it anyway.

I want to know what the pain of life is like. That’s part of the experience of fully living my life.

Even when the cactus pain got intense, I experienced the surprise and the vividness of living my life fully. This cactus thing was a life success coach’s adventure to say the least.

#2 – I Got to Experience Contrast

If you’ve ever experienced…

1. Relief after a ‘good cry’.
2. A sense of camaraderie or connection with someone after fighting with them.
3. A sense of accomplishment after suffering through a long, hard, work project.
4. Joy after successfully making it through a medical procedure or diagnosis where your life (or quality of life) was in question.

…then you’ve enjoyed the contrast between negative and positive experiences.

The bad times are a big part of what (by comparison) makes the good times so good.

I love to feel the change in my feelings. That’s when I feel alive.

I don’t want to feel good ONLY. If all I did was feel good all the time, I’d go insane.

If steak and lobster is your favorite food, but you eat it every single meal, eventually you’ll hate steak and lobster. Scientists have shown that the pleasure people get from the same positive experience tapers off pretty fast when repeated over and over again. After 6 or 7 steaks in a row, according to science, you’ll be more likely to ask for Ramen Noodles instead of that prime rib.

Feeling good doesn’t feel good. I want to feel “different”. I want to go from the depths of despair to ECSTASY. I love to feel the contrast in my life, and notice the difference between moments.

I loved the feeling that I got when I pulled that last cactus spine out of my hand.

The CONTRAST was awesome (painful, uncomfortable, but AWESOME)

This year, rather than sheepishly avoiding life, why not embrace LIVING IT? Even the painful parts! Why not look deeper into the things that you avoided last year. Go after them! Confront them! Capture them!

What’s YOUR Cactus?

Photo Credits

All Photos By Jeffrey Sooey – All Rights Reserved

Guest Author Bio

Jeffrey Sooey
Jeffrey T. Sooey is the CEO of JTS Advisors and the founder of Coaches Training Blog community.

Jeffrey began his study of personal success with the masters of NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming). This led him to an involvement with the Anthony Robbins Companies as a results coach and seminar facilitator. As his client list grew, he began implementing the technology on a professional and organizational level, focusing upon team leadership and management. Jeffrey began to redevelop the original success philosophies of Napoleon Hill by facilitating the alignment of his clients’ goals with their values and strengths. The results of his clients are immediate and lasting.

Mr. Sooey’s love for the saxophone brought him to the top of the jazz scene in New York City. He played frequently at the famous Blue Note and subsequently traveled round the world to Japan as an international Jazz recording artist. Mr. Sooey traded equities for private accounts, studying under master traders of ABN Amro and Schonfeld Securities, LLC. After leaving the Robbins organization, Jeffrey co-founded 180 Television Networks, an international media conglomerate — serving as President and Vice-Chairman. He has addressed distinguished audiences ranging from the International Coaching Federation to University of Southern California graduating MBA class of 2002. Jeffrey also contributes his skills as a motivator and speaker by giving workshops at local penitentiaries. Mr. Sooey is the President and CEO of JTS Advisors, a boutique firm offering full focus support to a select clientele.

No stranger to the water, Jeffrey’s personal interests include windsurfing and offshore yacht racing. On the weekends, Jeffrey still loves to sail and on many given evenings you may find him performing music.

Blog / Website: Coaches Training Blog

Follow Jeffrey: Facebook | YouTube | Twitter | Linkedin

Life Success Coach Attacked By Cactus is a post from: Life As A Human