Photo taken by my brotha Matt Tallarico in India and used as a postcard. One of the most thoughtful gifts I’ve ever received.
(Source: Spotify)
Grand Central Dance Party. I love this city so much it hurts.
How You Do Something Is How You Do Everything
Happy vibrations danced around smiling faces in Autumn’s backyard on an early fall night; her favorite street performer was there for the birthday celebration, and was making his bongos sing. Everything was enhanced by the presence of different groups of welcoming friends, the apple ginger cocktails being served up by Will, and the welcoming feel the lighting and plants gave the rare outdoor space.
Before the event, Autumn asked everyone to come with their favorite quote written on a piece of paper. As the night began to wind down, cups of hot apple cider with rum were passed around, and everyone placed their quotes in a box. As the box was passed, each person pulled out a piece of paper. Once all the quotes were evenly distributed, one person at a time would read the words on their paper to the group.
The experience was such a beautiful way to connect everyone at the party, and the words people spoke either created laughter or insighted thought. In particular, one very simple quote struck me, and I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it, “how you do something is how you do everything”. There is so much truth within those simple words, and they have become a very significant influence on many of the actions I take on a day to day basis. I feel as though if I’m more conscientious about the little things in life, it affects the big stuff as well. There is so much evidence out there to back this up…
Studies show that when someone that starts exercising consistently, they will almost certainly change other habits in their life for the better (nutrition, health education, lifestyle, etc).
Entire corporations have been turned around by focusing on changing an area of their business that was completely unrelated to profits.
Nick Crocker’s entire life changed when he decided to floss every single day.
What is so powerful about this concept to me, is that I think it can afford a person or an organization the opportunity to make significant positive changes, just by making a real commitment to changing seemingly unimportant ways of operating. Think of someone that is generally disorganized and sloppy… if that person makes a decision to keep her room pristine, and puts a lot of focus on this one particular area, if it’s done for long enough, my belief is that it would be virtually impossible for that mindset and habit not to have an effect on other areas of life.
Everything is interconnected, and the small stuff really isn’t that small. Make a real change in one area in your life, and the rest of your world can shift.
“If you worship money and things – if they are where you tap real meaning in life – then you will never have enough. Never feel you have enough. It’s the truth. Worship your own body and beauty and sexual allure and you will always feel ugly, and when time and age start showing, you will die a million deaths before they finally plant you. On one level, we all know this stuff already – it’s been codified as myths, proverbs, clichés, bromides, epigrams, parables: the skeleton of every great story. The trick is keeping the truth up-front in daily consciousness.”
“I have brought myself, by long meditation, to the conviction that a human being with a settled purpose must accomplish it, and that nothing can resist a will which will stake even existence upon its fulfillment.”
— Benjamin Disraeli
Jesse wanted a simple, beautiful watch with no logo or branding on it. Turns out, it’s not easy to find. This is a before and after of the piece I purchased; I had it customized by Leo at 146, a local watch repair shop and design collective in Williamsburg.
Luck Is A State Of Mind
Professor Richard Wiseman at The University of Hertfordshire can tell if you’re lucky just by handing you a newspaper. He’ll ask you to count the number of photos from front to back, and if you’re finished in 30 seconds or less, you have strong odds of winning at the game of life. On the 2nd page of the newspaper, in large 1 inch letters there is a message inserted that says “STOP COUNTING - THERE ARE 43 PHOTOGRAPHS IN THIS NEWSPAPER.” It’s not a trick either, there really are exactly 43 images, but many people miss the message because they are too focused on searching for photos. Wiseman hypothesizes that “being in the right place at the right time is actually all about being in the right state of mind”. People that view the message and stop counting right away tend to think they have good luck, but according to Wiseman they are just more prone to see and act upon opportunities in life.
Professor Wiseman identified 4 characteristics of people that tend to be lucky…
1. An open mind and a heightened awareness.
2. The conviction to follow intuition and make gut calls.
3. Positive outlook on life and a resilient personality.
4. The ability to turn a bad situation into a good one. These people tend to turn misfortune into an event that leads to great opportunity. Wiseman sited this as the most important factor to luck.
To summarize Prof. Wiseman’s findings on luck, I think he’s really just saying that you make your own.
I got this information from a fascinating Ben Sherwood article in The Daily Beast. The post goes into much more depth, and if you’re so inclined, can check it out here.
Shameless Self Promotion
My medical mobility startup was featured in the Desk.com customer service blog. My favorite line, “Small Company, Big Heart”. Check it out here.
“The very best startup ideas tend to have three things in common: they’re something the founders themselves want, that they themselves can build, and that few others realize are worth doing.
Live in the future then build what’s missing.”
— http://paulgraham.com/startupideas.html This post by Paul Graham is so on point. It’s an all encompassing & brilliantly insightful write up on the infamous “startup idea”.
Sherpaa
I peddled along the strand on a pink beach cruiser in Hermosa. The sun rays were beaming in opulent west coast fashion and the ocean wind passed the soft scents of sand, sun block and board wax through my nostrils. My grin stretched for my ears, while my right hand steered and my left hand held a surfboard against my torso. All 5 senses were fully indulging in the frequencies of southern California, including the occasional murmurs of laughter and jokes about my fem bike as I rolled past locals (a loaner from my friend’s roommate). It was an Instagram day until I lost my balance. I flew off of my pink steed and felt my knees and palms grind against the concrete. Luckily the surfboard had only a few dings, but my left knee was scraped up pretty badly.
A few weeks later, the wound didn’t look right, and I was nervous that it might have been infected. I considered going to the ER or making a doctor’s appointment, but both options would have been time consuming and potentially expensive. Instead, I emailed a photo to my best friend Jordan, an ER resident at Methodist Hospital in Brooklyn. Within 10 minutes I had a response; Dr. Jordan had quickly ascertained that what worried me was actually part of the natural healing process. Problem solved in 10 minutes for zero dollars.
Over a month ago, my girlfriend Jesse needed her appendix removed. As luck would have it, her uncle, Dr. Dick Goodenough, is a surgeon at Mass General. Dr. Goodenough got Jesse in to see his colleague immediately, had a CT scan expedited and had Jesse on the operating room table for a smooth procedure in record time. When it came time for Jesse’s follow up appointment, she emailed a photo of her surgical incisions to Uncle Dick with an update on how she felt, and was able to bypass the doctor’s visit. Brilliant!
Can you imagine how empowered people would be if they had the same quick and frictionless access to practitioners and their networks just by sending an email or picking up the phone? Dr. Jay Parkinson has, and he’s built Sherpaa, a business to give the masses the same wonderful healthcare experience that Jesse and I were so lucky to tap into.
Sherpaa provides a service that employers can offer their teams, that grants seamless access to a large network of doctors in New York City via phone and email. Many times a problem can be solved or answers to questions given right over these mediums, but in situations in which further medical attention is needed, Sherpaa’s team of doctors will connect patients with specialists for fast appointment scheduling and surgery if necessary; all for less out of pocket expenses to patients and their insurance carriers.
As a startup junkie, I love Sherpaa’s concept, but I’m even more enamored with their business model. It starts with the fundamental realization that not every dilemma and inconvenience can be fixed with computer code. As Jay Parkinson said, all the easy problems have been solved by technology, but difficult problems that remain need human intervention. Most of the issues in healthcare are too big to solve with an algorithm, and so are many other challenges that humanity faces today. How many other big, fat, hairy, problems could be tackled by specialized and focused teams that leverage technology instead of completely relying on it? For a lot of people in the technology space, I believe thinking like this would be a simple, yet powerful paradigm shift that opens up new doors and solutions to entrepreneurs that want to make big changes.
I’ve been on a green juice kick for a month, and it’s changing my life. Almost every day, and sometimes twice a day, I have 16 grams of this God’s nectar. Since introducing it into my diet, my energy levels have skyrocketed and my caffeine intake has hit an all time low. The formula tends to fluctuate a bit, but here are the central nourishing ingredients I have pressed into my concoctions.
- green apple
- lime
- ginger
- cucumber
- broccoli
- celery
- kale
- parsley
- spinach
