Writing everyday is hard.
The only celebrity I’ve EVER had a crush on…
Being a Parsi Zoroastrian
Of all the emails and questions I get from maintaining this blog, I every once in a while get this one from the curious:
What ethnicity are you?
I get this question quite frequently in real life also. Technically the answer is: I’m Indian.
Most people think I don’t look “typical Indian” whatever that means….and I’m not.
I’m a Parsi Zoroastrian.
- Zoroastrianism = My religion, one of the oldest known religious in the world.
- Parsi = A Zorastrian from India or Pakistan. Both my parents are from India.
I won’t go into great detail about the religious aspects of Zoroastrianism, you can read the Wikipedia entry for more info on that.
I will however discuss the cultural aspects which I think are far more interesting. This is a widely debated number, but there are less than 150,000 Zoroastrians in the world (and that’s one of the higher figures). That means we’re only .0025% of the world population. Not big.
Whenever an inquisitive person begins questioning about the religion and I’m not in the mood to engage in that conversation, I quickly end it by stating, “We’re kind of like the Jews of India.” I see a lot of similarities between Zoroastrians and Jewish people:
- We have historically been business owners, lawyers, bankers, doctors, accountants etc..
- We have big noses and are stingy with money. OK OK, that might be a little stereotypical…although for me it’s pretty on the nose (pun intended)!
- We’ve gone through long periods of religious persecution (in fact in Iran it’s still particularly bad).
- Had our own version of the Holocaust.
- We have a Navjote before we’re teenagers which is esentially the equivalent of Bar Mitzvah.
Now one of the main differences of Zoroastrianism compared to the major faiths of the world is that you cannot convert into Zoroastrianism. Whether or not people should be allowed to convert in or not is a harshly debated subject within the Zoroastrian community .
I honestly try not to get myself entagled in this incessant debate, but with such dwindling numbers and a birth-t0-death ratio of 1:5, it’s a mathematical certainty the numbers will be reduced to nothing with the current system.
Anyhow, those are longer term predictions. Within my lifetime it’ll still be around.
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I think it’s been an inherently very positive influence on my life to have grown up a Zoroastrian with a large base of Zoroastrian friends. Some of the things I like about it:
- When you meet another Zoroastrian person, it’s highly likely you’ll know some mutual friends.
- The bond between a newly met Zoroastrian person is automatically extremely high.
- No matter what part of the world you meet in, it’s very likely you’ll see that person again.
- People help each other out in tight-knit communities.
- Very high sense of belonging.
So if you ever meet another Zoroastrian….drop my name. There’s actually a strong chance they’ll know me!
How I ALWAYS stay on top of things and never waste time
An ode to good parents
…I think I have a pretty good life….and there’s two people I primarily owe that ALL to:
My parents.
I had a great childhood because of them.
I was taught I could pretty much do anything.
My parents never forced choices on me like a lot of my other friends’ parents.
They were unbelievably fair with me.
They were never overbearing.
They always had their own lives and didn’t make me and my brother the center of their whole universe.
I grew up in an extremely loving relationship.
They always have fun with everything they do.
When I was younger talking amongst friends, I would hear, “OMG I never wanna be like my parents”. I told everyone the opposite. I DO want to be like them!
Warren Buffet always attests much of his success to being born into a winning hand of the “The Ovarian Lottery” because he was born at a certain time, to great parents in a nation that rewards hard work and innovation.
I feel I got the same :-)
Love you mom & dad (I know you read this)!
Accountability
I’m trying to brainstorm ways of keeping myself accountable…(or others for that matter).
I’m in the slightly unique situation of not having to answer to anybody. This means I have no boss or anyone who will yell at me if something doesn’t get done. If I have a bad month in terms of how much money I made, it’s literally 100% my fault. I also don’t have people which depend on me getting certain things done.
I analyzed some situations where things get done, even when you’re lazy about them:
- In school, if I didn’t finish my homework I’d get a bad grade.
- In a company, if you don’t finish certain things you can get fired.
- In a company, you might have people who depend on what you’re doing, so if you don’t finish, they get mad at you.
These are all great reasons to get something done before the deadline even if you don’t want to.
So each of these has a:
- Task that needs to get done.
- Someone expecting or dependent on the task getting done.
- A negative consequence that happens if you DON’T finish.
I make monthly goals all the time, but I realized until I decided to blog everyday there is NO ACCOUNTABILITY for each of my goals (you may recall I openly set that goal with NevBlog readers, and in addition set a negative consequence if it doesn’t happen). So that goal has all the elements of a task that WILL GET DONE. But what about the others?
So I’m brainstorming some ways that I can get all my goals done:
- Posting each goal on this blog (but what if it’s something I don’t want to be public)?
- Get a Business Coach to discuss each goal and call me about its progress and due date (kind of like the accountability MyBodyTutor gave me for the 6-Pack Experiment which worked BEAUTIFULLY).
- I could set a negative consequence for each goal, but it’s missing the #2 part of the formula (someone expecting or dependent on the task).
Hmmm…..so it looks like the best way is to have some sort of business coach that I speak to several times a month that keeps me accountable.
Has anyone found some great ways of keeping their goals and ALWAYS getting them done?
Alpha State of Mind
Somewhere in my adventures in reading random books at the library I came across this little trick:
Getting into a hypnotic-like, Alpha state of mind.
The steps were:
- Wake up in the morning.
- Quickly go to bathroom if needed.
- Immediately get back into bed.
- Lay down, close eyes, and slowly count down backwards from 100 to zero (2 seconds between each number).
- BAM! You’re in the “alpha state”!
It seemed like a pretty easy process and was worth a try…just for fun.
I gave it a try the next morning, and the damndest thing happened….IT WORKED!!
After an almost excruciatingly long count down from 100, I realized that (and yes, this sounds a little weird), that I was kind of having a conversation with myself…in my head. It was like I could ask a question to myself and get a very quick, non-censored answer instantly from my subconscious.
Wow…that sounds like I’m on drugs!
I do it every once-in-a-while, and it’s actually been a pretty useful tool for helping me sort out my day before I officially wake up. I can also “ask myself” a question about a problem I’ve been having, and the mind generally spits out the answer you already know is right…but might not want to admit.
How to get published on anything
Back in college, to write for The Daily Texan (#1 college newspaper in the country) you had to:
- Generally be in certain classes
- Apply for the job
- Go through interviews
- Submit writing samples
- Be a “staff” writer for a year
- Get promoted up to a writer
I wanted to publish some business-related stuff in the newspaper, and all that BS above seemed useless and time consuming.
Figuring that EVERYONE who applies says, “I want to write for you guys”, I tried the opposite (kind of like this mentality).
Before I ever talked to ANYONE at the organization, I went ahead and actually wrote out three full, quality articles. I even went out and got quotes from experts and copied the typical newspaper-story format.
I then printed out four copies of each news story and brought them along with me for my very first talk with someone at the newspaper.
I literally walked into the office and asked, “Who do I speak to about publishing something, I’ve got articles ready to go.” The person in the office was a little intrigued that I had ALREADY written the articles BEFORE I’d even made an arrangement and took a quick glance at them. Deciding they were decent enough, he walked me over to the “Special Features” editor and told him I had three good articles ready to go.
Now a newspaper has to pump out quality content every day, that’s hard, and I somehow KNEW they would accept my articles quickly, but I didn’t realize HOW quickly! They asked me to come in later for an editing session….me and editor sat down for two hours brooding over every sentence (a process I didn’t really like), and the 1st article was ready for print that week!
BAM…I was a published newspaper writer in two days :-)
The next several articles were the same story. Editing session –> publish.
Some good advice Linda?
Sweat Proof Undershirts?
I’m rummaging through my old Gmail records looking for traces of “Silverback Apparel” and found several emails dating back to 2007 and 2008.
The next instance was pretty recent, when Jonathan Oullet contacted me saying I kind of helped inspire him to start a company.
However I’d like to tell you another quick story before we proceed (don’t worry, it all goes together):
My Downtown roommate kept talking about manufacturer high end and sweat proof undershirts as a business….and I immediately raised a crooked eyebrow at the idea. However he CONSTANTLY talked about it and researched getting shirts made with silver thread (or something like that) which reduces bacteria, smells, sweat etc etc…and even “double fabric armpits” and all sorts of odd features. (This is seriously a true story).
So one day I sat down with him and did some quick competitive research (aka I Google’d it). We came across very few places that had anything like he wanted to make, except one: Silverback Apparel. It was kind of an “Awww-shit” moment for my roommate who realized someone had beat him to the punch.
Nevertheless he was glad such a product existed and wanted to buy some.
I still thought anyone so interested in sweat-proof undershirts was INSANE.
Annnnyyywaaysss….
About one week after we realized some guy had already made these shirts, Jonathan Oullet left some comments on NevBlog and contacted me via email about his company I “partially” inspired…SILVERBACK APPAREL! He designed and manufactured these super-high-end undershirts and was selling them to really high end stores.
I was flabbergasted I had TWO nutjobs in my life that were obsessed with sweat proof undershirts! <— awww…link love.
A few emails later and Jonathan sent me some samples of these undershirts. I honestly didn’t think I’d be impressed.
I WAS WRONG!!
I’m LOVING THESE SHIRTS! You see, I live in Austin, TX. and it’s hot as hell during the summer. On some days, even just walking around my back tends to sweat through my shirt. In fact I don’t wear colors like blue so I don’t get massive sweat stains all over my shirt.
The first time I wore one of these undershirts, I just wore it around as a t-shirt to do errands. I got in my car (which had been parked in the blazing sun) the whole day and did all my errands. I noticed something weird: My back wasn’t sweating like it normally does. My (under)shirt also didn’t feel dirty like most shirts do after walking around on a hot day.
Maybe all the bamboo and silver thread the shirt was made of actually worked? I also noticed the armpits were double-fabric, as well as the entire back of the shirt (so even when I did sweat I couldn’t feel it AT ALL on the back of the shirt)! I didn’t realize at first how many “extra features” this shirt had. It also just felt really damn comfortable. I also would brag to friends, “I’m wearing a $60 undershirt!” ($50 plus shipping for the high end stuff).
This post wasn’t a paid post, I just genuinely like the product Jonathan created.
This is why I risk posting biz information on this blog even though some people might copy it. I think it’s hella cool he got at least SOME inspiration to start a business from me. Kind of makes me feel all warm inside (but NOT sweaty!) <–wow…that was a lame joke.
Doing Handstands with Tim Ferris
I don’t consider Tim Ferris a HUGE celebrity like Elton John or Lance Armstrong, but I do consider him a big celebrity in certain circles.
Most of the people I know have heard of Tim Ferris, or at least occasionally read his blog….and if they’re even semi-nerds, they DEFINITELY know him.
Ok, typing this is boring, I’m jumping to the pen:
It was actually pretty fascinating to hear him talk about his quick rise to fame…and how it was no accident. He used a lot of VERY CLEVER and untraditional ways to get his book out there…and it’s amazing how well it worked.
I have a new found respect for him.
It was also very cool that some very high up people at the conference during their speeches said how The Four Hour Work Week changed their lives! I previously thought the book was meant for not-very-big-time people…but I was very wrong.