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Down Goes Desire

Wednesday, December 3rd, 2008

Down Goes Frasier, Down Goes Frasier.

I was at the driving range, the other day, swinging at golf balls. Notice I didn’t say hitting golf balls. I learned awhile back that if you want to at least sound like a good golfer you say

“swing at the ball”,

not “hit the ball”. I was recalling some of the various golf lessons I’ve had, and specifically the ones I had with “Jimmy”, one of the Golf pros at Westchester Golf Course in Los Angeles. I was feeling a desire some additional lessons. Then, within a split second, the mind (places that hold worry, guilt and all those other trap doors) kicked in and said. ‘You fool, with this economy, you are thinking about taking golf lessons”? You can’t afford that luxury. My response was, you are right. How can I be thinking about taking golf lessons with things being the way they are? Then I heard the voice of conscience speak.

“So, just because the economy is bad, you are now going to stop acknowledging your desires, just toss in the towel and try to survive. Boy, you’re easy? “

I wrestled with these various thoughts and struggled with writing this particular article for my Blog. I wanted to write about desire and how important it is, especially during these times, but I couldn’t get it started.

My feelings continued to be conflicted until yesterday, while in the shower, the euphoric feeling of warm water caressed my body like life’s nectar and opened up my awareness. I recalled a vintage broadcast by Howard Cosell, the famous Sports Announcer of the Ali and Monday Night Football era. It was as if I was taken back to that fateful Monday night of January 23, 1973, in Kingston Jamaica, when, after Frazier being knocked down by Foreman, Cosel, in a poetic and animated way bellowed out

“Down goes Frazier, Down goes Frazier”.

Upon recalling this night and Cosell’s voice, I had to find the video that went along with it. As I watched the video I saw both a metaphorical and practical application to present day.

I am battling desire against the force of worry. What I admired most in watching the short-lived fight again, was the Frazier didn’t stay down; he kept getting back up and trying to fight. He lost the fight, but demonstrated the power of the human spirit to withstand great stress and still keep fighting. Frazier had the desire to fight, even though his body wouldn’t let him go any further.

Being an entrepreneur who owns several service businesses I am concerned with the first line of cuts individuals and companies tend to make during times like this. Service and training are usually the first to be cut.

Bill Gates on CNN today stressed how important, no matter what the economic climate is like, for us to continue to invest in education. I would take that a step further and say, no matter what the economic climate is like, it is very important for us all to continue to spend on our “Desire. Even if you don’t have the cash in hand, to acknowledge the desire and hold it close to you is spending on the desire.

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Business and Conscience

Monday, November 17th, 2008

Worried about the Economy?

With the global economy being attacked from all sides, along with the news on Monday that Japan, (the second largest economic power in the world next to the U.S) is in a recession, there is a great fear of what the future, and by future, I mean an hour from now, holds for all of us.

Today we are faced with businesses closing down, downsizing their employee ranks, or curtailing some of their business activities. Companies like Circuit City, Starbucks, Home Depot, Linens-n-Things and Foot Locker are reducing their work force from anywhere from 17-25% and closing stores to fight back against a recessive trend that seems to be inevitable.

“With income down 78 percent in 2007, the shoe retailer is running for the hills. It’s putting 140 more of its 3,785 stores on the chopping block in addition to the 274 it closed last year.”— Money.aol.com

Why do we see so many businesses facing these hard economic times?  The economic pundits say it’s a combination of consumer wariness about the economy, and loss of real jobs. While all of this can be statistically documented, I would say that there are possibly other reasons.

Let’s take the case of Circuit City. They are the second-largest consumer electronic retailer and have filed for bankruptcy; begging for the financial protection that they need to survive. Does a company like Circuit City just collapse because of a poor economy alone or are there other issues that have brought this about? In Sundays November 16, L.A Times business letters section, Dan Rendant from Arcadia Writes:

“ It is certainly no surprise that Circuit City has filed for bankruptcy. A couple of years ago Circuit City management decided to get rid of the experienced store employees in order to bring the payroll down to near minimum wage levels.

Practically overnight the atmosphere in the stores changed when the new employees couldn’t get off their cell phones long enough to help the customers. That is when I took all my personal and corporate business to other chains.”

I chuckled to myself when I read this, because I had just mentioned the same thing to someone a few days ago. I realized that somewhere along the line, our business model for this country moved from that of having customers to wooing consumers. We have become a country of consumers and businesses have reacted to this trend. It seems that product consumption has outgrown product production.

Many companies jumped on the consumer bandwagon and started to target the consumer while disconnecting from the customer. The idea of customer has a spirit to it, a connected link to an exchange. The image I get of the consumer is similar to the one I had as a child while feeding the pigs on my Grandma Maggie’s farm in Georgia. They would eat what ever I threw in the pen. There was very little discrimination on what it was they were being fed and how much of it was there. We have become pigs in many ways and our retail stores and business saw an opportunity to make a quick buck, without much effort on their part. On Progress-index.com the editor wrote:

“According to recent news reports, Circuit City didn’t take the threat of Best Buy seriously enough, focusing on making a profit in the short term rather than building value for customers in the long term.”

From Worry to Hope

This downturn in the economy and the election of Obama has the spirit of business associated with it. All areas of America including Government, businesses, households and individuals are being called upon to show a profit.  We are being commanded to remove the shackles of economic slavery and to replace those shackles with Freedom. It’s time to move away from the “free money” and put luvv back into our money and the products we produce.  In a conversation I had with Henry Conyers, my spiritual advisor, he said:

“ We are running for nation to nation looking for an honest dollar. It’s time to let go of the dream and embrace the Vision, the CAP has come off the world and the conscience has been unleashed”.

I have seen people from the “Blue States” and the “Red States”, all acknowledge that no matter what their political affiliations or beliefs are, that they can’t deny the feeling of hope they feel from the Obama election. Hope is very high right now, despite, CNN daily and sometimes hourly reports on how dim our fiscal future looks. I sense that we have embraced Obama’s key message on the night that he won the election, when he said:

“The Road ahead will be long. Our climb will be steep. We may not get there in one year, or even one term. But America, I have never been more hopeful than I am tonight that we will get there. I promise you, we as a people will get there.”

What Can You Do?

This is a time of great opportunity for learning and growth. I am hearing more about retrenchment of adult learning in companies, cutting back on fun opportunities for employees and cutting sales staff. These decisions are usually coming from the top of the corporation and don’t involve the people in the middle or the bottom. This is how the 700 Billion dollar bailout was decided too. We see how well that is working.  Go Green Learning offers a “Happy Hour program” and I can’t think of any better than now for people to get a little happier in an aligned way.

Step I

It’s time to laugh more, play more and learn more. While cutting back on what seems to be fringe benefits, you have to recognize that right now, we are all living on the fringe, and cutting those things, might lead to a less productive work force and the inability to build a comeback.

Step II

Change from the mind to the heart.  Michele Obama in an interview said:
“ I think to the extent that people think that I’m good, It’s from the fact that I really try to speak from my heart”.

Take a look at what changes need to be made in how you do business.  Involve employees in real discussions on how to bring the company back into production. You never know what might come from this process.

Step III

Become a great listener. Listen to conscience, which in turn will assist you to listen to others, your customers, your employees, your children and mate.
Check out our communication workshops.
Step IV

Strengthen your compassion level. Becoming a better listener will allow you to develop a greater level of compassion for yourself, first and foremost, and for others. Don’t feel sorry for people or try to walk a mile in their shoes. Just bring a greater level of luvv and heart to the office or boardroom.

Step V

Develop vision teams. These are people who don’t even have to like each other or get a long. I will never forget when I was the director of Student Activities at Cal State University, Northridge and I hired Jeannie Rosenberger on the staff. I hired her for two simple reasons, 1) she was very structured and organized and 2) she was a fighter. I knew she would fight me when she didn’t agree and that is what I needed.  President-elect Obama is taking the same approach in filling his cabinet positions. The popular Lincoln-est term is “Team of Rivals”. This vision team should be comprised of people from the custodial staff to the President – anyone who has demonstrated that they have vision and have acted upon it in some way.

Step VI
Finally, stay true to you. Do it your way with alignment and focus. Continue to acknowledge, embrace and act on your desire when possible – even if your desire seems to be out of step with the times. Never recoil or give up. Hope is a magical aspect of life.

“Hope is the bedrock of this nation-the belief that our destiny will not be written for us, but by us, by all those men and women who are not content to settle for the world as it is, who have the courage to remake the world as it should be”—Obama in Des Monies after winning the Iowa Democratic caucuses.

Many people, Jesse Jackson for one, had the idea of hope as their message. The difference is that unlike others, Obama has been called by the conscience to do the work associated with the word.

Start remaking your company today, by Asking The Conscience.

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What A Great Time To Be Alive

Saturday, November 15th, 2008

What A Great time to be Alive

This is a great time to be alive. You can hear it in the music of Beyonce and Will.i.am. It’s a new day full of opportunities that are unleashing our individual expressions and evoking waves of change. It feels like a tsunami has overtaken the world and we are being bathed in the sea of hope that we haven’t seen in quite some time.

In the book “Pedagogy of Hope”, written by Paulo Freire. The author takes dead aim at the principle of hope His thesis is about the teaching of hope and the impact that hope can have on the world. It is the follow up to his book, “Pedagogy of the Oppressed”, which discusses the teaching of Oppression. I read and constantly refer to both of these books as my personal guidebook to understanding my role in the world. The one important principle that Friere addresses in “Pedagogy of the Oppressed “ is the responsibility of both the oppressed and the oppressor to bring about change. Friere speculates that the oppressed have to learn how to love the oppressor and the oppressor has to learn how to let go of power. I feel Obama will Sheppard this change with his leadership and heart.

“Freire reminds us that a critical understanding of oppression will not succeed in and of itself in achieving liberation from oppression. Nevertheless, the comprehension of oppression is “indispensable” to a new vision of the world based on justice and freedom. Hope helps us to “understand human existence, and the struggle needed to improve it.”

With the economy in the crapper, job uncertainty at an all time high, and a 700 billion dollar bailout that seems flawed at every turn, there still seems to be a spirit of hope that resonates much louder than the problems themselves. Change is similar to death, and I am not sure that the American people fully realize this. The tidal wave of change that we are anticipating will come with some casualties. From the Civil War to the Civil Right Movement, we had to endure loss to realize the victory. Victory is here, it’s at our doorstep, awaiting us to take up arms and embrace the new battles of Gettysburg and Selma.

The conscience has brought about this great change in the form of President-Elect Obama. He is a symbol of a new day that brings with it new opportunities and hope. For there to be a real change and not just s shift in the ways we do things can’t happen without some bumps and bruises.

I am very happy to be alive to witness the spirit in action. Have you noticed that more people mention spirit now than ever before? We can call feel it and it’s hard to deny. Our failing companies need spirit more than a 700 billion dollar bailout. The mind has run out of options. It has nowhere else to go, other than to the conscience. America voted for conscience over the mind when it elected Obama as President. I have hope that we all will get though these tough financial times with a greater appreciation of each other. It is time for each of us to expand our luvving and to seek the freedom that has long been lost. Luvv has gotten us through tough times before and it can do the same thing again if we allow it.

IT’S A GREAT TIME TO BE ALIVE. ENJOY IT, EMBRACE IT AND LEARN FROM IT.

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The Conscience Is The Funny Man

Monday, November 10th, 2008

The Conscience Is Funny

We’ve all heard the comment that “life is funny”. We laugh or giggle, but really life IS funny and the conscience is even funnier.  The conscience has a strong sense of humor and there was no better example of it than this past week. All over the news we heard stories about the impending election, and the night and the days that followed. There was a newness to all the reporting. The media was less serious, laughter was openly expressed, and everyone seems a little happier.

I was speaking to a parent of one of my players in my basketball program today and we were talking about the election and how everyone seems so lifted, and more accessible to each other. I said to him that, I realized that for the past 8-years it was like we were all depressed and didn’t know it. We both laughed because we knew there was a certain amount of truth to what I was saying.

A conversation I had tonight with Henry, my spiritual companion, increased the clarity to what we are all feeling. We are feeling the effects of the Cap coming off the world and the conscience being unleashed. I could feel the truth to that, as I am sure you can. As a result of the Cap being removed, the conscience has had a lot of fun reporting on the election results.

Henry has always had a very amazing way at looking at the world and our surroundings. Speaking with him is like taking a ride on a roller coaster that never ends. He looks at things from a funny place and in the process brings a lot of laugher with his truth.  He is the funniest when working with other people. The people he is working with don’t always see him as being that funny, but they can’t deny the truth.  Laughter is a part of work. If you are not bringing laughter to your work, you’re probably not listening to conscience or you might just be a part time user of the conscience.

My mother has been ill for the past two years. Several times, according to reports, she was on her deathbed. I would rush to New York and there she would be looking fresh as a daisy. During this election, she was at the polls at 5:30 am to cast her vote. My entire family got a kick out of it. Mom, who can’t get around all that well, got moving on Tuesday, November 4, 2008, to make sure she cast her vote. I have to check with President- Elect Obama to see if he can have a major event every week. For at least this one day, my mom, listened to conscience, and gave us all something to laugh about.

Bill Maher from Real Time, in his opening monologue this past Friday had this to say regarding the election :

“ Americans have gotten behind our racial past and picked a black man to clean up our mess.”

When I heard this I cracked up. There was so much truth to this statement that I couldn’t help but laugh out loud. Here it is, all of the blacks, rejoicing about finally having a recognizable black president and really the white folks were voting for a highly qualified janitor with  Ivy League degrees.  The conscience really does have a sense of humor.

When do you ever recall seeing Presidential Candidates, during the election, being on Saturday Night Live and allowing themselves to be made fun of? There is no denying the conscience. Protocol and the Secret Service couldn’t get in the way of it.

Another funny tidbit from conscience had to do with the Governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger being interviewed on CNN by John King. When John King asked him what it was like being a republican in his house with his wife, Maria Shriver, a democrat and a Kennedy, here is what Arnold had to say:

“She is walking around the house with a cardboard cut out of Obama saying “Obama, won, Obama won.”

What’s even funnier is that Arnold, the muscle guy, is the Governor of California. Did you ever see his movie Stay Hungry, with Sally Fields and Arnold? It was a funny movie about Arnold’s desire to make it big in America as a muscle man. He even wore a cape and Mask

Laughter is important to our lives. I really enjoy a good Laugh. Norman Cousins believed that Laughter was a cure all for many things that ailed you. He even wrote a book about it entitled “Anatomy of an Illness-The Healing Power of Laughter. In the book Cousins address how, in 1964, he found laughter in the face of a life threatening illness-Ankylosing Spondylitis (deterioration of the spine).  Cousins discovered that hospitals were no place for the seriously ill. It was more or a less a place to go and die. So he checked himself out of the hospital into a hotel, got a movie projector and started watching funny movies. It appears that Cousins tapped into conscience and was given direction on healing himself.

The next time you feel down, or you feel that the economy is against you, that life isn’t fair and that all you need is a break or two try asking the conscience for a little laughter to lift you out of your self-pity and into WORK.

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Everyone Has The Opportunity to Change

Wednesday, November 5th, 2008

Everyone has been Given the Power to change.

I first said “No, No, No and now I say, Yes, Yes, Yes”. These were the words from my mother-in-law at our wedding reception 20 years ago. In 1988 my wife Gail (who is white) and I (black), took a bold step, even for the 80’s. We got married.  A black man and white woman getting married and doing it in public (wedding was over looking a bluff in Santa Monica), was not a popular decision.

On the night of the election, after the results were in. My mother-in-law called and asked to speak to me. There was energy of newness in her voice. There was a deep connection  beyond the words. There was a spiritual connection and an opportunity for change in the air. We laughed and loved and talked about the power of the present and the hope of the future.

I could feel life coming through the phone. I had goose bumps while I was watching the speeches of Obama and McCain and even greater goose bumps in speaking with Bernie, my mother-in law. She has always been one of my favorite people. She’s had her beliefs and they were strong, but over the years I’ve seen her surrender more and more to the conscience. I’ve seen her being willing to learn and grow. I’ve seen her lose a husband, go through her own process of learning how to deal with that lost and come out of it stronger and more vibrant than anyone could have expected.

The Time is now

The time is now. The work to be done is now.  We’ve gotten a new lease on the conscience. This election has given us the opportunity to expand our listening and our ability to become world leaders again. The world is watching us, counting on us to deliver on the promise. Yes, Obama is the new president, but it doesn’t stop there.  It begins there. Each of us has been called into duty, called to do our job, bring our love and deliver on our destinies. If you now feel that Obama is your savior, then get out of the way.  He isn’t. He isn’t even the first black president, just the first acknowledged one. We had Jackson, Coolidge, and Lincoln before, just to name a few.

We now have an opportunity to follow the conscience in our daily lives. We’ve always wanted our vote to count and this time it did.  What happened on Election Day was a spiritual action. It wasn’t a political action. I could feel the spirit in the speeches of McCain and Obama. Even Bush, who has been devoid of spirit during his 8 years in office, had a twinge of spirit in his voice when he addressed the nation today.

The party is on

Everyone is partying and rejoicing with the new levels of hope that hit us like an astroid. Even the people who didn’t vote for Obama felt lifted by the results. I was talking to a dear companion of mine, Henry Conyers and he said, “I hope the party continues by each individual stepping up and doing their part”. “If each of us doesn’t do our part, the party will be short lived”.

Don’t leave the conscience hanging. If you truly want change, then embrace the opportunity and get your butt’s moving. Demonstrate your willingness to listen to conscience and follow it. The world is now again focused on America and Americans. Will we do our duty or will be run, get scared and not deliver on the spiritual message that came through as a result of the election.

Ask the conscience and when you do, then be willing to listen and act.

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Ask The Conscience

Tuesday, November 4th, 2008

Ask The Conscience

by Jerome Green

The Conscience is a funny thing to me. It a part of me, and I know it’s there, but it is not always easy to listen to. This past weekend my wife, Gail, and I got really caught up with the TV show Heroes. It’s been out for 2 seasons, but I never took the time to TIVO it. It’s a show about all these abnormal people who have incredible evolutionary skills, with each of them going through their own personal battle on what these gifts or curses means. As each character evolves they have to deal with the internal battle of good and evil. As I watched the show, it caused me to tune into how I battle with the conscience. Sometimes, sometimes not, but mostly learning how to really listen and follow.

It has become more imperative these days to listen to the conscience at an even deeper level. The energy on the planet continues to increase, along with the daily challenges of dealing with the economy. There’s no greater time to thrive than now. All of the old reference points are being stripped away. There are fewer and fewer guarantees associated with the job market. I heard about a person who was with a major bank organization for 20 years being laid off. The old adage of “just go find a job” is no longer a part of the American lexicon. The new mantra is, “Listen deeply and often.”

What is the formula for people striving financially in tough times? For the most part, it’s the individual that takes that giant leap of faith, falls down, gets up and leaps again, who usually ends up feeding their desires and profiting from them. You see an absence of this showcased in Heroes–people failing to fully understand their purpose or how to use their talents, and then reeling in a lack of trust for each other. It is not until a full connection with the conscience is made that the individual is able to proceed on their journey.

Many times we don’t really value the talent and gifts we have. In fact we down play them and then one day, something happens and the very skill we dismissed is the exact one needed for a particular situation.

There are times when you have to step towards something before you are able to determine if it’s for you or not. I find it difficult to be a casual observer of things. I have to step in, play around, and get a feel before I can determine if this is where I need to be now or is it just part of the exploration. I am in the midst of a lot of these kinds of decisions right now.

Each of us has a journey to undertake. Sometimes I feel I am so far off track that I won’t be able to find my own journey in this lifetime. At other times I feel I am on track and ready to really take off. Recently, I realized that I haven’t been fully tuning into my desire at the deepest level. In many ways I am trying to protect my turf or make sure I don’t run out of money to pay the bills. But real desire hasn’t been flowing through me, not like it used to. Some people say that as you get older life beats you down and you just settle more. I don’t buy that. I’ve seen 14 years old settle and 80-year old flourish. I really feel that the closer I am connected to conscience the deeper I am able to listen.

How do you Ask The Conscience? You first have to be open, present and willing. Then you need to tap into the things that bring you joy and passion. I do know that one principle is being open and willing to follow what you hear. If your heart is closed, it is not possible to ask, listen or follow the conscience.

To listen to conscience you need to be able to trust your desire and then follow it. You need to also have courage to then act on what you hear and not listen to the mob. The mob is not conscience. For example Pinocchio was often persuaded by different characters who were telling him what to do, and then Jiminy Cricket would try and stop him from going astray. We each have a Jiminy Cricket awaiting us and willing to direct us.

Listening is the most important tool for the 21st century. Listening is a key to asking and following the conscience. Without the listening there can be no change or direction given. When I want to hear the conscience on a deeper level I usually listen to music or watch a movie. Those are the two areas where conscience speaks to me the loudest. I am also visited by conscience on the golf course and while I am flying in an airplane. The key is to find that place where you can hear the most and the deepest, and then make sure you spend time there on a regular basis.

Find out more about Jerome. Find out more about the conscience.

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Ask the Conscience-If you Dare

Tuesday, November 4th, 2008

Ask The Conscience if you dare.

Learning to listen to your conscience takes time, patience, obedience and heart. Your heart is actually the physical mechanism that does the listening. There are various steps in the process. One vital step is your willingness to listen and follow the conscience. Listening to the conscience is more than just hearing words and direction. The conscience speaks on a deeper more viral level. When I hear the conscience speak to me several things can happen. I can get goose bumps and then overwhelmed, or I can get scared and run, or I can pretend to not hear or deny that it was really conscience speaking to me. The funny thing about Conscience is that it has a huge sense of humor.

In the movie  “Field of Dreams”, Kevin Costner’s character, Ray Kinsella, hears this voice that says. “If you build it he will come”.  What would you do if you heard a voice like that? Actually, what have you done when you’ve heard that voice? Don’t lie. We’ve all heard the voice at sometime or another. Some of us are not immune to the voice due to our refusal to really follow it.  The problem I have with that damn conscience is that it’s always calling for me at the most inconvenient times-anytime. An example of this is tonight. Here I am getting ready to do something, go to bed, play Madden or who the hell knows, and then conscience speaks. It says, “write”. I say, “okay, good idea I’ll put that on my to do list and get to it in the next few days”.  Conscience then says, “you’ll do what”. I said, “you heard me, I’ll get to it later”. That went on for a few minutes and I finally surrendered to the NOW.  I closed my eyes and tried to envision what I would write about?  I thought maybe basketball, I write about that a lot for my 411hoops website. Answer was no. Again, conscience and I played this game. It goes like this. I act dumb and Conscience laughs at me. It’s not really that funny.

After taking a 60 second nap, that felt like 60 minutes. My heart starting listening and I actually heard very clearly without any static or drop calls-Write abut me dummy. You think you give me justice by writing one article and leaving it like that. So here I am writing about asking the Conscience again.  It’s real clear to me why I don’t ask the Conscience too many questions. It leads to me having to get off my butt and do something. The conscience is not some medieval character. The Conscience is the voice of fun and learning. It has this deep desire for me to have fun learning about writing, learning about life and laughing.

Simple example of listening to conscience.

Last Friday I heard to go to a T-shirt company and research the cost of getting some T-shirts made for my online store I want to start. On one hand I said to myself, ah, do it next week. It’s Friday, another few days won’t make a difference. Than I heard this stronger more discerning vice say go today, right now. So I did.  What happened next was magical. I was in the shop, and another customer, who I didn’t  know, was in the shop and we were talking. While we were talking he got a text message from a friend. The friend had floor seats to the Clipper game. He then turned and said. “ I am not that into basketball, but if you want to go I’ll go with you”. I first hesitated, than conscience spoke to me, dummy, why do you think I told you to come today at this time. I said yes and went to game. I didn’t even know who the Clippers were playing until I got the ticket. They were playing Denver which has one of my all-time favorite players, Allen Iverson, on the team. I had a great time/

When’s the last time you’ve Asked The Conscience?

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