Larry Benson Live

I’ve been thinking a lot lately especially since my last post about how wisdom often comes with age and I’ve been thinking about the last statement in that post about what a shame it is that that wisdom has to be lost at the end of the person’s life in most cases. What could be done in order to leave a legacy. In order to leave behind some of that wisdom so that future generations might benefit?

I suppose it’s been done for generations, we record it in one fashion or another those things that are important to us . We went we write or when we paint or when we sing and use any medium that could be reflected after our demise. There may be a different mechanism at work that we are not even aware of that will allow us to leave that wisdom with others of succeeding generations through our interactions with those around us. Almost as if it were a virus it is transmitted from one person to the next. That wisdom gets transferred in the same way through exposure to one another. (continue reading…)

One of the advantages that comes with a certain age is that you start to get some perspective on things and start to really understand how those things have worked in your life.  Recently I have started to see the results of stress in my life and on my body and I don’t much care for it but at the same time it is a revelation that it is really affecting me the way it is.

There are other things too that I have realized in my life that were not always evident to me. For instance, I see how counterproductive getting emotionally upset is. There was a time when I would have not known that and participated in it to a great degree but now it is different. It’s different not that I never get upset any longer it’s just now that I recognize how useless it really is and I have begun to try to take steps to change that. (continue reading…)

I found that it is quite phenomenal the amount of work they can get done if one puts their mind to it. By that I mean first of all, get organized and know exactly what you have to do. Next put your tasks in a certain order that is logical for the list. Perhaps if you had errands to run you might put them in order of stops. Or if you had deadlines that might be the order that you might use.

I have shown in my own life over and over that if I just spend a little time getting organized I will actually be far more productive in all the things that I do. And at the end of the day I feel better and so begins the momentum that continues into the next day or at least the evening and I’m able to accomplish even more during those periods of time. (continue reading…)

I’m thinking of starting a new business from home. I really would like to create something on my own that could eventually support myself and my family. I have skills with computers and I think probably that would be the wisest thing for me to do. As it seems to be my strongest skill set outside of middle management.

I think I can probably start part time and operate from my home without any extra space or expense. I have the tools both software and of course the hardware tools to do what I need to do so with the upstart cost should be relatively inexpensive as I think I can do the advertising locally with accommodation of word-of-mouth and flyers.

My intention is to offer a service that will optimize the persons computer. By that I mean if they’re having trouble with their computer, I can go in and clean it up and change settings to in effect give them a system that operates similar to what it did when it was new. That would be a great service to many people I know because most people that have computers really don’t know how to maintain them or even that you need to maintain a computer. They get away with not doing so because they don’t really use them all that much.

I’ll come up with some sort of catchy little phrase to use on my flyers and business cards and then start spreading the word to friends and associates in the area. We live in a town of about 15,000 so shouldn’t be that hard to get the word out and currently there is no one else in town that offers the sort of service to the community. I can even volunteer to maintain the computers at my church and possibly even for some local service organizations to help get the word out.

Think about it, if a local service organization has membership of say 200 people and I go in and offer to optimize five peoples computers as some sort of give away. I’ll get a lot of advertising for free. And to be honest the service doesn’t take me that much work to do. I’ve been doing it on my own computer for years and have honed the skill to the point where I could probably do it in a couple of hours.

I can even solicit the help of my children to put up flyers and maybe even offer flyers to their friends at school. My mind starts to race as I think about all the ways that I could get the word out and I know there are plenty of people that need this service. I suppose at this point I need to sit down with pencil and paper to figure out if I could really make a living at it and if so how many computers do I need to do a week and what percentage of the population I would need to be my customer base. This is quite exciting I think I’ll quit writing for now and go to do some figuring on my new business.

My kids are off to camp soon and it will be a relief to have them gone for a little while and give my wife and I a little break from being parents all the time 24/7. Don’t get me wrong it’s not that I don’t love my children I do I just sometimes get a little weary of being a parent all the time. I know my wife sometimes to the delivery even though she’s a full-time stay-at-home mom. It can be wearing when you have teenagers at home and the constant demands of guiding these young adults.

I’m glad the kids are going to because it gives them a break from being our kids for a little while they can get a different perspective on authority and besides they don’t have to do the chores. Speaking of chores, that is a major issue around our home. The kids have been taught from an early age to do chores every day. We felt like it would build a responsibility in them and train them to be disciplined at least to some degree.

When I was a child we had chores that we had to do every day, but I don’t remember it being such a problem getting my sister and I to do them. What I remember is that we pretty much did them without being told. But then again that was a long time ago and we all know how selective our memory can be. I probably need to talk to my mom and find out her recollection.

Another was one thing in particular that I didn’t especially like doing and that was mowing the yard. We had a big yard, about 5 acres, and even though we had a riding lawnmower I pretty much detested the thought that I was in have to spend about four hours riding that thing around. I have been told that my sister did more of that than I did but I’m not really sure how I got out of it I just don’t remember.

I suppose that’s part of growing up so, we remember what we want to do what serves our purposes and we tend to forget everything else. That way we can shape who we are what we are in a fashion that pleases us and is conducive to the goals and aspirations that we have as adults. I hope my kids someday remember the good parts and forget the bad ones because God knows I’m not the best parent in the world even though I have really good intentions.

I was thinking today about the ironic nature of human behavior and how it seems to calm in waves. Let me see if I can explain what I’m talking about. One of the things that I do is raise Yorkeis. And we recently had a litter that was up for adoption. We placed an ad in the paper after we had sold three of the four puppies to people on our waiting list. The ad was in the paper for one day and I got about 25 calls with interest in the puppy. Now, here comes the ironic part.

Not one of those people that called me on that first day made it out to see the puppy. And it was a Sunday. But the next day and here’s that right part, I had three different women desperately wanting to adopt the puppy. My question is, what made the difference, why is it that 25 people called me on Sunday and no one came out to see the dog but on Monday three people called in all of them desperately wanted to adopt the dog won even without seeing it?

Now do you understand what I’m getting at. Why is it that we as humans are so patterned in our behavior? It’s almost as if there’s some sort of communication going on in the group that’s not even related that causes them to act in similar ways. There are some people that believe we do indicate over long distances and without physical apparatus. These sorts of things that I just described would lend itself to that theory.

I bet almost everyone that reads this post has had something very similar happened to them. We may she want to stand back and scratch your head and say, why. I even wondered if it had anything to do with the way that I talked to people on Sunday may be there was something in my voice or the words that I chose that caused them not to be interested in the puppy but then on Monday maybe my attitude or words or expressions changed and does it change their reaction to me.

I suppose it’s one of those things that we will have to take a few more years to investigate someone will have to get a grant to do some research and after a while we’ll figure it out and say wow what a nice think of that before? What are a lot of things like that in life and usually ends up with some sort of head scratching behavior by those of us that didn’t think of that before.

About two years ago I was let go from my job is actually a blessing in disguise. But at the time it certainly didn’t feel that way. It’s been a hard thing for me to let go I had a lot of friends that I really lost contact with. But I suppose the ones that I still talk to and communicate with on a regular basis are the ones that I could probably call my real friends.

If I had to do it over I probably would do things differently. At least I would try to “CMA” little more so that there wouldn’t be so much opportunity for my demise. It’s not that I was doing anything wrong it’s just that I took my position and allow there to be some great areas. Once that could be construed the wrong way but if you knew me you knew there was nothing wrong. I treated it like my own business and maybe that was a mistake in hindsight.

I did learn a lot this unfortunate set of circumstances. I hope it didn’t really make me jaded but I cannot think it did. I don’t think I could ever trust an employer again, at least not to the degree that I did before. I really allowed myself to be committed to that job and in hindsight that was probably a mistake. It seems that in business they are very few places where you can let your guard down. And that’s one of the things that I regret having learned from this experience.

You see I’m a trusting person by nature. And I tended to believe the best of people so I always felt like that in the end no matter what really happened if my intentions were right in my integrity was there I would always be given the benefit of the doubt. Now I know better.

For most people in business as owners, there is always the underlying current that what is good for the business is right. It’s not true those of us that have owned businesses know it’s easy to believe. I’m building a business from home now although I still have my 9 to 5. Someday, I’ll be free. Maybe just free to make my own decisions, but free nonetheless. Free of the fear of being laid off, free of the fear of the way that I felt almost 2 years ago.

Well within a team of when I posted last as expected lots of drama around our home here in the Midwest. My daughter hurt her knee in swimming, my son has a new girlfriend that he denies, and my wife missed her medication so she is well a little dramatic to say. So I guess you could say things are quite normal around our house will.

The truth is I think I probably signed up for this. I kind of knew it was going to be like this and there was a part of me that wanted it. You know what’s weird is that when it all started dating my wife there was a part way deep down inside that was quite excited by all the drama. You see I was brought up in a home that was very quiet and non dramatic. We never raised our voices for much of any reason and we thought most all of our actions through before we took the first step.

On the other hand my wife’s family over dramatize as everything and when I say everything I mean everything! It doesn’t matter what it is they get excited about it and their voices raise for no reason at all at least that’s my take on the whole point. So day in and day out we have this battle. I say calm down, she gets excited or more accurately it’s the other way around. She gets excited and I say calm down and around and around and round in a circle we go.

Finding a happy medium in this home has been a lifelong task. Don’t get me wrong I’m not complaining really, I love my wife dearly but I would like her to relax a little bit and not be quite so excited about everything that happens. I like peace and quiet she likes noise I hate the TV she loves the TV. She loves to go shopping I hate to go shopping. If it were up to me I would never set foot in another mall. I hate shopping. Oh and another thing I hate driving. I like to drive anywhere. Now walking that’s another thing I do enjoy a walk. Cannot take a walk just about anywhere even if it’s to the store or to pay a bill if I can I’ll walk.

So you see the drama and the dilemma that I find myself in one of my own choosing and one that I choose to stay in because somewhere deep down inside I think this drama kind of excites me and I live I carry sleep through it. Isn’t that funny about how life is? We choose the things that are unlike us because they’re different.

I thought the writing for this blog would be much easier than it turned out to be. When faced with the reality of having to write something that the whole world going to see a sort of froze up. I want to make the right impression I want to say something profound but those thoughts just don’t seem to come to mind at least not yet.

I guess I should not be so hard on myself as this is really only the second post I’ve written. I mean it’s not like I’ve been writing for years or anything like that. Besides as far as I know I’m probably the only one reading this at least for the moment.

Finding your way around the blogosphere can be a bit confusing to someone that doesn’t have that much experience, like myself. I have learned that most of the bloggers that have the sort of blog at least find their inspiration from everyday life. That should make writing a whole lot easier as far as I’m concerned because my life can be quite colorful at times. With two kids and five dogs and a wife things are never calm.

We have had adventures like you would not believe since we have been together so I should have plenty of material over the next bit of time. I may intersperse that sort of post with many others as I really don’t know what direction we are going to go but it should be a lot of fun. At least for me.

First of all, I have been in management for years and have worked for several companies and have never really been fulfilled in my job but it pays the bills at least we live in the Midwest United States and have for all our lives. My wife is from the same area as I am but we did not know each other until we were out of school and had our own lives.

Well, that is enough for now, we can continue this next time.

It’s a talent that everyone has, yet they think they don’t. The power of innovation. If you’ve ever marvelled at somebody’s creative prowess, guess what, you can create and innovate too. It just takes time. Everyone is born creative. The box of crayons in kindergarten were not limited to those who possessed potential; because the truth is, everybody has potential.

You know how long it took to learn to ride a bike or drive or to never commit the same mistake again? It’s the same with innovation. It takes a  bit of practice and a lot of time before this mind function comes easily  when called. This article will teach you a few tips on how to bring innovation into your life.

Don’t listen to what other people say. Follow the beat of your own drum. Allowing for the input of other people will only bring cacophony to the music you are trying to make. If you have an original idea, don’t waste your time and effort trying to make people understand. They won’t. And the help you will probably get comes in the form of negative feedback. If all those geniuses listened to their peers, we would probably still be living in the middle ages.

Spend time on it. I cannot stress that enough, although, please do not mistake this tip to tell you to quit your day job entirely. Do not. This involves some tricky time management but with a little discipline you’ll be able to squeeze both in.

Exercise. Take a walk. Run a mile or two. Send all those endorphins coursing through your veins. Exercising certainly clears and relaxes your mind and allows for anything to pop up.

Record your dreams. Aren’t some of them just the craziest things that your conscious mind would never have thought of? If you’ve had these dreams before, and I’m sure have, this only shows you the untapped innovative power you have lying within. So jot down those notes. Those dreams may just create an innovative spark in you.

Find your own style. You can always tell a Van Gogh from a Matisse. You’ll know Hemingway wrote something by the choice of words on the paper. So it is the same with you. People will appreciate your innovation more because it is uniquely yours and that no one else would have thought of what you were thinking. That will let people see how valuable an asset you are.

Don’t hide behind nifty gadgets or tools. You don’t need the most expensive set of paints to produce a masterpiece. The same way with writing. You don’t need some expensive fountain pen and really smooth paper for a bestseller. In fact, J.K. Rowling wrote the first book of the Harry Potter Series on bits of tissue. So what if you’ve got an expensive SLR camera if you’re a crappy photographer? Who cares if you’ve got a blinging laptop if you can’t write at all? The artist actually reduces the number of tools he has as he gets better at his craft: he knows what works and what doesn’t.

Nothing will work without passion. What wakes you up in the mornings? What keeps the flame burning? What is the one thing that you’ll die if you don’t do? Sometimes people with talent are overtaken by the people who want it more. Think the hare and the tortoise. Ellen Degeneres once said that if you’re not doing something that you want to do, then you don’t really want to do it. And that’s true. Sometimes you just want something so bad you become a virtual unstoppable. And that is passion. Passion will keep you going.

Don’t worry about inspiration. You can’t force it; inspiration hits when you least expect it to, for those unpredictable yet inevitable moments you should prepare. An idea could strike you on the subway, yet alas, you poor unfortunate soul; you have no sheet of paper to scribble down a thought that could change the world. Avoid these disasters. Have a pen and paper within your arm’s reach at all times.

I hope this article has helped you bring more innovation into your life. Keep in mind that you’re doing these things for your own satisfaction and not anybody else’s. But soon enough they will notice, and everything should snowball from there.