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The Right Stuff
Sunday, 29th August 2010
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I was at dinner last night with my parents and Mum posed me an interesting question. As Buddhists we believe strongly in karma - what goes around comes around and as a result we try to live our lives doing as much good as we can. So Mum posed the question: “In the grand scheme of things, who decides what is right and what is wrong and how do they reward us accordingly?”
This question is usually very easily answered by those of us who are religious and common answers include God, Allah, Jesus in essence a “higher power”. But then we start to get into the depths of the subject. Let’s take a look at the following scenarios:
A man walks into a shopping mall with a gun and begins killing innocent people. Is he doing any good? Most of you would argue no. This is a bad deed that needs to be punished.
What if that same man starts killing people and is shot dead by police? Did the police do a good thing by killing him? Most would say “yes” they did a good thing but what about the man’s family? They would say the police did a bad thing as they could have taken him peacefully and now because of the incident they’ve lost a husband,a father and family member.
What about cases where children are removed from their parents because a 3rd party believes their lives are at risk if they stayed with the parents? This was a very real problem over here in Australia with the “Stole Generation” where the people involved honestly believed they were doing the right thing based on what was told to them at the time.
This whole idea of others knowing better than ourselves bothers me greatly based on my own experiences. I even put together an entire presentation on this topic called “Opening Doors” where I share my stories about not being academically gifted and having a lot of doors close earlier on in life for me because I didn’t get perfect grades.
How frustrating is it when you have a burning desire to do something and someone comes along and says “no you can’t!”. It seriously frustrates the hell out of me and it is another reason why I started Dream,Build,Inspire,Lead! so that cool young people wouldn’t just accept the status quo, they’d go out there and make things happened for themselves and change the world. Imagine if we were all encouraged and supported to do whatever we want in life? What a different world it would be.
The Challenge
So this week I want you to think about the decisions you make at work, how do they effect those around you? Are you closing any doors for anyone or are you opening doors to create opportunities? For those of you who are in managerial positions, are you creating opportunities for those junior members of your team to shine?
Remember the doors that opened up for you in your life either by someone else opening them for you, or by you taking control and opening them for you. Focus on creating opportunities for others so that they feel as though they’ve got the right stuff.
Dream, Build, Inspire, Lead!
AJ~
p.s. Dream,Build,Inspire,Lead! ‘s 3rd birthday is coming up and I still have no idea how to celebrate it. What do you think I should do to celebrate it?
Author: AJ Kulatunga
Category:
Inspire, story, options, status quo, the right stuff, philosophy
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Meet Azalea Black
Sunday, 22nd August 2010
Ladies and Gentleman this week I want to introduce you to a cool young person who embodies the Dream, Build, Inspire, Lead! message - Azalea Black. Azalea is the head of Black Management, her own entertainment management company in the USA. I know Azalea from Twitter and started following her last year after reading a few of her Tweets. She’s driven, focused and still knows how to have fun in such a serious industry and keeps me inspired to succeed in business.
So without further delay, please welcome Azalea Black to the Dream,Build,Inspire,Lead! stage:
1.What made you want to start your business?
Well working for other people is ok but I like the fact that I am my own boss,I like the independence and when you run your own company you call the shots, but your also responsible for any and everything.
2.Do you feel that being young and female helps or hinders you in business and how so?
I think being young and a female can sometimes be a disadvantage because people don’t necessarily take you serious, they usually think your inexperienced when your young, but I let my work speak for it’s self. Being a female does help open up doors I will admit that you just gotta keep it professional because reputation is everything.
3.What’s a day in the office like with Azalea Black?
The first thing I need is my coffee, LoL then I return phone messages and e-mails. Depending on the day either all have a lunch closing or be on set with one of my artist’s. Usually all of that’s followed by an event/studio or doing online work/marketing till I call it a wrap and do it all over again.
4.Can you think of a time when you faced a setback? How did you over come it?
Yes I can I have had many setbacks, especially in this industry because it is very shady, but no matter how bad it got I never gave up, I only worked harder on the over all outcome. I have made mistakes but I learn from them, an what not to do in the future then I keep it moving.
5.Who were the main people who inspired you to get to where you are today?
My mother inspires me with her work ethic that’s where I learned mine from and hers is incredible. Also Janet Jackson’s not only because I use to dance but she is a very strong woman and her drive is immaculate.
6.What do you do to relax when you are away from the office?
Go to the Spa an I get a massage and treatments all day, its hard to get days like that often but when I can I like to spoil myself.
7.I use the phrase “Dream Build Inspire Lead” as my motto, do you have a similar phrase or quote that you love to live by?
My motto is “Never look Back” because the past is the past for a reason no need to dwell on it. Most people get so caught up in the past they forget about their future and forget to live in the now, that’s how they end up with regrets. I may of made mistakes but I have no regrets even if I did something that I didn’t like at least I had the opportunity to figure that out then to regret never taking the chance in the first place.
8.When people think Azalea Black, what would you want them to say about you? i.e. how would you want to be remembered?
I would want to be remembered as loving, hard working, charismatic,extremely persistent, and driven.
9.What 3 tips can you offer a cool young person who wants to run their own entertainment management business and be as successful as you?
To always work hard, never let anything distract you from the goal, and to be incredibly persistent with whatever you choose to do.
10.I’ve pulled some strings and gotten you a seat at a cafe with Pink, Barrack Obama and Justin Bieber. Given that you can ask them ANY question, what would you ask each of them?
I would ask Pink what her workout regiment is because her abs are amazing, LoL an If I could ask Obama something it would be who’s your favorite singer, I’ve always wondered that? And i would ask Beiber how old he was when he realized singing was what he wanted to do for a career?
So there you have it, Azalea Black living her dreams and making them a reality through hard work, dedication, passion and fun along the way.
The Vitals are:
Twitter: @AzaleaBlack
Website: www.azaleablack.com
Myspace: www.myspace.com/msazaleablack
Thanks HEAPS for the interview Az. I’ve always been fascinated by the entertainment industry and to see a cool young person standing out from the crowd and holding her own in a fiercely competitive industry is quite inspirational. Now, about that corporate merger between BLKMGK and Black Management… j/k!
Dream, Build, Inspire, Lead!
AJ~
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Author: AJ Kulatunga
Category:
DREAM, BUILD, INSPIRE, LEAD!, Azalea Black, Black Management, entertainment management, inspirational, cool young person,
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Change Your Story
Sunday, 15th August 2010
I finally got around to watching some behind the scenes footage of Tony Robbin’s new program on NBC - Breakthrough, where Tony helps real people overcome serious challenges in their lives. Sure he’s been doing that for decades now but this was the first time that I’ve seen him go one on one with people and to watch them transform their attitude towards their lives right in front of you is truly inspiring. The guy is a genius! Something Tony said though really struck a chord in me so I thought I’d explore the concept for this week’s blog post - “Change Your Story”
In Episode 1 of Breakthrough Insider (The Story Behind the Story), Tony helps Frank and Kristen, a couple facing a massive challenge in their life. On their wedding day, Frank suffered a broken neck after an accident in the pool which turned him into a quadriplegic. The happiest day of their lives was now the worst day of their lives.
In the video that I saw, Tony outlined his strategy to work with the couple. Basically he said that in both Frank and Kristen’s minds they had this story playing over and over again: “the best day of our lives was now the worst day of our lives”. Everything in their immediate surroundings supported that story and everyone they spoke to reinforced that story.
The thing is though, their story is not positive at all and Tony’s idea was to replace their story with another one, much more positive and set about using his belief changing techniques to go about achieving that overall goal.
That got me thinking about our own lives and how sometimes we can get into these pockets where life throws some serious things our way and we start to believe the worst. We look around our surroundings and they confirm everything we are thinking in our minds. Then we speak to friends and family who sympathise with our plight, again reinforcing our belief in our story. And down we go...
Changing Your Story
But what if we were to change our story like Tony suggests? How would we re-write it? One technique that I’ve used in the past is “My Perfect Day”. About a year ago I sat down and wrote down what I believed would be the most perfect day in my life. I forgot about my circumstances, my surroundings and the rest of the constraints in my life and just transferred all of my dreams down to paper. I wrote about how I had achieved all of my goals that I set out to achieve, how that made me feel, my attitude towards business and life and last but not least all of the material things that I had in my life - my “toys”. I kept reading that new story over and over again to make sure I was working towards it.
So now the big question is did it work for me?
Yes...and no.
Everything that I wrote down in “My Perfect Day” that related to non-material things became true. So my attitudes and belief towards life and business, my circumstances and surroundings, and the people in my life became true. But my “toys” are still on the drawing board (yes including the BMW M6!). But I’m happy about that. It takes incredible passion and persistence to build something out of nothing so I’m quite grateful for achieving what I could achieve within one year. The toys will come soon enough.
The Challenge!
So this week I challenge you to re-write your story. Put together your own version of “My Perfect Day” and watch how it makes you feel inside to leap and bound above the constraints in your life and give you a solid plan to turn your dreams into reality.
When it comes down to it, your outer world is a direct reflection of your inner world so if you are not satisfied with your circumstances and your surroundings re-write the story.
You can see the whole episode of Breakthrough Insider here. Check it out, it’s pretty inspirational.
Dream, Build, Inspire, Lead!
AJ~
p.S. Dream, Build, Inspire, Lead! is having it’s 3rd Birthday next month and I’m not sure how to celebrate it. I want to give something back to you guys to say thanks for coming back time and time again to be inspired by my adventures but I’m not sure exactly what to do. So if you have any ideas for me leave them in the comments section below or get in touch via Twitter - @ICT_Guru
Author: AJ Kulatunga
Category:
Inspire, change your life, perception, story, stories, Tony Robbins, Frank and Kristen, My Perfect Day, Breakthrough,
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Changing Perception
Sunday, 8th August 2010
Hi Folks, sorry for the late posting this week. One of my best friends got married on the weekend and so I was out of town with the rest of the boys to make sure his special day went off without a hitch. I had a fantastic time but now it’s back down to business. Hence this week’s blog post about perception. Sometimes the difference between success and failure is your internal perception.
Last week I caught up with a amazingly insightful friend of mine and shared one of my challenges with her. Long story short, I have an amazing opportunity to do a deal with a big name celebrity that would just launch BLKMGK into the stratosphere, except I’m having trouble making the deal work. The person in question is a hero of mine and as a result I’ve been taking a different approach to handling the whole deal and it’s been a little frustrating.
My friend listened to my story and asked me why I was approaching this particular deal different to all my other deals. I said that I couldn’t do the same thing with all my other deals because if something went wrong then I’d never get a chance to meet up with them down the track - which would be a dream come true.
My friend wasn’t convinced.
I tried to tell her that all my other wining tactics to stand out from the crowd wouldn’t work in this case because...well...because...it just wouldn’t work! At that point in time I realised what I was doing. I was making excuses for not chasing my dreams because I was viewing the entire situation from a different and highly non productive position. My perception of the entire event was from a point of someone with a subservient nature and I felt itimidated by this new potential client because of his celebrity status. In business that is a really bad position to be in.
My friend then asked me if I was a world leader in technology coaching, what would I say to this celebrity client to get them on board? So I closed my eyes thought for a split second and thought about how I would view the entire situation if I was the Number 1 Technology Coach in the world.
I then thought back to the time when I first started BLKMGK, no one would give me the time of day because they thought I was just some kid who got lost and found myself in all the tender briefings by mistake. I managed to stand out from the crowd because I was always doing and saying crazy things to get attention. Now there are a lot of people out there who walk and talk complete crap but the secret to my strategy was that I knew I had something brilliant to offer to back up all the crazy things I said and did, so people signed with me because they felt I knew what I was talking about.
And in that split second I got clarity on the entire situation from a different perspective simply because I changed my perception of the entire deal.
I know it sounds like a really simple thing to do but life has a unique way of throwing up these little challenges for you and sometimes when you are amidst so many challenges you tend to fall into bad habits - like viewing deals from a wrong perspective!
So that’s my challenge for this week to myself. I challenge myself to go back to the potential client and try one of my usual crazy approaches to getting the deal. Wish me luck!
And for all of you out there, I challenge you to take an issue that you have right now in your life and look at it from a different perspective. In my case I thought about the sort of person that would handle my challenge perfectly and then I thought about what would that person say and do to make the deal work. For example, if you were worried about doing a presentation to a client then think of one of your heroes, how would they handle the situation? Be that person and gain confidence in yourself to handle your own challenges.
Dream, Build, Inspire, Lead!
AJ~
p.s. BLKMGK ICT turned 5 Years Old on the 8th of August. DREAMS DO COME TRUE!
Author: AJ Kulatunga
Category:
Inspire, perception, change your perception, success,
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