jungle jeff

“Money, Money, Money….Money“.  The O’Jays, 1974, For The Love of Money.

I want to make a ton of money.  Seriously.  Enough to buy whatever I want.

First on my list:

1. A Cure for Crohn’s disease

To take action, – to “put my money where my mouth is” – I’ve returned to school to earn my MBA.

Maybe that’ll be second on the list – pay off school loans.

Money.  Can’t live with it, can’t live without it.  Money has always been my biggest stressor.

Eventually, I learned a very simple and very profound rule.  It is the first rule that should be learned.

• Spend less than you earn

What made this most basic of rules so elusive for me, is that I did not subscribe to common sense.  A million reasons for that, which I’ll not even attempt to address.

The second rule I learned is have a business.  After reading “Rich Dad Poor Dad” last Christmas, my whole mindset about money was changed forever….

Ted.com

Ideas worth sharing.

David Hoffman talks on Losing Everything.

I often wonder who I’d be if I lost everything.  Just yesterday, I was tempted (for a very brief moment) to think I actually had.

It was one of the best, and briefest, moments of my career.

Carpe diem, jungle jeff

September 11, 2001.

911,  9-11, 9/11.  What has 911 taught you?

It has taught (or maybe re-taught)  me the power of a hug.  That there is never a better time than right now to give someone a hug.  I hug more people, more often, even at work.

Remember how crowded (assuming you went) Church was that first Sunday?

Funny thing, I remember a lot of Christians sort of complaining about “all those people”.

And I quietly thought to myself, “This is the way Church ought to be every Sunday”.

Facebook thread today said, “You get what you give”.

In business and in life, you get what you give.  We all know this yet sometimes we forget.

One of the reasons we forget is that as humans we are easily distracted, because we are so busy doing all the things humans do.

And occasionally, like now, we get on with surviving an economic tsunami.

Meanwhile, life passes by.  I take solace in the fact that for 35 years, I have never faltered from trying to make my professional contribution exceptional.

Even if people are too busy too notice.

Einstein.  Genius, right?

So you might be asking yourself, “What the heck does this jungle jeff guy know about life’s four big decisions”?

“A ton”! This doesn’t make me a genius, but not being a genius doesn’t make me not an expert.

So, however you found jungle jeff and for whatever reason(s) you stay, just want you to know that I am addicted to excellence.

This blog, written by me for me (and my son), may also benefit you.

A word of caution.  I do not slow down so that people can keep up.  If you are truly interested in excellence, you have to pay attention, a lot.

Ya with me?  Carpe diem, jungle jeff  :)

This blog is for my son. Since it’s inception, it has always been for my son.  Period.

People who know me well, are crystal clear that I do things purposefully.

And when it looks like the path I’m walking is leading away from where we’re headed, it’s only because heading away is the best path at the moment.

jungle jeff’s focus has always been on what I call the “money quadrant“.

Money is one of life’s big choices.  There are only four big life choices.

More tomorrow.  Meanwhile, carpe diem, jungle jeff :)

Why daily?  “Seriously, you mean this doesn’t make immediate sense to you”?

Commonly known as a habit, doing something over and over eventually makes it routine.  You knew that right?

So did I.  And yet, the temptation, subconscious and conscious, to forget this fact is astronomical.

Which brings us back to doing daily feats of courage.  “Yeah, jungle jeff, but do you practice what you preach”?

What I did yesterday consumed nearly the entire day.

I invested that time in pursuit of excellence and peace of mind.  But it took courage. And I had a lot of it yesterday.

Huh? Exactly.  Carpe diem, jeff noel

Morons beware.  I don’t use moron in my vocabulary, because it sounds derogatory. However, using it in a blog title is catchy and gutsy.  In business, who doesn’t like that combination?

“The death of education and the dawn of learning”. (can you identify the “morons”?):

Bob Dylan said it best, “He who’s not busy being born, is busy dying”.

Betting nine out of ten will not watch this video.  Nine out of ten don’t exercise either.  Nine out of ten spend more than they earn.

Not judging.  Just stating simple probability.  Only the mediocre are at their best all the time.

If not today, when.  The clock is ticking.  Carpe diem, jeff noel

PS.  There were no morons in the video.

“If you’re not prepared to be wrong, you’ll never come up with anything original”.   — Sir Ken Robinson

Ok, just know this up front, this video is 19 minutes.  And I guarantee if you are smart enough to watch it, you will thank me for finding it.

Click here to be enlightened and to laugh pretty hard too.

Stick your head in the sand? Ok, sounds good.  Later.

Carpe diem, jungle jeff