“Our lives are the sum total of the choices we have made.” ~ Wayne Dyer

Today I was surfing Facebook and came across some old friends from high school.  These are people I haven’t seen for years, since I decided to move away from where I grew up and spent all of my childhood in pursuit of my dreams.  It made me think that everything in life just boils down to one simple thing:

Choices

I chose to move away and get out of the small town where I grew up and the small town mentality that came with it.  It wasn’t for me.  Was it right or wrong?   Neither.  Just different.  It makes me a bit sad to think all of the people I spent so many years together with only to have a quasi-relationship with now because we are friends on Facebook (which is quite stupid when you think about it.)

Where I am going with all of this is that I “chose” to move into the cities and have chose all the decisions of my life which have led me to where I am today.  We all have the ability to make choices – right or wrong, good or bad. We can choose mates, jobs, friends, where we live, our thoughts, diet, and just about anything, really.

Our choices make us who we are.  For me, many of the choices that I made were not easy and came at a cost.  Some choices in my life didn’t work out as well as I thought. Some really hurt years later.  Others I would never trade for the world, and some juicy choices would make amazing stories that someday will be shared with the world.

When we wake up in the morning we all have the ability to do one thing: choose.

Choosing happiness, sadness, anger, love, regret, remorse or any decision that involves free will is the one differentiator that sets human beings apart from the rest of the animal kingdom.

I chose to take the harder path in life for sure.  A constant, uphill, upstream battle.  Why? I don’t know.  To live life to its fullest, maybe? To be all that I can be?  Probably because I felt deep down in my core that I wanted to do and be more.

All of the people I grew up with are still in the same town doing the same thing and hanging out with the same people. Good for them.  It wasn’t for me.  I chose to get more out of life.  Have I gotten more?  Who knows, too early to tell. Will I get more out of life? Who knows, that depends on my choices.

This small town guy who came from nothing has traveled the world, managed millions, had ups and downs in life most could never dream of, educated myself, mingled and became friends with some of the world’s most influential people, dated women so beautiful they would make you speechless, laughed, cried, loved, lost and truly lived. Yet I always know that when tomorrow comes I will have the ability to do that one simple thing: make choices that define who I am, and so do you.

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Lets be honest here. Most people in American Society are sheep.

Most people are followers. Most people unknowingly (and knowingly) follow what society says is right or wrong, what their family and friends think is right for them, or what is safe at all costs to prevent straying away from the pack.  All the while not listening to their inner voice, their soul, and their true self where their purpose resides.

You see it all over the place: Politics, Companies, and Fashion to name a few.

I don’t believe we are here on this planet to live lives of mediocrity. Not a single damn one of use.  Sadly, much of American Society is made up of this and today society says that if you go to college, drive a minivan, live in the suburbs, have 2.5 kids, watch reality television, and eat McDonalds then you are living the American dream.

Baahhhhhh

Well let me tell you something…SOCIETY IS WRONG.  VERY, VERY WRONG.

We all have the ability to be extraordinary.  Each and every last one of us. Each of us has special individual talents and gifts unique only to us. It is imperative that we spend time discovering our true self, buried under layers and layers of social conditioning that came from the media and marketing playing on our insecurities and fears.

How do you know if your one of those “sheep”???

Real Simple. Take the “Am I A Sheep Test”:

1.  Do you watch more than 1 hour of Television/day?

2.  Do you just go along with what everyone else says it cool, right, to do?

3.  Do you blend in so you don’t have to stick out?

4.  Are you following the voice of others rather than you own internal compass?

5.  Are you negative or pessimistic and bring people down with you?

6.  Do you live in a constant state of fear?

7.  Does your wool need to be sheared annually? ***

***If you answer yes to question #7, I suggest you see doctor, or a certified New Zealander trained in the fine art of Sheep Shearing immediately.

Some parts of American culture makes me sick, supplication to mediocrity being one of them.  Human beings are capable of anything so stop being a sheep and start listening to yourself.  Stop being a sheep and start following your dream.  Stop being a sheep and stand up for what you believe in.

We need more people speaking out. This country is not overrun with rebels and free thinkers. It’s overrun with sheep and conformists. ~ Bill Maher

Many of the answers we need in life can be found in nature.   Water is the essential function that all animals on our planet need to survive.  Maybe this ant had a tough day and needed to rest for a moment after carrying loads all day long.  I don’t know.

What I do know is that we all need to take a “drink” sometimes. A “drink” not in the sense of going to the local bar and having a stiff cocktail or not even in the sense of downing a glass of water.  But a drink in the sense to just simply recharge.

Much like animals in nature we all get thirsty at times which is perfectly OK.

Drink up, for the only thing certain is that we will ALWAYS get thirsty.

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I came across this very powerful photo and wanted to share it with my followers. We we all see things through different lenses so I would like to know what this photo makes you think. Leave comments below……

Everyone makes mistakes.

I have made hundreds, probably thousands of mistakes in my life. That is what makes all of us human.

Mistakes are there to be learned from, not to be dwelled on or persecuted about.  I also believe that it is our duty that when we learn important lessons to move on and teach what we have learned to others so they don’t have to endure the same pains and heartaches as we have.

~ LIFE IS MEANT TO BE LIVED IN EVERY SECOND OF EVERY MOMENT. ~

If you think you don’t make mistakes get off your high horse, get your ego out of the way, and look to see that the world is full of people will big minds and even bigger hearts….all of whom are human.

If you are not continually making mistakes, you are not moving ahead and finding your way in life.

This past week I was out with a friend, and I was telling her about some of the touching comments and feedback I have received from my writings as a blogger. She said to me, “It sounds like you’re finding your voice as a writer.” For someone who has no formal education or training and who struggles to even consider himself a “real” writer, what a wonderful compliment!  As bloggers, I believe we create our own piece of art; not on canvas, not on paper, but on our WordPress, Typepad, Blogger, and Posterous blogs. In any event, I believe what my friend meant to say was, “It sounds like you’re finding your voice as a Blogger.”

Most of us have heard the expression “finding your voice as a writer”.  Even Ralph Waldo Emerson’s famous Self-Reliance dives into the concept of finding one’s voice.

But how do you “find your voice as a blogger?”

Blogging today is comparable to the journaling, writing, and publishing of a hundred years ago, but with over 100 million blogs on the Internet today, and with numbers ever-increasing, how do you find your voice?  How do you set yourself apart, affect and inform readers, and simultaneously be heard with all the noise there is on the web?

The difference is that now we can write, edit, publish, distribute, and promote all within minutes via the Internet. Does that make you, as a blogger, special? I don’t believe so.

For me, I love to write. People seem to enjoy reading my content, and if I affect at least one person, then my job is done. However, finding your voice as a blogger is what will make you remembered, unique, interesting, authentic, and most importantly – subscribed to!

Here are a few simple tips that you can use to find your voice as a blogger:

1. Think about what do you absolutely love doing more than anything else in life and blog about that.

2. Blog the way you think. This is what makes the “authentic you.”

3. Remember: Nothing you can say is wrong.  Too many people get trapped into being someone they are not, and finding your voice is nothing more than being truly yourself. This is what makes you special as a blogger. Insincerity comes off the same in a blog as it does in real life, and no one likes to read something they cannot relate to or identify with.

4. Ask yourself: Where do you feel life is directing you?  What do you feel your purpose is? Follow that.  Your intuition is always correct, and the uniqueness of who you are and what you have to offer via your creativity and passion is what will make you a great blogger.

5. Write consistently and regularly. Every great skill comes with deliberate practice and continued repetition and improvement.

6. Dedicate yourself to constant improvement in regard to both the blogging industry and the grammar and vocabulary of the language in which you primarily blog.

7. Learn to participate in continual trial and error.

8. Define your niche and work at becoming a Thought Leader in that niche rather than trying to be everything to everyone.

9. Contemplate and focus while writing and before posting.

10.Perseverance (This is most important)

Earnest Hemmingway confided to F. Scott Fitzgerald in 1934 “I write one page of masterpiece to ninety-one pages of shit.”

For some of you who don’t know much about me…..I write about business, philosophy, and personal development all the while running a venture capital firm named Huckleberry.  My life is hectic to say the least, but always make time for what’s important. That’s why I decide to write, even when my little eyelids can barely stay open anymore… like right now….all in hopes to help other people.

Here is a few other places other than here at mattcrowe.com where you can find me and my writings:

Writing:

Blogger             Star Tribune

Author              Winners Persevere

Columnist        Real Business Magazine

Guest Post       Dumb Little Man

Guest Post       GetYourBizSavvy

And BTW – I always love when I get comments!!!!!

What Makes a Business Successful?

How many times have you screwed in a light bulb in your home? How many times have you got into your car and driven somewhere? How many times have you listened to music? A LOT.

The key to a product or a business is to take something and make it incrementally better.  People like comfort.  Users use Google over the new search engines because they know it, they have used it, and they are comfortable with it. Users really could even care less about how it works, they just know it works.

When I went from Yahoo to Google it was real simple.  I used yahoo, and heard about Google.  I then tried Google a couple of times until I realized that it was much simpler and I completely stopped using yahoo all until about a year ago. Why? Simplicity, Ease of Use, Branding, and a whole lot more.

Here are more examples of making something that was around and making it better:

1. The Light Bulb – Thomas Edison
2. The Model T – Henry Ford
3. Virgin Records – Richard Branson

Lastly, just remember these eight things when you want to make your business successful……..

It must be able to be mass-produced.

It must be able to be scaled rapidly.

It must be easily understood.

It must be simple

It must be hip/unique – otherwise known as Sexy

It must be memorable

It must add value to the user

It must be able to make money

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