Costa Rica Guy

Rebel with an Occasional Cause

November 15, 2013 by costaricaguy 2 Comments

I am a loner. And it’s not really because I grew up on the far west end of an island that was practically deserted nine months out of every year. Although that might have contributed. I am a loner because I am also a rebel with an occasional cause…or maybe it’s the other way around?

Growing up in the newly desegregated south I rebelled against the idiocy of racism. When my parents moved me to a private school (I have always harbored a suspicious feeling that it was to remove me from the influence of my black friends in public school), I rebelled against the superficiality of the super-rich kids I was surrounded by. In fact, even though I did not grow up poor, I have always identified more with the poor and huddled than with the rich and cuddled. When I became a borne again Christian I rebelled against the clubby and pious attitudes of the holier than thou crowd. While in law school I rebelled against the heat seekers who always arrived to class with the shiny red apple of ambitious aspiration. And when I was engaged in the actual practice of the profession, I rebelled against every aspect of it…probably why I didn’t last very long. I rebelled against the idea that I couldn’t be an investment banker because I didn’t go to the right schools…so I started my own firm. When my marriage was falling apart, I rebelled against the idea that to save it I had to do things her way. And when I became immersed in a culture very foreign to my own, I rebelled against my own.

A loner’s life of rebellion…that’s an apt description of my life. But here’s the paradox I face…maybe you as well, if, like me, you are a rebellious loner. I am a loner with change the world aspiration. And it’s damn hard to change the world all by yourself.

It’s damn hard to change the world all by yourself.

All of sudden I find myself at age 52 in a new world. One where making an impact actually seems possible. Seth Godin likes to call this new world the connection age. I think that is a good description.

It once was easier for loners. The factory floor was an easy place to escape to. Just do your job…take care of responsibilities. Dream about changing the world (that’s what we loners do a lot of), but cling to the comfortable excuse that it really isn’t possible.

But now it is.

In the connection age, one changes the world by, well, connecting…right? If there is one thing that has held me back more than any other, it is my reluctance to connect. Because, I am a loner. Loners don’t naturally thrive in a connection oriented environment, be it a social function, or a social network.

In the connection age, one changes the world by, well, connecting…right?

But I’m learning. I am a loner who loves adventure. And there’s a degree of adventurous danger in being vulnerable…in putting “it” out there. Actually, I have been doing that for the past five years. No one has really noticed, but I’ve got a lot of dirty laundry airing in cyberspace this very moment. Probably enough to land me on a CIA watch-list…if anyone at Langley cared to notice. After that statement, things could change a bit, eh?

There’s nothing inherently wrong with being a loner. I believe loners have the potential to be great writers because we tend to be deep thinkers…a perk of spending a lot of time away from the social noise. But in order for our thoughts to gain any traction, we have to first, get them out of our heads and then second, be willing to be vulnerable by sharing them.

That is the battle I am facing right now. The connection age makes it easier for me (us)…but it’s still a battle, or a rebellion…this time against myself.

So, take a deep breath, now sigh and push…publish…

Choose Your Impact

November 12, 2013 by costaricaguy 1 Comment

James Altucher says you should Choose Yourself. The reason being that no one else is likely to do so…except in the rare case of those so-called “chosen few” (there’s a reason that phrase ends with few…rather than, say, many).

But “choose yourself” for what purpose exactly? This blog infers impact, rather than, say, fame or fortune. But I’ll admit that’s a bit elusive.

What impact am I referring to?

Here you read about prioritizing impact over interest and striving to be more inspirational than aspirational. But what does making an impact really mean? Must it be along the lines of A.J. Leon’s Kenyan windmill, or could it be something a little closer to home?

Of course it can. The sky really is the limit here. Even though I write repeatedly, prioritize impact over interest…impact can be just as varied as one’s personal interest. Neither does it have to be some singular all encompassing purpose that we dedicate the rest of our lives to. It could be a series of small impacts that we are mindful to make on a daily basis. It could be both.

The principles that I often speak of: prioritizing impact over interest, the Big US, and removing impact blinders…are about getting the barriers out of the way that prevent us from honing in on the impact(s) the universe is calling us to make. But those principles don’t presume or dare to insinuate knowing what your particular impact ought to be. Society will try to dictate that…but you won’t get any such dictation from this blog.

The revolution is a rebellion against societal norms that presume to tells us what our impact(s) should be.

Impact and interest certainly can and should align. My interest is Latin America. I love the land and the people here. So more than likely I will channel my impacts, at least for the foreseeable future, in this region of the world. Yours could be something completely different. Of course it could be impacting the community you live in right now.

Changing the world becomes a more practical concept when you reduce it down to spreading an “inspirational virus” person to person. One person can impact another and that person the next and so on…until before you know it, the world becomes a better place for us all. That’s why I sometimes refer to it as IIM, or inspirational impact mindfulness.

Changing the world becomes a more practical concept when you reduce it down to spreading an “inspirational virus” person to person.

Impact mindfulness is here only to remind us not to allow self-interest, small us thinking or impact blinders to convince us that all this stuff about impact making and world changing is just a bunch of bleeding heart bullshit.

But “your” impact…

Now that is something for you alone to choose.

Impact mindfulness is a “practice” that helps us to remember that unless we are “mindful,” we just get caught up in worrying about money and other material pursuits, succumbing to the fear-spawned hatred that consumes, divides and diminishes the scope of our world, and adopting close-minded views that society intimidates us into believing.

But “your” impact…

That’s a choice only you can make.

photo credit: Lori Greig via Compfight cc

Love Yourself – Your Impact Depends On It

November 10, 2013 by costaricaguy 1 Comment

This is not a blog about religion, nor is it “religious.” With that out of the way, let me start this post with a quote from Jesus…

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.

I would paraphrase what he said like this…love God (or good), love people and start with yourself!

Religion would try to convince us that the first part can be satisfied via some dogmatic code…like praying a certain way. I believe Jesus would rather tell us that we demonstrate our love for God by doing good (in fact there is a whole book of scripture largely based on that notion…it’s called James).

But the quote from the bible above seems slightly out of order. I say that because one can’t do the first part unless one has things in order vis-à-vis the second part.

I usually talk about that first part…doing good…having an impact. But in the wee hours of this morning I woke up and read “cover to cover” a book that I had downloaded a couple days earlier. The name of the book is Love Yourself Like Your Life Depends On It by Kamal Ravikant. It is a very quick read, took me all of about 45 minutes. But it impacted me…and isn’t that what a book is supposed to do?

The title of the book pretty much gives away its content. It is a book about loving yourself. Now I know for at least someone who might read this post you are thinking at this moment, that’s a very self-centered concept. Well, not according to Jesus.

I spent the last 52 years of my life desperately seeking approval. I rationalized it as ambition. It has lead me down some disastrous paths. And all the while my mantra has been I hate myself (well maybe that’s a bit harsh…how about “seriously dislike”). People who hate themselves are capable of almost anything. They can channel that hate to productive means…or destructive ones. But either way, we can be a pretty ambitious bunch. We self-haters clamor for limelight…for fame and fortune. And then once we find it, we’re left empty and muttering…is that all there is? So off we go again…until we hit the brick wall, or the wishing-well bottom.

We self-haters clamor for limelight…for fame and fortune. And then once we find it, we’re left empty and muttering…is that all there is?

But this blog is not about ambition…it’s about impact. Wait a minute, what’s a self-hater like me doing with a blog like this?

Hmmm…damn good question. Well, Kamal’s book has opened my eyes to a dilemma I face with this blog, with my life…possibly with yours as well. That is, until I start loving me…I cannot really love you…and until I can truly love you, I can’t honestly have much if any impact on your life. I have no idea what might be the religious persuasion of Kamal Ravikant…but at least on that issue, he and Jesus are in complete agreement.

In order to do that god-given duty to do good…we have to have love and it all starts with self-love.

So, as Kamal cajoles, repeat the mantra…

I Love Myself, I Love Myself, I Love Myself…

For if we can’t even find ourselves worthy of love…it’s going to be damn near impossible to find anything else so worthy. And love is the only tried and true impact motivator. Ambition just won’t cut it…at least not in the long run.

Standing for Something…

November 1, 2013 by costaricaguy Leave a Comment

I made a decision back in December of last year to get serious about really learning how to do business online. I’d been doing exactly that for some time, but always relying on the usually shitty advice of “experts” when it came to the more cyber-spacial technical aspects. I have learned a great deal since then. One thing my “getting serious” did for me is lead me to guys like Srinivas Rao, who in my opinion is a true pioneer in the online entrepreneurial world.

Something happened recently that is causing me to pause and ask myself…what the f**k? I sense a disturbance in the force. What exactly is going on with this alliance that has suddenly blossomed between Srinivas Rao (my aforementioned online hero) and Glenn Beck, a guy who has been featured prominently in many of my past blog post rants?

What “the beck” is going on here? I believe, however, that having Rao and Beck allied is helping me to understand how to draw a distinction between what I want this site, Revolutionary Misfit, to be about and what others, such as that of Srinivas, are about.

First off, I read the letter that Srini posted to his Facebook Page that he received from Mr. Beck. In it Beck speaks of a radical transformation in world view. I am not exactly sure to what, but almost anything different than his former one would certainly be an improvement. Because his former one was to quickly label any attempt (and I mean ANY) to cure many of the ailments that both people and planet are universally suffering these days as part of an evil progressive conspiracy to subvert “American” world supremacy.

Beck’s views, or at least those he has spouted on Fox News, his radio show, books and other media outlets, have been as diametrically opposed to my personal world-view as one could possibly be. It is the antithesis of impact mindfulness…in my opinion.

Now maybe all that is changing…who knows? But, I doubt it.

So, what to make of Srini and Beck “teaming up” to do…exactly what…I am not sure? Actually, I have no idea whether there will ever be such a “teaming”…but the letter certainly invites one.

Srini’s views purport to be apolitical. Beck’s are, or have been, anything but. This site does not in any shape or form purport to be apolitical. It does propose the shedding of any of the usual labels that folks like Beck would normally be quick to slap upon it. But I do want the site to stand for an ideal…a worldview. And it is hard to untangle worldviews from politics. That worldview is more than a slightly bit impractical I will readily admit. But the only thing being suggested here is that we adopt and execute this worldview where it really counts…between the ears. Since that is where impact has its immediate impetus.

The only thing being suggested here is that we adopt and execute this worldview where it really counts…between the ears. Since that is where impact has its immediate impetus.

This site is not about the way to online entrepreneurial success. It is not a site about you, or me, but about us…the Big US. It is a site that says People matter…the Planet matters…and if ideas that better the condition of either could potentially be branded as radical, as progressive, as socialist, as communist, or as capitalist…it doesn’t matter. What matters is the impact that they can make on bettering the human condition!

That is the proposition on which this site stands and as someone once said…

Either you stand for something, or you’ll fall for anything.

Boycott Big

October 8, 2013 by costaricaguy Leave a Comment

My blog reading this morning has inspired a rant. Specifically the inspiration comes from a post by Corbett Barr of Think Traffic. The title of the post was Celebrate Small and in it Barr tells us of the pitfalls of the “size matters” trap. That error in thinking that smallness has to be resisted as if it were the enemy of progress. There is also an underlying message in his post…one that resonated with me on a deeper level.

It is revealed by this quote:

It’s hard to separate big from greed. A few people get rich when something goes public. Investors and founders get rich. Employees and users aren’t better off.

He’s right, it is hard, maybe impossible. But the prevailing mindset, nevertheless, is that bigger is better…be it bigger businesses, muscles, houses, banks and bank accounts, or, well, you know. I am here to join with Corbett and take issue with all that…well, that last one I won’t voice any opinion on.

Take the concept of the “big box” as an example. I moved to a little town in Costa Rica called Perez Zeledon about two years ago. I was living in San Jose…a very big city with a lot of big box stores…there you have your Walmarts, Office Depots, Price Smarts and so forth.

But here in Perez it is all mom and pop. I can remember back when small town U.S.A. used to be like that. But not any more, the big box concept destroyed it and turned small town U.S.A. into “ghost town” U.S.A.

And what happened to the “small farmer?” We actually still have those here in Costa Rica.

Now all that bigness might indeed be good for those investors and founders that Corbett mentions, but the rest of us…not so much, in my opinion.

Why is it that we suffer under this bigger is better illusion? Because along side of it there exists that related malady of mindset that more is never enough. What’s at the heart of it? In a word, greed.

In the movie The Social Network, when Sean Parker uttered that now famous line of “A million isn’t cool…You know what’s cool?…A billion,” I don’t think he had much more than “me, myself and I” in mind.

The bigger is better mindset is one that promotes scarcity and zero-sum.

Now, I’ll admit, as I type this and get ready to publish the finished product to Twitter and Facebook, that there is a tinge of hypocrisy in my hype. Twitter and Facebook are both big and getting bigger all the time. Big can be downright hard to avoid. It’s everywhere. It rules the world…to some extent.

But small is making a come back. And small is the way you and I can make an impact. As Corbett alluded to, small means a more intense level of connection. And our economy is becoming more and more driven by connection than by consolidation.

Small means a more intense level of connection. And our economy is becoming more and more driven by connection than by consolidation.

I believe people are becoming increasingly fed up with the commoditization of every facet of our lives. Because when that happens the quality of everything comes down, including that of life itself.

My message this morning is boycott big…not that we neglect the advantage of harnessing big for the advancement of the small…as many do with these gargantuan connection platforms…but we resist, even rebel against, the mindset that bigger is best…since it rarely ever is.

Let’s make impact the impetus…not shareholder return.

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Be Different Not Indifferent

October 3, 2013 by costaricaguy Leave a Comment

Well I got a second chance yesterday. I posted the other day about a missed impact opportunity. I missed it because I failed to do myself what I encourage in this blog. I put my interest over my impact. But I was sitting in that same Subway and the same poor kids were outside once again. I guess that’s the regular routine for them to find something to eat. This time I was mindful of the things I speak of here. I was mindful of impact over interest. And those kids enjoyed a full stomach…at least on that day.

And then early this morning I witnessed something right in front of me here on my quiet street that caused me distress. There is an elderly gentleman who always walks by my house every morning. He sells lottery tickets in the center of town (what we call here in Costa Rica, “chances”). He was trying to dial a number on his phone, but apparently was having problems doing it, either due to poor eyesight or dexterity in manipulating those tiny “smart” phone buttons (I know because I have trouble with both even at my youthful 52…why can’t someone invent a smarter smart phone to deal with these issues?). An adolescent passed him on the sidewalk and the gentleman asked the youth for some help. This little snot just brushed him aside and continued his brisk pace. The scene made me angry. But that is the infirmity that inflicts our youth, as well as society in general. And it is true here in Costa Rica just as much as in the U.S. And that infirmity is indifference.

What is the source of indifference? A mindset of interest (self) over impact, pure and simple. Take this current mess in Washington D.C. I don’t want to get political in this blog. I have in the past. The problem is that politics always tends to polarize and that is the opposite of the Big US that impact mindfulness teaches. But I’ll use this current event as an example. What is really going on here? There is a small group of Congressman whose constituents do not like the Affordable Care Act (what they call, “Obamacare”). I am not even sure if it is “Obamacare” that is the real problem…more than likely it is the man himself they don’t “care” for (for reasons I won’t go into in this post). So, they have decided to shut down the entire government of the U.S. unless they get what their constituents want…some sort of repeal of this law…that previously passed both houses of Congress as well as constitutional muster via review by the Supreme Court. It is also a law that provides health insurance to millions who could not otherwise afford it. But that doesn’t matter. They don’t like it and to hell with the rest.

What is the source of indifference? A mindset of interest (self) over impact, pure and simple.

You see, for me that is the same attitude that this youth had when he rudely brushed aside the small and simple request of the elderly gentleman. There was such a lack of respect on display that it really ignited a passion within me to run out and give “a good talking” to the little shit. And we humans crave respect. It is quintessential to a dignified existence. And everyone wants that. We cannot all be millionaires. But we can all expect respect.

We humans crave respect. It is quintessential to a dignified existence. And everyone wants that. We cannot all be millionaires. But we can all expect respect.

Being indifferent to another human, who just wants some dignity, some respect, is the ultimate slap in the face of humanity. Why do we do that to one another? How could we? Easy…because we are only concerned with what interests us. If Obamacare has the minuscule chance of costing me an extra buck in order to provide someone the dignity of healthcare (who could not otherwise afford it), to hell with them. I want it repealed and I demand that my Congressman take action to see that it is, the consequences to the nation be damned.

Interest over impact my friends. That is the problem we face in our youth, on our streets, in our cities, in our nation and throughout our planet.

Impact mindfulness might just be the cure we should be looking for.

Impact mindfulness encourages us to be different not indifferent.

photo credit: Massimo Margagnoni via Compfight cc

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