If you build he will come..

Told to write…”Build it and he will come”

I started off a book many years ago, and got off well. Even had support from a close friend of mine who read, gave advises and all that stuff necessary. After a while, I sent a few hundred pages to an Agent and a publishing company, and was positively surprised, though one thing happened which made me lose interest; despite they asked me to finish, they told me to dig deeper in regards to some of characters and also, not to write a fast consumed novel, the ones you buy when you travel and want to kill a few hours..BUT, that was exactly what I wanted to do, nothing else, so I lost my drive, my flame blown off and that was that. I write in very much a script kind of way, where I create the action/scene etc in my head, then I write, and that is me.

So now years later, I also got to understand two things: I was seeking for instant gratification, the shit was and still is good, and secondly... I wasn’t ready to kill my babies, and maybe they saw something I didn’t. But can I change myself or is it improvement? I want to write to release myself from over 50 years of good and bad shit and do it as therapy. I read books today, though not as I used to do, and when I read some of the crap, because it is crap, and I realize the authors making a killing out of the “crap” I can sink deeper in a pity party, screaming: Where is the f-cking quality? Where’s the story, the kick, the juice that makes the book become alive? I wanted to write stuff so it would be an awakening for my readers.

I can’t write about fashion or blogging about my latest shoes or my latest assignment...I mean who would read it? Who would read about thoughts from a 50+ man, though with an interesting career and some adventures behind him? So, I partly understand the supporters who voted for DT, he made them feel valuable again and seen. “He made me exist!!” It makes sense; feeling and being outside is terrible, when no one would even care if you are there or not, only when they need a vote or something else. So it becomes a one-way relationship. What do you expect to happen when they have a chance to get even? They will fuck you up! A lot! 

Giving a person a reason to exist is the greatest thing you can do for another human being, and it doesn’t have to be someone close or someone you know, can be anybody. That gift can be a smile, a Hi wazzup, helping someone that fell and so on and actually listen to them. Taking for granted and feeling entitled is the new thing around the corner and it doesn’t help anyone in the end.

So the blogs should be short or long? They answer me: They need to be interesting...Ok? Looking at the world today, I am completely outside: been told NOT to write/tweet/FB/Instagram since as a Corp Exec I might ruin my chances for career moves, and if I write I need to write about stuff which people wants to read... I am kind of blocked here. Always felt lonely and still do since I miss intellectual challenges. To be honest; I want to talk about Gary Cooper and High Noon with someone, and there is no one out there. The other minute I want to talk about Kardashians booty, and then I have a few I can select from...

My brother told me, I don’t belong in this century and that is for sure...I have this strange view and opinion that our brains should be used at maximum and explore the possibilities how far a person can take it and what makes us blocking ourselves. If I want make money, I need to write about: Sex, Fashion, Horror or really shocking stuff just to get a second of attention. Maybe that’s who were are, at least the ones with a fairly good life; consumers of everything and seeking the ultimate kick. The ones fighting for their lives every day have other priorities.

Yesterday I saved a person’s life or yesterday I took a dump big as Mt Everest…Look! I have pictures. I am a dying breed and praying for a GK bigger than Europe to come and reset everything. The clean slate.

So if a bunch of people have been saying things for a decades and no one listens, and then along comes Dr Phil and Joel Osteen and makes a killing on that by repeating it… What took place? What was the missing ingredient for the ones doing in first place?

Counselor: Do you love him? Hurt wife: Yes I do. Counselor: Then you need to tell him that since that is exactly what is needed right now. Do you see the sacrifice healing everything? Hurt wife: I can’t and I am not the one that should take the first step, he cheated on me and thinks I should get over it… Suddenly from nowhere, in comes Dr Phil: Do you really love him? Hurt wife 1 looks at her husband; Yes I do, and I do forgive him and I do realize through my rejection of his love he was forced to cheat on me, not only once but 73 times, where of 30 with my Sister, which I also forgive since family is always family. Dr Phil, thank you so much to open up my eyes for my own shortcomings. Your account number please?

Sometimes I understand why and where DT woodwork supporters are coming from and how the creation of them actually works.

Be at your very best whoever you are wherever you are

Business manners

Always get back to people when they have called/mailed/texted etc. Even if they are “nobody’s” right now, they might be somebody for the future.

Don’t use people for your own benefits, what goes around comes around.

Strive to be long term and consistent, sooner or later the walls of Jericho will come tumbling down.

Come on time, don’t be late, unless you have a really good reason. First impression is actually crucial.

You can reject, without trashing people. Always keep doors open for the future.

Don’t ever, and I mean ever, bring feelings to your business or work. Leave them where they belong...at home.

Be loyal to the ones who were there when you were nothing.

Treat your enemies with respect.

Read Sun Tzu, Art of War, excellent bible for business.

If they steal your ideas, it just shows how good you are.

Don’t be jealous, reinvent yourself instead.

Always improve your business and yourself, it’s an ongoing process. Never be satisfied.

Don’t force people to believe in you, you can lead the Donkey to the river, but you can’t force it to drink from the river.

If people believe in you, they will drink the water voluntarily.

Test your ideas, when you have a good gut feeling. Much better to test, than to do nothing about it, then you will never know.

I’d rather die trying than give up what I believe in.

The curse of delaying things

Do we have to settle for our current situation? Do we have to ravish in poverty, misfortune or other settings that we find negative? Shall we wait until we are 50, if  money comes then, to take our first steps? 70 to build our first house? 90 when we start living?

Don’t postpone your life and your ideas! Start living now, not tomorrow.

Procrastination is the worst decease you can have, there’s no cure for it, except your own “making up your mind” to get rid of it.

Are you a procrastinator? Do the test!

Sit down and make a list of things you need to do in your life, whether they are private or business. Grade them based on your own preferences and by importance. When you see that the important ones are delayed and are down South on the list, and you know that they are affecting your life, family and business, but still the preferred ones are at top spot. Congrats, then you are procrastinator.

My advice? Make up your mind, ASAP!

People manners

Don’t be an asshole!

Be clear in your communication.

Respect others, even when you hate their guts out.

Always try to put yourself in other people shoes.

Don’t judge others.

Show empathy, and not only sympathy.

Don’t be fool and let others use you.

Learn how to a cook, even as a man. Your own cooking always tastes better.

Don’t oppress the weak ones.

Don’t use other people’s weaknesses.

Try to be honest, and keep the down lies.

Don’t leave your dirty underwear on the floor for others to pick.

Take responsibility for your actions.

When you fight your partner: fight clean!

Dress properly and be clean. You don’t have to wear expensive clothes to look smart.

Shower and work on your personal hygiene, but don’t smell like a perfume factory.

Keep down the makeup, don’t look like a clown.

Don’t sit with your smart phone during a conversation and when you are driving.

Political correctness (PC)

Now, this is a subject that might be sensitive. So what is the price of being political correct? Frustration? Depression? Uncontrolled outbursts? Forced censorship?

PC is of course important and also part of our settings as human beings, because we can’t run wild, but I would say everything needs to have a moderation, even PC. It’s easier to allow yourself to NOT to be PC, when you have no obligations or needs, i.e financial ones to pay your living, basically don’t bite the hand that feeds you.

But PC can even be a blocker to fix real serious problems. There are moments where we have to stand up and burst out: Enough is enough, it ends here!!

PC equals collateral damage, and basically we are allowing ourselves to be bad for the greater good, right? So how can we be bad as we are PC?

How would the world look like if we allowed ourselves to speak our mind at any moment and not minding the settings A.K.A PC?

We are PC because we don’t want to offend, upset or do something wrong to anyone at any time. For me, it becomes a paralyzed state of mind. It walks like a Duck, sounds like a Duck, looks like a Duck…well, let’s call it what it actually is: A Duck!

Who decides what is PC or not? Why should we hide the truth just for the sake of being PC?

Why are certain massacres worse than others? Why are certain wars worse than others? Death is death, wherever we are, right? A human being has the same value no matter who you are, or do we grade ourselves?

Why can certain people get away with anything, while others cannot even slip before they are bashed and almost killed.

“It’s ok for me”…but not for others, the self entitlement we give ourselves when we feel righteous in the name of PC.

I am not PC, and I pay a high price sometimes, for that choice, but I feel liberated and righteous of my choice. Remember that the best things in life are priceless, the second best are very expensive.

Coming to a standstill...

In deep crisis when basically everything in a corporation is going down the drain, there are only two options available; one is to give up and let it sink, the other is to come to a complete standstill.

Standstill is defined in many ways, depending from each angle you are looking at. It could be a standstill for Lenders where you freeze the accounts with interest and principal payments to the Lenders, or it could be a complete standstill, where the management puts a halt, and takes a step back to assess the battle field.

Imagine yourself driving behind a truck; you are so close you cannot see anything. So why do not put your foot on the brakes, and just slowly decreasing the speed to increase your ability to see?

Personally, I do brake, but I make a full stop when assessing a crisis and then I walk myself through the following steps.

Retreat; taking the step back to be able to see

Analyze; what is it I am actually looking at

Break down; take the big picture and put it into smaller batches to understand the core

Analyze; profound analysis of the batches

Rebuild; clean out the non-core elements and start rebuilding the structure with new bricks

Advance; take a step forward with the new rebuilt structure

This loop can be repeated as many times as needed or whenever you find yourself behind a truck or in a crisis, or even used in your daily life.

Though I bet that JWH never used the above method, or maybe he did, maybe he walked through the steps faster than lightning inside his head, and when he swung his revolvers he was already in the Advance stage.

On a personal level, I am at standstill, being home and cleaning out my Mom’s apartment with my brother. It is like a time machine in her apartment, she was indeed a collector; my baby shoes when I was 6 months old, her father’s love letters to her mother, my Grandpa writhing to my Grandma 1915, in the middle of the First World War, books from 1928, movies from 1959 in the Italian Alps where my brother took his first stumbling steps. But since she was a ”crossdrawer”, unconventional, she was of course up to date with the current state of life; latest DVDs, a lot of action movies by fact. She liked real hard core actions, especially when there were killing involved, killing of the bad guys. I remember one day years back, me and Mom had a full day of Steven Seagal movies. Amazing. When Skyfall premiered, I took her to the Theater, and there were two things going on in that movie saloon; One, a great action movie on the screen, two, my Mom highly commenting what was happening on the screen, shouting out ”watch behind you” ”shoot him”..And popcorn was flying everywhere. That was my Mom in a nutshell.

When you are in a standstill, you have to be ice cold. Nothing can disturb, you have to “close” yourself out from external factors that might affect your decisions. There will be ”opinions” flying around you like a hail storm, everyone has an opinion believe me, and they all want to make themselves heard.

When you really feel that you are on the right way, just do it. Do not change. Make the move, ask the question you know everyone would like to ask, but they do not dare, because they are streamlined to fit in, to be political correct.

Political correctness dictates our lives, what we can and cannot say and do. Instead of moving forward, everything has come to a real standstill, everything and everyone is paralyzed, and meanwhile everything around us, things and matters we all want to change, are still there, disturbing and ruining settings, environments, structures, lives.

I have stopped being and probably never was political correct. Call things what they are, and do not tiptoe when you know you are right. Do not consume yourself in trying to save the mainstream ones. They are mainstream for a reason, and you are right for another reason.

I came to a standstill at one of the international airports I frequently use the other day, when I went through the security check. Following took place; 6 employees, all busy with their phones, even when I put my stuff through the scanner, the woman who supposedly should check my bags, was TEXTING at the same time. So me being me, wishing I could be back in the old West, cross drawing and take ignorance down, once and for all, went through all the above steps and Advanced in one second. I had to ask her, what is out there, in cyberspace or wherever she was, that is so more crucial than to check what I might carry on board.

I know what is out there: Ignorance and constant and immediate confirmation of the individual. Personally, I hate smart phones, or maybe should I correct myself, by saying that I do not hate them, I hate what they have become in our lives and what we have chosen them to become.  

In a standstill, the focus needs to be on the core, the engine that is needed to restart the corporation. When a person is about to die, the functions slowly goes down, the color of the legs is changing, temperature is going down in hands and feet, so all power is diverted to the heart, the engine. It is the last survival instinct in the human body; it is our brain who steps into the “reptile” stage, pure survival.

It is the same in a deep crisis with standstills, focus on the core, the fire that will ultimately take you down. That is the fight to go for, the rest can be lost, and you will lose arms and legs but save the heart, and restart the engine. You want to win the war, and by that you can lose some battles.

Focus on cash and your order book. Cash is the blood that will refuel your engine; Order book is the back bone on where you will rebuild the structure.

I would be back in the Wild West, the street empty in front me, people standing behind me. A slight wind stirring up some dust, have to wipe my eyes. All silent, a dog barking, and I would shout; “Pull” and as a glimpse coming from the above, a phone is flying through the air over my shoulder and suddenly one more. I yank my revolvers in a cross-draw and by a split second I shoot the devices out to outer space. The dog is still barking when I hear a movement behind my back, and suddenly I feel a hand on my shoulder. I turn around and I am finding myself starring into the blue eyes of JWH and he smiles.

And No, I am not political correct, but I tend to deliver a result, even when everything seems to be hopeless.

Now back to my Mom’s time machine.

The John Wesley Hardin draw

Doing things unconventional might bring you onto a path where you find yourself walking alone or only a few walks with you. Being unconventional makes you become somewhat of an outsider, though not in your eyes..It is in the eyes of the beholder.

In the streamlined beholders view, the unconventional walker is something strange, unknown or even dangerous. The unknown is something that most people fear, the unknown is the unpredictable factor where you will never know what is coming around the corner.

JWHs draw was unconventional, he had developed an unusual cross-draw method of pulling the guns. With one swift move, he crossed his arms and yanked out his revolvers, shooting in the motion, high accuracy, always lethal. It was considered to be the fastest and most lethal draw in the West. Known as the Hardin’s draw.

Yesterday I met a woman who has been traveling within Africa for more than 15 years, over 24 countries. She was determined to give Africa solar power before she died. She had been in Tanzania to sign one deal, and then off to Entebbe to sign another one. Determined. She told me she would rather live one day as a Lion than 100 as a lamb. Once she uttered the words, flashbacks came over me. That was my mother talking to me when I was a kid; ”Robertino, meglio un giorno da leone che 100 da pecora". Meaning, better die a hero than live a coward.

My mother was a ”crossdrawer” herself, unconventional.

Swedish Ebola aid workers returning to Stockholm, are treated like something that the cat dragged in. Their kids has been banned to return to the schools. Landlords wants to evict them and so forth. Education anyone?

The streamlined beholders show their fear. It is OK to be afraid, but it is not OK to be ignorant. With brains comes common sense, with common sense comes knowledge, with knowledge comes responsibilities, with responsibilities comes obligations. Obligations to use your brain.

JWH was not a psychopath or mentally unstable, he was a gentleman, well educated, literate and intelligent. Gifted with an abnormal ability of fast reflexes. Calm, cool and  collected when it came to stand offs.

Leaders has to be unconventional and ice cold, collected when the moment has come. The moment where you need to make a difference.

You can spot a ”crossdrawer” yourself. There a few out there, unconventional in their draw, yanking their revolvers in one motion, and firing at the same time, never missing their target. You spot them by watching how their hands are slightly leaning towards the body, thumbs inwards, always ready to draw, a dreamy look into their eyes, a look beyond the horizon.

To one ”crossdrawer” to another; in loving memory of my mother and  JWH, fastest man in the West.