Loving Jacqui

Difference Between the Australian and Texan Justice System

Christoph Dollis — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 05:45:56 +0000

Australia — a terrific country — has a surprisingly forgiving justice system.

I noticed this by watching television while I was there.

I was astounded, for example, to be watching a very stern judge telling a man he’d been arrested several times in the past for stealing cars and the Australian justice system would be giving him a strong sentence to send a message to him this behaviour would not be tolerated. Therefore, the judge sentenced the car thief to a longer suspended sentence and probation than the last time he was convicted.

James Kevin Pope who sexually abused 3 young girls over a period of 2 years in Texas was just sentenced to 40 consecutive life terms for sexual assault on a minor and 3 consecutive terms of 20 years for sexual performance of a minor. His total sentence is 4,060 years, yet he becomes eligible for parole earlier. In 3209.

I will just leave those facts as is and won’t comment on which system is better, except to say Texas.

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Cloud Computing

Christoph Dollis — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 10:44:19 +0000

As announced earlier, I will be devoting my mental and physical energies to helping a local business, Eruptik Technologies, promote its information management ideas.

It’s 3:37 a.m. now. I just came back from a trip to the convenience store where I read this article: “After Bill [Gates]” in The Economist.

Of all that Microsoft hopes to achieve in the post-Gates era, one goal dominates all others — even catching Google. That is to become the dominant force in the forthcoming era of cloud computing…”

Rather than being a big chunk of code sitting on a hard disk on your desk, software will come “as a service” over the internet through a browser.

…

Fewer people will put the PC at the centre of their computing universe; it will be one of many devices connected through the web, which Mr Ozzie calls the “hub”.

That is what we are doing, with a special twist.

This adds satisfaction and confidence to my decision to choose this company at this time. We’re at the forefront of a technology movement and our founder has been working on his ideas for over 10 years.

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Start New Sales Position with eRUPT!K

Christoph Dollis — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 04:22:11 +0000

On Monday, I began training full time as an Account Manager for Eruptik, a Victoria Tech company.

This means I’m no longer available to fly to Toronto to begin sales training to work for a Fortune 500 company which interested me greatly nor will I work for another local company which was talking about creating a special position for me to execute a marketing campaign for them.

It also means ChristophDollis.com is no more. It now redirects here.

That website served me well as it focussed my thinking on the type of work I want to do, even when temptations abounded to abandon my dreams and take work in other fields.

I also successfully used ChristophDollis.com as a learning tool as my understanding of myself and selling grew; it tracked my early efforts to organize myself using the Getting Things Done methadology, served in part to document and explain my understanding and working in earnest on applying the Carnegie secret from Think and Grow Rich, crystalized my thinking on the “Do it now!” habit, served in part as impetus for gaining the specialized knowledge and skills which lead to that epiphany, was a welcome home to develop and put in writing my “Ready, Fire, Aim” selling philosophy, and more.

Now is time to enjoy work, produce, and manage my time tightly in pursuit of my purpose.

Keeping up one personal website will be quite enough. If I start another site, for example, a blog and/or homepage, it will be a specialized communication tool to help my clients and advance the goals of my company.

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Today’s a Big Day, It’s Canada Day! Yay…

Christoph Dollis — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 18:04:36 +0000

Oh, and I see here by the calendar it’s also someone’s birthday in Australia. Happy Birthday, honey.

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4th Toastmasters Meeting

Christoph Dollis — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 17:33:02 +0000

Friday I went to another Toastmaster’s club.

It took place at a table at a lounge. I had a chef’s salad. It was excellent.

The meeting was tough to judge because ¾ of it was taken up with club business such as training new executive members: The Treasurer’s responsibilities are x, y, and z. Etc.

The one prepared speech was fun to see and listen to.

The impromptu table topic speeches were a blur. I stood up, gave a one minute thirty second speech and whatever my alleged topic was when I started, it bore little resemblance to how I finished. I forgot is an understatement!

Which is to say speaking off the cuff in public while trying to be funny without “pre-inspiration” as it were, or something which just struck you, is a real challenge. Therefore, I accepted the club’s invitation to join them again as a guest at their next meeting.

This club meets once a month.

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3rd Toastmasters Meeting - Philosophy - and a Rewarding Productive Day

Christoph Dollis — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 07:51:51 +0000

I went to a Toastmasters meeting organized around business and technology people.

I love both, especially the 1st, and the 2nd to the degree technology can solve people’s problems and allow them to profit personally, professionally, or financially.

For example this blog is technology. I first puzzled out my life-and-attitude-altering written statement on a word processor, and I’m listening to free streaming trance music as I type.

Never was there a century with more opportunity, more change, more chances to love at a distance (Jacqui) and to bridge that distance spiritually and in person.

The young entrepreneur- business owner- president of the Toastmasters club paid me a huge compliment at the end by saying he thought I would fit in there. He referred me to an experienced Toastmaster who is a member of a club which meets once a month for a meeting about humour!

(Just awesome — now I can join 2 clubs and still have time to complete education I want at my own pace, work passionately for the right company when I find it, driving their profitable client acquisition growth, and… this is where it gets truly exciting… asking me if I might want to talk over some business ideas with him.)

Of course, I was honoured and I’d love to. I think this might be one of the 2 clubs I’ll join. I’m waiting to hear back from an email I sent.

The other Toastmasters clubs are awesome. Unfortunately, I only have so much time and must be forthright with myself about that. Some of my biggest interests are business and humour… and I want improvement in both.

Speaking of which, I spoke again today, near the beginning of the meeting! My 1:30 second table topic speech, with 20 seconds over, was on the question, “Does money motivate people?”

I gave a speech and since it was impromptu, I wouldn’t be entirely right in saying I remember what I said.

The gist of it was yes, it does motivate, but it’s only one of many things and for most people, is not the main motivator. Family, expressiveness, pleasure, companionship, moral values, immoral values, ideas… these are the things that motivate people and only a small percentage of the population is motivated to earn big money, anyway.

You have to have a reason to want the money for the effort required to earn more than your immediate needs. This inspires more than a desire for fancy paper printed with the faces of assorted deceased notables.

Hence all the above plus money, yes.

If money was the main motivator, well… there wouldn’t be a lot of use for bridge clubs. Or for that matter (completely different motivations at stake)… night clubs.

On the subject of motivation, my thought is this.

It’s a 2-edged sword.

Everyone says they want more motivation, but do they? Should they?

Here’s the thing.

If a person without thinking it through properly possesses unhealthy goals and a negative attitude as their dominating thoughts whatever their stated thoughts, and they become more motivated… you can see what problems that can lead to.

The reverse of that is you have a positive, clear vision of something really worthwhile… whether that’s your wealth or better yet what you intend to do with your wealth, a change you want to make in the world, an example you want to set (think Amelia Earhardt who wanted to have adventures and prove women can be as brave as men), or some other aspect of people’s noble motives combined with a positive mental attitude…

… well, motivation fueled into that purpose is what blazes a trail forward in any person’s life. We all feel it from time to time. The hidden key I only recently discovered to my delight and benefit is how to persistently reflect on your purpose. There is a way. Some people do it naturally and it can also be learned.

Persistently.

I’m not talking about being persistent in pursuit of your goal. You won’t be if you let other lesser things take its place as the cares of the world or the distractions of pleasure take over your thoughts.

I mean persistently reinforcing your most important thought, your purpose, your desire, until it’s a burning obsession… then keeping the oxygen on it.

If you care about this, I suggest you read my business website carefully… carefully… because I outline it there and reveal resources you can use to learn more and understand it fully. However, I plan on pulling the plug on that business site once it has helped me accomplish my next major business goal.

So if you get there and it’s either not working or it redirects to another site (where I’m now working), and you’re really wanting to understand how to persistently stoke your purpose in life to the point where you find yourself clouding out all your old self-doubts and replacing them with the finest parts of your nature… the parts you’re only used to seeing once in a while “by chance”… if you’re serious about that… then you can write to me at my contact link at the top of this page above the website header and I’ll point you toward some people smarter than myself who, in a very nuts and bolts almost scientific way (backed up by actual science!) know how you can do it.

Top athletes do it. Matthew McConaughey does it. You can too.

Today was a good day.

I woke up and started on my 10 daily next actions, including exercise, eating healthy, saying aloud my statement of purpose, visualizing it, and both reading and listening to specialized useful material.

It got better.

Because I had prepared for it, I went into my first sales opportunity job interview of the day and it went well. Hands down. It was a wonderful conversation for both of us and I’ll say no more at this point.

Walking back to my car, I saw a B2B technology company’s office, rang the buzzer, and made a cold call. The VP of Business Development was not in, but I did leave a note on the back of my business card. I will follow through on my promise to contact him on Friday. I’ll do it by letter because he works from home.

Driving to my 2nd appointment, I was listening to Dale Carnegie’s classic book How to Win Friends and Influence People.

It’s such an amazing book. I have violated every principle in it more than any man who has ever lived, except perhaps for Benjamin Franklin. He used to be very argumentative and undiplomatic with people, and went on to be one of the most persuasive, effective communicators in history. This despite the fact he was not a gifted speaker.

I’ve been learning.

For example, I was writing down names of people in my journal shortly after meeting them because a person’s name is important. People are important and worth remembering.

My 2nd interview was for a more junior position. The person interviewing me said it usually lasts 5 minutes and then, “Why don’t you try it out?”

In my case, it was 90 minutes of back and forth ideas, brainstorming, stories, and we both walked out of the office and out the parking lot together in total rapport. The manager is thinking about creating a new position for me because he sees some of the big picture possibilities of our thinking — in my case, new thinking, frankly — and yet my nuts and bolts methods for actioning them.

I’ve had skills for a while, but I didn’t have a great ability to control my mind and emotions in a lasting way. Now I do since I found a set of education and training I learned for which I’m eternally grateful. What a difference.

I have total calmness because I fully understand if one opportunity doesn’t pan out for me, I will uncover 3 others.

In fact, people who’ve seen my website, email, brochure, etc… haven’t seen my marketing plan. They think they have maybe. But not really, not fully. The most powerful part of it hasn’t been unleashed yet because I simply don’t have time.

I’ve been making great contacts with the lower levels of the plan, and the admittedly higher touch networking. For example, and I really do want to serve my community… I decided to be a better person, I would join a service club.

So I recently sent emails to 3 service clubs, and the President of one and his Membership VP both want to talk with me about selling opportunities.And I haven’t even met them in person yet.

The club President in particular represents a well-known company whose top representatives earn in the half million range, I am sure.

But… the company I met with this morning looks so exciting, with such growth potential, I wouldn’t jump on such an opportunity as above without deep thought.

In fact, tomorrow I have another interview with an agent sales department of a Fortune 100 company. Average earnings are about $50k/year with the top 25% of sales reps earning $80k an up.

And that’s awesome. It could be a long term career and I intend that it will be if I start. I’m incredibly excited by the thought.

So I have options and I will explore them carefully. And when I act, I will act with lightning speed. “Ready, Fire, Aim.”

I sent a handwritten appointment confirmation letter to one prospect, an emailed one to another, thank you cards to the people I met with today, emails to 2 people from the Toastmasters meeting, a personal email to the first person I met with today on the subject of one of her personal passions because by “chance” I met someone who might maybe have a way for her to do what she does better.

And that chance occurred because I was there and struck up a conversation with that person! For no other reason.

And isn’t that what business should be about? Helping people.

Back to my table topic speech evaluation. The evaluator said:

Good opening

Good eye contact

… and he also said I should:

move around more because by coming forward, I include the audience in what I’m saying

I take that as a great improvement because I moved beyond the lecturn in my speech whereas on Monday I was “locked” behind it! Also, I left my pen behind and did not grasp it to distract people.

Yet my speech wasn’t near the best.

There were wonderful speeches about an Italian architect with revolutionary luxury futuristic environmentally friendly skyscraper designs; eliminating procrastination, having more joy through planning, and building life-changing self-confidence; and even some mathematically intensive and fascinating technical understanding of public-private key encryption.

That last one was better than it sounds, at least if you like to grasp how things work so you can explain the benefits in plain hard hitting language.

Toastmasters is an outstanding organization. You should come out as a guest sometime if you don’t already do so. And yep, you can keep your religion and politics out of it. It’s all about learning how to speak well, listen well, and gain the benefits of (personal and wider) leadership.

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2nd Toastmasters Meeting

Christoph Dollis — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 06:13:39 +0000

It made me smile and feel warm again.

That’s the second time.

Tonight I went to another Toastmaster’s club as a guest. This club was smaller, more relaxed (we went an hour over time!), and friendly. The man who I sat beside whom they asked to “show me around” as it were for my first meeting was very interested in helping me get the most out of my experience whether I came back or not.

He went out of his way.

I got the feeling he liked himself and he liked helping people. That is a good combination.

I did my first Toastmasters speech! A table topic speech, 2 minutes long (I went 22 seconds over) on adversity.

Table topic means it was completely impromptu and I didn’t know the topic until I reached the lectern.

I talked about adversities I’ve had recently and am having now… and how they’ve helped me grow. I talked about how Jim Rohn — previously mentioned because this so true quote of his:

“Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment.”
– Jim Rohn

… was another speaker’s table topic — helped me start the process of at last being the person I have always wanted to be.

Jim talked about his mentor who, when Jim told him how he had been living and how he’d accomplished nothing of permanence in 6 years — no savings, hardly read any good books, attended no courses, had improved himself in no discernible way — said, “I suggest you don’t do that anymore.”

That. Is. Profound. What a way to summarize the situation.

Jim also talked about the value of keeping a journal, something which has been instrumental in my growth since I started.

I talked about Bear and how she had helped me in many ways… and about how I was grateful for these particularly challenges since they served as valuable learning tools. With the journal.

I wrapped up.

After the meeting where it was the habit of this club to pass around notes to people with both sincere praise and helpful suggestions for improvement, I received but one, this one:

… from a 15 year old girl from Texas attending as a guest (she’s too young to join and had herself only reluctantly spoken after being encouraged to several times).

Now isn’t that sweet? I’m going to paste it in my journal. That is a treasured keepsake.

I’d given a closing comment about 3 points, the 1st complimenting the man who was mentoring me, the 2nd about the wonderful energy and warmth in the group as a whole, the last being I’d voted for another table topic speaker as being the best… however, I thought the girl guest showed great courage by getting up.

I wrote a note to every speaker and my note to her included mostly positive phrasing, for example:

“Your body language and gestures were excellent and expressive… once you took your hands out of your pockets!”

I placed as much emphasis as I could in a short time on how a courageous act, which she justifiably felt good about, repeated once may not have much effect.

But similar acts repeated many times could have an enormous effect on her personality, her self-confidence, and her life. She seemed to like that and the man who was helping me tonight made a special point of saying he did too, which I appreciated.

He, however, was perhaps more realistic in appraising my speaking abilities:

grasped pen throughout, which was distracting (I tend to do this; I’d made a mental note to myself to leave it behind and I didn’t even realize I had it in my hand!)

stayed “locked behind” the lectern

On the other hand, he also said:

had good eye contact and held it throughout demonstrating confidence

speech had a strong wrap up

open, honest, “endearing”

… so it wasn’t all bad.

This meeting was completely different than the first and, on the whole, I enjoyed it very much, too!

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Toastmasters

Christoph Dollis — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 01:27:54 +0000

I’m going to my first Toastmasters meeting as a guest tonight. I’ve heard great things about the organization:

“Toastmasters is the best and least expensive personal improvement class you can go to.”

– Lisa Lingle
Governor of Hawaii

… and I’m looking forward to the meeting, which begins in an hour.

11:29 p.m. UPDATE:

This post already has a comment from Andrew.

I must admit I didn’t expect to come home from my first ever Toastmasters meeting as a guest and find a comment on my blog… a blog I only recently started writing again after a 2 month break.

The Toastmasters meeting gave me an awesome feeling.

I brought my new journal with me. I just started keeping it as part of my new committment to much-needed self-development. The journal was a recommendation by a speaker and business philosopher named Jim Rohn.

I took notes during the meeting, among them…

I was amazed not only by the efficiency and punctuality of the group, nor by the warm friendliness, which I mostly expected, but also the variety of people and the quality of speakers.

Not all were great. However, the best were OUTSTANDING and I could see where all were improving dramatically.

Jacqui had said to me, “But you’re already a good speaker.”

I admit, from a very shy childhood where I was literally a loner for 4 years after my parents divorced and I moved to a new province, spending most of my time either out in the wilderness or in the library studying interesting (but not terribly helpful) things like English naval and Roman history, I was once extraordinarily shy.

What finally broke me out of my shell — extremely painfully — was girls.

Simply put, I was terrified of them and couldn’t speak to them to save my life. When I finally decided I wanted to meet them I was so awful at it every single one said no.

But!

I learned to persevere in this one thing at least. Motivation was high.

Finally, my confidence grew and even before I uncovered how to be adept at meeting members of the opposite sex, I realized I was relaxing and feeling good about putting myself on the line. Success on multiple fronts occurred forthwith.

Then I achieved much bigger success and found a woman who makes me so much happier than I ever could be alone, or with any number of others, however many excellent qualities they may have.

For I’ve never found anyone to match hers, nor in so many ways.

Further, she makes **ME** better.

I listened last night and today for the first time ever to an audio called The Success System that Never Fails by W. Clement Stone, who built a huge instant issue insurance empire and wrote about a Positive Mental Attitude.

He was an extraordinary salesman and lived to be 100, one of his goals, and was a wonderful philanthropist.

However, what grabbed me at my core is this.

Jessie Stone, his wife. They were married over 78 years and he named his charitable foundation after both of them.

(Intriguing fact: She outlived him by 2 years, and she also lived to be 100.)

W. Clement Stone said how when he was 21 he married her because he knew she’d make him a better man than he would be alone. And he obviously loved her.

So, yes, as a salesman, but also otherwise, W. Clement Stone is now one of my mentors and I don’t care how “hokey” anyone not committed to self-development thinks that is.

I seek out mentors for inspiration and learning.

At Toastmasters tonight was a fellow guest who works for the Canadian military as a psychiatrist. This reminded me of some of the work Stone did helping fund an organization called GROW (Australian website, and they help in other countries including the United States) which uses self-help philosophies to help mentally ill people live better and reach their potential.

Some studies showed — unlike some other methods, arguably — total hospital admissions were reduced and the length of admissions were lowered. A particular longitudinal study proved people became more independent with time.

Exactly the right result.

So Stone was both an effective person, and a good person as are many others. Dare I say it? A high percentage of Toastmasters members are, I’ll bet you.

Later, I even found some courses on the subject and recognized much of the subject matter. I was like, “Wait, I did that! That was my experience too.”

In selling my experience was similar. I was horrific at it, and terrified.

One thing I could never stand was to be afraid. Being afraid was a reason to do something until the fear went away.

It’s just like when I moved from Manitoba where the land is flat to British Columbia where we have hills and mountains.

I remember going to the nearby Goldstream Provincial Park as a teenager with my dad, his girlfriend, and my younger and only sister, and they were going up this incline like it was nothing, and I was pressed against the Earth in terror.

I could not move.

I’ve heard other people with a fear of heights describe it this way, so I know I’m not alone. I felt like I would rather throw myself off than make my way down.

I didn’t, of course. Besides, it wasn’t much of a slope. I don’t think I would have died if I had fell down.

But the terror was immense, I want you to understand.

Other parts on the way up to that railway trestle were harder and steeper and I hadn’t got to them yet.

I don’t know if I did it that night, or the next night, or a night two months later… but I know this.

Without telling anyone, I went back to that trestle, a walk of about 3 miles, and with an electric torch in hand and made myself go further up the slope. In terror.

Goldstream Trestle
Click to enlarge

I did this again and again over many nights. Finally, I got to the point that I could go up that slope, and all the others, and cross over the high long railway trestle, at night, with no torch, on a moonlit night. I did this many times.

Later, I hiked hundreds of miles by myself over Vancouver Island facing all manner of terrain free from fear.

I’ve rapelled and while the fear returned briefly, once I overcame it, it was gone utterly. At a later session, I went with others who had never had a native fear of heights and who had rapelled many times. I had no fear whatsoever. And I was aggressive and joyous in how I jumped off the tower, rappelled down fast, and stopped myself just short of the ground.

And so it was with selling to the point where I love the profession, no longer want to work purely in customer service, and want to find a position in my chosen field.

I even wrote this little website to put in writing some of my ideas to help a business grow through increased sales, which I will make for them.

I figure if I’m now going to SELL myself to businesspeople as a serious person who excels at communicating and is outgoing, I should do the things those people do.

And so I went to Toastmasters. I spoke a tiny bit tonight, my first night, and in my journal had to write a little note to myself to “try” (I hate that word!) not to speak too much, so as to focus on all the other people.

I didn’t have to overcome shyness, which is wonderful.

The “word of the night” tonight was SPIRIT. Every time someone said it, we thumped on the table.

I’ll allow myself this much: With full sincerity, inspired by being in the company of a bunch of great people all working to better themselves, and motivated completely by them, I came up with one good line at the end when they asked for comments.

We were meeting in a room in a Catholic parish.

“Since we are holding this meeting in a Catholic establishment, and since I’m honoured to be with you, it’s my pleasure to say you all have very good… … …

…

… SOULS.”

That got a laugh.

Yet I could not have matched their best speakers tonight and there were only 21 people including yours truly. One of the speakers who is brilliant is a double math/history major (for goodness sakes!), not a Sales Pro nor other traditional speaking and listening specialist.

I shall have to raise my game and look forward to doing so.

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Bear Rub

Christoph Dollis — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 00:59:48 +0000

This reminded me of someone.

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Fruits and Other Natural Food

Christoph Dollis — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 00:54:25 +0000

In April, Jacqui gave me a WONDERFUL gift and it was truly delicious:

… and smelled awesome.

I should have taken the hint and eaten healthier. Well, this last week was an interesting experiment in what happens when you don’t.

Week before, I was totally productive and felt awesome. Last week flew by and I didn’t get much done. A bit, sure, but far less than I was capable of.

So the question is, what’s it gonna be this week!

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