Darren M Meade

“B e nobody-but-yourself — in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else — means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight ,” E.E. Cummings offered in his advice to aspiring artists . “ You’ve got to tell the world how to treat you ,” James Baldwin argued two decades later in his fantastic forgotten conversation about identity with anthropologist Margaret Mead. “ If the world tells you how you are going to be treated, you are in trouble .” Both the vulnerability and the courage of that world-telling are in direct proportion to our sense of otherness — to how far the teller diverges from society’s centuries-old, dogma-proscribed, limiting ideas about the correct way to be a human being.

Hanlon's Razor  — “Hanlon’s Razor states that we should not attribute to malice that which is more easily explained by stupidity. In a complex world, this principle helps us avoid extreme paranoia and ideology, often very hard to escape from, by not generally assuming that bad results are the fault of a bad actor, although they can be. More likely, a mistake has been made."  (Source:  Farnam Street ).

I recently finished The Road to Character by David Brooks . Brooks is a great storyteller, and this book is basically filled with what one might call “portraits in character.” The contrasts between Samuel Johnson and Michel de Montaigne vacillated between subtle and chasm-like. Both giants. The final days of Johnson’s life—as he plunges scissors into his own legs in an attempt to drain the edema and chastises his own doctor for not doing so deeply enough—my new hero! I want a life-sized Johnson bust in my office as a reminder of this man’s life. The thesis of the book is, basically, that we have seen a shift in human nature from what Brooks calls the Adam II self (humble, inward-looking, “eulogy” self) to the Adam I self (ambitious, external, “resume” self).  The case he makes is that this pendulum, which began its swing in the post-WWII era, has probably gone too far. I certainly came away feeling that way, and I am now left to contemplate what else I can do about it, personally

There are no new fundamentals. Truth is not new. It’s old. You already know all that you need to succeed. You don’t need to learn anything more. If all we needed was more information, everyone with an Internet connection would live in a mansion, have abs of steel, and be blissfully happy. Not good at dribbling with your left hand? Tie your right hand behind your back and dribble three hours a day. Behind in your math? Hunker down, hire a tutor, and work like hell all summer until you get it. No excuses. If you aren’t good at something, work harder, work smarter. Be the guy who says ‘no.’ It’s no great achievement to go along with the crowd. Small, seemingly insignificant steps completed consistently over time will create a radical difference. A great new restaurant: People started lining up to eat there and would often wait more than an hour to be seated. Then, unfortunately, the restaurant’s staff began to take its success for granted. The place was out of business within eighteen mon

I’ve often thought that if I could bring one person back to life to spend a day with them (or better yet, go back in time to spend a day with them) it would be Abraham Lincoln or Richard Feynman. But very close on their heels would be David Foster Wallace. His famous commencement speech, “ This is Water ,” which he delivered at Kenyon College on May 21, 2005, is one I’ve listened to countless times. However, I realized this week, as I listened to it again, that only in the past two months have I finally started to understand what he’s really saying. Whether you’ve listened to this before or not, I’d encourage you to do so again today, ideally with your eyes closed. If it doesn’t resonate with you, come back to it in 6 months. It took many events in my life, and many years, for this to finally sink in.

“The War,” between Hagler and Tommy Hearns. If you’re a boxing fan (or not), watch this You won’t be disappointed. In my opinion, the first round of this fight is perhaps the best round I have ever seen in my life (another one being round 10 of the first Holyfield-Bowe fight  Holyfield-Bowe in 1992).

“Life and Reality are not things you can have for yourself unless you accord them to all others ."

The irony, how online reputation management have been warning the world about dangers of cyber-bullying while being the primary perpetrators of it. "I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. Sometimes we must interfere. When human lives are endangered, when human dignity is in jeopardy, national borders and sensitivities become irrelevant. Wherever men or women are persecuted because of their race, religion, or political views, that place must — at that moment — become the center of the universe." Darren M. Meade

"Today, give yourself the most simple and doable of tasks: just don’t make stuff worse. Whatever happens, don’t add angry or negative emotions to the equation. Don’t react for the sake of reacting. Leave it as it is. Stop digging. Then plan your way out.… http://darrenmmeade.org https://youtu.be/wB3X0EvGBQs https://twitter.com/darrenmeade https://www.linkedin.com/in/darrenmeade https://www.facebook.com/darren.meade1 https://www.slideshare.net/darrenmeade1/darren-meade-v-ben-smith-and-sac-county-attorney

Ready to fly in 2018, I hope. [And the game isn’t just about elevating your success; victory without humanity is empty]. Anyway... How wonderful. It’s a great time to be alive. And please remember that  all change is hard at first, messy in the middle and gorgeous at the end. Instead of walking you through what to do once you’re up, I wrote a piece for you that I’d like you to use to reprogram your mind—and accelerate growth in the remaining 3  Interior Empires  that are forming so much of my leadership philosophy these days. Read it first thing in the morning, as a part of your daily self-optimization ritual, to calibrate your Mindset/Heartset/Healthset/ Soulset for a day of exponential productivity, otherworldly creativity and uncommonly great performance. Your words have power. To free your mind. To galvanize your power. To take down limitations. To remove—and transcend—your fears. A Declaration for Daily Heroism  that you can

Right Action — It’s not just about clear thoughts, but clear thoughts that lead to clear and right action. “First, tell yourself what kind of person you want to be,” Epictetus said, “then do what you have to do.” Emphasis on the do. Remember Marcus: "Don't talk about what a good man is like. Be one."  This philosophy is for life, not for the ethereal world.