Diana's Blog: Quirky Words and Book Reviews

January 3, 2009
With the reversal of fortunes and the ratcheting down of spending, Farrah Gray's THE TRUTH SHALL MAKE YOU RICH could make this young millionaire even richer. But that's not the point.
Gray -- who grew up on the impoverished south side of Chicago and struck it rich with his entrepreneurial ideas at fourteen -- discovered that a lot of what we think is true, simply is not, and in this book, he shares what he knows. His wisdom sounds very familiar to those of us who have read a lot of self-help books -- and interviewed the authors. That's not to discount anything. It is a reminder that we really already know what we need to know. Follow your passion! What are you really good at? Do it! And, practice your talents so you become great at it! Find mentors. Keep an upbeat attitude. You want to be famous first? Fuggedaboutit! Gray says you become the expert in what you love to do, and celebrity might just find you. And don't bankrupt yourself by spending everything you get, when it does! Okay, what if all that hard work at what you believe is your passion finds you against a wall? Gray says step back. Take a look at your skills. Create a new career. Work for yourself.
No secret the world is changing. My career has been mostly in radio and TV, and for years I've been seeing hundreds of my friends laid off with their positions eliminated, and forecasts for more down-sizing. When my turn came about three years ago, I was working for a CBS station, and the very same year CBS flipped format on my station to lay off a dozen of us "talent", the CEO pocketed an $85.5 million dollar bonus. First I looked for "real" jobs -- I picked up a part-time radio job -- they couldn't offer full-time. Then I looked at my skills, and before I knew it, I was calling myself a Multi-Media Entrepreneur, and actually, I've been having a lot of fun podcasting, interviewing, media training, emceeing, doing voiceovers and on-camera, and especially writing. I'm not rich, yet. That's why I'm reading Gray's book. He busts the lies -- and this is helpful, because a lot of our future success lies in our beliefs. He says you don't have to be born lucky; you don't have to hit it big in entertainment or sports to be rich; the path to millions begins with one dollar -- you don't have to have money to make money. Ah relief! But you do have to have ideas, and the guts to play them out. Along with guts, have faith, determination, wisdom, focus and integrity.
Invest in your own dreams. That's it -- in a nutshell. And smile.

Labels: book review, Farrah Gray, Passion, success, THE TRUTH SHALL MAKE YOU RICH

November 7, 2008
James Patterson's newest book is AGAINST MEDICAL ADVICE -- and CROSS COUNTRY -- just a few months since he published 7TH HEAVEN, SAIL, SUNDAYS AT TIFFANYS and THE MAXIMUM RIDE, a young adult book.
Jim is amazing. Homespun and real. Sharp and savvy. He has a huge heart and he is analytical. I talked to him today -- interviewed him for probably the sixth -- or eighth -- time. The last time I saw him before this was several years ago in the green room at the LA Times Festival of Books on the UCLA campus. He called to me across the room, a wide smile, waving. It was good to see him, too.
Today, we had a wide-ranging conversation, so pertinent to what is going on in this economically-paralyzed world today. Here is a wildly successful writer, so inventive that he has too many book ideas to write by himself, which is why he writes in a team now. He chooses a good team -- surrounding himself with good people, like President-Elect Obama does, he says. And the reason Jim is so powerfully successful -- he has sold more than 150-million books worldwide -- is not the marketing. It is not the advertising, although as a former ad-man on Madison Avenue, he cut his chops on how important the audience is. Jim says his books sell because they are cinematic, they move at a blistering pace, because his books are a good product.
James Patterson's books sell by the millions -- whatever the genre, thriller, romance, young adult, non-fiction -- because he is passionate about his writing. The formula is simple. Success = Passion. Do what you love, and put your heart into it. That wild elixir is seductive. We all want it. We want to be stirred. We want to have what he's having.
If you want success, fearlessly live your own personal passion. It's electric!

Labels: 7TH HEAVEN, AGAINST MEDICAL ADVICE, book review, CROSS COUNTRY, epiphany, James Patterson, Passion, SAIL, success, SUNDAYS AT TIFFANYS, THE MAXIMUM RIDE, UCLA

September 27, 2008

This is not a book to be swallowed whole, like a grape you pop into your mouth, savoring its sweetness for an instant, then reaching for another.
WIDE OPEN: ON LIVING WITH PASSION AND PURPOSE is a book that inspires you to read and savor each line now, and then again later, plucking the words that resonate, disregarding at the moment words that don't apply. Dawna Markova invites you to grow not only older, but deeper.
She asks questions you can ponder or leave to your subconscious or answer now. "What is it that you want to do with the one, wild, precious thing called your life?" And "If you knew you couldn't fail, how would you live?"
I don't know about you, but I feel tears lift inside me. It's not about what I have to do today, it's that I need to know who I am today.
"What story are you telling yourself about the challenges in your life right now?"
Markova mentions "rut" stories, limiting beliefs, which numb us and keep us where we are, and "river" stories which carry you toward purpose and possibility.
I will be seeing three men today. The first will have his newest girlfriend in tow when we go to lunch -- I haven't seen him in nearly a year. He and I immediately, when we met five years ago, fell into a deep, darkly-intimate place, where we were inexorably linked, but we were a secret from the world. His choice. He is afraid, I think, of falling into that dark space again so he moved far away, and lines up light relationships, one right after another, and both keeps me at bay and wants me inside his life. I loved him, but if I am to love myself, I must befriend myself first. That's a new belief. "Befriending yourself involves telling yourself the complete truth about everything and challenging the thinking that says horrible things will happen as a result."
The second man is a man with whom I can talk about anything. He has invited me to pluck tomatoes from his vines, make salsa at his home, and eat steak and tomatoes after dusk.
And the third man -- new to my life -- will arrive well after dark to pick me up, and we will talk little, and simply enjoy each others' company.
Who am I really? In about an hour, I will dance -- that will center me. I want to dance purely, without limits. I want to say what I mean, but I don't know the answer to that. "What are the courageous conversations you need to have with yourself?"
This morning, I meditated, and found the little five-year old inside, and I held her and rocked her and promised I would listen to her, as I entered the dangerous world of men. Not dangerous to me, the grown woman, but dangerous to her, the little girl inside me.
"How do you make your life too small for yourself?" Living in the past. Although, when the past lives on in our bodies, it must be processed...to make way for the greater passion that is our road-map to our greatness.
"What are your inner gifts and talents...Aristotle said that one's purpose is merely a matter of knowing where one's talents and the needs of the world intersect?...What would have to happen for them to dance with each other?"
Markova says "What you love ennobles you."
And she says "How could you love this day as if you had never been hurt?"
I will take that question with me and go dance.

Labels: Dawna Markova, Passion, purpose, transcending the trauma, WIDE OPEN: ON LIVING WITH PASSION AND PURPOSE

My friends generally don't give me books -- they know that through my career I will receive most books worthy of being read. But on my birthday yesterday -- July 28th -- Grainne presented me with a book I truly wanted in my hands, but it hadn't happened until then. The gaily-wrapped book is THE LAST LECTURE by Randy Pausch, who sadly passed on a few days ago, leaving millions who had viewed his lecture on Oprah and through links via emails in tears. His courage -- knowing he would be leaving this world soon, leaving his wife, leaving his three small children -- was palpable. His earnest desire to allow his impending death to be exquisitely public that we -- and his children -- may receive meaning -- was beyond powerful. It was authentic. Pausch was authentic. I remember watching him on my computer monitor doing one-handed push-ups -- how could this vital man be sick, let alone dying? He lived every moment of his remaining days -- how many days, we only knew that they were not many -- with every sense heightened to the rarest of calibrations. His integrity shows up in the book when a police officer pulls him over for speeding, and he tells the officer the awful truth. Doubt in the officer's eyes, Pausch pulls up his shirt to expose his scars, and doubt is replaced by stern realization. The officer lets him off with a warning. The terrible truth will set you free, Pausch says. He pursues every drop of his remaining life with a fierce passion.

Maybe Pausch's raw human emotion is in the same vibration that has made A CHORUS LINE a tremendous, long-running hit. I saw the show tonight -- that's why I'm writing late -- I began writing on the 29th, and it is the wee hours now. I saw the show for at least the third time. I took Andrew -- whom I met at K-Lite and spent every morning from 4am on, shares the same birthday, but a vastly different year. He is a good friend; a fabulous escort. It is important I find the right person to share my free tickets with -- a gift from another friend in the radio biz. And Andrew is happy to celebrate our birthday this way, a day after.
I saw A CHORUS LINE when I was a teenager in New York City -- the Schubert Theatre if I remember correctly. I got the tee-shirt -- black, cap-sleeves. I saw the show again in Chicago when I moved to Iowa. I got the tee-shirt -- a pale yellow shirt that faded and had to let it go, too, when it became too worn. And tonight, the show in Portland -- watching it as an adult. Got the tee-shirt -- a spaghetti-strapped tank with gold sparkles on the lettering. Perfect for a Leo.
The show is about Passion -- What I Did for Love. I love to dance, and the freedom in dance has actually visited me very recently, just this past year. Joy! And I have a passion for being on the air, and for writing. I show up with my passion and walk into a space where I let viewers, readers, listeners in -- as purely as possible. It is what I love about the show -- talented dancers who want to truly be seen, and they become fabulous when they drop their fears. They show up as they really are, and everyone in the audience silently roots for them, rooting really for the silent passion packed inside their own beings. It takes a lot of courage to show up, and leave any excuses, the constricting past, the raw desire to be chosen on the floor. And it is an imperfect pursuit.
I was in college, thinking about that first real job I would have, the first time I saw the show. The second time, I was working in TV -- I named a file folder "What I Did For Love" and I stuffed into it every story I wrote. And now I am in all media, but over the years, I would sing -- when I was alone -- the lyrics "PLAY ME THE MUSIC,GIVE ME A CHANCE TO COME THROUGH. ALL I EVER NEEDED WAS THE MUSIC, AND THE MIRROR,AND THE CHANCE TO DANCE FOR YOU." I am still open to that chance, but graceful, not grasping, which makes Today quite lovely. "KISS TODAY GOODBYE, AND POINT ME TO TOMORROW."
It is tomorrow, and I will fall asleep soon, my own passions renewed.

Labels: A CHORUS LINE, dance, Passion, radio, Randy Pausch, THE LAST LECTURE