Leadership • Language • Justice • Purpose

Haitian Creole Legal Language Specialist, storyteller, and community builder helping you communicate clearly, lead confidently, and create meaningful impact.

Category: education

  • Remember your story, carry your story, and tell your story!

    “I hope that you will always remember your story, and that you will carry your story with you as proudly as I carry mine.” First Lady Michele Obama told a graduating class of 100 students, giving the commencement address to Santa Fe Indian School.

    Mrs Obama

    She personalized the history of the African American experience, and shared her family’s roots in 19th century American chattel slavery. Her remarks seemed geared toward moving beyond a sense of connection between her and the audience, which was already palpable in the hall, to something deeper, something more akin to identification.

    I am the great-great-granddaughter of Jim Robinson, who was born in South Carolina, lived as a slave and is likely buried in an unmarked grave on the plantation where he worked.

    I am the great-granddaughter of Fraser Robinson, an illiterate houseboy who taught himself to read and became an entrepreneur—selling newspapers and shoes.

    She spoke of values, claiming the shared values of respect, perseverance and integrity, three of the ten core values of the Santa Fe Indian School. She remarked on the hopeful, positive trajectory of the school and the accomplishments of its students.

    Our story is about who we are. When we talk about our experiences, what we see, feel, do, fear, like with our own words, we create our own life.

    Don’t try to be the next so and so. Be the first you. Remember your story, carry your story, and tell your story.

    Your story makes you you.

    Roosevelt

     

     

     

     
  • Leadership lessons from the soccer field: Messi missed it, and messed it!

    It is said time and time again: “winners never quit, quitters never win”. This quote came to my mind after Argentina’s soccer player Lionel Messi announced he quits the Argentina National Team, after he, himself, missed a penalty kick, last Sunday at the finals of the 2016 Copa America against Chile.

    It was a tough, tedious, hard moment for him. And only, he, and himself was at the rendez-vous with greatness.

    There was him the kicker, the ball, and the goalkeeper. He and only himself kicked the ball which went over the crossbar in the cloud.

    This second second of this missed opportunity brought disappointment, tears, and resentment. This was the 4th time in a row, he missed a final to bring a championship trophy to his country.

    My reflexion is not about his missing this kick. It`s more about his decision to announce he quits. This is at this moment he messed it.

    This is his legacy. This is the picture he left in my mind and maybe millions, and millions of people following him now, or will follow him years and years in the future.

    “If you quit ONCE it becomes a habit.Never quit!!!”
    ― Michael Jordan

    “I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life and that is why I succeed.”
    ― Michael Jordan

    “Never give up on something that you can’t go a day without thinking about.”. … “Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm.”. … “Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.”. -Sir Winston Churchill

    “It’s not over, until I win…”.  Les Brown.

    “Quitting is not an option.” Orrin Woodward.

    At the end, I add you don’t quit your passion, what you love, you only quit on yourself. And the consequence of quitting is harder than the at the moment failure, because you have to live with it the rest of your life.

    Roosevelt

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • Tell your story with your own words, and live your life.

    What we talk about is our story. Our story is about who we are. When we talk about our experiences, what we see, feel, do, fear, like with our own words, we create our own life.

    We market ourselves by telling our story.

    Marketing is storytelling, said best selling author and blogger Seth Goddin.

    The story of you built you.  Your story makes you you.

    Sometimes the way you see yourself isn’t exactly the way others see you. Not as good as you think you are. Not as bad as they think you are.

    Tell your story. Tell it on purpose.

    Roosevelt

     

  • The YouEconomy: Stop being only a consumer and start being an owner!

    The YouEconomy: Stop being only a consumer and start being an owner!

    I just read this morning a very important report on the YouEconomy to be published in the next issue of Success Magazine. I invite you to dig deeper and to join this global movement that is revolutionizing how we live, work, and play.

    rjf-1Here are some notes I took from this special report released online by Success Magazine: Introducing to the YouEconomy. 

    The YouEconomy is the growing global network of people who are taking the future of work into their own hands.

    Folks in the YouEconomy are applying their experience in new ways, learning new skills and tapping into endless resources for training and support. They’re designing their lives, carving out time for family and building professions based on their passions. Along the way, the friends they’re making, people they’re meeting and places they’re seeing are enriching their lives beyond what they thought was possible.

    The YouEconomy is an umbrella over a handful of movements with disparate labels. Parts of it, along with other developments toward economic freedom and flexibility, have been referred to as the sharing economy, on-demand economy, gig economy and freelance economy.

    The YouEconomy encompasses all ages, ethnic backgrounds and education levels.

    As diverse as the people in the YouEconomy are, they generally have three things in common:

    – They have more control over how they spend their time than the average employee.
    – They have more control over their income than the average employee.
    – They are actively learning and exploring new ways of creating prosperity.

    If you recognize your dream in this list, that’s good news. The YouEconomy offered hope and happiness.

    Create. Innovation is at the heart of the YouEconomy. ¨we’re living in a world where people can become businesses in 60 seconds.”

    How in the world do you start?

    • First, evaluate your potential.
    • Consider your passion.
    • Evaluate your skill set.

    Your next step is to click on this link – Introducing to the YouEconomy-  and read, re-read, re-reread this special report, take your own notes, share and engage in conversations with your friends, fans, and family.

    Enjoy your learning experience and share,

    Roosevelt

     

     

  • Having Fun!

    Today was a fun day!

    We spent the day celebrating Axel, our 3rd son,  graduating  from Cardinal Gibbons High School in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

    axel-gp5

    We have been there and done that: This is our third high school’s graduation from Gibbons.

    We did not invite our “Fat Greek Family.”  (I hope you saw that movie. If not:  google it and schedule to see it).

    axelg-4We kept it simple and just had fun, with some friends we have been car pooling with for the last years, some parents, teachers and school faculty members we have met along the years.

    We enjoyed a good lunch. Talked and talked. Laughed and Laughed. Posted and posted. Texted and Texted.

    We just had fun.

    As principal Paul Ott said this morning:” we are the sum of all the choices we make: good and bad. And whatever the outcome: always keep God in your life, not only in the bad moments but in the good ones as well.”

    axel-gp10

    Axel did well. He received the Four Year Honor Students Award, the Christian Service Gold Cost Recipients, the Student Government Service Award etc…

    Please join me in congratulating Axel for his achievement, and in giving all the glory to God.

    See more: https://flipagram.com/f/pvWvgxEdpR

    God bless,

    Roosevelt

     

     

  • Leadership & the power of a few: Every body can. Only a few will.

    Last Tuesday, I was speaking at a leadership meeting in Fort-Lauderdale, and I quoted best-selling author Malcom Gladwell, a New Yorker reporter, who published the book The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference.

    Rjf-pic-123

    I am a great fan of Gladwell. I read most of his work. And I encourage you to do your own work by digging dipper yourself in his literature. As a community builder, I am sharing with you some of the thoughts I picked from Gladwell‘s book which I used in my speaking engagement last Tuesday.

    The Tipping Point describes How ideas, products, messages, and behaviors can spread as fast as viruses do.

    The very same way we can have a flu, measles, or HIV contagion, we can also create a positive contagious effect with a small group of people.

    Everything can change all at once. This is like an epidemic. Gladwell coined the concept of “contagiousness”. This is what is called in mathematics a geometric progression.

    A virus doubles , and doubles, and creates a huge effect, a tipping point, a sudden change.

    The Tipping Point, Gladwell said, is the moment of critical mass, the threshold, the boiling point of any endeavor.

    3 rules of Epidemics

    Epidemics are a function of the people who transmit infectious agents, the infectious agent itself, and the environment in which the infectious agent is operating. When something happens in 1, 2, or 3 of these ares, an epidemic tips, Gladwell acknowledged.

    1.- The Law of the Few (People)

    2.- The Stickiness Factor (Infectous Fator)

    3.- The Power of Context (Environment)

    Thetippingpoint

    Gladwell taught an American history lesson to illustrate his point on #1 The Power of the Few.He named John Hancock, and Samuel Adams as the two original men who stood up against the British soldiers in the colony of Massachusetts. Their actions were followed by Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, and 56 other men who organized the First Continental Congress which led to the Declaration of Independence.

    He also wrote about the courage of Paul Revere who spread the message for the community to wake up and be ready to fight for freedom. Paul revere spread this message thru word of mouth: the most important form of communication.

    Gladwell questioned: “Why some ideas and trends and messages tip and others don’t?”

    “The success of any kind of social epidemic is heavily dependent on the involvement of people with a particular and rare set of social gifts,”  Gladwell said mentioning that these few people are around us. They are:

    1.- Connectors. Those who develop the skill to know  lost of people. They have a natural gift to make social connections. They develop curiosity, self-confidence, sociability, and energy. Connectors  are in the habit of making introductions.They are the equivalent of a computer network hub. They are people who “link us up with the world…people with a special gift for bringing the world together”. They are “a handful of people with a truly extraordinary knack [… for] making friends and acquaintances”

    2.- Mavens. Those who accumulate knowledge and want to tell you about what they know.They are avid readers, lecturers, teachers. They are “information specialists”, or “people we rely upon to connect us with new information”. They accumulate knowledge, and know how to share it with others. They  want to solve other people’s problems, generally by solving their own”. As Malcolm Gladwell states, “Mavens are really information brokers, sharing and trading what they know”

    3.- Salesmen. Those who master the art of communication and persuasion. Those who can spread an emotional contagion. They  are “persuaders”, charismatic people with powerful negotiation skills. They tend to have an indefinable trait that goes beyond what they say, which makes others want to agree with them.

    As I told my audience last Tuesday, I am glad to be part of Life Leadership Compensated Community, a premier leadership media and education company aiming at setting people free to live the life they’ve always wanted.

    We have a message worth spreading which gives us the #2 Stickiness Factor. People are addictive to TV likes zombies which entice them, and seduce them to live in debt, Life Leadership is creating a new media addiction, by providing content and association to escape what best selling author and leadership guru, Orrin Woodward called the Financial Matrix.

    Life Leadership has #3 The Power of Context. Context matters. Life Leadership CEO and best-selling author Chris Brady delivered a recent talk he names THE Shift of a Life Time. The environment today is ready for a new message of hope and truth to set people free.

    harriet-tubman-pictures-1

    It was 1:00 am, today, I, with some other friends, were leaving the woods of Immokalee, South West Florida. Under the cover of darkness, thru word of mouth, we were spreading the message of self-directed leadership education, entrepreneurship, inviting some families to join us in the underground railroad to escape the matrix. We are the new conductors like abolitionist Harriet Tubman, who led hundreds of enslaved people to freedom along the route of the Underground Railroad.

    Here are some poignant quotes fro Harriet Tubman:

    Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world.
    I freed a thousand slaves I could have freed a thousand more if only they knew they were slaves.
    I grew up like a neglected weed – ignorant of liberty, having no experience of it.
    financialmatrix
    We  want to do the same thing. We want to free thousand of families from the matrix, which is a web of debt, and enslave people. We hope to bring them our Financial Matrix night pack of messages  which include information to read, to listen,  and to associate with like minded connectors, wavens, and salesmen. We want them to be aware, to have consciousness of their being a new modern slave of consumption, and to be part of a community of learners, earners, who dare to dream, to set their aim high, and to not wish to win the power ball, but to work as hard as they can to become Power Players, and to live the life they’ve always wanted.
    This is not for every body. But every body can. Only a few will.
    God bless,
    @rooseveltjf
    #rooseveltjeanfrancois

     

  • Leadership, Success & Struggle: The trio of joy!

    “We may hate opposition and struggle, but it is critical for our mental health.  Without the struggle, we would feel no joy in victory,”said Bestselling author Chris Brady in a blog-post dated two years ago  announcing his next book to be released “Trout Fisherman in Hell.”

    Brady shared the following parable :

    “There is an old story about a fisherman who believes he has died and gone to Heaven as he catches one perfect 2 lb trout after another.  As he sets his fly and hooks into yet one more, he can’t fathom his good fortune.  The sky is blue, the weather ideal, the fish biting like he’s never before experienced, and everything is absolutely perfect.  It is not long, however, before the realization dawns on him that he is not in Heaven at all.  Instead, as the boredom and the pointlessness settle in on him, he realizes he’s actually in Hell.”

    Sometimes, it’s too beautiful, too easy to be true. Other times, it’s when it’s the darkest that the day is on its way.

    Brady, who is Life Leadership CEO, said this story erased all his whiny complaints about how difficult and elusive success seems to be.

    “We are actually happier and more fulfilled when overcoming opposition than when everything is easy and simply rolling our way,” Brady wrote explaining further “It is because of the way we were made.”

    “Without a battle to win and an enemy to vanquish, the value of the warrior goes to zero”, he added, quoting Thomas Paine’s famous words “What we attain too cheaply we esteem too lightly.”

    If we don’t earn it, we can’t enjoy it. This is profound, and it ought to provide a telling answer against all those dismal statistics that suggest that the “odds” of making it are too tall.

    If we consider only statistics most of us would never get out of bed in the morning, much less find a way to force ourselves  for  next achievement in our career.

    “It doesn’t matter how difficult success is or what the odds are of us “making it.”  What matters is our struggle against the opposition, the force of our will against the force of everything that would try and stop us.  Not only does it fulfill us to have something against which to push, but in the process it also makes us better.  It is the resistive weight that builds the muscles.  So ultimately, it doesn’t matter if success is hard or not, it simply matters that we pursue it anyway.”

    This post is based on a Chris Brady’s blogpost.

  • Leadership, philosophy, clear thinking, and living a good life with simplicity

    Philosophy professor Marietta McCarty, and New York Times bestselling author questions one of her college students about “what is a good life”.
    “Good living means having the time to actually think…”, said the student as reported by Marietta McCarty in her book “how philosophy can change your life, 10 ideas that matter most”.
    Good living is about investing time to produce ideas which are the building blocks of our lives.  Thinking produces ideas which help us to find our way and know what really matters.
    marietta1Clear thinking is a lasting benefit of quiet introspection, solitude, and good conversation which cultivate our sense of wonder.
    The first idea developed in this book turns around the concept of “Simplicity.”
    McCarty gives us food for thoughts about simplicity. She develops this topic based on ideas of ancient philosopher Epicurus, and modern thinker Charlotte Joko Beck.
    Epicurus, 341 BCE, a citizen of Athens, decided to lead a private life for his tranquility. He decided that public life and politics in particular made tranquility impossible.
    Charlotte Joko Beck is an American pianist who delved into the study of Zen Buddhism after assuming the responsibilities of a single mother of 4 children.
    With the conceptual framework. and the ideas of these thinkers, McCarty invites us to reflect and hold conversations on simplicity, prudence, needs, wants, independence, and freedom from our own ego and self-concern.
    Charlotte Joko Beck calls life “a very simple matter”. What is simplicity? What is a simple way of living? It is as simple as having the basics that we must have for good living.
    We need to leave behind complicated lives to “savor a life spent enjoying the simple pleasures which feed our essential selves.
    Our first priority is to be a mental and spiritual well-being. We do not need much to satisfy our material needs. We overlook “ordinary” joys when we overextend our reach into the world of things. We are moving fast to acquire things and lifestyle. Debt conquers our peace of mind. We become “multitasker”. We are not in the center of our lives. Our energy is scattered and depleted. Epicurus
    We are racing to nowhere. This prevents us to think and produce ideas. Clear thinking is impossible if material concerns remain our priority and our goals.
    This endless race of materialism and acquiring stuff is a dead end of anxiety and sadness.
    Simplicity is a prerequisite for thinking clearly. It clears the mind as a dust cloth, and as the mind brightens, clear thinking is possible, and the fountain of ideas and simple pleasures is open.
    Charlotte Joko Beck agrees with Epicurus on living a life’s simple pleasures.
    “Go slow to go fast”, said Best-selling author Chris Brady in his acclaimed book “One month in Italy and Rediscover the art of Vacation.”
    Epicurus in his “Letter to Menoecus” said “Pleasure is the end…. Freedom from pain in the body and trouble in the mind.”
    His philosophy evolved from his life experience: pleasure is the main ingredient of a good life and simplicity is the key to obtaining pleasure and minimizing pain.
    Extravagance has consequences, he said inviting us to discover the freedom that comes from needing little.
    Prudence vs Desire
    Epicurus is known for his accent on pleasure as the aim of life. But, in my studies of his philosophy as mentioned by McCarty, his central virtue is prudence. This requires a rigorous examination of the circumstances of our lives.
    While pleasure is the goal of life, we must be very smart in how we go about achieving it. Desire is a powerful fuel. Prudence can keep desire in check with its sensible detection of the true needs in our lives.
    Epicurus made a critical distinction between needs and wants. Some desires are natural, other desires are vain, he said.
    We have the power of discernment and we can figure out what is essential for a pleasurable life and what is not.
    Just as Epicurus departed from public life in Athens, Professor McCarty invites us to shift- not necessarily physically, but surely mentally and spiritually- away from the roar of mainstream culture’s advertising and media glitz.”charlotte

    Bestselling author Orrin Woodward invites us to “escape the financial matrix” which is a web of debt which brings control and profit for the elite, stress, debt,  and anxiety for the masses.
    Epicurus is optimistic. His idea is we have the ability to deal with mental disturbance using our reasoning power to adjust our lives accordingly. He elevates mental pleasures over physical pleasures. Mental pleasures are more numerous; more easily controlled, and rarely have painful consequences.
    We can temper our desire by disciplining ourselves to need less.

    Beck said desire causes suffering. We have to let go our ego by avoiding to manipulate life to suit our expectations. We need to be our own measure of success, and grow confident that an unadorned life is also full of pleasure and lasting satisfaction.

    philosophyPhilosophy is the act of asking question. I invite you to reap the rewards of hearts and minds by reflecting, and sharing your personal experiences on the following questions.

    -What are some of your life’s simple pleasures? Why do you forget them?

    – Do you confuse what you need and what you want?

    – Describe what you need for a satisfying life? Are you surprised  at the things that you do not include?

    -Are you “too busy”?

    – When was the last time you just sit and do nothing?

    If you have a good appetite for food for thought, I invite you to read Marietta MacCatty’s book “How Philosophy can save your life, 10 ideas that matter most”.

    Roosevelt Jean-Francois