Leadership • Language • Justice • Purpose

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

Category: leadership

  • Bill Gates & Warren Buffet: 25 years of friendship, learning and laughing through stories and building memories!

    I enjoyed reading Bill Gates’s recent notes published online to mark the anniversary of his 25th friendship anniversary with Warren Buffet.

    Bill Gates said this friendship has changed his life for the better in every imaginable way.

    He has learned to learn more and laugh more by telling stories and building memories.

    Bill met Warren on July 5, 1991 through his parent’s connections. Warren started the conversation by asking questions.

    “These were amazingly good questions that nobody had ever asked,” Bill said describing Warren as “modest” and “funny.”

    It was a deep friendship from this very first conversation.

    Warren nurtures friendship. This is the most important thing Gates has learned from Buffet over the last 25 years. He’s gifted at investing in people. He makes it fun for them to learn from him.

    “Everyone should be lucky enough to have a friend who is as thoughtful and kind as Warren. He goes out of his way to make people feel good about themselves and share his joy about life,” Gates noted.

    This was originally published at gatesnotes.com


    Roosevelt Jean-Francois is a connector. He blogs, speaks, and coaches on leadership, success, business, economy, personal and organizational development.

  • 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.

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    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

     

  • A leadership platform for you in a crowded, noisy world!

    “A leadership platform for you,” has been my tagline for this blog since its inception in 2011. I  wanted this blog to be a place where I connect with you on topics  that matter, above all about leadership and personal development. A place where you can follow me on what I read, what I listen, and with whom I associate.

    rjf-1This is what I do: read, listen, and associate. I also speak, ask questions, and write.

    I also represent Life Leadership, a premier global leadership company,   which just joined forces with Success Magazine to offer a leadership platform for you where you can have Total Access to writers, speakers, content creators on leadership, success; professional, and personal development.

    Blogger Michael Hyatt  recently published a book called “Platform” in which he invites us to create our own stage to “get noticed in a noisy world.”

    This is a must read content  which offers a step-by-step guide for you if you have something to say or to sell.

    I just went over this book. And I like it. Very practical.

    platform

    Hyatt quoted William  Shakespeare who, more than four centuries ago, considered  “All the world ‘s a stage”. Each and every one of us, If we have something to say, to sing, to write, to share, we are  on stage.

    The stage today is new and crowded. More and more people want to attract audience, and bring the light on themselves. That brings more competition for minds control.

    “If you want to achieve success in your field, you need a platform,” said Michael Hyatt, whose blog has close to a million visitors a month.

    You platform is your stage. It’s built of people, contacts, connections, and followers.

    Your platform is also the means you connect with your existing tribe via social media and live events.

    Success today is more about who you know. It’s not enough to be good, or to have a good product, you need a significant platform to face the competition, and to attract people’s attention in a world with more and more medias.

    Below are three main benefits to build and nurture a platform, according to Michael Hyatt:

    1.- A platform provides visibility . As a stage, it elevated you above the crowd. It makes it possible for people to see you.

    2.- A platform provides amplification. It projects your voice, and your reach further.

    3.- A platform provides connection. It provides engagement, intimacy which leads to more connections to your fans, customers, and supporters.

    As I wrote above, Life Leadership just added a leadership platform to its library of informational and educational contents in both physical and digital formats.

    I invite you to take advantage of this service and have Total Access to this unique platform to live the life you’ve always wanted.

     

     

  • 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.

  • Reading Ken Dun’s book “The Greatest Prospector in The World, A Historically Accurate Parable on Creating Success in Sales, Business, & Sales.

    It’s our community’s book for the month of October.  I read it in one trait. A great read for a great book.

    This book is a “recipe for mastering the sales process,” said Orrin Woodward, Inc. Magazine top 20 Leader who forworded the book.

    bookYou can go ahead and read this book yourself and add your hunger to implement  the six business secrets revealed in those 169 pages, and you’ll discover a useful and enjoyable piece of literature with useful tips to be successful in business.

    I am sharing with you my underlines and the feelings I had reading that book in the last 24 hours.

    It’s about a family story prospecting for gold. The content is organized in such a way that the storyline grabs you  to your throat and you can’t depart from it until you read what’s next.  A good thriller.
    Kevin Dun who I had the pleasure to listen to a couple of times to teach people about being a book bestsellers wraps his message around the human being.

    First, “Be yourself,” he said.

    No matter what happens, be yourself. This is a lesson one of the main character learned from a stranger in a moment of grief and loss.
    The prospector is after gold, day after day, rain or shine, and is never tiring of the search for gold. This could be exciting, but also might bring on many difficulties, hardships, and losses.
    This is a parable also about life. It brings dreams, joys, struggles, and victories.
    We have to know what we’re looking for and understand why it’s always important to build strong relationships, even if we don ‘t know how they will benefit us in the future. We have to cultivate lasting relationships, which span the globe.
    Your network is your net worth. Prospecting is a way of life. “It’s the secret to success, and it will bring you fulfillment,” said the author through one of his character teaching about the relationship between a mentor and a protégé.
    “You’ve got to want it. The protégé seeks the mentor not the other way around. You have to be hungry, humble, and willing to learn,” he said.
    The mentor teaches but the protégé has to ask him. The mentor decides how much he tells, when he tells, and how he teaches. The protégé’s progress will influence his decisions by applying himself, and following instructions. The protégé should agree to those terms., be patient , but not passive.Kenn-Dunn-Co-founder
    On our journey to prospect for gold, and be successful in life, and in business, we will face obstacles, distractions, detours, and disappointments. We must shake off every hindrance and stay focused on the prize. This is the only path to the six secrets which are not just about how to get more, but also how to give more.
    The six secrets are summarized as followed:
    1.- Dress for the weather. Dress for success. Be your best. Choose your attire with  care. Give people good eye contact. Do not dominate conversation, but don’t be afraid to participate. Ask questions.
    2.know what you’re looking for. Put together a plan. Make a prospect list. Qualify those who you believe need your product or service. This is your target market. Stay focused on your target market which is a group of customers who are more likely to purchase your product or services. Don’t waste time, energy, and money prospecting every one you meet.
    3.- Use the right tools. Be disciplined and strategic in your approach. Dream. Discover your purpose. Pursue your dreams to all your might. Fight against obstacles, distractions, disappointments, and detours. Never give up.
    4.- Get back into the river, even if you don ‘t want to. Prioritize your time, efforts, work habits, and actions based on your goals. Avoid distractions. Set priorities, boundaries, and guidelines. Visualize your future. Write down goals. Set dates, make decisions.
    5.- Learn to laugh. Make it fun. Take time for leisure. Share funny stories.
    6.-Work hard for six days, and rest for one. Leave a legacy. Life is short. Appreciate what you have. Cherish the days. Build precious memories. Cherish your family. Live a full life, with no regrets.

    Pass the torch. Share this blog with a friend, family, and fans. Discuss the content and be part of our reading program from the life leadership compensated community.

    Roosevelt

  • Leadership and Emotional Intelligence: your brain can help you become more emotionally fit if you want to.

    I had fun this morning having a conversation with a friend at a coffee shop talking about what we did the last week-end. We talked about laughing with friends, having good time doing nothing, and upcoming goals to be achieved in the near future. We talked and talked while drinking coffee, and eating blueberry muffins.

    We talked about books: one of them, the Garry Chapman bestselling 5 love languages.

    E3This week end, I have been reading contents relative to emotional intelligence. I went over “Emotional intelligence, A practical guide”, by Dr. David Walton and “Crucial Conversations: tools for talking when stakes are high”, by bestselling authors Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan, and Al Switzler.

    I enjoyed reading. But, above all, I have more pleasure underlining what makes me think, and take notes to share with friends, fans, and acquaintances I converse with.

    David Walton defines Emotional Intelligence as “an assortment of mental abilities and skills that can help you to successfully manage both yourself and the demand of working with others.”

    It embraces a set of mental skills that enable you to know and control your own emotions and to recognize and effectively respond to the emotional state of other people. Emotional Intelligence, according to Walton,  is crucial for making business profitable and relationships stable and satisfying.
    It helps you to remain calm in emotionally charged situations and it enables you to:

    .- know yourself reasonably well
    .- control your own emotions
    .- show empathy with the feelings of others

    There are numerous benefits of developing  Emotional Intelligence such as:
    – overcome difficult situations
    – express yourself clearly but warmly
    – build better relationships
    – keep your emotions under control
    – communicate mutual respect
    – avoid skewed thinking
    – say the appropriate thing at the appropriate time
    – value and obtain commitment from others
    – become resilient in difficult times
    – have clear values and share them with others
    – increase your own well beings

    In this guide, the author mentions Emotional Intelligence  can be learned because of the power of the brain as an “amazing learning machine.”

    EIHis theory is your amazing brain can help you change by involving something called “plasticity.”
    You have spent your life building ‘behavioral templates’ which are stored in your brain and used automatically to different situations. We are able to make our brains actually grow. Brain cells and neurons grow and proliferate. They migrate to where they may be needed.

    David Walton described as “synaptic plasticity”. The ability of our brains to develop and to grow.

    Every time new knowledge is acquired, the connections communicate differently and through repetition, become faster, more efficient and instinctive in this way is described as “synaptic plasticity.”

    We can change. We can unlearn old behaviors and create new templates. This happens all the time if you have the motivation and the space for thinking

    What’s intelligence? What’s emotion? David asks these simple questions to establish the conceptual framework about Emotional Intelligence.

    He quoted Alfred Binet who was the first scholar to develop an IQ test in 1905. He also mentions
    academic intelligence IQ is 25% for someone success in later life.

    Other views such as Thorndike, Kelly and Howard Gardner proposed other types of intelligence for dealing with others often described as ‘social intelligence’. The concept of Emotional Intelligence went mainstream with the release in 1995 of Goleman’s book.

    Emotions?

    Walton went back to Greece and its thinkers who argued that logic, thinking, intellect, and reason were the only reliable way of leaving. They believed emotions, feelings were subjective, so an unreliable basis for living and working together.
    Emotion was linked to hysteria and was seen as a disorder or a psychologic problem. This is a pretty sexy perspective. The male perspective was that emotion is a female problem.

    The modern life brings a flow of impersonal stimulation contrasting with the warmth of a village life more rooted in emotional connections. The village life creates a sense of community, a sense of empowerment and purpose with good community relationships as a result.

    Emotions play a huge role in human interaction.

    Our emotions are wired to our brains. There’s a purpose for them. What is emotion? Feeling? These terms are difficult to define and even more difficult to understand, Walton said in this book.

    Whatever the definitions and understanding, we know for sure people surround themselves with people and objects to which they become emotionally attached to. For many, the reason for being is the warmth of this attachment.

    Our emotions shape our understanding, our way of thinking, the decisions we take, and the habits or attitudes we adopt.

    To be emotionally  intelligent, and to  boost your health and well being through Emotional Intelligence, David Walton recommends the 5 next actions:

    1.- connecting with others : this brings support, balance, enrichment, stability, and a sense of community.

    2.- be physically active: walking or running, playing a sport, gardening, dancing, biking. Physical activity  helps you feel good, gives you a sense of balance in your life, rids your body of stress,
    3.- stay alert: enjoy the choices others make about their clothing, style, or appearance, live in the moment. Appreciate the look and feel, the smells, sounds of each moment,
    4. Keep learning . Do something new. Rediscover old interests .Read. Listen. Associate. Implement
    5.- Give. Empathize with someone. Smile. Volunteer your time. Help someone in need.

    I enjoyed the moment and the conversation I had this morning with my friend. And I am glad to be part of the Life Leadership Compensated Community where I have an opportunity to grow myself and sustain long term relationships and business development.

  • 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