ROOSEVELTJEANFRANCOIS

Leadership • Language • Justice • Purpose

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

Tag: leadership

  • Leadership education through conversations

    My most pleasurable moments  are when I have conversations with friends I just met. I enjoy asking questions, nodding to their answers, smiling to their jokes, sharing their successes, and empathizing with their challenges to discover and connect with the human being I have in front of me.

    This is very rewarding. Having conversations is my continuing education, my lifelong learning experience. I learn from anyone, anywhere. And I also teach to anyone, anywhere. It’s a never ending process.

    I also learn to grow myself and develop others from handling confrontations trough crucial conversations. Although, I have a tendency to avoid difficult conversations, I find them  very gratifying when they are well prepared emotionally.

    I think private speaking is a lot more difficult and challenging than public speaking.

    I will concentrate on serious conversations for this post. Let me share with you some general rules applied to serious, playful, and social conversations I pick from Mortimer J. Adler’s book “How to speak, how to listen”.

    I understand from Adler’s teaching that conversations should be pleasure and profitable if we apply the following rules:

    1- Pick the right place and occasion for a conversation. “There are times for small talks and times, so to speak, for big talk”, he said.

    2.- Know in advance what kind of conversation you are trying to have.

    3.- Select the right people with whom to have it.  He advised: “Never engage in the discussion of a problem with someone you know in advance has a closed mind on that subject”.

    4.- A conversation is not an interrogation. Don’t ask one question after another without any connection between the questions asked in sequence.

    5.- Don’t be rude by engaging in a side conversation while someone to whom you should be listening is talking.

    6.- Don’t be too polite. If you think you have something to say, say it.

    I also learn that a conversation should be organized with a beginning, a middle, and an end. The beginning should set the stage for the conversation by focussing on the subject to be discussed. The middle should be devoted to the development of the theme being discussed. The end is the conclusion.

    Roosevelt Jean-Francois

     

  • Leadership & Happiness!

    I just got back from Barnes & Noble. I scanned through 3 books: 1.- David Gibbins’ “Total War/ Destroy Cartage”, 2.- Dr. Henry Cloux & John Townsend’s “Boundaries”, and the last but not the least 3.- Gretchen Rubin’s “The happiness Project”. The more I read from this last book, the more I appreciate Life Leadership motto: “Have fun, make money, and make a difference”.

    It starts with having fun, and enjoying the process. Then, making money and making a difference will follow.

    Happiness is about keeping resolutions. And leadership top student, New York Times Best-Selling Author Orrin Woodward sums it all in his outstanding book “Resolved: 13 resolutions for LIFE:” “resolutions are written resolves that are studied daily to help guide a person’s behavior while he’s forming his fundamental character”.

    It starts with finding your purpose and detect what  brings you joy, satisfaction, and engagement, as well as guilt, engagement, and remorse?

    Gretchen Rubin invites us to outgrow our limitations to face midlife malaise with grace and discipline.

    It’s time to expect more from ourselves. It’s time to use our time well, and to look for happiness under our own roof, by linking our minds with other great minds who have tackled the question of happiness.

    The author mentioned Plato, Montaigne, Boethius, Bertrand Russel, Thoreau.  She quoted Ben Franklin and his 13 virtues to live a fulfilled life.

    I found her day to day measurable actions as as Woodward’s scoreboard PDCA (Plan, Do, Check, Adjust) process.

    Working to be happier is a worthy goal. It’s building and bonding through social connections, and social capital.

    Greek philosopher Aristotle wrote ” happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of the human existence”.

    Gretchen Rubin quoted Epicurus for whom the purpose of philosophy was to attain the happy, tranquil life  ” we must exercise ourselves in the things which bring happiness, since, if that be present, we have everything, and, if that be absent, our actions are directed toward attaining it.”

    She concluded that “Happy people are more productive, more helpful, more creative. happy people make better fiends, colleagues, citizens.”

    I want to be one of those and contribute to the Global Happiness Index.

    David Schwartz dedicated The Magic of Thinking big, one of the top 5 books recommended in our Life Leadership Program, to his grandson, who at 6 years old, wanted to be a Professor of happiness.

    Best selling author Chris Brady said “to be happy , you have to give happy”.

    Be happy.

    Roosevelt

     

     

  • Developing Kids who love to read to build the new generation of leaders

    I enjoyed listening to Rascal Radio.  This is my round the clock life changing information. I have this station on my computer, and on my cellphone. I take it with me wherever I go. And I like it.

    My 15 year old just listened to a very interesting  audio produced by best selling author Chris Brady and his spouse Terri Brady telling their experiences on developing kids who love to read.  He was on Rascal Radio and here are some of his notes from this program.

    Enjoy,

    Roosevelt

    Reading is one of the most important things to have success in life.

    Reading is more than entertainment and pastime.

    It’s required to be passionate about reading.

    Become a student first before becoming an effective teacher.

    Harry Truman, All leaders are not readers but all leaders must be readers. It’s a fact that most of the greatest leaders throughout history have been avid readers.

    President Roosevelt was known to read one or two books a day.

    Jimmy Buffet said of his mother,” reading is the key to everything.”

    A good book contains more wealth than a good bank.

    If you read a book a week for a year you’ll have read 52 books.

    People who hope to influence what’s going on around them will develop a habit of reading good books.

    Many times the reading of a book has made the future of a man.

    The best book is the one that gets us off on a train of thought far away.

    Readers are encouraged to make reading a regular part of their diet.

    The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who cannot read them. –Mark Twain

    Read to them even as babies

    JUST READ. Always read. Reading is very rewarding.

  • Leadership Education: Read to Succeed and live a life of significance

    Best-selling author Chris Brady just released a talk on the importance of reading to succeed in life.  I am glad to share the content of his talk with you which is available through our Life Leadership program, a community of self-directed students on leadership, community building, and foundational issues of life such as: faith, family, finances, following, fitness, freedom, and fun.

    Reading is the basic foundation to bring success, significance, and legacy. It’s the shortcut to excellence in knowledge economy. Books can be as nearly as important as oxygen, Brady said.

    J W. Marriott, Chairman of Marriott International, said he started living when he found books. He manages by asking people, ‘ What do you think?…, a lesson he learned from President Eisenhower for whom, the four most important words in the English language are, ‘What do you think?

    Marriott has a reading development program for its employees to help them teach themselves and be ready to think on their own two feet.

    Abraham Lincoln, born in a one roomed cabin and his formal schooling added up to a year, was a voracious reader. He read and reread Aesop’s fable many times. He gave himself a first-rate college degree by reading. He understood that reading was the best tool of advancing in the world.

    Harry Truman never attended college but said,” Not every reader is a leader, but every leader must be a reader.

    Napoleon Bonaparte called people ¨fools” if they slept more than 3 hours at night because they could have been reading.

    Teddy Roosevelt read at every type of condition.

    Thomas Jefferson said if he has any money he buys book and if there is any left he will buy food.

    Oprah Winfrey was only allowed one hour of TV per day by her grandmother.

    How to read

    Make reading a habit. Read many genres as once. Highlight, underline as you read. Make notations. Write in the margins. Argue with the author.

    Outline, and Summarize the book. Read all the underlines and highlights. Keep your books organized for future references. Discuss them with others.

    Where to read 

    EVERYWHERE. If we’re prepared, you can always redeem the time. Have your books everywhere to redeem the time. Always, carry a book with you.

    When to read a book

    ALWAYS. Every now and then set some time apart and read.Develop a habitual time to read. The habits in your life determines what your life is.

    What to read

    ONLY READ THE BEST THINGS. You don’t have to read a bad book.Only put good books in front of your eyes.

    Choose wisely of what to read. Read wide, strong, and deep.The choice of books like that of friends is a serious duty. We are as responsible of what we read as what we do.

    Andrew Carnegie said,” A man’s reading program should be as carefully planned as his daily diet.”

    Get the top 5 books we recommend in the website. Go through different subscriptions we offer. (email me for details)

    As you read, so will you lead your life. Make it a good foundation so you can make it a great life.

    Brady and his wife Terri have a Great Conversation on how to develop kids who love to read. This is a must listened audio available on RASCAL Radio. You can listen to this content and more now by having a Life Leadership Library subscription. Just leave me a comment below  and I’ll help you get tuned and live the life you’ve always wanted.

    Rooseveltjeanfrancois.com

     

     

  • Self-Leadership Education: the power of books, and reading to FREEDOM!

    I was in a speaking engagement recently in Atlanta, Georgia, at a Leadership Youth Forum hosted by the Hatian consulate on the theme: Be part of Haiti, remember our roots. I introduced my talk with the power of books, the power of reading, the power of self-leadership education on our way to freedom, wealth creation, and community building in Haiti, its diaspora and throughout the world.

    I told my audience about a pioneer founding father of the Haitian revolution which led to independence  named: Bookman.

    Dutty Bookman was a self-educated slave born in Jamaica.  He was later sold by his British master to a French plantation owner after he attempted to teach other Jamaican slaves to read. His French name came from his English nickname “Book Man.¨

    In 1791, in a village called Bwa Kayiman,  He conducted the first black leadership convention in America which included a religious ceremony in which a freedom covenant was affirmed. This leadership convention has been a catalyst to the slave uprising that marked the beginning of the Haitian revolution.

    Boukman was not the first leader to attempt a slave uprising in Saint-Domingue. However, his organized mind, leadership attributes, posture, and fearsome temper made him an effective leader and helped spark the Haitian Revolution which will culminated later to independence through the leadership ability of self-educated Toussaint Louverture, and  warrior Jean-Jacques Dessalines.

    It started with a man’s decision to educate himself, spreading the power of books, and the power of reading. It started with a man with conviction, commitment to create the ¨land of the free¨ which will give hope to other blacks in America.

    Frederick Douglass who escaped slavery to become a great orator wrote in his narrative of his life: The more I read the more I was led to abhor and detest my slavers. I can regard them in no other light than a band of successful robbers. Who left their homes and went to Africa and took us from our homes and into a strange land and reduced us to slavery. I loathe as being the meanest and the wicked of men. As I writhed under it I sometimes felt learning to read was a curse rather than a blessing. It opened my eyes into a horrible pit, but with no ladder to get out. In moment of agony I envied my fellow slaves for agony.¨

    We are living a new age where self-slavery. It’s up to us to chose how we invest or spend our time in entertainment for short term gain or self-directed leadership education for long-term gratification.

    That’s why I like Life Leadership. It gives me an opportunity to be part of a community of self-educated leaders who take into their own hands their future. If in the times of slavery, books, and reading were an assault, today it’s an open flow to take advantage of , and we can get compensated for it. I like it.

    Best-selling author Chris Brady just released a talk on the importance of reading to succeed. Reading is the basic foundation to bring success, significance, and legacy. That will be my next post.

    Have a great day. Pick a good book. Read.

    Roosevelt

  • Leadership, freedom, and prosperity: a video from the MISES University to understand money, banking, and the federal system

    I just watched this video production on money, banking, and the federal reserve. This content is from the Austrian Economics School which I consider as the most important school of thought on economics, and the spread of freedom.

    Roosevelt Jean-Francois

    Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson understood “The Monster”. But to most Americans today, “Federal Reserve” is just a name on the dollar bill. They have no idea of what the central bank does to the economy, or to their own economic lives; of how and why it was founded and operates; or of the sound money and banking that could end the statism, inflation, and business cycles that the Fed generates.

    Dedicated to Murray N. Rothbard, steeped in American history and Austrian economics, and featuring Ron Paul, Joseph Salerno, Hans Hoppe, and Lew Rockwell, this extraordinary documentary is the clearest, most compelling explanation ever offered of the Fed, and why curbing it must be our first priority.

    Alan Greenspan was not, we’re told, happy about this 1996 blockbuster. Watch it, and you’ll understand why. This is economics and history as they are meant to be: fascinating, informative, and motivating. This movie could change America.

     

  • HBRN’s Orrin Woodward and Tony Cannuli have a leadership conversation with Life Leadership PC Holger Spiewak: lessons of trust, courage, conviction and determination.

    Here’s the new Leadership Factory radio show. I enjoyed listening to Orrin Woodward and Tony Cannuli interviewing Holger Spiewak. Holger is LIFE Leadership’s brand new Policy Council member.  Here are some real life lessons on leadership, trust, courage, conviction, growth, change, and determination. As best-selling author Orrin Woodward wrote on his blog, “a person cannot lead others until he has proven he can lead himself.¨

     

     

  • Lidèship annviv pou-w vin’n plis: apran’n reve gran, pou-w viv angran

    Tout sa ou gen pou reyalize ap komanse nan tèt ou tankou yon rèv. Yon rèv se sa ou ta renmen wè ki rive demen ou eksprime ak pawòl Jodi-a.

    Panse-w ka kreye. Tout bagay kòmanse nan tèt ou avan-l rive fèt nan reyalite-a. Se sa nou rele panse kreyatris. Panse kreyatris la se rive jwen-n osinon amelyore nouvo fason pou-w fè yon bagay.

    Ou dwe kòmanse kwè sa-w panse a pwal rive. Sa-a se verite. Lè ou met nan tèt ou yon bagay ka fèt ou prepare lespri, ou mete sèvo ap travay poul jwen’n yon jan pou sa rive fèt.

    Lè ou kwè tou yon bagay enposib, sèvo-w al travay poul prouve se vre. Men lè ou kwè, lè-w vrèman kwè yon bagay ka fèt, ou mete machin nan tèt ou an mach pou’l jwen fason pou sa rive vin’n reyalite.

    Se men-m jan an, ou ka jwen-n jan pou-w renmen yon moun si ou kwè ou kapab.

    Ou ka rive jwen’n solisyon a pwoblèm ou yo si-w kwè ou kapab.

    Lafwa baw fòs pouw kreye. Lè ou vle reyalize yon bagay, kite lide bagau sa-a rantre nan tèt, poul domine panse. Epi, kòmanse panse, vrèman panse kòman ou ka rive reyalize bagay sa-a, pale ak moun ki ka ede-w reyalize bagay sa-a, wap wè ou kòmanse jwen-n lide souk òman ou rive reyalize bagay sa-a.

    Si gen  volonte, gen mwayen. Si-w kwè, ou kapab. Sa-a se baz lespri kreyatris la.

    @rooseveltjf

     

  • Leadership, Authenticity, & Your personal brand

    New-York Times best-selling author Chris Brady, just released a talk in the LIFE Series on leadership, authenticity, and your personal brand which is your uniqueness, your God-given calling to LIFE, your purpose, your raison d’etre.

    With humor, passion, and great speaking ability, Brady calls upon us to dig deep in ourselves to detect our uniqueness.

    “No one else has your story. Nobody experiences the world as the same way as you”, Chris Brady said in an audio CD available in the LIFE Library.

    This concept of “uniqueness” to life is a preamble to what Brady calls your “personal brand”.

    He defines your personal brand (PB) as “whatever you bring to the world which is uniquely yours”.

    “The more you stick to what is uniquely yours”, he said, “the more authentic you are, and the more interesting it is, the more it is marketable to others”.

    Brady singled out Robert Redford’s outstanding movie “The legend of the bagger vance” which describes a down-and-out golfer attempts to recover his game and his life with help from a mystical caddy challenging him to find his “authentic swing”.

    “It’s time to move on, and to drop the baggage of the past, and find your authentic swing”, Brady reported from this movie which, he said, is not about sport, but a real application to leadership, and success.

    “We meet people who have been in some wars in their lives and who have their heads messed up. Sometimes, we can’t make our heads clear about the past and feel responsible for damages in our lives and picture ourselves of not worthy accomplishing anything”, Brady commented adding “it’s like we’re already die and waiting to make it official”.

    And there’s also the negative messages the world is sending to us: “don’t try too hard”, “don’t waste time achieving anything”, “don’t get your hopes up”.

    “Our negative self-talk gets mixed with popular saying dragging us to mediocrity, insignificance, and unhappiness” Brady said.

    We spend days of insignificance and misalignment away from our purpose chasing lesser things for immediate satisfaction and at the moment pleasure.

    It’s time to find our authentic swing, that thing we were born to do, that thing that makes us come alive.

    kenbe,

    Roosevelt

  • Rascal Radio is Live June 1st for leadership content and non-stop information to help you live the LIFE you’ve always wanted.

    Are you ready for your own personal development round the clock radio station. Rascal Radio is Live June 1st for leadership content and  non-stop information to help you live the LIFE you’ve always wanted. Inbox me for tune in.

    Rascal radio