Posted on August 13th, 2009 by Sara Grace
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Hello from Sara Grace and the web dev/editorial team at KeithFerrazzi.com. We just got our first VERY ROUGH mockups from our developers and wanted your feedback! Looking for your thoughts on: General layout, color palette, header design, and features. What do YOU think Keith Ferrazzi's web site should look like?
Brilliant designers: Want to take a crack at revising the look & feel? Send it to me at sgrace at ferrazzigreenlight dot com before Monday. We'll post all the entries on the site and pick a winner with voting in the comments. Prize will be signed copies of Never Eat Alone and Who's Got Your Back. (We can't guarantee we'll use any of the submitted ideas, but we may!)
Posted on August 3rd, 2009 by Sara Grace
Greenlight Atlanta Leader Hammad Khan - on a roller coaster
Keith met Hammad Khan in Atlanta on the WGYB Tour - he heads up the Greenlight Community group there. We asked him to write up his story after he told Keith that by using the principles in NEA and WGYB, he had gone from being a newly-hired engineering co-op to leading one of the largest engineering teams in his organization. He also lost over forty pounds, can now run two miles in 13 minutes, and recently scored a 300/300 in the Army Physical Fitness Test (APFT).
Here's his story.
How I Lost 40 Pounds and Met My Financial Goals with the Help of Lifelines and Others
By Hammad Khan
Like Keith, I grew up poor, and also like Keith, my parents worked as hard as they could to make sure I was in the best schools they could afford. Consequently, I put on blinders, worked as hard as I could, and focused on getting what everyone around me seemed to have: a house with 2.7 cars, a white picket fence, and a nice job.
About three years ago, I arrived. About two years ago, I realized that the hype may have been overstated.
The thing is, I define myself by my achievements. I’ve always been a ferociously goal-driven person. However, I didn’t have the framework to monitor progress or to think holistically about what goals would make me happy. The end result? Frustration.
For example, while working through school, I had focused on nothing outside getting The Grades, The Job, The House, The Car and The Life. I had sacrificed everything, including my health, in getting there. No problem, thought I: I’ll just set a goal to be in shape by such-and-such time. Accordingly, I would work out and diet, and after a week or so, I would get frustrated at the lack of results, and… stop. I would watch my deadline get bigger as it got closer, watch my pants get smaller, and get increasingly aggravated about how I couldn’t do anything about it.
As another example, I had ambitious financial goals, but they were formulated within the “get a good job” framework. As such, when the economy tanked and my pay was frozen, I saw my goal slink away, out of reach. The worst part, by far? I couldn’t do anything about it!
I really, really don’t react well to situations where I feel powerless -- goal-driven, achievement-oriented people rarely do. You wouldn’t believe the stress. I was in a place of absolute frustration, imprisoned by self-imposed helplessness, watching my financial and physical goals shrink further away. Steinbeck says, “Man is the only kind of varmint who sets his own trap, baits it, then steps in it.” I sure felt like I had stepped in it.
About a year ago, I decided it was time to fix things. A mentor recommended Never Eat Alone. I picked up a copy, and couldn’t put it down. Not only did the book provide a framework for goal-setting and tracking, but if offered a novel idea so straightforward that I was annoyed I hadn’t thought of it myself: How about using one’s network to help?
The first part, as per Keith’s advice, was to set goals. That’s fine, I already had goals. Wait, no! I had goals with nebulous timeframes. Those aren’t goals. At best, they’re ambitious dreams; at worst, they are little more than wishful thinking.
That weekend, I took a few hours and distilled goals out of my dreams. I knew where I wanted to be in “about five years,” so that was easy enough to turn into a five-year goal. Then, working backwards from there, I got a three-year goal, and then a one-year goal. From a one-year goal, it was easy enough to build monthly and quarterly milestones.
That exercise complete, I looked proudly at the spreadsheet splayed out before me, and felt the warm thud of reality kick. By the end of the month, I needed to make about three times as much as I did, and I needed to be twice as healthy. D’oh.
Clearly, this wasn’t working. As tendrils of frustration tickled the base of my neck, I realized I was missing a piece: the Personal Board of Directors.
The next few months were difficult. I renewed relationships should never have let wither, and had difficult meetings with mentors and friends. Finally, I ended up with two groups of three people: one to help with financial goals, another to help with physical goals. (Discovering these friends was both challenging and rewarding, and could alone be the subject of a second article.)
Over coffee and snacks, we reviewed my goals. Entirely due to my little group of friends, I realized that my financial and physical goals were not out of reach at all. Because four heads are smarter than one, I realized that if anything, I had been too conservative. I just lacked the tools and the knowledge to achieve the goals I envisioned! My Board of Directors, however, was more than happy to show me the way. All I had to do was get the work done. Well, bring it on! I’ve never once been scared of work!
It’s been about a year since then. I’m in better shape than I have ever been in my life, and I’m on track to meet financial goals that just sixteen months ago I would have sworn were impossible. In the process, I’ve met friends and found mentors who will stay with me for the rest of my life.
Most importantly, the frustration, the poison that comes from feeling caged and helpless, is gone. When I feel those familiar tendrils of frustration tickle the base of my neck, when I get impatient, I just check The Plan. I’m usually where I need to be. If not, it’s just a small adjustment. Like Warren Buffett’s snowball, a small adjustment now results in a big change five years later.
It’s critical to realize that while I’m where I need to be, I didn’t get here by myself. In fact I simply couldn’t have. Alone, I didn’t have the merest inkling of how, or a fraction of the resources. Steinbeck is right: Man does spring his own trap. But what he doesn’t mention is that man is also capable of finding others to help get him out. Without them, getting out is simply not possible.
Anyone have any questions for Hammad?
Posted on May 29th, 2009 by Keith Ferrazzi
I’d like to introduce the leaders of the Greenlight Community: Jorge Colon and Maxine Karchie. Last night Jorge and I hung out together in Florida - thanks Jorge! What’s especially cool about these two, besides the fact that the City Groups across the country have arisen thanks to their volunteer leadership – is that they’ve become lifeline relationships for each other, despite the fact that Maxine’s in Canada and Jorge’s in Miami.
Before getting involved at GC.com, Maxine had never really socialized or networked online. “I‘ve never been a Facebooker. I would email occasionally, but I wasn’t one of those people who went online,” says Maxine. That all changed when Maxine met me at an event asked what she could do for the movement. I told her to get her butt on GC.com!
Jorge was a Never Eat Alone fan, and his initial purpose in joining Greenlight Community was purely professional. He was getting ready to launch the Online Bar Association, to build professional community among lawyers who practice independently and online – and needed to take a pulse on everything else already out there. “But Greenlight sucked me right in. I had to keep putting off my OBA Launch because I got so active in organizing the Greenlighters!”
Maxine and Jorge, along with two other leaders, Seb Zar Bourcheix and Tami Conner Chester, and several other community ambassadors, started working together to help Greenlighters connect offline, through philanthropy, in-person City Group meetings, and ultimately an annual international event, still in the offing.
“We are now literally like four wheels in a car,” says Jorge. “We’ve become our own version of the lifeline relationships Keith talks about in Who’s Got Your Back. Each of us has our own distinct abilities, direction, and way of doing things, but we’re all necessary for the movement to continue to move forward. We need all four tires.”
Says Maxine, "When I wasn’t feeling well after a recent surgery, they were there for me – I was surrounded by flowers. We were Skyping from my bed!”
Their experience organizing the GC has propelled Maxine and Jorge to step up in their local commitment to community service. Jorge served as PR spokesman and coordinator for a statewide interfaith “Day of Service" this spring, which resulted in 4000 man-hours of volunteer work across 21 projects.
Maxine worked with a gaggle of Alberta-based Greenlighters to launch a gala called Dine for the Cure to raise funds for the the Alberta Cancer Foundation. (Please help by donating: dine4cure.ca!)
Maxine’s mission was personal: “I’m a cancer survivor. I’ve been cancer-free for 10 years. But my dad died of cancer, my best friend and cousin just died of cancer, and my aunt died this past fall. I wanted to do something to fight.”
Her event was capped by a Chinese lion dance, traditionally used to bless the new year. During the dance, dancers shredded heads of lettuce and threw them into the crowd. According to tradition, those it lands on are considered doubly blessed. Says Maxine, “We felt it was a good way to bless everybody who took part – it wasn’t religious, but spiritual in some way. I was sitting next to my son, and we both ended up with lettuce in our hair. Between that and the power of the event, I’ve never felt more blessed.”
Thank you Maxine and Jorge!
Posted on April 22nd, 2009 by admin
My new book, Who's Got Your back: The Breakthrough Program to Build Deep, Trusting Relationships that Create Success - and Won't Let You Fail!, launches May 19!
"Where's Keith?"
Starting at launch, I'll be speaking across the country on a 17-city book tour, and hopefully getting to meet many of you! (More details on events coming soon.) I'll also be doing a ton of national media - print, radio, and national TV, including shows like Good Morning America and Larry King.
Why Who's Got Your Back?
It's my hope that this book will have an even more powerful effect on your life than Never Eat Alone. In fact, I hope that the book will reawaken the culture at large to the power of mutual support and the necessity of having what I call "lifeline relationships" in our professional and personal lives. Now more than ever we need our friends and associates to have our backs.
Help Me Launch the Movement!
-Recommend my new Facebook public profile
-Share the video about the book
-Join your city group in the Greenlight Community
The next months hold so much promise for the movement that has already been gaining speed over at Greenlight Community, thanks to the many dedicated volunteers and members who've been meeting around the country. Hope you'll be a part of all the fun!
Warmest,
Keith
ABOUT THE BOOK:
In Who's Got Your Back, Keith Ferrazzi shows us that becoming a winner in any field of endeavor requires a trusted team of advisors who will offer encouragement, feedback, and generous mutual support - "lifeline relationships" who won't let you fail. Whether your dream is to lead a company, be a top producer in your field, overcome the self-destructive habits that hold you back, lose weight or make a difference in the larger world, Who's Got Your Back offers the roadmap you've been looking for to achieve the success you deserve.
Posted on March 24th, 2009 by admin
This weekend I had an awesome experience at a gospel church here in LA, the Noel Jones Ministry. I would never have heard of it except for the fact that two weeks ago I had an encounter at the gym that turned out to be exactly the kind of blended networking that I’m always after all of you to practice.
That day at the gym I ran into my friend Wilson, a movie guy who just released a big picture nationwide, so I was excited to see him. He was with a friend, Steven, a photographer who I had never met. Spur of the moment, I invited Wilson to come to the reception I was throwing for Mayor Cory Booker.
Steven piped up and said, "Can I come too?" Of course, he didn’t just ask to come over, he also generously offered to take pictures at the event.
Steven's audacity and spirit of generosity were contagious. He invited me to his photo exhibit and also to his church, which brought me to the Noel Jones Ministry.
What a great serendipitous encounter - a reminder to be open to those around us, always!
Here are some highlights from the Corey Booker Brunch.
Find more videos like this on Greenlight Community
