The Profit Prophet

Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Balkhī (Persian: جلال‌الدین محمد بلخى ‎), also known as Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī (Persian: جلال‌الدین محمد رومی ‎), Mawlānā or Molānā (Persian: مولانا ‎, meaning Our Master ), Mawlawī or Molavi (Persian: مولوی ‎, meaning My Master ), and more popularly in the English-speaking world simply as Rumi (30 September 1207 – 17 December 1273), was a 13th-century Persian poet, jurist, theologian, and Sufi mystic. Rumi's importance is considered to transcend national and ethnic borders. His poems have been widely translated into many of the world's languages and transposed into various formats. His best poems are listed below for your convenience. “It’s your road, and yours alone. Others may walk it with you, but no one can walk it for you.” “The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you. Don’t go back to sleep.” “Goodbyes are only for those who love with their eyes. Because for those who love with heart and soul there is no such thing as separation.”...

I have read and written a great deal about leadership and being a boss in a corporate setting, and am a big fan of the development of leadership skills in a person’s life. No, not everyone will be a leader all the time, but when you do lead, great leadership makes ordinary people into extraordinary people. So, what is it about leadership that is so important and what are the characteristics that make a great leader? As Orrin Woodward once said, “The only thing tougher than developing leadership skills is attempting to be successful without them.” In that vein, there are seven critical characteristics that make great leaders stand out from other people. What is amazing is that there is nothing super human about them, and any one of us can hone these skills if we do a little practicing every day. Yes, leadership is in all of us if we just put a little effort into it. Optimistically Realistic Napoleon Bonaparte once stated that a leader is a dealer in hope. To take it a bit further, “Th...

I have been reading a lot of articles of late about relationships and seeing some that put men into groups without understanding that men are NOT all alike.  By lumping all men together, the concept of being a gentleman does not come into play. Women, and people in general, have to realize that there are men of character, culture and grace, and then there are boys.  Boys are men who have chosen not to grow up and become wise in the ways of civility, charm, and substance. This post highlights the differences between men and boys.  Ladies, which are you dating? Men, whom are you? Men: See women as the fairer, not weaker, sex Boys: See women as weak and just for sex Men: Realize that to be a leader, you need to be a servant Boys: Only want to be seen as a leader to get the recognition Men: Hold doors, and rise when a woman enters a room or comes to the table, knows how to be a gentleman Boys: Have no idea what those concepts are nor why you should do it for wom...

Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyám ( Persian : رباعیات عمر خیام ‎‎) is the title that Edward FitzGerald gave to his translation of a selection of poems, originally written in Persian and numbering about a thousand, attributed to Omar Khayyám (1048–1131), a Persian poet , mathematician and astronomer . A ruba'i is a two-line stanza with two parts (or hemistichs ) per line, hence the word rubAYOT (derived from the Japanese language leaves for “a million”), meaning " quatrains ". Here is one of my favorite verses of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyám from this translation: “A Book of Verses underneath the Bough, A Jug of Wine, a Loaf of Bread—and Thou Beside me singing in the Wilderness— Oh, Wilderness were Paradise enow!”

It is funny, but recently I have had some friends lament about people who have come and left their lives and they do not quite understand why.  It seemed like everything was going great, they were becoming fast friends, and then poof..they are gone.  That made me remember a story about how people can come into your life for a reason, a season, or a lifetime.  When someone is in your life for a reason , it is usually to meet a need you have expressed or just felt. They have come to assist you through a hard time, to provide you with guidance and support, to aid you physically, emotionally or spiritually. Then, suddenly, the person disappears from your life. Your need has been met; their work is done. It is hard to explain, but they now are off somewhere else. Some people come into your life for a season , because your turn has come to share or grow or give back. They bring you an experience of peace or make you laugh. They give you great joy. Believe ...

Fill your head with anger and hatred; Fill your heart with bitterness and rage; Your soul is consumed with vile feelings. The love you wanted was in your arms but escaped because you could not come half-way. And now, it is gone forever never to return into your life. You are lazy and selfish and stupid. You deserve neither affection nor comfort for your actions are neither noble nor honorable. You are destined to live a life of worry and doubt; unfulfilled and wanting; desperate and lacking; Because you cannot ever love or be loved. You bring this curse upon yourself for you stay huddled in the valley of a dreamless day to day existence whose only purpose is the preservation of an illusionary sense of security and safety. You fear the adventure of finding true, deep, passionate Love. You fear going into the unknown and the unexplored. You have given up the dream of what may lie ahead on the heights of tomorrow for a perpetual nightmare of endless days and nights f...

I have often written about the characteristics on what makes a successful person, or boss, or entrepreneur, but have never offered any practical advice on how to get those “characteristics” in the first place. Well, this post will go into what “steps” you can take to develop and practice self-love. Why is this important anyway? Well, essentially having self-love means you have the capacity to love others and be more aware of how you effect other people and the world. Essentially, in the first step I state "you cannot give to others what you do not give to yourself first." If you are not honest with yourself, you cannot be honest with others; if you are fearful, you will make others fearful; if you are courageous, others will gain courage through you; and so it is with love. If you do not love yourself, you can never love another. And we do NOT intrinsically know how to love. It is a learned art, something too few of us have ever mastered. Still, it is the single best cop...