Success Manifesto

We've wanted to do shirts for Extreme Entrepreneurship for awhile now and may be taking action somewhat soon. I just thought of an idea to improve them and would be interested in your thoughts.

Style: T-shirt, Sweatshirt
Color: Black background; White font
Front: Our logo (in a small size) on the upper-left-front
Back: Customized life visions. So for me it would be:

1. If you saw somebody you didn't know wearing a shirt like this, what would your thoughts on that person be?
   
2. Would you wear a shirt with the Extreme Entrepreneurship logo on the front and your vision on the back? Why or why not?

Posted by Michael Simmons at 12:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (16)

Over the past few weeks, I've been more introspective about life, asking myself core questions like "Who am I?" and "Why am I here?". However, lately, the more I ask myself these questions, the more I feel like they can never be answered for sure. Below are questions that have come to mind:

1. Is there innate meaning to anything (i.e., to life)?
   
2. If there was, is it ever possible to know this innate meaning? How would one know? Senses? Feeling? 'Knowing' we can't voice? Gathering evidence and making an hypothesis?
   
3. How is it possible for us to know that something is on the tip of our tongue yet not remember it? Is this a same kind of 'knowing' that we have about answers to core life questions?
   
4. Can the meaning one interprets from a situation ever be wrong? For example, if I create an object with a specific purpose, and somebody uses it for something else, are they wrong? In other words, can the purpose one chooses for one's life every be 'wrong' (especially if it goes against a creator original intention)?

Posted by Michael Simmons at 12:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (11)

Today I was thinking about love and its meaning in my life...Dictionary.com defines it as, "A deep, tender, ineffable feeling of affection and solicitude toward a person, such as that arising from kinship, recognition of attractive qualities, or a sense of underlying oneness."However, this definition confuses me. Below are few questions/thoughts:

1. What about those times when you don't have a loving feeling and you're angry at an individual, but you still feel love? Is this a deeper feeling of love or is it just the individual trying to fool themselves that they're doing things out of love when they're really not. For example, sometimes when I was younger and my mom yelled at me, she said she was doing it out of love.
   
2. Another way of thinking of the question above is asking, "Is love interpreted or felt? In other words, do feelings of love have to be interpreted as love for them to be love? If so, then is love limited to using loving ways of talking and doing loving things (kissing, holding hands, etc.)?
3. Should a lover do what they think is best for the other person or what the other person wants? In other words, should a mother force a child not to have candy, watch violent movies, or play video games because she thinks that is the best thing even though the child really wants to do it. What about in a partner relationship? What if the boyfriend thinks the girlfriend should focus on solutions to problems instead of sharing what she feels?
   
4. Is unconditional love beyond feeling? Is it accepting everything as it is? Does this acceptance have to be felt or can it be something logical (ie, I love or don't love somebody because...)?
   
5. Is love a simple, yet complex 'knowing' that can't be explained? Is this 'knowing' love at first sight?
   
6. Is it love physiological? spiritual?
   
7. How did the concept of soul mates arise?
   
8. Can one be loving to everything, always?
   
9. Should one just let love develop or should one force/develop it?

Posted by Michael Simmons at 05:20 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (37)

Main Question:
What is the philosophy behind the scientific method?

Reason for Question:
In the past few hundred years, the lens through which most of the Western world has looked at life has shifted from being religious to scientific. As a major lens through which I look at the world, I'm interested in knowing more about its faults and strengths?

Sub Questions

1. What is the history of the scientific method?
   
2. Is the scientific method evolving? If so, how?
   
3. What are the disadvantages/advantages of the scientific method?
   
4. How should we react to hypotheses about the world and life that haven't been proven by science?
   
5. What if our own experience conflicts with scientific proof? When should we trust our own experiences?
   
6. How do scientific discoveries change the perceptions of the public over time?
   
7. What does it say about science that 79% of Americans believe there is a God even though it hasn't been 'officially' proven scientifically?

Posted by Michael Simmons at 09:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (6) | TrackBacks (11)

Main Question
How are people motivated?

Reason for Question
In high school, a close friend asked me what made me so motivated. After I didn't give a solid response, he suggested the possiblity that it was because of insecurity. At the time, I dismissed this idea, but that conversation has led me to question the source of my motivation often.

I also think it is interesting that many of the people who were involved in corporate scandals were also pillars in their communities donating millions of dollars.

Sub Questions

1. To what extent does the source of one's motivation matter?
   
2. Is it bad to be motivated by fear, angry, greed, etc? What if the results are positive (ie - forming a non-profit, donating, etc.)
   
3. When motivating others, should one appeal to 'higher' motivations or what works best?

Posted by Michael Simmons at 08:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (9)

Main Question
What effect does language have on the way we think?

Reason for Question
I'm always interested in getting to the core of issues so I can be more effective because a small change made to a core issue can be more impactful than many changes made on a superficial level.

Sub Questions

1. What exactly is a language? Is math a language?
   
2. What are the histories of the world's languages?
   
3. How do languages evolve? For example, why do some tribes not have words for anger or unhappiness? Why does English have so many words for love (happiness, romance, passion, love at first sight, etc.)?
   
4. How can I create my own languages to make new distinctions in my own life?
   
5. What languages are the most important for me to learn?

Posted by Michael Simmons at 12:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (15)

Main Question
How do you know when you can trust other people?

Reason For Question
I've had a few major situations where I trusted somebody and they broke my trust. For example, I recently read a spirituality book called, Where Are You Going? by guru, Swami Muktananda. I read the book in one day and found it extremely motivational. In fact, I thought it was one of the most impactful books I ever read. Then, I start doing some due diligence to be safe and type, 'Swami Muktananda criticism', into Google. Lo and behold, I find a lot of articles and stories from people that were close to him talking about various acts of violence he encouraged and sexual abuse he participated in. In fact, there was even a New Yorker article on it in 1994.

Sub Questions

1. If somebody betrays us, should we trust them again? If so, when?
   
2. If somebody lies to or misleads us, should we distrust all of their past and future statements? What if the person has been helpful in the past?
   
3. What are the best indicators that you can trust somebody? gut feeling? testimonials from others? congruence?
   
4. Is it better to be trusting first or to be critical first and make people really earn your trust?

Posted by Michael Simmons at 12:31 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (10)

Main Question
How much of an effect do corporations and councils have on medical/dietary research and public policy?

Sub Questions

1. If they do have a large effect, what does this say about the scientific process?
   
2. How can research come up with such differing conclusions about the same thing? For example, the National Dairy Council and the People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) have very different conclusions.
   
3. If many different conclusions (good and bad) can be drawn from the same research, should we ever trust "research conclusions" that we see in the news or elsewhere as they are only part of the picture and can be misleading?
   
4. When research is opposing with other research or our own experiences, who or what should we trust?

Posted by Michael Simmons at 11:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (10)

Main Question
Why do my hands burn when I put them under luke warm water after they've been really cold?

Sub Questions

1. Does this mean our senses are relative and not absolute?
   
2. If so, what evolutionary advantage does this have?
   
3. When I'm putting my hand in the luke warm water and I'm having the burning feeling, are my hands actually being physically burned at all?

Posted by Michael Simmons at 11:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (32)