Amy Winehouse and the "27 Club"

Jimi Hendrix
Janis Joplin
Jim Morrison
Kurt Cobain
Jean Michael-Basquiat
Freaky Tah of the Lost Boyz
Johnathan Brandis from the NeverEnding Story II

All influential and known celebrities and artists who came and touched our lives through music, art, television, and movies. All tragically and mysteriously died at the age of 27. It's sad when you think a celebrities career is just beginning to take off. It literally seems like they were here today and gone tomorrow. Now they are infamously a part of what is known as the "27 Club." The club in which famous people become inducted into when they die at the age of 27 through tragic causes.

In their deaths, lies a story. Nothing lasts forever. What can we learn from Amy Winehouse and the "27 Club?" Sure it's easy to give an "anti-drug" speech, but at the end of the day as we look at their careers, the lives they left, and the people who surrounded them there is a story lesson to be learned.

1. Live your life like it's your last day. It seems almost like these, and others, were at the height of their career. Things seems to be going to well, seeming so lucrative, and all of a sudden we get the breaking news of their deaths and find out even later that they were depressed and overwhelmed with the level of celebrity they received. No matter what, do what makes you happy. Whether it's picking up trash, inspiring others, teaching, or writing. Do what makes YOU happy. No one can live your life, but you!


2. Make your dreams a reality, despite the nay sayers. These folks lived a dream life we will never get to experience. They may have died suddenly at 27, but what they were able to accomplish is more than most of us will ever experience in our lives. Do what you can to even get a glimpse of your dream. It's worse to regret not trying to live out your dream or passion than to deal with the failure experienced trying.


3. "Yes" people are enablers, get rid of them. It's always great to have your ego stroked. We all want it, we sometimes need it. However, if you are around people who ONLY tell you how good, awesome, great, pretty, or smart you are how will you know what you need to do to get better and to grow? We need constructive criticism to progress. If all you hear is yes, how will you know how to handle the "no." We can only speculate that some of these celebrities died, especially the ones from suicide and drugs, because they had too many fans and not enough friends. Get rid of enablers, their bad for you.


4. Know when to ask for help. At the end of the day, we need help. In our darkest hour, for our progression and growth, just because. Help is available in many forms, what we have to do is learn to put our pride to the side and ask for it. I feel like if these artists were able to simply ask the right person for help, we would have had them for so much longer.


5. Empowerment is a very powerful tool we all need. Motivation. Inspiration. Empowerment. It's the tools that keep the positivity in and the negativity out. Find a mentor, speaker, book, counselor, or method to ensure that you ALWAYS have some form of empowerment and positive energy in your life.

Amy Winehouse [9.14.83-7.23.11]

Amy Winehouse was a great singer. Despite her vices and her troubles, she had a gift that she was able to share with the world...even for a little while. Unfortunately, she is now the newest member of the "27 Club." We may not ever know what problems she had in her life, but from the time we had her here...we can learn much from her and the other members of the "27 Club."

The Unemployed Entrepreneur

What can we learn from the U.S. mid-term elections.

Recently, the United States hosted their bi-annual mid-term elections. Through-out the campaign season, we (the citizens) have been inundated by political ads, rhetoric, information, mis-information, etc. It got to the point where you were more likely to see a negative ad than a positive one. I try not to get too political on this blog because I know everyone has their own political beliefs and thoughts, but after watching for so many months how our government is so focused on making their opinions heard versus listening to what the people need and leading them toward solutions, I just can't sit back and not say anything.

Lately I've been reading 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership by John C. Maxwell. I recently finished Chapter 13: The Law of Reproduction. It basically states that it takes a leader to raise a leader. John C. Maxwell recounts a seminar he did in Indonesia about leadership and how he had to demonstrate the fundamentals of the child's game follow the leader. The gist of the game is to get everyone to fail so that you remain the leader and thus the winner of the game. He asked a volunteer to come to the stage and demonstrated. He grabbed the volunteer by the shoulders and started to push him down so that he could not rise up or lead. As much as he was pushing the volunteer down, he himself started to go down with him. The further he pushed the volunteer down, the further down he himself went. He stated, "The lower I wanted him to go, the lower I had to go. That's the same way it is in leadership: to keep others down, you have to go down with them."

This reminded me of how our government has lost it's way. All the parties involved are so focused on pushing everyone else down, so that they can remain the leader, that they are not realizing they too are going down with them. Our government, the government of the United States, has lost the core of its leadership capabilities. They have forgotten that in order to lead us to prosperity and growth, they themselves have to learn to be more positive, open-minded, and community focused leaders. When you put your focus in others, everyone benefits.

The same goes for you and your business organization. There are leaders out there that refuse to empower others and refuse to uphold the leaders they do have. When they try to bring down others in their organization, they are bringing themselves down as well. Just look at the businesses who have failed recently due to greed, employee ill-treatment, and corruption. Now think of the organizations and businesses that have prospered for decades because they have a "community empowerment" focus within their business.

What can we learn from the U.S. mid-term elections? When you make the negative your focus, that is what people remember you for. When you try to bring down others, you in essence take yourself down with them.

"A key to empowering others is high belief in people."

     -Mark Twain

The Unemployed [but Empowered] Entrepreneur