Random Blurbs by Max

Sunday, January 26, 2014

ESLTalk - Café con leche with Max - Episode 6 - with guest Kat

Aloha everyone!

Here is Episode 6 of Café con leche with Max.

On this episode, we have EOI colleague. +Kat O'Connor, and we discuss various topics, from Spain, food and other random things!

Click Play. Enjoy. Like. Subscribe!

If you have any questions, please feel free to post them in the YouTube comment page!

CHECK OUT MY YOUTUBE VIDEOS HERE:

http://www.youtube.com/user/hawaiiinsomniac/videos

Mahalo for reading. Until next time.

Failure. #epicfail, Failure Club

Failing. Fail. Failed. Failure.

Something that everyone fears. Not succeeding. Shame. Public humiliation.

Well, I'd be lying to say I'm not scared of failing, but I don't really see it as a bad thing. A couple of experiences in my life have sort of made me view success and failure differently.

I love tennis. I try to watch as many tennis matches as possible, but imagine it from the player's point of view. Case in point - Stan Wawrinka - who just won the 2014 Australian Open against Rafa Nadal.
Previous records were against Stan, 0-12 against Rafa (everyone was probably betting against him), he had never won a set against Rafa in their previous 12 matches.

But. Here I am congratulating him on his 2014 Australian Open.
His mantra is on his left arm:
"Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail Better."

SOURCE: 20 MIN

This is a plaque which I always have with me wherever I live...

First: A Mantra

"The Journey of 1,000 miles, begins with one step".

Yup, one step. That's all you need to start your journey and to be honest, its kinda how I look at things in life. For example, I've done marathons, and most people wouldn't even think that its possible for them, but that's because they look at the marathon as this unattainable large conquest... but all the participants start the same way... with the first step.

hahaha... I haven't always been slim.

Second: The Failure Club

I am a big fan of the Failure Club.

What is it? Well, the Failure Club is basically a group of people who want to do something on their list, which they will probably fail at (from their current perspective). Most radical ideas are often met with doubt, fear, uncertainty, which perpetuate your own inner demons.

In this group, people go for their ideas. Whether it is a new business, writing a Christmas song, performing to be a clown, with 100% effort and the support of others within their failure club. (Seriously, can you imagine telling your friends and family you want to be a clown? They will tell you all the negative things you don't need to hear). Where as this club will tell you, how can we do this?! How can we get you go this point? What are the logistics? Yes, some people fail, and some people succeed...

For me, the most important thing is the liberating part of chasing your dreams.

Failure or success - is just an after thought.

Here is the first video (introduction) from this series.
If video isn't embedded, click on this link...

CHECK OUT MY YOUTUBE VIDEOS HERE:

http://www.youtube.com/user/hawaiiinsomniac/videos

Mahalo for reading. Until next time.

Saturday, January 25, 2014

Congratulations - 2014 Australian Open Champion - Li Na

Congratulations to Li Na, who won the Australian Open this morning against 20th seed, Dominika Cibulkova, 7-6 (3), 6-0.

A couple of interesting statistics. Li Na now has the same number of grand slams as Victoria Azarenka. Whereas, Azarenka won both of her titles at the Australian Open (2012-13), Li won the French Open (2011) and now the Australian Open (2014).

The rest of this blog post will focus on the impact of Li Na on Women's Tennis (especially in Asia).
Just put it this way. In the United States, our biggest sporting event is the Super Bowl, where approximately over 111 million people watch it yearly. In China, over 116 million people tuned in to watch Li Na win the French Open in 2011.

Li Na has become the face, of women's tennis in Asia, an in a larger scope women's sports. It's quite interesting trying to find an analogy for Li Na in regards to other countries, perhaps here in Spain, the nationalistic support for Nadal (who will be playing in the final against Wawrinka), or perhaps UK and their support for Murray, but neither of these really grasp the magnitude that Li Na has for China, for tennis, for Asia and for women's sports in the region.

Best of luck this season Li Na, but from the looks of it - doesn't look like you really need it.