Mindfulness is being present in the moment and making the most of it. The past is the past, the future will be the future, but we can do a lot with now. I immersed myself with the positive vibes radiating in the Starbucks coffee shop in Pearl City and savored the taste of my Salted Caramel Mocha Frapuccino as I engaged in my work on my MacBook Pro, my favorite toy for 4.5 hours in preparation for next week with all my business partners flying into Honolulu, Hawaii so we can meet with government departments and companies.
In the afternoon of Saturday September 2, 2017, I moved my work from my home to Starbucks in Waipio, Hawaii. I gave it a shot to try and finish an analysis on another redline of the contract for our land deal. I spent 4.25 hours, but it looks like I have to continue later. My energy level has been boosted though. I love my Apple MacBook Pro, which allows me to work anywhere and anytime!!! Let’s go some more!!!
This morning of Saturday September 2, 2017, I’m trying hard to build energy and motivation to analyze another redline of our agreement for a land deal for a company my partners and I are building. I have a birthday party tonight, and tomorrow I have a Jodo Shu service and board meeting, a community event with my family, and my weekly Skype with my sister Mia and 2 young nieces, thus, I want to try to get it done in 3 to 4 hours today. I had about 7 hours of sleep, so to add to the energy I got from my sleep, early this morning, I exercised at 24 Hour Fitness in Mililani, Hawaii – weightlifting and running the treadmill. Then I cooked up some breakfast: bacon; omelette with 3 types of cheddar cheese, onion, bell pepper, and my homegrown green onions; brown rice with furikake; and Ka’u coffee. I keep telling myself for nearly 2 years on this project that the sweat, tears, and struggle will be worth it. I’m grateful to have this opportunity. Let’s go!!!
My friend Brandon Mitsuda gave me a good luck piggy bank to attract capital, cookbook with recipes from the top chefs in Hawaii, and a beverage to be drank for wins along the journey. I’m motivated to keep working hard every day, enjoy life, and have gratitude for the opportunities and little wins along the way.
As my 5-year old niece Elyse says since she was 2 years old, “I’m so happy!” I’m so happy to finish drafting a 75-page business plan that was overhauled to include 48 more pages of data, strategy, and content; and 6 financial spreadsheets for a project my business partners and I are moving closer to launching after 1 year and 10 months of sweat equity work. Gratitude for the small wins.
Yesterday, August 3, 2017, I treated myself to Dunkin Donuts as a reward after I finished drafting a 28-page legal and business analysis for a land deal my business partners and I are trying to execute for a start-up company we are building. I worked 3 days in a row at Starbucks in Waipio typing this document for 7 to 8 hours straight a day. Dunkin Donuts recently opened a store near Honolulu International Airport, Hawaii, making its return back to the State of Hawaii. I gave my mom 2.5 donuts today when she came by to drop off food she made.
If I had to choose one word that best describes how I live, it would be “tenacity.” When I know what I want to do, I lock onto my vision of achieving my goal and work at it every day. I aim for the highest level of what I’m dreaming of so even if I fall short, I would still be at a really good place in my journey of life. Tenacity is what drives me through my failures. My Pearl City High School soccer coach Ron Mata would tell us, “Play with tenacity! Like a bulldog that bites and doesn’t let go.”
Consistency is key in our journey towards making a dream a reality. Upon getting an idea, we act on it by planning, strategizing, and executing. We work at it day after day, and year after year, achieving all the little goals in order to attain the big ones. #quote #quotes #quotestoliveby #consistency #journey #idea #ideas #plan #planning #strategizing #strategy #executing #execute #work #habits #habit #dreams #dream #patience #tenacity #relentless #pursuit #drive #goal #goals #reality #achieve #positivity #desire #jonrikikaramatsu #jonriki
Yesterday morning of March 8, 2017, as I prepared for my day, I turned on my smart TV to watch an educational video on entrepreneurship, business, culture, or psychology, which I do so daily, when by chance I came across a video about Misty Copeland, the first African American principal ballerina for a major ballet company, which was very inspiring. The story was fitting since it was International Women’s Day.
I ended up having my best day writing for this year so far for either fiction or nonfiction. I wrote for a total of 7.5 hours broken into 3 sessions to complete a 12-page counter offer document for an agreement consisting of over 300 pages that I’m working on for an aviation development project I have with my business partners. I’m estimating that I probably wrote about 3,500 to 4,000 words for my document today that had a total of 6,466 words.
Here’s the video of Misty Copeland that jump-started my day even though I’m still feeling weak from the illness that I had the past week.
Later I found Misty Copeland’s Under Armor commercial that’s inspiring as well. Here it is:
Entrepreneur and Author James Altucher wrote a nice article, which is linked below my article. Mr. Altucher wrote, “The world doesn’t need more DO-ers.” He also stated, “Stillness ultimately creates, Doing often destroys.”
Sometimes “doing” does nothing such as having meetings that have no new information or purpose, just rehashed things that were already in motion. There are times when “doing” is destructive such as having a meeting where people are offended or where we cannot commit to an action because we didn’t complete the preceding tasks yet. At times, waiting on action such as actions by the government or investors can be a good thing because new investors and opportunities pop up that could never have happened had things progressed faster. Patience is a key to success when “doing” does nothing.
Multiple projects and issues are jumping around in my head while calls and messages keep coming in. So much so that I made an error the other day on one of my tasks. Studies have shown that multi-tasking reduces our performance. It’s much better to focus on one task at a time to maximize our output and results.
With all the different projects and goals that I have to accomplish, I think my mind is going as fast as this song “Alone” by Marshmello.
My 2013 Macbook Pro is my best friend like R2D2 is to Luke Skywalker in Star Wars. I accomplish work through my Macbook Pro everyday and it comes with me everywhere so I can work anywhere. All my ideas, plans, analysis, documents, and agreements is in it and backed up in 2 or 3 locations. I do all my business and legal work on it. I also do my banking and investments online so I can play the world’s markets through my computer. Through my Macbook Pro, I can learn new things by researching writings and data on the Internet, watching educational videos, and listening to stimulating audio talk shows or music. I need to come up with a name for my Macbook Pro. I think I’ll name it JR5 – JR because it’s my first and middle initials, and 5 because it’s the fifth computer I’ve owned. Like Luke Skywalker and R2d2, we’re doing our best to play our part in making our universe more peaceful, loving, and compassionate.
I dedicate the remixed version of “Star Wars – The Force Theme” by DJ AG located on the bottom of this article to you and your computer companion in your efforts to better our universe. May the force be with you.
Since I was young, I’ve been setting goals and then practicing, studying, and doing whatever it takes everyday to achieve the smaller goals in order to reach my larger goals.
As a young soccer player in elementary school, I wasn’t big and strong like some of the other players. I did have quickness and speed, but to better myself, I had to train everyday on my ball handling skills and playmaking skills. I read books, watched videos, and practiced with the soccer ball everyday at parks, in my yard, and even in the house. Eventually, over the years, when I reached high school, I made it to the select teams I wanted and was recognized with awards.
Likewise, to become a politician, I started training to be a politician from my teens by studying political science and then later law, volunteering for politicians at their office and for their campaigns, joined the Young Democrats, business organizations, jaycees, and even got appointed to the Pearl City Neighborhood Board.
When I ran for the Senate and then Vice President of the Associated Students of the University of Hawaii at Manao (ASUH), I would post my posters at 1 A.M. to 3 A.M. in the morning, go to sleep, and then wake up at 6 A.M. to pass out my fliers that had my goals for the university to student commuters walking onto campus from the parking lot and students walking onto campus from the dorms. In between classes I would pass out my fliers to students walking through the mall on campus, with some of them avoiding me by walking around me and onto the grass. At lunch breaks or in the evening, I spoke to the various student organizations about my campaign and what I was going to do for them. I went door-to-door at the dorms passing out easter eggs that my mom and I wrote my name and office on, and I posted my posters on dorm doors of my supporters. I did this for months and was successful in winning a Senate seat in ASUH in 1996 and then the following year, the Vice Presidency.
While in college, in 1996, I typed out my campaign plan and gathered all the necessary information to run for a Hawaii State House seat or Hawaii State Senate seat in Pearl City that was so thick that I had to put it into a binder. After campaigning a number of small political races and even mayor and governor races, by 2002, I was ready to launch my own campaign for the Hawaii State House, but all the Pearl City races had an incumbent. However, the Waipahu, Waikele, Village Park, and Royal Kunia district had an open race due to redistricting. I moved to Waikele and re-typed my entire plan to fit this district. Over the years, I had collected contact information from family, friends, and acquaintances and built a database, which I used to raise $16,000. I mailed three mailers and walked the district 3 times, which is over 18,000 homes over a period of 7 months and lost 20 pounds and burned holes into my pants because of the constant rubbing of my bag that held my campaign material. Like my college student government elections, people told me they voted for me because of my ideas and their respect for my hard work. Over my 8-year political career, I walked my district over 10 times, which is over 60,000 households.
In soccer and politics, I consistently worked hard mentally and physically until I was fortunate to reach my goals.
As far as my career in law, consistency in my studies and efforts helped me to make a comeback after I received bad grades and was placed on probation while attending the University of Hawaii at Manoa. I had a 3.2 GPA but it plunged during a time when I broke up with my first girlfriend. My college counselor asked me what I wanted to be, and I told her, “a lawyer.” She looked at my grades and then looked back at me and asked, “Do you like helping people?” I answered, “Yes.” She continued, “How about being a social worker?” I smiled, unable to agree with her. After that I made my comeback by getting 4.0 grades for several semesters and if I did fall short, I had a 3.8 grade point average for that semester.
Now, after leaving the public sector in April 2015, and pursuing a number of projects in the private sector, either on my own or with business partners, I’m facing a lot of hardship. Some projects had to end, while others keep moving forward. Everyday, I make sure I work on tasks that will add up in helping me and my team in achieving a larger goal. A couple of projects are getting close to fruition – just need to get past a few more walls. It’s exciting and depressing at the same time. Sometimes you’re enthusiastic, while other times you want to cry.
I try my best to surround myself with positive and inspiring people like my friend Brandon who is always upbeat and optimistic. Basically, he’s my life coach. My mom is my number one supporter who has encouraged me to try many things since I was a child. My father’s tenacious style of work ethic has rubbed off on me as I relentless push forward despite my failures. A girl I know who’s from Japan came to Hawaii to learn hula, and now has 4 halaus in Japan and performs and teaches in Hawaii. That would be like me going to Japan to learn sword fighting and the Japanese language, mastering it, and creating schools back in Hawaii. She’s an inspiration to me. My business partners for my various projects always find a positive point even when things are going bad, just like how my mom taught me to look at a glass half-filled as half-full rather than half-empty.
Below is a video by Marie Forleo, an entrepreneur who I’m inspired by, and in it she recommends 5 things to do to stay committed on your goals.
Keep your eye on the “why.” Why you want to do what you do?
Pick your battle. Pick one thing and stick with it. Don’t try to do everything at one time.
Schedule it. Schedule your priorities. Build you life around your priorities.
Ignore your feelings. Ignore the voice in your head that cries and says, “I don’t feel like it.” Override that voice because you know the power of consistency.
Catch that wagon. Don’t have an all or nothing mindset. You will fall off the wagon. Just run and catch that wagon.
“Success doesn’t come from what you do occasionally, it comes from what you do consistently.” – Marie Forleo.
Here is a song called “Try Everything” by Shakira to inspire you as you consistently pursue your goals, whether it’s for your career, health, or personal life. My wish for you is to be happy in this life and the next! I’ll celebrate with you at the finish line, no matter what place we come in!
For many of us, dreams and goals make life exciting. I enjoy coming up with ideas, expanding my skill-sets, and building relationships. However, sometimes in the midst of our hustle to do well in our lives, we forget the importance of having gratitude for what we have now and accomplished thus far. We get too fixated on what we want and get frustrated when all our efforts are not taking us there. We all love success, but with every dream and goal we pursue, there will be challenges and even failure. Some statistics say 8 out of 10 businesses started will fail. Many have pursued the path to become a U.S. Senator or President of the United States and have fallen short. Others have attempted to reach the highest levels in their field of work but have failed to attain that level. Failure is only failure if we don’t appreciate what we currently have and what we have gained. Shoot to be number one in the world, but number 50 is still pretty darn good. We can make peace with our mind knowing that we did our best, and won’t have the pain of wondering “What if I had given my idea a shot?” Through failure, we gain knowledge in areas we may have not been familiar with; build new relationships; and even come up with more ideas to pursue. With failure, we change and evolve, often leading us to worlds we’ve never experienced. When we embrace failure as part of success, we can keep moving higher to a level where we can keep failing until we succeed, and keep succeeding until we fail.
James Altucher interviews Hawaii’s own Steve Case, billionaire, founder and former CEO and Chairman of AOL, and former CEO and Chairman of Time Warner AOL. Mr. Case now runs Revolution LLC, a venture capital firm based in Washington D.C. that invests in other businesses and Case Foundation, a philanthropic organization based in Washington D.C.
Mr. Case wrote a New York Times bestselling book, “The Third Wave: An Entrepreneur’s Vision of the Future.”
In the interview by Altucher, Mr. Case stated the following:
1st Wave: Building the Internet.
2nd Wave: Building on top of the Internet – software, apps, etc.
3rd Wave: Integrating the Internet across our lives – learning, health, food, etc.
From the latter part of the first wave or early part of the 2nd wave in August 2002, I started an Internet retail business selling Hawaii and island-theme products on a Yahoo Store platform. In December 2002, I created this website/journal/blog for my political career and at that time I was one one of the few politicians in the country doing a journal/blog so I was interviewed by Times Magazine for their article on this issue in their December 18, 2006 magazine. I ended my Internet retail company in January 2012 and this website/journal/blog has evolved from a political website to a lifestyle and business focused website in the past year. The 3rd wave in the Internet will be exciting as we all add more creativity to it. For me, I hope to provide content on my website and other websites that inspires you to strive for your dreams and most importantly, be happy.
JON RIKI KARAMATSU 