Everyone loves to see the “underdog” succeed. We root for people to overcome difficulties and are inspired by those who rise above the odds.
In 2015, i had the opportunity to join a friend in Haiti who was helping a village close to Les Cayes. She was feeding and working with the children and with street boys. I went to help her and to specifically help the street boys to create sustainable income for themselves. We had an amazing creative time together. I hope that what I was able to teach has continued to help them in some way.
While I was there, I met a young man named Pierre Stanley Baptiste. One evening we talked way into the night about our dreams and passions to help serve others to find their creativity and prosper. We shared about podcasts, books, and websites that had impacted us and discovered we were watching, reading, and listening to many of the same. Pierre has such a heart for his country and a desire to see the young people lead the way to a prosperous and thriving Haiti. The “Underdog Revolution” is his story and his heart and vision.
Pierre believes that each person has the ability to be creative and to solve problems. He is asking that we recognize these underdogs and their potential. He relates to the “underdog” as he experienced it himself. He was small as a kid and was bullied. He had trouble learning to read. When he was 10 years old, his mother had to be taken away when she tested for TB. This left Pierre to take care of himself and his little sister. He had no father figure. This 6 months of separation was an excruciating and painful experience. Later, he won a speaking contest and was selected by the SEED program to go to the U.S.
Under his loving host mother, Pierre began to succeed and overcome prejudices and insecurities. He excelled in speaking and joined the Toastmaster organization. After college, he became successful in his work, but his heart was to help his country by helping young people to succeed. When I met him, he was in Haiti to do that very thing. He is encouraging and supporting young people to pursue creative solutions and to develop skills. He has learned in his life to leverage scarcity. There is a link between constraints and creativity.
He has since, created and co-launched a co-working space. He has #Hustle Nights for people to come to the space with a specific idea to work for 2 nights in the space. He also hosted a “Start Up Week” entrepreneur event with 65 speakers and 50 volunteers with 1200 attending. He was able to raise $20,000 to fund the co-create space which provides people access to machinery, tools, and resources to create and innovate.
Pierre’s “Underdog Revolution” provides a fresh perspective on the complex issues that developing countries face, and discusses creating better solutions which come through developing the people themselves.He also shares several success stories of people who are helping people and making a difference. You will be inspired to be a part of world solutions and for your problems as well.
I believe Pierre is a revolutionary and will have a great impact on Haiti through its youth.
Blessings to all the “underdogs” out there and to those who are lending a hand to help them in productive ways!
While going through some of my stacks of books, I discovered an old used book that must have picked up from the library book sale last year. The book is Dale Carnegie’s “Public Speaking”, printed in 1926. I flipped through the first few pages and was hooked from the beginning with his bio.
Dale grew up in Missouri, the son of a poor farmer. At 16 years of age his family moved to Warrensburg, MO. He enjoyed public speaking and joined the debate team. He attended the State Teacher’s College in Warrensburg. After college, he sold correspondence courses to ranchers and then sold bacon, soap, and lard for Armour and Company. He quit sales to become a Chataqua lecturer. He ended up in New York City to attend an acting school. He had little success in acting. While living at the YMCA, he got the idea to take the one thing that he was good at, speaking, and began to teach classes to others about how to overcome their fears and to speak well. His students became successful and his reputation exploded with opportunity. He found success by tapping into the men’s desire and need to have more self confidence.
After Dale spoke to a sold out crowd at Carnegie Hall in New York City, Dale changed his last name spelling to “Carnegie”,after Andrew Carnegie, the famous businessman and philanthropist. Numerous corporations, including IBM and General Motors, sent their employees to Carnegie to help them to become more confident and successful.
Dale wrote “How to Win Friends and Influence People” during the Great Depression. The book was an instant success and best seller. He sold 5 million copies, had 450,000 graduates of his Dale Carnegie Institute, and critiqued 150,000 speeches at the time of his death in 1955.
I enjoyed his “Public Speaking” book as it is rich with historical examples and stories of leaders, stories of people learning to speak publicly, quotes and amazing teaching on speaking that is applicable to conversation, life and communication. I absolutely enjoyed it. There was a chapter on memorizing, I found especially interesting, on the power of attaching images to what you are want to remember. Throughout the whole book there are wonderful examples and specific and practical advice, instruction, and application.
We can be encouraged by Carnegie to look at what we have in our hands, who we are, and what we like to do, and ask, “How can I use this to help others?” You never know what one thing will lead to!
Blessings! Please share any amazing “reads” you have run across lately! jane
Liz went after her heart and created a business to give Sseko high potential, talented young women in Uganda an opportunity to continue on to university. Due to the gap of 9 months between high school and college, many young women were pressured to find jobs or to marry instead of waiting and going to college. Sseko grew to become the largest footwear exporter in East Africa and gives a growing number of scholarships. Sseko Designs appeared on NBC’s Shark Tank and the world fell in love with their versatile strappy Ribbon Sandals. The Sseko Fellows program launched, and for the first time, women all across the U.S. launched their own impact businesses by selling Sseko and styling their communities.
As Liz shares in her book, she was a total beginner in everything, but she followed her heart, with a passion to help women, and discovered a particular problem and found a creative solution. She has succeeded far above and beyond her expectations. This book is about her journey and to encourage other “beginners” to go for their dreams!
As she looked back on her journey, she asked herself this question: “Could being a Beginner actually be an asset in your journey to build a life of purpose and passion? PLUCK! What beginners lack in experience, track record, know-how, and connections, they make up for in nerve, curiosity, spirit, courage, and willingness to acknowledge they don’t have all the answers. Which are all incredibly useful in building lives of purpose, passion, and impact.” Isn’t this an awesome thought? We don’t have to be “Experts” to succeed!!
Liz encourages us to “own our average.” In other words, figure out what you have to give and go all in! If we think we are so gifted or talented in a certain area we need to beware that we might not want to risk anything new or challenging in that area Our success is more about our posture, mindset, and curiosity. Curiosity leads us to ask, “What if?” and to take risks. We must be willing to fail to go forward.
“The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.” Frederick Buechner
What is in your heart? What is it you love to do? Are you doing it? If you are not, what’s stopping you?
Let’s not let anything keep us from following our purpose and passion. We can have PLUCK!! We can have Beginner’s Pluck!
If you have a message you passionately want to share with the world, if you are a speaker, teacher, pastor, leader, then this book is for you!
If you are NOT any of the above – then this book is for YOU!! All of us have people in our lives who we want to connect and communicate better with: husbands, wives, children, grandchildren, friends, neighbors, work employees, customers, community clubs, groups, church, etc. We have people. We have influence. (Even in this time of “social distancing”) What are we doing with that? How are our communication skills? Do we draw people to us and have true
understanding between us?
“Tell me a fact and I’ll listen Tell me a truth and I’ll learn. But tell me a story, And It will live in my heart forever.” Native American Wisdom
Each one of us has hard-won knowledge and wisdom from our life’s journey. We understand that the trials and hardships we have endured were a part of our character development; part of making us who we are today. Our hurts and disappointments can be transformed into sources of power as we overcame, and we can encourage and relate to to others. We can be authentic with others and share with them not just “information but illumination.” We must touch people emotionally, in the soul, to truly connect. We must seek to discover the common ground with people we are wanting to connect with and build on that common ground to create greater connection.
We can share stories that are deeply rooted in who we are. To tell a story well is not to just “recall” it but to “relive” it by putting yourself back there in it and tell it from there. This authenticity draws people into the story.
This book shares lots of practical information in preparing to speak to transform people, not to just give out information, but the heart of this book is about making connection in communication, and we all need that!
I have 7 dear grandchildren I want to connect with to encourage them for good, from the heart, in a way they can relate to and understand, with love. I think this quote applies not only to audiences but to all those we come in contact with:
“They may not remember what you said, but they’ll remember how you made them feel.”
Let’s “tell a better story!”
With love,
PS With all the lockdown and social distancing, I am using the Marco Polo app to leave video messages for the grandkids and making Youtubes of things we can do together even when while we are apart. I am sending cards, drawing, etc. I sometimes us an app called “TouchNote” in which you can create cards or postcards with photos etc and they will print and mail them for you! I am sure you have creative ideas you are doing to stay connected with your loved ones during this time too. I would LOVE to hear what you are doing! Please SHARE your ideas with us in the comments section on this blog on my website. HERE! 🙂
In this time of “social distancing”, I hope you are using this opportunity to “seize the day” and to do those creative projects you have postponed forever, take the on-line course for something you have been wanting to learn, tackle those home projects that you just haven’t had time for, AND I hope you are making time to READ! 🙂
I have been reading LOTS of book on creativity. The book I am sharing today has some huge truths and lots of encouragement in it for you to pursue your passion and follow your heart. This is my big message that I seek to share to encourage others to GO AFTER THEIR DREAMS, so I resonated with a lot of what Bob Doyle says in “Follow Your Passion, Find Your Power.”
When things do not work, and we realize our limited knowledge and understanding, it is just a realization of our need to give it up to God. (Bob likes to use the words “intelligent power” or the “Universe,” whereas, I prefer to call God, God.) God will give us clarity of our vision, and once we are clear, we can take action. As we step out, God meets us there. We experience “attraction” to what we are desiring and many interesting and unexpected connections begin to happen as in conversations, new people, creative inspiration, opportunities, confirmation in books or whatever we are reading, watching etc. These connections come to inspire us to move forward into ACTION.
You may be thinking of some examples of this in your life. One example from mine was several years ago when everything I read or watched seemed to be about Africa and tugged on my heart! Even the end of a ministry talk show I caught the end of while walking on the treadmill was talking about digging wells in Africa. I was so inspired but not clear of what God might be telling me I told my husband we could at least help dig a well! LOL! (ACTION) I read more books about Africa which happened to be Heidi Baker’s books of whom I had seen in the video. I was so touched, I went on line to find out more about her and discovered she was going to be speaking in California. I felt I “had” to go to find out what this tremendous “pull” toward Africa. I did go. (ACTION) I was even more inspired and contacted another speaker who had been at the same conference with Heidi, who does missions around the world and takes teams. When I went on line, I discovered that he was taking a team where? Yes, you guessed it to Pemba, Mozambique, Africa to help Heidi Baker! (I applied and went!)
We must take ACTION toward the passion that is calling us. We must come to understand that we are not limited. We have infinite possibility because God is in us! Taking even tiny, small steps of ACTION will help us to shift from negativity/unbelief to positivity/belief. Negativity attracts just like the positive. We must choose what to believe.
As you choose to believe that you can indeed accomplish your passion/dream/goal, write about it in detail as if it has already happened. Use your imagination to see what your life would look like if it had already happened. What would a day look like? How would your feel? What would you be doing? How would this passion/dream/goal affect your loved ones, friends, and world? Writing is a powerful way to receive and to firm up beliefs.
Finally, I want to remind us to be grateful. Gratefulness attracts. Acknowledge and appreciate the everyday ordinary things in your life, what you have, and what you are doing presently. We have so much to be thankful for! You may want to start a “Gratefulness” group with your close family or friends, just a few, in which you share what you are grateful for each day, or just speak what you are grateful for out loud to God, or write it in your journal. God is so good. He is bringing us through this time. Let us join together to be grateful for the good gifts of opportunity within the crisis as we trust in Him to bring us through.
This has been one of the fastest and wildest years ever!! But I ALWAYS make time to read! LOL!
How about you? I started listing all the books I read in 2017. I wish I had thought to do this years and years ago. It would have been interesting to have a record. Anyway, Here’s a list of the books I read in 2018, or at least the ones I remembered to jot down! I wish I’d written a short review on each as I read them….. hmm… maybe in 2019?!
These are listed in order read, not by how much I liked or recommend them.
2018 BOOK LIST: *1. The Go-Giver – Bob Burg & John David Mann 2. Show Your Work! – Austin Kleon 3. Steal Like an Artist – Austin Kleon *4. Pursuing Justice, the Call to Live & Die for Bigger Things – Ken Wytsma 5. The Creative Habit – Twyla Tharp *6. Expectation Corner – Emily Steele Elliott 7. 70 Resolutions – Jonathan Edwards *8. Waiting on God – Andrew Murray *9. Wings Like Eagles – Andrew Murrray *10. The Culture Code – Daniel Coyle
11. First They Killed My Father – Loung Ung
12. Destined to Win – Kris Vallotton
13. Tortured for Christ – Pastor Richard Wurmrand
14. Glory Invasion, Walking Under an Open Heaven – David Herzog
15. Business Boutique – Christy Wright
16. Mysteries of the Glory – David Herzog
17. How to Be Here: A Guide to Creating a Life Worth Living – Rob Bell
18. Called to Create – Jordan Raynor
19. The Compound Effect – Darren Hardy
20. Praying from the Heavenly Realms – Kevin L. Zadai
21. Breaking the Stronghold of Food – Michael L. Brown w/Nancy Brown
22. Doing & Being – Barnet Baine
23. Where There’s Hope – Elizabeth Smart
24. The Three Battlegrounds – Francis Frangipane
25. Singing the Scriptures – Julie Meyer
*26. The Way of Love – Ted Dekker
27. The 49th Mystic – Ted Dekker
28. Not for Sale – David Batstone
29. Willpower Doesn’t Work – Benjamin Hardy
30. Beginning Magic Money – Holly Alexander
31. Magic Money Advanced #2 – Holly Alexander
32. Magic Money Mastery #3 – Holly Alexander
33. Manifest Presence of God – Walter Beuttler
*34. Switch On Your Brain – Dr. Caroline Leaf
35. The Perfect You – Dr. Caroline Leaf
36. The Secrets of the Notebook – Eve Haas
*37. The Invention of Wings – Sue Monk Kidd
*38. Prophetic Wisdom – Graham Cooke
39. The Prophetic Voice of God – Lana Vawser
40. Awakening Pure Worship – Jeff Deyo
41. The Way of Life – Bill Johnson
42. A Beautiful Kind of Broken – Luke Holter
43. The Right to Write – Julia Cameron
44. Secrets of the Seer – Jamie Galloway
45. All the Pretty Things – Edie Wadsworth
*46. Approaching the Heart of Prophecy – Graham Cooke
47. Come Thirsty – Max Lucado
48. Joy of Hygge – Johnny Jackson
*49. Praying Hyde – Captain E. G. Carre
Shoot! I wish I’d known I was one book from 50, I would have squeezed in one more! LOL!! I enjoyed reading all of these books, but some of my very very favorites that spoke especially to me this year are starred, though I gleaned some wonderful things from each book read.
My grandson, Eli, asked me what my favorite book was. I had a really hard time answering. I’ve always loved to read. Fiction? Non-Fiction? Art?
Please share your book list or your favorites for 2018 in the comments below. I’d love to hear from you and get some leads on books to read for 2019!
Hello, fellow readers!! Don’t you just love technology these days?! So even though I didn’t bring a lot of books with me, I have a lot of unread books on my Kindle app ready and waiting. I was so grateful they were, as I had an unexpected amount of reading time in the middle of my mission trip to Cambodia, courtesy of my appendix throwing a fit!
I read “The Invention of Wings” by Sue Monk Kidd. It was a fascinating book written during the time of slavery, abolition, and the beginning of the women’s rights movement based upon the true lives of the Gimske sisters. Sue writes with such insight into their hearts and minds that I just could not put it down. She not only shows us their amazing courage to stand for what they believed was right but also the inside heart and soul of a slave girl and her and her family’s courage and fortitude as well.
It is truly an inspiring story of courage and of “following your heart “ that can inspire us to press into our callings as well!
#11 instead of using this new age meditation, hook into the
God of Peace & Love and meditate on a word from Him!
Ask God for a scripture – speak it out loud, memorize it, sing it, etc.
Meditate on God’s Word to you!
2. This is a newsletter I get from Dr. Debbie. Start Somewhere Wellness.
It always has a nice variety of health info,recipes, and sometimes art activities. This month’s health article is
“Be nice to Your Brain – Avoid the Carb Coma.” http://startsomewherewellness.com/be-nice-to-your-brain-avoid-the-carb-coma/?mc_cid=f796be374b&mc_eid=51d6cf1f52
4. Need some “grit” for 2018? Check out this article by James Clear: https://jamesclear.com/mental-toughness This is a great article, just remember that the Jesus is the “author and finisher of our faith!” He is our strength. We do not depend on our own!5. Holiday Art Journaling with Carolyn Dube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xd85arOJWbI&feature=youtu.be “Shaking off a bit of holiday stress in my art journal with the help of the rainbow. Whatever is on my mind ends up in my art journal, and since the holidays were top of mind, I created trees by cutting out book text. Using Gelatos and water, they became colorful trees.” Carolyn Dube
Blessings and Love,
MiMa Jane & PaPa Kevin with all the grandkids!
Merry Christmas!
I have been reading the most inspiring books
the last month or so!!
Here’s the list: 1. “God’s Generals: Why They Succeeded & Some Failed” by Robert Liardon. Wow! This book covered many men and women of God who were used in powerful ways for salvations with acts of healings and miracles. Each account covered their backgrounds and a significant encounter with God and empowerment by the Holy Spirit, followed by preaching the gospel, healings and miracles. The accounts also share their relationship, their shortcoming, and perseverance during persecution. The testimonies of their lives so inspire me and make me hungry for more of God – to know Him more and to see Him move powerfully in people’s lives!!
Lou Engle birthed “The Call” in 1999, a gathering of tens of thousands for 12 hours of fasting and prayer. Prayer is laying the foundation for the global harvest to come. TheCall.com
Lou shares his personal journey in hearing God and pursuing God through prayer and fasting. He shares about the power of corporate prayer & fasting and mentions many revivals. This book was confirmation of the growing desire in my heart to do a longer fast. In this book, Lou also mentions a book entitled, “The Atomic Power with God thru Fasting & Prayer” by Franklin Hall. I was blown away by the testimonies of revival and of course, had to order this book!! LOL!
3. “The Atomic Power with God thru Fasting & Prayer” by Franklin Hall This book was written in 1946, the year after the atomic bomb was released on Japan. As the call to come together to pray and fast across denominational lines occurred in San Diego, fasting & prayer caught like wildfire across America and Canada. Jamaica erupted with revival, Oral Roberts, T.L. Osborn and Gordon Lindsay experienced massive campaigns of salvation and healing. The power of adding fasting to prayer is exponential/atomic – especially if done corporately. Franklin shares about the many revivals that exploded across the world during this time and many personal testimonies from individuals concerning their own experience and encounter with God and healing as a result of fasting and praying. Franklin also shares some practical things about fasting and the effect on the body physically and spiritually, how to fast, the different stages one goes through in the fast, and how to go off the fast. This is very helpful and enlightening.
These testimonies and revivals will inspire you to fast and pray! What could/would happen if we would agree to fast and pray together to see God move in us, in our families, in our churches, in our towns, in our county, in Missouri, and in the United States?!! God is the same “yesterday, today and forever”. He wants to move today. This is one of the most exciting times in history! Surely we are going to see the greatest revival and harvest! Do not be discouraged by the evil you see, but overcome evil with good and keep your eyes on Jesus! He has won the victory, and He is moving in a powerful way across the earth. He wants us to be activated to do our part by listening to Him, seeking Him , and carrying out His orders, His strategy to bring Light into every part of our world! Shine! Shine! Shine!
Love & Blessings!
Comment below and let me know what you are reading!
Jane
PS. Don’t forget to use https://smile.amazon.com/ to bless whatever charity you select with a percent from amazon on all your purchases!! It is effortless! 🙂
I was listening to a Creative Warriors podcast on my way to my weekly class in Cape, and I listened to an interview of Evan Carmichael. I got so pumped up I was trying to write down some things on a napkin while I was driving!! LOL! Then I realized he had a book, “Your One Word – The Powerful Secret to Creating a Business and Life that Matter.”
Now some of you know that part of my word I believe God gave me for 2017 was to Fast from excess/accumulation and that includes Books! To read what I have and practice what I have already learned! To take Action in 2017!!
Here’s the audio of the message I gave at Mercy & Truth Fellowship Church,
if you are interested!
ANYWAY, I talked it over with Kevin and bought the book as I had tried to take notes from the podcast and felt it was so pertinent to what I am believing to do in 2017! YES!!! The book was soooooo gooooood! It is about getting focused on what your Core Belief is to help you focus your business, ministry, or life. It asks questions to try to help you come to what that is. Such as: What makes you happy? What is the connection between all those things? What traits do you hate? What is your constant? Is this who you really are? Then he goes over limiting beliefs.
Evan uses amazing examples and stories from other people and gives practical application to actually “DO IT”, not just read about it!
I am so excited to see that my ONE WORD for 2017 and this new understanding of My One Word, my core, converges. I believe that Evan gives an amazing tool to create the business/ministry that I have been dreaming of and working toward. I believe that you would really enjoy the book as well!
![Underdog Revolution: Empowering Non-Obvious Winners and Underserved Communities by [Pierre Stanley Baptiste]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51P5CAMjnKL.jpg)
