Sometimes they come in little fruits! 

I met Charles Lee (@mymberry) through my friend Chris Drake (@firehost).  In doing so I met an inspiration man, entrepreneur and story in perseverance and faith.  Below is a short bio on Charles Lee and mBerry as well as a video that promotes his partnership with Chef Homaro Cantu (@Homarocantu).  Chef Cantu is a molecular gastronomist and owner of Chicago restaurants Moto and iNG.  Full Story here.

Live is a miracle, taste some of it here…

Excerpt from W.P. Carey School of Business @ ASU…  The first time Charles Lee popped a miracle berry tablet into his mouth and then bit into a lemon, he was stunned. The lemon tasted naturally sweet.  “I don’t know if it even sunk in,” says Lee, a 2009 ASU finance graduate. “It was a shock. I wasn’t sure it was the same lemon I’d tried before.”

It was, thanks to the fruit that is taking the world by storm. Miracle berries, which resemble elongated cranberries, temporarily alter the taste buds so that sour and bitter foods taste sweet. The berry has become a novelty at parties, where guests eat the fruit and then sample a variety of foods (such as Brussels sprouts, vinegar, pickles, tequila, beer and citrus) for an experience that fools the tongue into perceiving sweetness.  The sensation lasts an hour or so.  After reading a New York Times article about the berry in May 2008, Lee was intrigued. He was ready to graduate with an eye on entering law school but lacked the money for tuition. Maybe the miracle berry could prove a fi nancial miracle for him.  Lee is a self-proclaimed food lover and believes that the pleasures of food are best shared with friends and family. He envisioned enjoying the miracle berry not only by himself but with a foodcurious community.

Having taken a rigorous course in supply chain management and with his background in fi nance, Lee began to explore the possibility of importing the miracle berry—“Its actual name,” he says, “just like apple or peach.” The fruit is grown only in the world’s moist, tropical climates. Florida had a few farms cultivating the berry trees but with each berry priced at about $3, acquiring the fruit in bulk was prohibitive.Fresh berries had to be shipped overnight, further boosting the cost, and the wait for shipment was as long as two months, given its sudden popularity.Lee discovered that a Taiwanese company was processing the berry as a freeze-dried tablet. “That made the berry shelf-stable and convenient,” he says, as
well as affordable.  In July 2008, Lee founded mberry, a company that imports miracle berry in both its fresh and tablet forms. Lee immediately had orders from distributors around the world.

And now, the miracle story continues…

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Great graphics, writing and videos are the path to making people understand complex things.

Above and below are great examples — the video is especially funny and frightening at the same time.  The point here is that good Marketing and messaging ensures that NO ONE  could watch this and not get the point of the challenge we have in America…

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Great video below that is a marriage of a “market need” with a provocative campaign and innovative product (that may or may not exist!)

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This clip helped me this morning as I morn for the victims and Penn State Grad and fans that are hurting…

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Bragging on my Brother-in-Law Matt Johnson, below is a great story from Bloomberg about him and his teammates…

Hard Work Pays Off

Paterno’s Gridiron Grads at Goldman, Barclays Meet to Relive Championship
By Laura Marcinek – Oct 6, 2011

FULL STORY ON BLOOMBERG HERE

The path from football to Wall Street is well-worn. Now the championship-winning 1986 team at Penn State University is retracing its steps.

Playing for Joe Paterno, the 84-year-old Brooklynite who’s in his 46th season as head football coach, is tougher than Wall Street, said John Shaffer, head of junk-bond sales at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS), who will join Paterno and other former teammates-turned-bankers this weekend to mark the 25th anniversary of the school’s most recent national football title.

“That pressure, that competition I tried to replicate on Wall Street, but I just couldn’t,” said Shaffer, 47, the team’s starting quarterback.

Others planning to attend a ceremony at Beaver Stadium in State College, Pennsylvania, on Oct. 8 at halftime of the University of Iowa game are Matthew Johnson, 46, head of global equity syndicate at Barclays Plc (BARC) and a former nose tackle at Penn State, and Lance Lonergan, 44, co-chief executive officer at Weeden & Co., a backup quarterback in 1986.

Paterno, whose 405 wins are the most among major-college football coaches, taught more than the game, the former players said. They have applied the traits and principles they learned at Penn State, such as teamwork, coping with failure and leaving the game on the field, they said.

‘Take a Risk’

“Not being afraid to fail means that you’re not afraid to take risk,” said Johnson, who keeps a life-size cardboard cutout of Paterno in his office near Times Square. “Having the courage to stand up and state your opinion and then, on behalf of the firm take a risk, is all about your level of conviction that begins in the preparation. For me, that’s the key to being successful on Wall Street.”

Football has long been a fertile recruiting ground for finance. Henry Paulson, who ran Goldman Sachs before becoming U.S. Treasury secretary, played for Dartmouth College in the 1960s. Steve Young, who played for Brigham Young University and is in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, is a managing director at private-equity firm Huntsman Gay Global Capital LLC. Pete Dawkins, the 1958 Heisman Trophy winner from the U.S. Military Academy, was vice chairman of Citigroup Private Bank.

“They work extremely well in trading environments because, one, it’s almost like playing a game,” said Ron Mitchell, CEO of CareerCore Inc. and founder of the AlumniAthlete Network, which places student athletes into internships and careers. “There’s a winner and a loser, and you have to be able to recover from losses, step up and win.”

Recovering From Defeat

Penn State’s 1986 national championship team had to recover from defeat. The year before, they entered the Orange Bowl undefeated and lost 25-10 to the University of Oklahoma. Shaffer lost his job as starting quarterback, and fought to win it back the following season. Against Miami, a team with Heisman Trophy winner Vinny Testaverde at quarterback and Michael Irvin, now a Hall of Famer, at receiver, Penn State won, 14-10.

Paterno has shown how he earned his reputation for perseverance. In August, he injured his right arm and hip when a player ran into him during practice. He led a morning coaches meeting via speaker phone from the hospital. In 2006, he broke his leg in a sideline collision, forcing him to have surgery. In 2008, he had hip-replacement surgery from an injury suffered while demonstrating an onside kick during practice.

“The thing that Joe really stressed with everybody was having an unbelievably high level of intensity and tenacity, and pushing yourself to perform at a high level every play, every practice, every game, day in and day out,” said Tim Freeman, 44, an offensive tackle on the championship team and now a principal at private-equity firm Elevation Partners LP, based in Menlo Park, California.

‘Austere Approach’

Players’ names don’t appear on the backs of Penn State’s football jerseys, a tradition that emphasizes the team over the individual and one the former teammates say they try to emulate in their careers.

“I don’t think our uniforms look that bad,” Paterno said for a profile about him on the university’s website. “They say something to kids about team-oriented play and an austere approach to life.”

Trey Bauer, a former linebacker who works in State College running a real-estate hedge fund, said Paterno drew a blue line across the entrance to the practice field, indicating to players that football should be kept separate from their personal lives. That applies to Bauer’s career, he said.

“We’re all busy doing our work and doing our stuff, but once that is over, then you have to concentrate on your family,” said Bauer, 46.

‘You Need to Fail’

Shaffer, Johnson, Lonergan, Freeman and Bauer said they still keep in touch, sometimes running into one another at their kids’ football games in New Jersey. The men take a “a great deal of pride” in their accomplishment and support one another as their careers and lives change, said Shaffer, who headed U.S. credit sales at Merrill Lynch & Co. until 2006, when he left amid a management shakeup by then-CEO Stanley O’Neal.

“This business is one in which you need to fail in front of a lot of people, to get booed by a lot of people, but somehow figure out a way to come back from those failures,” Shaffer said. “This business humbles everyone that’s been in it, as do the trials and tribulations you have on the athletic field.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Laura Marcinek in New York at lmarcinek3@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: David Scheer at dscheer@bloomberg.net.

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A PROUD PAPA

The year is 2016 and the United States has just elected the first woman president who happens to be from Ohio. A few days after the election the president-elect, whose name is Debra, calls her father and says, “So, Dad, I assume you will be coming to my inauguration?”

“I don’t think so. It’s a 10 hour drive.”

“Don’t worry about it Dad, I’ll send Air Force One. And a limousine will pick you up at your door.”

“I don’t know. Everybody will be so fancy. What would your mother wear?”

“Oh Dad,” replies Debra, ‘I’ll make sure she has a wonderful gown custom-made by the best designer in Washington.”

“Honey,” Dad complains, “you know I can’t eat those rich foods you eat.”

The President-to-be responds, “Don’t worry Dad. The entire affair will be handled by the best caterer in Washington ; I’ll ensure your meals are salt free. You and mom just have to be there.”

So Dad reluctantly agrees, and on January 20, 2017, Debra is being sworn in as President of the United States . In the front row sits the new president’s dad and mom.

Dad, noticing the senator sitting next to him, leans over and whispers, “You see that woman over there with her hand on the Bible, becoming President of the United States .”

The Senator whispers back, “You bet I do.”

Dad says proudly, “Her brother played football at Ohio State ..”

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Whether the term is “Personas” or as you see in this video “being Culturally Relevant” — the goal should be the same, LEARN about what customers want, need and desire, then become relevant with them and loved by them.

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On a fall night in 2003, Harvard undergrad and computer programming genius Mark Zuckerberg sits down at his computer and heatedly begins working on a new idea. In a fury of blogging and programming, what begins in his dorm room soon becomes a global social network and a revolution in communication. A mere six years and 500 million friends later, Mark Zuckerberg is the youngest billionaire in history… but for this entrepreneur, success leads to both personal and legal complications. From director David Fincher and screenwriter Aaron Sorkin comes The Social Network, a film that proves you don’t get to 500 million friends without making a few enemies. The film is produced by Scott Rudin, Dana Brunetti, Michael De Luca, and Ceán Chaffin and based on the book “The Accidental Billionaires” by Ben Mezrich.

Above review was courtesy of http://www.comingsoon.net/

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Here’s a collection of some of the greatest “Woodenisms.”

“Things turn out best for the people who make the best of the way things turn out.”

“Never mistake activity for achievement.”

“Adversity is the state in which man mostly easily becomes acquainted with himself, being especially free of admirers then.”

“Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are.”

“Be prepared and be honest.”

“Be quick, but don’t hurry.”

“You can’t let praise or criticism get to you. It’s a weakness to get caught up in either one.”

“You can’t live a perfect day without doing something for someone who will never be able to repay you.”

“What you are as a person is far more important than what you are as a basketball player.”

“Winning takes talent; to repeat takes character.”

“A coach is someone who can give correction without causing resentment.”

“I’d rather have a lot of talent and a little experience than a lot of experience and a little talent.”

“If you don’t have time to do it right, when will you have time to do it over?”

“If you’re not making mistakes, then you’re not doing anything. I’m positive that a doer makes mistakes.”

“It isn’t what you do, but how you do it.”

“Ability is a poor man’s wealth.”

“Failure is not fatal, but failure to change might be.”

“Consider the rights of others before your own feelings and the feelings of others before your own rights.”

“Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.”

“Don’t measure yourself by what you have accomplished, but by what you should have accomplished with your ability.”

“It’s not so important who starts the game but who finishes it.”

“It’s what you learn after you know it all that counts.”

“It’s the little details that are vital. Little things make big things happen.”

“Talent is God-given. Be humble. Fame is man-given. Be grateful. Conceit is self-given. Be careful.”

“The main ingredient of stardom is the rest of the team.”

“Success comes from knowing that you did your best to become the best that you are capable of becoming.”

“Success is never final; failure is never fatal. It’s courage that counts.”

Source: CoachWooden.com

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