The Huff Experiment

Filling Up Your Jar Story

2009-11-04T20:55:00.000-08:00

Great read I found:

When things in your life seem almost too much to handle, when 24 hours in a day are not enough, remember the mayonnaise jar and the 2 Beers.
A professor stood before his philosophy class and had some items in front of him.

When the class began, he wordlessly picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with golf balls.

He then asked the students if the jar was full.

They agreed that it was.
The professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar He shook the jar lightly.

The pebbles rolled into the open areas between the golf balls.

He then asked the students again if the jar was full.

They agreed it was.
The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar.

Of course, the sand filled up everything else.

He asked once more if the jar was full.

The students responded with a unanimous 'yes.'
The professor then produced two Beers from under the table and poured the entire contents into the jar effectively filling the empty space between the sand.

The students laughed..
'Now,' said the professor as the laughter subsided, 'I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life..

The golf balls are the important things---your family, your children, your health, your friends and your favorite passions---and if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full.
The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, your house and your car.
The sand is everything else---the small stuff.

'If you put the sand into the jar first,' he continued, 'there is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls.

The same goes for life.
If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff you will never have room for the things that are important to you.
Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness.

Spend time with your children.

Spend time with your parents.

Visit with grandparents.

Take time to get medical checkups.

Take your spouse out to dinner.

Play another 18.

There will always be time to clean the house and fix the disposal.

Take care of the golf balls first---the things that really matter.

Set your priorities.

The rest is just sand.

One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the Beer represented.

The professor smiled and said, 'I'm glad you asked.'
The Beer just shows you that no matter how full your life may seem, there's always room for a couple of Beers with a friend...

Sleep Better

2009-10-07T09:43:00.000-07:00

A year ago I was having some real sleep problems. I’m not talking about anything to serious like waking up screaming, crouched in the corner saying something about spiders attacking me, I’m talking about sleep problems that most of us deal with on a nightly basis.

A typical night went something like this:
10:00- Go to bed
10:05- Realize that I wasn’t tired, start watching T.V.
10:40- Remember that I forgot to send an email and hop on the computer.
10:50- Finish sending the email, then check facebook.
11:59- Realize I’d been on facebook for over an hour and turn off the computer.
12:00- Go to bed
12:50- Still awake cause I never actually fell asleep.
1:15- Finally fall asleep.
2:30- Wake up thirsty.
4:30- Wake up and have to go to the bathroom. Then realize I have to get a bunch of crap done the next day and stress out.
5:30- Finally fall asleep again.
6:00- Wake up thirsty
7:25- Wake up five minutes before my alarm goes off and realize how tired I am.

How did I overcome my sleep problems? Simple I made a sleep plan. A sleep plan consists of more than just having a time you go to sleep and a time you wake up. Let me show you my sleep plan looks like on a nightly basis.

If I want to go to sleep at 10:30 at 9:30 I start my sleep plan. The first step is eating my last snack of the day, cottage cheese & beef jerky (no spicy foods, they give you weird dreams), the next step is writing down the things I need to get done for the next day in my planner and making other adjustments for the next day, followed by brushing my teeth and going to the bathroom, getting a glass of water, reading a fiction book (nothing to make you think deep) then turning off the light and closing my eyes. This plan of attack for getting better sleep has drastically improved my sleep patterns.

A couple other tips include:
Making sure your room/house is clean. It will make you more relaxed and clear your mind, it works, trust me!

Turn out the lights. Sleep in a dark room, preferably pitch black. The light entering the room can either affect your sleep patterns or make your body think it’s bright outside and simulate a sunrise, which is more likely to wake you up.

Exercise. When you exercise during the day, your body craves rest at night. In turn, you’ll fall asleep faster and spend more time in the deeper, most restful stage of sleep.

Keep the bedroom for sleeping. If you constantly do work or watch TV in bed, your mind may find it difficult to associate sleep with your bed. Keep it simple and use the bed for what it’s meant for.

Here is another interesting sleep improving article.

What does your sleep plan look like?

Three Interesting Articles

2009-09-09T14:09:00.000-07:00

Every now and then when I have something cool to show you, I will do “Three Interesting Articles” post. I hand pick them myself in order to show you some cool and thought provoking articles I find. If you have any cool articles send them to me at beniahjacob@gmail.com

Should You Give Your Money to A Homeless Person?:
http://redeemingriches.wordpress.com/2009/08/05/should-you-give-money-to-a-homeless-person/

The Effects of Cold on Sleep:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/04/health/04real.html?em

Books Affect on Our Lives-
(Warning Explicit Language)
http://www.ryanholiday.net/archives/life_1.phtml

Reeducation

2009-08-31T13:34:00.000-07:00

Recently I have begun my last year of school. It’s been pretty cool so far. I’m in some cool classes and am learning a pretty significant amount about business. By far my favorite class is entrepreneurship because that’s what I’m all about.

One class I wish I was able to take this semester is Twitter 101. It must have been full or something because I couldn’t find it anywhere. I think it would be a pretty cool class to take though with a huge twitter movement going on, more and more marketers are utilizing twitters power. Some businesses are actually hiring full time tweeters as their called, to let stockholders and prospective stock purchasers more info as to what’s going on in the company.

Twitter is simple you get 140 characters to say whatever you want. You can link people to your site, tell them what you’re doing, or say something insightful that you just thought. However there are tweeters that have upwards of 50,000 followers. Imagine having all those people know about your companies latest product or that your company is about to expand and purchasing your company stock will make them lots of money. There are numerous benefits to twitter.

In reality I know they don’t have a twitter class offered at my school, but it would be nice if they did. I really believe it would help students get prepped for new career fields, in an economy that is not demanding the same old college grad.
Here is some other classes I think colleges should offer-

Personal Finance- It’s awesome that colleges are teaching finance that shows students how find PE ratios to pick the best stocks but most kids can’t budget their money to even save up to buy stock.

Speed Reading- Most people hate reading if they could get through it faster I believe a lot more people would read. Plus speed reading would create more time at work. Even better future politicians may actually read the legislation put on their desks.

Memory Techniques- Our lack of memory really hurts our chances of making it big. If you forget the name of a client ten seconds after meeting them it might hurt the sale.

Dealing with Strangers- How to get the most out of meeting new people. There are lots of people out there waiting for what you have to offer.
Utilizing Web Applications- Taking advantage of everything Google, Yahoo, and every other unknown company has to offer to improve your chances in business and life.

Health and Fitness- I meet kids who are trying to become personal trainers, yet they are 30 lbs over weight. We all need gym class.

The Truth About Truth

2009-08-26T17:59:00.000-07:00

So you want the truth? You can’t handle the truth! Literally, you probably can’t handle the truth. Does that mean we shouldn’t tell it?

As stated in my past posts I have lost 50 lbs of fat and put on 20lbs of muscle and still going. I am constantly getting “I don’t want to sound gay, but you look really good” from guys, and “Wow! You look really different” from girls. Where did my motivation come from? The truth!

Ever since I first started getting fat people made fun of me. I knew I was fat because “the mean kids” said I was. It’s funny that the mean kids were the most helpful. The problem came from the nice kids, the ones who when I said I was fat or asked if I was fat they would reply with some crap like “No, fat to me is like the people who are obese and have health problems and stuff” or the always nice “no you look fine.”

But does anyone want to look fine? No, everyone wants to look great. Our society doesn’t buy $85 Polo shirts or spend hundreds on coach purses to look fine. Fine is wearing sweatpants and an old t-shirt to go through the drive through at McDonalds. These nice people weren’t helping me. They were lolling me into a false sense of satisfaction and apathy about the way I looked and who I was. Deep down inside I wasn’t happy with who I was.

Ultimately the truth came when I tried to squeeze that XL shirt around my 5”11 245lb frame and realized that all those “mean kids” were just telling the truth.
Truth is a weird thing with a lot of twists to it. I’m not trying to say everyone should be jerks to each other. My goal with this post is just to have you rethink how and when the truth is appropriate.

This is a great article I read awhile back about truth(Warning: explicit language)- http://tinyurl.com/2h3mfb

The Comeback

2009-08-24T14:21:00.001-07:00

Alright it’s not really a comeback. I have only been gone for a couple of months and it was a great couple of months in Destin, Florida. The only problem was limited internet access, which means limited amount of blogging.

The time off gave me a chance to think about the blog and how to improve on it. I have decided to add some of what I believe to be “cool” ideas that I will reveal in the next few weeks. What that means to you is, in the next few weeks I will reveal a more entertaining and informative view on life.

Stay posted for updates!

Life Gambling

2009-05-19T13:38:00.000-07:00

I have often wondered what I would do if I were on Deal or No Deal with Howie Mandel and was faced with the scenario of only having two brief cases one with 1 cent or one with $1 million. The way the game plays out is that a broker would offer me $500,000 that I could walk away with or I could risk it all and receive either 1cent or $1million. Most people would say play it safe and take the $500,000. I don’t know if I agree with that.

I am in no way, shape or form a professional gambler, but I do gamble a lot in how my life turns out. For instance this summer I am skipping an internship to do missions work in Florida. Did I mention it’s my last summer and after this I will devote all my energy to full time work. I could potentially make quite a bit of money this summer but I’m choosing not to, to take a once in a lifetime opportunity.

I’m not worried about not making as much as usual because I can find other ways to earn money. I believe in myself and know I am capable of double my income if I put my mind to it. Maybe that is why I would go for the million on Deal or No Deal rather than take the $500,000. I didn’t have it with me when I came and I certainly can’t take it to my next life. $500,000 would certainly make your life different, but would it make your life better? If you don’t like your life with the salary you make now, how do you know you would like it with $500,000? Try to do what you have always wanted to do now, then if you believe you need more money later find ways to earn a little extra on the side. I’m sure you’re capable.

Open a Book Already

2009-05-07T14:57:00.000-07:00

Throughout high school I rarely read. Most didn’t. I think the problem comes from the fact that we were forced to read books from thirty years ago, talk about it, then take a test over finding the symbolism in it. I mean we had a chance to read some classic and important literature, like George Orwell’s 1984. Instead we as a society began to hate reading, unless it’s giving us the juicy details of some celebrities divorce (like that matters). People despise reading books.
It’s hard to blame them though. There is so much interesting information on the internet that we can get in a fraction of the time. The problem is the details. Take for instance a book I just finish reading called Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die by Chip Heath and Dan Heath, the book talks a lot about how we can get people to notice what we are saying. You can find these theories on communication on the internet too. The problem with the internet, is that it just gives the idea of what to do and can only go into limited detail on how to do it. A book can give you more knowledge and specifics compared to the internet or news paper. In turn a book will make you smarter and more of a critical thinker, which we lack in our society today.
My freshman year in college I couldn’t stand the thought of reading. That was until my friend gave me a book called I Feel Great and You Will Too by Pat Croce the owner of the 76ers. He told me the guy owned an NBA team, was a black belt in Karate and an overall beast. I thought hey I like successful people and I would love to own a pro sports team, I wonder how he did it. I read the book in a few days and it changed my life. Because it got me thinking more deeply about what I wanted for my future. Since then I average reading about a book every two weeks. Most people have the time to read one book every two weeks. It will drastically change your outlook on life.

Rules to Reading:
• You need to read non-fiction books. Reading fiction will not fill you with knowledge, it is more for entertainment. I still read fiction though, only at night right before I go to bed.
• Try to learn about things you don’t know. The idea of reading is to teach you something new. You can read about something you already know about though, just to get more expertise on an issue, just don’t burn yourself out.
• Don’t finish a book you don’t like! There is no sense in getting half way through a book realizing you hate it, then finishing just for the sake of finishing. You’re not letting anyone down by stopping yourself from finishing a book. Just trade the book to a used book store and go get something else you might enjoy.

Utilize the Internet

2009-05-05T08:14:00.000-07:00

This blog is not just to pound you with self improvement articles and tell you how to live your life. I designed this to help you and show you what helps me in all aspects of my life. I also just want to show you some cool stuff. That is why this post is dedicated to showing you the five coolest things I have found on the internet and why.

1.) http://www.evernote.com/

This innovative idea allows people to store anything they find on the internet into an easy to view folder. It allows pictures you take with your phone to even be placed in the folder. It helps you in remembering everything you could want. Check out the video to learn more about how it works.

2.) http://twitter.com/

Before you jump me on talking about twitter, hear me out. Twitter is not the same as status update on facebook. The idea of twitter is not to tell people that “You just picked up your kids from school. They are so wonderful.” No one cares. Twitter should be looked at in a professional sense. It doesn’t come with all the info about you. People already know about you if they decide to follow you. The idea is to share what you know in 140 characters so that others who are already interested can view the same articles as you and hear what you are up to business wise. Every now and then you can tell people that “Your at the baseball game” or “Just aced a test” but if you never share links to cool websites your just describing your day, and face it most people don’t care how others days went.

3.) http://www.t-nation.com/

As I have mentioned in past articles, I recently lost over 50 lbs. This website was one of the reasons why. Most lose weight and just looked skinny. They don’t have the ripped body they really want. This website brings together the best trainers from all around the world, to talk about the keys to building muscles and the six pack of your dreams. It has a great forum as well, where you can talk to others and get advice about anything.

4.) http://digg.com/

This website brings together people from all around the world to talk about what’s hot on the internet. The most enjoyable articles are read and people decide if they want to share them with others by clicking the digg button usually found at the bottom of the article. If enough people digg the article digg.com places the article on the front page, so you can see what the rest of the world is viewing.

5.) http://www.hulu.com/

Pretty simple idea behind this in that you can watch your favorite or unseen T.V. show anytime you want. Virtually anything on T.V. is on this website. You can even watch movies that are shown on T.V. which change regularly. With this website you can stay productive then once you get some free time you can catch up on your favorite shows.

Honorable Mention

http://drudgereport.com/

http://www.bittorrent.com/

http://tinyurl.com/

Getting All The Right Connections

2009-04-28T08:41:00.000-07:00

I don’t want to come off as a hot shot, but I got connections. No, you’re not going to see me hanging with Jennifer Anniston and Payton Manning sitting around the VIP section of the hottest clubs in LA. I do however have connections to achieve the things I want to in life. In the past couple of years while walking around campus, numerous people have asked me how I know so many people. They base this on the fact that my walk to class or hanging out at the rec involves many what’s up and hellos. It’s not that I just hang out with a large group of friends, it’s that no matter where I go I am trying to meet people. This has also helped me in a business sense. Many of my business connections are often impressed that I know so many others in the business community and want to use my connecting abilities to help their company. While my friends scramble to find after college jobs, I have already been offered by 5 different companies without even filling out a resume. I know someone who has turned in over 75 resumes and can’t even get an interview. Some of these companies are not even great jobs, like coffee shops that pay minimum wage, and he has a college degree. While I enjoy the opportunities these companies have offered me, I know that what I love doing is running my own business, which is what I intend to keep on doing.

If or going to work for someone else or not, the majority of us have a goal to make money and enjoy life. Neither of these things is possible without connections. The richest people I know, know everyone. They hang out with professional athletes, politicians, and other great business men. How do they do it? Why are some people capable of knowing everyone and others just sit around wishing they were even asked to hang out? Follow these simple steps I have learned in my life.

1. Connect with someone more important. The key to having connections is to have connections with someone with power. They have access to a lot of things you can enjoy. They have advice they can offer and help they can lend. It can be intimidating talking to an idol, but you have to look at everyone like they are on your playing level. If someone in a position higher than yours senses your lack of confidence they are not going to find you interesting enough to associate with.

2. Talk to people. Sometimes I have met people just by overhearing their conversation and saying something. I have met some of my best friends that way. Just don’t be afraid to talk, the worst that happens is they don’t like you. You don’t know them any way so your life won’t change in the slightest.

3. Don’t be afraid to ask for business cards and numbers. For most people the best idea is to ask for a business card. The reason being, it has email. Email is less intimidating that talking to someone on the phone. If they don’t have a card ask them for their email. Then shoot them one within the next couple of days, just saying it was nice to meet you and something you talked about. For non business related people get a number, send a text or call and try to find something in common that you could do together. Just ask them if they want to play touch football or go to a baseball game. The event should be public though. Private events like movies with someone you barely know can get kind of awkward if there is nothing to talk about. In public setting there are all kinds of characters and things happening to keep the conversation going.

4. Be nice. Most people enjoy meeting new people but don’t really know how. As long as you are friendly and genuinely care about what they have to say you will get along great with most people. However if this person is someone you are idolizing and want to use to advance your career or lifestyle, they will easily be able to tell that you don’t care about them and that you just want to talk about what they got. Try to avoid talking about things they might have that you are interested in. An example of these is talking to an athlete. Some people become infatuated with an athlete’s abilities and when they talk to them it shows. They just want to talk about that game winning catch they made or the fact that they watched them back when they were at the university of who knows where. The athlete sees this as idolization and get the impression you only like them for their athletic abilities, not because you actually have something in common. I’m not saying it’s not ok to complement them on something they do well, just don’t dwell on it.

Here is a great reference from a top level author, entrepreneur and fitness expert Nate Green.

Nate is in his early 20’s and is highly sought after in his many professional fields.

The Wall

2009-04-25T14:22:00.000-07:00

Some people will make dreams. They will get half way there, then stop. Why stop when your half way there? I attribute this to what I call “the wall theory”.

“The wall theory” is simple. It is based on the idea that once you reach a certain point things get harder, you hit a “wall”. At this point you begin to doubt what you have done. You justify your sudden set backs with ideas such as, “Maybe I wasn’t meant to do this.” “This might be as far as my body or skills will ever allow me to go.” These negative thoughts are what will hold you back. Situations that cause these thoughts come from goals we set. We might be on a fast track to achieve them, but then we get in a rut. After we have so much confidence, the rut forces us to think about how great at something we really are.

For instance, say you are trying to lose weight. You will lose a lot at the beginning through your lifestyle change. You might make a goal to look like some on the cover of a magazine, or Terrell Owens(You might not like his attitude, but the guy has the body of a Greek god). After awhile your weight loss or muscle growth may stall. You start to doubt if you could ever have anything close to what these flawless people have. This is “the wall”. “The wall” should not be what stops you. You should decide when you are content with what you have.

How do you break through? Simple, push yourself. Everyone has a breaking point and most confuse there breaking point with “the wall”. You will never know your limits if you don’t push yourself past your current beliefs of what your limits are. Fight for that extra inch. It might be in your business, maybe you just don’t think your business can get any bigger. Consider taking the risks that would make the Warren Buffett that you want to be. If it is taking out a loan, making your first hire, or even your first fire. You are the one who decides how far you get in anything. Don’t second guess that.

Challenge: Go for a run (If unable to run, go for a walk). Keep going till you hit your “wall”. That point when your legs start burning and your side starts hurting. Once that happens run not just one, but two more laps. Once you know you can breakthrough a “wall” in one way, you can do it in just about anything.