On the Prowl with my YouTube 2024 Recap

As 2025 is Before: First in a Series of #RandomThoughts

It is Thanksgiving 2024 Week.   As year-end begins, there is a lot to be thankful for.  

I wanted to begin with the simple admonition that is the underlying ancient simple principle as I note my 2024 YouTube Recap to begin gearing up for 2025:

 

 

 

Out & About with brief #RandomThoughts As the Transition to the Trump Administration Begins

 

On the Prowl with Some Mid-Week #RandomThoughts

 It has been quite a week, quite a month, and quite a year already, as I had time to reflect on this #VeteransDay2024.

I ran across the following #RandomThoughts to uplift, engage, and change the dialogue as we are witness to profound transformations:

Out & About as October Wind Downs with this "Food For Thought": Origins of the IRANIANS

Out & About With Some #RandomThoughts

 

During a recent assessment of my archives, I ran across this--in the challenging times before us, it is not really easy, but one has to be as I decided to headline my final notation for the quarter.  I also finished assisting with notations for the Daily Outsider as a decision has been made to go dark on all Daily Outsider properties ((except for Periodic Updates on X, which I look forward to supporting)) as the World awaits the clash between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump. 

Earlier, I finished my final quarter-end notation on my Personal Meta Corner as I reflected upon the continued horrors in Iran):

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Mike Pouraryan (@mikepouraryan)

It was also a week that saw the second anniversary of Mahsa Amini's Death, and the iconic picture that triggered a revolution was captured by Mana Neyestani he notes that the Mahsa Revolution continues: 

I close out with this from the Daily Stoic:  

As we work and achieve, we pile up titles and money. We accumulate assets and influence. We build a life, as they say. And a life is made up of things: Our job. Our house. Our car. Our relationships. Our reputation.

Looking around at what we possess, what we’ve poured so much sweat and blood into, is an immensely rewarding experience. As Margaret Atwood writes in a beautiful poem,

The moment when, after many years

of hard work and a long voyage

you stand in the centre of your room,

house, half-acre, square mile, island, country,

knowing at last how you got there,

and say, I own this,

But the Stoic knows that we never really own anything. All that we possess in this life, Marcus Aurelius says, even life itself, is really ours only in trust. We are renters. Our lives are here on loan...loans that can get called in at any time. We can be fired. Someone can dislodge our seemingly dominant market position. A loved one can leave. People die.

That’s why Margaret Atwood warns against the pride and satisfaction of surveying one’s possessions. The moment you do that, she says, nature rebels. Almost out of spite, they feel the need to rebuke you for your pride.

No, they whisper. You own nothing.

You were a visitor, time after time

climbing the hill, planting the flag, proclaiming.

We never belonged to you.

You never found us.

It was always the other way round.

None of us own anything. Everything is constantly in flux. What we have today may be gone tomorrow—we ourselves may be gone tomorrow. Understand that. Appreciate everything accordingly. Be grateful and humble...or life will rebuke you. Fate will remind you who is in charge and nature will reclaim what is hers.

صدای مهسا زنده است

Remembering #MahsaAmini & All the Martyrs of the #WomanLifeFreedom Revolution

 

Earlier today, I finished off some thoughts on my Social Media Corner on Instagram on the eve of the 2nd Anniversary of the death of Iran's Daughter, Mahsa Amini, which triggered a revolution that, in many ways, still continues.

All of Kurdistan, as I write this, is effectively under Martial Law including Mahsa's Hometown, Saghez.   All I know is this:  Iran will be free, and her death and the death of all the others will not be in vain.

Out & About This Week With a Look Back On History With The Real Top Guns | Iranian F-14 Aces

It is midweek, and I wanted to pay tribute to the heroes of Iran.

As September is Before Us: Out & About With Some #RandomThoughts

September has begun in Earnest-63 Days Until the Elections!!

I wanted to "break the ice" with the following #RandomThoughts as I Look forward to ongoing engagements: 

Here are some interesting "tidbits" to think about as the Election Season heats up:

Out & About with some Mid-Week #RandomThoughts On Iran

 

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Mike Pouraryan (@mikepouraryan)

Out & About With Some Month-End #RandomThoughts

 It has been a very busy month.   I decided to end the month with some of the Random Thoughts during my daily assessments on the Social Grid--Onward & Upward:

Out & About With Mid-Month #RandomThoughts

 

I decided to begin this mid-month set of #RandomThoughts as I wanted to note a celebration about a film about the founder of Keep Children in School (KCIS) who has done so much to give the children of Iran hope.

As this is about to be premiered later in August in Los Angeles, I wanted to close out with some images courtesy of the great Sadegh Boughi as I finished supporting the Daily Outsider:

Out & About with some #RandomThoughts From My Notations On the Social Grid

 

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Mike Pouraryan (@mikepouraryan)

A Final Quarter-End "Virtual Random Thought" As Professor Abbas Milani Lecture from "Islam, Iran, and the West" (Excerpt 1)

Onward!!

Out & About With Brief Quarter-End #RandomThoughts

 It is the eve of the new quarter.     I assisted in commitments at the Daily Outsider to close the quarter out with a wish for brighter days as I wanted to close out the quarter with this uplifting and beautiful thought as I remain hopeful about our World: 

Army Family A World War II Veteran Just Married His Bride Near Normandy's D-Day Beaches. He's 100, She's 96 CARENTAN-LES-MARAIS, France (AP) — Together, the collective age of the bride and groom was nearly 200. But World War II veteran Harold Terens and his sweetheart Jeanne Swerlin proved that love is eternal as they tied the knot Saturday inland of the D-Day beaches in Normandy, France. Their respective ages — he’s 100, she’s a youngster of just 96 — made their nuptials an almost double-century celebration. Read More

As June Dawns: Remembering #Mamba (Enough Said)

 

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Business | Mindset | Motivation (@mindset_raptors)

On the Prowl With Some Month-End #RandomThoughts on Iran & On The Seed Of the Sacred Pig

As we bid farewell to May, my mind drifted away to Iran. I captured these thoughts as the Bahar Choir sang a tribute to Iran (Ey Iran) and as Mohammad Rassoulof, the Iranian Director, Won at Cannes for his Film the Seed of the Sacred Pig (that he made while on Home Confinment) and now he's out of Iran--having joined what he deemed "The Iran of Culture" vs. the Iran that is being driven to the stone age as it is held hostage by the Subhumans in charge as the war over power rages on.

 

In the V-Campus With Month-End #RandomThoughts

 As June looms, I pulled together some month-end #RandomThoughts: 

Be Selective. Choose to do a few things really well, and let others do the rest.  - Jonathan Lockwood Huie Zen does not confuse spirituality with thinking about God while one is peeling potatoes. Zen spirituality is just to peel the potatoes. - Alan Watts Besides the noble art of getting things done, there is the noble art of leaving things undone. The wisdom of life consists in the elimination of non-essentials. - Lin Yutang Be - don't try to become. Being is enlightenment, becoming is ignorance. - Osho The things of this world exist; they are; you can't refuse them. - Lao Tzu Aspiration and Vision certainly have their time and place, but mostly life consists of choosing to be joyful while peeling the potatoes and taking out the trash. - Jonathan Lockwood Huie

This Is The Best Career (Life) Advice I Ever Got Any fool can learn by experience, the saying goes. It’s vastly preferable to learn from the experiences of others. This is what mentors are for. They’ve been where you’ve been. They’ve done what you’ve done. They’ve made mistakes that you don’t have to make. This is what books do also. They allow you to benefit from the experiences of others–successful and not-so-successful, happy and deeply broken people alike. My whole life I’ve sought out that kind of advice, explicit and deduced. I’ve benefited from being pointed in the right direction and warned when I was heading in the wrong direction. I’ve picked up lessons in the books that I’ve read–I’ve highlighted and printed out passages of advice that I’ve tried to live by. I’ve tried to do this in all aspects of life, but in today’s article, I wanted to talk specifically about the best career advice I’ve gotten. 1. Credit is Worthless One of my first real jobs was as an assistant for a powerful movie producer. He was one of those guys in LA who had a lot of influence but you could hardly find out anything about him–his IMDB page was scant, he was never in the press, and he didn't have some fancy title. I asked about this once and he told me that if ever offered the choice between credit and money, only an idiot takes the credit. He was talking specifically about the movie business which has a lot of inflated titles and credits on projects, which egotistical people gravitate towards as compensation. Why do you need to be recognized? he was telling me. I took this in a couple of ways that shaped my career. First off, I understood quickly and early that my job as an assistant—and later in other positions—was to do work that others could take credit for. (This is a law in the 48 Laws of Power). My job was to be a source of ideas and problem-solving that I could surface to my boss so that they could surface to their boss or clients. This might seem thankless, but it’s actually a powerful place to be if you do it right. (Make others dependent on you is another law of power). I would later come to call this “the canvas strategy”, which I write about in Ego is the Enemy. You find canvases for them to paint on. You clear the path for them...and as a result, influence the direction they go. At all my jobs, I focused on coming up with ideas for projects and on working on as many projects as possible. I wanted to learn. I wanted to see how things worked. I made sure no one saw me as a threat–on the contrary, that they saw me as someone who was a team player, who worked hard for others (and the business) to succeed. All the while, I was getting what really mattered to me. Later, it was thinking this way that made me a successful ghostwriter. Most of my fans don’t even know that I have written many books for other people, re-written and edited others. In fact, my first couple of appearances on the New York Times bestseller lists were for projects like this. The reason people don’t know about this is that not only do I not talk about it, but I never put my name on them. When it came to collaborating, it was always a breeze because the books were not about me–I saw my job as helping them make their book, not that we were making our book. It also gave me a leg up in negotiations with the agents and publishers because I didn’t use my leverage to discuss where my name would appear or how big it might be, I asked for my percentage instead. I don’t do many projects like this anymore, but the books I worked on helped set me up financially. I also learned so much. I have way more ‘reps’ than the average author and many of the painful lessons I have learned about publishing happened when I was not the person on stage. I’m so glad I learned this early. Forget credit. If you want to get ahead, think about somebody other than yourself. 2. Seize The Alive Time I’ve talked many times about how when I was stuck at American Apparel and dreaming about leaving to become a writer, Robert Greene gave me his amazing advice about “Alive Time vs Dead Time.” Dead Time is when you’re sitting around waiting for things to happen to you, and Alive Time is when you’re in control, making every second count, improving, learning, and growing. But perhaps the reason this advice landed so much is that shortly after I had that conversation over lunch with him, I had dinner in Downtown Los Angeles (I remember it was at Wurstkuche in the Arts District) with Ben Smith, an early Google and YouTube executive. He had just left Google to start his own company and I asked him what he wished he’d done differently in the time before he left. I wished I’d used my Google email address more, he said. Meaning, he wished he’d taken full advantage of the unique status/reputation of Google at that time. He wished he’d taken more meetings, reached out to more people, agreed to speak at more events and attended more conferences. He wished he’d built his network more when he was in a position of demand. Having dropped out of college myself a few years earlier, I immediately knew what he’d meant. While I was a student, I had all these opportunities to go to office hours with important professors and participate in subsidized activities. People were eager to help me out. But the moment I left, I became just another face in the crowd. Worse, I was their competition. People like to help students out. Now? Now I was on my own. So, taking Robert’s advice about Alive Time and Ben’s advice about using my business card, I spent a good chunk of my last year at American Apparel inviting everyone I could to come tour the factory. I jumped at every chance to travel for work. I took on extra projects. I sponsored events. I developed relationships inside the company and with people who wanted stuff from the company. It seems crazy, but I am still benefiting from that work today. (That’s how I’d met Ben in the first place). If it wasn’t for this advice, I might have spent my last days at American Apparel thinking, This is just a job, this is just a crappy couple of months, I just have to wait it out and get through it. I could have chosen Dead Time unknowingly, wishing for better circumstances and ignoring the opportunities right in front of me. I would’ve been much worse off. In life and in your career, you have to be the driver of your own advancement. When conditions aren’t ideal, you can’t just sit around waiting for things to happen. If you do that, they never will. There is always something you can learn, always some opportunity to take advantage of. We have to choose to make every moment a moment of Alive Time. We have to decide to be present, to make the most of whatever is in front of us. Open your eyes. Open your ears. Open your mind. Find the advantage. 3. Build Your Own Platform I’ve been fired. I’ve had projects and ideas not work. I’ve never been canceled, but I’ve been seriously criticized. I get that these things keep people up at night…but they don’t need to. Because there is a way to insulate yourself from it: Build a platform. When I was working as a research assistant to Robert Greene for The 50th Law, he had me read a bunch about Eleanor Roosevelt. I was struck by how she entered the White House as First Lady–it was with a magazine column that asked readers to write in to her. She didn’t want to become isolated by her husband’s success. She also didn’t want to be dependent on him. She built a massive audience as a writer and thinker and public figure–and this was an incredible form of power for her to have at that time. In fact, the only person comparable really was Winston Churchill. Most people are unaware that Churchill made his living as a writer. He published more than ten million words in his lifetime across hundreds of publications and published works. Between 1931 and 1939–when he was stuck in the so-called political wilderness–Winston Churchill published 11 books, 400+ articles, and delivered more than 350 speeches. The result of this was an enormous worldwide platform that allowed Churchill not only to survive financially but wield influence that kept him relevant and guided policy and opinion across the globe. Under ordinary circumstances, a politician would have been powerless when pushed out of office or driven to the fringes by political enemies. But Churchill’s extensive platform—based on his editorial contacts, extraordinary gift with words, and relentless energy—saved his career…and as a result, the free world. My first editor gave me similar advice. You don’t want to be dependent on PR and publicity to sell your books, she said. You need to have a direct connection to your audience. I’d already been doing that with my Reading List Email, but The Daily Stoic, which I launched in 2016, had meant that every day I talk to my readers–who now number more than one million. I talk to them on Facebook and Instagram and Twitter and TikTok and YouTube and on our podcast. If any one of these channels were to ban me or go under, that would suck, but I’d be fine. Another example, if Amazon or Barnes and Noble closed, I’d be fine. I own my own bookstore! My editor was telling me to be like Eleanor Roosevelt and Winston Churchill. To have power outside the system as an insurance policy. We talk today about ‘cancel culture’, but this is mostly a problem for people who have things that can be taken from them, who rely on ‘permission’ and ‘greenlights’ to make their work. If you have developed an independent platform, you have an insurance policy. You have security. Not just against what other people might do to you, but also against changes in the trends or the marketplace. Whether you’re an entrepreneur or an author or a filmmaker or journalist, it doesn’t matter. You should build a platform. To do work without it is to be at the mercy of too much that’s outside of your control. To a creative person, to a free thinker, that is death. Having a megaphone that we own? That we can use when we need it? I’ll tell you having a platform–my reading list newsletter for instance–helped me in negotiations on the ghostwriting projects, for sure. Would my bookstore have succeeded if I was wholly dependent on walk-up traffic in the small town where it's located? I don’t think so! At some point, you’re going to have something you need to communicate to the world, you’re going to need distribution…and when you need it, it will be too late to start building. So don’t wait. Build your platform now. It’s funny to me, in retrospect, to see how overlapping these three seemingly very different pieces of advice ended up shaping my career. It’s not that everyone needs to be a public figure (obviously that would violate #1). But everyone has to have a network or a platform. You have to have direct access, with as few intermediaries, between you and your customers/clients/supporters as possible. A politician must be in direct contact with their base. A band has to be able to tell their fans where they’re going to be. A brand should know who its customers are and what their lives are like–not just bombard them with advertisements. An executive should have a network they can communicate with when they’re ready to change jobs or if they’re starting their own company. That’s what Ben was trying to tell me as I was thinking about leaving American Apparel–build your platform on their dime, he was saying. Do the work now, while you have the time and space and status. That’s what Robert was saying–use this time. Don’t worry about credit or recognition, they were all reminding me, invest, invest, invest. Help, help, help. Produce, produce, produce. It comes back to you. Those are three ideas I’ve built my career around and I’m very lucky to have gotten this advice.