Mario Morino

Mario Morino is a man for whom I have great respect for.  He is one of the most accomplished entrepreneurs and philanthropists I have come across:  he cofounded and built Legent Corporation and Venture Philanthropy Partners, his latest creation.

However, the reason people have great respect for Mario is the person he is.  Despite all of his accomplishments, you will not meet a more grounded person.  You can tell he is the same person he always was and that he treats people based on their character and not their station or resume.

In my interview with Mario he made the following comment which I think is a great bit of wisdom we should all think about for a minute.

“Sometimes the characteristics that served me in the business world—a hard charging, driving force — tend not to be  the best characteristics for husband and father. So I have made strides in deprogramming myself from the characteristics that are not great to use around the house.”

http://www.qualityoflifeproject.org/articles/mind-article/854/

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Hi Everyone, this is the first of many future submittals.  This one comes from Paul Mallory, a fan of the site for some time.   We were introduced through Arvind Devalia a few months back and Paul is now doing some volunteer work for Quality of Life Project as well.  We will be publishing submittals from friends of the organization every two weeks going forward.  If you haven’t sent yours yet, we would love to receive it.

By Paul Mallory

People often talk about work/life balance. I realized one day (in middle age) that my work life is a huge percentage of my time on earth, and that I wanted my life to be as meaningful, contributory and joyful as I could make it. The key for me is to have work that feels like I am using my gifts to the full, and making a difference. That’s when I formed my company, Soul Work, to coach people on finding more fulfillment at work.

Children

I have four beautiful, bright, happy and hilarious children, ranging from a school leaver to a middle-school starter. These are my favorite people in the world, and they are the people who bring joy to my weekends and through their aspirations and achievements, some huge, some tiny. They come before everything else for me, but I also realized that to support, mentor and make them happy, I needed to be happy in myself and that I therefore needed to feel good about myself and find fulfilment in my work.

Mission

I am happiest when I feel ‘on-purpose’, i.e. that my daily work is me being who I authentically am, at my core, and using my unique strengths for the benefit of others. When we’re lost in our work, we are ‘in flow’, and that’s a great feeling. I formed my company ‘Soul Work’ to research the question of how we can increase our fulfilment at work, by either changing our mindset around our current role, or by finding a new role that allows the possibility of alignment to our life purpose. Continue reading →

Ariane de Bonvoisin

I had the opportunity to interview Ariane de Bonvoisin this summer.  We met last year and I have quickly become a fan of her endeavors.

Ariane is the author of First 30 Days: Your Guide to Making Any Change Easier and has built a media company around her desire to help people enjoy life more.  Ariane embodies this Quality of Life Project purpose:

-  Contributing to the growing worldwide movement in which individuals are increasingly measuring success based on quality of life over other pursuits and are increasingly drawn to authenticity over pretense.

Ariane’s independent approach to life is truly inspiring. She lives like an explorer constantly finding new and interesting experiences to enrich her life. And her path through life is a great indicator. She grew up living in six countries, was an internationally competitive swimmer and graduated London School of Economics at 19 and Stanford Business School at 24. She went on to leadership positions in the venture capital world, at one time overseeing Time Warner’s venture fund. But she felt out of synch and saw how her personal life was suffering through by not being in tune with her true inner voice. She was always a spiritual person but felt she needed to regroup. Ariane ended up taking a new path. In 2005, she decided to become a media entrepreneur, which led to her First 30 Days book and the launching of www.first30days.com and soon www.arianestudio.com.

You can view the VIDEO of our interview with Ariane HERE.

Within the video there are index tags so you can navigate per your preferences.

There are some outstanding takes on big picture life perspectives that have helped Ariane enjoy her life.  You should not miss out on these.  But the best part of the interview in my opinion are the little things we unearthed that any of us can immediately try out.

-  Trampoline in office (“What brings you joy” section)

-  Five year journal.  (“What brings you joy” section)

-  Wheatgrass (“Diet or health practices” section)

I hope you enjoy the video!  Ariane is doing great work so if you like her book, definitely help get the word out…

WALL STREET JOURNAL, September 16, 2009

For France, a Joie de Vivre Index

Sarkozy to Add New Indicators, Such as Well-Being, to Measure Economic Health

By DAVID GAUTHIER-VILLARS

PARIS — Nicolas Sarkozy was elected president two years ago on a pledge to boost France’s economic prosperity. Now he is suggesting a different way to measure that prosperity — one that includes factors such as vacation time, health care and family relationships.

From now on, to gauge the economy’s health, France will consider well-being in addition to the classic measure of gross domestic product, Mr. Sarkozy said Monday in a speech at the Sorbonne, part of the University of Paris.

France’s President Nicolas Sarkozy delivered a speech at the Sorbonne University in Paris on Monday.  In the speech presenting the findings of a committee headed by Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz, the president said new measures are needed in the wake of the financial crisis, which was triggered by an overreliance on free-market principles. “If the market was the solution to all problems and was never wrong, then why are we in such a situation?” asked Mr. Sarkozy. “We need to change criteria.” Continue reading →

I am taking my blog in a new direction by having people I know and fans of the site submit posts on what are the ten main contributors to their quality of life.  Perspectives you have and the practices you do that contribute to your enjoyment of life.  Click here to view a sample of what we are looking for from you.

The blog readership has responded very positively in the past when we provide this type of content.  When we did a similar post for Keith Ferrazzi’s blog, it received more comments than any post they had this year.  And people’s comments were actually their own top ten lists.

If you’d be willing to throw something together to support the project, that would be great.  I know the rest of the readers would find it to be interesting material.  It’s a cool exercise as well as it forces you to lay out the things that matter.  Please email us at contact@qualityoflifeproject.org if you’ll do it.  Thank you!

All best, Kit

Ten Tips to Greater Quality of Life

The most frequent question we get from people is, “So, with all the interviews  you’ve done, what are the commonalities that you’ve seen?”

We are now ready to report back to you the common practices that have emerged through all our interviews.

We aren’t offering a road map; but rather a simple recap of what practices and perspectives we have encountered the most, as well as some links to interview excerpts that expand on the particular quality of life driver.

We hope you like it.

You can get a free copy at our home page, www.qualityoflifeproject.org.

Capt. Augustus McRae, "Lonesome Dove"

If someone is being extremely rude to a counter person at the airport, should you say something?

If you’re at a football game and someone is standing up and blocking another person’s view despite his requests to sit down, should you say something?

It’s an interesting dilemma, as it treads upon a very fine line. And I know I’m not the only person to have ever been in this kind of situation.

The thought process goes as follows:

•    By confronting the aggressor, would my involvement actually influence their future behavior?

•    If I were to step in, would the victim actually feel that much better?

•    And what about me? How could my potential involvement affect my own sense of well being? Am I getting all worked up for nothing?

Here’s a personal story I dealt with.  Some time ago, I was at a dog park with my wife and some friends, when we noticed a nine-year-old boy wreaking havoc on the park. He was squirting strangers with his water gun and seemed to enjoy it. His parents didn’t seem to notice, but again, he was nine years old and it wasn’t that out of control. Continue reading →

Mark McKinnon

I had the pleasure of interviewing Mark McKinnon while I was in Austin not too long ago.  A friend of mine Megan Hundahl, who heard great things about Mark from her days at CNN, recommended I reach out to him for an interview.

As I started to research Mark, it was clear he would be a great interview.  He seemed  like a real humble guy with a range of interests and some incredible successes.  Breaking it down for you, he’s one of the most respected political analysts and consultants in the world.  And he also used to write songs with Kris Kristofferson which is pretty cool.  Oh yeah and he ran the Ironman twice.

But what drew me to Mark was that he actually uses the term “quality of life” in his professional CV.  “Mark’s quality of life is exceptionally enhanced by the enduring love and patience of his wife…and his daughters.”

How cool is that…  Well, we knew he would be a great interview and we were not disappointed.  Here are the highlights and further below is a link to the video. Continue reading →

Photo by Tata_Aka via Flickr

I had lunch recently with the managing editor of Keith Ferrazzi’s company Ferrazzi Greenlight.  She asked if I could put together a small piece on what quality of life means to me.

It’s funny because you would think I would have written something along these lines given our organization.  The thing is we always see ourselves more as a “manager” in this project so it’s not our tendency to tell you about our personal practices.

Anyway, here is what I came up with.  It was actually a very cool exercise.

WHAT DOES QUALITY OF LIFE MEAN TO ME?

Quality of life to me is living in a way and doing the things that makes me enjoy life.

I guess these are the things that get me there, at least at this stage in my life.

Family

I have an incredible wife and two great kids that I love very much.  I’m also lucky to have parents and siblings and extended family that I love being around.  The love I get from my wife and family makes me feel confident and secure; and everything springs from there for me.  I also think that one of the great things in life is to be able to share experiences with people you love and respect.  Whether it’s a day at the beach or a nice bottle of wine, being able to share it with someone you enjoy being with makes it that much  better. Continue reading →

With Father’s Day this Sunday, I want to write something about being a dad and also hear what our readers had to share.

The best thing about being a Dad I think is all the extra love.  The affection you receive from your kids is incredible and getting that makes my life a whole lot better.

Anyway, I’ll write more further below and share some pics of my kids, but let me first share what some of our readers contributed.  This is the first time I tapped into our readership to share some content and I love what we got.
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Dave Crawford –  Long Beach, California

Fatherhood for me, is full of joy and pride..but also significant responsibility. Fatherhood can’t help but make you think of life in the long term sense. How what you do and say today will impact your life as well as the life of your family. From relationships to health, life priorities to financial investments, fatherhood gives me the perspective and motivation to make sure the decisions I’m making right now have long term benefits for myself and the people I love.
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Robert Sturman, RobertSturmanStudio.com –  Santa Monica, California

A good father is the sun. Rays of light, selflessly providing, nurturing, caring for his family. That’s what I think of when I think of true fatherhood.

Robert Sturman

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