August 2007 - Janelle's Blog

A quick stop to get a hamburger at lunch seemed like a good idea even though the restaurant was jammed with people. I ordered my burger and set my drink on a table nearby. To get to the condiment bar, I had to go through a crowd of 20 people.

My Grip Slipped

As I broke through the line of people waiting to order, the basket holding my open-faced burger started slipping out of my hand. My bionic thumb hit the edge of the basket and sent it flying with an upward thrust. I'd say the burger lifted about 12 inches off the basket as it flew into the air and did a triple somersault.

Horchow Know-How

Roger Horchow, mail-order catalog mogul of The Horchow Collection, and his daughter, Sally, have written an enlightening book on relationships. In The Art of Friendship, Roger tells how he learned the value of developing new relationships from his friend, Dick Bass.

Dick had accomplished amazing achievements in his life, including climbing the highest peak on each of the seven continents, as well as being the oldest person to climb Mt. Everest, at age fifty-five.

Roger recalled a story Dick told him about striking up a conversation with a pleasant fellow on a plane ride. Throughout the flight, Dick related thrilling story after story to the stranger of his adventures, including how he almost died in the Himalayas and was making plans to reclimb Everest.

Celebrity Sighting at the Airport

I was waiting at the Admiral's Club in NYC at LaGuardia International Airport to catch a flight home recently when a distinctive voice from across the room caught my attention. For the next few seconds, I observed a striking man wearing a casual warm-up suit, talking to a woman who was assisting him. Immediately I recognized him. It was Seal.

Seal is a British soul singer and songwriter who won three Grammy Awards for his 1995 single, "Kiss from a Rose". Of course, none of this came to me while I was staring at him. I was struggling to remember if he was in a movie I had recently seen. Later, when I looked him up on the internet, I was chagrined to realize that he had written and sung some of my favorite songs.

Here's what impressed me about Seal. First, he was so happy. I couldn't help but smile, listening to him talk and laugh. For a split second I felt as though I was a part of his world because of the spillover of his happiness from across the room.

The Millionaire Inside

Early this evening while I was writing at my computer, I overheard a panel discussion of millionaires on TV discussing the influences in their lives that led to their wealthy status. The show was CNBC's "The Millionaire Inside", featuring top financial mentors.

Their focus was not on how they became wealthy, but why.