Walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I got into the happiness business thanks to a Grateful Dead Presidential campaign slogan. It is a ridiculous battle-cry that tickled my funny bone. It was the inspirational Zen, that ignited a fire within to “Make Humankind Happy Again!”

One particular word inspired me to get into the happiness business. That word was “Great.” This whole debate, trying to decide who is & who is not great, sealed my pursuit of happiness fate. 

Yet, the original sin is when the campaign added the UnGreat Full word “again.” The hostile war-cry that caught fire in 2016 was that job #1 in this great nation was to, “Make America Great Again!” Much to my surprise, this banter implies, my beloved country was no longer great after an incredible 240-year run. Before you get hateful, I know how to smell and spell ungrateful.

I love my country ‘tis of thee so I had to goggle the opposite of great. I was shocked to find my sweet land of liberty was suddenly inferior, awful, terrible, pitiful, and second-rate. 

For the life of me, I could not see why a majority of our country’s antipersonnel rallied around this bombshell rebel yell? “Make America Great Again” has the exact same ring to “The South Will Rise Again!” It is no wonder this not-so-great-slogan fractured our nation in two… again. 

It was a cry-cry-cry for a hostile takeover with a delusional patriotic ring, that would destroy the very thing, that makes the “United” States of America great. Flowing deep beneath the surface of this “Save America” drivel was a “cry-me-a-river” raging with hostile intent, in a nation of discontent, hell bent, on replaying a new edition of “The Thin Red Line to Sedition” down the “Yellow-Brick-Road to Perdition,” berating & hating “any & all opposition.” 

It officially transformed this great nation into the Divided States of America. Since we love a patriotic chant that becomes a country-loving rant… all together now… DSA! DSA! DSA!

Intentionally or unintentionally MAGA ignites raging fires of hate. I cannot get over the fact that “great” rhymes with “hate.” That is why every time I hear “Make America Great Again,” all I hear is “Make America Hate Again!” Great & hate should never mate.

Now before you MAGA true believers call me an unpatriotic Big Apple “queer,” I remind yawl I am a die-hard Tennessee volunteer. I also wear the always-true-red-white & blue Mount Suribachi brand, of a God-Country-Corps United States Marine from the great Southland. So, no matter what I say you cannot call me a commie, for making fun of this “Make America Hate Again” tsunami. A Jarhead, yes. Leatherneck, most definitely. Commie-dian, even better.

I hope you do not get mad at me and still thank me for my service. I would hate it if you took away my 10% military discount at McDonald’s in Murray, Kentucky because I refuse to endorse a statement of hate that implies our nation is no longer great. That 10% discount is great. I’m grateful for the thanks I get from a UnGreat Full Nation after 20 years of dedicated military service. 

To prove my point about the original sin of adding the word “again,” I ask every spouse, partner, girlfriend, boyfriend, or family member, no matter your political party, to pick up the phone and call your loved one and say, “I’m going to make you great again!”

Don’t be surprised if the response is, “Wait, what? You don’t think I’m great anymore?”

Fear not. If you really want to dig the hole deeper, you can always come back with the second punniest Presidential Campaign slogan ever scratched on the back of a roll of toilet paper. “No, no, no, I still think you’re great…I just want to build you back better!”

Don’t be surprised if the response is, “Wait, what? Now you think I’m fat?”

I have a simple motto to counterattack bravado. “Criticism is pollution unless you have a happy solution.” Innovative solutions, no matter how whacky, are those that make us want to change to keep from going insane, and make every Tom, Dick & Karen happy. You can quote me on that.

That is the moment I decided to charge into battle armed only with a pen, my country I swore to defend, and fight like a Devil-dog to “Make America Happy Again!” It is funny that “happy” rhymes with “crappy.” It proves that when things are crappy, Americans can still be happy. 

Once I realized too many Americans think “great again” means “hate again” it opened my eyes that US citizens were being extremely UNKIND to one another. Hatred & rage were sweeping the nation consuming us into a political divide, with guilty parties on both sides, igniting the dangers of being wickedly unkind to strangers. When one side is wrong that doesn’t make the other side right… and two wrongs make me write… “like I’m running out of time.” Alwrite, alwrite, alwrite!

The city mice & country mice are so divided in this country of mice & men, I knew I had no chance to “Make America Happy Again,” until I could find a way to “Make America Kind Again!” Even then, chances are slim our UnGreat Full hateful nation will ever be kind again. That is when the famous words of Thomas Jefferson formally addressed, what I had to do to achieve 100% success. “If there’s a fire you’re trying to douse, you can’t put it out from inside the house!”… or senate. 

This is when I decided to go big or go home with my happiness vision quest. My grand plan transformed into a pursuit to be Mr. World-wide like a Pitbull, so I set a new course to “Make HUMANKIND Happy Again!” This war-cry has a perfect pitch. Who in the world that is unhappy, does not want to be happy again? Better yet, who in the world likes human-unkind? Nobody.

Even though my chances are beyond slim, I still have a one in 326.7 million chance this battle cry for Humankind would Surely Temple every Tom, Dick & Karen in the USA to unite & join the fight & see it through to “Make America Kind & Happy Again Too!” Knowing just like immigrant Alexander Hamilton who is our “ten dollar founding father without a father” of United States currency & national pride, there will always be American Dick’s & Karen’s who “will never be satisfied.”

The beauty of this wild & crazy plan is it would be GREAT AGAIN, to not HATE AGAIN, & fight to UNITE AGAIN. If you’re happy & you know it clap your hands. If you’re unhappy & you know it, I offer you a free helping hand. I am no longer from the government, which means I can help. I can help without any political interference, financial gains, ulterior motives, or hidden agendas.

I specifically built a world-wide website to remind humankind, we stand united against a common foe, human-unkind. Human-unkind are those who are unkind to their own kind. To this end I built the first of its KIND for Humankind, ABC’s of Happiness website @ https://abcsofhappiness.com. 

I have full intentions of trying to “Make Humankind Happy Again” and if I fail daring greatly, I promise I will never try to “Make America Hate Again” so we can go on killing each other. If we can “Make Humankind Happy Again” we can all start by killing each other with kindness.

With all the unhappiness in the world I thought it would be great to share my Patriotic or Idiotic brand of All-American happiness with my “kind” of people (kind people) all around the world. I added a language translator because kind people speak the same international lingo when it comes to sharing love, happiness, and kindness. 

Emotions, feelings & sensations are the bond that ties humankind together with the one thing we share, the potential for a lifelong love affair, with those who are kind & really care. I wanted to reach out to the lucky ones who have it burned in their mind, to be a one-of-a-kind member in the worldwide fraternity & sorority of humankind. Maybe going global in the USA will steer us away from the burning desire to hate, especially now we are no longer great. 

I hope you see the irony of what makes the “United” States of America so great. We historically stand united & fight to defend our kind, Humankind. It does not take a rocket scientist to know that not so long ago, in the USA, one small step for our kind, was one giant leap for Humankind.

I think of myself as the dawning of a Green Day New Deal. The only difference in my Green Day New Deal? I love being an American Idiot who dramatically & patriotically insists, on chasing a Happiness PhD that does not exist. In a twist of fate that boggles the brain, I am showing the world how to “Make America Great Again!” 

Obstacles/Challenges: Has it been a smooth road? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Thankfully, seemingly insurmountable obstacles & challenges have been the best part of chasing this impossible dream. Major obstacles & challenges are what makes this audacious impossible dream to “Make Humankind Happy Again” so exciting & fulfilling. Most important, it is a barrel of laughs and a ton of fun. Giving Americans the equal opportunity to overcome seemingly insurmountable obstacles is what makes my sweet land of liberty so great. 

As a happiness savant, I do not preach happiness. I get high on my own supply. Even before I started this delightful Magical Mystery Tour, I knew from so many incredible (All-American) life experiences that chasing an impossible dream, whether you capture it or not, is the SECRET to any pursuit of happiness. 

Even when I failed daring greatly to capture my impossible dream, I ended up capturing a dream I could have never imagined or even dreamed possible. This makes it a WIN-WIN situation. It is also, as you will find out soon enough, a sure-fire way to beat-the-tar out of any & all grief.

I have been lucky enough to capture more impossible dreams than I could have ever imagined. My record, back when I started this happiness quest, was being blessed to capture 60 out of 76 of my wild & crazy impossible dreams. I have lived the six levels of happiness repeatedly over my entire life. I know the 28 stages of the ABCs of Happiness like the back of my hand.

As someone who constantly feels sensationally happy and continuously strives to experience the thrill of victory & the agony of defeat (without the use of drugs or alcohol), basic human happiness sets the emotional bar pretty low. Elementary happiness is “feeling satisfied & content.” Happiness is that magical spot, where you are happy with what you got, regardless if you are rich or not. That’s it. 

In fact, as far as the ABCs of Happiness is concerned, feeling happy is bottom-shelf when it comes to the top-shelf SENSATIONS of Humankind’s FEEL-GOOD EMOTIONS like safe love, sensuality, euphoria, passion, sensational love, & the holy grail of happiness unconditional love. 

The obstacle? “Who’s the mortal enemy of Happiness?” Turns out GRIEF is the thief assassinating happiness like a cold-blooded killer. The only way to capture my impossible dream was to declare war on grief and annihilate it. I told all the Grief Tribal Leaders, “I come in peace. I didn’t bring artillery. But I’m pleading with you, with tears in my eyes: if you f**k with me, I’ll kill you all.”

I set happiness aside & spent years digging in & out of grief’s prisoner of war camps recording all the panic attacks that blindside humankind & destroy happiness. It became crystal clear Grief was building armies of human-unkind who can be identified as the hurt people who hate people, hurt people who berate people, & worst of all, the hurt people who hurt people. 

All these hurt people are offered a chance to get out of their prison cell and serve as conscripts in Grief’s Merciless Army. Their only mission is to assault & kill happiness. Grief drives them “insane-in-the-membrane,” & they find hurtful joy dragging happy people into their pit of pain.

Many thanks to Dr. Elizabeth Kubler-Ross who published the 5 Stages of Death/Dying Grief in 1969. She gave me a roadmap template that allowed me to document every stage of the twelve unique levels of grief & happiness. She reigns supreme as a compassionate “do no harm” medical doctor who broke the mold by listening intently to her patients & documenting the stages of their dying emotions so humankind could get a feel for what it FELT like to be on the brink of death. 

Thanks to her, I interviewed countless grief prisoners & wild & crazy happy people so I could create a stage-by-stage roadmap of common feelings, emotions, and sensations humankind shares with one another. I added a musical soundtrack so that humankind could get a sense of how each stage FELT. 

In the end, I had a visual roadmap (to see), a written synopsis of the map & booklet of song lyrics to provide written details of each specific stage along the way (to read) and a link to a carefully selected Apple Music playlist so viewers can listen to the emotion of the stage (to hear it, get a feel for it, get a sense of it & SHARE what it is like to walk in someone else’s shoes). It gives the ABCs of Happiness website viewer a sensational sense of the SEE-READ-HEAR-FEEL-SENSE experience for all 12 levels of grief & happiness shared by humankind. 

I call it the Sensational Emotional Empathy Experience. It includes an Emotionally Sad Bootcamp & Sensationally Happy Bootcamp to prepare humankind to go to war against grief & human-unkind, and anyone or anything that has no sympathy & displays a LACK of HUMAN EMPATHY. 

These emotional bootcamps let Humankind experience the Feelings, Emotions & Sensations we all SHARE, “Livin’ on a prayer.” Empathy is the emotional connection that inspires everyone “living on their knees to rise up” & fight to defend their own kind, Humankind. We are brothers & sisters in arms in this war against grief & human-unkind. We are all-for-one-and-one-for-all charging into battle with a Declaration of Independance that makes us rise up & fight together.

I discovered that to be a true red-white & blue happiness savant; it is critical to know how to relentlessly beat-the-tar out of grief. How do you defeat an out-of-control crash into grief? We refuse to be condemned to a life sentence locked up in an isolated grief prison cell with no walls, no bars, no guards, no fences… Either way we make a break & escape to take back control by chasing a wild & crazy impossible dream. 

The sole purpose of spending years uncovering the grief escape hatches was so grieved prisoners of war can know how to break free. Once free, they need to know where to go next. The euphoric next step is to immediately race to the six levels of happiness. The do-or-die plan is to embark on a vision quest to capture an impossible dream that takes escaped prisoners mind off grief & human unkind to make them happy again.

Once I had the roadmaps with how to escape grief, and connected it to the ABCs of Happiness roadmap, the emotional puzzle pieces all came together and locked into place painting the perfect picture of what it takes to “Make Humankind Happy Again.” It revealed the secret to happiness. It exposed the cure for grief. But most important, it makes us strive to FEEL ALIVE. 

As of today, my insurmountable obstacle is, “Show me the money!” Grief is a stone-cold money-making machine. Mental Health Care Racketeers want brokenhearted people to “manage” their grief. The longer the better. Just follow the money-making schemes designed to “manage” grief.

($250 an hour therapy sessions. “Feel no harm” science sells 114 prescription drugs to manage anxiety & depression. “Do no harm” painkillers to help heal a broken body are now being sold out as addictive painkillers so troubled minds feel nothing at all. Mental Health profiteers sell legalized marijuana, therapeutic magic mushrooms, and an endless supply of alcohol. “Feel no harm” science is a money-making machine proving Wall Street is right. Grief + Greed is good!)

There is untold wealth being made in the new age “Feel no harm science” profiteering off the “management” of human grief. It is so telling what “Feel no harm science” is really selling. Mental Health Care “Do no harm science” sold their soul, for a “Feel no harm” scientific pot of gold. 

There is no more money to be made if Scientific “Feel no harm” Racketeers search for the cure for grief. As a Happiness Savant, I was shocked at how easy it was to uncover the cure for grief. There is no financial gain or acclaim when you help grief prisoners of war escape their isolated prison cell. That is why I became a happy non-profit who happens to be a Grief Houdini, escape artist.

There is a huge emotional payoff GIVING people the compassionate cure for grief & helping them escape, free & clear. Trying to “Make Humankind Happy Again” makes me feel mystified, pacified, gratified, justified & satisfied. It feels GREAT. Happy people help people. 

The fastest road to feeling grand is reaching out a helping hand. It is clutching prisoners of war from the arms of defeat & inspiring them to rejoin Humankind’s do-or-die fight to be happy again. 

Unfortunately, “it is impossible to rescue someone who refuses to participate in their own rescue.” The casualties of war are heart breaking but true. In some cases of devastating mental trauma, there is little you can do. However, when it comes to a commitment of do-or-die, we can always give it another try.

To break the mental health profiteering rings of grief extortionists, drug dealers & pimps, I covertly give away (for free) the six proven grief escape hatches to set humankind free to pursue their next impossible dream. I give these discoveries away because I refuse to profit off the pain of my fellow human beings. 

I refused to write & publish another book. (I already achieved that impossible dream. Doing it again would be boring.) Besides, books cannot play music or include endless graphics & pictures worth a thousand words. It was critical that I was ready, willing & able to create & display emotional roadmaps for all the world to see. I decided to build a website to share my wealth of happiness & give away my secrets to happiness for free. 

(One of the countless obstacles I faced… I did not know how to build a website. I reached out to godaddy.com and asked, “Who’s your daddy? They told me for a small fee, I could be their daddy… or mommy… if I could prove I was not a commie.)

The funniest thing I have heard so far? “If you’re giving all your secrets to happiness away for free, how will people know their getting their monies worth?”

Tell us about your work: We would love to learn more about your work. What do you do, what do you specialize in, what are you known for, etc. What are you most proud of? What sets you apart from others?

So as not to beat a happy horse to death, all these questions and more can be answered by going to my ABCs of Happiness website @ https://abcsofhappiness.com. Those who take the time will get to SEE-READ-HEAR-FEEL-SENSE the 12 levels of Happiness & Grief and discover the secrets to sensational happiness, sensational love, and unconditional love. 

I am staking my unwavering All-Amercian reputation, so Humankind can be partaking, in this happy creation of our bottom shelf to top shelf levels of our shared sensational emotional awakenings. To give you a sense of these sensational dealings, I present to you this picture worth a thousand feelings.

Finding a mentor: Do you have any advice for finding a mentor or networking in general? What has worked well for you?

That is a funny question. There are no mentors or networking outlets when it comes to the Declaration of Independance of life (without grief), liberty (without hatred & inequality) & especially the All-American scrappiness in our (all-for-one-and-one-for-all) endless “pursuit of happiness.” 

I am not looking for a mentor or networking outlet to show me the way & prove I am right. I am constantly searching for a Professional Mental Health Expert who can try to prove me wrong. Until “Do no harm science” can prove me wrong, it must logically, ethically, and factually admit I did no harm in spite and got it so-so right. Alright, Alright, Alright! Write on, write on, write on!

What shocked me the most is there is no college or university, I could find anywhere in the world, that offers a PhD in happiness. There is no such thing as a Happiness Doctor. 

This means it was impossible to capture my impossible dream to earn a Happiness PhD. Since failure is a silly notion of my learning devotion, I went to work on my doctorate dissertation anyway. 

I set my own learning terms & conditions to discover the emotional solutions a Happiness Doctor would happily give away to those in dire mental health care need, for free. I had a burning desire to share & ignite the wonderful sensations, feelings & emotions of compassion, sympathy, empathy & compathy. 

(Empathy is putting yourself in another’s shoes. Compathy is the sensational grand prize with an emotional connection, feeling you share the same heart.)

In fact, if I did the arduous work all by myself, I would not have to take out an astronomical student loan, to tickle my funny bone. It also means I would not get robbed, paying the outrageous vig to the education system mob. Paying loan shark interest is not in anybody’s interest.

Besides, it does not take a rocket scientist to see, there is no way a prim & proper PhD could ever be happier or punnier than me. You see unemotional science restricts feelings in their equations. Science is a dragnet of “just the facts ma’am.“

I am a prime example of the awesome power of unlimited, unrestricted emotional learning that can occur without mentors or networking groups. It helps that I literally (or literarily) published the book on pioneer learning called The Last Lifeboat: learning how to learn, unlearn & relearn. I know, without a doubt, the Titanic USA Education System will sink someday.

In case you are interested I am giving away my pioneer learning insights, as well as a free pdf copy of my book @ Happier U University @ https://happieruu.com. The creation of Happier UU is a whole other story. I created an on-line University in case I fail daring greatly to “Make Humankind Happy Again,” I can graduate & give myself a punny Happiness PhD.

Happier UU students celebrate with glee when they earn & print a professionally crafted “Pioneer Learning” Masters DECREE. Keeping with my non-profiteering guarantee, this Masters Decree is also free. Graduates earn their Masters Decree from the Prestigious & Egregious Jivey League school, the Happier UU Institute of Learn, Unlearn, Relearn (I-LURN).

All kidding aside, my satirical ACTIONS to stir the pot with a proven recipe for cooking up innovative solutions beg to question, “What is this great country going to DO, once every American citizen has a Masters?” Nobody ever inspired a great nation by saying, “Ask not what your country can KNOW for you, ask what you can KNOW for your country.” That is the failure of our American education system in a nutshell. (It’s nuts) Graduates have no clue what to DO. 

This means America will never be great again (LMAO), if this great nation keeps throwing money into an education system that is inferior, awful, terrible, pitiful, second-rate and outrageously expensive. 

To all those citizens, with or without a college degree, who are not sure what to DO? Our great nation’s guiding light in the dark of night is to, “Ask not what your country can DO for you, ask what you can DO for your country.”

I tried for over 20 years to give away the secret to learning freedom using the awesome power of the Six Spectrums of Learning. I had an impossible dream to change the factory modeled education system incentivized by showing, “How to break the bonds of management control.” 

The annihilation of this impossible dream was my first close encounter of the worst kind with the insurmountable obstacle of “Show me the money!” The US Education system is a trillion-dollar loan-shark monopoly, that manufactures factory workers under Management Control. Nobody can stop it because it makes huge profits.

If young people were taught how to teach & coach themselves using the six spectrums of learning:  Pioneering – learning to learn, unlearn, relearn, Scouting – learning to locate, Training – learning to do, Visualization – learning to visualize, Education – learning to know, TS4i (Troubleshooting for innovation, improvement, ideas & integrity) – learning to solve problems, there is no end to what they could accomplish. 

The possibilities are unlimited to what these learning pioneers could do & know, using the six spectrums of learning. The one thing pioneers need to know is the learning freedom they hold without any judgmental management control. 

The hidden gems once the puzzle pieces were all put together? I was able to prove President John F. Kennedy’s “learning & leadership link” that he spoke about the morning he was assassinated. 

Much to my delight it also brings the racketeering “education system & management link” to light. It shows management has no class when they rule the lower-class from an upper-class kingdumb. BTW. An educated conspiracy theory is management racketeers whacked Kennedy.

This insight proves that leadership & management are as different as night & day. I have no doubt that Pioneer Learning is the iceberg that will one day sink our Titanic education system. The best part of scuttling the education system is it would make “management” obsolete. 

Hopefully, by now you clearly understand, I am not a big higher education or management systems fan. I proudly lead the pack in education & management systems whippersnapper attacks.

“Show me the money” is just another insurmountable obstacle that proves our education system will never change. Futurist Alvin Toffler, and his wife Heidi, authored the main problem with the education system in 1980 in “The Third Wave.” All I did was do-that-troubleshooting-thing-I-do. I published a solution I was certain would “Make America Great Again” back in 2008. Irony is hilarious.

Alvin, (whose consulting company I worked at for almost 15 years) pointed out that the factory modeled education system was covertly designed in 1916 to manufacture factory workers who were conditioned like robots to learn three mandatory things. 1) To be on time. 2) To obey management orders, without question. 3) To learn how to do mindless repetitive work over & over again.

I hilariously related to all three mandatory education system rules having worked in a factory after graduating high school. I punched a time clock in & out of work every day. I knew enough from high school that when management said jump, I said how high? I built 12 Harvester cotton picker baskets a night, repeatedly & repetitively. Luckily, I got laid off and volunteered to join the Marine Corps to serve my country instead of management.

So now, being a punny guy, it is easy to see that mandatory rule #3 still applies in the USA education system to this day using a mindless repetitive exercise of “Listen, Study, Parrot, Test.” “Listen, Study, Parrot, Test.” “Listen, Study, Parrot, Test.” Polly wanta cracker or why do all you highly educated crackers want a cracker for being a repeat-after-me slacker? This “Trivial Pursuit” game, the education system claims, will bring fortune & fame, will always crack me up. 

Besides, my philosophy on teachers, coaches, cheerleaders, managers & mentors (anyone who sits safe on the sidelines in the performance arena) jives with Khalil Gibran’s tongue in cheek philosophy of the almighty education system. 

“I have learned silence from the talkative, toleration from the intolerant, and kindness from the unkind; yet, strange, I am ungrateful to those teachers.” 

I prefer to change the names in Khalil Gibran’s quote to protect the innocent grade schoolteachers who dedicate their lives to helping a nation of children develop & grow. (This praise does not go out to those slick teachers/professors whose college classes cost thousands of dollars and they get their kicks making their students teach themselves) Awesome & dedicated grade schoolteachers offer learning relief, while managers in the business of making money offer nothing but grief. Here is how I change the quote, using an action agents’ management rope-a-dope.

“I have learned silence from the talkative, toleration from the intolerant, and kindness from the unkind; yet, strange, I am ungrateful to those managers.” 

Without being ungrateful or hateful, the bottom line is nothing or nobody can stop any of us from feeding a learning hunger. This means Americans are given the greatest gift of all. We have the learning freedom to chase audacious dreams. The unlimited power of pioneer learning rests in the palm of our hand. Americans are natural born pioneers who are gifted to be able to excel so much MORE without management hindering the creative process. 

This proves, individually, we can all strive to be great, irregardless if our country is or not.

Is there any pricing information that is relevant to our readers?

• My website is free. I took my time on my own dime to give a shoutout to free dumb! Let free dumb ring! “Free at last, free at last, thank God almighty we are free at last!”
• The price is right for the poetic justice in the way I write. Write on! Write on! Write on! Feel free to sing along with this happily written song, that goes on way too long!
• The only way you will know if you are getting your monies worth is if the ABCs of Happiness website helps you be kind to strangers & it “Makes You Happy Again.”

Contact information:

Website: https://abcsofhappiness.com/

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