We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Skip Work a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Skip, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Was there a moment in your career that meaningfully altered your trajectory? If so, we’d love to hear the backstory.

Ironically, my defining moment did not come to light until after my professional career was exterminated. My aha moment came to fruition after, “I fell into a burning ring of fire, I went down, down, down and the flames went higher… and it burns, burns, burns.” It was a professional traumatic event that forced me to change the trajectory of my cherished career and sent me on an incredible journey to discover ways to “Make Mankind Happy Again.” 

What started out as every professional’s worst nightmare, evolved into a fairy tale ending of capturing a pot of happiness gold at the end of chasing grief rainbows. So please bear with me. I have been looking forward to sharing this emotional awakening for 4 years. 

The grand finale of my illustrious 44-year career was triggered by an ambush. I was “let go” for the first time in my professional career on a recorded group conference call. It was a well-orchestrated sneak attack. My professional livelihood was lined up against the wall and shot down like a dog. I was branded a loser and dumped like a piece of trash.

Just so you know, this well-orchestrated firing squad had nothing to do with performance. My overall career performance was stellar going back four score & four years ago. The conference call was intended to be my annual review, and a celebration sharing the results of my 10th successful completion of an intense & in-depth government audit… that had just been finalized that very morning. An audit that once again was rated outstanding. 

My tireless work meant my firm was cleared to continue to do government contracting work for another two years. Woo Hoo! Winner, winner, chicken dinner! It turned out, the celebration was going to go on without me. It was a classic “thank you for your service” going away party. Call it what you want but I was about to be fired.

How I reacted to being dragged in front of a career firing squad was not my defining moment. That is because with a little luck of the draw I found out 15 minutes before my wakeup call… my professional career was about to become a sacrificial lamb to the Gods. 

My executioners forgot that one of my many duties was approving all the time sheets for the firm. I read in shock & awe how the newly crowned CEO casually mentioned in her notes about a recent visit to an attorney regarding my up & coming termination. I approved her timesheet and sent my fiancé the following text. “Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil…”  

Let us jumpstart this nightmare by telling you that this was not my first rodeo when it comes to being bushwhacked by grief. Just a few years before my wife of 31 years packed her bags and moved to Florida leaving me buried under a mountain of debt. She told me I loved my job more than her. She hated the company I worked for and the person I had become. I personally think that me gaining 60 pounds might have contributed to her love loss… but who knows? 

Point being, you do not make it to social security age without suffering crushing & devasting grief sneak attacks. That’s why I did what comes naturally whenever grief throws me off a cliff into a depression. I PANICKED! 

My mind started racing like an out-of-control airplane in a tailspin losing altitude by the second. My entire career flashed before my eyes. Who would want to hire an outdated model citizen branded as damaged goods? How was I going to survive going from earning $140,000.00 a year to zero in the blink of an eye yai yai? 

Luckily, as a former pilot, I was instinctively trained to let go of the controls to stop my mind from spinning… so I could level off and regain control. I was going down in flames. I had to cut the engines & figure out where I was going to crash land. I somehow managed to quickly figure out… these “Et Tu Brute” collaborators were coming to stab me in the back in a matter of minutes and leave me for dead. I did my best to be a good boy scout. Be Prepared.

I wrote in big block letters on my computer screen… BE COOL! Since this phone call was going to be held on an old fashion party line, I put on my sunglasses to enhance my coolness. It helped stop my hands from shaking & my heart from palpitating. When you know you are about to get stabbed in the back your best bet is to turn around and face your assassins head on. 

It was only then… that I was ready, willing & able to figure out my one & only move. 

I accepted my fate. I had worked there long enough to know that the instant you fell out of favor in this working mob… you got whacked. My only move was to try and buy time to figure out a way to write my own obituary. 

I knew I had no choice but to forgive my executioners… temporarily… and later permanently down the line. There were only three ways this ambush was going to play out. One… I could go out like a madman kicking, screaming, cursing, vowing to seek revenge! Two… I could go down crying like a baby, begging for mercy, hoping somebody would feel sorry for me and give me a second chance to redeem myself. Three… which has always been my favorite course of action… do the unexpected. I could embrace my assassins with love hoping to leave them temporarily dazed & confused. I went all-in with option number 3. 

Truth is, I had already cleared my biggest hurdle when I accepted the fact… I was a dead man walking. The hard part was already over.

I held a reckoning and measured my own self-worth. Despite getting paid a salary that was below the firms average I was the longest lasting Outwit-Outplay-Outlast survivor on this island… at least for the next few minutes. I had 10 years seniority building this firm over the average employees who were left on the tribal council. I was lucky to have trained & cared for each and every one of these new age teammates. I reflected on the 203 people who came & went since the firm was founded. The list of those who resigned, quit, got laid off, fired, passed on or retired was long & distinguished. The list even included my older brother who had resigned from this very firm before I was hired. He was instrumental in getting me this job. Thanks again brother! 

My brother had resigned and moved on to become the Under Secretary of Navy and later the Deputy Secretary of Defense. I realized I had more in common with the dearly departed than I did with the last remaining members of my loving work “family.” 

I found repentance & washed away any remorse or regret I was feeling. I knew I had given everything I had to maintain the integrity of this firm. The fact is I loved the original owners. Still do. They were the best of the best & awe inspiring. I was proud I helped this company of intellectual superstars grow from a small business entity without an office… to becoming a bigtime player in our Nation’s Capital when we were awarded a 5 year, 50-million-dollar contract to determine the future of government security guards.

In the end, I showed my executioner’s compassion by taking the gun out of their hand and shooting myself in the foot.

Here is how the recorded conference call played out. Once the formal “we are letting you go” niceties were taken care of… there was a temporary lull in the action until the former CEO who I had served, helped & supported during all her trials & tribulations on & off the battlefield… finally stopped crying. After she wiped away her crocodile tears, we got back down to business. 

I made my move and proposed that instead of letting me go in 4 days with a $10,000 severance package… the firm could simply let me retire on my upcoming 64th birthday in a month & a half. I said… if they had told me the firm was in such dire financial straits… you know me… I would have volunteered to retire reminding them what a dedicated employee I had always been. 

JSYK… that hogwash about me willing to sacrifice myself to save the jobs of these new age assassins on the phone… that was a fib.

I was placed on hold and put under house arrest while my immature executioners contemplated a temporary stay of execution. In the meantime I started dancing & singing the… you-missed-me-you-missed-me-now-you-gotta-kiss-me cha, cha, cha. Soon after they came back online and agreed to graciously allow me to work until my birthday… if I was willing to train my two replacements. Since this nightmare felt like I was trapped in a Twilight Zone episode with the Three Stooges the only thing I could think of to say was… CER-TAN-LY. 

Next, I did what everyone is supposed to do when hit with an employment “somebody did me wrong” song. I set up a meeting with the best DC employment lawyer money could buy. I came prepared with questions concerning the three different versions of why my career was given a death sentence. 

First, the conference call told me I was being “let go.” Second, my human resource paperwork stated I was being “laid off.” The third justification for my termination was in my confidential separation agreement. This was where I was certain I could rest my case. It said I was out of a job “due to elimination of his position.” 

This bizarre claim of eliminating my “position” made absolutely no sense. I worked in five positions simultaneously even though I was only paid for one. I served as the Director of Contracting, Subcontracting Officer, GSA Contract Administrator, Database Manager & and all these positions were powered by my primary skill as a Senior Systems Analyst who held a master’s degree in business administration. All of these positions were critical to continuing to do by-the-book government contracted work. 

The key question I was dying to ask my attorney… how could my firm honestly claim it was eliminating my position when I was in the midst of training my two replacements? I was certain this wacky justification would pardon my death sentence using the “liar, liar, pants on fire” defense.

Here is what $450 an hour, paid up front, in legal advice got me. His honor told me the best he could legally do… was grant me a month or two more of my salary in my severance package… but legal fees would eat up a good chunk of it. Other than that, he told me there was absolutely nothing anyone could do in an “at will” court of law. 

I asked, what about all those laws protecting American workers? Nope! Companies just CANNOT SAY employees were fired for being over-the-hill, disabled, an unlikely race, an unlikely sexual orientation, or even for being pregnant or overweight. 

But I’m a service-disabled veteran… surely federal government laws had protection rights for military members who served with honor? Nope! Hiring an honorable vet, even a service-disabled vet, gives companies preferential treatment for WINNING government contracts. The entire list of so-called protected babies can eventually be erased after the government contract is awarded… as long you keep it simple and let ‘em go, lay ‘em off or eliminate their position.

He then started talking, almost boasting, how companies like mine… paid top-notch lawyers like him… a ton of money to write iron clad confidential separation agreements. I referred him back to what I thought was my ace in the hole, “due to elimination of his position.” 

He chuckled. He said all my company had to do was change the name of any position to something else. All my positions could easily be rolled up into a brand new “Administrative Assistant” position… handed off to another employee… or better yet… all my full-time “positions” could be eliminated and farmed out to the lowest bidder as subcontractor work. 

Around the 45-minute mark of this call… while he seemingly continued to brag during his closing arguments about how confidential legal separation agreements like this one, like the ones he was paid dearly to create, were iron clad in favor of the powers to be. I did the only thing I could think of. I hung up on him in midsentence. 

Of course, he never called back to ask if I wanted my 15-minutes of defame refunded. I wonder to this day if he was the same attorney that my newly crowned CEO had gone to… to draft an iron clad confidential separation agreement so she could depose & dispose of me. Due to attorney client privilege, I will never know for sure. It seems to me he admired my company for their iron clad separation agreement. I gave up my remaining $112.75 of worthless advice because I could no longer bear hearing a state of the union address on how an entire nation of “at will” employees are legally screwed. 

I was disgusted with all the powers to be in the state of the union, that made a joke out of workers’ rights and rendered me powerless. It’s a bitter pill to swallow when you hear, “Thank you for your service” over & over again… but never hear the polite response of… “Now how can I be of service to you”? 

Dedicated service is a one-way street. I was on my own… again. I was a disposable “at will” employee and that is just the way it is in the new age workforce. I had no choice but to fend for myself and follow my own advice on my last day of work. 

I refused to sign the Confidential Separation Agreement and General Release document so they could take their reduced severance package of $5,000.00 and shove it up their upper class. I did it to prove feeling powerless gives you unadulterated superpowers.

The one thing I have learned in my many years going to war against grief… it is not the traumatic event that sentences you to a life sentence in a depression. It is keeping it a secret. That is why I refused to sign the confidentiality agreement. Accepting hush money, no matter the amount, to cover up the truth… locks you up in a prison of shame, serving time in an isolated cell reinforced by iron clad confidentiality agreements courtesy of the American Bar Association.

Now you know my secret. I was FIRED without cause from my last job and forced into retirement. 

It cost me $5,450.00 so I could legally tell you the traumatic events that led to my defining moment. It cost me in many ways… but it also gives me the legal right to name and point a finger at my assassins. However, like I instinctively knew on the day my career was sentenced to death… someday… I had to forgive these rotten apples so I could move on to greener pastures. That is exactly what I did. I no longer feel the need to point the finger at my executioners to reignite my feelings of betrayal… because I already gave my firm and our Nation’s Capital the finger… the day I drove away under a cloud of shame. 

Here is a story-telling secret. Once the reader comes to realize that MY worst nightmare… is YOUR worst nightmare… it has the dramatic effect of transforming feelings of pity & sympathy… into the powerful emotional effect of shared empathy. Once we share the same feelings… even with those readers who never experienced cutthroat betrayal of this level and have to dig deep into their empathy imagination… we have the power to come together and collectively point fingers at… “at will” companies USA as a whole. If we can do that then together, we can join forces and empower the state of our union to level the “at will” playing field… to one of at least fair play. 

That is the reason the name of the company that did this to me is irrelevant. My “at will” company is your “at will” company.

Here is another secret that proves nobody is invincible when it comes to suffering grief. As I drove away from Washington, DC for the last time I was crushed, broken & utterly lost. I no longer felt good about absorbing career-ending bullets for over a month working under false pretenses that I was retiring instead of being fired. I was emotionally drained & devastated. It was horrible being forced into retirement branded a loser. That is exactly how this experience made me feel. I felt like a loser. I was rudderless. I was “a thousand miles from nowhere and there was no place I wanted to be.” I ended up driving around the country aimlessly for months trying to find my way out of this grief nightmare. 

I found myself “standing on a corner in Winslow, Arizona.”  

My defining moment hit me like a sledgehammer. I was free as a bird. I no longer had anyone to report to. I was no longer an “at will” employee. I was a “free will” spirit for the first time in my adult life. I had all the time in the world. I felt like a kid again. I could do whatever I wanted. In that moment I knew I had beat the tar out of grief… again… and made my great escape to make it to the promised land. I was on the road to recovery. I headed home to the love of my life and got to work on an impossible dream that was just beginning to come into focus. 

I wanted to help people. Help people just like me whose life was destroyed by grief… like mine was… almost. The darkest hour of my career execution helped me understand something clearly at last.

I knew in my heart that helping people had always been my key to happiness. I decided to think big. Bigger than I ever had before when I was under the money-making powers of the powers to be. I wanted to do more than just help a few people. I have traveled the world, so I wanted to give-it-all-I-had to help mankind. The light bulb always pops on when you leave your broken past behind and muster up the courage to take a fearless leap into the vast unknown. 

I was over-the-moon happy. I was flying high. I am a man who is kind feeling kind of manly. I realized I was perfectly qualified to help my own kind, Mankind.

I made the enlightening decision to officially declare war against grief. Not just my grief, but all levels of grief including the heartbreak generated by Man Unkind. I knew if I documented the sensational emotions that I compassionately shared with other grief victims & survivors… and the emotional celebrations I shared with my fellow happiness warriors… I had a decent chance of unlocking the secret to happiness. That is when I made the conscience decision to figure out a way to “Make Mankind Happy Again.” 

I initially thought I’d write a book about defeating grief & finding happiness. After all, I had published a book in my previous professional life called “The Last Lifeboat: Learn, unlearn & relearn.” I knew I loved to write for fun, especially on subjects I find fascinating… and puzzling. Word on the literary street was books about beating grief & finding happiness was one hot commodity. One good book on improving mental health could make the author rich & famous.

I had a few problems with that approach. 

One. I have been part-time rich & part-time famous. I would much rather be full-time happy. 

Two. there was no way I was going to profit off the pain of other people. How cold-blooded would it be… to be a rich & famous author… starring in self-promoting infomercials? I could hear me now… hey there all you followers out there in live streaming land… are you trapped in a deep dark depression dying for a glimmer of hope or someone to offer you a helping hand? Pay me $19.99 and I’ll be more than happy to help. No thank you.

Three. I knew a written book could not include the graphics or soundtracks that would be essential ingredients to helping people FEEL & IGNITE the sensations of grief & happiness we all share. Without knowing anything about websites, I made a “I fell into a burning ring of fire” decision to pony up some of my Johnny Cash and create a web presence I could share freely & give to the world. It would be a sensational site that would have a-picture-is-worth-a-thousand-words roadmaps & graphics along with hyperlinks to beautiful soundtracks orchestrating the emotional journeys we all take that make us cry a river & party like it’s 1999. 

A website was the only way I could give Mankind my secret recipes for free. Helping Mankind was the one thing I knew would make me Barry, Barry Happy & Barry, Barry White… because like the man says… “My darling I, can’t get enough of your love, baby.”

It took me the past four years of passionately dedicating my life to helping Mankind and there is no end in sight except the final grief sneak attack that gets us all in the end. I created: The ABC’s of Happiness @ https://abcsofhappiness.com to share my secret exposés with the world. I made sure my work could be translated into many different languages since my worldwide audience is Mankind.

And that my friends… was the series of emotional events that led to my defining moment. It began with an execution that shot down my professional career. It ended with a sensational new beginning of capturing a pot of happiness gold at the end of chasing grief rainbows. I was reincarnated as a one-of-a-kind ABC’s of Happiness Connoisseur… whose primary mission in life… is to be thankful, helpful, happy & kind… to all of Mankind.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

For all I know I was born & bred to be a Happiness Connoisseur just like all of you. I was crafted at birth, as we all are, with the unvarnished sense of adrenaline that comes when we hop on the thrilling rollercoaster ride of life. A couple of near-death experiences early on most likely helped ignite my “Carpe diem” state of mind. The fact that it took me a lifetime to officially declare war against grief to help me and my kind… Mankind… find happiness… feels like a no-brainer… especially since my afterbirth name is Skip Work. I found out discovering more & more about Mankind’s never-ending battle between grief & happiness… fires up my fighting spirit and that makes me happy every single time. It’s kind of ironic that becoming a happiness connoisseur requires intimate experience & up-close-and-personal-close-encounters-of-the-worst-kind with grief. 

I distinctly remember when I was 11 years old living in a foreign country, against my military brat will, trying to figure out ways to find happiness. I was down & out and without a doubt the worst player in our little military installation baseball league. The only way I survived weeks of disappointing performances as the new kid on the block was I had this impossible dream of one day playing in the Little League World Series. The day that humiliating season ended I started working day & night to make my impossible dream come true. 

Despite the one-in-a-million odds stacked up against me… my hard work paid off. The next year I was the starting first baseman wearing my lucky number 13 for the 1967 European All-Star Team playing in the Little World Series. It is obvious that luck was on my side because I knew my impossible dream would have never happened if not for the 8 other players on my team… who were all better than me. They were the true all-stars on our team. But it proved to me that impossible dreams really do come true even when you were batting last in the starting lineup.

That kind of grief to happiness experience brands you for life. It reminds me every day that the shortest path to finding happiness beyond your wildest dreams… is fighting your way out of grief… then taking the long & winding road to capturing an impossible dream.

What type of creative works do you provide?

My creative works can be found on TWO different websites. My flagship creation is the ABC’s of Happiness @ https://abcsofhappiness.com. The ABC’s of Happiness outlines the formula for the secret to happiness. It declares war against grief and is dedicated to Making Mankind Happy Again. It includes a sensational Empathy Experience. This emotional rollercoaster takes our guests on a SEE-READ-HEAR-FEEL adventure of Mankind’s breathtaking up & down emotions. It is made up of twelve graphical roadmaps illustrating fifteen different encounters of the various levels & stages of grief & happiness. It includes pulsating soundtracks carefully selected to capture the intensifying emotions of each stage. It is summarized with the Secret to Happiness and tied up in a bow as my gift to Mankind.

The second website is Happier U University @ https://happieruu.com. Happier UU is my making-fun-of-higher-education graduate program that details the tools I used to unlock the secret to happiness. Happier UU is the only online educational school-of-thought that dives into the emotional universe of our shared university. JSYK, while our intellectual diversity sits divided on thrones of power… our emotional university stands united. We offer our diverse universal students unauthorized Decrees in Happiness.

Happier UU includes an outline of Ts4i which is the acronym for Troubleshooting for innovation, improvement, ideas & integrity. Ts4i is the scientific secret to discovering innovation & improvement in any endeavor by learning how to troubleshoot & fix human problems, meet human needs and satisfying human wants while at the same time capturing a ton of new ideas from the top to the bottom of the totem pole. Ts4i digs up the buried secrets of science by finally integrating the 17th Century scientific method with the art & science of capturing 21st Century human emotions. 

Happier UU also includes the secret sauce to: Pioneer Learning. This bonus track includes a graphic of the learning & leadership link and the rebirth of action agents. It also outlines how our education system is a breeding ground for “at will” employees and the next generation of sideline managers… and has everything to do with learning how to manage the minions… and absolutely nothing to do with learning how to learn. I even included a free copy of my no longer published book, The Last Lifeboat: Learn, unlearn, relearn in pdf form for our grief warriors & happiness venture capitalists to download. 

Ts4i & Pioneer Learning share the secrets of how unlocking the secret to happiness was made possible. They make up the one-two punch that plows the way to capturing an impossible dream without management interference.

What problems do you solve for your clients?

PROBLEM = Mankind is losing the war against grief. Grief’s constant bombardment of death, loss, injury, misfortune, betrayal, toxic relationships, tragic accidents & pure evil condemns happiness freedom fighters to a life sentence in grief’s POW camps.

SOLUTION = The secret to happiness is a grief prison break using six get-out-of-jail-free cards fueled by a burning desire to chase an impossible dream & rejoin Mankind’s freedom  fighters to beat grief once & for all.

The bottom line… I help people having problems coping with a tragic loss, show them how to escape grief and give them a happiness roadmap to make all their dreams come true. I offer a prisoner of war exchange of grief nightmares for a chance of a lifetime to dream an impossible dream.

What do you think sets you apart from others?

That is an easy question. I am not in it for the money. Think about that.

My websites are free tokens of my admiration of the human spirit and our shared emotional state of mind. My vision quest is to help people escape their grief, especially every last one of my fellow military & first responder veterans across the globe who make it their mission in life to help their kind… fight off the evil spirits of grief and grief’s conscripts… Man Unkind. I set my sights on helping the little, the last, the least & the lost. My impossible dream is to “Make Mankind Happy Again.” I am giving it all have. I am giving it away for free.

I get it. There is a good chance nobody will ever take me seriously because I am no longer a “professional.” A professional is any individual who gets paid to do that thing they do. The more money a professional makes… the better they are. 

An amateur on the other hand actively engages in a pursuit they love… for free. Sadly, I am a disgraced professional. Happily, I am a wild & crazy amateur going for the Gold trying to help Mankind be happy again. 

Think about all those amateurs who dedicate their life to capturing a Gold Medal in the Olympics. Win, lose or draw… the thrill of victory or the agony of defeat can never take away from getting to do what you love to do. Since I showed up late in the game to Mankind’s Mental Health Care Olympics, I proud to be a cool-as-the-other-side-of-the-pillow amateur. I am now, and forever will be, a highly trained amateur going for Happiness Gold in world-wide Mental Health Olympics. 

Amateurs get to throw caution to the wind. We have no restrictions except those we impose on ourselves. We get to break the rules which means we get to define new rules. 

Professionals… like I was… feel the agony of defeat when we are no longer getting paid. Amateurs… like me… feel the thrill of victory going for the Gold. Win or lose… professionals & amateurs alike do not fear failure for one simple reason… “if he fails, at least fails daring greatly so that his place shall never be with those cold timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.” These inspiration words are according to President Theodore Roosevelt who gave his “Man in the Arena” speech back in 1910. It is true… an old dog can teach us new tricks.

I leave it up to you to determine who is in it to win it. Professionals who are getting paid… or amateurs who go for the Gold? In the end… who cares! It is going to take an army of professionals & amateurs to join forces and win the war against grief if Mankind has any chance of being happy again. Teamwork, yes Work really is my last name, makes the dream work.

That is why my target audience are those people who cannot afford to seek professional mental healthcare. People who are mental… just like me. In the famous words of philosopher Larry-The Cable Guy… I don’t care who you are, that there is funny… if not a tad ironical. 

What is even funnier… if I sell my heart & soul for just one dollar… I immediately become a professional again. 😊 No thank you.

I was born an amateur. I will die an amateur. It is fitting knowing now I have been dying to be an amateur my whole life.

I have always loved working for laughs instead of money. Humor is the best medicine for anything that ails you. I can’t wait for that day when I get another thank you email from one of my website viewers for helping them escape grief and finding their own brand of happiness. 

But this one would prove my websites are the work of a true-blue happiness amateur who is being totally unprofessional… when the thank you note closes with… “I am so happy you got fired! It is the best thing that ever happened to me!” 

My response, which is patiently waiting in my draft folder to be sent, is… That’s funny. It’s the best thing that ever happened to me too! 

Now before you tell me, “Thank you for your service”… let me thank all you American taxpayers out there who keep sending me all those monthly retirement checks that feed my burning desire to have some fun and pay-it-forward. Taxpayers have been paying me every month for 48 years so please consider these websites as a gift for my gratitude. It was and still is… an honor to serve my country and the American people. Serving Mankind is the icing on the cake. 

Thank you for my paychecks!

What are you most proud of?

I am proud I beat the tar out of grief & used depression as the fuel that drove me to create the ABC’s of Happiness website. I am delighted to prove that the key to happiness is helping other people. I am ecstatic I figured out a way to gift Mankind with the Empathy Experience to verify we are all connected by our sensational up & down emotions.

It was enlightening to prove that Empathy is the tie that binds all of Mankind together… and the scissors that cut ties with Man Unkind… who lacks empathy. Figuring out a way to share Mankind’s sensational emotions is the epitome of empathy. I am giving away emotional secrets to the world because it makes me feel happy, connected & fulfilled. I consider the ABC’s of Happiness my crowning achievement. 

It turns out your timing for this interview is perfect. This unsolicited inquisition is a gift you unknowingly gave me on my 68th birthday. Asking me these poignant questions reminded me that exactly 4 years ago today… on my birthday… March 9th 2019… my professional career was tragically executed & buried. 

I cannot thank you enough for allowing me to finally tell my story that carried me from tragedy to experiencing an enlightening feeling… that I might have accidentally stumbled into the meaning of life. Thanks to you, all my emotions have been reenergized to the point I feel mystified, dignified, gratified, pacified, justified & satisfied… which is a far cry from the unimaginable & unspeakable emotions I experienced 4 years ago on my birthday… when my professional career was crucified. I will take these sensational feelings of grateful gratitude… over feeling proud of what I have accomplished any day of the week.

What are the main things you want people to know about your brand?

I truly believe Mankind (which includes womankind) is a caring, loving, passionate breed that makes life sensational when we share our shared emotions.

(Man Unkind & Woman Unkind are another story. Just like a batch of apples… some people are just plain rotten)

I also know Mankind was created equal. This is not rocket-science. While Mankind looks unique on the outside, we are all the same on the inside when it comes to having up & down emotions. 

The only exception to this rule of humanity is Man Unkind who lacks empathy & emotions. Luckily, these rotten apples are easy to spot if you dig deep down to the bottom of the barrel. 

Many of our Mankind have intense secrets they are scared to share. It is Mankind’s solemn duty to remind our fellow men & women we are all connected by empathy, and we have no secrets too scared to be shared. We hope & pray Mankind knows that our vision quest… is to make sure all the kind people in this world…. never feel alone… never feel scared… and this allows us to grab hold of the power of our sensational emotions and use these magical powers to help each other so we can all feel better. 

Regardless of how good or bad we are feeling… we should all take comfort in knowing people who are kind… feel the same way. We suffer together & we rejoice together. We should all embrace our emotions and never bury them.

Trust me. When something really bad or something really good happens to you… I can honestly say as an emotional human being with a love for empathy… I know how you feel. I know how you feel even when the intensity of our shared pain or joy varies. One of us may be feeling pain or joy that is less than… or one of us may be feeling pain or joy that is greater than… it still means we are… equal too… in our shared emotional state. That is why we celebrate Mankind’s emotional empathy connection.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

Sure. Besides pivoting from publishing a book to creating a website I got caught up in the excitement of sharing what I was discovering. I mistakenly thought that giving Mankind everything I had was the only way to go. My work took off during the pandemic where I felt an urgency that the entire world was in isolation and needed help coping with grief while the grim reaper was knocking right outside their door. Considering my age, there was a good chance this might be my last who raw because I refused to stay locked inside given my limited shelf life. I threw myself into my happiness research and my wife & I hit the sideway highways and byways where the great outdoors were wide-open spaces and magnificent resorts & outdoor restaurant prices hit rock bottom… dying to welcome guests back to help keep them afloat. Fear not, we maintained six states of social distancing from major cities to help stop the spread. 

I documented everything I was learning on the fly to the point my original website grew massive. It was too complicated. I attribute this to trying to figure out exactly what I was doing. Over time, I cut the ABC’s of Happiness down from nineteen web pages to the happy super six once we were given the all-clear to remove our masks. 

I spend most of my time now trying to figure out ways to make it more entertaining and easier to understand now that the pursuit of happiness is no longer a death threat. I leave it to my viewers to grab the reins and give others the condensed version on my behalf.

It has taken me years to simplify my research to the following. “The key to happiness is helping people. The secret to Happiness is escaping grief and chasing an impossible dream.” If I was on Twitter… which I am not… this condensed version of less than 120-characters is what I would post. 

But I know it would not do any good. Nobody is ever going to beat grief & find happiness in a five second soundbite or 120-character tweet. You gotta spend years working for it. It only works when you commit to helping people. It only works when you beat the tar out of grief. It only works when you chase an impossible dream.

I know if I can ever afford professional help… I have no doubt these websites would be world-class contenders. I could use everything from professional writers & editors to happiness experts to graphic artists to Mental Health Care providers to enhance these websites. The problem I have is… professionals cost money. I am the only one I know who is dumb enough to work for free. 

Free Dumb! That just might be the definition of happiness. 😊

Training and knowledge matter of course, but beyond that what do you think matters most in terms of succeeding in your field?

This question makes me smile. The best way to succeed as a happiness connoisseur is to help people. Having, showing & sharing empathy becomes your favorite pastime. Empathy is what allows us to connect with people on an emotional level, especially those we love to death. 

I make it a rule… to follow the rules to happiness that the old dog Immanuel Kent, a 18th Century German Philosopher, gave to the world a few hundred years ago:

I have someone to love
I have something to do
I have something to look forward to

Contact Info:

• Email: [email protected]
• Website: https://abcsofhappiness.com
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