Darth Vader was bipolar

The greatest of all film franchises, Star Wars, is a battle between good and evil. The evil side of the force is called "The Dark Side".  I always thought the dark side was absolute evil.

From the first time we see Darth Vader, we know him to be a mechanical, maniacal evil being. We are afraid of him. Until we realize he used to be human. He used to have a wife and mother. He used to be good.

He had a couple of kids. He was a family man. His love drove him to his evil. His view of the world changed.

He was empty.
He was lost.
He was a dog.
He obeyed his master.
And he submitted it to him until his master tried to hurt his child. That's when the dog turned on his master and killed him.

The child's love for him removed the dark side.

The dark side is not unequivocal evilness.
The dark side is a kind of depression.
The dark side does not care about the future because the past is so painful.
It is the removal of hope.
It is the pain from the loss of love.
It is anger.
It is seeing things in absolutes: Always and Never.

According to Yoda, emotion is the path to the dark side.
We see that Anakin's emotion of love drives him to his darkness.

We saw the disintegration of Anakin Skywalker with the loss of his mother.

Jedi's didn't marry because the path of love lead to darkness. Anakin disobeyed that order and married anyways, which again led him to his darkness.

The opposite of love is indifference.
If the Jedi do not love and are not passionate, then they are indifferent.

Who's the good guy: those who love too much or those who don't love at all?

Here's my take:
Darth Vader was an evil dude. That evilness grew because Anakin was passionate. He was full of life and emotion. Love led him to his dark side. He became depressed. Anakin was bipolar. When he felt the loss of love from his mother and wife, he withdrew from the world into a great depression. He didn't care what happened to him anymore...until he found out he had a son. And then he was redeemed.


With a background in finance and marketing, Rick Nicholson owned two highly successful restaurants before selling them to start a consulting business. His current company The Restaurant Ninjas provides tools to the foodservice industry to become more profitable. His book, "The Art of Restaurant Theft" can be downloaded for free at www.therestaurantninjas.com

You can subscribe to Rick's weekly email newsletter and his thoughts on business, life and everything in between at:
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Cost and benefit

In a perfect world, what would you be doing if time and money were no object?
Why aren't you doing it?

This is a hypothetical question to get to the root of where you want to be. Time and money are usually the two reasons why we don't do what we want.

Maybe you want to be your own boss. You'd like to work for yourself but you're scared.

Everyone tells you owning a business is risky.
It is.

The cost of failure is easy to measure.

Look at all the money you are going to invest in your project.  Consider the income you won't receive while doing this.  Understand the payment you are currently making on your mortgage, car and credit cards won't be made if you aren't earning a weekly wage.

The cost can be catastrophic.
The bank could take the house and the car.
Your name could be ruined for future loans.
Everything you worked so hard for will be gone in a flash.

Because you wanted to follow your dream.

You're scared of the cost because the potential loss can be calculated.

Here's what can't be calculated: The benefit.

You won't know how much money you can make until you make the decision to do it.
You won't know how big your opportunity will be until you knock down some doors.
You won't know what life you could have until money starts coming in.

There's the known cost and the unknown benefit.

I believe that's why most of us fail to go for the dream.
We want to talk the risk out of doing something remarkable.

That's impossible.

So we run and hide, using the cost as our excuse.

With a background in finance and marketing, Rick Nicholson owned two highly successful restaurants before selling them to start a consulting business. His current company The Restaurant Ninjas provides tools to the foodservice industry to become more profitable. His book, "The Art of Restaurant Theft" can be downloaded for free at www.therestaurantninjas.com

You can subscribe to Rick's weekly email newsletter and his thoughts on business, life and everything in between at:
http://forms.aweber.com/form/05/1667819805.htm

Choice between two fears...

We hear about risk and reward and most of us get the concept. The more you risk, the higher the reward can be. The inverse is also true. The less you risk, the lower the reward.

I remember the first time I went to the university swimming pool. At the far right was the high diving board. It was 800 feet high. I timidly stayed in the shallow end watching my brave friends bounce off it to a thunderous splash below.

Watching this for a half hour, I decided to go to the top and enjoy the same fun. Each step up the ladder was easy. I wasn't scared. Everyone else was doing it. No big deal.

Until I got to the top and walked out to the edge of the board to look down. I must have miscalculated the height. At the top, it looked like 1800 feet down. I was struck with panic. I thought I was going to die. Death from jumping or death from embarrassment were my two choices. I chose embarrassment.

I had to walk shamefully back down the ladder, taking each declining step while listening to the whispers of ridicule. I was now a chicken according to my classmates.

My son was recently faced with a similar dilemma. He made a different choice. He chose death by jumping. He told me that embarrassment was too much to handle. I envy his fearlessness.

Thinking about this, I wonder how many of us have the same fear when it comes to getting into business or doing our one true calling in life.

The choice between two fears paralyzes.

In life, just like in the pool, doing nothing doesn't allow us to have the fun we could have. Only those who put themselves at great risk have the most fun. Only those willing to face their fears to find what they are looking for actually find it.

We are not here to get by.
We are not here to the ordinary.
We are not here to stand in the shallow end of the pool.

We were placed here to do great things.
We are here to live.

Where's your greatness? And what's your plan to share it with the world?

Scary shit, eh!
Just like the diving board to an eight year old kid...

Who's your daddy?

Death stalks us every day like a hungry wolf waiting to smell our weakness. It pounces revealing her crooked teeth. It is in this moment that we make a decision. Do I want to live or is today the day I die. Death cannot win when we fight back.  It's when we stop giving a fuck that the wolf chomps on our deathly remains.  Time takes away that fight.  Sickness takes it away too.

Fear the dog and he will bite.
Be strong, brave and fearless and the dog usually backs down.

Who is going to play the alpha?

We can't cheat death. We can't run from it.
The only thing we can do when faced with the cross-eyed beast is to show it who's in charge.


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Howard Shultz must be rolling in his grave

Howard, if you were still alive, it wouldn't be this way.

Why would I go to Starbucks and be a prisoner?
Not locked up. That would be far better.

I'm a prisoner to the discussions of the employees. I don't want to know all about Sarah's latest problem with her boyfriend. I don't know Sarah. It's sad. But I didn't come here to be sad. I came here for my Grande Caramel Machiatto.

Do I have to hear about the red cup and how yesterday is the last day they could use it. Then to my surprise, I showed up today to see the Christmas cup still available.

Do I care?
Nope. Unless these perfectly good cups go in the garbage. Then I'll be mad because Starbucks will be wasteful.

Christmas is over.
The cup is red.
Nothing refers to the cup as a Christmas cup.
Even The Donald thought we should boycott Starbucks because they removed "Christmas" from the holiday cup.
We should boycott Donald.
But that's a rant for another day.

I don't want to hear about how shifts are being cut back to the baristas who can't sell sandwiches.
I don't want to see baristas taking a table on their break where I could've sat.
I don't want to see the dining room full of unopened boxes because the cafe designer didn't make enough space for dry storage in the back.
I don't need to be emprisoned in the cafe drama.
I have enough of my own problems.

Today, I want to know if Howard Shultz is squirming in his coffin.
The coffee chain is moving away from its special place in my heart.

What?
Howard Shultz isn't dead?
Then what the f*(&?

Howard, get to work and fix this.
One of my favourite brands needs your help.

I think it's your favourite brand too.

If you want to hear some of my thoughts on how to fix this problem, I'm only a tweet away.


With a background in finance and marketing, Rick Nicholson owned two highly successful restaurants before selling them to start a consulting business. His current company The Restaurant Ninjas provides tools to the foodservice industry to become more profitable. His book, "The Art of Restaurant Theft" can be downloaded for free at www.therestaurantninjas.com

You can subscribe to Rick's weekly email newsletter and his thoughts on business, life and everything in between at:
http://forms.aweber.com/form/05/1667819805.htm

Feeling the love

What happens to a person who doesn't feel love anymore?

The limits of that person's character get tested.
He does things he normally wouldn't do.
He acts in desperation trying to find what no longer exists in his eyes.

Depression lives in the box of desperation.
Sadness thrives in darkness.
Loneliness grows like a virus.

Each person has a love language. Most of us love the way we want to be loved.

And that's where we fail our loved ones.

We don't gift something we want. We gift something our friend would want.

Love is no different.

Understanding what makes our loved ones feel special is fundamental to a loving relationship.

There are five love languages:

1. Gifts
2. Spending Quality time together
3. Words of Affirmation
4. Acts of Service
5. Physical Touch

Although all five of them sound good, there is one dominant language for each of us. To discover and act on how our loved ones want to be loved is the key to a beautiful life.