This has to be the coolest Valentine’s Day gift EVER!
To give please visit: www.5dollarwater.com

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Due to overwhelming demand of our previous “Love Never Fails” shirt, we decided to roll out a SPECIAL EDITION white version (also available in V-Neck).  Quantities are LIMITED, so please order soon. We expect this to sell out quickly.

Details:
Pre-sale ends Wednesday, February 4, 2009 11:59pm.
Shirts will be in 2 weeks after the pre-sale.  Price $20. (Free shipping for USC students, everywhere else, $2.50)
To order multiple T Shirts, form must be filled out multiple times.
If you have any questions, please contact us at info@thelegacymovement.com

To view shirt:
http://legacymovement.posterous.com/love-never-fails

To Pre-order Shirt:
http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?key=pV4L5wey1G38MRrmNYKbbKg

Someone once told me that your heart is like a garden full of flowers.  Some will walk by your garden and see nothing.  Some will walk into your garden and steal flowers.  And others will come into your garden and not only help you to remove the weeds, but also plant more flowers for you.  These are the friends you should keep.  These are the relationships that you should keep.  Guard your garden, guard your heart.

I had a conversation with one of my friends the other day.  We both were able to catch up with each other and see how each other were doing.  During that time while we were hanging out I realized how blessed I was to have him as friend.  Although we sometimes get into small arguments, one thing that I value most about our friendship is we are able to speak truth and in love to help each other be better people.  When one falls, the other is able to lift the other up.

Who are you letting into your life?  Do they pull you up or pull you down?

Posted via email from Legacy Movement’s posterous

I spent this past Christmas in the Philippines paying respects to my grandma who passed away after a long battle with cancer. Thankfully while we were there, Grandpa seemed his usual self. We stayed at his house to keep him company, and he seemed to be taking the news well.

One afternoon, I walked downstairs into the living room and saw Grandpa watching TV. He beckoned me over to watch with him. The date on the ancient VCR recording flickered 1995. On screen, a chorus of young children no more than ten years old were singing what sounded to my unfamiliar ears like traditional Chinese opera. As I patiently watched the children recite verse after verse, I could only imagine how many times Grandpa must have watched this same recording over and over through the years. Interrupting my thoughts, Grandpa informed me in broken English that these children were all part of a nonprofit established in his home village – a nonprofit he had funded in its entirety for seven years.

The delight in his voice couldn’t be masked by his halting speech. This was my grandfather’s pride and joy – establishing a nonprofit that would preserve culture and tradition to his village in Fujian, China for years to come. Never did he tell me how he came about the money to support this charity. It was only hearing from my mom (who heard from my dad) that he had owned a very successful export business many years back. Yet Grandpa didn’t brag to me about the sales he generated over the years, or the profitable contracts he landed. At the end of the day, this charity was his greatest accomplishment, and it was this charity he wanted to share with his grandson.

“Look! Look!”

Grandpa nearly jumped out of his seat as he motioned at the screen. On screen, the camera had panned away from the performers to focus on one dignified member of the audience. She sat pristinely watching the performance unfold before her. The image flickered with years of wear, but the figure was still recognizable.

“That’s your grandma! .. That’s my wife!”

I looked from the screen back to Grandpa. There was a sparkle in his normally sleepy-looking eyes, a bright smile filled his weary face. As he settled back into his seat, his bright smile faded slowly into a peaceful, meditative one, the sparkle never leaving his eyes.

What are you doing today that will bring a smile to your face years from now? What part of your life will you jump up to show your grandchildren decades from now?

Today, I spent the day taking care of work for clubs I’m in and doing laundry. I did, however, take a much appreciated break watching the Japanese drama, “1 Litre of Tears.” The show tells the real life inspired story of an unfortunate girl befallen with an incurable illness and her struggle to live with dignity. Put simply, I was moved. I watched several episodes and when I thought I had cried enough for one day I placed my computer on my desk and walked to my room’s window. To my surprise, I discovered a red glow cascading over the valley mountains behind my Hawaii home. I was shook by its beauty.

I walked out to the front of my house, took a seat at the top of my red cement steps, and took out my ipod. Listening to my music, I made it a point to capture this moment before it left. Far beyond in the distance, a canvas of colors filled the sky as if shaded in by a huge paintbrush. Pink clouds spotted across a powder blue horizon hovered over a Honolulu metropolis of jagged buildings pointing to heaven. A soft breeze blew through my hair and gently rustled the trees nearby. And I realized everything was perfect.

But not because everything was necessarily perfect. Everything was perfect because it was enough. It was enough.

I realized that circumstances may make a different world for each person, personal blessings or seemingly unfair burdens change the rules of the game for each player, but at the end of the day every man is measured not by what he is worth but by how able he is to see the things of worth around him. Every single day there is a sunrise and a sunset. And too often, we let these very simple moments of beauty escape us. Instead we clutter our lives with the worries of tomorrow and the chains of a what-could-have-be yesterday. And amid all the chaos, disorder, or anxiety of our lives, we lose sight of the only thing that really matters: The Present.

I don’t want to live a life where the best years of my life are always contained in memories of the past. I don’t want to live a life where I’m always just waiting for something better to come. I want to live a life filled with constant rebirth and unending epiphanies, joy in each blessing and peace in the downfall, but most importantly, I want to live with gratitude.

Someone very close to me once told me, “We come to love not by finding a perfect person, but by learning to see an imperfect person perfectly.” The same can be applied to the world. The same can be applied to everything. If you’re looking for the perfect life by trying to find perfection itself you will always be disappointed in the end. We live in such a world that the happiest man is not he who has attained perfection but he who has learned to appreciate the imperfection instead. This is the power of gratitude: to see what is there over what is not and to live happily with what life has handed you.

The best feeling of all is being able to say thank you—and meaning it.

Around 6:30pm two days ago, while I was walking around Ala Moan’s Ward Warehouse shopping center, the lights started flickering, and all of sudden I found myself immersed in darkness. The entire island of Oahu was out of power and it would take at least 12 hours for the Hawaiian Electric Company to bring the power back. The blackout was supposedly due to the lightning strikes on the island.

During that time, people started evacuating the shopping center, heading straight to their cars, and driving back home. Traffic was horrible. While my family and I decided to wait at the shopping center until the roads cleared up, my friend told me that it took him about 45 minutes to travel about 1 mile. The entire island of Oahu lost all of power practically at once, which meant that all traffic signals turned off with no one to direct traffic immediately. Everyone was either waiting for the traffic to clear up, sitting in bumper to bumper traffic, or lucky enough to already be home, except one person who was able to put aside everything and do good. This man stepped out of his car, pulled out an LED light and directed traffic to the 100s of cars in the crowded streets of downtown Honolulu. Rather than focusing on heading back home like everyone else, this man gave up his time to do good.

Rick Warren, author of best selling book A Purpose Driven Life wrote,

“When you give someone your time, you are giving them a portion of your life that you will never get back. Your time is your life. That is why the greatest gift anyone can give someone is your time.”

This man, gave up his time to help others and I doubt received any reciprocation of that time he gave up other than a “thank you” from a passing drivers. Although I do not know the name of this man who helped to do good for the city of Honolulu, he definitely inspired me give up more of my time to assist others.

Pictures are courtesy of the Honolulu Advertiser.

See and download the full gallery on posterous

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My thoughts:

I came across this book the other day, and it is one my top books to read. I believe that in whatever you do, whether it’s business or just leading a group, it is imperative to leave a Legacy. I think Rick Warren says it the best, “Relationships, not achievements or the acquisitions of things are what matters most in life.” Love, and the relationships you have with other people, leave a Legacy.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Part of the Ken Blanchard series of business books, which aims to show how “Simple Truths Uplift the Value of People in Organizations,” this sentimental volume ascribes to the Nice Guy theory of management: i.e., treat people well and business will take care of itself. Brooks, Stark and Caverhill pass along their ideas in story form. An arrogant, young CEO named Doug is placed on a six-month apprenticeship program to determine whether he can develop the qualities necessary to lead the Mooseland Stoneware company. Doug begins the story as a no-nonsense, bottom-line type of manager, uninterested in the touchy-feely aspects of nurturing workers. However, mentored by a plant-shop owner named Adoi, Doug learns timeless truths of business leadership: “Dare to be person, not a position”; “Dare to connect with people”; and “Dare to drive the dream.” At the end of his training, not only has Doug won the CEO’s job at Mooseland, he has also learned to care for a small fern. It’s a comforting tale, but the authors’ warm and fuzzy management ethos seems quite opposed to that of successful real-life CEOs like Jack Welch, Bill Gates and Larry Ellison. None of these would appear to follow the leadership maxims in this book: “Keep your ego in check”; “Respond to the perspectives of others with empathy”; “Genuinely have fun.” Certainly the authors’ advice could still apply usefully to small businesses, where executives and employees have more day to day contact. But, for better or worse, the principles they describe here are not the ones that guide the leaders of most large companies.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Anyone who inspires change in the lives of others is engaged in an act of leadership. “Leadership legacy” is the sum total of the difference one makes in those lives, directly or indirectly, formally or informally. The newest title in the Ken Blanchard Series: Simple Truths Uplifting the Value of People in Organizations, this book shows how to ensure that the legacy is positive and transforming.As the book explains, a positive legacy doesn’t just happen. The authors lay out a blueprint for success in this often daunting area in seven chapters: The Reading of the Will, Every Journey Begins with One Step, The Fern Is as Good as Dead, The CEO, Back to School, Eagle Junction, and Mooseland Stoneware. The book uses a gardening metaphor, with master gardeners mentoring the reader until they gain the courage it takes to forge a meaningful legacy. The basic principles, supported by years of study and research, include living by certain values and living authentically, which are more inspirational than one’s strength of position; fostering emotional connections and trust with the people one works with; and turning a company’s dreams and goals into a future that people will want to live in.