Adam Mundorf : Philosophical and Financial : Thoughts and Musings

  What I Learned During the Dale Carnegie Course Three Largest Lessons By Adam Mundorf What I Learned During the Dale Carnegie Course Recently, the company I work for decided to host a Dale Carnegie Course for all of its managers and leadership team.  Dale Carnegie is a course meant to enhance leadership qualities while giving you thought provoking scenarios and lessons to use in the real world.  I had a really good time, it allowed me to get out of my comfort zone and taught me three valuable lessons (there are more but I want to limit this blog to the three biggest lessons I learned).  Here they are : Lesson #1 - Adam 'Pause' Mundorf - Avoiding the Stutter Now, anyone who knows me, knows that I've had somewhat of a stutter since a young age.  I'm not talking like King George the Sixth but it's there.  It gave me grief as a childhood but as I got older, it got funnier because I knew it wasn't a disability but my brain moving entirely too fast for my mouth.  The

  Why Do You Want to Be Like Them? The Realization I'm Not Conventionally Smart - Crying in the Car By Adam Mundorf Why Do You Want to Be Like Them? This blog will be mostly my inner monologue with some questions along the way, just for a warning.  I'm putting my thoughts down and through that process to find some 'a-ha' moments.  It's self exploration. I get asked often about why I'm comfortable where I am in life because my chosen profession isn't what most people would want.  I'm not an exactly ambitious individual but am content with my own lot in life.  People respond typically with an almost pity and that perplexes me.  Maybe it's because I have such simple wants and desires.  I value the inexpensive/simple pleasures in life.  I value peace and quiet, a comfortable bed, cute animals and running water.  I for sure get if you burdened your life with obligations i.e, family, huge debts and/or some idealistic dream of being fabulously wealthy, you&

  Company Parties Walk Beside Me not Behind Me The 'Christian' CEO's By Adam Mundorf 'True leading is sacrifice, not privilege.' Company Parties What a kick in the face company parties are.  No money for raises but money for lavish and extravagant parties?  Cutting hours but have money for banquets?  Seems a bit hypocritical doesn't it?  A rising tide raises all ships and all these silly parties do is drain the ocean.  Lets be honest, most people want the cash because we have bills and actual expenses that aren't solved with a pizza party or catered dinner.  We have goals and aspirations where an extra 20 bucks can provide dividends into the future.  Skip the party and distribute the cash.  Your employees will love that more than any party you could throw.  Quite frankly, it's insulting that a company could even throw a party while simultaneously cutting hours.  What a kick in the nuts.   Walk Beside Me not Behind Me A big home, big yard and nice car is

  Kokoro When Discipline and Effort Isn't Enough My Solution By Adam Mundorf Kokoro Kokoro is a Japanese word meaning : heart, mind and spirit.  You have your body, you have your thoughts and you have your soul.  We are living things.  With this comes the stress of life whether that is physical, emotional or spiritual.  The human body is one piece.  Everything is connected and everything matters. When Discipline and Effort Isn't Enough Some of us as humans love to load our schedules up with intense training regimens, tough eating regimens, long work days, tiring relationships and untenable obligations.  WAIT!  The human body only has so much RAM to devote to itself.  All these plans sound really great on paper until life and unpredictability hits.  Life has a way of beating the most disciplined of us down.  If you read the definition of Kokoro, you will realize that everything is interconnected.  A bad day at work, can decrease effort or willpower in the gym.  An argument with

  Your Body's 401k By Adam Mundorf People think you're crazy when you wake up and change your life. Your Body's 401k The obsession with money is misguided.  You don't need nearly as much as you think you do and if you have crazy aspirations for your money like mansions, Lamborghini and expensive tastes, your health will need to take a backseat in most cases.  Many readers of this blog know that I know a lot about the foundations of personal finance and investing.  What my many hours and possibly years of reading has led me to, is that health is wealth.  All that stressing, sitting and lack of true intrinsic fulfillment leads to a quite frankly, sad end of life.  People act like nursing homes, limping around, fat body and skinny arms is the only way to end up.  This couldn't be further from the truth.  I can run out of fingers and toes, thinking of examples of millionaires I personally know, who said they wished they took care of their health.  They have nice stuff b

  Whether It's Fat or Muscle Mass, You're Consuming More than Your Fair Share By Adam Mundorf Whether It's Fat or Muscle Mass, You're Consuming More than Your Fair Share Is being big ethical?  This is a question I ask myself often.  Gaining weight purposefully, means that a person is taking in more resources than needed to sustain themselves.  If our survival or our occupation doesn't depend on us being a certain weight, then what's going on?  Shoveling in food you don't need just to be bigger than the guy next door or to impress someone at the beach.  It seems rather empty doesn't it?  This becomes apparent especially when it comes to the consumption of animals.  We are robbing a life just for the vain pursuit of appearance or attention.  Just some things to think about.   Hypertrophy is Largely Unnecessary As soon as I learned how unnecessary hypertrophy was for a long and fruitful life, is when I stopped pursing it.  Nobody ever said that gaining musc