First Word

Crossing Random Michelle L. Gamble Dedication There is no greater love than that of your children. To Cole and Cambria – you are the true loves of my life. “ Trajectories aren't linear. Life's just a roller coaster. If you're getting a chance to do cool stuff, and it's varied stuff, just enjoy it. I guess I'm a believer in the randomness of life rather than it being a linear trajectory or an arc, a consistent smooth arc, towards anything.” ~ Riz Ahmed Chapter 1 Hot and Dry “ I believe life is an intelligent thing: that things aren’t random.” ~ Steve Jobs Hot and dry – that was how the weather felt on that day on October 17, 1989. Becky Chiron, a corporate marketing executive, worked from home four days a week and went into the corporate headquarters in San Francisco one day a week. She prized her telecommuting position, which back in those days was rare. She had a full workstation setup ...

Coming soon Habits and Attitudes by Dr. Lance Casazza. The book releases in the fall.  Here are my five daily habits. These are the things that help keep me on track and successfully running my company 3L Publishing (www.3LPublishing.com). HABITS Ø   Eat homemade healthy foods and avoid processed foods (basically anything in the middle of the supermarket). When you eat homemade vs. store-bought food or restaurant dishes, you know exactly how many calories and how much sugar and salt went into your meals. When you go to a restaurant you have absolutely no idea what that food contains. In a country where diabetes is becoming a national epidemic, it’s best to avoid carbs and sugar, and restaurants load their dishes with carbs and sugar. Ø   Meditate and visualize success every day. First thing when I wake up, I meditate, say my mantras, and visualize a great day. Leaders like Steve Jobs advocated meditation. I find that it puts my head in the...

"There is no reason not to follow your heart. Stay hungry. Stay foolish." ~ Steve Jobs I love that quote, and it mirrors a conversation we had on First Word Radio yesterday about doing what you want to do with your life. I don't believe in asking permission. If I want to do something, I figure out how to do it. I've spent a lifetime actively pursuing my passions. 3L Publishing exists because I didn't want to turn my first book over to a publisher that I didn't feel could do a better job than I could. After that book Second Bloom came out and won awards including an honorable mention from Writer's Digest , other authors started asking me to publish their books. The question wasn't "no," it was: Why not? Almost overnight I had achieved a dream without even making it a goal in the first place. I was simply following my passion. When you follow your passion the rest will follow. Now I've gone after another goal: to write a novel and here ...

I remember this perfectly. I was 21 years old at San Jose State University, and I was taking a public relations class as part of my degree program. In the class, which I don't remember the name of it, we had to create our own brochures. The instructor told us we had to design the brochures on boards, which seems insane to me today. He demonstrated how we could create headlines on this new beige box called the Mac. Of course, I had seen computers, but the Mac was new and looked different. It was this small box with a tiny screen. You could use a piece of software called PageMaker to create limited graphics using fonts. I was impressed and intimidated all at once. About three years later, I worked for a publishing company and what did I have sitting on my new desk? A little Mac SE. For the next four years, I abused my Mac SE writing hundreds of articles for the now defunct California Computer News . The Mac SE, unfortunately got replaced with a PC (groan), and I had been marched to ...