Update your MX records to use Gmail for your domain - Go Daddy

I always thought that Entrepreneurs were people more sensitive than average, because you have to be idealistic, you have to keep faith that the world deserve to be better to keep fighting everyday when you could choose to have a easy life (metro/boulot/dodo, in English subway/work/sleep).

You have to be emotional. But you also have to learn to control these emotion. You have to be creative. And you have to learn to adapt to others, to the current unperfect world.

Because of that, I believe depression is a condition much more well-spread in the Entrepreneur world. I have several exemple around me, and talking with more and more entrepreneurs, self description that always come back are:

"Feeling different"

"Having very high highs and very low lows"

"Being able of huge blow of energy, but not being able to control it, control when it happen".

"Feeling lost".

So when my very good friend forwarded me the blog post below, entitled "The Walking Depressed", I thought of recommending it to many of my entrepreneur-friends^^

And by looking into the original blog, I found so many pieces that really talked to me. Maybe you too will recognize yourself, or a friend of yours. This is the beauty of internet, it allow us to break taboos. 

Too many people feel different but don't speak out because of what others would think.

To many people condemned the ones who are not conform to what they are supposed to be.

We have to stop being so stupids.

• inspiring blog posts for recovery from depression (part I of II) : A curation of websites / bits making you feel you are not alone feeling different.
• apologies for my arrogance
• if I could choose a normal life, would I? : A great list of genius / admired people who had mental diseased, were un-understood during their time but whose greatness have been recognized later. My own personal reference if John Nash, Nobel Prize of Economy, father of the Nash Equilibrum theory (related to the prisoner Dilemna) and played by Russel Crow in "a Wonderful Mind" :-) He was schizophren.

• a no-guilt-no-pressure friend : Learn how to be a good friend. Even though I have been on the other side so many time, I still often make the mistake of blaming others for my own expectations.

The Walking Depressed

This is a repost from Alison Gresik’s blog (http://www.gresik.ca/) on an art committed life. I found it compelling, and describes so aptly my days before major depression that I would like to share it with my readers here, so they too, might avoid clinical depression.

Let's play a little word association.

When I say someone is DEPRESSED, what comes to mind?

How about: Gloomy unshowered schmuck. Stuck and unmotivated. Unable to work. A drag to be around. Broken. Victim. Complainer. Crying all the time. Never leaving the house.

That's the stereotype, isn't it? And there's some truth there. Allie at Hyperbole and a Half draws a vivid picture of this kind of depression.

But depression has many different faces and manifestations.

I was one of the walking depressed. Some of my clients are too.

We don't collapse and stay in bed all day. We keep working, keep writing, keep looking after our families. Keep blogging and tweeting and going out with friends. Keep taking our car to the service station. We just do it all while being profoundly unhappy. 

Because we're strong-willed creatives. We are so strong that we endure unendurable situations far longer than we should. We are deeply committed and we want to do our best for others.                       

Jen Lee has coined the term Dutiful Creatives to describe those of us who are inclined to take care of our responsibilities before anything else.

"If life were a meal, you'd consider your creativity as the dessert, and always strive to eat your vegetables first. Pacing and knowing how to say No are your strengths, but your creativity is more essential to your well-being than you realize." from Jen Lee's Quiz: What Kind of Creative Are You

Too many years of denying ourselves the pleasures of our creative pursuits and it's no wonder we blunder into sadness.

10 Signs of Walking Depression

"I once read that succumbing to depression doesn’t mean you are weak, but that you have been trying to be strong for too long, which is maybe a form of denial. So much of life happens somewhere in between being okay and complete breakdown—that’s where many of us live, and doing so requires strength." ~ novelist Matthew Quick

Walking depression can be hard to recognize because it doesn't fit the stereotype. But it's just as dangerous to our well-being when left unacknowledged.

This list isn't meant to be an exhaustive diagnostic. But these are some of the signs I've observed in myself and those I've coached:

Nothing is fun. You root around for something to look forward to and come up empty.

You can't find flow. Working on your creative projects feels like a grind, but you keep plodding away. There is research that shows that neuroticism (the tendency toward negative moods) is associated with lower rates of flow.

Your energy is low. Maybe you're not getting enough rest because you're too anxious to sleep, or you're trying to cram too many tasks into a day, or you're punishing yourself by staying up. Whatever the reason, you are effin' tired.

You feel worse in the morning and better at night. I remember explaining this to a friend, who found it mystifying. In the morning I felt the crushing weight of all the things I had to do that day. In the evening I was temporarily free from expectations and could enjoy a moment's respite.

You have simmering resentment toward the people you're helping. Sure, you're still doing what everybody asks of you, but you stew in anger the whole time.

Your self-talk gets caustic. You say nasty things in an effort to shock yourself into action. You use shame as a motivator.

You feel distanced from people around you. It's hard to have genuine, intimate conversations because you have to keep up this front that you are alright.

You deprive yourself of creative work time (the artist as sadomasochist). This helps you exert some control and stirs up feelings of suffering that are perversely pleasurable. Also, taking on new projects that prevent you from writing or making art lets you prove to yourself that you're still strong and capable.

You notice a significant mood change when you have caffeine or alcohol. A cup of coffee might make you feel a lot more revved-up and optimistic. A glass of wine might make you feel really mellow and even ~ gasp! ~ happy. (That's how I finally realized that I was depressed.)

You feel like you're wasting your life. Strong-willed creatives have a high sensitivity to the inherent meaning in what we do. Creativity coach Eric Maisel calls this our "existential intelligence." If our daily activities don't carry enough significance ~ if they don't feel like a worthwhile use of our talents and passions ~ then soon we are asking ourselves, "What's the point? Why should I keep going?"

Why is it hard to admit that you have walking depression?

You may recognize many of these signs in your life but still be slow to admit that you are depressed. Why is that?

Because it feels presumptuous to put yourself in that category when you're still getting by. You feel like it would be insulting to those who are much worse off than you.

Because your pride and your identity take a hit. You have to admit vulnerability and allow that you are not the all-conquering superwoman you thought you were.

Because you realize that you and your life need to change, which feels like more work piled on your plate.

Because you are admitting your own responsibility for your unhappiness and that can trigger self-judgment.

Because you might uncover grief or anger at those around you for not seeing and taking better care of you.

What to do, what to do?

I'm going to write another post about how creatives heal from walking depression, but so as not to leave you in the lurch, here are a few ideas:

• Start using 750words.com to write out your feelings each day.
• Rachelle Mee-Chapman's depression shows up as stuckness, but her suggestions for getting through it are effective for the walking variety too.
• Check out how novelist Sara Zarr is coming to grips with her walking depression in the post Prozac vs. Jesus.
• Call my new hotline at 1-613-454-5594 to hear an encouraging message. Leave a voicemail and let me know how you're doing.
• Book a free 30-minute coaching session with me. Talking to someone who understands can help a lot.

Important: If you are in dire straits, please contact your doctor or visit the International Suicide Prevention Wiki to find a hotline near you.

Are you surprised that I work with depressed creatives?

Some people wouldn't want to touch them with a ten-foot pole (see stereotype above).

But I have a tender heart for people who find themselves in this place. I know ~ God, I know! ~ what it feels like. And I know how to find the path out. I can sit with deep sorrow and speak hope. I can come alongside and walk with you towards happiness. This is what Enter the Labyrinth is all about.

Of course, coaching is not therapy, and my clients have other professionals who help them deal directly with their depression. I believe that therapy is awesome for artists and I highly recommend it.

But coaching can be an invaluable part of the recovery process. A creativity coach gets your artistic needs and identity in a way a doctor or therapist might not. One of my clients had a doctor who suggested she just do writing as a hobby so she could stay in her draining government job. I had a well-meaning therapist tell me the same thing. But a creativity coach knows that there comes a time when 15 minutes a day doesn't cut it anymore.

Let me know in the comments: do these signs ring true for you? Have you ever been depressed and kept on walking?

Photo credit: Oleg Sidorenko

[Have you ever been depressed and kept on walking? Don’t ignore the signs]

What makes "people" happy?

I understand a long time ago that life is not about fame or money. I read delivering happiness and it clearified it for me even more.

I had this kind of discussions way too often already with young entrepreneurs or investment bankers:

me: Why do you do your start-up/investment?

him: I don't know, to get rich, be recognized.

me: Why do you need the money?

him: To be free to do what I want to be happy.

me: What makes you happy for instance.

him: Buying a house for my mom.

me: what else?

him: Playing guitar.

me: Why don't you try to make money by playing guitar, you dont need to wait 20 years to be happy.

him: you are naive.

I think it is sad that our society is crushing such young minds into thinking they have no other choice than giving up their dream to be happy. 

Life is about being happy, but makes us happy?

Having our needs fulfilled from the bottom of Maslow Pyramide to the top.

Or you can learn to be satisfied and grateful for what you already have and not ask for more (ex: buddhist monk).

Most people just have physiological, safety and belonging needs fulfill and are happy their whole life.

When it comes to physiological needs, you have different way to fulfill them, do what you are passionated about but earn probably just the strick minimum. But again, who cares? Because you are happy in the process :-)

Or you can listen to our consumerist society and believe earning just the minimum is not enough, because you need the Nike shoes, the Luis Vutton bags and the iPhone 4. Then you sacrifice your day to day happiness for conusmerism happiness (see: Hong Kong, the heaven of consumerism!). This is fine too, who am I to judge what kind of happiness feat you better?

My own Happiness

I felt I was so unhappy last year, but couldn't understand why.

Physiological need - ok.

Security need - ok.

Belonging - ok I guess

Esteem, Self actualization - not so ok.

The worst when you feel unhappy is to not know WHY you are unhappy. Then you start feeling guilty of being unhappy, you think about people in war country, people who don't have food everyday and you think: "Carole you suck, you are so blessed, why can't you just be normal and happy???"

I thought maybe it is because I've been single for a long time. My boss told me to find a bf (yes they do that in China), my colleagues, my parents all told me that it was probably the reason why I was depressed.

But I understood later it was just because I felt lonely. Loneliness has several different aspects. You can be surrounded by people who love you and that you love and still feel lonely. You can be married and sleep in a shared bed every nigth and still feel lonely (beginning of Eat Pray Love movie). I think this feeling is worse than being single.

Loneliness is not sharing your fears. When you share them you realize you are not alone after all.

My first step of feeling better last year was to find someone I could trust and rely on among my friends, tell her everything and spend sometimes with her, not worrying about the future. And it work for the first step.

My second step was to face my fear (at that time fear of failure professional) and to accept that trying and failing was better than remaining in this tetanized state of helplessness.

Once I accepted the possibility of failure, I felt better instantly.

Making your friends multidimensional

It is hard in nowaday fast-paced society and big city to know who are the friends who will be there for you and you can talk to. It seems that our daily interaction is about uni-dimensional give-and-take (I really start thinking about multi-dimensional friednship last year after a comment on this blog), and when you suddely don't have anyting to give.. who are the one you can still take from?

Also even when you knwo your friend on enough different levels to know they can help you if:

• you need money
• you need to talk to someone
• you need to share your worries about your work...

Anytime you want to add a new dimension to your friendship (maybe this friend can also give me relationship advices?) you take the risk to realize you are not compatible on this topic. You take the risk to open up, be vulnerable and the other person do not get you. It is very scary.

Hahns about loneliness

Later I shared this feeling with my long-time lost friend Hahns, and that all this time I missed him because there is many deep level thinking I feel only him will get. Effectivelly he got me immediately and even had a re-insuring answer to this fear. He shared with me a very interesting vision of the world:

[...] and on ur point of loneliness...
i like to use the example of being on the same bus together, on the same road, going the same way...
your friends are "with" u in this sense, but really u have ur own seat and perspective that no one else can share with u...
at any given moment in time, ur eyes are focused on something out the window...
not everyone is looking at what ur looking at, and even those who are will not have the same angle or find it as profound...
this really is what makes us unique individuals... so we are thankful...
but we are at times left feeling like we can't share the wonders of the trip fully with the ppl we care about...
that's really what loneliness is... and it's not such a terrible thing when u stop to think about it...
at least we have the hope that at some point during the long and strange trip, u'll have the opportunity to share with ur friends the things u saw...
and when u hear from them about the things that u missed, u appreciate that the trade-off to "loneliness" is a broader vision of life's road and its wonders...
and so u realize u really weren't alone after all~[...]

I realized I haven't mentionned the above picture "Connections, loves and Love" at all, but it ispeak for itself and I will publish a follow-up post soon.

Rather leave you with this reflexion on loneliness :-)

I watched I'm Still Here this week, it was quite random, just found it at my place, dont remember buying it, maybe a AIrBnB guest left it. I love Joaquin Phoenix since The Village - the most beautiful love story ever.

So watched it and was quite upset at our society, same feeling I got after I watched KONY2012.

I don't understand why people focus so much about "is it an hoax or not"? It doesn't matter because the problem they are pointing at are reals.

I'm Still Here is a documentary so it is not very entertaining, don't watch it to have a good time, watch it because you are curious of Human Nature and Societies.

If you want to be entertained and get the point, watch Black mirror episode one and two. It is a satyre of how our society is control by media and the media/entertainment industry. It is brillant, shockingly brilliant.

What make I'm Still Here very powerful is that, Joachim used his real life to show use how we - audience, fans...- can be cruel toward this people we raised up as our stars. He sacrificed 2 years of his carreer to transparently show us what it is to work in the "showbiz" all the wrong doing.

And no-one cared. People only talked about "is it an hoax or not".

I can't believe we live in a society where people on top, people who entertain us and take responsibility for us -the mass- I am worried that these leaders don't have a stronger support system. This is why so many stars kill themselves.

If you want to break free from your golden cage...People who loved you, look at you with contempt as soon as you try to be different. Misunderstanding, untolerance when I think we can try harder to be supportive of someone who just try to find happiness.

We are scaredof what is different. We are scared of thing we don't understand, and we don't understand people who don't think and do the same we do.

Our current system is building intolerance, I think it is more than time to improve it.

------------------------------------------------------

The toughest part of I'm Still Here - Joachim Phoenix at Letterman Saturday Night Live

(Sept 22, 2010) Casey revealing the full story of the movie

--------------------------------------------------------------

Did I believe in the documentary?

As for me I believed it was all real until I did all these background such. I was a little disappointed ot see Joachim being such a douchebag and so immature in the documentary, so was quite relieve when saw him at Letterman after the Premiere.

Me naive? No optimistic!

I don't think I am naive, like some of my friends say. I think I am an optimistic and now I love JoaquinPhoenix even more. But if he was the character he was playing, I would also love and try to be empathic. He gave me so much from The Village^^.

To people who think I am naive, I will just quote this great tumblr blog:

Have you ever noticed that although the formal definition of ‘naive’ is ‘showing a lack of experience or judgment’ it is not how it is really used? The meaning people typically attach to this word is ‘he thinks of people better than they deserve’. You’re naive to think that people don’t lie, you’re naive to think that people are good, you’re naive to think that people care about this… The word that was supposed to be used as a measure of one’s experience has turned into a way to express a core belief that one is not experienced until he understands that the world is inherently ugly. Well, I am naive then. I know how ugly life can be made by people. But I still know that there’s more to this life than ugliness, despair and dull existence with no purpose. In fact, life is anything but these things.

交通：距五道口城铁300米；距清华大学东门400米；门口有五道口公交车站

(download)

Click here to download:

Seeking_partners_for_a_techie_.zip (19.12 MB)

 Entrepreneur Hardship 101 – Borrowing money

I quit my job 1 month ago, to finally really start 100% with my start-up. Problem is..it was not completely plan. I left my company after some disagreement with management (see post “What qualified as moral harassment? " – I need to update this post, just didn't had time yet..) and even if things got better and I am not in good terms with everyone.. I just understood that my entrepreneur spirit would not feat working for someone anymore and my employer and I agree it was time for me to leave. Which I did. With no saving what so ever. I just came back form a trip to my hometown that used up all my last year saving and when I quit my job, I just had enough to sustain myself for 1 month.

Have you seen the movie “In Time” with Justin Timberlake? The movie was pretty lame but the plot and the idea of money is replace by time and most people in the world live a day-to-day life, with the content fear to not have enough time/money to survive… yeah well that is the feeling I got since I quit my job. 

So my mission number one, before being able to plan for the future, was to borrow money to FFF (family, Friends and Fools). But even to do that, you have to be pretty convincing that you know what you are doing, you are not some crazy irresponsible nuts who live off other people’s saving.

So I only ask my close family (parents + brothers and sisters). Problems is, in my close family we are not rich. And saving is not really a habits J.

I still collected enough money to sustain myself for 3 months, which was my timetable anyway to get ready to pitch angel/seed investors.

It is a hardship moment because you are vulnerable and you put the other people in a delicate situation, a situation where they have to say “no” to the help you request. SO you can only ask someone who is close enough to you to be able to do that, say no to you and know that you will not take them account for it.

You reach this level of trust only with family and 10+ years friends.

Still I haven’t ask my 10+ years friends for financials help yet because… I know they also have their family to support. I really want to ask them as last recourse.

Now I am in debt, plan to start paying back in January (9 months from now) and it is good pressure. Pressure that tell you “people who love are trusting you with your project, do not disappoint them, do not do shit, do not easily give up”.

Entrepreneur Hardship 102 – Not getting the support you expected

 Also the second step of starting your project, once you have the financial more or less sorted-out, is to refine your idea. Bounced it towards the brightest mind of your network, people you trust and admire.

 Something I has not expected and prepared at all for, is to have these people I trust and admire (yeah, they are some kind of mentors I guess) trying to discourage you from being an entrepreneurs...*(see Updates below)

Different reasons I received was:

• You are too young.
• You don’t have enough experience. You can keep learning from others’ mistakes.
• You have no saving.
• You could benefit so much from working for me.
• Doing a startup in China is a very difficult market to crack, particularly for a foreigner. Just setting-up the company properly is troublesome.
• You don't have a technical co-founder.
• You are instable and change job too often, are you sure it is the wiser thing to do?

All these reasons are legitimate, but I heard from entrepreneurs testimony and from organizing iWeekend, seeing people moving from corporate job to entrepreneurship is that:

- The earlier you start and fail, the earlier you get better.

- First hand experience is the best.

 If you are interested you will find at the end of this post my answer to each of the above reason but this is not the main reason of this post.

1) “Entrepreneurs need a strong support system” – Eric Setton, tango.me CEO

Last year I was lucky enough to meet with tango CEO, Eric Setton when he was visiting China. He wanted to get in touch with my employer but he is also a classmate from Polytechniques (one of the best French Engineering School) of my mentor Leo. So we had lunch and I remember him replying to my colleague when he asked him how supportive was his wife of all his travel and entrepreneur life: “She is very supportive and I need that. Entrepreneurs can not make it without a strong support system”.

And it made me wonder, what when you are single? Are you condemned to fail? Who will encourage you in your low moment?

I haven’t completely test my current support system but yes, you need close entrepreneur friends who can fully understand what you are going through. You need mentors, people you are looking up to who believe in you and push you when you need to be push, listen when you need ot be listen to. The mentor who is doing that for me is in Boston and we mainly exchange by email, but he is doing a great job. And it is quite surprising considering that it is someone I only met face to face for what…maybe 20 days tops!

That’s the thing with connection, if it is someone you have a lot of common with, it doesn’t take time for you to build trust and understand each other.

My advice #1: Surround you of people who are supportive. Know who they are, who are the people you can REALLY rely on, test them even is needed, don’t just make assumption, this is too important.

2) “Do not waste your time trying to convince people..” – BenjaminJoffe, CEO at DayDeed.com, mentor at 500Startups

The main reason for this post is to pass to all entrepreneurs out there the best advices that has been given to me in my entire life, an advices that has been given to me when I was meeting people to prepare for the 1^st iWeekend Beijing, an advice given to me by Benjamin Joffe, founder of Mobile Monday Beijing and mentor at 500 Startups:

“Do not waste your time trying to convince people who don’t want to be convinced. Just go do your thing! When they will see you moving forward, not giving up and even maybe succeed.. this is when they will challenge their views and this is how you will convince them you were right”.

Action speaks louder than words. Sure you need to be prepared but action is never a waste of time.

Thank you Benjamin.

*Updates:

The mentors above mentioned both accepted my choice after a few email exchange and even supported me by saying: "By sticking to your decision you augment your chance of success" and "You do have the #1 quality for an entrepreneur -- stubbornness."

That completely made my day! :-)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

My answers to “Reasons for not starting your business”:

1) You are too young.

This is the excuse old people tell you when they are afraid that younder people do better than them. You are never too young to start great things. Read “Delivering Happiness”, Tony Hsieh started his ventures since he was 6 years old. You are never too young. But you migh get too old (too many responsibilities).

2) You don’t have enough experience. You can keep learning from others’ mistakes.

2 different schools of thoughts, I believe you learn much faster from your own mistake. It is definitely beneficial to learn form others but you don't need to get a job or go to school for that! Just attend a few good “experience sharing” event and read books. This is largely enough.

3) You have no saving.

This is a good one. It would have been good to have enough saving for 1 year. But nothing can be perfect from the start and this is the first test of entrepreneurship: how do you cope with unplanned situation? There is always a several possible solutions. The trade off of time vs money is usually is always in the advantage of time. You have lot of different way to get money, you can not get more time. Time should be used to do the only thing you can not get elsewhere: start your thing.

4) You could benefit so much from working for me.

Also usually true, particularly if you have 0 work experience and no network, in that case yes, I will advice you to take a 2 years job with a boss you respect and admire and who has a great network.

Personally I already did that, building my network since 2012, you can always get a better network, so that is not what should stop you to start.

5) Doing a startup in China is a very difficult market to crack, particularly for a foreigner. Just setting=up the company properly is troublesome.

Well I don't see a solution to that, if I listen to this reason than I will never start anything in China.

On the opposite many entrepreneurs in China advice you to not worry about being “a proper business” when you start. Just start, test your idea, only when you start getting traction, then start worrying about being established, not before.

6) You don't have a technical co-founder.

I did believe it was a problem 1 year ago and use it as the excuse to not start being an entrepreneur (see http://carolewaihai.com/2-months-reflexion-about-my-entrepreneurship). Truth is, the partner thing was not the problem, the problem was I was not ready, timing was not write. I hightly recommend the TED video in this post “LEADERSHIP – TED dancing guy”, a video that has been recommended to me by Stephen Wang, CTO of alive.cn and iWeekend mentor. I got the idea of what it means last year, I am surprised I didn't wrote it in my post at that time, so I will do it now.

When you are ready, when you truly believe in something, you have to be capable to be this dancing guy, dancing alone in the view of all, most people will think you are crazy but it doesn’t matter, you goal is to proof you believe in it enough to attract your first follower (your partner), than adapt your dance to him/her, together you will attract more “believers” until you reach a tipping point and everyone want to join your movement.

The most difficult step is to get that, the first believer. But if you don't believe in yourself, your cause enough to make a fool of yourself, alone, you wont’ be able to attract him/her.

Do not wait to have the perfect co-founder to start. I would be living a life without dating anyone but waiting for the one you want to marry. Well you need to test may people for you to know what you really want.

If the co-founder thing is what stop you that just mean you are not ready and it is FINE. Take your time. When you will be ready, not having a co-founder to start will not stop you, because you will have faith that he/she will turn in sooner or later.

7) You are instable and change job too often, are you sure it is the wiser thing to do?

This reason came from someone who is not familiar with entrepreneurship and spent his whole life being a public servant. Well guess what dad, times are different now!

People who love you can sometimes not relate to you and because of that, they can not give you good advices. You know better what is the best for you, I will always advices my friends “do not stay in a job you hate is that trade off do not worth it”. If what you will gain by staying is not crystal clear for you, run!

Who cares how long you stayed a Morgan Stanley? Do not conform, be unique, write you won story. As long as you can justify every each of your action, you will be fine^^.

I first saw KONY2012 video one week ago on March 13, on weibo (the chinese twitter) after I start following this early Chinese Facebook employee I met @Garage Cafe (very cool guy, you can follow him too! @王淮Harry哥)

Actually a good friend of mine send me the video by email one day earlier on March 12. The video has been post on Youtube on March 5th. I was just so busy I hadn't watched it then. 

What I immediately thought about it? That it was brilliant and that Jason Russell was a great guy and a genius. Also very self sacrificing to involve his own son and say his real name. But someone had to do it, and if you want to lead the way...you have to make sacrifices. I can completely understand.

I felt so disappointed in our society that such an important issue, issue that could bring us all together...was kept away from us.

I felt ashamed of the world in which we are currently living, but also hopefully that 2012 could the year of the paradigm shift.

About KONY2012 critics and recent episode of Jason Russell’s breakdown.

One: the critics.

• Is the campaign misleading?
• Is Kony even still in Uganda? Is he dead?
• Shall the US army get involved?

Critics are important if they are constructive and help you refine the suggested solutions. If the critics aim to stop people to act… please just shut up.

1) It is not your job to you people to do the strategy of how to arrest a international war criminal (unless you have relevant experience in doing so).

2) Shall US get involved, Shall France get involved, shall China get involved? Well it doesn’t mater who, but someone should do something, lead the way, put peer pressure on other powers.  Crimes happen because at all level of the society people thing “why should I be the one do to something”. Let me ask: “Well why not?”

3)  For me the point of this campaign is NOT ONLY to help arrest Joseph Kony. The point is mainly to educate people that they might be “nobody”…but it today’s “facebook world” they have more power, they can act and spread the world. Awareness is a first step. You’re action can have an IMPACT. So all this distant international matter you think are too far from you…they are not, they are also YOUR responsibility!

Two: About Jason Russell’s breakdown

Society wrongly build this image that leaders, people in power, upper class people are not human, they are not weak, they don't have breakdown. It is a manipulation and I can not believe people are still dupe! It is a manipulation to protect privileges of  people who are currently in power but shouldn't -they arrived there only because they have connection / family background... And to make you –other people- believe that the reason they are where they are and you are not, is because they are better!

We all have self doubt. And smart manipulative people understood it ages ago and have been playing the mass for ages.

I read an article about Mandela taking a tiny plane with his team and the plane pilot made the announcement of a technical problem and they had to land in catastrophe. Everyone was a bit panicking but not Mandela. When they finally land safely and Mandela set foot on earth, he said to his advisor “damned it really scared the shit out of me” (ok he didn't say exactly that, I don't remember the quote :-). And the advisor was like “Really, but you looked so calm!” and Mandela replied “I was just faking it because I knew the rest of the team was looking at me to decide to panic or not, I needed to show the way”.

We need to know more about our leaders and their weakness.

Being an Eternal optimist

I am an eternal optimist. I made a point at remaining an optimist, even when my best friend is betraying me, when love disappoint me, when my parents are not as great as I hope they would be. I make a point to myself to stay optimist because I don't want to become one of these sour person that nothing can please anymore.

I am actually preparing a comedy gig about how optimistic I am, how much I believe people are naturally good and that “bad guys” are just very misunderstood people, taking the example of Hitler. This is just a comedy gig but it describe very well my life motto. And today I could rewrite it to do it about KONY, the new main villain of our world.

What pissed me off the most in this world and that the KONY2012 campaign is addressing very well! 

What piss me off the most in this world: (stupidly) bright people who work in investment banking/consulting and help rich people getting richer.

Our society build the wrong believe in us that success if money, power and an office over looking Central Park.

For me success is measured by the amount of happiness you feel everyday.

Poverty / war situation can only be solve by injecting billion of money in the country?

I don't believe it is true/ It is one type of external intervention that successfully succeed in Ireland, Japan and Korea for prevention of conflict (they learnt from Versailles treaty I guess). But I don't think it is the only solution. This is the solution if you want to build stability with the same wrong system than in the old economy: a system that promote money as success.

I am sure there are plenty of example of conflict resolution brought by local small organization just by teaching people to know each other (this is the only way you can stop stereotyping, by making it obvious that the person you hate/blame for all your misery, is actually just a human being like yourself). By teaching local population economical self sufficiency (not 100% I don't think this is realistic), help them grow most of the food they consume, be the more independent as possible from the outside world. This doesn't cost a lot of money. But maybe this kind of program are not largely supported because big powerful economy are afraid of lifestyle, of this vision of having plenty of tiny self sufficient market that don’t need their import and WORST, can inspired existing market with their new way of living!

China can be a laboratory for this kind of new lifestyle, so many regions that need development, sustainable development, nor development tied up with the economical boom of the coastal fancy cities. And many programs are running in Yunnan and others areas.

I think this is one way China can become the new world leader.

Back to KONY2012, My personal pledge:

If by 31 December 2012 Joseph Kony has no been killed or arrested, I will enrol full time for Invisible Children for at least 1 year.

Not that I have a solution or that I think I can change thing for sure (I just hope I can). But more particularly because I don't want to be pat of a world where injustice remain unpunished and most people are just looking the other way.

"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."

Updated:

A fewlinks people send me to discourgae me from KONY2012 campaign. Not convincing enough guys..

- KONY 2012 Video is Misleading, slubogo (Youtube user), 7 March 2012 

- The Problems with "Stop KONY", The Atlantic Wire, 8 March 2012

- KONY2012 Exposed: African Invasion Psyop, Infowar Nighly News, 9 March 2012

On the other ends, positive replied from celebs:

Kony 2012 Jason Russell's Breakdown: Kristen Bell, Brody Jenner, Other Celebs React, e-online, 19 March 2012