15Jan 2015 by CJ

The consumer deserves better products for their money

Information & Education, Life & Living
“As a business leader you have to ask yourself, “Am I creating a consumer environment that is conducive to loyalty?” If the answer is no, FIX IT!” ― Steve Maraboli Years ago I was the kind of consumer that based my decisions more on price than anything else. What I learned from doing this was price does not always equal quality in the products and services we obtain for ourselves. As a consumer in today’s highly complicated and competitive product landscape, I can now tell you with great certainty that a company’s customer service is more important to me than just about anything else. Companies would be remiss if they haven’t yet figured out that brand loyalty is built not only from product offerings, but perhaps more importantly on the…
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12Jan 2015 by CJ

Hoarding time benefits no one – sharing your time is the greatest gift

Generosity & Kindness, Life & Living, Love & Relationships
“Nothing annoys people so much as not receiving invitations.” ― Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest Something I’ve come to miss most in my life is the regularly scheduled Sunday dinners my Italian American family used to host. Typically they were held at my grandmother’s house, with a huge bowl of pasta covered in red sauce as the centerpiece - accented by dozens of meatballs and sausages, a crunchy loaf of Italian bread and a chopped salad. I’m getting hungry just writing this! My cousins were there, aunts and uncles and me all set to enjoy the weekly gathering filled with stories, laughter and reminiscing. Regardless of your schedule, you always knew there was an open invitation at grandmas, with plenty of food, company and love of family. But…
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30Dec 2014 by CJ

What matters in life is who you are, not what you have.

Life & Living
This morning on my way to work, while stopped at a red light, I noticed a young woman standing on a snow-covered street corner shaking from the frigid temperatures. In her hand she held a sign made out of corrugated cardboard and a thick black marker. It read simply, “Spent rest of money on rent. My 2 daughters need food.” It’s easy for onlookers to assume these individuals are drug users, degenerates or simply con artists playing on the sympathy of others during the holiday season. But I sometimes wonder if that kind of reasoning is concocted so we don’t feel a moral obligation to give of the abundances we find ourselves fortunate to possess. I couldn’t imagine standing on a street corner having to beg for food or money…
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16Dec 2014 by CJ

Where are you Christmas? I think I might have found it.

Life & Living, Youth
Originally posted on December 11, 2014. As of this writing, there are exactly 15 more days until the conclusion of 2014. It was a year not uncommonly filled with its share of highs and lows and looking back it’s difficult to imagine where the last eleven months have escaped. But as John Lennon once said, “life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans.” But before we welcome in a new calendar year, we have another time-honored holiday to celebrate – Christmas. A subject of continuous debate, and the recurring theme of countless movies, books and television specials, is what is the true meaning of Christmas. While arguments surrounding its true meaning are subjective, it’s hard to decipher a logistical explanation when December 25th is continuously shrouded in dazzling…
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10Dec 2014 by CJ

Don’t worry about being generic – be proud to be yourself

Life & Living, Youth
“There are people who are generic. They make generic responses and they expect generic answers. They live inside a box and they think people who don't fit into their box are weird. But I'll tell you what, generic people are the weird people. They are like genetically-manipulated plants growing inside a laboratory, like indistinguishable faces, like droids. Like ignorance.” ― C. JoyBell C. There are times throughout our lives when we find ourselves surrounded by an endless stream of individuals who adopt what is “popular” in society – all in an effort to fit in rather than stand out. We conform our language, behaviors, preferences and prejudices based on what is deemed acceptable as a culture, whether we truly agree with it or not. Today we seem to gauge what’s…
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