I just watched a talk about Happiness by Professor Srikumar S. Rao and Loved how simple/right on his concept of happiness is!

This talk intrigues me because of how we deal with happiness day in and day out and what the majority of us thinks creates ‘real’ happiness.
We put conditional elements of happiness into a little imaginary box (This box could include any number of things; A new job, getting married, a promotion at work, the house our dreams, the perfect vacation, etc.) and we say to ourselves, “If only I can get that little box (no matter the time or sacrifice), then I will be truly happy”.

I don’t believe that the statement above is totally negative, we should have goals, dreams and ambitions…but these obtainables shouldn’t be the definition of Happiness in our lives.
We need to learn how to be happy, even if we have nothing ‘special’ to speak of.

When happiness is dependent on the if/then statement, we set ourselves up to live an unfulfilling & depressing life…Be careful, because this could be a very poisonous mindset!
Let your daily happiness drive you to be a better & more full person.
Have an Awesome Day!
~Chais Meyer

[There is an update at the Bottom of this Post]

I was recently loaned an Audiobook called “Adventures in Creative Thinking” By Mike Vance. This particular Audiobook is a set of 6 cassette tapes, not CDs or an .mp3 file, making it very challenging to listen to if you don’t own a cassette tape player…I don’t know if you know this, but iPhones, iPods and most computers don’t have a cassette tape slot! You probably knew that

The last time I listened to a cassette tape was probably about 5-7 years ago. So, in order for me to listen to this highly recommended Audiobook, I would either have to convert these tapes to .mp3s or listen to all 6 of them on a tape player. I decided to convert this Audiobook Set into a single .mp3 file. Easier said than done…

After about 4 hours of searching for my old tape player, and having no luck finding it, I decided to search for this book on the internet…ARE YOU KIDDING ME? NO DIGITAL COPY OF THIS AUDIOBOOK AVAILABLE ON THE WEB…NOT EVEN TO PURCHASE!?!

I started doing a little investigating and found the company that made this Audiobook, here’s a link to their website: http://www.creativethinkingassoc.com/
“OK, now I’m getting somewhere”, or so I thought. They have a online store with all of their Audiobooks (15+ published books) but NO .MP3s!

Whether this was right or wrong, I noticed an opportunity to help a company upgrade their products and possible make a little money for myself in the process. So here’s what I did:

1. I went to Audible.com to see what the procedure is to submit published Audiobooks for digital distribution and possible resale on their website. I don’t see any actual instructions, just an email address that I can send my questions to…so I write them an email.
2. The email to Audible.com is copied below (I sent a copy to Audible.com and a copy to ‘Creative Thinking Association of America’ The creaters of this book) :
   “Hello Audible.com,
   My name is Chais Meyer and I’m writing for ‘Creative Thinking Association of America’.

   I am currently in no way connected to ‘Creative Thinking Association of America’, but I would like to assist them with the conversion of their Audiobooks to the proper digital formats to possibly be distributed and sold by Audible.com.

   ‘Creative Thinking Association of America’ currently has 15+ Complete and Published Audiobooks that involve creative thinking and entrepreneurial mindsets. These books have made a dramatic impact on myself and my business partners, and we would love the rest of the world to be able to have access to these Audiobooks in a digital Audible file format. I believe that this conversion will allow ‘Creative Thinking Association of America’ to earn additional revenue from their Audiobooks by being converted and sold with your proprietary digital format (I view your company as The Premium Audiobook Resource) .

   I do not have permission to act legally on Creative Thinking Association of America’s behalf, I am only doing investigative work to make this process as smooth as possible for them, if they do indeed decide to convert their Audiobooks into a digital Audible format. Can you please direct me to any/all page(s) or document(s) that explains the specifications and/or requirements needed for converting Audiobooks to the proper digital format? I would like to have a clear answer for this company of how these processes would work. If there is anything else they should know (contract documents, etc.) I would love to provide them with any appropriate literature that will help them understand this process and get everything moving in the right direction, if they choose to do so. I believe that their knowledge and experience needs to be spread to the world.

   Thank you very much for you help and I look forward to hearing from you.
   Chais Meyer
   (mobile) 402-419-1202
   (email) meyer@threedotinc.com
   (twitter id) twitter.com/chaismeyer “
   

3. I wait for either a good or a bad answer…nothing yet!

I do realize that this could be seen as presumptuous and/or very forward on my part (because I was not given permission to contact Audible.com). But I see such a huge need for any existing published Audiobooks to be converted and sold in a digital format. I mean, we’re in a day and age where portable audio is a standard thing and if your books aren’t in the format to reach the masses, they most likely WON’T reach the masses. Sounds logical anyway.

I don’t know whether this action will be good or bad in the long run, all I know is if you’re trying to run a business in ‘Today’s Business World’, you need to follow suite and sell what people are buying.
Who knows…Maybe this will be the start of a business that converts everybody’s old Audiobooks to the new standard Digital format, and maybe for all my hard work and forwardness, I’ll get a percentage of every online sale (Crossing my fingers). Whatever ends up happening, I know that if I didn’t have the balls to help this company make a change, I would never see any positive benefits!

Be Courageous, Daring, and Spontaneous, and if need be…be ballsy enough to tell others they need to change for today! (Just understand that change can be difficult and scary for certain people)

We’ll see where this goes from here.
Have an Awesome Day!
~Chais Meyer

[Update 3-18-2010 :: I received an email from Diane Deacon, President of Creative Thinking Association of America and it's listed below ]

Hi Chais,

Thank you for your letter and call.  We are glad to know that our Creative Thinking products have helped you be even more creative!

We are working on getting some of our audio programs into proper digital formats.  We will let you know when they will be available.

Keep the Creative Juices Flowing!!!

Sincerely,

Diane Deacon
President