I love to write with music on in the background. It calms my nerves. I also like to listen to music before I write. I know that I would not exercise unless I have a set schedule. That is why I meet my trainer Larry three times a week. There are days when the last thing I want to do is exercise, but since I had an appointment with Larry I had to go.

What is your ideal mood for doing the things that you want to do? What is stopping you from doing it? How can you put yourself in a better mood?

Before I started working with Kristi, I used to have an intern come to my house and I would write for an hour and a half. There were times when I could not write. I didn’t want to write. In the hour before she’d come, I would be stressed out because I had no idea what to say. She would come and I would get something on paper. It wasn’t always my best work, but it was something. And for writers, something is always better than nothing.

When we have things such as that business...

There were weeks where I could not or did not write this blog, but for the last year and a half, I have only missed two weeks because of the holidays. There were times that I was on vacation, yet I had Kristi put a blog post up. Same thing with Twitter. I tweet at least three times a week, if not more. If I did not make a conscious decision to blog once a week or tweet at least three times a week, it would become just something I do occasionally. I look at it as a business task and most business tasks cannot and should not be done occasionally. The minute I come up with an excuse like I’m busy this week or I have nothing to write about, I open the door to bigger and more lame excuses.

I stayed out with the boys a little too late last night.

The game went into overtime.

I am obsessed with getting this blog up every week. Not because I’m going to be in trouble , it’s because the last thing that I want to do is make this an occasional blog. As a writer and...

To be honest, I didn’t like Twitter in the beginning. It took me a while to understand. My conclusion is it’s about reminding people that you are still thinking and keeping yourself on the top of their minds because if you don’t, no matter how thought provoking or funny you are, people are going to forget about you.

Because I cannot use a smart phone, I can’t tweet all of the time. I would love to tweet that I’m in the car on my way to a speaking engagement or having dinner with friends, but I can’t. Early on I found sites where you could put in a tweet whenever you want and schedule it. One time I was in a meeting at USC and when my family and I finally got out of the meeting, my sister turned to me and said, “How did you tweet that without a smart phone?” She was more than a little bit freaked out. I explained to her that for me, it just doesn’t feel right tweeting about my everyday life. I started to tweet a thought of the day...

One morning in the spring of 2006…

I woke up and had a speech scheduled for that day.

I always start my speech with this line: “My name is Sourena Vasseghi and I love my life.” That morning, while lying in bed, I felt like crap. It was one of those mornings where I wake up and people around me were scared to talk. I’m sure you have had mornings like that. I was going through my first break-up ever, and it sucked. I always try to be authentic and hate being a hypocrite. How was I supposed to utter the words “I love my life” when I was feeling so down that morning? My mentor, Frank Miles, was even going to be there. I thought of canceling my speech—but I didn’t. I got ready, put on my suit and tie, and went. As I got closer to my event, I began to feel the adrenaline and after I was introduced, I said my first line.

“My name is Sourena Vasseghi, and I love my life.”

For the first time that day, I actually was in love with my...

For the last few months, my manager Kristi and I have been talking about our next steps with my speaking and writing career. Kristi has always brought up the fact that I underestimate my struggles as a human being and neither of us has been able to figure out why that was.

Is it because I’m not self-aware? Actually, I am very self-aware. I know myself very well. If I’m having a good day, I know why and vice-versa. Is it because I live in a cocoon where I only understand my own life? I wish that was the case because it’s only when I think about other people’s lives that I say my life is hard. There are days when I wish that I could only look at my own life in a vacuum. Is it the fact that I don’t let anything get to me? Of course not. I have bad days just like everyone else. I throw hissy fits like any other human being. I get frustrated when I can’t do something right.

Then what is the issue? Why do I keep underestimating my struggles?

I finally...

Here is the conclusion of my Debunking Conventional Wisdom post, in which I provide the top six conventional wisdoms I disagree with and why. Read part one here.

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4. Never make excuses. Excuses are a part of life. My definition of an excuse is why something did or did not happen. The fact is that I blame a lot of stuff that I cannot do on my disability, such as if somebody asks me to help them move, I can’t. If you are losing your job, and your boss gives you one more chance, what are you going to do? Are you going to roll over or are you going to throw every excuse in the book to possibly save your job? Be careful because the more excuses you make in life, the less chances that you have to succeed. If I made the excuse that nobody wants to hear a speaker with a speech impediment, I would not be following my calling.

5. Overcoming problems. I was considering naming my next book I Didn’t Overcome Anything. From a branding perspective, I decided I...

Last week I realized what Henry Ford said with his quote, “If you think you can do a thing or think you can’t do a thing, you’re right.” Some of my thoughts about life and love are not what you might think. In my next two posts, I am going to give you the top six conventional wisdoms I disagree with and why.

1. Anything is possible. First of all, there are more things in life that are not possible than possible. Focusing on things that are impossible is futile. It distracts your focus from what is indeed possible. I never put my focus on being a good football player. Instead, I focus on becoming a speaker and speaking to the USC football team.
2. Seize the moment, carpe diem. While I am an advocate of living life to the fullest, there are times when we have to get down to business. There are times when we have to skip the movies or tell a friend we cannot take that backpacking trip to Europe. I was at a basketball game with my friend Jay Lavender, who at the time...

Henry Ford famously said, “If you think you can do a thing or think you can’t do a thing, you’re right.”

I believe life has limits. I can list many things I cannot do. Does that mean I am a pessimist? I like to think that I am a realist. Focusing on things that are near impossible is a waste of time. I know that I can’t be a surgeon. According to Henry, if I believe that I could be a surgeon, I can. Is that healthy? I don’t think so.

With that being said, there have been many things that I thought I could not do. Once I started asking “how,” life opened up to me. There was a period of time when I thought going off to college was impossible. And what seemed impossible became possible once I told myself I could do it, same thing with my speaking and writing career.

I could have said there’s no way someone with a speech impediment could become a speaker; instead, I asked myself is it a possibility? Was there a model that I could...

Every year since 2007, something extraordinary has happened in my career.

2007—Published my book.

2008—My book won two Indie Excellence Awards. One for best business book of the year and one was an honorable mention for best book. Forever I can call myself an award-winning author.

2009—Westlake Today named me Man of the Year.

2010—I received the Soaring Spirit Award from Looking Beyond.

I received an email from the organizers of TEDxPasadena asking me if I would be interested in becoming a TED speaker. I was honored. Of course I wanted to, but there was one caveat. It was just an invitation to be considered for the event.

I filled out the form and sent in a proposal, and last week at 10:15PM, I received an email from Kristi telling me that my proposal was accepted by TEDxPasadena. I am very honored to be speaking on October 22nd of this year, the day after my birthday, which means I have to be a good boy on my birthday. Probably a quiet dinner with my...

As I mentioned in last week’s blog post, I recently went to the National Speakers Association annual meeting. As I was looking at the schedule beforehand, I noticed that Larry Winget would be speaking that weekend. At this discovery, I practically turned into a thirteen-year-old girl finding out that she just got Justin Bieber tickets.

In life, we all have people we look up to. When I was a kid, I looked up to Magic Johnson, Bo Jackson, and other athletes, but now I look up to successful business people–especially those who have made it in the speaking and publishing industry. I definitely look up to people such as Jim Stovall, Brian Tracy, and most of all, Larry.

In 2005, I was giving my first speech as a professional speaker–with my dad serving as my interpreter–to a group of Persian women. It was a few months after I went to my first National Speakers Association meeting and my mentor Frank Miles came to give me a critique. In the hallway, Frank and I were...