About a year ago after a long writing session at Borders, I was about to leave. I walked by the magazine rack and saw an article onWIREDabout how the iPhone blew up. I began to read because my brother had given me one for Christmas when it first came out. Very generous of him.

The cool thing about it was how Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple, challenged the wireless carriers. Something that none of the cell phone makers were able to do.

According to the article, the carriers dictated what features could go on a handset, how it should operate and such. But Jobs probably had a dream: phone calls from an iPod.

I also think there were several carriers and industry experts that scoffed at the idea, thinking the market for that would be small. And the Blackberry was king of smartphones at the time.

Jobs went ahead with his idea, basing the iPhone on a concept model Apple made before.

When the iPhone first came out, it was met with great fanfare. The reviews were mixed and several features were missing that were found on more mediocre cell phones. But it became a hit.

On June 19th, this past Friday, I stood in line for the newest iteration, the iPhone 3GS. News reporters, Mac fans, and Apple store employees gathered to what looked like a small scaled Star Trek convention. People came in costume, others carried old Macs while in line, customers were interviewed, employees handed out water or juice bottles for those in line. It was really cool.

So what’s the point of this on a website that focuses on fantasy and individuality?

The iPhone was fantasy before it became real, and Jobs took on giants, namely the wireless carriers, and won. No one, not even RIM, makers of Crackberry (Blackberry), had changed the field as Apple did. Apple may be big, but in the scheme of things they’re tiny in comparison to those they took on.

Dream big, don’t listen to anyone who says you can’t, and go forth with action. Isn’t that what all great strories depict?

What is merciless commitment?

When I was writing my novel, one of the things I looked forward to was completing it.  Dont’ get me wrong.  I loved the process.  If I didn’t, I’d stopped writing a long time ago.

What I didn’t expect was the constant revising and rewriting.  Every day I would getideas, learn about writing, or want to add details to the story.  And each time I’d go through my manuscript, taking me anywhere from one to four months, depending on the extent of the idea, writing technique, etc.

Last November I received a professional critique on my novel and worked hard for the next four months.  It was a heavy revision after many prior revisions.

This last February marked my final revision.  God it felt good.  Then I went to my first writers conference to learn about the business, learn about writing, and pitch my book to agents.

Then it happened.

While attending a seminar something clicked in my head.  For some reason I became aware of the intricacies of conflict.  That conflict can happen on different levels at the same time, adding to the depth of the scene.  For example:

Guy:  “Wanna go to dinner?”

Girl:  “Sure. Where?”

Guy:  “How about pizza.”

Girl:  “Had it for lunch.”

Guy:  “Chinese.”

Girl:  “Yuck.  The grease? You want me to get fat?”

Guy:  “Okay.” Guy rubs the back of his neck. ” There’s this new salad place.”

Girl:  “Am I fat?”

Guy:  “No.  Just recommending–”

Girl:  “Whatever.”  She tosses her Valentines card, leaves the dozen roses and box of chocolates on the coffee table.  “Let’s go.”

Guy:  “Okay.”

It’s obvious the guy put no thought into Valentines day.  He’s trying to accomadate her but can’t seem to figure out why she’s upset.  Girl is mad, punishes him by being difficult, but wonders if he loves her anymore, or finds her attractive.

This small piece of enlightenment in writing technique created an explosion of doubt.  Did I do this in my story?  There’s only one way to find out.  Read every single line of my manuscript.  Not only was I frustrated, but I questioned my grit.  Then I remembered theturtle.

I threw out any doubt of my dream and put my nose to the grindstone and finished my last revision.

Crap!

In writing myEpisodesI learn about efficiency.  I only give myself about 1 1/2 word doc pages to write each episode.  So every word matters.  And I fell in love with this way of writing.  Now I’m back revising with this new insight.  I don’t get upset anymore about working.  I just do it because merciless commitment is required in any worthy endeavor.

The antagonist of my book is a Hitler like figure.  He believes in a society that is formed in his own image with his own ideals, and will go to any length to attain it.  He lives with the idea that everyday people are there to serve him, therefore, are below him.  Equality is something he thinks about a lot, but only a select few deserve it.

This is the reason why the hero, the protagonist, rebels against this Hitleresque figure.

Do you believe in equality?

One thing San Francisco has a lot of are homeless, panhandling along the financial district.  What an image.  What do most people do?

Ignore them.

I’m not judging.  I’ve ignored my share.

I was teaching my student not to compare himself to others.  He was doing that a lot, always pitting himself against others, and letting his day be affected by others’ standards.  I told him that all people are equal.  No matter their actions, status in life, male, female, etc.  It’s what this country was founded on.

So why do we ignore the homeless.  Are they below us, the employed, the homeful?  I mean, they sit out on the street begging for money.  Why can’t they find a job?

It’s funny.  Employed people aren’t so different.  People kiss their boss’ ass to a high degree.  Their noses are so far up they can smell what their boss’ had for dinner last week.  They laugh at jokes that aren’t funny, give gushing praise, work long ass hours, and are afraid to speak their minds.  No one wants to be fired.  They want to be seen as a team player, to be liked, to form rapport for job security.

But how’s that different than begging?  At least the guy on the street has the balls to say what’s on his mind.  When people ignore them, they’ll let them know.  They’ll have a conversation with themselves out loud.  And they don’t care.  At least they’re breathing fresh air, enjoying the outdoors.

Now, I’m not suggesting to tell off your boss when you feel like it.  But the behavioral changes I see are insane.  I’ve hung out with some of these people so I know.  Schizos.

So the next time you walk by a homeless person and don’t feel like giving money, which is perfectly fine, smile.  They’ll thank you for it.  Or say, “That ain’t gonna pay for my beer!” as they hold their sign:  Why lie?  I need money for beer.

The hero of the 7th Province has a choice.  He either rebels against his close friend and former mentor, or join him in taking over the world.  Each choice ends in war.  That’s a tough place to be.  Is there a correct choice?  For the hero I’m not sure.  As a writer, the choices that each character makes, ultimately mine, is a crap shoot.

I love that.

Even though I’ve plotted my whole novel, each day I wrote brought new discoveries and challenges that made me giddy.  I’m never sure how things were to happen.  I just know they had to happen.  As a result, writing my fantasy was a huge adventure.

Is rebelling bad?

I have a secret.  It’s one of my favorite things about myself.  I don’t get along well with authority figures.  That doesn’t bode well since my day job is encrusted in a corporate empire.  The funny thing is they have a lot of propaganda that emphasizes their business values.  I won’t get into the hypocrisy of it.

Is rebelling not a good thing?

A parent tells a child to kiss Uncle Louie.  Child scrunches her little face and shakes her head.  Parents eggs the child on, saying Uncle Louie loves the child.  Child pouts her lips, turns, runs toward her parent’s leg, and grasps with all her might.  Parent gets upset, unhinges the child, pushes her to Uncle Louie, and forces her to kiss him on the cheek.  (I credit this example to my best friend.)

Is this wrong?

Hell yeah.

The parent just took the child’s power away, forced her to kiss a strange man, despite her not wanting to.  If Uncle Louie were a child molester, the parent just punched a large hole in the child’s ability to resist the attack.  In the child’s mind love is associated with force.  And we wonder why some women stay with men who batter them.

What if the child was just being a brat?

Firm discipline should take place.  You decide what firm is.  That’s different in each culture, society, family and individual.  But in the example above, the child is not being a brat.

Teaching a lot of adolescent kids made me realize one thing.  Almost every single one exerts their own independence.  Every parent exerts their control in an attempt to guide them.  It’s the nature of the ocean, the ebb and flow.  Parents think their kids are being a pain in the ass.  Offsprings think their parents are being assholes.  What more could you ask for in a relationship?

Think of a pendulum searching for their own center.

Parents often ask me to infect a behavioral change.  But that’s an impossible task.  All I can do is mentor them without limitation.  Tom Cruise taught me that.

He was on Inside the Actor’s Studio.  A great show by the way.  He said that his mother never limited him in what he did.  She was watchful, but allowed him to explore the world.  Now he’s some actor making at least twenty million dollars per movie, chump change.

As you sit in your day job, and if it’s not the place you want to be, then what are you doing about it?

See part 1 to this article.

To rebel or not rebel.  That is the question.

The hero in my book is confronted with a choice.  His close friend and former mentor wants to brutally take over the world.  The hero is given the safe and easy position of being the right hand man.  Doing so would kill tens of thousands of lives through war.  Rebelling against his mentor would kill tens of thousands of lives through war.  Probably more.  Nice choice, huh?

I was watching a documentary called Slanted Screen. It chronicled the stereotypical and racial barriers Asian actors have to go through and endure in order to be successful in Hollywood.  I enjoyed the documentary, but I have a serious problem with it.  More on that later.

The main message was rebel.

One of the main reasons Asians are not seen as much in Hollywood is that acting, singing, dancing, the arts, are not considered practical choices of occupation.  I know.  My family detested my decision to study acting, and at times isn’t the most positive when it comes to my success in writing.

Actor Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa has been in tons of movies such as Mortal Kombat, Rising Sun with Sean Connery and  Wesley Snipes, and in upcoming movie Tekken.  The list is just huge.  He said something that I connect to.  If your heart is in the arts, and your family doesn’t support it, then don’t listen to your family.

Rebel.

I think too much in life we succumb to the norm.  Afraid of marching to our own drummer.  Wary of listening to our hearts let alone follow it.

I wrote a post about themillion dollar question. It asked, if you were guaranteed to make a million dollars a year, what would you do?  Does it match the work you’re doing now?  If not, can you spend an hour a day, five days a week on it?  If that’s too much time, then reduce it to 45 minutes a day, five days a week.  Or 30 minutes, five days a week.  Four days.  Three.  Just start.

What happens, if you truly love it, or like it, is you’ll naturally spend more time on it.  You’ll sacrifice precious things like hours talking shit in the bar, or watching television.  Have your own vision.  It happened to me.  I started writing around five hours a week.  Then it grew to ten.  Suddenly, I was spending an average of 15 hours a week writing.  I loved it.

We all have bills.  We have to eat.  Take care of our families.  Have laundry that we have to wash on the rocks by the river bed.  After we clothespin the laundry on the clothesline, what do we do?  We sit down on the couch and watch TV.  We watch reality TV.  Watch others chase, attack their dreams.  We see a lot of them succeed.  Then we go to bed, sleep, wake up the next morning, and start the circle all over again.

This is called complaining, playing the victim, blaming things outside of ourselves, when it is us who stopped us from chasing our dreams initially.  And that was the problem with Slanted Screen.  A lot of people interviewed said being Asian made it hard to succeed in Hollywood.  Really?

Have you heard of a small guy namedBruce Lee?

Rebel.

Do you take risks?

I’m a huge fan of the UFC.  If you don’t know what it is, look it up.  It’s as close to a real fight as you can get legally.  Right now their greatest and most revered champion, Anderson Silva, is getting a lot of crap from UFC fans.

There are two basic fighters that step into the cage, an eight-sided fenced in platform where the fights are held.  One type of fighter comes in to win.  Another type comes in not to lose.

Silva was on a huge winning streak, winning eight straight fights.  Less than a handful of people have ever accomplished that in the UFC.  His last fight that was held a couple of weeks ago would have marked his ninth, breaking the record.

He stepped into the cage to defend his title.  Without going into details, both he and the challenger fought not to lose, which made for a boring fight.  The president of the UFC even apologized.

When going for your dreams, taking risks is necessary.  That’s the hard part.

I spent more than three years writing my book.  I went in to win.  I didn’t think about winning when writing the book.  But my intention was to get published.

Is there a limit to the risk?

Justin Lin is known for directing movies such as THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS: TOKYO DRIFT, ANNAPOLIS, and FAST AND FURIOUS to name a few.  I first knew of him when he directed BETTER LUCK TOMORROW.  He’d spent about $100,000 on the movie by maxing out eight to ten credit cards.

That’s going in to win.

MTV ended up buying the movie, recouping Lin’s cost.  But the win came when we got to direct James Franco, Donnie Wahlberg, Jordana Brewster, Roger Foo and Tyrese Gibson in ANNAPOLIS.  His risk brought him his dream of filmmaking.

Is there a limit to risk?

I think the risk should be somewhat related to the goal.  If I’m writing my fantasy, risking my life shouldn’t be part of it.  What I’m risking is my ego, three years of my life and my dream.  The win in my mind is awesome.  If I’m a fighter, then my life is at risk.  The aims are different, which brings in different sets of risks.

Ultimately, the limits are personal.

I’ve been watching UFC since it first came out in the early 90’s.  And I was disappointed with Silva’s performance, even though he won.  He definitely came in to the fight not to lose.  And the fans are speaking out.

Brad Pitt. A friend on mine told me a story about him. We were talking about how we’re surrounded by people who’ve not only chased their dreams, but have achieved them. What most people don’t see is their perseverance. Pitt had dropped out of college, moved to the city of angels, did a lot of odd jobs like wearing a chicken suit to promote El Pollo Loco for years, before he landed his first major roll in Thelma & Louise. Now he’s one of the biggest movie stars in the world.

There was a study done on a high school class. The study followed late into their adult lives. It found those who stuck to one career path had earned and attained more than their combined classmates who didn’t. This story has floated around the self-help industry for many years, and is rumored to be just a folk tale. But its prevalence tells us a truth.

I was talking to a friend, and she’d reconnected with one of her long time classmates who works for Coke. This person is about ten years younger than I, but has climbed much higher on the corporate ladder. I’d always moved from job to job. She’s worked for Coke since high school, about eight years now, and illustrates an important point about consistency.

A few years ago, I went to a Renaissance Faire. I love them. My girlfriend at the time and I were watching a turtle race. Each person would place bets on a turtle of their choice. The race started. Contestants yelled and screamed, urging their turtle to crawl faster. One turtle, slow and steady, made great headway and was literally one step away from crossing the finish line. Then it stopped with one foot stuck in the air. All it had to do was place the foot down, and, bam, it won. It just froze. Another turtle from behind took the win.

So what’s the point? Once you find your passion in life, follow through with it. Whether success is truly overnight—it does happen—or takes time, love the process. If you love to act, go into every audition and act! If you love to work on projects for your company, or love reaching sales goals, go in every day and love working.

For the process is really what we love. The goals matter little. Why? Well what happens once an actor becomes a huge movie star like Pitt? What happens to the sales executive who reaches their ultimate sales goal? They continue to act, continue to sell, continue their work. All of them display a high level of dedication (knowing what they want), focus (loving what they do), and take each step toward their dreams (doing what they love).

Love your work. The goal will come.

In most martial arts schools, the punch is the staple of the strikes.  Whether you’re in MMA, karate, kung fu, and even tai kwan do, punches seem to lead the strikes as the favored weapon.

But there’s a problem.

If you’ve ever looked at an x-ray of a hand balled into a fist, it looks like a bag of bones.  Literally.  What happens when you throw that bag of bones into something hard like a skull?  Bones break, splinter, shatter.  Professional fighters like those seen in the UFC have hands broken all the time.  And they’re skilled fighters who not only practice the correct way to punch from different angles and situations, but they do this an average of six hours a day, five days a week.

Now, the traditional martial arts instructor is asking a person off the street, who practices maybe an hour a day, to strike with a bag of bones.  Common!

I’d talked to a true kung fu master, who practiced iron body training, used to specialize in breaking skulls with a single punch.  He said something really interesting.  He was instructing a student who was about five feet tall.  He told her that her striking range was inside her attacker’s striking range.  No four foot person is going to attack her.  The master taught to use slaps to work your way inside, then use elbows, knees, gouges, etc.

Slaps.

There was a scene in Tombstone where Kurt Russel’s character, Wyatt Earp, confronted a card dealer who made trouble for the saloon.  As the card dealer was threatening to do something, Kurt–we’re on a first name basis–slapped him.  It was one of the coolest scenes in a western.  Kurt slapped him again and again.

Slaps align the bones in your hand.  Because of this, breakage is unlikely.  And if you think a slap doesn’t hurt or is sissy, ask anyone to slap you hard and tell me if it just tickles.  Accuracy is still required, but not as much as a punch.  You want to be effective with a punch, you gotta be totally accurate.

Slaps also take little skill.  You can slap someone with bad form, and it’d still hurt.  Punch someone with bad form, and all you’ve done is push them.  Another strike that takes little skill.

In my book, my character have claws.  So I had to find creative and interesting ways of striking and fighting because the punch was taken out of the equation.  Ask any woman who has long nails make a fist and punch.

Passion.  Is it important?  People talk about it all the time.  Lovers look for it.  Artists seek it in their muse.  Musicians sing about it over and over.  If passion is important, do people need it in their lives?  And should every one have it?

Passion is one of my main themes that I explore in my book.  Because it’s a novel, I can’t lecture about it.  I explore it from both the hero and antagonist.  Kinda like William Wallace and King Edward I in Braveheart.  For passion can infect people who are both ethical and horrid.

My coworker said passion is important but not necessary to live.  ”Someone needs to work at Walmart,” she stated.  That’s true.  Someone needs to do farm work, run the Mickey D’s, man the gas stations, pick up the garbage.  ”Look at our company,” she said.  There’s about 36,000 employees.  ”Our company couldn’t run itself.  It needs us.”

Again, all those are true statements.

But isn’t freedom of choice the freedom to choose what you do in life?  For many years I’ve searched for my passion, the thing that took me out of time, out of my daily drudgery.  If you’ve read my bio, you know it’s telling stories.  I love it.  Do I love every single part of it?  No.  But do I love it almost all the time?  Most definitely.

I have my day job.  However, it’s only a means to an end.  That’s it.  Nothing more.

Michelangelo is famous for painting the Sistine Chapel and sculpting David among other things.  I was listening to Dr. Wayne Dyer, and he said Michelangelo’s passion was sculpting.  His day job was the Sistine Chapel.  I thought that was interesting.

Without my passion for stories, I’d be lost.  I’ve been lost before and it sucked.  That state of limbo led me to mine.

I think William Wallace said it best in the movie.  ”Every man dies.  Not every man lives.”

So, is passion needed?  And are my coworker’s statements just a shield to protect her from her own power to create what she wants in life?

One of the things I indirectly explore in my fantasy is age. I was out with some friends the other night and one of the girls harped on my age, worried I’d be the oldest. Among the group, I was the oldest. I’m thirty six. It’s a freakin’ number. Mentally I feel real good. Physically I feel fantastic. Spiritually, I feel present when I want to be. I’m still learning. Maturity wise, I’m in my early teens. I laugh at farts. I crack up at groin shots in movies. I tell jokes no one ever gets. Or if they do they don’t want to let me know cuz it’ll show how imature they are. It’s part of my sensibility.

One thing I don’t do is think about my age. I love writing my book, working on this website, fantasizing about my stories, watch almost half of the movies that are released, including the crappy ones. I do things that I love, I eat healthy six days out of the week, exercise 4 days a week, and laugh as much as possible.

This, to me, is how to be ageless.

Stop thinking about it and delve into what you love. For age IS a number, never a state of mind or a place in your life. There are teenagers in the world who are millionaires. Who’s to say they can’t be because they’re so young?

Don’t place limits on yourself because of age.

Look at all that Bruce Lee has accomplished. He graduated from Washington University. He started a small chain of martial arts schools. Got married and had two kids. Developed a philosophy of martial arts that is still prevalent today. Did some tv acting. Through that he became a huge movie star in Asia that gave him the opportunity to star in a Hollywood movie when most industry leaders said he’d never make it as a leading man in America. He’d published several books. All this and more was accomplished by the age of 32.

Don’t focus on your age. It doesn’t matter. Do what you love, and love what you do. And if you allow it, everything else will fall info place.