“Pushing the boundaries of creativity“

Whether you’re a struggling writer, a starving musician or an aspiring artist, getting recognized for the work you produce is difficult even at the best of times.

For others, like French painter Henri Matisse, his work was not only recognized for its visual appeal, but he is commonly regarded as one of the artists who helped revolutionize and define visual arts throughout the opening decades of the twentieth century.

Known for his expressive use of colour and drawing, which can be seen in his work spanning nearly five decades, he is widely recognized as a leading figure in modern art alongside other famous artists like Pablo Picasso.

Born in 1869 in northern France, Matisse grew up in a middle-class family before going to law school in Paris. Two years into law school his studies were sidelined when he was diagnosed with appendicitis. While he was recovering, his mother bought him art supplies to help him pass the time, a decision that would change the course of his life forever.

While recovering from appendicitis, he soon discovered a burning passion to paint and decided upon his return to Paris that he would study art at the Académie Julian. While he initially painted still lifes and landscapes in a traditional style, in 1896 he was introduced to impressionism and to the work of Vincent van Gogh.

Struck by Van Gogh’s use of vibrant colours, Matisse immediately abandoned his earth-coloured palette for bright colours and later that year exhibited five paintings at Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, two of which were purchased by the state.

With his new-found success, he grew in confidence both as an artist and a man, and over the next two years his colours became lighter in hue while at the same time more intense. Around the same time he also married a young woman from Toulouse named Amélie Parayre. Together they left Paris for a year and visited London where he studied the paintings of J.M.W. Turner before travelling to Corsica, where he received a lasting impression of Mediterranean sunlight and colour.

As his career progressed his fondness for bright and expressive colour became more pronounced and he quickly became one of the leaders of the Fauvism style, which emphasized strong color over the representational or realistic values retained by impressionism.

While the undisciplined nature of Fauvism didn’t last very long and was soon replaced by expressionism and cubism, it didn’t affect Matisse’s career. 

            His paintings, and soon his sculptures, began making appearances at art exhibits across the world including in New York and London.

By middle age and with growing affluence and an established international reputation, the disruptions of World War I isolated him from the centres of avant-gardism. As a result, he began to spend his winters on the French Riviera, and by the early 1920s he was mostly a resident of Nice.

During this time his pictures became less daring and less economical. Like many of the painters and composers during these years, such as Pablo Picasso and Igor Stravinsky, Matisse relaxed into a modernized sort of classicism.

In the following two decades between the first and second world war, Matisse created costumes for a ballet production, returned to creating sculptures and continued to paint. He also found the time to travel to many far off places, such as Tahiti and San Francisco.

During his final years of his life he led a rather solitary existence after his wife ended their 41-year marriage in 1939 and the Nazi’s invaded France. Despite the occupation, Matisse was still able to exhibit his artwork after signing an oath assuring his “Aryan” status.

            By 1941, Matisse’s health took a turn for the worse when he was diagnosed with abdominal cancer. Despite a successful surgery, he suffered serious complications that left him wheel and bedbound.

During this time he continued to pursue his passion for art and developed a new art form called paper mache using glue and scissors until his death in 1954.

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The truth about leadership and love

Far too many of us know what it’s like to work in a toxic workplace or have a bad boss, fortunately, it doesn’t have to be that way.

Few people know this better than Katherine Miracle, who has made a career out of motivating leaders to rethink how they can create a positive workplace environment to help their team – and their business – reach its full potential.

Over the past two decades, Miracle has used her life experience to refine her message and, in the process, has become an entrepreneur, author of four books, a university instructor, business coach and a highly sought-after public speaker.

In her first book, Discovering Your Dawn, she shares a personal tragedy that occurred while she attended college. The book unveils the mistakes she made during the tragedy and reflects upon her own suffering in an effort to help others. Published in 2009, it is a highly-relatable narrative that motivates readers to overcome their difficulties in order to help others avoid a personal crisis as she did.

The publication of her first book not only resonated with people but also helped propel Miracle’s public speaking career. Within a few months of publishing it,  she quickly found herself visiting college campuses across the United States to talk to students about leadership and love. During her motivational and inspirational seminar, she shared her experience of losing close friends, tumultuous relationships, and how such jarring tales impacted her educational experience.

            Following the success of her first book, she decided to use her experience as a marketing and public relations expert to publish three more books to help individuals and businesses reach their full potential. In her second book Marketing That Drives Revenue, its purpose was to help professionals, entrepreneurs, and leaders increase their revenue.

In Miracle’s third book, Your Strategic Personal Brand… The Truth and the Lies book gave readers the tools to use their own strategic personal branding to find their passion and purpose. With the help of this book, she built a national training program called Brand + Team = Revenue, which has helped over 100,000 professionals build their brand, team, and revenue.

In her fourth book Inquisitive Culture, which was published in 2020, she dives into the secret weapon to not only survive but to change a toxic workplace into a culture of success and respect.

Beyond putting pen to paper, she is also the founder and CEO of Miracle Resources, which is a full-service marketing, public relations and training firm. Her company has helped increase revenue for more than 1,000 brands and provides training and success coaching for businesses and non-profit organizations.

            In fact, her company has helped raise over $30 million for 10 non-profits and secured $4 million in free publicity for corporations and nonprofits.

Miracle’s work as an entrepreneur has been honoured as a distinguished marketing executive by Sales & Marketing Executive International and she has also won the Elite Women Award from International Business Women.

            When she isn’t busy helping businesses and individuals succeed, Miracle teaches communication at Kent State University and the University of Akron.

“Formal education will make you a living; self-education will make you a fortune.”

Want to inspire others and be inspired by famous inspirational quotes? Sign up for a 7-day free trial of Nimble Quotes, choose from 60+ categories of quotes (success, financial, business, women’s quotes etc.) to appear on your Twitter feed as if you’ve tweeted them yourself. Try our SMS option too – get inspirational quotes sent to your phone each day – a text message you’ll love to receive!

From rags to riches and the pursuit of the American dream

Born in 1930 and raised on a farm in the mid-western state of Idaho, Emanuel James Rohn, also known as Jim, understood from an early age the value of hard work. 

Blessed with a strong work ethic, Rohn excelled in school as a young boy graduating third in his class out of 140 students, however, despite his early academic success, college proved to be more challenging, and he dropped out after only a year-and-a-half. 

With only a high school diploma in hand, Rohn struggled as a young man to make ends meet, before eventually landing a job as a stock clerk with Sears where he managed to earn $57 a week. 

While the job offered a steady income, he quickly realized that his weekly paycheck wouldn’t be enough if he wanted to pursue his goals and ambitions.

As luck would have it, Rohn was invited by a friend to attend a lecture by John Earl Shroff, who was the vice-president of a nutritional supplement company called AbudaVita. 

Unsure what to expect, Rohn was struck by Shroff’s wealth, business accomplishments and his charisma, however it was Shroff’s philosophical outlook on life and a personal challenge to the audience to become millionaires that left a lasting impression. 

Leaving the lecture inspired and determined to make the most of his life, Rohn vowed to follow Shroff’s philosophy and set off on a journey of personal development that would ultimately transform his life. 

In the following weeks, Rohn quit his job with Sears and joined Shroff with AbudaVita in 1955. Two years later Rohn resigned and joined Nutri-Bio, another direct selling company where Shoaff started to mentor him. Following his mentorship, Rohn built one of the largest organizations in the company and by 1960 when Nutri-Bio expanded into Canada, Shoaff and the other owners selected Rohn, who was only 30 years old at the time, to be the vice president for the organization.

By 1961 Rohn had done the impossible, and in six short years had become a millionaire, which he credited in large part to his mentor Shroff, who helped him realize his own potential through personal development.

Despite his success as a young man, Nutri-Bio soon went out of business and Rohn was once again unsure about his future.  As fate would have it, a friend invited him one day to share his “rag-to-riches” story to a local Rotary Club. 

His talk went so well that he was soon asked to speak at other events and luncheons and by 1963 he held his first public seminar at the Beverly Hills Hotel. Following this pivotal event, he began holding seminars across the United States sharing his story and his life philosophy. 

During these events he became known for his rag-to-riches story and emphasized the power of self-improvement to get ahead in life. He also stressed the importance of investing in yourself to reap the maximum benefits in life. 

For the next four decades he continued to share his story and host seminars and personal development workshops to inspire people to reach their full potential and even helped mentor Tony Robbins in the 1970s, who would eventually become one of the most well-known and sought-after inspirational speakers in the world. 

Throughout his career Rohn published 17 books and was the recipient of the 1985 National Speakers Association CAPE Award for excellence in speaking. Rohn passed away on December 5, 2009. 

Other Jim Rohn Quotes:

“I used to say, ‘I sure hope things will change.’ Then I learned that the only way things are going to change for me is when I change.”

“One of the best places to start to turn your life around is by doing whatever appears on your mental ‘I should’ list.”

“Human beings have the remarkable ability to turn nothing into something. They can turn weeds into gardens and pennies into fortunes.”

“Formal education will make you a living; self-education will make you a fortune.”

Want to inspire others and be inspired by famous inspirational quotes? Sign up for a 7-day free trial of Nimble Quotes, choose from 60+ categories of quotes (success, financial, business, women’s quotes etc.) to appear on your Twitter feed as if you’ve tweeted them yourself. Try our SMS option too – get inspirational quotes sent to your phone each day – a text message you’ll love to receive!

In another article, I shared why Twitter is Social Media’s best-kept secret and how easy it is to get your message out in front of a lot of people fast.

You probably already know that for any social media or marketing to be effective, you’ve got to build your audience.  And as you follow more people and they follow you, more people get to know you and your business.

A top five goal our Nimble Quotes subscribers have is: Grow Twitter Audience. But how?

It’s just like in real life. Imagine you are at a business networking event, a conference, a seminar. There are hundreds or thousands of other people at the event. You know you want to meet people who can help you grow your business, who you can learn from, partner with, help out. The only thing is, you’re probably going to have to make the first move. You’ve got to approach them, introduce yourself and break the ice to get the conversation going.  It is exactly like that on Twitter. Make the first move.

I know! It would be easier if the other person made the first move. Can’t they do some of the heavy lifting? I hear you. But you’re in control of your goals, your business, and believe it or not, many people appreciate someone else making the first move. So take control and be the one to do it!

Here’s what I’ve found works…

The secret formula that I’ve discovered over the years working with hundreds of clients in different industries, is that on average if you follow 100 people, anywhere from 15 to 40 people will follow you back. 

That adds up very quickly.

Here’s how you can get started:

1. Follow people you already know from your email or other contact lists.
2. Look for people on Twitter that have content you are interested in, are in the same location or may be a good potential client and follow them.
3. Follow back people who follow you.

It’s that simple.

Why not put the formula to the test today on your own Twitter account? Your target is to follow 100 people in the next few days.

Hit reply and leave me a comment to let me know what happens.

 

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