by Laura Monteros
Back by popular demand, Altadena Town Councilmember and all-around Renaissance man Allan Wasserman led a second motivational session at the Altadena Library on Monday evening, in "Designing Your Life: Part II".
“My wife calls me a 200 pound hummingbird,” he said, “because I flit from thing to thing.”
In all that flitting, there is direction and perseverance, however. When he wanted to pick up the sax he had laid down after high school, he worked at it hard enough to start his own band, which is still going after several years. He moved from a corporate office to an office in his home. He saved money for a trip to Italy by putting away all his five-dollar-bills for six months.
“I redesigned, I rearchitected, my life,” he said.
A large part of being able to change the direction of your life, Wasserman believes, is to make connections with other people who can help you. “We all need each other. I need you to feel good about putting one foot in front of the other,” he said.
Asking for support is one of Wasserman’s three steps to getting what you want out of life. The June session covered how to do this, along with the other two steps, compromise and making lists.
In part two of Designing Your Life, Wasserman stressed the importance of saving. “It’s the act of saving, not the amount,” he said. “Why? Because money is going to buy your freedom. That’s the way it is in this country.”
“We’ve become extremely emotionally immature when it comes to money. We want that car, that house.”
His father was a New York cabbie, but saved enough to put Wasserman through Boston College, pay off his house, and leave $100,000 when he passed away at age 90.
As an illustration, Wasserman asked the audience to guess how much he had saved by putting away fives and hundreds since the June session. The two people who came closest were give $20. The figure? More than $7,000.
“It’s shocking how much cash slips through your fingers,” he said. “Do it—and you’ll be happy.”
Integrity is another ideal Wasserman promotes. “What does it mean?” he asked. Various answers included “Let your yes be yes, and your no be no,” “Your word is your bond,” “Do what you say you will.”
Nature seems to have integrity, Wasserman observed. Having integrity comes back to doing what’s on your list.
He also spoke about not letting fear hold you back. The reason most people can’t do what they desire—what’s on their lists—is because they fear the future.
“Successful people get stopped just as often as unsuccessful people,” he said. “The difference is, they are not stopped for long.”
As in the first session, he had everyone make a list and then people read some of the things on their lists. Others spoke up to offer assistance or connections to help with the fulfillment of those desires.
Wasserman closed with a quote from his rabbi for Yom Kippur. “You have to open you heart and open your mind” to other people. “Sometimes it’s easy, and sometimes you have to make yourself do it. It fills your life.”
