Ice bucket challenge 24/7

Perhaps many of my readers will not share my opinion on the following topic I want to write about. However, in the craze of the last weeks I got to the point that I wanted to express my opinion. Can't be silent about it anymore.

Two of my students, a sister and brother, both study in expensive private schools today proudly showed me the video recording of their Ice Bucket Challenge published on social media, naming their friends to follow their example within 24 hours.

While I understand the 'raising awareness' side of this challenge, I think it is more to do with 'look how cool I am', I am brave enough to pour a bucket of iced water on my head, I survived it and it gave me a reason to finally film myself and put it up on social media. For me this is like bungee jumping. Just an adrenalin rush.

One of my thoughts was that this craze will only continue until a kid dies. I don't believe that pouring iced water on your head is particularly good for you. Don't misunderstand me. I come from a country where minus 20C is normal in winter and one of my favourite health regime while I lived in Finland was to spend time in the sauna then jump in the frozen lake. This is just a normal pass-time, social activity and a health regime in many Scandinavian countries.

The other that made me quite upset is that pouring a bucket of iced water on your head is just a dare, just fun for most of these people who participate in the challenge. This is not raising awareness. It is just fun, if you jump, I jump type of game. A celebrity who filmed himself doing it in a bath tub even stayed in the iced bath to show how cool he is.

What they don't realise is that for many of the people who live with the disease or live with chronic pain this challenge is an insult. Nobody can imagine what it is to live with the disease. Nobody can imagine what it is to live in pain every minute, every day, every week, every months of your life year after year. Nobody can imagine what it is to live your life in pain not knowing if it will ever end, live your life in so much pain that you want to end it. Nobody can imagine what it is to not being able to live the life you used to or live the life you want to because you are stuck in a body that does not serve you anymore.

People who participate in this challenge only get an insight what it is to live with the disease or live in constant pain if they keep pouring that iced water on their head 24/7 but that none of them would dare to do that. None of them would cope with it.

Donate money if you want to help. So please, respect those who live with the disease and live in pain, stop insulting them with your adrenalin rush games. What's more, please stop wasting clean water for this nonsense. In many parts of the world that bucket of clean water would save lives. Get a grip. Get a life.

Do old beliefs serve us?

I remember many years ago sitting in the office of my then tax accountant working on that year's tax return. He was a trumpet player in his free time. He looked at me and told me that I need to smarten up. My tax accountant told me that I need to create royalties. I remember, I looked back at him like he was an alien. How could I create royalties? I was a conductor, university lecturer, aural and music education specialist! Not a song writer or composer!

However, just today I received a message from Amazon to update my details because they want to deposit USD $151.87 to my bank account for my books. This message inspired me to log in and check my payment from iTunes too, after my songs and albums. More royalties from there, too.

So much has changed in a decade....My tax accountant definitely has managed to put the bug in my head about the need to produce royalties....

Since his advice, I started to write books and publish them as eBooks which gave me total control over my intellectual properties. I started to write songs and similarly, I managed to publish them such a way digitally that I enjoy the full benefits of my own works.

But what is more, I started to look for business opportunities that bring royalties, create passive income. While as a musician I manage my own music studio and get paid based on the hours of lessons I teach, I managed to find and build a business that not only pays for my efforts now but also rewards me for my team building efforts forever and on many levels. The magic of duplication is the best kept secret of the business world.

A lot has happened since that advice from my tax accountant but forever I am grateful to him. He has managed to change my view of the world, my thinking when it comes to business and finances, but most importantly, he has changed my life and definitely he has changed my future.

It took a long time to get my head around what he said and to find a way to follow his advice. With his advice he challenged everything that I grew up with. He challenged all our conditioning, everything that our parents, our education and society taught us. Most importantly, he challenged the idea of getting a good job and working hard. It took a long time for the penny to drop on what "Work smarter not harder" means.

However, it looks like the seed that he planted is alive and is growing. The rest is now just question of time and increasing the activities that generate these royalties both in music, writing and in my businesses.

The most important that my tax accountant taught me is to challenge the age old beliefs and to look things with fresh eyes. Too many beliefs simply don't serve us anymore.