Mark Hamilton presents a short spoken piece titled “Power of Calm,” advocating calmness as a practical approach that improved his business, parenting, investing, and relationships. He illustrates the idea with personal anecdotes (a stressed print-shop owner named Dennis; imitating the calm TV character Blake Carrington; parenting examples observed in McDonald’s; becoming a major investor in the Grand Canyon Skywalk with partner David Jen) and contrasts calmness with panic/limited thinking, arguing calmness confers influence and better decision-making.
Chapters
Hey, Mark Hamilton here. Hey. I thought I'd just stop in and let you know something that's been very effective in my life. I wanted to share it with you. I call it the Power of Calm. The Power of calm. I first learned about the power of calm when I was a young man. There was a small print shop that I would visit frequently back in the day when we had light tables that we would lay up our manuscripts, my books, old technology. But I spent quite a bit of time in that little print shop. And I remember to this day a fellow named Dennis. He was the owner of the print shop. Running around, productive guy. Working long hours. Work late into the evening, get there early in the morning. But he was always in a panic mode. He was always stressed out, overwhelmed. I realized as I was watching Dennis one evening, one late evening, that he will never, ever be more than his little print shop because he reached his limit, because he didn't understand or know about the power of calm. He was overwhelmed, panicking, stressed out, anxious, and therefore, he never would have more than that little print shop. Admirable, Providing a nice value. I appreciated him and his services, but he was at his limit. So I was a young man, and one of my TV shows I liked to watch was called Dynasty. And on the show was a fellow named Blake Carrington. He was an oil tycoon, very successful, and he always was just so calm in the most stressful situations. Now, I know it's all fiction and all that, but I remember looking at him and then thinking about Dennis, Blake, Dennis Blake. And I thought, I need to be Blake Carrington at work. I worked a very stressful job at the time. My desk was piling up, sort of like Dennis's print shop piling up with jobs. And he would get confused and lost and panicking over that. My desk was piling up faster than I could get through it. This before I had figured out, discovered, invented the mini day system.
And I was getting like Dennis. But then overnight, it was just a decision in my head. It was that simple. I said, no, I'm not going to be Dennis anymore. I'm going to be Blake. I'm going to be Blake Carrington. I changed my demeanor. I interacted with people at a completely different level. Very calm, collected, very sincere.
And a major change happened with my business, with my personnel. Everything changed just from discovering the power of calm. It's something very powerful in my life. And I've lived my life that way ever since. And I've had other major benefits as a result. So that was in business. That was when I was a young man, just getting started. Now, power of calm, it also, I found, was very beneficial in raising my four children in parenting. So being a writer, I spent a lot of time in coffee shops. It's just a good atmosphere for writers. Back in the day, before there were coffee shops, I would write, I would spend time in fast food restaurants such as Carl's Jr. Or McDonald's. And I remember sitting in McDonald's and that's where a lot of families come in. And over and over again, I would see stressed out parents that would say, throw a tantrum with their children. Of course, the reaction of their children is fear. A child recognizes irrationality when a child sees it and a child recognizes and is drawn toward rationality when he or she sees it. I would see when these parents, stressed out parents, would go into one of these tantrum y fits where they're yelling at their child or perhaps even giving them a spanking.
Losing it, so to speak. I mean, it didn't happen a lot, but it happened. And in McDonald's I'd see that from time to time.
And I could see the child just recoil, learn nothing, no lesson learned whatsoever. Just shrivel away from irrationality. And I remember thinking, boy, if they could just be calm and collected, deal with their child on a calm level. The power of calm, well, that's how I raise my children. And children will respond to, will be drawn to the calm, rational person. I could teach my children any lesson and they would learn the lesson just through the calm message from my voice. That was it didn't need to throw a tantrum or lose control. So in parenting, the power of calm is very powerful and effective. Something to think about another place. The power of calm has been very beneficial to my life.
Is in the world of investing.
I am the major investor.
In the Grand Canyon Skywalk with my partner at the time, David Jen.
David did not plan to have.
A major partner. He planned to have several small time partners, but he didn't plan to have a major partner as I became.
The reason that he allowed me and wanted me to become a major financial partner was, and he expressed this to me over and over and over again, that he liked having me around because I was such a calm person. There was a lot of stress in building the Grand Canyon Skywalk. A lot of people we had to deal with a lot of personnel issues that we had to deal with. And he just liked having me around because I was such a calm person who could handle these stressful situations with Calm and sincerity. I didn't get riled up, so he just liked having me around.
But I didn't have time to just be around and unless I could become a major partner investor with him. So that opened up that opportunity for me, would have never opened up if not for the power of calm. So the power of calm can benefit you in many ways. In business and parenting, in investing, and let me just tell you, in relationships, everything in life.
Everything in life can benefit from this power of calm. So what's the contrary to the power of calm? Well, that would be like dentists, where you're limited and you've capped yourself out. You can only go so far. That's it. Wherever you're at in your routine rut, perhaps that's it, you're stuck. That's it. In parenting, you get greater and greater conflicts with your children. They don't really learn the lessons you want them to learn simply with a simple attitude change to the calm, collected, sincere person of power. You know what comes with calm comes power. When you're calm, you carry power, you carry clout. People listen when you are the opposite of calm. When you're anxious and bothered and panicky, overwhelmed, well, people withdraw, just like the child would at McDonald's. They withdraw, they recoil. They don't want to be with you, they don't want to interact with you, they don't want what you have to offer. So they are shut off to the values you can bring them. What about in investing? If you don't have a calm, collected mentality? Well, you're not making rational decisions. And not only that, but people around you know that. So you lose your power, you lose your clout, you lose your rationality.
You lose your ability to do well.
So keep that in mind. The power of calm. It's very attractive. People are drawn to it. You will make friends, you will perhaps make a romantic relationship. Through the power of calm, you will get respect from your children, you will get respect from the world. The power of calm.
