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Mario Schulzke

My name is Mario and I grow ideas, companies and hot peppers.

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Quiet

There aren't enough quiet times in our lives anymore. Boring moments. Times when you're entirely aware of the moment you're in. Everything is fast. Everything is connected. Dings here. Notifications there. Endless scrolling. Hopping from one mediocre dopamine hit to the next. I am

Quiet
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Degradation

Everything in life degrades. Some things you can stop from degrading, some things you can slow down, and others go straight to nothing. It's why I have a hard time buying fresh flowers. I struggle with their pace of degradation versus the period of value delivered. Is that

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Value

When I first started my career in Advertising, I was under the impression that I needed to attend networking events to progress. So, I attended all kinds of networking events. * Networking events for people who lived in Santa Monica * Networking events for people who worked in Advertising * Networking events for

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Negative Stuff

Stuff. You need much less than you think.

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Dependence

When my grandmother died, my grandfather was pretty helpless. He had gone through most of his life without ever knowing how to make himself something as simple as an egg. And my grandmother never worked in a factory or fought in a world war. They were dependent on each other.

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Misunderstood

One year in college, my girlfriend invited me home for Thanksgiving dinner. It was lovely, so I wrote a thoughtful thank-you note to her parents, thanking them for their hostility.  The correct word would have been hospitality.  Coming to America, my English was terrible. A.k.a., this is one

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Pillow (Self) Talk

Every day, we make choices, big and small. Mostly, they are small- like 99% small. Those small choices add up. They compound and, over time, determine what kind of life we will live.  * Will you be healthy?  * Will you be happy?  * Will you be successful? * Will you have to worry

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Zag

When I first graduated college, there were few jobs available. It was a bummer, as just a couple of years earlier, a bunch of my friends were getting signing bonuses for their first job after graduation. The existing jobs were hotly contested, with often hundreds of applications. I had about

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2024

I don't do New Year's resolutions anymore. Why? Well, I am super happy with the life I have. I love my family, everyone is healthy, I work out most days, my job is fun, teaching is incredibly gratifying, and I have some bucket list adventures planned

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Every Day

Doing something every day is easier than doing it every other day. It seems counterintuitive, but it's true.   We humans are creatures of habit. Whether it's a good or bad habit, the more we do it, the more it sticks.  Then, the more it sticks, the