Journeyman Stories

His name is James Arthur Ray, he is one of the stars of the movie "The Secret". In 2008, I got a chance to see him live in Las Vegas, and later on in Toronto. I can say that it was two life changing events for me. In one of his training sessions a few years ago, tragedy happened and people died at his event. It was heartbreaking for me to hear that, and knowing James, I knew this was hard for him too. While watching CNN, I saw him taken to prison, and it was not a nice scene to see. I felt so bad for the families who lost their loved ones, and I felt sorry for James who experienced such a tragic event. James has been out of prison since, and he just released his first blog. I am on his emailing list, and I received it a few days ago. I just wanted to share it with you. Here it is. Click here

I have been reading a few interesting books. The one I am reading now is Andy Andrews' " The Noticer". What a great book!! I have read the author a number of years ago, and this one cought my attention. Mainly, the book says that there is no such thing as a dead end. It only takes a little "perspective" to recognize the miracles in our moments, the seeds of greatness tucked into our struggles. The book really makes one think. Here is what I have been thinking about. Let's say in an imaginary world, you meet someone on the street. He is begging for a few money to pay for his bus fare. You give him $3 (which is nothing for you, really). What you don't know is that, this man is a part time student about to do his final exam, but he has been out of cash because all his money goes to paying for his education Thanks to you, he finds a way to go to his campus and do his exam (which he passes by the way). The guy ends up being a teacher, a really good ...

For Basketball fans, we are so glad the NBA season has started. It's not the high energy Playoffs games yet, but some games are worth watching. How about the double overtime Toronto-Houston? That was a heck of a game. Some teams have been the surprise of the early season such as Philadelphia (many critics were saying that it would be the worse team of all this year), some of them have made a statement, like the undefeated Indiana Pacers, some others it is just business as usual, I am of course naming the Spurs who are just cruising. How about Toronto? To tell the truth, I don't know. They have shown some good signs, but for some reasons I am still sceptical. The only positive I can see is the new General Manager. He has proven that he is the real deal. Let's wait and see. For me, there are a few teams that I will be curious to watch. First there is Houston with Superman as their new Star, Brooklyn with Jason Kidd as a coach and the number of veterans they have...

Today is Halloween. I am really amazed by the creativity of some people in creating their costumes. Some of them are really funny. I just came from an office, and the two receptionists welcomed me in a very professional way. One of them was in a fancy and funny costume, and the other seemed to be "normal". That was until I saw her name tag. Her name tag was her "costume". It was written: Kim Kardashian. I thought it was funny. It has been a quite interesting week.  Last Friday I sat down with my friend Emmanuel Lopez a.k.a Motivatorman for our weekly meeting. For about more than a year now, every Friday at 10 O'clock we have a call during which I help him with his goals. It has been two weeks now that we have decided to meet in person instead of our Skype meeting. I think it works better for both of us. Last week was very special. As I was listening to his accomplishments as well as challenges, something inside of me told me that I should tell him mine as...

Hello there Do I have to remind you that I know that you missed me? I know you did. Your (very competent) representative, Jim, left me a voicemail in a broken French saying that he really missed my blog. I believed him. The fact is that I was in bed with a nasty cold. It was really bad. Thank God it's back to normal. However, even though I was under the weather, I managed to do a few things here and there. One of them was to go and see Diallo, a preacher from Calgary Alberta who was here in Toronto for a few days. I have heard of him, we are even connected on Facebook, but I had never seen him live. He is really something. He was doing a leadership training, and I am glad I was in the audience. The first thing that impressed me the most about him was that, even though he had some notes, he did countless hours of training without reading any of them. He just spoke from his heart. He droped some good nuggets on us. It was really good stuff. He told us a stor...

As I am on the street downtown Toronto, my cellphone beeps. It's an email coming. I stop a bit to check what it is about and find out it is from a Speakers' Bureau I have been working with. Then I think: "This is going to be good stuff"  The first few sentences get me so excited. An organization in Newfoundland is looking for a speaker next week for an event they are having. I almost jump for joy with a high expectation to travel to Newfoundland, until I find out the meeting will be on....Skype! I really don't like technology lol. Maybe next time! Yes, the meeting will be on Skype, but I am still excited even though I won't fly to Newfoundland. I get to do what I love to do. That is what is the most important thing. Anyways... Today, I received a quote that I thought was full of wisdom. It is from one of my favourite authors and speakers: Wayne Dyer. It goes like this: "With everything that has happened to you, you can e...

I just came from a radio show in which I was a guest. It was an invite from a friend that I met at Rogers Centre last month. He wanted me to share some of my stories. It brought back some great, and not so great memories. Stay tuned. I will let you know when the show will be aired. Can I tell you a secret? Can you promise to keep it to yourself and not tell anybody? Ok, here it is. It is in a form of a poem. The author is unknown. It goes like this: Broken Toys As children bring their broken toys, With tears, for us to mend; I brought my broken dreams to God because he was my friend. But then instead of leaving him in peace to work alone, I hung around and tried to help with ways that were my own. At last, I snatched them back and cried, "How could you be so slow?" "My child," He said, "What could I do? You never did let go...." For years, I have been working so hard, with some successes and some failures (many failures actually lol). I have...

As I am getting to the library to get some work done, just before I start my computer, guess who I see in one of the meeting rooms? My friends Jim and Bonnie doing a presentation. They do not see me, but I am sitting right behind them. Jim is so focused on the work at hand. So, I decide to text him. The text goes like this: Turn around, I am right behind you. There is no reaction. I just think that he is too focused to notice my text. I start working on my computer. About half an hour later, guess who is now behind me? Jim himself. I guess he saw my text. I knew this one was coming: what's up with your blog? He asks So here I am. I don't want to be in trouble with Jim. Thanks a lot for your positive feedback on my last blog. Do not worry. I am doing ok. I think I am even stronger than last week lol. Yesterday I watched the movie "Pursuit of Hapiness" one more time. Oh boy, the guy went through some serious stuff. Do you remember the scene where he was finally...

It has been such a long time since I posted my last blog that I don't even know where to start. It has been quite a month. First, this gig at the Rogers Centre Stadium where I was speaking to entrepreneurs before Toronto vs Montreal football game, then being contacted by a website host asking me to write stories to his 200,000 readers per month, add to that a few invitations to TV shows in October, plus a potential work with a very respectable institution, it's been quite a month. You might be thinking that I am a Superstar or something, and that things are going so great for me. Oh no. When you least expect it, life throw some punches at you that it is so hard to get up. I am so thankful for what I have, I will never take it for granted, but man!!!! Do you know what is helping me keep my sanity? Something called Youtube. Whoever invented this stuff deserves a Nobel Prize. I have been watching hundreds of videos of Bishop TD Jakes sermons. This guy knows how to speak t...

Hello there Jim, thanks AGAIN for your reminder to post my blog today. You are officially in charge of holding me accountable. I hope I did good today lol. It's been such a joy raising our daughter. Everyday she surprises us with new stuff. Now she is speaking one word. She started two days ago. Do you know what that word is? I was glad when I heard it. She learned to say "Thank you". Whenever you give her something, she makes sure to say thank you (it's exactly what I always do when people invite me to...eat). I was talking about it with my wife yesterday, and we came up with the same conclusion. It is not by chance that Skylar is saying the words thank you. You see, a couple of months ago, my wife came up with this brilliant idea. Everyday, before going to sleep, each one of us has to say what we are thankful for. At first it seemed to be redundant, as we were coming up with the same list day in day out, but after a while it became deeper and deeper. I have t...

When Jim told me that there would be a lot of people at The Taste of the Danforth Greek Food festival, I thought he was joking. I thought the entire city was at the festival. It was fun, it was hot and the food was....You know me. In matters of food, only the quantity matters. Unfortunately we had to leave early as Skylar could not handle the heat. We had fun though. Talking about Jim, last week he called me and asked me this question: Do you know a guy named Mitch? I had to admit that it was the first time hearing that name. Jim then told me that Mitch called him to ask if he knew a guy named Patrick Bizindavyi. Of course Jim knows me. As it turned out, Mitch works for the Toronto Argonauts. For those of you who have no clue of what I am talking about, the Toronto Argonauts are the 2012-2013 champions of the Canadian Football League (I am talking about American Football). Long story short, the Argonauts are putting together an event for entrepreneurs on September 3rd at their sta...

It's hard to believe it's been two years that I am married. Time went REALLY fast. Yes, today is our wedding anniversary, and in a few hours, it will be my wife's birthday. How can you celebrate all of that? As I was thinking about it, my friend Jim called me to invite us to the Taste of the Danforth Food Festival. Did you mention food? I am all in I am also celebrating 200 posts with my blog. Actually, this is my 201st one. It's been a fun ride, even though I must admit, sometimes it was hard to write anything. I tried to keep the course most of the time, and when I missed a week or two, I had friends (and I am not mentioning you Jim) who reminded me of my commitment. To tell the truth, I did not think that this blog would last four years. I thought I would lack the inspiration. Amazingly enough, here I am, over 200 post later, still writing. Sometimes, the inspiration came to me in a very unusual way. This is the case of this week. Do you want to know what ha...

Yes I know, I know. You missed me last week. I must admit. I miss my blog too (am I narcissist?). Jim, here I am. I cannot afford another reminder from you. I know you were thinking about how you were going to punish me if I didn't post my blog this week. For many years, great things have happened to me in the month of August. It is then safe to say that I am expecting great things this upcoming month. I don't know what it will be this time, but the expectation is so high. By far, the month of August has been the best month of my life so far. And if nothing special happens, at least I will celebrate a few days. August 6 is our wedding anniversary, August 7 is my wife birthday, August 8 is my eleventh year in Canada and five years as a Canadian citizen, August 15 is my birthday and my younger brother is getting married on August 30. How about that!? The month of July has been a great month as well. It's been a very busy month but I cannot complain at all. I did a few pr...

It is almost midnight on Sunday and I am putting the baby to sleep after a long day at the beach. She is exhausted, and so am I. You might be thinking how am I able to put the baby to sleep and write at the same time. It is simple. After a long time of trials and errors, I have found the secret. Do you want to know what it is? I will tell it to you and it is free of charge: Music When my daughter hears music, everything changes. Life becomes easy for me. However, lately I have discovered that, even though she likes music, there is one particular artist that does the job the best: Bob Marley. When she hears Bob Marley, she just stands still. Nothing can disturb her. All she wants to hear is the reggae song. As soon as the music starts, she widely smiles and she wants to dance. Guess what CD i play the most? You guessed it right; Bob Marley. She could be crying but, as soon she hears "little darling, still it up", she just stops crying. It is so amazing. The other day I playe...

My friend Jim has been promoting his annual event called Patio Power, it finally happened tonight. I was one of the speakers last year, I am glad he invited me again this year. I just came from there. Wow! Things happen for a reason. I had planned to write my blog yesterday, and then the flood happened in Toronto. Wow! I have never seen anything like this. My Internet went down (I guess the server crushed) , so I could not publish anything. And here I am now, talking about the Patio Power. I knew that I was going to be one of the speakers a long time ago, but Jim never gave me my topic. We had a conference call yesterday and he went: "Figure it out. You are the Journeyman". So, I had to figure out what I was going to speak about. To add to the pressure, Jim put me first. I was going to start the event. I was given 8 minutes to speak, I was done in 5. To tell the truth, I was more interested by other speakers' presentations. I don't know how he does it, Jim know...

Yesterday was Canada Day and celebrations were going on all over the place. In our household, it was triple celebration. I am from Burundi, my wife is from Rwanda (both having July 1st as their Independence day), and our daughter was born Canadian. Can you imagine some years down the road, our daughter saying " Hi, my name is Skylar, my father is from Burundi, my mother is from Rwanda, but I am Canadian..". I think she should call herself United Nations. How about that? Talking about Skylar, her new thing now is giving high fives when she is eating. It is so funny. By the time she finishes her food, we are down to about twenty high fives. My wife says Skylar is eating like her father. I think it is a compliment for our daughter. We stayed home on the weekend watching movies. We watched all kinds of movies, but the one that was the most interesting was Sacha Baron Cohen's "The Dictator". It is so hilarious. Even now we are still laughing when we remember s...

I finally went to the doctors last week to check what was going on with my chest pain. I knew there was no danger of anything, but I couldn't let any other day pass by with so much pain. The doctor asked me to do some X-Rays, and in the meantime he prescribed some pills to ease the pain. He warned me though. No alcohol (that was already covered), no driving (also covered), and I had to eat a lot before taking the pills (and I was like, lucky me...). Long story short, them pills would make me dizzy. That was an understatement. Even though the pain was almost gone the next day, I felt like a zombie. I wanted to go to sleep all the time, and this lasted an entire week. It was crazy. The only thing that kept me awake was Green making those three pointers (what a performance!!). Of course, the non Basketball fans won't get this one....Go Spurs. I am back to normal. The pain is gone What else? Oh yes. It was fathers' day this weekend. I received a gift from Skylar who wa...

A few weeks ago, I received an e-mail inviting me to host an event in Ottawa as the Master of Ceremonies. "Ishaka" is the name of the group that put together the event that they called "Beautiful Africa". It was a showcase of African dance and art. I was really looking forward to it. We left Toronto early in the morning on Saturday. Our predictions were that we would be in Ottawa by 2pm the latest. We had a GPS with Snoop Lion voice as our guide. It was so funny to hear him say "woo, woo, slow down man!" By 2.30 we were still on the road. We could not understand why we were not in Ottawa yet. Our GPS was showing exists that we could not understand, and we thought it was going crazy. You can't trust the machine all the time, right? We thought Snoop was high lol. Guess what! He was right. We had missed our exit. Do you know how we figured out that we were lost? We saw a sign saying "Bienvenue au Québec" (Welcome to Québec). We were in Mont...

I know it's Tuesday and I know you were stuck on your computer all day yesterday waiting for this one to come out. I really apologize. But once I explain to you why I did not post my blog yesterday, maybe you will understand. There are people who have an extraordinary art of containing their pain. My wife is one of them. But when she asked me to call 911 last Thursday, I knew something was up. I got to tell you. That was the first time in my life to call 911. So, we rushed to the hospital. Thank God Skylar was at the daycare, otherwise it would have been hard to manage. A few hours later, we walked home, and I thought it was over. Later in the evening, we called a taxi. Back to the hospital...again. This time she stayed overnight. Five o'clock in the morning, she was back home. Finally this was over. So I thought. Guess what! At eleven O'clock we were back to the hospital (this time you maybe thinking that I am making this all up..). Later in the evening, we came bac...

I had quite an interesting week. It has been a few months that I work with a Speakers Bureau and, they call me up when they have speaking gigs for me. Last Friday, I was booked to speak at a school in Toronto. I had a contact person there who discussed with me about the theme and topic of my presentation. I was ready There is a first in everything. Guess who was in my audience? Kids from grade one to grade six. I must admit. I have spoken numerous times in from of hundreds of people, but grade one students? Never. How about 400 of them? The room was packed! Most of my talk was about Basketball. I had really fun. As I was mentioning names of great basketball players, I talked about Michael Jordan and the kids were like “Michael who?”.One of the kids just shouted: “I think he is retired”. How about Lebron James? Now we are talking... I am really old. I loved speaking with kids, and was so much amazed by the incredible work of the teachers and the staff. I was ...

Too bad I am writing this blog after the Toronto Maple Leafs hockey game. It was really a heartbreaking loss. The only victory in the series for me is that they made me watch hockey for the second time in almost 11 years in Canada (the first time being in the last Vancouver Olympics). I think it's a great game. Anyways... Have you been in a situation when people tell you things about you that you don't see yourself? It has been the case with my wife telling me that I snore when I sleep. I kept denying it until yesterday. Now she had the proof. Do you know what she did? She recorded me while sleeping last Saturday. When she played the recording, I couldn't believe what I heard. I thought it was a train or something. The only thing I could say was: “you caught me on a day I played Basketball. I was just exhausted...” I think my wife should be in the CSI movie series. Anyways... Today, I went to support my good friend Motivatorman at a workshop he was pr...

Her name is Sophie. We have been friends for over four years now. We met in a very unusual way. I was asked to be part of a team designed to produce a DVD to be handed to new immigrants to Ontario. A year later, we were called to watch the DVD and see if it had all the elements we had discussed. Guess what! Sophie was in the movie. I saw her , and in my mind I was like “I know this lady but I don't know where”. As it turned out, I was in the same class with her in a course I was taking at that time. The same evening I went to my class. Guess who I met in the elevator? Sophie! I told her that I saw her in a movie. She went: “What movie?” We have been friends ever since. As I came to know Sophie more, she shared with me a project she had started. Her dream was to help professional newcomers to integrate the Canadian society. She had created an organization called M-Bridge. It is a volunteer operated federally-registered non-profit organization providing educational serv...

As Friday was winding down, my wife and I were planning the next day. We knew Saturday would be busy, so we decided we would wake up early. Knowing my wife so well, I knew it would not be an easy task. You see, my wife can go to sleep at 3 AM, it won't bother her. Waking up early? That is not her thing. She operates on a schedule so different from mine. And here we were, Saturday morning. As usual, I woke up very early. I knew it was a difficult task to wake my wife up. At 8.30, I thought it would be time for her to wake up. I tried and tried, but she would not even open one eye. At one time I even wanted to throw cold water on her face for her to wake up. It came down to that. But nothing could help. She was coming up with excuses not to wake up. At one point she said to me: “Please don't keep on waking me up. I am already up. I am just praying!” Her “prayer” went on for forty five more minutes. God must be really pleased with her lol. I told you. Any excuse would do ...

I know that you missed me last week. Don't worry, I am back now. It has been a very busy week. I have learned that once I became a parent, I don't own my schedule any more. I got to be flexible, otherwise it would be hard for me to keep up with everything.. Last Tuesday was the ten month birthday of our daughter. We did not celebrate the occasion (my wife suggested we wait two more months). Skylar has grown a lot. But, being with her almost twenty four hours, I cannot see her growth until I see some of the pictures we took several months ago. Isn't funny how we do not see our own progression, until we take a look at our past? I learned that from a baby. It has bee ten months of total blessings (even though the word “rest” is now out of my dictionary). A few weeks ago, Skylar was sleeping next to me, and I couldn't help but notice how peaceful she was. A few minutes passed, and she woke up. She did not see that I was there, just next to her. Do y...

Some strange, yet interesting stuff have been happening the last few weeks. I have started a habit of writing down a number of people that I would like to talk to during the week, and instead of me calling them, for some reason, it's them calling me. Have you ever had that experience? You are thinking about someone, and all of sudden, the phone rings, and it is exactly that person who is calling you? It is really cool. It happened to me again on Thursday. I was thinking about a lady friend of mine, and before I knew it, I received a text from her, inviting me to an event she was putting together this weekend. I told her that I would come, and before saying goodbye, I simply asked her: “Do you need an MC for your event? I can certainly help”. That is how I found myself on the stage this Sunday, hosting an event that, a few hours prior I had no idea it was going to happen. To tell the truth, I leaned about the organization when I arrived at the event. I had no idea what ...

hope you all enjoyed the long weekend as I did. While I was thinking about what I was going to write about today, I received a call from Chris, a good friend of mine. We have been trying to connect for months but for some reason we couldn't until today. It was truly great to hear from him. Chris is a very successful salesperson and speaker. Several months ago, he told me that he felt the need to change his target market. He felt he was called to speak to the youth. Why? Well, Chris successful career did not come without facing and overcoming a number of challenges himself when he was younger. He now believes that his story can bring hope and help change the lives of young people, especially students. While speaking with Chris today, he shared with me what had happen to him in the last few months. It was mind blowing. He managed to connect with the right people, some of them were longtime friends of his, who happen to b...

I received two great gifts last week, among which a ticket to the Raptors game. In fact, I had an option to bring a friend. However, it was on a short notice that, the few friends I talked to were not able to make it. So, I went alone. I know the Raptors are now out of the Playoffs picture, but an NBA game is still fun to watch live. They were playing Carmelo Antony's New York Knicks. This guy can score at will. He is really impressive. Getting to the Air Canada Centre, I couldn't help but remember many years ago in Burundi watching the game on TV with friends late night (I mean, really late), and now I can see it...live in person. It's mind blowing. Every year in June, we knew it was the NBA Finals. In my network of friends only my friend Kennedy had access to NBA games. So, ten, sometimes fifteen of us would gather at his house (and this happened for years) at least three times a week to watch the games. Kennedy was so used to us coming that he had food ready, eve...

The entire world has been celebrating me as a Saint this last weekend. Every year I try to keep low profile, but what can you do? I can't help it. The party must go on. (I wish) A few years ago, I think it was in 2009, I was walking downtown Toronto with two great friends of mine. At that time I was looking for an apartment to move in. As we were walking down Dundas Street West, we came across Saint Patrick Street. I knew there was Saint Patrick Subway Station, but it was my first time to see Saint Patrick Street. Then, I said to my friends: wouldn't be nice for me to live on Saint Patrick Street? It would be great to live on a street named after me. Guess what! Two weeks later I moved to 80 Saint Patrick Street. How crazy is that? I lived there for two years. A few weeks after my move to Saint Patrick street, I received a flyer in my mail promoting a Sushi restaurant down the street. I am huge Sushi fan. I could eat Sushi three times a day I wouldn't mind. I opene...

Have you read my last blog? I hope you did. Kobe Bryant just confirmed what I said last week. Have you seen how he has been playing lately? (poor Raptors). His team has its back against the wall and he is performing at a high level. It's do or die basically for the Lakers. Wow! Really impressing. Enough with Basketball. If you don't stop me, I can go on and on with this sport. It is really a school of life. You see, I can't stop!. Last week, we were celebrating the International Women's day. If you ask my opinion, we should celebrate the woman everyday. Here is why: This coming March 16, our daughter will be nine months old. Time really flies. It has been one of the best nine months of my life.It is really a joy. I spend so much time with her that, every time that I go out, I can't wait to be home (don't get me wrong, I feel the same way about my wife as well lol). Skylar is an early morning person like myself. As soon as she wakes up, I go in the roo...