For today’s Monday Morning Mojo, I am sharing a few fun fortunate (and inspiring) experiences I had over the past week for your bi-weekly reading pleasure.  Forgive me for the self-indulgence here. These experiences all began with the letter “F”, so here you go.  Have a F#*@ing great week ahead.

Family

One of my greatest joys of teaching at USC so far was having my daughter, Jackie, speak to my public relations class. Jackie is a publicist for a major entertainment media company, and she shared her experiences of working in Hollywood with my graduate PR students.  She once told me she was going to be the best PR person in our family, and while I am very competitive, I think she has overtaken me. Here’s a picture of Jackie with her friend, Brianne Tracy, who is a journalist and also spoke at USC last Tuesday evening.

The following day I was on a flight to spend some quality time with Samuel, who is working Shenzhen, China. Samuel is carrying on the Kronick tradition of living and working in China. Although he is not sleeping a lot, he is learning a ton. I am a proud father, obviously, and loved spending time with him this past weekend.  Here is a picture of the two of us hanging out in Shezhen, along with another long-time China friend, Winter Wright.

This family of Lisa, Jackie, Samuel, Levi, and soon to be reunited with us, Teddy, has blessed me in so many ways, they are an inspiration to me every day, not to mention my extended family of siblings, Peggy, my aunt Ricia and cousins, Lisa’s family, and of course Gertrude Young, who ranks very high up there.

Friends

I frequently preach to anyone who will listen about the importance of community as a source of inspiration and healthy living, and I got a great dose of that on Friday visiting the offices of Ogilvy in Hong Kong.  A huge thanks to Clara Shek for rolling out the red carpet. I had back-to-back opportunities to speak to the Ogilvy Hong Kong office about public relations, the US-China dynamic and more. After working at Ogilvy for 35 years, and continuing now as a consultant, this group of friends were part of my extended family for decades.  Thank you, Clara for making Friday fantastic.  Here are a few photos from Friday’s events.

Festival

Few things inspire me more than the tradition of celebrating the holidays with those you love, and I wanted to wish all my friends near and far who celebrate Diwali a very Happy Diwali.  Diwali takes place annually and lasts for five days, marking the start of the Hindu New Year. For those less familiar, it symbolizes the spiritual victory of light over darkness, good over evil, and knowledge over ignorance. I was told by one Ogilvy colleague on Friday night, Diwali represents lights, love and luck. So, whether you are Hindu or not, I wish you all the blessing that Diwali brings.  And, boy do we need some light over darkness now. Here is a picture of the Diwali celebration I took part in on Friday.

Film

One thing I love to do on cross Pacific flights is take in a few movies I have not had time to see.  If you like sport, and want to be inspired by a touch of family, friends and fame, whether or not you are a soccer/football, baseball or boxing fan, watch these three inspiring docudramas. The Beckham film is a 3-part series.

And, if you are not a sports fan, but rather like music, I found this film to be very interesting about an entertainer I knew little about:

Watching these films provided an escape, and they dovetail so directly with the topic of this MMM I figured I would share.  If you only have time for only one, watch the Beckham and Yogi Berra documentaries (get it?).

Fortune

If you have an additional spare moment, I felt most inspired when I read this story on Facebook.  It was wrongly attributed to the famous actress, Katharine Hepburn, however this story written by Chicken Soup for the Soul Author Dan Clark is uplifting, represents truly what fortune means to me, and is worth a read.

Inspiring Story

Once again, sorry for the self-indulgence.  Have had several moments of inspiration these past two weeks and just felt like sharing them here.

Let’s hope for some Diwali good luck in the weeks, months and years ahead.

On this Thanksgiving week, my special thanks to all of you who are part of this community.  I would love to hear from any of you on what inspires you so we can share this with the broader group.