Diane Inez Atwood - Defrati
July 30, 1948 - June 13, 2008

Diane Defrati, 59, the wife of Roger Defrati from La Mesa, California passed from this life on June 13, 2008 at 2:30 am from her long bout with cancer. She is survived by her daughter, Denise Lynn and her grandson Jack from La Mesa in San Diego, California. She is also survived by her sister Dale Jean Hiatt from McKinley, Texas and her brothers David L. Rawson in Tacoma, Washington and DR Rawson in Garden Grove, California.

Diane was the co-owner of the popular nightclub, Diamond-Jim’s in Chula Vista until she retired in 2003. A 6’2” blond, Diane was well known in the community and was an organizer for SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome) in memory of A.J. her first grandson from her daughter, Denise. He died of SIDS while only a few months old.

She will be remembered for her generosity, fun nature and infectious laugh. She will be greatly missed by all.

Tonight I visited my Sister in a hospice. On the way she suffered a stoke that only serves to increase the problems she having staying alive for even one more day. She been suffering with Cancer for just over a year.

Diane is a striking 6′2″ woman with amazing blonde hair and blue eyes. When she enters a room, all heads turn. Her personality, confidence and poise are always noticed by everyone except my Sister. She rarely met a stranger. Everyone became her friend and she seldom missed remembering the name of someone from years back. My Sister’s life didn’t start easy and it certainly isn’t finishing that way. She didn’t discover, until late in life that she had a real head for business and was able to fully retire with the man of her dreams, Roger at age 52.

My Sister next birthday is on the 30th of July. She’ll be sixty. She was 58 in the picture above.

Cancer is how our Mother died as well at the ripe old age of 44. We lost our Father two years earlier at age 42. The next year Diane developed ovarian cancer and beat that at age 21. She’s always been a survivor. She’s a fighter. Someone whose loved life and the people around her.

Someday we’ll beat cancer for good. It will no longer take our loved ones. The very threat of it will no longer hang over our heads. Until then, we must fight, we must live and we must be an example to others. The greatest take-away from seeing her tonight is this: All the trips, all the people and all the money in the world mean nothing. The way to live life is to be in the moment. Enjoy each moment to the fullest. The people, the mood, your feelings, their feelings and all that goes with this very moment.

Live each moment as though it were the last moment you’ll ever know in this life.

I love my Sister. She’s an inspiration and a hero to me.

Thanks for reading this.

DR

This blog post isn’t about the people, it’s about the choices we have for President. Do they really represent the feelings of the American People? Can they restore America’s creditability overseas?

This morning I was talking to the person that runs our Middle East Office. I was informed that in the current Arab talks, America was told, “Don’t come.” China is now more welcome in the Middle East than the U.S. Why? Simple, trade without restriction, rules, sanctions, leverage and frankly the B.S. of dealing with our current administration. What happened to the positive influence that America once exerted into the world?

The answer is that since President Clinton, America no longer has a positive influence on the world.

Do you agree? Or, do you disagree?

Please, take a moment or two to comment on this post.

Until next time . . .

Mike Fesler, a Vice President for C4 Global, sent me the link to this site: http://manybooks.net/

It’s complete with 20,318 books than can be downloaded is several formats but easily read from your iPod, book reader, MAC or PC or you can print it off and read it. It’s been built and run by Matthew McClintock. While I’ve never met him, I appreciate what he’s accomplished.

A few days ago my wife and I were in Borders the Book Store and picked up a few new books to read. It reminded me of when I used to crawl though the books in my local library as a teenager. It’s still great fun to see what people have done with words.

If you have the time, stop by the site. Who knows, you may start reading again. What do you think?

First, if you’re wondering why it’s been so long since I’ve blogged, the reason is life. Life can get in the way. When life throws that curve ball that you don’t expect, it’s a problem. A big problem. Life has done that to me over the past couple of months. Topics for this blog have come to mind, the time to share has not.

Here we are at the first major global holiday of the year. Wow. This year is going so fast. At times the need to keep up is a bit overwhelming. But we all move on.

Many of you will have the day or days off this weekend to spend with your family. Hopefully, you’ll take the opportunity to do so. If you don’t, the time will be lost forever. You can NEVER make lost time up. Ever!

The graphic above appears at our company site and can be found by clicking here.

It’s my hope you enjoy the time to reflect on the meaning of family this weekend.

Would you agree?

A few nights ago I was honored to have the time to speak with Frankie Picasso and Dr. Tony Morino. The show is called Make it Happen. On the 13th of February they’ve asked me to come back for an additional hour. The start time is 7pm PST and 10pm EST.

Poverty to Wealth begins with making it happen in your life. So many people don’t know where to start. The place to start is this moment in time. You can change your whole life in a minute, if you want to do. Do you? While this blog is primarily about business principles and values, its also about help. How can I be helpful to you?

If you have a few minutes drop by the site.

Be helpful.

DR Rawson

I’m a member of ecademy out of England. This is probably the best and most professional group of people on the Net. For all the hype about LinkedIn, I think ecademy is the best because of the activity and commitment of its members.

If you want to consider joining, here’s my page. It’s worth a few clicks. One particular group is called Mission UnStoppable! Trust me, everyone is and each of us can learn from the outstanding people that are in this group on ecademy.

It’s a new year and that means that we’re all committed to making this year, 2008 as great as can be. Many of us felt 2007 was pretty lack luster. Remember, that we’re in control of what we accomplish. Also, remember that everyone needs a little help. If you think I can be helpful to you, just ask.

Helping others is my way of life. It’s what I choose to do. People have helped me, I try to help others. It’s a simple system.

What are your thoughts?

Wait, you mean to say that 2008 is in just one week? Yep, here it is, 2008 another new year is upon us.

Every year I like to spend the last week of the year to think about what this change will mean to me personally. First, I review the past year. Personal success, failure, health, relationships, business, friendships, quality of life and especially what I wanted to do and/or accomplish vs. what I’ve actually accomplished. It’s pretty interesting when you stop and take the time to examine everything in the cold hard light of day.

I’ve always heard that the study that was done at Harvard or Yale more than 50 years ago is still true today. That is, fewer than 5% of us will actually set goals for ourselves, fewer than 5% will ever even pursue a goal. Someone once told me (and I still believe this) that if you fail to plan then you’ve planned to fail! Ouch!
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I’m fortunate because my name is DR. No, it’s not my initials although it is also my initials. If you take the D from DR and the R from Rawson, then it’s my initials, otherwise, if you’re referring to me as DR, it’s my name.

Branding for me began years ago. It never began in earnest until a website was built for me and this picture was used:

Today, people have come to expect many things from me but to be sure, my picture has also become my brand. A year or so ago, I decided to also have it represent my principles and values and so I started the website called The Seal of Liberty Society.
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WARNING! This is a blatant ad because I think everyone should know.
Our new select comfort bed is amazing. We bought the model 4000 but there are more expensive beds. By the way, expense is a relative term. How much is a good night’s sleep worth to you?

We’ve been married for 13 years and have purchased and then sold or gave away 8 beds. Our new select comfort bed is number 9. We’ve had it two weeks.

Originally we were “fitted” and my wife was a 35 and I was a 65. At these respective settings there is the least amount of bad pressure on our bags and legs. Seems reasonable. So we tried out a couple of beds and then we laid down on the model 4000. We were sold. Then we were told that the bed head and foot areas would move up and down. In fact, we could pretty much make ourselves into taco food if we wanted to. But, I digress.
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