So am I a wise old sage now?  Not even close.  But I did open RickLondonWisdomShop.com (and stayed at a Holiday Inn Express).  Not to sound too much like early Steve Martin, “But you ask ‘Rick, why would you open a wisdom quote gift shop?’

First, why not?  But there’s more to it than that.  In 2007, I launched ShoesThatAmuse.com. At first, I simply designed shoes that showcased masters of poetry, philosophy, politics etc. and on the side panels posted a famous love quote by each of them.  My inventory included (and still includes)  Shakespeare, Emerson, Wordsworth, Tennyson, Nietzsche, Helen Keller, Zelda and Scott Fitzgerald and many others.  It worked so at the urging of my wife Lee Hiller-London also a designer and owner of what the media has heralded “Dazzling” LeeHillerDesigns.com, I added greeting cards and later other gifts and collectibles such as mouse pads, T-shirts, caps, mugs and such.

 

But I was putting myself in a corner.  Since ShoesThatAmuse.com became well-known for its famous love quotes, I was limited to famous love quotes, and they couldn’t be too new, or I would not be playing the copyright game fairly.  So I went for the old-timers and still do; all the way back to Socrates and Plato.

As I have entered my third year of Twitter, I notice one of the most entertaining parts is that people love to post famous quotes.  They are not all good. In fact some are dismal; but those are usually posted by life coach-types who take famous quotes, reword them a bit, and make them their own quotes. Some even “free-fall” not using even plagiarizing old quotes (and changing them up a bit) but trying their own.  We quickly take these thieves out of our Twitter stream and look for good wisdom and love quotes by the true masters, not “make believe life coach masters” who look silly at best.

That knowledge itself; knowing the difference between real masters and faux masters aka life coaches is a form of wisdom. Here is an example.  While most life coaches teach motivation and inspiration (generally taken from famous quotes, rewritten and packaged beautifully in books, CD’s etc) for hundreds and even thousands of dollars, William Wordsworth has one famous 3 word quote that sums it up and gives the same lesson; “To begin, begin”.

I started tweeting famous wisdom quotes and they were retweeted far more often than love quotes; though I must admit famous love quotes (especially by Shakespeare) get retweeted quite often.

So its a no-brainer.  Do you want a pretty package of re-written quotes that the life coach claims is there unique original saying (and pay a fortune) or do you want the true

master’s quote for free?  That’s a rhetorical question.  By the way, like alligators in a Florida swamp, life coaches roam the halls of Twitter seeking their “food”.  And you are usually in their jaws way before you are aware so caveat emptor.

Which brings me to Rick London Wisdom Shop.  It does not take quotes and reword them.  I do not make products from my own quotes though I’ve written several hundred.  I create gifts, tees, mugs etc with graphics of the real masters with their real quotes and there are few items in the shop over $20 and many much less.  Now there’s a way to remind oneself of wisdom without having to mortgage the house.

Bottom line, life coaches, spiritual coaches, spiritual guides, and all the other names they call themselves thrive in this economy. Many (and many are elderly and poor) spend their last penny in hopes of “an opportunity”.  This same opportunity is available free by simply surfing the web and googling “famous wisdom quotes” and/or visiting your library and reading biographies of great accomplished wise men and women.  In no time, you’ll be running circles around these charletons.

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Rick London, using no life coaches founded Londons Times Cartoons in 1997 in a tin shed in rural Mississipi. It has been the number one Google and MSN ranked offbeat cartoons and funny offbeat gifts since 2005. He recently founded Rick London Wisdom Shop the premiere shop for wisdom gifts. He’s founded other licensed image shop and offers an inventory of almost 300,000 items among all his cartoon collectible shops.  Both Sears and Amazon carry many of them.