• Columnists

Dave Feldman, Executive Director Bethesda Green

COLUMN = GO GREEN

Dave Feldman is the founding director of Bethesda Green, a dynamic 501c3 that serves as a catalyst and trusted resource for building a healthy economy and sustainable community. This model initiative has set up the first green business incubator and education center in the DC/Maryland region.

Feldman is also the CEO of the Livability Project LLC, an organization that provides structure and tools to help communities develop sustainability initiatives. Through Livability, Feldman leverages his entrepreneurial experience, international economic development expertise, and passion for sustainability to implement socially responsible, “green” community development projects that can be replicated worldwide.

Prior founding the organization, Feldman was Consul, Trade and Investment at the British Embassy. His role as head of the largest economic development agency in the world was to help US companies operate successfully in the United Kingdom and to support UK companies exporting to the United States. He was directly responsible for a portfolio that included information technology and renewable energy.

Feldman holds an MBA from the Robert H. Smith School of Business, University of Maryland in International Management and Finance. He is a graduate of Leadership Montgomery (’06) and is currently on the Board of Sustainable Business Network of Washington (SB NOW).

For more information about Bethesda Green, visit www.bethesdagreen.org. For details about Feldman’s Livability Project, visit www.livabilityproject.com.

We are perfectionists. We are hungry to work all the time. We are entertained by every aspect of business and we never want to stop working.”

– Suzy Welch

Look at everything as though you were
seeing it either for the first or last time.
Then your time on earth will be filled with glory.”

– Betty Smith

Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.”

– T.S. Eliot

The great use of life is to spend it on something that will outlast it.”

– William James

Friendship is the only cement that will hold the world together.”

– Woodrow Wilson

Hope sees the invisible, feels the intangible, and achieves the impossible.”

– Helen Keller

You must have chaos within you, to create a dancing star.”

– Frederic Nietzsche

But all the while I was alone, the past was close behind, I seen a lot of women, but she never escaped my mind, and I just grew, tangled up in blue.”

– Bob Dylan

Great minds discuss ideas. Average minds discuss events. Small minds discuss people.”

– Eleanor Roosevelt

I’ve come to confirm that one’s title, even that of president, says little about how well one’s life has been led. No matter how much you’ve done, or how successful you’ve been, there’s always more to do, to learn, and to achieve.”

– Barack Obama

Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”

– Mary Oliver

You can only become truly accomplished at something you love. Don’t make money your goal. Instead, pursue the things you love doing.”

– Maya Angelou

The awakening to the mystery of life is a revolutionary event; in it an old world is destroyed so that a new and better one may take its place.”

– J.J. Van Der Leeuw, The Conquest of Illusion

We must be willing to let go of the life we have planned so as to have the life that is waiting for us.”

– Joseph Campbell

If you do work that you love, and the work fulfills you, the rest will come.”

– Oprah Winfrey

There is only one success – to be able to spend your life in your own way.”

– Christopher Morley

Education is an admirable thing to have, but it is well to remember that nothing worth knowing can be taught.”

– Oscar Wilde

The dove descending breaks the air / With flame of inkandescent terror.”

– T.S. Eliott

Inspiration and genius — one and the same.”

– Victor Hugo

The man who acquires the ability to take full possession of his own mind may take possession of anything else to which he is justly entitled.”

– Andrew Carnegie

The gem cannot be polished without friction; nor man perfected without trials.”

– Chinese proverb

You only live once. But if you do it right, once is enough.”

– Mae West

No one is useless in this world who lightens the burden of another.”

– Charles Dickens

He who knows he has enough is rich.”

– Tao Te Ching

Pretend that every single person you meet has a sign around his or her neck that says, ‘Make Me Feel Important.’ Not only will you succeed in sales, you will succeed in life.”

– Mary Kay Ash

Entrepreneurs willingly assume responsibility for the success or failure of a venture and are answerable for all its facets.”

– Victor Kiam

Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.”

– Martin Luther King Jr.

Are you willing to help other people succeed even when it’s not a requirement of your job to be of assistance?”

– Steven Schussler

A people who mean to be their Governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.”

– James Madison

We are not meant to resolve all contradictions, but to live with them and rise above them.”

– William Blake

Of course there is no formula for success except perhaps an unconditional acceptance of life and what it brings.”

– Arthur Rubinstein

The mind is everything. What you think, you become.”

– Buddha

Your own words are the bricks and mortar
of the dreams you want to realize.
 The words you choose and their use establish the life you experience.”

– Sonia Croquette

History is a relentless master. It has no present, only the past rushing into the future. To try to hold fast is to be swept aside.”

– John F. Kennedy

Acknowledging the good that you already have in your life is the foundation for all abundance.”

– Eckhart Tolle

A warrior cannot complain or regret anything. His life is an endless challenge, and challenges cannot possibly be good or bad. Challenges are simply challenges.”

– Carlos Castaneda

There are risks and costs to a program of action. But they are far less than the long-range risks and costs of comfortable inaction.”

– JFK

The critical ingredient is getting off your butt and doing something.”

– Nolan Bushnell, founder, Chuck E. Cheese's

Think of yourself as on the threshold of unparalleled success. A whole, clear, glorious life lies before you. Achieve! Achieve!”

– Andrew Carnegie

Persist and persevere, and you will find most things that are attainable, possible.”

– Lord Chesterfield

If you limit your choices only to what seems possible or reasonable, you disconnect yourself from what you truly want, and all that is left is compromise.”

– Robert Fritz

You take your life in your own hands, and what happens?
 A terrible thing: no one to blame.”

– Erica Jong

Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self-confidence.”

– Robert Frost

Anything not worth doing well is not worth doing.”

– Warren Buffett

If you would create something,
 you must be something.”

– Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves.”

– William Shakespeare

I may not be able to change what takes place, but I can always choose to change my thinking.”

– Michelle Sedas

Most people never pick up the phone and call. Most people never ask, and that’s what separates the people who do things from the people who just dream about them.”

– Steve Jobs

Normal day, let me be aware of the treasure you are. 
Let me not pass you by in quest of some rare and perfect tomorrow.”

– Mary Jean Irion

You often meet your fate on the road you take to avoid it.”

– Goldie Hawn