As a child, I studied regular things in school, as well as piano, and cello. Looking back, I got a better education in High School than in college simply because I was with good teachers all day long. At college, I had teachers that didn’t really teach much. They lectured, but did not make sure we understood what was being taught. Looking back on High School, I benefited from Debate Class, AP Biology, Typing and Sex Ed. I actually learned a lot in those classes and used the learning in real life while I never used Physics, advanced math or history though.

My parents were serious musicians. My mother was a concert pianist and my father was an accomplished amateur cellist. There was music in the house my entire childhood, and I probably remember a lot of it from when I was a fetus. I played in five orchestras during High School, and did a lot of music with cello playing. But, the one educational endeavor that seemed to have changed my life was my piano lessons and not the other classes. I think I should let my piano teacher know.

My piano lessons were taken from age eight to sixteen. I quit then because I had too much going on in my life and couldn’t take it any more. My piano teacher was strict and mean. There were no ends to her demands and she was never happy. She nitpicked everything I did — to death. It was very painful because nothing I did was ever right. The demeaning aspect of the lessons was very bad for my self image. However, I learned something very critical which helped me immensely for the rest of my life in all of my serious endeavors.

My piano teacher taught me the art of grueling practicing difficult passages over and over and over with meticulous care. I am a sloppy person, or at least was. I am still sloppy, but a lot less sloppy as a result of that teacher who was the pickiest I have ever had. Can you imagine practicing a passage one thousand times every day paying attention to every subtle detail? The musical aspect was nice, but did not help me. It was the discipline to put up with grueling and repetitive work. So, how did this discipline help specifically during the rest of my life?

During college I studied Chinese. It had been my life ambition to speak different languages. I studied French, Spanish, Japanese, Arabic, and Chinese. But, Chinese was my true love. The problem is that it is hard as hell, and I studied hard for years. I am still only at the 50% level in Chinese. But, this grueling discipline of practicing passages over and over were how I learned to become fluent in this exotic language and how I learned to write. Without piano lessons I would never have had the discipline to do this.

After college I could not get a good job so I had to be a courier. Once again, fourteen hour days of grueling work. I finally couldn’t take it anymore. Then, I became a teacher. I had to teach others and go through grueling pronunciation lessons teaching Chinese people the art of pronouncing English in a way that Americans could understand. I handled the disciplinary aspects of the work, but my students did not want to be understood — they wanted to speak however they wanted to with complete disregard for correctness. They remind me of Notaries who fail my test who want to do notary work however, and whenever without regard for the correct application of rules and safety precautions!

Finally, I became a Notary and created 123notary originally to market myself. Running 123notary requires tremendous discipline. Each year I put on thousands of free listings and call them to make sure they are still notaries. This takes an extreme amount of endurance doing the data entry day in and day out and tolerating endless phone calls.

Basically in short, without my piano lessons, I do not think I would be able to handle the workload of 123notary.

My only regret is as follows. As an adult, I have learned that Jean Philippe Rameau wrote much better harpsichord music than my hero J.S. Bach, and I regret not having been introduced to Rameau as a child. So, I listen to him on youtube.com.

If you want your children to have a good chance at success, musical education with quality teachers is as important or more important than academics. Please remember that piece of advice forever!

Honestly, after months of quizzing people and enduring endless hatred, and being bashed on the various forums, I feel sick. I am sick of Notaries who don’t care about what they do and don’t care how they abuse people. I am accused of being abusive when people drive me up the wall and then I lose my temper. It is not my fault that most of you cannot and will not act like professionals. It is not my fault that few of you can give professional answers to notary questions. You choose to not know your trade. Out of 100 Notaries, not one can correctly explain all major notary acts, not even one. How pathetic.

The upset feelings that ignorant Notaries have caused me has gone straight to my liver and manifested itself in health problems. My arms started feeling heavy. I started having breathing problems. I have decided to put more emphasis on walking, nature, and work less, and eliminate ice cream and wine from my diet for now.

I guess this is the way most Notaries are. There is no motivation for any to learn on their own above and beyond skimming over things, perhaps, on a good day. Nobody has been interested in getting Elite certified on their own in years. Our Elite members get a lot more business and they will continue to monopolize until the other Notaries get off their rear and study.

I have decided that I am going to wrap up the phone quizzing and stop doing it. People hate it and it is getting to my health. None of the Notaries do that well. None of them act like professionals. It is that some are less unprofessional than others. In this business, ALL Notaries should act like professionals and know all the answers to basic questions, but the reality is that only about 2% of Notaries on our site meet this description, and our site is one of the better sites, or the best site according to Carmen.

So, to save my liver, I am testing more by email. I will test by phone only if absolutely necessary because the amount of Notary hatred makes the KKK look like school girls. When I started my site I had no idea people were this horrible. But, back in 2004 when 123notary was really growing, we did not have any of this type of problems with people. We had mostly polite customers and only a few screwballs.

But, how can I ask Notaries to be professional when the industry no longer values acting properly and knowing what you are doing. The industry wants Notaries to be stupid so the signing companies can treat them like slaves by lowballing them. So, if you are happy being slaves, then fine. But, if you want to get paid well like Carmen who gets $200 average per signing, I suggest attaining mastery of the art of being a Notary Public. Idiots do not get paid $200. Idiots are lucky to get $60 and then don’t get paid on time or at all. My suggestion is to be disciplined and choose being 100% knowledgeable, not just knowing a scrambled version of half of what you are supposed to know. 100% knowledge is called being professional.

When I was a Notary I did not think of myself as anything special. But, I knew 97% of what I was supposed to know and I kick myself about the other 3%. The average Notary on 123notary is functioning at a 45% level. This is not acceptable, but the industry accepts it and I can’t find better. So, the 45 percenters win — I lose. I will have to accept this type of ignorance until the industry changes.

I remember back in 2005 I went to Bombay to visit a friend. I took the train downtown to cash a few travelers cheques. I have never had an experience this bad and have brought a lot more cash with me ever since. You have to sign a traveler cheque when you buy it and then sign again when you cash it in. My signature was a little different than my normal signature, but not different by much. But, the clerk had had a lot of trouble cashing in traveler’s cheques and he was paranoid. He did not like the differential between my signatures. So, I had to forge my own signature so to speak. I had to practice signing the way I had signed when I originally signed the cheque a few times on a blank piece of paper. What a ridiculous ordeal. My passport wasn’t good enough for him yet it was good enough for airport security. Good God, or should I say Good Krishna?

In any case, I signed the way he liked and got my money.I spent my rupees on apple pie that had been in the same oven as melting cheese and it tasted horrible. I have so many India nightmares I never want to go back again but perhaps I will to see the mountains and meditate there with the Gods near Dehradun. My guru says I need to go where I can see snow in the mountains and meditate there for three days. One day I’ll do it, but not this year, because China is on my mind. Sounds like a Ray Charles song.