I’ve said it before, that success is the study of the obvious—but sometimes we need someone to remind us and show us the simplest way to get there.
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Here are four simple steps to find your way to more success than you could ever imagine:
Showing posts with label Business Ideas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Business Ideas. Show all posts
Wednesday, November 21, 2018
How to Access the Power of Ambition
What is the origin of true ambition? There exists really only one place to find true ambition, and that is within you—in every thought, in every movement, in every motivation. Your ambition is an expression of who you truly are, your own self-expression.
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Ambition says, I know who I am and I know where I want to go. I’m accumulating knowledge and experiences and feelings and philosophies that will help prepare me for opportunities that I know will show up without notice or any help on my part. Because you know where you want to go, you have already been working on the parts of your personality that will make you better. Working on your attitude, working on your health, working on your time management skills. Putting it all down on paper. And you constantly see yourself in the place you want to be, going in the direction you want to go.
3 Money Habits That Separate the Rich From the Poor
Here is an exciting thought! Why not work full time on your job and part time on your fortune? And what a feeling you’ll have when you can honestly say, “I’m working to become wealthy. I’m not just working to pay my bills.” When you have a wealth plan, you’ll be so motivated that you’ll have a hard time going to bed at night.
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Related: The Best Money Advice I Ever Heard
So if you will indulge me, I would like to share a simple formula for creating wealth. Here’s my thought on how money should be allocated.
The 70/30 Rule
After you pay your fair share of taxes, learn to live on 70 percent of your after-tax income. These are the necessities and luxuries you spend money on. Then, it’s important to look at how you allocate your remaining 30 percent. Let’s allocate it in the following ways:
Saturday, November 17, 2018
It Only Takes 6 Steps to Plan Your Success
Our results are only as good as our plan.
My mentor Earl Shoaff taught me that it’s not what happens that determines the major part of our future—because what happens, happens to us all. Instead, he taught me that the key is what we do about it. If we start the process of change by developing a plan, doing something different the next year than we did the previous year, it won’t matter how small those efforts start. Start doing different things with the same set of circumstances—the ones we’ve always had and cannot change—and see what miracles occur. If we start the miracle process and change ourselves, then everything changes. And here’s what is interesting: The difference between failure and success is subtle.
Let me explain by giving you my definitions of failure and success: Failure is a few judgment errors repeated every day. The man says, “Well, I didn’t walk around the block today and it didn’t kill me, so it must be OK.” No, no, it is that kind of error in judgment that after six years has him out of breath and panting as he walks from his car to his office. You can’t make those kinds of mistakes. It will cost you.
4 Reasons to Take Control of Your Destiny
One of the first things successful people realize is the old adage, “If it is to be, it is up to me.”
For you, that means that your success, your course is up to you. This doesn’t mean that you do it all alone. It simply means that you take responsibility for your life and your career.
Too many people today look at opportunity and figure it is up to someone else to make sure they get it. They wait and wait, figuring that it is up to someone else. And then the wait is over, and it is too late to do anything. Their life is over and they are filled with regret.
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But this isn’t true for you. You know that you must take responsibility for your life. It is up to you.
The fact is, nobody else is going to do it for you. You must do it yourself.
Now, some people might think, That’s a lot of responsibility. But here’s what I think: That is the best news you can ever hear. You get to choose your life. Hundreds of millions of people all around the world would give anything to live in the situation you do—to have the opportunity to take control of their destiny. “It is up to you” is a great blessing!
The Qualities of Enterprising People
The Qualities of Enterprising People
An enterprising person is one who comes across a pile of scrap metal and sees the making of a wonderful sculpture. An enterprising person is one who drives through an old decrepit part of town and sees a new housing development. An enterprising person is one who sees opportunity in all areas of life.
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To be enterprising is to keep your eyes open and your mind active. To be skilled enough, confident enough, creative enough and disciplined enough to seize opportunities when they present themselves. A person with an enterprising attitude says, “Find out what you can do before taking action.” Do your homework. Do the research. Be prepared. Be resourceful. Do all you can in preparation of what’s to come.
Enterprising people always see the future in the present. Enterprising people always find a way to take advantage of a situation, not be burdened by it. And enterprising people aren’t lazy. They don’t wait for opportunities to come to them—they go after the opportunities. Enterprise means always finding a way to keep yourself actively working toward your ambition.
Wednesday, October 31, 2018
The Power of Sharing What You Know
The key to make your life really unique and worthwhile is to share what you know, because sharing has a certain unique magic of its own.
If you share an idea with 10 different people, they get to hear it once and you get to hear it 10 times—getting you even better prepared for the future. Share ideas with your family, with the people around you, with other employees, with your colleagues.
If you share with someone else, they could be transformed. You may have dropped in at the right time—this may be their moment, the moment the door will open and there’s opportunity they never saw before.
But here’s what else is exciting: The person who speaks could be transformed, too. Because guess what, we’re all looking for transformation for our new life—the new life tomorrow, this month, this year, next year.
The 4 Building Blocks of Good Communication
Effective communication is a critical component of mastering success. By mastering the art of communication, you’ll increase every level of performance in your life. I’ve often said that if you just communicate, you can get by.
But if you communicate skillfully, you can work miracles—miracles in your family relationships, your business relationships and your friendships. Take advantage of every opportunity to practice your communication skills so that when important occasions arise, you will have the gift, the style, the sharpness, the clarity and the emotions to affect other people. What a unique opportunity to touch others with something small but powerful—our words.
8 Ways to Master the Art of Communication
“The art of communication”—I like that phrase. Because communicating is an art. When we’re attempting to get our message out to others, it’s as though we start with a giant blank canvas and we then begin to paint a picture, any picture we desire.
Now, most people assume that when painting a picture, they have only a few basic brushes at their disposal. But the advanced artist knows there are many tools available to create their masterpiece, and they use each to their advantage.
The same is true with communication. There are many tools available to you as you communicate; you just have to be aware of them and then use them purposefully. The better you become at using these tools, the better you’ll be at communicating.
How to Deal With the Negative Influences in Your Life
If you were to evaluate the major influences in your life that have shaped the kind of person you are, this has to be high on the list: the people and thoughts you choose to allow into your life. My mentor, Mr. Shoaff, gave me a very important warning in those early days that I’ll share with you. He said, “Never underestimate the power of influence.” Indeed, the influence of those around us is so powerful! Many times we don’t even realize we’re being strongly affected because influences generally develop over an extended period of time.
Peer pressure is an especially powerful force because it is so subtle. If you’re around people who spend all they make, chances are excellent you might spend all you make. If you are around people who don’t read, chances are excellent that you probably won’t read. People can keep nudging us off course a little at a time until, finally, we find ourselves asking, How did I get here? Those subtle influences need to be studied carefully if we really want our lives to turn out the way we’ve planned.
Monday, October 29, 2018
The Greatest Gift You Can Give Is Self-Improvement
I’m often asked the question, “How can I help someone else change, improve, be better?”
My answer often comes as a surprise, and here it is: The key to helping others is to help you first.
In other words, the best contribution I can make to someone else is my own personal development. If I become 10 times wiser or 10 times stronger, think of what that will do for my adventure as a father… as a business colleague… as a friend.
So the best gift you can give to others, really, is your ongoing personal development—getting better, getting stronger, becoming wiser.
If you have ever ridden in an airplane, then you might have noticed the oxygen compartment located above every seat. There are explicit instructions that say, “In case of an emergency, secure your own mask before helping others.” Take care of yourself first. If we used that same philosophy throughout our whole life, it would be so valuable.
8 Traits of Healthy Relationships
Nothing can bring more joy to life than beautifully fulfilling relationships. The depth of meaning, understanding and appreciation that these kinds of relationships bring is almost unfathomable. And, of course, as many people find out, nothing can bring so much pain as a broken relationship with someone dear to you.
Related: How to Build Good Relationships
Yes, relationships make the world go ’round. For better or for worse. But the exciting thing is that we can do much to increase our chances of having terrific relationships—relationships that are fulfilling and exciting, rich with meaning, joy and love.
If You Change Yourself, You Can Change Your Life
Life is about constant, predictable patterns of change, and the only constant factor will be our feelings and attitudes toward life. We as human beings have the power of attitude and that attitude determines choice, and choice determines results. All that we are and all that we can become has indeed been left to us to decide and interpret through our attitude and choices.
Life is like the changing seasons—you cannot change the seasons, but you can change yourself. So the first major lesson in life to learn is how to handle the winters. They come regularly, right after autumn. Some are long, some are short, some are difficult, some are easy, but they always come right after autumn. That is never going to change.
There are all kinds of winters: the “winter” when you can’t figure it out, the “winter” when everything seems to go awry. There are economic winters, social winters and personal winters.
Wintertime can bring disappointment, and disappointment is common to all of us. So you must learn how to handle the winters. You must learn how to handle difficulty; it always comes after opportunity. That is never going to change.
The big question is what to do about winters. You can’t get rid of January simply by tearing it off the calendar. But here is what you can do: You can get stronger; you can get wiser; you can get better. Remember that trio of words: stronger, wiser, better. The winters won’t change, but you can.
Before I understood this, I used to wish for summer when it was winter. When things were difficult, I wished they were easy. I didn’t know any better. Then my mentor Earl Shoaff gave me the answer from a part of his unique philosophy when he said, “Don’t wish it were easier, wish you were better. Don’t wish for fewer problems, wish for more skills. Don’t wish for less challenge, wish for more wisdom.”
Nitty-Gritty Reasons to Change for the Better
Wouldn’t it be wonderful to be motivated to succeed by such a lofty goal as benevolence?
In the early years of my struggle to succeed, my motivation was a lot more down-to-earth. My reason for succeeding was more basic. In fact, it fell into the category of what I like to call “nitty-gritty reasons.” A nitty-gritty reason is the kind that anyone can have—and it can cause our lives to change. Let me tell you what happened to me.
Shortly before I met my mentor Earl Shoaff, I was lounging at home one day when I heard a knock at the door. It was a timid, hesitant knock. When I opened the door, I looked down to see a pair of big brown eyes staring up at me. There stood a girl of about 10. She told me, with all the courage and determination her little heart could muster, that she was selling Girl Scout cookies. It was a masterful presentation—several flavors, a special deal and only $2 per box. How could anyone refuse? With a big smile, she politely asked me to buy.
I wanted to—except for one thing: I didn’t have $2. Here I was, a father, a college graduate with a job—and yet I didn’t have $2 to my name.
But I couldn’t tell this to the little girl with the big brown eyes. So I lied to her. I said, “Thanks, but I’ve already bought Girl Scout cookies this year. And I’ve still got plenty stacked in the house.”
It was the only thing I could think of to get me off the hook. And it did. The little girl said, “That’s OK, sir. Thank you very much.” And with that she turned around and went on her way.
I stared after her for what seemed like a very long time. Finally, I closed the door behind me and cried out, “I don’t want to live like this anymore! I’ve had it with being broke and I’ve had it with lying. I’ll never be embarrassed again by not having any money in my pocket.” That day I promised myself to earn enough to always have several hundred dollars in my pocket at all times.
This is what I mean by a nitty-gritty reason. It may not win me any prize for greatness, but it was enough to have a permanent effect on my life.
Thursday, October 25, 2018
How to Live a Beautiful Life
In my years teaching people to be successful, I have seen that people break their lives down into two major parts: wealth-building and the rest of their lives. Having done a lot of reflection on these two topics—wealth and life—I’ve come to some new conclusions about how to perceive the two.
I used to think that there was a significant difference in how we should tackle the two areas. In fact, I thought the two topics should be addressed in almost opposite fashion.
You see, wealth-building is just math. Whereas life—life is art.
Think back with me to high school. Most of us were required to take math and most of us probably took art as well. Now, think about your final exams in the two areas. Your math paper was graded on hard facts: 10×10 is always 100, 7+7 is always 14, 50-25 is always 25; and so on and so forth).
There is always just one answer in math. The answers are hard facts, set in stone. Math is a science. It is formulaic. You can know the outcome before it happens—every time.
But what about your final art project? Art is much more subjective. “Beauty,” they say, “is in the eye of the beholder.” There is no one right answer.
Think of the different styles of the famous artists: Renoir, Monet, Picasso, Rockwell, Warhol. Different people find different styles beautiful, and that is what makes art, art.
How to Bounce Back From Failure
Here is a familiar scenario for all of us: You have an exciting goal in mind, you’ve done your homework, you think you’re amply prepared—but things just don’t work out.
You probably have times when you thought you were doing what you’re supposed to do, but you were misinformed. You think you have it all laid out, but it just doesn’t work. You burn the midnight oil day after day, but it doesn’t seem to help. You just can’t seem to change the end result.
These are the times when you have to be your own best cheerleader. And there are two ways to keep yourself encouraged:
1. Take responsibility for the missed opportunity.
Be prepared for the letdowns that happen every so often. Know that this lost opportunity just set you up to take advantage of the next one. Realize that you can make the necessary alterations next time. Make the changes that will make the difference. Study your mistakes and learn from them. Instead of dwelling on the mistakes, simply acknowledge them and learn from them.
How to Make Yourself More Valuable
I’m a very big proponent of activity, labor and discipline. In fact I devoted one of the five major pieces of the life puzzle to the subject of activity and labor. But now, let me add another key word to the labor equation—skillful. Yes, skillful labor.
We need the skills to help build our family’s dreams, the skills to stir up an enterprise and make it successful. We need skills to build equities for the future. We need skills of all kinds.
How about this: skillful language. If you just talk to your family, you can hold them all together, but if you skillfully talk to your children, you can help them build dreams for the future. You can’t be lazy in language—it costs too much. What if you meant to say, “What’s troubling you?” and instead you said, “What’s wrong with you?” That’s too big of a mistake. And sure, maybe you’ve made that mistake 10 years ago, but not now. You should always be improving in language and communication.
6 Ways to Act on Your Ambition
Building your ambition is building your enterprising skills: To consistently create new opportunity, to consistently take advantage of the opportunity you’ve created, to be aware, to face life with your eyes and ears open to the possibilities that might be just around the corner. Self-enterprising people always see the future in the present. Self-enterprising people will always find a way to take advantage of a situation, not be burdened by it.
Related: The Qualities of Enterprising People
Enterprise is always better than ease. Every time we choose to do less than we possibly can, it affects our self-confidence, our self-worth. If we keep doing a little less every day, we are also being a little less. If we don’t feel good about ourselves, we won’t feel good about our lives. And if we don’t feel good about our lives, we won’t be very interested in looking for opportunities.
The Major Key to Your Best Future Is You
Of all the things that can affect your future, personal growth is most important. In other words, the major key to your better future is you. Now, there are many things that will help your future, personally and professionally.
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If you belong to a strong, dynamic, progressive company with good leadership, that would help. If the company has good products and services you are proud of, that also helps. If there is a good training program that, too, would help.
If it doesn’t storm, if your car doesn’t break down, if the kids don’t get sick, if the neighbors stay halfway civil, if your relatives don’t bug you, if it isn’t too cold, if it isn’t too hot… all of these things, too, would help your future.
We could go on and on with the list, but remember this: The things I’ve just listed, and many more—all put together—play only a minor role in your best future.
Because the major key to a better future is you. Lock your mind on this.
When asked, “How do you develop an above-average income?” my friend responds, “Simple. Become an above-average person.” Work on you.
“Develop an above-average handshake. A lot of people want to be successful, and they don’t even work on their handshake. As easy as that would be to start, they let it slide. They don’t understand,” he says. “Develop an above-average smile. Develop an above-average excitement. Develop an above-average dedication. Develop an above-average interest in other people. To have more, become more.”
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