Set A Money-Generating Goal

“Let your hook always be cast; in the pool where you least expect it, there will be a fish.”  ~Ovid~

Let’s face it, being an entrepreneur is not for everybody.  It takes hard work, discipline and perseverance to the extreme.

One of the easiest ways to fail is to just drift from week to week with only a vague sense of what you want to accomplish and where you want to go with your life.

If you flew an airplane like you probably lead your life, then you would most likely crash in a remote jungle village.  So set the compass of your life this week.

Decide that you are going to create a certain amount of extra money – let’s say $50, for argument’s sake – and then test the plan all week without giving up on your target.

At the very least, you may develop a long-term strategy for success based on your effort.  In the best-case scenario, you will not only earn $50 or more, but you will also have a boost of confidence which can sustain you.

Five years from now those modest monetary goals may be laughingly minuscule.  Give this method a chance and write to me about your successes.

You can get better and better at all endeavors with consistency and persistence.

We Have A Right To Be Rich

“Virtue does not come from wealth, but. . . wealth, and every other good thing which men have comes from virtue.”       ~Socrates~ 

Yes, we do have the right!  Not simply to acquire money for money’s sake, but to fully express our God-given uniqueness and full potential.  

I guarantee you – and I speak from the school of experience – that if you lack money, then you have a crappy attitude towards it.  

Perhaps that attitude stems from your religious upbringing.  Or perhaps it is derived from having been born into poverty and having hung around with impoverished people living in squalor and feeling that it is God’s will that we should all suffer until Heaven.  

Perhaps, perhaps…but I feel that most people who would read the headline above and want to read on are suffering from lack-itis.  Anyone with me thus far has more money and opportunity than 95 percent of the world’s inhabitants. 

Lack of confidence, for starters, leaves us in the starting gate or  peeking in the upscale toy store at Christmas.  You get what you deserve.

Lack of developed imagination, to dig deeper, leaves us feeling incapable of finding a niche or something we can excel at and be paid to do. We slave on and complain until Kingdom comes. 

No game plan, for the main course, leaves us adrift and chasing one scamming opportunity after another.  This leads to cynicism on a large scale. 

Lack of a vision that you can be rich and deserve to be in that picture leaves us bitterly bankrupt of thoughts and cash. 

The thread in this message is that if everything (or most things) in your life come from a poverty mindset, then expect the worst.  Not even a huge lottery jackpot can save you from yourself. 

Yes, lack kills dreams and leads to surrender before the phantom enemy ever attacks. 

So why not think huge?  Entertain yourself as being royalty.  Treat others as if you are already rich.  In other words, be generous, forgiving and engaging with every soul you come in contact with.  Everyone is on your team, so trust before you shut the door to possibility. 

You have a right and a duty to have the most and give the most.  That thinking style cannot but help lead to unimaginable riches which can’t be measured in coin.

I’ll Do It When…

“You must get good at one of two things. Planting in the spring or begging in the fall.”      ~Jim Rohn~

Good ideas come a dime a dozen.  Many altruistic people in forums have cushy, cathartic-feeling ideas of how to turn the world on its head.   Yet frankly most of these soap boxers are frustrated, struggling poor folks with time on their hands and a trusty computer as their only real companion.

How sad that they have little money, and no way to express themselves other than by bitching about abuses of  power and ruminating over how other politicians and entrepreneurs of their political leaning – if given the reigns – would make the world into Heaven.

I say utter nonsense to that notion.  Power isn’t out there.  It rests within the fella or gal you look at in the mirror each day.  We are dynamos when we get off our rumps.

The Internet is absolutely an essential – though not exclusive tool in reaching people for your business or project.  Unless, however,  you are a leader who walks the talk, rest assured that nobody other than complacent, lazy, get-rich-quick, do-nothingers will flock to your side and then pull you down..

And believe me – because I have been on both sides of this coin – the do-nothinger will breed contempt and scorn those who do lead, accomplish and have momentum. They will wrestle you to the ground and dope you into a stupor of hopelessness.

The interesting point is that if the lazy person does something other than complain and wait for miracles – that is, take massive, no-holds-barred action to make a go at life – movers and shakers who are able change the locked-in paradigms of unfairness will begin to listen and respond to your demands for justice and fairness..

The people in power are not computer philosophers or romanticists – they get things done.  Whether or not we like what they do is totally a waste of breath or brain energy.

The message the successful, sometimes greedy people convey is that I am motivated, directed, and thus momentum is usually on my side.  The real test of character is to take those in power to task and become the best we can possibly be – with no excuses allowed!

Everyone wants to believe they are sincere, honest and giving.  The problem is we look at those values as intellectual exercises where intent counts; I believe only action and results count.  Everything else is drivel before our fellow humans and our Maker.

I challenge myself and each of you to take massive action.    Become like the Vikings who took their family and all their possessions with them into battle.  There was no turning back.  Were they successful?  Absolutely!

Follow the wise words of my favorite mentor the next time you want to surrender and complain:

“If you spend five minutes complaining, you have wasted five minutes.  If you continue complaining, it won’t be long before they haul you out to a financial desert and there let you choke on the dust of your own regret.”

Come into this year with a new lease on life.  Become excellent.  Get help whenever and wherever you can.  Stand tall.

Standing Over Your Gravestone

(Your First Name) was a loving man/woman of many talents.

He/she smiled when others frowned.

He/she listened when others would jump to judgment.

He/she took each day with a deadly seriousness, yet lived each one with the enthusiasm and vigor of a toddler in a room of toys.

He/she endured many tragedies and setbacks with a dignity and determination to move forward when the sea was once again calm enough.

He/she started with no money and only big dreams and parlayed his/her strengths into a small fortune.

He/she did not stop there.  He/she took a large chunk of that money and set up (a school for war orphans) and (a fund to inoculate the poorest of the poor from deadly water-born diseases). (Fill in with your ideas).

To his/her family, he/she was a treasure.  He/she set aside time in each busy work week to spend quality moments with those closest and dearest to him/her.

Most importantly, he/she cherished life.  He/she climbed majestic peaks, visited the Seven Wonders of the World, and dined by candlelight on the Riviera.

Ah, yes, he or she was a person who has left a legacy much greater than any who had known him/her in childhood or youth would have ever envisioned.

Hats off to him/her.  We will all miss (Your First Name) and cherish his/her warm eyes, engaging smile, and carefree attitude.

The best part is that he/she is still here and able to write this eulogy in the flesh.

Challenge yourself to live the eulogy you hope is written about you.  I will do so in my remaining years and so can you, however old or young you may be or feel.

Get to work and paint in the colors of your dreams.

Putting Yourself in the Picture

“We need men who can dream things that never were.”     ~John F. Kennedy, 36th President of the USA~

Several years ago I heard a motivational talk in which the speaker said, “If you believe it, you can see it.”  This counter-intuitive pronouncement left me baffled and unsure how to apply the cryptic message.

Believe it or not, the mental pictures you have about yourself have painted your past, are shaping your present, and will determine your future.  Your mind follows you wherever you choose to take it.

In one book I recently read I came across a quote by Abraham Lincoln which sums up what was said in the previous paragraph:  “To believe in the things you can see and touch is no belief at all; but to believe in the unseen is a triumph and a blessing.”

Wishy-washy images of being rich and happy do not register well with the subconscious mind.  You must see yourself in that red Jaguar cruising down that lonesome highway every day.  Or feel the graduation robes fluttering in the breeze as you are handed your hard-earned MBA diploma from Harvard on a summer day.

Commonly, people dream of the good life,yet haven’t the foggiest notion of what that means to them and what that entails them to do.  They follow trends and listen to everyone else’s unfounded rumors of what constitutes the good life and how to attain it.

Get a good education.  Marry up.  Get into a growing tech company.  Follow Robert Kiyosaki or Anthony Robbins.

The ticket to paradise is to sacrifice yourself for others or the common good.  Take just what you can.  Live for peace.  Die for your country.  Join the war against poverty, nuclear proliferation, global warming, AIDS, gay marriages, executive perks, abortion, child slavery, prostitution, drugs, government corruption, teen pregnancy, high fuel prices, robber barons, filth in the media…ad nauseum.

Advice by others is cheap.  The trouble is that one size never fits all in designing a life.  Nobody but you has to live with your decisions.  That’s right – your spouse or you can walk at any time on a whim!

We are each given a unique, divine mission in life – like it or not – and each of one of us can paint any picture we want of how to live and serve.  Not even our families, bosses or financial circumstances can rob us of our free will to dream huge and design a life of our own making.

I happen to be in Japan.  Many, including myself, have complained from time to time about this or that aspect of Japanese life.  But the absolute truth is that this country has every advantage you could ever wish for.  You can be or become whoever you want to be here.

It all begins when we paint an exquisite picture of who we are becoming and then live as if we have already arrived.

Visit your destiny each day until you feel right at home. 

Doing What Is Right

It’s easy to act righteously when life is good and you have control over your destiny.

It is difficult to act wisely and generously when you are short of money, time or patience.

Generosity is giving more than you can, and pride is taking less than you need.
Kahlil Gibran

The tricks this week are first to keep your cool when you usually lose it.  And secondly, to do what is right even when nobody is looking or when it is emotionally painful to do so. 

Life is the habits we form.  Little acts of kindness, compassion, generosity and forgiveness can go a long way towards making our lives more pleasurable.  

Stand tall and stand for something worthwhile.  Respect will come your way.

Lessons From The Colonel

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By copywriter-guru Perry Marshall

Maybe you’ve heard the story of 1000 restaurant owners who rejected Colonel Sanders’ Fried Chicken proposal, and Prospect #1001 who finally said “yes.”

BUT… did you ever hear the story behind the story?

This is a good one. An old photocopier salesman, who called on Colonel Sanders back in the 60’s, passed this along to me.

The real story is:

The Colonel had a restaurant in Corbin, Kentucky, which had been doing very well. A new interstate highway was planned to bypass the town of Corbin. Seeing that his business was about to dry up, the Colonel auctioned off his operations. After paying his bills, he had nothing to live on except his $105 Social Security checks.

In 1952, confident of his chicken recipe, he began crisscrossing the country in his car, making an offer to restaurant owners:  He would walk into a restaurant, announce to the owner,
“I bet my chicken recipe is better than yours” and propose a cook-off.

(The chicken provided by the restaurants he visited, using his recipe, was part of his plan for feeding himself during those lean days.)

If the owner was favorable, he would “franchise” his chicken recipe to them at 5 cents per chicken.

In all, just over 1000 restaurants turned him down, without one successful deal.

Then one day he was having his daily cooking duel with a bar owner, who said to him, “Sir, I’m trying to sell beer, not chicken. This stuff needs to be a whole lot saltier so customers will get thirsty and buy beer!”

So he grabbed the salt shaker, poured some salt on, and took another bite. “Now THIS is GREAT,” he said. “If you’ll add salt to this recipe, I’m a taker!”

The Colonel took a bite and spit it out — it was terrible!

But Colonel Sanders had been on a NO SALT DIET for 30 years, so his tastes were obviously different than everyone else’s.

The Colonel wasn’t stupid! He might not like the salt, but it was better than poverty. Thus began the Colonel’s enormously successful Kentucky Fried Chicken legacy.

Here’s the kicker: At one time, if you bought a box of Kentucky Fried Chicken, here’s what it said on the side:

“When Colonel Sanders added the 11th spice, he instantly knew it was the best chicken he’d ever had.

Of course they didn’t tell you what spice it was.

This is so instructive.

First of all, Colonel Sanders could have made 1000 MORE presentations, driven his car until the transmission fell out, spent every dime of those $105 Social Security checks, prayed for success and recited positive affirmations every morning in front of the mirror. But he still would have come up empty handed, had he not been willing to change his recipe!

Secondly, although the recipe he so passionately believed in was the best recipe for HIS taste buds, it was not the recipe that his customers really wanted. Without a recipe that the customers wanted, no amount of effort or persistence would make it work.

With the right recipe, he was unstoppable.

Third, the recipe he had before he added salt was ALMOST right. It was VERY, VERY CLOSE to what it needed to be. Adding salt to a lousy recipe wouldn’t have helped much.  So all the effort he expended developing the original recipe was worthwhile.

Fourth: Persistence DID pay off, but not the way we might expect it to. Sometimes we’re looking for the magical day when our persistence, and the sheer number of people we talk to, leads us to the RIGHT person who will say “Yes” and open wide the doors to success.

But for Colonel Sanders, playing the “Numbers Game” was not the key. The real key was bumping into someone with the audacity to suggest something different, and for the
Colonel to be eager enough for a breakthrough to change his recipe.

Fifth, the magical ingredient was ordinary table salt. Salt, all by itself, is worthless as a food item. Chicken, all by itself, is pretty bland, and may not even do the trick with 10 other perfectly good spices. Put them together, though, and you’ve got a real winner!

Never overlook the possibility of combining very ordinary things to create something “entirely new.”

Finally, motivation and hard work alone are rarely (if ever) enough to accomplish a challenging goal. Innovation, flexibility, careful listening, endless experimentation, and the setting aside
of egos and old paradigms are all equally important.

In my own case, I worked for several years in both corporate and direct selling. I had essentially two priorities in mind: motivation and people skills. I was enamored with these two virtues, and spent the majority of my working time pounding the phone, making cold calls, working very hard to get in front of anyone who could fog a mirror, and all that other drudgery that entry-level salespeople normally deal with.

Despite all of the effort, the motivational tapes and the people skills books, there were still too many days of heroic effort and no reward. My wallet was still, inexplicably, full of hungry moths.

But then things started to dramatically turn around. It was the result of two things:

1) I started to learn how to use marketing, low cost advertising and the web to assist my sales efforts;

2) I found some people who were more able and willing to support my efforts from a “customer service” point of view, than the group I was working for previously.

Great marketing almost always includes the addition of some 11th spice. An ordinary ingredient that makes everything come together.

It’s right under your nose, waiting to be discovered and shared with the world.

Procrastination vs. Momentum

“Life responds to deserve and not to need. It doesn’t say, “If you need, you will reap.” It says, “If you plant you will reap.” The guy says,  “I really need to reap.” Then you really need to plant.”     ~Jim Rohn~

Nothing gnaws at your soul with more ferocity than the sense of regret, plans gone awry or goals never reached.

You can hide this sadness from others with a little practice, but from yourself – it is an entirely different matter.

Should haves, could haves and might haves will eat you alive, cell by cell.

Perhaps you haven’t noticed:  Very little positive happens to anyone who sits on the sidelines or waits for someone to notice them.  Yeah, life just ain’t fair.

You must step up in order to break out.  And in order to break out, you must prepare by building a knowledge base and by improving your character.

I’ve heard countless people say:  “I would be a XXXX professional, if I only had connections, a little money, more brains, more time…” or you fill in the blank.

Sounds good – maybe even convincing – but I’m afraid excuses are the firewood of a loser.  Successful people and wannabes understand where excuses and procrastination lead – to the end of the bitter road.

Take even one small step forward in your life each and every day.  Don’t depend on time, lotteries or a salary wage increase to carry you forward. Depend on your own impassioned ideas and actions to get you where you want to go and where you deserve to be.