Wisdom From Babylon

The Richest Man in Babylon, the book written by George S. Clason, is a regular revisit for me, at minimum on an annual basis. Written in story form and fairly short, it's a simple read, but full of the wisdom of handling money and building wealth. Here are some highlights of the great wisdom shared in this classic book. The concepts are fairly basic and practical, and yet most do not heed these simple rules of money that will, over time, create a fortune for them.

• A part of all you earn is yours to keep - Set aside at least 10% of your income. Save it and invest it, don't spend it.

• Seven Cures For a Lean Purse

1. Start thy purse to fattening - Only live on 90% of your income. As stated above, you need to have the mindset and discipline that a part of all you earn is yours to keep.
2. Control thy expenditures - Cut your expenses to the essentials. It's ok - and I believe necessary in order to keep your sanity and stay disciplined - to have some "fun" money set aside as an essential, but be realistic and keep it reasonable. You likely will have to cut some things out, but keep something you enjoy doing on the table. Use those things you want to do but can't fit in your budget to motivate you to get yourself in a position where you can add those things back in.
3. Make thy gold multiply - Invest wisely the money you have been diligently setting aside. Put your money to work for you.
4. Guard thy treasure from loss - Protect your principal from loss. Invest in secure investments, not "blue sky" propositions. Gain knowledge of what you're investing in. Find those who are knowledgeable and heed their advice.
5. Make of they dwelling a profitable investment - Own your own home.
6. Insure a future income - Put proper insurance and other protection in place to protect yourself and your family and provide for your needs as you get older.
7. Increase thy ability to earn - Increase your knowledge and your skill set, and your ability to earn more will increase with it. Don't rely on policy or your boss for an increase in pay. Make yourself more valuable and the opportunities will come, or even better, you can create them for yourself.

• The Five Laws of Gold

1. Gold comes gladly and in increasing quantity to any man who will put by not less than one-tenth of his earnings to create an estate for his future and that of his family.
2. Gold labors diligently and contentedly for the wise owner who finds for it profitable employment.
3. Gold clings to the protection of the cautious owner who invests it under the advice of men wise in its handling.
4. Gold slips away from the man who invests it in businesses or purposes with which he is not familiar or which are not approved by those skilled in its keep.
5. Gold flees the man who would force it to impossible earnings or who follows the alluring advice of tricksters and schemers, or who trusts it to his own inexperience and romantic desires in investment.

Here are a couple great little "one liner" pieces of advice as well:

• Better a little caution than a great regret.
• We cannot afford to be without adequate protection.
• Where the determination is, the way can be found.
• Opportunity waits for no man.
• Men of action are favored by the goddess of good luck.

If you're in debt (and I'm talking here about "bad" debt such as credit cards or car payments, etc. There are plenty of instances, especially in business, where debt makes sense and can be used as a tool. We'll talk more about this in a future post) the book gives a simple formula to chip away at those balances that are hanging over your head. Live on 70%, use 20% to reduce your debts and pay off your obligations, and at the same time do not neglect to put aside 10% to save and invest. You can do it. Find a way.

I implore you to take these nuggets of advice seriously, and if you're not practicing them in your life, start doing it today. Not tomorrow, not next week, but today. Why won't most do this? First of all, it requires discipline, which is unfortunately severely lacking in our culture. Our "have it all and have it now" instant gratification mindset that is throw at us from every angle, easy credit and extremely little, if any, training on money before we get out into the real world all contribute to the reason why such a small number will even attempt this. Trying to keep up with your neighbors and their new cars, boat, RV and beautiful home (who, by the way, probably put themselves enormously in debt acquiring those things) will only strap you down and make you a slave to debt. Remember point 3 of the "Cures For a Lean Purse" - Money should be working for you. Make it your slave and make it produce a return for you. Don't put yourself in a position where it's the other way around.

Another reason most won't attempt these simple formulas is that it takes time. Again, in our culture, we want the instant gratification and the "quick fix". Everyone's hoping for a windfall. They sit there waiting for a "big hit" that (they think) will take care of all of their money issues. Just look at the number of people that play the lottery and you know it's true. Look closer at those who actually win, or who inherit a large amount of money, or who make it in acting or sports and all of the sudden have a huge sum of money but have no knowledge of the Rules of Money. Does their stroke of luck fix the situation? Rarely. More often than not they end up more broke than they were before. Why? It's because without the knowledge of how money works, more money flows through your fingers just as quickly as less. Money itself does not solve the problem. More money only makes you more of what you already are, and if you're terrible with money, with no plan or discipline, more money will just make you even worse with handling it. Knowledge and discipline are what gets you and keeps you in the place you want to be; with money working for you instead of you working for it.

Make your decision today to start following these simple but extremely effective rules of money. Remember, they're rules. They're how money works, so don't overthink, analyze or try to argue the points. Instead, embrace them and put them in action in your life. It will take time, it will take discipline, but I promise you will reap the rewards of it over the long term. Stay focused and stay disciplined. Teach these rules to your kids! Most of us aren't exposed to these philosophies until much later in life, when we've already lost time and made mistakes. If you haven't read "The Richest Man in Babylon" pick up a copy now and read it. You won't regret taking any of these steps now and not putting it off to another day.

When the Day Just Doesn't Go as Planned

Sometimes days just don't go our way. We start out with a plan, with the whole day outlined of what we're going to do and when, and all the things we're going to get done. It's of course possible to set yourself up for success and have a day go just as planned. But the question is, what do you do when that doesn't happen? How do you respond when something unexpected happens, or when your day gets completely thrown off by something you didn't see coming? What do you do when your entire calendar for the day blows up and you have to completely change your day?

The common reaction is to get frustrated, throw up your hands and count the day as lost; to think about all the things you needed to get done but weren't able to because of whatever came up and stole that time. It's also easy to start pointing fingers. However, none of these reactions are going to do anything to improve your results or change the situation. In fact, all it does is increase your stress and frustration. So, since we know it will happen, what can we do to be prepared for it when it does, and how should be respond?

1. Don't Overschedule Your Day - I'm certainly not advocating giving less than your best effort, but one of the ways to minimize the possibility, or at least the impact, of something not going exactly as planned is to have some flexibility in your day. If every single minute is planned out and needs to be 100% productive on specifically set tasks, that leaves no room for the dynamics of life and business. Leave some margin in your day to deal with any necessary changes in focus or direction.
2. When Something Does Interrupt or Change Your Day, Deal With It - Ignoring it won't make it go away. If you need to change your focus for a minute, or your schedule changed because of something out of your control (or even something in your control), accept it and deal with it.
3. Don't Stress - Stressing out about it won't help make the situation better. It will only make you more frustrated and less effective in getting the rest of your day finished out on the right track.
4. Learn From It - What could you do in the future to avoid a similar situation from happening? Could you be better prepared or pay more attention to detail to avoid a mistake that cost you time? Could you reprioritize your schedule to make more sense with the natural flow of your day? Figure out what changes or adjustments you can make to lower the chances of a similar interruption in the future.

We're all going to have days that don't go exactly as planned. What we do and how we respond during those times has more of an impact on the final outcome and how we feel about it at the end of the day than the actual cause of the derailment. Set yourself up for success by creating margin in your schedule, deal with issues and changes when they come up, know that it's just a part of life and business and don't stress about it and, most of all, learn from those situations so you can be better in the future.

Taking Time to Reflect

I just spent part of this morning doing something that would, to most people, seem like a waste of time. I went for a walk in the woods. With so many other things to do, with such a long list of things to get done, why would I take the time to do this? The answer is right in the question. It's because of all the things I need to do that I take the time to step back every once in a while, get in a quiet and peaceful place, and spend some time in thought and reflection.

Life is extremely busy. We're all pulled in so many different directions, with so many things we need to get done, that it's easy to get lost in the grind and forget what we're working towards. It's easy to just keep your head down trying to keep up with all the demands of your business and your family. While taking an hour or so out of your crazy schedule may seem counterproductive, let me tell you why it's an extremely important ritual you need to incorporate into your calendar on a regular basis, starting today.

1. Time to breathe - As I said, life is crazy busy. Stepping back from the chaos is a necessity to clear your mind and just be able to breathe and not be trying to accomplish or think about a million things at once.
2. Reflection - When you're alone with your own thoughts, without the distractions of all the things you need to do, you can gain a lot of perspective on where you are in your life, and where you'd like to be headed. Being so busy and always having so many things to think about means we don't really ever have time to look at what it is we're really trying to accomplish and what we're spending our time and energy on. Time to reflect just doesn't happen unless we intentionally create the time and space to do it. Too often we get so caught up in trying to keep up that we don't even pay attention to if what we're doing is even what we want to be doing or if it's getting us any closer to our objectives. When is the last time you asked yourself if what you're doing day to do is what you really want to be doing, or if what you're spending your time on is helping you reach the goals you've set out to achieve? If you don't take time to reflect on this, you can waste years of your life only to finally look back and realize you spent all that time on something you either didn't enjoy or that didn't help you in your quest to reach your goals and pursue your passions.
3. Reconnect with your "why" - This is a perfect time to remind yourself and think on what your "why" is. Remember why you're working so hard, what it is you're trying to accomplish. When things are busy we can lose touch with what that is for us as it gets drowned out by the noise of our daily lives. Get away from the day-to-day "what" you do and re-focus on why it is you're doing it. Go even deeper if you can. Is your currently defined "why" still your why, or have you or your business changed to the point where you need to redefine it? Do you even have a "why"? Have you ever even thought about it? These are the tough questions that you need to ask yourself to challenge or confirm if you're on the right path.
4. Adjust your path - It may not be during the first time you do this, but if you keep the ritual, you will discover things about yourself, gain perspectives you didn't think about before, and think of new ideas or paths for your business or personal life. Don't just have these moments and forget about them! If it's something you can make an adjustment on now, do it today. If it requires some additional preparation or planning, set some tasks up and put things in motion right away to head in that new direction. I always have a journal with me so I can log my thoughts as soon as they enter my mind.

Here are some tips to make the most of your time of reflection.

1. Plan in advance - Decide where you will go, what setting you will be in, and some of the things you want to think on during your time. This isn't set in stone. For goodness sakes don't bring a "to do" list with you! However, having a general idea of what you want to be thinking on will help direct your thoughts towards those things. That said, sometimes it's good just to go, clear your mind of the clutter, and see where your thoughts go. It's also good to be open to spontaneity and just finding a place nearby, especially if you travel a lot. 
2. Find a quiet place that speaks to you - What speaks to you and what helps you think deeper and more clearly? For me it's usually going for a walk in a wooded area or spending time somewhere in nature, but it could be anywhere you are comfortable, feel inspired and won't be distracted.
3. Eliminate all distractions - Turn off your cell phone, get away from the conversations around you and get off by yourself. You need to get away from all of these things to give yourself time to get into your own head and listen to your own thoughts. Your phone ringing or dinging at you will completely disrupt your flow of thought and won't give you the opportunity to get truly into deep thinking.
4. Let things go - Your time won't be well spent and you won't get anything out of it if you're just thinking about the work you "should" be doing instead. Let those things completely go. They can wait for an hour.

I urge you to etch some time into your schedule to do this. Make it a regular occurring event. Not only will you gain additional perspectives and be able to refocus on your foundational thoughts, but you will actually find you'll be more productive in the long run. The break gives your mind the freshness it needs to perform at a higher level. It also identifies what things you may be spending time on now that you need to change or eliminate, therefore reclaiming that time for better activities. In the end, the net result is more clarity, and ultimately you will gain that invested time back.

The Real Definition of Sales

We've all heard it said of someone before, whether they were talking about themselves or someone they know. "He could sell ice to an eskimo!", suggesting they are the ultimate salesperson. That no matter the obstacles, they can make the sale. On the surface this sounds great, right? In your organization, you need top performers. You need those that can close the deal. Closing the deal is what brings in the revenue. But let's step back and take a look at what sales really is all about.

Sales is the process of leading a buyer to making a buying decision that is for their benefit.

Sales is first and foremost a process, not an event. But beyond that, it is about what's good for the customer, not what's good for the salesperson or the company. The second part of that definition of sales is the last three words - "for their benefit". Take a look at that common phrase we started with. If you're selling ice to an eskimo, or in other words getting someone to buy something they have no use for, then you're not a salesperson - you're a con artist. Sales is not about manipulation or convincing someone to buy something they don't want or need. It's about identifying the person's or organization's needs, helping them to also see that need, and leading them to a decision that will help them fulfill that need. It's about creating solutions for the customer, not about notching another order at someone else's expense.

Sure, you can probably get away with the former version of "sales" for a while. You might even do very well. You may be taking that approach right now and think I'm full of it. But eventually your funnel of business will run dry, because now you're looking for the next "victim" as you leave a trail of destruction behind you, instead of building something long-term by providing a service that people will remember, repeat and refer. The short cut version is short lived. The longer, building brick-by-brick version is the sustainable path. People appreciate and remember someone who helps them through the entire sales process and isn't just looking for a signature on the order form.

Invest in yourself to increase your knowledge and your ability to negotiate and persuade others to make a decision that is the right choice for them. Sales is a skill, and you can learn and improve upon it daily. Take the longer - but also longer-term - path of providing value and being a salesperson of integrity. You won't regret it, and you will reap huge rewards in not only your business, but in the relationships you create along the way.


--If you haven't read Zig Ziglar's "Secrets of Closing the Sale", it's a must ready for anyone in sales of any kind and has a ton of examples and techniques for honing your skills as a salesperson with this same perspective of serving first, identifying needs and leading to a decision that's good for the buyer. See the "Success Resources" tab and pick up a copy today. $10 is nothing to invest with all the wealth of knowledge in that book--

Failure

Failure. The word brings negative thoughts and feelings to the majority of those who think on it. After all, who wants to fail at something? Who wants to try, to give their effort and their heart, and not succeed? Who wants to look like they don't know what they're doing or take a hit to their self esteem? But, if you're going to achieve anything significant, you need to get past these feelings and shift how you feel about failure.

One of my mentors has a great philosophy he shares of "success upon delivery", meaning that your definition of success should not be rooted in whether or not someone accepts your proposal. The outcome is not a factor in whether you have succeeded or not. The fact that you delivered your message, you did what you showed up to do, is what matters. Why this is so important, especially in a sales or business environment, is because it takes the power away from the person you are making the proposition to and puts it fully in your hands. You can do your best, learn negotiation and sales skills and so forth, but the other person is still ultimately in control of their decision, not you. If success or failure depends on their acceptance or rejection, you're never really in control of whether you succeed or not. Not only that, but with this change in perspective, since winning is just delivering the message and asking the question, you succeed every time you do that. Think about how much of an impact that can make on your outlook and your attitude throughout the day. If all you get all day is "no", you still succeeded because you followed through on your end and you asked the question. If your definition of success is someone saying "yes", you'll be getting beaten down all day long and by the end of the day you'll be feeling completely drained instead of energized and positive.

Failure is also a learning experience. We figure out what doesn't work, and we can change our approach and be better next time. Without failure and the feedback we receive from it, we can't make those necessary adjustments to become better at our craft. Failure is a key component of becoming more successful and learning what to do, and not to do, in the future. The important part is that you need to take the time to reflect on the failure so you can take the lesson from it. Don't dwell on it. But do analyze what happened, figure out how to avoid it in the future, make the adjustment and move on.

Let's face it, if you're not failing at something, you're not trying very hard. You're also not doing anything that stretches your ability. Anything worthwhile is worth doing poorly at first, until you learn from experience; and you can't learn from experience unless you jump in and try it, knowing you'll probably mess up at some point! We're all human and we all make mistakes. You can't live life in fear of failing, or you'll never try anything new.

Challenge your thinking and your relationship with failure. Do you see it as a positive or a negative? If most of your thoughts and feelings are on the negative side, work at shifting to more positive ideas around the word. Remember the "success upon delivery" formula, and that half the battle is just getting out there and taking action. The more you try, the more you fail, and the more you ultimately will succeed. Get out there and fail a bunch, learn, adjust and move forward with confidence.

Act Before Thinking

As I was trying to figure out what topic to blog about today, I came across this title in my "drafts" to remind myself to post about it at some point. I thought it would fit perfect for my post, as I was just listening to a teleseminar talking about "Ready, Fire, Aim", while at the same time listening to a Real Estate Guys radio show where the topic was one of their main mantras - "education for effective action". I took it as a sign that these came up during the same day that it was the perfect time to address this.

We're traditionally taught to be prepared; to get ready, aim and fire, in that order.  It sounds reasonable, right? It seems to make sense that that's the logical order of things. There's a lot to be said in favor of it to be sure. You don't want to go into something with zero knowledge or direction, that's certainly true. However, so many people get stuck in the first two parts of the process. They either never feel like they're "ready" enough, or if they do start to aim, it's without enough clarity to know what they're supposed to be aiming at, or with too much timidity to actually pull the trigger. They sit and wait, and analyze, and before they get to "fire" the opportunity is passed and they have to start all over. Opportunity does not sit and wait with a target on it's back for you to aim until you're fully prepared to pull the trigger.

So what's a more effective approach? The "ready, fire, aim" concept is not new, but it is contrary to what our naturally tendencies and comfort is. We often want to be completely ready to go, and we should be reasonably so, but you will never be fully 100% ready to pull the trigger. If you wait until everything lines up perfectly, until you have all the answers and all the knowledge you need to move forward, you'll be waiting your entire life. We need to be reasonably ready, have a good knowledge base to stand on, and pull the trigger, even if we don't know 100% what the final outcome will be or have every "what if" scenario figured out ahead of time.

One important aspect of this is knowing enough to work backwards off a "worst case scenario". You have to have enough knowledge around what you're doing to create a couple possible outcomes, and figure what your worst case scenario is. If you can live with that, don't go any further in analyzing. Start moving forward, and then figure out the details or exact direction from there. Take real estate entrepreneurship for example. When you come across a potential deal, and you know values, you can work backwards and figure out a couple exit strategies. Is the worst case handing the deal off to another investor for a small wholesale or assignment fee? There could be several other much better options, but if that's the worst case, stop thinking and pull the trigger. Then explore the other options and decide which route is the best. Is the worst case a huge loss, but with the potential for profit? Ok, well then in those instances step back and take a closer look first. That said, some of the great companies out there have had worst case scenarios that were complete failure of the business. The point is, you need to make that decision on what you can live with as a worst case. Even facing a potential catastrophe as a worst case could still mean moving forward, if you know that going into it and are ok if that is the final result.

When you get stuck with thinking you need all the answers before you can do anything, remember that there is no way you can know it all. That's why it's so important to surround yourself with smart people and have a great team around you. The key really is action anyway. Knowledge is not power, applied knowledge is power. Knowledge is only the potential for power. You can have all the knowledge in the world, but without using it and taking action, it's not doing anything for you and is wasted. Don't spend your time working so hard to learn something, to become an expert, and then never use it!

Here are some quick tips to get past being stuck in either the "ready" or "aim" steps:

• Expand your knowledge - But don't let not knowing all the answers stop you.
• Build a great team - Having a great, knowledgeable team helps you feel more confident.
• Step outside your comfort zone - Get used to it, because "ready, fire, aim" isn't always - or usually isn't - comfortable.
• Be clear on what you want - Without clarity on what you want in life, how can you know what to aim at?
• Be bold - Ask questions around and take bold steps towards the things you want.
• Don't over-think it - If you sit and think about all the bad things that could go wrong, of course you'll never want to move forward.
• Remember that failure is part of success - Re-frame your thinking around failure. It's only failure if you let it defeat you. Otherwise it's just part of the process and an opportunity to learn and do better.

 Now go out there and practice. "Ready, Fire!, Aim". Get as much knowledge and make as many preparations as you can up front, then take bold action, and make adjustments as needed.

Gaining by Eliminating

Ok, I'm taking a page from my mentor's book here, so credit given where it's due this is based on a coaching cd by Greg Pinneo that I recently listened to. S.I.S.E., or "Sh** I Should Eliminate" - what should we remove from our lives to be more effective, to move closer to our goals and grow to live our potential? To live a healthier, more fulfilling life? If you ask people that are very successful, especially those that seem to get more done in a day than seems possible, most of them will tell you that it's not just about what they do that is the key; it's more about what they don't do. Here's few to get you started on thinking about what you should eliminate in your own life. Some are a spin off the cd by Pinneo, and some are my own thoughts.

• Distractions - We are so distracted in our culture today it's ridiculous. Between the ads we see and hear constantly and the constant "ding" of the 30 different alerts set on our phones, we are almost always distracted in some way. It's so bad we even have a phrase to describe it: Continuous Partial Attention. If you're not acutely aware of your own distractedness, it's very easy to get sucked in. It's all around us. When you're in a state of Continuous Partial Attention, you are never truly focused on the task at hand. You not only get less done, but you're never in the moment. You rob yourself of the full experience of so many great things in life if you're never fully present in anything you do.
• Vagueness  - Who wants to live a life where at the end you, or anyone else who was around you, couldn't really say what it was you did? What if they couldn't say what you stood for, what you believed in, or what you set out to accomplish? A vague life is a life without direction. Be clear on who you are, what you stand for, what you will not tolerate in your life, and what you want to accomplish. Know what legacy you want to leave. If the picture of what you want is vague, the results will be as well.
• Negative People - These come in all types, from those who are just "takers" who will never give anything from their end, to those who make you feel less of yourself just from being around them, to those who just have an overall negative attitude, to those who try to shatter your dreams with their own limiting belief of possibility. Here's an easy tip - don't hang around these people. We become like those we hang around. No matter how mentally tough you think you are, if you spend your time around people like this, it will affect your own attitude. Not to mention the fact that many of these types of people are time suckers and will use your time without hesitation or apology - before you know it you've been on the phone with them for 45 minutes, haven't said more than two words on your end, and have just been thrown up on with all of their problems and their negative spin. You know it's true, because it's happened to you before.
• Shallow Conversation - No more "how's the weather?" talk. Let's talk deeper. Let's talk life, philosophy, goals and aspirations. Let's talk life experiences. When we talk deeper, we build deeper relationships, we challenge our own thoughts, and we become better people.
• Worry - Worry has no place in your life. Think about it - has worrying about anything, whatever the outcome, ever helped in a situation? Ever? Of course not. Worrying does nothing but cause stress and make you wonder about things that are either out of your control or will never happen. Worry is a mentally draining, time wasting activity that has absolutely zero chance of having a positive return. If you tend to worry, sit down and make a list of all the things you're worried about. Then go through the list. The things you can do something about, do something about it, and the things you can't do anything about, let it go! We can't control the government, we can't control inflation, we can't control whether we get hit by a bus today or whether we're going to get cancer. Sure, we can do things to stay healthy and we can pay attention when we cross the street. But worrying about something that may or may not happen is worthless and has no place in your life. Control what you can, let go of what you can't. Now go make your list; seriously, right now.
• Apathy - I would go so far as to say this is one of the single biggest problems in our world today. Do not settle for less than what you're capable of. Don't be complacent and stop growing and becoming better. The opposite of apathy is passion. Get involved in whatever you can do with passion and that lights your fire. Then pursue it with everything you've got.
• Exhaustion - Staying up super late and getting up ridiculously early doesn't make you a martyr for your business; it makes you less effective. You're body can't function without proper sleep. You can actually get more done in less time if you're properly rested. Yes, there are times when you need to grind it out and push through, but if you're living every day of your life without enough sleep, you're asking for your body to crash. And it will. Don't burn yourself out.

Remove these things from your life and you will see a huge increase in the quality of your life, and you'll move much more quickly towards those things which you've set out to accomplish. What other things can you eliminate from your life in order to gain? Eliminate them today and start reaping the rewards.

-Comment, let me know your thoughts and what you need to eliminate on twitter - www.twitter.com/invest4cashflow

Facing Setbacks

We've all been there before. Things are looking up, you're making progress and gaining some ground towards your goals, and out of nowhere something changes. Your momentum and the ground you've gained is threatened by an event, a change in circumstances; perhaps something that is even completely outside of your control. Now you've got a choice to make: are you going to let this setback get the best of you, or are you going to get the best of it?

It's a simple decision really. Too many people in our society play the victim. You know what? Even if you are right, and you are the one who got the raw end of the deal, playing the victim and placing blame isn't going to make the situation any better. By doing that, all you do is give the negative side a bigger victory. The best thing you can do is stay positive, learn from whatever the experience is, and move on. Use the setback to fuel you.

Whatever setbacks you may be facing, remember that they temporary and that you can and will get past it, and be better for it. Failure and defeat only get the best of us if we let them. Life is about the experience, and if you're out there living, things are going to happen. You're going to get bumps and bruises along the way. It's these bumps, these challenges, that force us to grow; to become better. A life well lived is a life with both victories and defeats. But where there is defeat there is opportunity. At the very least we can take the experience and what we've learned from it and use it in the future, to make ourselves a better person, a better business owner and a better member of the community.


-BJN

"Opportunity often comes disguised in the form of misfortune, or temporary defeat." Napoleon Hill

Using Fear as Motivation

Fear. We all experience it. When something new, unknown or unexpected comes into our lives, often times we have a sense of fear involved. Our mind goes through all kinds of "what if" scenarios, most of which don't have even the slightest possibility of coming to pass. But that doesn't seem to keep us from sometimes letting those thoughts get the best of us, preventing us from moving forward. The key to overcoming this is to put fear in a new perspective.

First, take a step back and look at what the fear is. Is it the fear of failure, or the fear of rejection? Maybe it's the fear of not knowing what next steps to take once you take that first big one to get the ball rolling. Whatever it is, ask yourself this: If I don't try, even though I'm afraid, will I regret not having given it a shot? Ah, the fear of regret. It can certainly be a great motivating tool. I'm not saying it should be your only source of motivation; not by any means. However, if you find yourself frozen and unable to move forward, stop and picture a couple things. First picture yourself having moved forward, and having succeeded in doing so. What have you accomplished by moving forward with success? What goals are you closer to now? What does your life look like having taken that step in spite of the fear that may have stopped you? Now picture what it would look like if you didn't move forward on it. What would your life look like this time? Here's the big question: Looking back, will you regret not having at least tried?

I come back to Theodore Roosevelt's quote a lot, but it's so applicable to this that I need to bring it up again. Roosevelt said, "The credit belongs to the man who's actually in the arena...who at worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be among cold timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat". Those are some powerful words. If you never take risk, sure you'll never know defeat; but you'll also never know victory. Worst of all, you could find yourself at the end of your life, never knowing what you could have done, or what kind of an impact you could have made. You'll only know what you could have tried but didn't, and wonder what your life would have been if only you had. Don't let yourself get to the end of your life, with the haunting question running through your mind - "what if I had...". Instead, step out, move forward, face your fears, and one day you can look back and say "I did".


--"We must all suffer one of two things: The pain of discipline or the pain of regret or disappointment." -Jim Rohn--

Failure - The Key to Success

Let me give you a quick lesson on failure. If you are afraid of failure, that's all you will get. If you view failure as a negative thing, you will never succeed. If you think failure is the end of the line when things go wrong, well, you'll be right...for you. Failure is not an option. It is part of the process of becoming successful.

Every successful person you see has failed over and over and over again. The problem is, the part that is usually publicised are the successes. The failures, or the majority of them anyway, usually come in the building stages, before there is major attention on them. Once they hit the public scene they seem to be an "overnight" success, when typically they've had years of hard work, struggle and failure that led up to that.

Failure is not a negative thing unless you let it be that. Failure is how we "learn on the job". It's how we become better at what we do. The critical part is that when we do fail, we stop and reflect on it. Why did the failure happen? What will you do in the future to make sure it doesn't happen again? How are you going to let this be a positive thing and make you a better person and better at your business? Failure can actually be used as a springboard instead of putting you in a slump. The key is to have the right perspective on failure, and to view it as this tool for learning and growing instead of something to avoid at all costs.

And oh, by the way...if you're not failing, you're not trying hard enough. If you find yourself trying to rack your brain for the last time you failed, you need to get out there and fail more! If you're not failing your not putting yourself out there enough.

I hope this can put a fresh perspective on failure and help you view it in a healthy way. Don't avoid failure. Use it as a learning process and a springboard to better things. I'll end with this video of Michael Jordan, one of the greatest, if not the greatest basketball player of all time. Let's take a look at one of the most successful sports figures in the world and see what his take is on success and failure.

The Power of Belief

We all know the classic story The Little Engine That Could from our childhood. The story has so many philosophical principals in it it's incredible; from persistence, to focus and drive, to the power of positive thinking. The principal I want to hit on right now is belief.

Belief is a huge factor in whether you have success in your goals or not. You must believe or there is no way you will put in your full effort. If in the back of your mind you are thinking "this will never work", you are going to struggle. After all, why would you work so hard on something when you "know" it will never work out anyway? Here are the key areas of belief you must have:

1. Belief in yourself - You must believe in yourself if you have any hope in succeeding and reaching your goals. If you do not believe in yourself, that you can and will actually accomplish what you are set out to do, then you will never come close to what you are capable of. Without full belief in yourself you will constantly be in a struggle to take the steps that are necessary to climb to the top of your mountain because you will always be thinking that the effort is in vain because you don't actually think you will get to the top. This belief is the cornerstone to all of the others. If you don't believe in yourself it doesn't matter how great your belief is in the other areas, because you will simply never put in the full effort.
2. Belief in possibility - Similar to belief in yourself, you have to believe in the possibilities out there, and that there is a ton of opportunity if you just go out and get it. If you don't believe there are possibilities, then again you will not put forth the effort.
3. Belief in abundance - You also have to believe that there is abundant opportunity; that there is plenty to go around. If you don't, instead of seeking help and advise, you will try to go it alone and hoard information and opportunity. Success is a collaborative experience, and takes the efforts of many. Sure there are many "self-made" millionaires, but ask any of them and they will tell you they had a great team around them to get them to where they are. Without the belief that there is abundance and plenty to go around, you can't work together with others in an effective manner to get higher results.
4. Belief in your "why" - You have to belief that your "why", your reason for achievement, is a worthy goal. Money alone will not fuel a belief enough to keep you going. Instead, think deeper about why you have the goals you have. Who do you want to impact? What kind of legacy to you want to leave? If money is a goal, don't think just about the money, but what will the money mean  to you? What will it help you accomplish as far as helping others? What will the money get you -and I don't mean material possessions; that's the same line of thinking as just the money itself - does it get you more time with your family? Does it help you be in a position to start the business you've always wanted to start? Does it give you freedom? Know what you are chasing, but you must also know why you are chasing it.
5. Belief in your system - There are many ways to build wealth, especially with all of the modern conveniences and the way technology has changed how we do things and the opportunities it has created. But you need a system in place to be successful. Success isn't an accident. Success requires thought, planning and strategic action steps. You have to set up your system, whatever it is, and you have to believe it will work. This doesn't mean you can't tweak it along the way, but it does mean that you have to have faith that you are headed in the right direction, and that with adjustments along the way, it will work. Whether the system is one that was taught to you by a mentor, or something you've come up with from your own research, you have to believe that the efforts will pay off.
6. Belief in others - Ok, I admit, this one can be hard because let's face it, people let us down. But you have to believe in others and believe they can help you or you will be trying to do everything on your own, and if you are doing that you are severely limiting your ceiling of success. You simply can't know or do it all, so you have to trust others to help you. This includes advisers, business partners, mentors and the like. Believe that there are people out there that do want to help you and see you become successful. Seek those people out, bring something to the table, and have faith you can help each other in your endeavors.

Today - Live in the Moments

Today is all we have. Right now is the only thing we have a guarantee of. We spend so much time planning and worrying about the future, that often we forget to live in the moment. We make calls or text while we are playing a game with our kids. Our mind is thinking of what needs to be done tomorrow and the next day while we are supposed to be listening to whoever we are engaging in conversation.

Too often we fail to see the wonderful things of today in anticipation of what tomorrow will bring. I'm not saying we shouldn't plan, we shouldn't try to be better and grown, or we should try to accomplish our goals. What I am saying is that we need to live in the moments that life gives us. A mentor of mine has done a great job of getting this across to me. Life is about the moments you create. It's about being present in whatever it is that you are doing at that time. It's about making memories and doing things with your loved ones that will make an impact on their lives, as well as yours, because you will remember it forever and the joy it brought you. What are your moments? What is it that gives you life? It's important that you know, so you can put as much energy as possible into creating as many "moments" in life as you possibly can.

We're all busy. We all have a million things going on in our lives. But I challenge you to be deliberate in being present where you are. Put the phone down at night when it's time for dinner. Don't let your mind wander when you are reading to your kids. Even during your business day, be there when you are talking to a co-worker or a client. I promise you that you will start to see a difference in your attitude, in your perspective, and in the responses of those around you.