Brian Tracy International

Listening Wins Sales

2007-11-09T01:13:00.000-08:00

There are books, articles and multi-day courses on listening. There are audio/video-learning programs that include hours of instruction and a variety of exercises. They are all valuable and helpful, but what they teach can be distilled down into a key skill. Your mastery of these skills, through discipline and practice, is all you need to become an excellent listener, with all that that entails.

Listen Attentively When Others Speak
The best listening skill is to listen attentively. Lean forward; face the prospect directly rather than at an angle. Focus your attention on the prospects face, on his or her mouth and eyes.

Hang On Every Word
Listen without interruption. Listen as though you were hanging on every word the prospect was saying. Listen as if the prospects were about to give you the winning Lottery number and you would only hear it once. Listen as if this were a million dollar prospect who was just on the verge of giving you a major order. Listen as if there were no one else in the world to whom you would rather listen at this moment than this prospect, and to what this prospect is saying.

The Most Important Skill of All
The ability to pay close, uninterrupted attention to a person when he is speaking is the primary listening skill. It is the hardest facility to develop and is simultaneously the most important of all. It requires continuous practice and discipline. And it's not easy. It is hard to keep your thoughts from wandering, but the payoff is tremendous.

Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do immediately to put these ideas into action.

First, imagine that your customer is the most fascinating person in the world. Hang on every word as if he was about to place a million dollar order.

Second, lean forward when your customer speaks. Nod, smile, agree and be both active and involved. Listening builds sales relationships.

Super Sales Success Series
(6-CD program, 1 DVD , 1-hour CD, & 2 books)

Learn how to double and triple your sales, manage your time and improve the quality of your life with these key ideas practiced by all top salespeople.

"You're nuts not to have this.... It's easy to tell if I'm not listening to Brian Tracy every day...my closing percentage drops 15 to 30 percent. Thank you Brian!"
--Rick Sunderland, La Porte, IN

I want to learn more about the Super Sales Success Series!
==============

Click Here for Affiliate Elite: New Affiliate Marketing Software!

Leaders Are Made, Not Born

2007-11-09T01:10:00.000-08:00

The Key Leadership Abilities
Your ability to negotiate, communicate, influence, and persuade others to do things is absolutely indispensable to everything you accomplish in life. The most effective men and women in every area are those who can quite competently organize the cooperation and assistance of other people toward the accomplishment of important goals and objectives.

Everyone is Different
Of course, everyone you meet has different values, opinions, attitudes, beliefs, cultural values, work habits, goals, ambitions, and dreams. Because of this incredible diversity of human resources, it has never been more difficult and yet more necessary for diplomatic leaders to emerge and form these people into high-performing teams.

Do What Other Leaders Do
Fortunately, leaders are made, not born. You learn to become a leader by doing what other excellent leaders have done before you. You become proficient in your job or skill, and then you become proficient at understanding the motivations and behaviors of other people. As a leader, you combine your personal competencies with the competencies of a variety of others into a smoothly functioning team that can out-play and out-perform all its competitors. When you become a team leader, even if your team only consists of one other person, you must immediately develop a whole new set of leadership skills.

Focus On What's Right vs. Who's Right
Whenever you have problems, misunderstandings, or difficulties within the team, you reexamine your values, your goals, your activities, your assignments, and your responsibilities. You are more concerned with what’s right than with who’s right. Leaders are more concerned with winning than with not losing. High-Performing teams run by excellent leaders, are determined to perform in an excellent fashion. All members know that their ability to work together in harmony and cooperation is the key to the success of every one of them.

Aim at a Common Goal
The wonderful thing about becoming a leader in your work and personal life is that you can practice the skills of influencing and persuading others toward a common objective. You can promote the principles of excellent teamwork by establishing your values and goals, determining your activities, and then leading the action. And you can improve yourself by continually evaluating your performance against your standards.

Only Compare Yourself With Yourself
One of the marks of excellent people is that they never compare themselves with others. They only compare themselves with themselves and with their past accomplishments and future potential. You can become an even more excellent person by constantly setting higher and higher standards for yourself and then by doing everything possible to live up to those standards.

The more proficient you become at getting the results for which you were hired, the more opportunities you will have to get results through others. And your ability to put together a team and then to lead that team to high performance will enable you to accelerate your career and fulfill your goals faster than ever before.

Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do to put these ideas into into action:

First, think about specific things you can do to work more effectively with the different people on your team.

Second, set high standards for yourself and for each person and then dedicate yourself to achieving those standards.

Leadership: The Critical Difference
Learn more than 100 of the most important ideas, strategies and techniques of effective leadership in this powerful, profound audio/video program, complete with 2 workbooks, 60 minutes. Used by major corporations, universities and hundreds of fast growth businesses.

* Become a better leader;
* Earn the respect and support of others;
* Set standards of performance on all tasks;
* Determine your mission - the importance of vision;
* Trust yourself in every decision you make;
* Strategy and tactics;
* Inspire others and gain followers;
* Communicate effectively with each person.

I want learn more about Leadership!
==========

Click Here for Affiliate Elite: New Affiliate Marketing Software!

Consulting Versus Selling

2007-11-09T01:04:00.000-08:00

View Yourself as a Consultant
One particular self-image possessed by high-achieving salespeople is that they see themselves as consultants rather than as salespersons. They see themselves as problem solvers with their products or services rather than as vendors looking for someone who will trade them money for what they have to offer.

Approach Them as Clients
They do not approach their customers with hat in hand, hoping for a sale. They approach their "clients" with the attitude that they are consultants calling on the prospect to help him or her solve a problem or achieve a goal.

Ask Questions and Listen Carefully
Seeing themselves as consultants, they ask questions carefully and listen intently. They focus all of their energies on understanding the customer’s situation so that they can make intelligent recommendations based on what the customer really wants and needs.

Become an Expert in Your Field
As consultants, they recognize that they must be experts, authorities in their field. They know their products and services from one end to the other. They invest many hours familiarizing themselves with every single detail of what they sell, and of what their competitors sell as well. They know the strengths and weaknesses, the advantages and shortcomings, the features and benefits of what they are offering. They have excellent product knowledge which their customers can sense and which gives both themselves and their customers greater confidence throughout the sales conversation.

Differentiate Yourself from Your Competitors
Top salespeople, positioning themselves as consultants, see themselves as resources for their clients. They see themselves and carry themselves as advisors, mentors and friends. They become emotionally involved in their transactions and they are generally concerned that their product or service be the ideal solution to the real needs of the prospects they are dealing with. They differentiate themselves from their competitors by being more concerned with helping their prospects than with selling their products or services. Their customers often feel that they care more about them than they care about making a sale. And it's true.

Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do immediately to put these ideas into action.

First, see yourself as a problem-solver rather than as a salesperson. Take sufficient time to understand the prospect’s real need before you start selling.

Second, think of ways to tailor your product or service to your customer’s needs so that he sees what you sell as the ideal solution for him.

The Psychology of Selling
Session 1: The Psychology of Selling
The “winning edge” theory. The “inner game” of selling. Self-concept as a regulator. A simple way to increase your earnings. The six phases of selling. The single most significant indicator of your success. The best time to make a sale. Obstacles.

"Very Powerful Concepts. This product helped me to improve my sales skills 100%, not to mention the increase in my sales."
--Peter Montero, Miami, Florida

I want to learn more about The Psychology of Selling!
============
Click Here for Affiliate Elite: New Affiliate Marketing Software!

One Hour Makes All the Difference

2007-11-09T01:02:00.000-08:00

You've gone as far as you can with what you now know. Any progress you make from this moment onward will require that you learn and practice something new.

Commit to Lifelong Learning
One quality of leaders and high achievers in every area seems to be a commitment to ongoing personal and professional development. They look upon themselves as self-made people, as “works in progress.” They never become complacent or satisfied. They are always striving toward ever greater heights of knowledge and understanding.

Get to the Top in Five Years
Earl Nightingale said many years ago that one hour per day of study in your chosen field was all it takes. One hour per day of study will put you at the top of your field within three years. Within five years you’ll be a national authority. In seven years, you can be one of the best people in the world at what you do.

Read Everything You Can
Read all you can about your field. Subscribe to the executive book clubs and book summaries. Build your own library of important books in your field. Never be cheap about your education.

In fact, if you make a decision today to invest 3% of your annual income back into yourself, back into your own personal and professional development, you will probably never have to worry about money again.

Go Through 50 Books Per Year
If you read one hour per day in your field, that will translate into about one book per week. One book per week translates into about 50 books per year. 50 books per year will translate into about 500 books over the next ten years.

Join the Top 1% of Money Earners
If you read only one book per month, that will put you into the top 1% of income earners in our society. But if you read one book per week, 50 books per year, that will make you one of the best educated, smartest, most capable and highest paid people in your field. Regular reading will transform your life completely.

Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do immediately to put these ideas into practice.

First, ask the successful people around you for their best book recommendations. Whatever advice they give you, immediately go out and buy those books, take them home and begin reading for one hour every morning before you start work.

Second, when you read, underline and take notes when you find important ideas that you can use. Implement them immediately. Take action of some kind on good ideas. You will be amazed at the change in your career.

Accelerated Learning Techniques
Learn a system of proven, practical techniques that increase your ability to learn and remember names, facts, figures and business information 400 percent faster than today. Learn how to memorize quickly, speed read, improve your brainpower and multiply your intelligence.

"We live in the most over-communicated society in history, yet we know we have to learn at an even faster rate. If you've ever been to a conference, read a book or taken a course and felt you couldn't get full value from all of the wonderful material presented - this program is for you."
--Geoff Kelly, Melbourne, Australia

I want to learn more about Accelerated Learning Techniques!
=============

Click Here for Affiliate Elite: New Affiliate Marketing Software!

The Key to Leadership

2007-11-09T00:59:00.000-08:00

The Foremost of the Values
Winston Churchill once said, “Courage is rightly considered the foremost of the virtues, for upon it all others depend.” The systematic development of the deep down quality of unflinching courage is one of the fundamental requirements for leadership in any field. Fear, or the lack of courage is more responsible for failure in management, and in life, than any other factor. It is always fear that causes people to hold back, to sell themselves short, to settle for far less than they are capable of!

Eliminate Fear and Doubt
I firmly believe that you can do, have or be far more than you now know if only you could eliminate the fear, doubts and misgivings that consciously and unconsciously interfere with your realizing your full potential.

Unlearn Your Fears
If there is anything positive about fear, it is that all fears are learned, that no one is born with fears, and that having been learned, they can be unlearned. If you want to understand the role of fear in shaping the course of your life, just ask yourself, if you had a magic wand that would absolutely guarantee you success in any one thing you attempted, what goal would you set for yourself.

The Great Question
“What one great thing would you dare to dream if you knew you could not fail?” If you had no fears at all with regard to money or the criticism of others, what would you do differently? Most people can think of all kinds of changes they would, or could, make in their lives if they had no fears to hold them back.

The Origins of Fear
The development of courage begins with understanding the psychological origins of fear. The newborn child has only two fears; the fear of falling and the fear of loud noises. All other fears that we experience as adults are learned as we are growing up, primarily as the result of well-meaning but destructive criticism from our parents.

How Fears Develop
When the curious child gets into things and makes a mess, the parent scolds and punishes the child, eventually building up a pattern of fear connected with trying or getting into anything new or different. As adults, we experience this as the fear of failure, the fear of risking, of making a mistake, of losing.

Action Exercises
Here are two steps you can take immediately to put these ideas into action.

First, imagine that you had no fears at all. What would you set as a goal for yourself if you were guaranteed of success?

Second, decide exactly what you want and then act as if it were impossible to fail. You may be surprised at how successful you are.

Leadership: The Critical Difference
(60-minute DVD, two 60-minute audio CDs plus two workbooks on CD-Rom)

Learn more than 100 of the most important ideas, strategies and techniques of effective leadership in this powerful, profound audio/video program, complete with 2 workbooks, 60 minutes. Used by major corporations, universities and hundreds of fast growth businesses.

I want learn more!
==============
Click Here for Affiliate Elite: New Affiliate Marketing Software!

Four Strategies for a New Business

2007-11-09T00:57:00.000-08:00

There are four strategies you can use to find a new product or service to start or build your own business.

Look in Your Own Field
The first strategy is to find a new product or service in your own field or skills. You may have a million dollar idea in your own mind. Many people have had the experience of having an idea for a product or service nag at them over and over again, and you keep pushing it away or ignoring it. They say the average person has four ideas each year driving to and from work, any one of which would make them a millionaire if they would just follow it up. So look into your own field or skills. Look into your own mind. Look into your own ideas.

Look for Opportunities When You Travel
The second strategy is to find a new product or service while you travel. Keep your eyes open for opportunities. A very good friend of mine who is now a multi-millionaire, started his fortune by traveling east and seeing a unique type of orange drink called Orange Julius and then getting the exclusive rights to sell it in a large Western city. From there, he expanded into other restaurants, into real estate, and into apartments. He developed a high positive cash flow from his Orange Julius business that made him a millionaire. Sometimes just finding a new product or service that is doing well somewhere else that hasn't come to your market area can make you wealthy.

Get the Rights to Sell It
Remember your objective, when you find a new product or service, is to acquire the rights to sell the product or service exclusively in your market area. Sometimes these rights are available for the asking. A gentleman I know named Peter Thomas got the rights for Century 21 to Canada simply by going to the offices and asking for them when Century 21 was a young company. From that, he turned Century 21 into one of the most successful real estate franchises in Canada. He is now worth millions of dollars, having taken the cash flow from Century 21 and channeled it into other real estate investments.

Be Sure it is Already Successful
Sometimes just asking for the right to sell it in your market area is all you have to do. Here's the key, though. Before you bring a new product or service back to your market area, be absolutely sure that it sells well somewhere else. Many people advertise products outside their market area because they are not selling inside their market area, so make very sure that the product is selling well already in other markets.

Develop a Money Making Attitude
Strategy number three is to keep your eyes and ears open and alert to new business opportunities occurring around you. Develop a money-making attitude. A friend of mine became very successful by building commercial property across the street from a new shopping center that was being developed. The traffic from the shopping center made that commercial space extremely valuable. He opened two businesses in it, and started his fortune. So be alert to what is going on around you.

Be Sure You Like it Yourself
And strategy number four is this. Remember you will only be successful marketing and selling something that you believe in, use yourself and would recommend to your best friend. Many times, I see people who make the critical mistake of trying to sell a product or service that they themselves would neither use nor afford, nor would they recommend to someone else, but they think that other people will buy it even though they wouldn't. So remember you must really, really believe it the product. You must be excited about the product. You must absolutely believe that this product can enhance the life or work of someone else and then be eager to tell them about it.

Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do to put these ideas to work immediately.

First, develop a new business mentality. Continually look around you for new products and services that people need, want and are willing to pay for.

Second, develop a money making attitude. Look around you for opportunities to sell products or services that are not currently being offered, at either higher prices or in greater quantities. The possibilities are everywhere.

Thinking Big
In this program, Brian Tracy will take you beyond the limits of everyday thinking and teach you how to stay ahead of the pack by thinking big.

"Warning, this program is very powerful, it really opened my eyes. In a way it is painful, since it teaches you that the things you have or don't have, or the way you look and feel, are directly related to how you think."
--Chris Smith, Toledo, Ohio USA

I want to learn more about Thinking Big!
=================

Click Here for Affiliate Elite: New Affiliate Marketing Software!

Test Marketing Your Product or Service

2007-11-09T00:49:00.000-08:00

Six Ways to Get Fast Feedback
How do you test market a product or service? How do you find out if people are actually going to buy it? First, make or get a prototype. Create or get a sample. If it's being manufactured somewhere else, get a sample of it. If you're going to manufacture it yourself, create a prototype so that you can show it, demonstrate it, photograph it. So that you can let people see it, touch it, feel it, and get an opinion from it.

Show it to Potential Buyers
When we brought the Suzuki 4-wheel drive vehicles into North America, we bought three of them. We brought them in and drove them around to about 20 or 30 dealerships and let people look at them, test drive them, see them, touch them, smell them, feel them. And went on to sell thousands and thousands of vehicles. So get a prototype or a sample. That's the starting point.

Determine the Correct Prices
Second is get accurate prices and delivery dates from your suppliers. If you're going to show the prototype or sample, if a person says how much is it, or how long will it take to get it, be sure that you have the answers.

Ask a Buyer
Number three is get a buyer's personal opinion. In other words, go to somebody who you will want to buy the product or service and get their personal opinion. Say, would you buy this? And at what price could you sell it? And always call on the individual who makes the buying decisions. Always call on the person who can sign the check.

Compare Your Product With Others
Number four, compare your product or service with other products on the market. And be sure to ask this question, "Why would someone buy from you instead of from someone else?" Number five, if it's a retail product, try a 1-store test. Go and see if you can't find a store who will carry the product on a limited basis and see how customers respond to it. Try a 1-customer test. If it's a product or service, try to find one customer who will use the product or service.

Start With a Great Idea
Now Ross Perot, when he started EDP Industries, only had a thousand dollars. He had a great idea that would cost an enormous amount of money to implement, and he was able to sell his first customer on paying him in advance for the services that he was going to sell them. With the money that he got in advance, he was able to deliver the services, to prove that they worked and that they were cost effective. And the rest is history. Ross Perot went on to build one of the most successful businesses in America.

Take it to a Trade Show
A sixth way to test market a product or service is take it to a trade show. There are 15,000 trade shows per annum all over the country. Sophisticated buyers go to trade shows and they will tell you rapidly whether or not you have a winner.

Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do immediately to put these ideas into practice.

First, get a sample or prototype of your product or service and show it to as many people as possible, especially to potential buyers. This will give you fast feedback that can be very helpful to you.

Second, look at all of the other competing products or services on the market and be very clear why someone would buy from you rather than continuing to buy from someone else. This can be the most important question you ask and answer.

How You Can Start, Build, Manage or Turn Around Any Business
More than 500 ideas you can use to increase profits, boost sales, cut costs and improve performance in every area of your business, large or small

Session 2: Marketing Strategy - The Key to Success
The purpose of a business; what is marketing? 14 ways to find a new product or service; 10 methods of fast, cheap market research; 8 steps to market test a new product; 14 questions you must ask before you begin marketing anything (What do you sell? What need does it satisfy? What is your "area of excellence"? Obstacles to sales success? And many more); market opportunity gaps - 5 places to look; 4 fundamentals of any marketing plan; 5 techniques for creative market development.

Tell Me More!
===========

Click Here for Affiliate Elite: New Affiliate Marketing Software!

Solving Problems Effectively

2007-11-09T00:43:00.000-08:00

How to solve problems and make decisions more effectively in discussions with other people. Your ability to communicate is the most important skill you can develop to get on to the fast track in your career. Perhaps the most important thing you do in business is to solve problems and make decisions, both by yourself and with other people.

Use a Systematic Process
A major type of communication in the business organization is meetings for problem solving and decision making. The key to effective problem solving and decision making discussions, is for you to all go through the process systematically.

Define the Problem Clearly
Right at the beginning, you ask the question, "What exactly is the problem?" Clarityof definition will resolve 50% of the issues before they go any further.

Focus on the Future
When discussing a problem, be sure to focus on the future over the past. Ask the question, "Where do we go from here?” “What do we do from here?” “What are our options for the future?" Too many problem-solving discussions end up focusing all of the attention of all the people present on what happened in the past and who is to blame. The effective executive uses this type of communication to focus on where the company and the individuals are going, and what can happen in the future - the only part of the situation over which anyone has any control.

Talk About the Solutions
A second element in effective problem solving communications is for you to talk about the solutions instead of talking about the problems. It is for you to keep the attention of the individuals in the meeting focused on the possible solutions and what can be done rather than what has already happened.

Release Creativity
The discussion of solutions is inherently positive, uplifting and has a tendency to release creativity amongst the group. A discussion of problems is inherently negative, de-motivating and tends to inhibit creativity.

The Key to Positive Thinking
You can become a positive thinker simply by becoming a solution-oriented person rather than a problem-oriented person. If you get everyone in your organization thinking and talking in terms of solutions, you will be astonished at the quality and quantity of ideas that will emerge.

Action Exercises
Here are two things you can immediately to become a better problem solver and decision maker.

First, take some time to be absolutely clear about the problem that is under discussion. Give some thought to what an ideal decision or solution would accomplish. Instead of focusing on the situation as it is, talk about the situation, as you would like it to be.

Second, keep the conversation focused on solutions, on what can be done in the future. The more you think and talk about solutions, the more positive and creative everyone will be and the better ideas you will come up with.

The Power of Clarity
The Power of Clarity – How to decide exactly what you really want in every area of life!

"If You Can Only Afford 1 Program then you should purchase this program. I've been a Brian Tracy fan for over 20 years and have purchased over 20 of his excellent programs, and feel this program is sort of "A Greatest Hits" Album!"
--Scott Martin, Orlando, FL USA

I want to learn more about The Power of Clarity!
----------------

Click Here for Affiliate Elite: New Affiliate Marketing Software!

Focus on Key Result Areas

2007-11-08T01:48:00.000-08:00

“When every physical and mental resource is focused, one’s power to solve a problem multiplies tremendously.”
--Norman Vincent Peale

The Key Question for You to Ask
Why are you on the payroll? This is one of the most important questions you ever ask and answer, over and over again, throughout your career.

As it happens, most people are not sure exactly why they are on the payroll. But if you are not crystal clear about why it is that you are on the payroll and what results you have been hired to accomplish, it is very hard for you to perform at your best and get paid more and promoted faster.

Determine The Results Expected of You
In its simplest terms, you have been hired to get specific results. A wage or a salary is a payment for a specific quality and quantity of work that can be combined with the work of others to create a product or service that customers are willing to pay for.

Define Your Key Result Areas
Each job can be broken down into about five to seven key result areas, seldom more. These are the results that you absolutely, positively have to get to fulfill your responsibilities and make your maximum contribution to your organization. Your failure to perform in a critical result area of your work can lead to failure at your job.

There is essential knowledge and skill that you must have for your job. These demands are constantly changing. There are core competencies that you have developed that make it possible for you to do your job in the first place. But there are always key results that are central to your work and which determine your success or failure in your job.

You Are Responsible
A key result area is defined as something for which you are completely responsible. This means that if you don't do it, it doesn't get done. A key result area is an activity that is under your control. It is an output of your work that becomes an input or a contributing factor to the work of others.

Give Yourself a Grade
Once you have determined your key result areas, the second step is for you to grade yourself on a scale of 1-10 in each of those areas. Where are you strong and where are you weak? Where are you getting excellent results and where are you underperforming?

Here's the rule: Your weakest key result area sets the height at which you can use all your other skills and abilities.

This rule says that you could be exceptional in six out of seven key result areas but really poor in the seventh. And your poor performance in the seventh area will hold you back and determine how much you achieve with all your other skills. This weakness will act as a drag on your effectiveness and be a constant source of friction and frustration.

Decide To Become Excellent
The fact is that everybody has both strengths and weaknesses. Refuse to rationalize, justify or defend your areas of weakness. Instead, identify them clearly. Set a goal and make a plan to become very good in each of those areas. Just think! You may be only one critical skill away from top performance at your job.

Here is one of the greatest questions you will ever ask and answer: "What one skill, if I developed and did it in an excellent fashion, would have the greatest positive impact on my career?"

You should use this question to guide your career for the rest of your life. Look into yourself for the answer. You usually know what it is.

Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do immediately to put these ideas into action.

First, identify the key result areas of your work. What are they? Write down the key results you have to get to do your job in an excellent fashion. Give yourself a grade from 1-10 on each one. And then determine the one key skill that, if you did it in an excellent manner, would help you the most in your work.

Second, make a habit of doing this analysis regularly for the rest of your career. Never stop improving. This decision alone can change your life.

Click Here for Affiliate Elite: New Affiliate Marketing Software!

Two Key Questions for Maximum Effectiveness

2007-11-08T01:45:00.000-08:00

There are two questions that you can ask on a regular basis to keep yourself focused on getting your most important tasks completed on schedule. The first question is "What are my highest value activities?"

Put another way, what are the most important tasks you have to complete to make the greatest contribution to your organization? To your family? To your life in general?

Think it Through Carefully
This is one of the most important questions you can ask and answer. What are your highest value activities? First, think this through for yourself. Then, ask your boss. Ask your coworkers and subordinates. Ask your friends and family. Like focusing the lens of a camera, you must be crystal clear about your highest value activities before you begin work.

Keep Yourself Focused
The second question you can ask continually is, "What can I and only I do, that if done well, will make a real difference?"

This question comes from Peter Drucker, the management guru. It is one of the best of all questions for achieving personal effectiveness. What can you, and only you do, that if done well, can make a real difference?

This is something that only you can do. If you don't do it, it won't be done by someone else. But if you do it, and you do it well, it can really make a difference to your life and your career. What is your answer to this question?

Every hour of every day, you can ask yourself this question and there will be a specific answer. You job is to be clear about the answer and then to start and work on this task before anything else.

Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do immediately to put these ideas into action.

First, make a list of everything you do at work and then select your most valuable tasks from that list.

Second, resolve to start in on your highest value task and stay at it until it is 100% complete.

The Practice of Discipline

2007-11-08T01:43:00.000-08:00

Discipline yourself to do what you know you need to do to be the very best in your field. Perhaps the best definition of self discipline is this: "Self discipline is the ability to make yourself do what you should do when you should do it, whether you feel like it or not."

It is easy to do something when you feel like it. It's when you don't feel like it and you force yourself to do it anyway that you move your life and career onto the fast track.

What decisions do you need to make today in order to start moving toward the top of your field? Whatever it is, either to get in or get out, make a decision today and then get started. This single act alone can change the whole direction of your life.

Seven Steps to Success
There is a powerful seven step formula that you can use to set and achieve your goals for the rest of your life. Every single successful person uses this formula or some variation of this formula to achieve vastly more than the average person. And so can you. Here it is:

Decide What You Want
Step number one, decide exactly what it is you want in each part of your life. Become a "meaningful specific" rather than a "wandering generality."

Write It Down
Second, write it down, clearly and in detail. Always think on paper. A goal that is not in writing is not a goal at all. It is merely a wish and it has no energy behind it.

Set A Deadline
Third, set a deadline for your goal. A deadline acts as a "forcing system" in your subconscious mind. It motivates you to do the things necessary to make your goal come true. If it is a big enough goal, set sub-deadlines as well. Don't leave this to chance.

Make A List
Fourth, make a list of everything that you can think of that you are going to have to do to achieve your goal. When you think of new tasks and activities, write them on your list until your list is complete.

Organize Your List
Fifth, organize your list into a plan. Decide what you will have to do first and what you will have to do second. Decide what is more important and what is less important. And then write out your plan on paper, the same way you would develop a blueprint to build your dream house.

Take Action
The sixth step is for you to take action on your plan. Do something. Do anything. But get busy. Get going.

Do Something Every Day
Do something every single day that moves you in the direction of your most important goal at the moment. Develop the discipline of doing something 365 days each year that is moving you forward. You will be absolutely astonished at how much you accomplish when you utilize this formula in your life every single day.

Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do immediately to put these ideas into action.

First, decide exactly what you want, write it down with a deadline, make a plan and take action - on at least one goal - today!

Second, determine the price you will have to pay to achieve this goal and then get busy paying that price - whatever it is.

Click Here for Affiliate Elite: New Affiliate Marketing Software!

One Thing You Can't Hide

2007-11-08T01:41:00.000-08:00

One of the most important traits of all motivators at work is consideration. Employees report that the best managers they ever had were people who cared about them as people and as friends. These managers took the time to ask them questions about their lives, and to listen patiently while they talked about the dilemmas and problems and situations in their families. The more that the employees felt that the boss liked them and respected them, the more empowered and motivated they felt.

Caring Is The Key
The flip side of this motivator is the de-motivating feeling that the boss doesn’t care. This is almost invariably expressed in a lack of recognition, a lack of approval, a lack of appreciation and a general failure to pay attention to the employee over time.

Spend Time Listening
Remember, the amount of time that you spend talking to and listening to an employee is a signal to that employee that he or she is important to you and to the company. This is why the very best bosses spend a lot of time walking around and chatting with their employees. They sit with them for lunch and coffee. They invite their comments and encourage open discussion and disagreements about work. They create an environment where people feel that the work belongs to them as well as to the company. In that environment, employees feel good about themselves and more fully committed to doing the job and doing it well.

Become A Positive Person
To empower and motivate your customers, your suppliers, your bankers and so on, you simply need to be a genuine, positive and cheerful person. You develop a positive mental attitude. You be the kind of person from whom, “never is heard a discouraging word.” You are easygoing, genial, friendly, patient, tolerant and open minded. You make people feel comfortable being around you.

Emotions Determine Everything
Remember, everyone is primarily emotional. Everything that people do, or refrain from doing, is triggered by their deeper emotions. Your job is to connect with their higher and more positive emotions so they feel so good about you they want to help you and please you in some way.

Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do immediately to put these ideas into action.

First, get out of your office and go among your friends and coworkers. Ask them about their personal lives and concerns, and then listen carefully to the answer.

Second, resolve to be a genuinely positive person under all circumstances. Be the kind of person people feel happy being around and working for.

Click Here for Affiliate Elite: New Affiliate Marketing Software!

Earn Ten Times as Much

2007-11-08T01:40:00.001-08:00

Here's an exercise for you; imagine that it's possible for you to earn ten times your current annual wage. If you're earning $25,000, imagine for a moment that it's possible for you to earn $250,000, a 1000% increase.

Don't Sell Yourself Short
The first reaction of most people to that exercise is to smile briefly and then to begin thinking about why it isn't possible. One man said to me, "If you knew how many years it's taken for me to get to what I'm earning today you wouldn't be suggesting that I could earn ten times as much."

Never A Good Excuse
Mark Twain once wrote that there are a thousand excuses for every failure but never a good reason. The tragedy of the average American is that whereas his or her main preoccupation seems to be money, or the lack thereof, the average person has the inherent potential to earn far more than he or she is doing currently.

Is the manager earning $250,000 per year ten times as smart as the manager earning $25,000? 10 times as experienced? Does he or she work 10 times harder? Of course not. None of these are physically or mentally possible, but there are people in every business earning many times more than others with the same average age, experience and intelligence.

The Results Are In
In fact, a few years ago in New York, a thousand men and women were selected at random and tested for I.Q. Between the one having the highest I.Q. in this sample and the one with the lowest, there was a difference of only 2 1/2 times. But between the person earning the most, who by the way, was not the one with the highest I.Q. and the one earning the least, who was not the one with the lowest I.Q., there was a difference of 100X in income.

Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do to start increasing your earnings.

First, identify the highest earning, most successful people in your field and find out what it is that they are doing differently from others who aren’t doing as well. Copy them every day.

Second, set a goal to double your earnings over the next two or three years and then figure out how to accomplish that goal.

Increase Your Three Types of Energy

2007-11-08T01:36:00.000-08:00

Most successful people can be characterized as having very high levels of energy. Since energy is the fuel with which everything is achieved, there seems to be a direct relationship between energy levels and levels of accomplishment. It is hard to imagine a tired, burned-out person achieving much in life. On the other hand, energetic, positive, forward-moving individuals seem to get and enjoy far more of the things life has to offer than does the average person.

Physical Energy Is Basic
We have been led to believe that there is basically one kind of energy. We supposedly replenish this energy by sleeping at night, and during the day, we use it up again. It is as though we are machines powered by batteries, and each night we recharge our batteries for seven or eight hours. However, there are some problems with this view of energy.

The biggest problem is that it does not deal with the fact that there are actually three different kinds of energy, each of which is necessary for maximum performance. The three main forms are physical energy, emotional energy, and mental energy. Each of these energies is different, but they are interrelated, and they depend on each other.

The Sweat of Your Brow
Physical energy is raw energy, coarse energy, bulk energy, what we call “meat-and-potatoes” energy. Your physical energy is what you use to do physical labor. It is the primary energy applied by men and women who earn their livings by the sweat of their brow.

The Source of Enthusiasm
The second form of energy is emotional energy. This is the energy of enthusiasm and excitement. This is the energy that lends sparkle to the life of an individual. This is the energy that is necessary for feeling love, happiness, and joy. Largely, it is your emotional energy that makes life enjoyable for you. In fact, almost everything you say and do is determined in some way by an emotion, either positive or negative.

The Requirement for Creativity
Mental energy is the energy of creativity, of problem solving and decision making. You use mental energy to make sales, write reports and proposals, plan your day and your week, and learn new subjects. Your level of mental energy is a major determinant of the quality of your life.

Conserve Your Best Energies
The reason why most people fail to realize their potential in life and work is because they burn up their energy at the emotional level, or the physical level; therefore, they have very little energy left over for mental activities. Most people burn up their emotional energy through the expression of negative emotions. Negative emotions are like a fire that burns up their energy so quickly that they have very little left with which to think positively and constructively.

In fact, one five-minute uncontrolled outburst of anger can burn up as much energy as an average person would use in eight hours of work. Your job is to think continually about how you can stay calm and positive, and work smoothly and efficient, so you can have more mental energy to do the things that are most important to you in life.

Action Exercises
Here are three things you can do immediately to put these ideas into action:

First, take time to identify the different ways that you either use up or deplete your levels of physical, emotional and mental energy. How could you improve in each area?

Second, be sure to get plenty of healthful, nutritious food so you can keep your physical energy at high levels. This is the key to all other energies.

Third, look for ways to conserve your emotional energies by being more relaxed and optimistic in the face of daily problems and disappointments. The more energy you have, the happier and more productive you will be.

Finding A New Business Idea

2007-11-07T01:07:00.001-08:00

Look For Opportunities
How do you find a new product or service, recognizing that 80 percent or more will be new in five years? Here's a series of ideas. Number one, begin with yourself. Begin with your own talents, your abilities, your experience, knowledge, interest, background, education, and so on. Look carefully at your current work, your current business, your current position, or your current product or service. Seek for what is called your own acres of diamonds. Look under your own feet.

Look Into Yourself
Here's a question. What qualities account for your greatest successes in life so far? What personal qualities and abilities have gotten you to where you are? And how could you apply those qualities and abilities to starting and building a new business?

If you already have a company, ask what are your companies' talents, abilities, experience, knowledge, interest, background, and so on. What qualities and talents and abilities have enabled your company to succeed up to now? Where can you specialize? Where can you make a difference?

Identify What You Really Enjoy
Number two is look for a product or service about which you can really become enthusiastic. Sometimes people become wealthy by translating or transforming their hobbies into a business. You will be most successful doing something or marketing something that you really love.

Every product must have a champion. Every product or service must have someone in the business who really, really loves the product or service and is eager to get out and tell other people about it.

Improve On Something Else
Number three, look for something that is an improvement on an existing product or service, not something brand new. Look for something that's cheaper or better quality. Or that has additional features or functions. Look for something that's an improvement.

Remember improving an existing successful product or service is the fastest and surest way to build a successful business. An idea only needs to be ten percent new and better to capture substantial market share. Brand new products or services are very risky.

Be Willing To Work Hard
The fourth key to finding a new product or service is this. Don't look for easy money. Don't look for gimmicks or useless knickknacks. Don't look for get-rich-quick schemes or rewards without working, because they're aren't any.

More people have wasted more time and more life and more money trying to find quick ways to make easy money than you can possibly imagine. So be willing to put in a lot of hard work before you start making real money in a business.

Success Takes Time
It takes two years to break even in the average business. It takes four years to show a profit. It takes maybe eight to ten years before it starts to generate real cash flow. So you have to be patient. If you're impatient, what will happen is you'll end up setting yourself further back than you can imagine.

Action Exercises
First, be prepared to research a lot of business ideas before you make a final decision. The first 10% of time that you spend doing your homework will save you 90% of the effort in getting results later on.

Second, look for something that you can make an improvement upon rather than something brand new. You are surrounded by ideas and opportunities for improvement if you can just identify them.

Developing A Great Character

2007-11-07T01:03:00.000-08:00

Being The Best In Every Area
What is character? Your character is the degree to which you live your life consistent with high, life-enhancing values. A person who lacks character is one who compromises on higher order values in favor of lower order expedience, or who has no values at all. Your adherence to what you believe to be right and true is the real measure of the person you have become to this moment.

Define What "Excellence" Means To You
Let us say that one of your values is "excellence." Your definition of excellence could be, "Excellence means that I set the highest standards for myself in everything I do. I do my very best in every situation and under all circumstances. I constantly strive to be better in my work, and as a person in my relationships. I recognize that excellence is a life long journey and I work every day to become better and better in everything I do."

Organize Your Actions
With a definition like this, you have a clear organizing principle for your actions. You have set a standard by which you can evaluate your behavior. You have created a framework within which you can make decisions. You have a measuring rod against which you can compare yourself in everything you do. You can continually grade your activities in terms of "more" or "less." You have a clear target to aim at and organize your work around.
Decide What You Want For Your Family
It's the same with each of your other values. If your value is your family, you could define this as, "The needs of my family take precedence over all other concerns. Whenever I have to choose between the happiness, health and well being of a member of my family, and any other interest, my family will always come first."

Keep Focused
From that moment onward, it becomes easier for you to choose. Your family comes first. Until you have fully satisfied the needs of your family, no other time requirement will side track you into a lower value activity.

Shape Your Own Character
The wonderful thing about values clarification is that it enables you to take charge of developing and shaping your own character. When your values and goals, your inner life and your outer life, are in complete alignment, you feel terrific about yourself. You enjoy high self-esteem. Your self-confidence soars.

When you achieve complete congruence between your values and your goals, like a hand in a glove, you feel strong, happy, healthy and fully integrated as a person. You develop a kind of courage that makes you completely unafraid to make decisions and take action. Your whole life improves when you begin living your life by the values that you most admire.

Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do to put this ideas into action immediately.

First, create a clear, written description of your values and what they mean to you. From that point on, resolve to live consistent with your own definition.

Second, discipline yourself to live in complete alignment with the values, virtues and qualities that are most important to you. This is the key to character.

The Law of Forced Efficiency

2007-11-07T01:01:00.000-08:00

This law says that, "There is never enough time to do everything, but there is always enough time to do the most important thing."

You Always Find The Time
When you run out of time and the consequences for non-completion of a key task or project can be really serious, you always seem to find the time to get it done, often at the very last minute. You start early, you stay late and you drive yourself to complete the job rather than to face the negative consequences that would follow if you didn't get it completed within the time limit.

Rule: "There will never be enough time to do everything you have to do."

You Are Already Overwhelmed
The fact is that the average person today is working at 110% to 130% of capacity. And the jobs and responsibilities just keep piling up. Everyone has stacks of reading material they still have to go through. One study concluded recently that the average executive has 300-400 hours of reading and projects backlogged at home and at the office.

What this means is that you will never be caught up. Get that out of your mind. All you can hope for is to be on top of your most important responsibilities. The others will just have to wait.

Deadlines Can Be Counterproductive
Many people say that they work better under the pressure of deadlines. Unfortunately, years of research indicate that this is seldom true.

Under the pressure of deadlines, often self-created through procrastination and delay, people suffer greater stress, make more mistakes, and have to do redo more tasks, than under any other conditions. Often the mistakes that are made when people are working under tight deadlines lead to defects and cost overruns that lead to substantial financial losses in the long-term. Sometimes the job actually takes much longer to complete when people rush to get the job done at the last minute and then have to redo it.

The Key Question You Should Ask
The key question you can ask is: "What is the most valuable use of my time, right now?"

This is the core question of time management. This is the key to overcoming procrastination and becoming a highly productive person. Every hour of every day, there is an answer to this question. Your job is to ask yourself the question, over and over again, and to always be working on the answer to it, whatever it is.

Do first things first and second things not at all. As Goethe said, "The things that matter most must never be at the mercy of the things that matter least."

The more accurate your answers to this question, the easier it will be for you to set clear priorities, to overcome procrastination and to get started on that one activity that represents the most valuable use of your time.

Action Exercises
Take a few minutes each day and sit quietly where you cannot be disturbed. During this time, let your mind relax and just think about your work and activities, without stress or pressure.

In almost every case, during this time of solitude, you will receive wonderful insights and ideas that will save you enormous amounts of time when you apply them back on the job. Often you will experience breakthroughs that will change the direction of your life and work.

Keeping Yourself Positive

2007-11-07T01:00:00.000-08:00

The most important thing you do for your success is to take control of the suggestive elements in your environment. Be sure that what you are seeing and listening to is consistent with the goals you want to achieve.

Listen Your Way To Success
Listen to educational audio programs in your car. The average person drives 12,000 to 25,000 miles per year which works out to between 500 and 1000 hours per year that the average person spends in his or her car. You can become an expert in your field by simply listening to educational audio programs as you drive from place to place.

Take Courses In Your Field
Attend seminars given by experts in your field. Take additional courses and learn everything you possibly can. Learn from the experts. Ask them questions, write them letters, read their books, read their articles and listen to people with proven track records in the area in which you want to be successful.

Get Around The Right People
Associate only with positive, success-oriented people. Get around winners. As we say, fly with the eagles. You can't fly with the eagles if you keep scratching with the turkeys. Get away from the go-nowhere types and above all, get away from negative people. Get away from negative coworkers. If you've got a negative boss, seriously consider changing jobs. Associating on a regular basis with negative people is enough in itself to condemn you to a life of underachievement, frustration and failure. Associate only with positive people. Get around winners.

Visualize Your Goals
The last thing before you sleep and the first thing in the morning, think about and visualize your goals as realities. See your goal as though it already existed. Your subconscious mind is only activated by affirmations and pictures that are received in the present tense. See your goal vividly just before you go to sleep. See yourself performing at your best. See the situations that you're facing working out exactly the way you want them to.

Feed Yourself Mental Pictures
See yourself living the kind of life that you want to live. See yourself with the kind of relationships, the kind of health, the kind of car, the kind of home you really want. Visualize just before you fall asleep at night. The first thing you do when you get up in the morning is to feed yourself mental pictures. Those are the two times of the day when your subconscious mind is most receptive to new programming, when you fall asleep and when you wake up.

Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do, all day long, to keep your mind and emotions focused on your goals and financial success:

First, listen to audio programs in your car and when you travel around. Continue feeding your mind with a stream of high-quality, educational, motivational material that moves you toward your goal.

Second, resolve to associate with positive, optimistic people most of the time. Get around winners and get away from negative people who criticize, condemn and complain. This can change your life as much as any other factor.

Two Strategic Thinking Principles

2007-11-07T00:58:00.000-08:00

There are two specific military principles of strategy that your can apply in your personal and corporate life to be far more effective. One key principle that you can use is called the Principle of the Offensive. This principle requires that you accept full responsibility for your situation, whatever it is, and then you take charge and take action. You go on to the attack. You become proactive rather than reactive.

The Key To Breakthroughs
I have consulted and worked with hundreds of corporations. In every case, I have found that all great breakthroughs, and breakouts from problem situations, involve someone making the decision to take aggressive, forward action. The wonderful thing about this attitude of the offensive is that it invariably leads to an outcome that is superior to that of just waiting for things to improve.

Determine The Critical Success Factors
Look at your current situation. What are the critical factors that will determine your success or failure? Once you have decided on the one or perhaps two things that, if done well, can make a real difference, launch yourself forward and get busy, take action, do something. The only real antidote to worry or problems is systematic, purposeful action in the direction of your goals.

Concentrate Your Energies
Another military principle of strategy that you can use is called the principle of the mass. The principle of objective requires clarity of focus. The principle of the offensive requires aggressive action. The principle of the mass requires that you concentrate your resources on your areas of greatest opportunity. One of the most important habits that you can develop is the habit of single-minded concentration, with all your energies, on one thing at a time.

Identify Your Key Success Qualities
The starting point of applying the principle of the mass to your personal and corporate life is for you to ask, “What skills, talents and abilities do I have that have accounted for my success in life to date?” It is only by concentrating your energies on the one or two things that you can do that can make a real difference that will enable you to fulfill your potential as an executive.

Eliminate Your Major Obstacles
You then ask the question, “What obstacles stand between me and my goals and objectives?” Make a list of all the factors that appear as obstacles in your environment. Be sure to write down the areas of competence or skill where you might be weak. Include the factors within your corporate environment as well as the factors outside the corporation. Then, organize the list in terms of priority. What one obstacle, if it were removed, would move you the most rapidly toward accomplishing your goals?

Focus On One Activity Only
To be successful, you must discipline yourself to think through what you are doing and then to concentrate on one thing, the most important thing, and stay with it until it is complete. This one habit alone can change your entire future. And you can develop this habit through daily practice.

Action Exercises
Now, here are two actions you can take immediately to apply these principles to increasing your effectiveness.

First, resolve today that you will be proactive rather than reactive. Instead of worrying about something, take action to solve the problem or change the situation. Go on to the offensive in your business life and keep moving forward.

Second, focus your talents and energies single mindedly on the one thing that you can do that can make a greater difference than anything else. Resolve to develop the habit of single minded concentration until it is as natural to you as breathing. This will change your entire life.

The Law of Capital

2007-11-07T00:55:00.000-08:00

The Law of Capital — your most valuable asset, in terms of cash flow, is your physical and mental capital, your earning ability.

Your Earning Ability
You may not even be aware that, unless you are wealthy already, your ability to work is the most valuable asset that you have. By utilizing your earning ability to its fullest, you can bring thousands of dollars each year into your life. By applying your earning ability to the production of valuable goods and services, you can generate sufficient money to pay for all the things that you want in life. The amount of money that you are paid today is a direct measure of the extent to which you have developed your earning ability so far.

Use Your Time Well
The first corollary of the Law of Capital says: “Your most precious resource is your time.” Your time is really all you have to sell. How much time you put in and how much of yourself you put into that time, largely determines your earning ability. Poor time management is one of the major reasons for poor productivity and underachievement in every industry in America. It is the number one problem for both managers and salespeople in every field.

Invest Yourself Carefully
The second corollary of the Law of Capital says: “Time and money can be either spent or invested.” One of the smartest things that you can do is to invest three percent of your earnings every month back into yourself on personal and professional development, on becoming better at the most important things you do. In fact, if you just invested as much in your mind each year as you do in your car, that alone could make you wealthy.

Invest one hour of your time reading in your field every day. Listen to audio programs in your car. Attend every course that can advance you in your career. Get personal and professional coaching to help you to get the very best out of yourself.

Get Better At The Things You Do
There is nothing that will give you a bigger and better “bang” for your buck than reinvesting a part of your time and money back into your capability to earn even more. All wealthy and successful Americans have learned this sooner or later, and all poor and unhappy Americans are still trying to figure it out.

Increase Your Return on Life
The third corollary of the Law of Capital says: “One of the best investments of your time and money is to increase your earning ability.”

The purpose of corporate strategic planning is to increase “return on equity” or ROE. This requires organizing and reorganizing corporate activities so that the company is earning a higher return on the capital invested in the organization. In your work life, your personal equity is your mental and emotional capital. Your job then is to earn the highest possible return on your human capital, to increase your “return on energy.” This way of viewing yourself must become a key part of your attitude throughout your work life.

Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do to apply this law immediately:

First, take a list of your output responsibilities, the things you do that represent accomplishments, not activities. Examine the list and rank the tasks by priority, on the basis of the value of the work to your company.

Second, take a list of all the things you do, day in and day out. Take this list to your boss and ask him or her to rank your tasks in terms of how valuable he or she considers them to be. Then resolve to work on your most valuable tasks every minute of every day.

Seven Simple Steps to Small Business Success

2007-11-07T00:53:00.000-08:00

Many businesspeople achieve their greatest successes in unexpected areas. They begin a business and then they find that it isn't as profitable as they had anticipated, so they change direction, using their experience and their momentum, and strike paydirt in something else. The most important thing is to begin. To take action. To move forward one step at a time, learning and growing as you go. There is enough information available in virtually every field for you to become knowledgeable enough to achieve success. But action is necessary.

The Two Parts of Success
Success author Orison Swett Marden once wrote, the first part of success is get-to-it-ivness. The second part is stick-to-it-iveness. Every business beginning requires an act of faith and courage, a bold leap into the unknown. Only one in ten people who want to start their own businesses ever develop enough courage to begin and enough persistence to continue. Get-to-it-iveness. And stick-to-it-iveness. The fear of failure, more than anything else, holds people back. It paralyzes action. And it makes failure inevitable.

Begin With a Dream
Fortunately, even if you know nothing about business, you can begin with a dream, a castle in the air, and then build a foundation under it.

Seven Simple Steps
The starting point of many great fortunes has been these seven simple steps. Number one, set a goal and back it with a burning desire. Number two, begin accumulating capital with a regular savings program. Nothing else is possible without this. You cannot move forward until you start a savings program.

Use Your Current Job As A Springboard
Number three, use your current job as a springboard to later success. Learn while you earn. Take the long view. Number four, experiment in business on a limited scale so you can learn the key abilities necessary for success. Number five, search for problems, needs unmet, products or services you can supply of good quality at reasonable prices.

Read Everything You Can Find
Number six, read everything you can find on your chosen field. Remain flexible. Be willing to change your mind if you get different information. And number seven, implement your plans with courage and persistence. Have complete faith in your ability to succeed and never, never give up.

Action Exercises
Now, here are two actions you can take immediately to start moving toward entrepreneurial success:

First, set a goal, make a plan and then launch your plan. Get started. Do something. Begin on a small scale with limited risk and investment but get going!

Second, resolve that, no matter what happens, you will never, never give up until you are successful. Before you accomplish anything worthwhile, you will have to pass the persistence test. And the test will come far sooner than you imagine.

The ABCDE Method For Setting Priorities

2007-11-07T00:50:00.000-08:00

Efficiency is doing things right. Effectiveness is doing the right things. Your ability to plan and organize your work, in advance, so you are always working on your highest value tasks determines your success as much as any other factor.

The ABCDE Method for Priorities
The process of setting short-term priorities begins with a pad of paper and a pen. Whenever you feel overwhelmed by too many things to do and too little time in which to do them, sit down, take a deep breath, and list all those tasks you need to accomplish. Although there is never enough time to do everything, there is always enough time to do the most important things, and to stay with them until they are done right.

Setting Better Priorities
The best method for setting priorities on your list, once you have determined your major goals or objectives, is the A-B-C-D-E method. You place one of those letters in the margin before each of the tasks on your list before you begin.

“A” stands for “very important;” something you must do. There can be serious negative consequences if you don't do it.

“B” stands for “important;” something you should do. This is not as important as your ‘A’ tasks. There are only minor negative consequences if it is not completed.

“C” stands for things that are “nice to do;” but which are not as important as ‘A’ or ‘B,’ tasks. There are no negative consequences for not completing it.

“D” stands for “delegate.” You can assign this task to someone else who can do the job instead of you.

“E” stands for “eliminate, whenever possible.” You should eliminate every single activity you possibly can, to free up your time.

When you use the A-B-C-D-E method, you can very easily sort out what is important and unimportant. This then will focus your time and attention on those items on your list that are most essential for you to do.

Just Say No
Once you can clearly determine the one or two things that you should be doing, above all others, just say no to all diversions and distractions and focus single-mindedly on accomplishing those priorities.

Much stress that you experience in your work life comes from working on low-priority tasks. The amazing discovery is that as soon as you start working on your highest-value activity, all your stress disappears. You feel a continuous stream of energy and enthusiasm. As you work toward the completion of something that is really important, you feel an increased sense of personal value and inner satisfaction. You experience a sensation of self-mastery and self-control. You feel calm, confident and capable.

Action Exercises
Here are three ideas that you can use, every day, to help you set priorities and to keep you working at your best:

First, take the time to be clear about your goals and objectives so that the priorities you set are moving you in the direction of something that is of real value to you.

Second, remember that what counts is not the amount of time that you put in overall; rather, it’s the amount of time that you spend working on high-priority tasks.
Third, understand that the most important factor in setting priorities is your ability to make wise choices. You are always free to choose to engage in one activity or another.

Resolve today to set clear priorities in every area of your life, and always choose the activities that will assure you the greatest health, happiness and prosperity in the long term.

Think Like A Millionaire

2007-11-07T00:48:00.000-08:00

The most important attitude for financial success is long-term thinking. Successful people think a long way into the future and they adjust their daily behaviors to assure they achieve their long-term goals. In a longitudinal study done at Harvard University in the 50s and 60s, they studied the reasons for upward socio-economic mobility. They were looking for factors that would predict whether or not an individual or family was going to move upward and be wealthier in the future than in the present.

They studied factors like education, intelligence, being born into the right family, or having the right connections. In every case, they found individuals who had been born with every blessing in life who did poorly. They also found individuals who had been born or come to this country with no advantages at all who had been extremely successful. What was the distinguishing factor?

They finally determined that there was only one key attitude that mattered. They called it "Time Perspective." Time perspective refers to the amount of time that you take into consideration when planning your day to day activities and when making important decisions in your life.

People with long-time perspective invariably move up economically in the course of their lifetimes. When you spend weeks, months and years developing your skills and ability and expanding your experience in order to be successful, you have long-time perspective. The average professional person has a time perspective of 10, 15 and 20 years.

Begin to see that everything that you are doing today is part of a long-time continuum, at the end of which you are going to be financially independent or financially unfortunate. People with short-time perspective think only about fun and pleasure in the short term. They have what economists call "The inability to delay gratification." They have an irresistible tendency to spend every single penny they earn and everything that they can borrow.

When you develop long-time perspective, you develop the discipline to delay gratification and to save your money rather than spending it. The combination of long-time perspective and delayed gratification puts you onto the high road to financial independence.

Now, here are two things you can do to develop the attitudes of financially successful people:

First, think long-term about your financial life. Decide exactly how much you want to be worth five years, ten years and twenty years from today. Write it down. Make a plan. Take action on your plan every single day.

Second, develop the ability to delay gratification. Instead of buying something on impulse, put off buying decisions for a day, a week or even a month. Decide in advance to "think it over" before you buy anything. This can change the way you spend money almost immediately.

Boosting the Customer's Self-Esteem

2007-11-07T00:45:00.000-08:00

Listening Builds Self-Esteem
It has been said that, "Rapt attention is the highest form of flattery." When you listen intently to another person and it is clear that you genuinely care about what that other person is saying, his or her self-esteem goes up. His or her feeling of personal value increases. He or she feels more worthwhile and important as a human being. You can actually make another person feel terrific about himself or herself by listening in a warm, genuine, caring way to everything he or she has to say.

When a man and a woman go out for the first time, they spend an inordinate amount of time talking and listening to each other. They look into each other's eyes and hang on every word. They are each fascinated by the personality of the other. The more each listens to the other, the more positive and happy each of them feel and the stronger becomes the bonds of affection between them.

The Opposite of Listening is Ignoring
You always listen to that which you most value. You always ignore that which you devalue. The fastest way to turn a person off, to hurt their feelings and make them feel slighted and angry is to simply ignore what they are saying or interrupt them in the middle of a thought. Ignoring or interrupting is the equivalent of an emotional slap in the face. Men especially have to be careful about their natural desire to make a remark or an observation in the middle of a conversation. This can often cause the sales conversation to come to a grinding halt.

Action Exercises
Now, here are two things you can do immediately to put these ideas into action.

First, take every opportunity to make the other person feel important by listening attentively to what he or she says.

Second, avoid interrupting the other person by slowing down and pausing for a few moments after he or she has stopped speaking.

Select Your Company Carefully!

2007-11-07T00:43:00.000-08:00

Only the truly competent individual can be free of politics in an organization. When you're really good at what you do, you can rise above politics. It's the mediocrities at work who have to play games and every study shows that although they sometimes succeed in the short-term, they invariably fail when everyone figures them out.

Do What You Have To Do
Select your work carefully and if you don't love what you're doing enough to want to be the best at it, get out! Flee from the boring or unsatisfying job as you would from a burning building. Working at something you don't care about is the very best way to waste your life. Remember, this life is not a rehearsal for something else.

Look for Pay for Performance
One key to getting onto the fast-track is for you to work for the right company and the right boss. The right company is one that respects its people and practices pay for performance. The right company is dynamic, growing, open to new ideas, and full of opportunities for people with ambition and initiative.

How To Make Progress
A woman spoke to me at a seminar recently and reminded me that she had asked me a question at a seminar about two years ago. She had told me that she was very ambitious and hard-working but that she wasn't making any progress in the large company where she worked. She felt it was because most of the senior executives were men in their fifties and sixties and that women had a hard time getting into positions of responsibility. What could she do?

Change Jobs When Necessary
I told her quite frankly that there was nothing she could do. The senior executives and the company were not going to change. If she was really as capable as she said, I told her to find a job with a young, growing company that wouldn't care whether she was a woman as long as she could do the job.

A Success Story
She told me that she had followed my advice, quit her job, much to the disapproval of her co-workers, and found a job with a small growing company - and it was exactly as I had said. She had been promoted twice in the last 14 months and was already earning 40% more than her best year with her previous company.

Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do to assure that you are in the right position.

First, make sure that you really enjoy your work and that you do it well. You will never be successful at a job that you don’t like.

Second, be sure that there are lots of opportunities for you to grow, develop and advance in your company. Your future is too valuable to waste where there is no future.

The Key To Long-Term Success

2007-11-07T00:42:00.000-08:00

Successful people have been studied in depth for more than 100 years. They have been interviewed extensively to determine what it is they do and how they think that enables them to accomplish so much more than the average person.

In this Newsletter, you learn the most important single factor of long-term success and how you can build it into your personality and your attitude. You learn how to virtually guarantee yourself a great future.

The Harvard Discovery on Success
In 1970, sociologist Dr. Edward Banfield of Harvard University wrote a book entitled The Unheavenly City. He described one of the most profound studies on success and priority setting ever conducted.

Banfield’s goal was to find out how and why some people became financially independent during the course of their working lifetimes. He started off convinced that the answer to this question would be found in factors such as family background, education, intelligence, influential contacts, or some other concrete factor. What he finally discovered was that the major reason for success in life was a particular attitude of mind.

Develop Long Time Perspective
Banfield called this attitude “long time perspective.” He said that men and women who were the most successful in life and the most likely to move up economically were those who took the future into consideration with every decision they made in the present. He found that the longer the period of time a person took into consideration while planning and acting, the more likely it was that he would achieve greatly during his career.

For example, one of the reasons your family doctor is among the most respected people in America is because he or she has invested many years of hard work and study to finally earn the right to practice medicine. After university courses, internship, residency and practical training, a doctor may be more than 30 years old before he or she is capable of earning a good living. But from that point onward, these men and women are some of the most respected and most successful professional people in any society. They had long time perspectives.

Measure the Potential Future Impact
The key to success in setting priorities is having a long time perspective. You can tell how important something is today by measuring its potential future impact on your life.
For example, if you come home from work at night and choose to play with your children or spend time with your spouse, rather than watch TV or read the paper, you have a long time perspective. You know that investing time in the health and happiness of your children and your spouse is a very valuable, high-priority use of time. The potential future impact of quality time with your family is very high.

If you take additional courses in the evening to upgrade your skills and make yourself more valuable to your employer, you’re acting with a long time perspective. Learning something practical and useful can have a long-term effect on your career.

Practice Delayed Gratification
Economists say that the inability to delay gratification-that is, the natural tendency of individuals to spend everything they earn plus a little bit more, and the mind-set of doing what is fun, easy and enjoyable-is the primary cause of economic and personal failure in life. On the other hand, disciplining yourself to do what you know is right and important, although difficult, is the highroad to pride, self-esteem and personal satisfaction.

The long term comes soon enough, and every sacrifice that you make today will be rewarded with compound interest in the great future that lies ahead for you.

Action Exercises
Here are three steps you can take immediately to put these ideas into action.

First, think long-term. Sit down today and write out a description of your ideal life ten and twenty years into the future. This automatically develops longer-time perspective.

Second, look at everything you do in terms of its long-term potential impact on your life. Do more things that have greater long-term value to you.

Third, develop the habit of delaying gratification in small things, small expenditures, small pleasures, so that you can enjoy greater rewards and greater satisfaction in the future.

Break Away From Old Ideas

2007-11-07T00:40:00.000-08:00

Highly creative people tend to have fluid, flexible, adaptive minds. Here are three statements that creative people can make easily and which you learn by regular practice.

Admit It When You Are Wrong
The first is simply, "I was wrong." Many people are so concerned with being right that all their mental energy is consumed by stonewalling, bluffing, blaming and denying. If you’re wrong, admit it and get on to the solution or the next step.

Face Up To Mistakes
Second, non-creative people think that it is a sign of weakness to say, "I made a mistake." On the contrary, it is actually a sign of mental maturity, personal strength and individual character. Remember, everybody makes mistakes every single day.

Be Flexible With New Information
The third statement that creative people use easily is, "I changed my mind." It is amazing how many uncomfortable situations people get into and stay in because they are unwilling or afraid to admit that they've changed their minds.

Be Willing To Cut Your Losses
If you get new information or if you find that you feel differently about a previous decision, accept that you have changed your mind and don't let anyone or anything back you into a corner. If a decision does not serve your best interests as you see them now, have the ego-strength and the courage to "cut your losses," to change your mind and then get on to better things.

Action Exercises
Here are two ways you can break out of narrow thinking patterns and become more creative.

First, be willing to admit that you are not perfect, you make mistakes, you are wrong on a regular basis. This is a mark of intelligence and courage.

Second, with new information, be willing to change your mind. Most of what you know about your business today will change completely in the coming years so be the first to recognize it.

Five Ways To Become Wealthy

2007-11-07T00:38:00.000-08:00

The Five Roads to Financial Success and How to Choose Your Own
There are basically five ways that you can become wealthy starting with nothing in America based on over 25 years of research into American millionaires. Number one, you can inherit it. Less than 10 percent of wealthy Americans inherited any of their money, and it's less and less every single year.

The Second Way
The second way that you can become wealthy is you can achieve it professionally. You can become a doctor or a lawyer or an architect or an accountant. You can become extremely good at what you do, be paid very well, and hold on to the money.

The Third Way
The third way you can achieve it is you can become a senior executive of a large corporation. You can be highly paid; you can have stock options and bonuses. And if you stay with the company long enough, for enough years, you can be paid enough to become wealthy.

The Fourth Way
You can win it. But only a tiny fraction of one percent of wealthy Americans got that way by winning their money some way or another. As a matter of fact, the odds against you winning the lottery are the equivalent of lightning striking twice in the same place. They're millions and millions to one.

The Best Way
The fifth way that you can become wealthy is you can start your own business and earn it all by yourself. Starting your own business has been and will always be the high road to becoming wealthy for most self-made millionaires. Entrepreneurship is America offers more opportunities and opens more doors than all other possibilities put together. This is why it has been said that if you have the ability to start your own business and you don't do it, you are a fool. I'll repeat that. If you have the ability to start your own business and you don't do it, you're a fool.

Where do you start? You start by getting your finances under control. The very first thing you do is you make a decision to get your finances under control. Some years ago, a man named George Classon wrote a book called The Richest Man In Babylon. It's a classic on financial success and what Classon said in that book was that the key to becoming wealthy is to pay yourself first. Take ten percent of your earnings, of your gross income every month and put it aside. Learn to live on ninety percent or less of your gross income. So the very first thing that you do is you begin to save your money.

Action Exercises
Now, here are two things you can do immediately to put yourself onto the high road to personal wealth:

First, resolve today to begin saving your money a little bit at a time. Set a goal to save 10% of your earnings, to put it away and to never touch it. This will change your life.

Second, immediately register your own business or sole proprietorship. Open a bank account, get business cards and letterhead and create the corporate entity under which you can do business. Your business opportunities will appear far sooner than you think. If you build it, they will come.

The Four D's Of Financial Success

2007-11-07T00:37:00.000-08:00

Start From Nothing and Become Financially Independent
More than eighty percent of self-made millionaires in America began with nothing or in many cases, less than nothing. I can certainly relate to that because when I was growing up and right into my early 30s, I never had any extra money with which to start a fortune. It seemed to me that there was always enough, if not more than enough bills, to absorb every penny I earned. I was always in debt.

Be Ready For Your Opportunity
And even if a great business opportunity did come along, I wouldn't have been able to do anything with it. As I began studying financial success and self-made millionaires, I noticed that almost everyone around me was in pretty much the same boat. The idea of becoming really wealthy was a distant dream with very little possibility of coming true. You may be in the same situation, with more bills than money or assets.

Look at the Numbers
The statistics are a little scary. Of 100 people who reach retirement age, according to insurance industry statistics, only one will be wealthy. Four out of the hundred will be financially independent; fifteen will have some savings put aside. And the other 80 will be dependent on pensions, still working or broke - this after a lifetime of well-paid work in the most affluent society in human history. Now why does this happen?

Why People Retire Poor
There are two main reasons why people retire poor. First, they never decide to retire rich. They wish and hope and pray, but they never make a firm, unequivocal decision that they're going to do it. Second, even if they do decide to retire rich, they procrastinate until it's too late. They always have some good reason for putting it off.

Start With Desire and Decision
If you sincerely want to beat the odds, to achieve financial independence and retire wealthy, there are four critical steps that you must take, all starting with the letter D.

The first step is desire. You must want it badly enough to make an unshakable commitment and to be willing to make sacrifices. The second D is decision. You must make a decision right now to do whatever is necessary, to be willing to pay any price, go any distance, to achieve your goal.

Practice Determination and Discipline
The third D is determination, which is to keep at it until you succeed in spite of all the problems and obstacles you will experience. And the fourth D is discipline - the discipline to master yourself to develop the habits necessary for achieving financial independence.

Those are the four Ds. Desire, Decision, Determination and Discipline. And you can measure how successful you're going to be in the future by measuring how well you're doing in each of those on a scale of one to ten.

Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do immediately to put these ideas into action.

First, make a decision, right now, that you are going to be financially independent, no matter what obstacles you face in the short term. Then write it down, make a plan and start to work on it every single day.

Second, resolve in advance that you will persist in the face of every setback or obstacle you face. You will never give up. You will keep on moving forward until you finally achieve your goal.

Click Here for Affiliate Elite: New Affiliate Marketing Software!

Unlocking Your Creativity

2007-11-07T00:36:00.000-08:00

Creative thinking can be stimulated by two things; intensely desired goals and pressing problems. Your creative capacities need something to hone in on and your job is to provide it.

A Continual Stimulus For Ideas
Intensely desired goals, clearly defined with detailed plans for their accomplishment act as a continual stimulus for ideas to achieve them.

Visualize Your Goals
To trigger your imagination, write out a clear description of your ideal end result or goal. Be clear about the goal, be flexible about the process. Think about it, visualize it as realized over and over. Project your mind forward to the picture of the realized goal and then look back to the present.

Define Your Goals Clearly
Think on paper. Make a plan and then work on the plan, updating it, changing it, adding to it as you think of new ways to work toward the goal. The more clearly defined and keenly desired your goals, the more of your natural creativity will be released for goal attainment.

The Proper Approach To Problems
The second stimulant to creativity is pressing problems. The key to idea generation when you face a problem is to approach the problem confidently, expectantly, with the attitude that there exists a logical, practical solution just waiting to be found.

The most creative people have a relaxed attitude of confident expectancy that causes their minds to function in original and imaginative ways.

Diagnose Your Problems Accurately
Define your problems clearly in writing. Accurate diagnosis is half the cure. Sometimes you will find that you are dealing with a "cluster problem," one that is made up of several smaller problems. Your job is to sort them out and then go to work on each one separately.

Break Up The Clusters
In many cluster problems, there is a core issue surrounded by a lot of symptoms. Creative thinking requires that you separate the core issue, and then focus on resolving that before worrying about the smaller problems.

Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do to stimulate your creativity.

First, be absolutely clear about your goal. Write it down and make a plan to achieve it. Think of different ways you could accomplish it.

Second, define your problems clearly and then make a list of all the possible solutions to your problem. Take action on at least one idea immediately.

Your Ideal Self and Life

2007-11-07T00:33:00.000-08:00

Your self-concept is made up of three parts, each of which affects each of the others. Understanding these three parts enables you to put your hands on the keyboard of your own mental computer. When you learn to take charge of the development of a new and positive self-concept of selling, you can then control your sales destiny for the rest of your career.

Determine Your Direction
The first part of the self-concept is the "self-ideal." Your self-ideal largely determines the direction in which you are going with your life. It guides the growth and evolution of your character and personality. Your self-ideal is a combination of all of the qualities and attributes of other people that you most admire. Your self-ideal is a description of the person you would very much like to be if you could embody the qualities that you most aspire to.

Strive Toward Excellence
Throughout your life, you have seen and read about the qualities of courage, confidence, compassion, love, fortitude, perseverance, patience, forgiveness and integrity. Over time, these qualities have instilled in you an ideal to which you aspire. You might not always live up to the very best that you know, but you are constantly striving to be a better person in light of those qualities that you value so highly. In fact, everything that you do on a day-to-day basis is affected by your comparing your activities with these ideal qualities and your striving to behave consistently with them.

Clarity Is Essential
Successful salespeople have very clear ideals for themselves and their careers. Unsuccessful salespeople have fuzzy ideals. Successful salespeople are very clear about being excellent in every part of their work and their personal lives. Unsuccessful salespeople don't give the subject very much thought. One of the primary characteristics of successful men and women in every walk of life is that they have very clearly defined ideals and they are very aware of whether or not their current behaviors are consistent with their idealized behaviors.

Set Challenging Goals
Part of your ideals are your goals. As you set higher and more challenging goals, your self-ideal improves and crystallizes. When you set goals for the kind of person you want to be and the kind of life you want to live, your self-ideal rises and becomes a greater guiding and motivating force in your life.

Your Future Is Unlimited
Perhaps the most important thing for you to realize is that whatever anyone else has done or become, you can do or become as well. Improvements in your self-ideal begin in your imagination, and in your imagination, there are no limits except the ones that you accept.
What is your ideal vision of the very best person you could possibly become? How would you behave each day if you were already that person? Asking yourself these questions and then living your life consistent with the answers is the first step to creating yourself in your ideal image.

Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do immediately to put these ideas into action.

First, dream big dreams. Set big, exciting, challenging goals and ideals for yourself in every part of your life. Allow yourself to imagine a wonderful life ahead.

Second, think about how you would act if you were an outstanding person in every way. Then, practice being this person, as though you were acting a role in a play.
You’ll immediately notice a difference in your behavior.

The Principle of Objective

2007-11-07T00:32:00.000-08:00

Learn From the Lessons of History
The concepts of military strategy have been studied and written about for more than 4,000 years, going back to the early works of General Sun-Tzu in China more than 2,000 years BC. These principles of strategy that have been developed and perfected over the centuries have direct applications and implications for strategic thinking, both personally and corporately.

Decide In Advance What You Want
The most important military principle is the Principle of the Objective. This principle requires that you decide in advance exactly what it is that you are trying to accomplish. What exactly is your objective? In my experience, fully 80% of all problems in personal and corporate life come from a lack of clarity with regard to objectives and goals.

Clarity Is Critical
Clarity of objective precedes all other elements in strategic thinking. Here are some questions that you can use over and over again to focus and clarify your objectives. The first question is, “What am I trying to do?” The second question is, “How am I trying to do it?” The third question is, “What are my assumptions?” And the fourth question is, “What if my assumptions were wrong?”

Question Your Assumptions
Having the courage to ask these questions, and to question your assumptions, both spoken and unspoken, is a key mark of the superior person. Sometimes individuals avoid questioning their assumptions for fear that they will have to change their minds or do something other than what they started out to do. However, false assumptions lie at the root of almost every failure. The only way that you can root out these wrong assumptions is by carefully analyzing them and discussing them, and then by demanding proof or evidence that these assumptions are still valid.

Project Forward In Your Mind
Another method for clarifying your objectives is for you to project forward and look backward. In other words, imagine that you have already achieved the objective that you are working toward. Project yourself forward in your mind and then look back to the present day, to the present moment. What do you see? What changes could you make looking back from this imaginary perspective of hindsight? This is a key peak performance thinking technique.

Determine Why You Want It
The final part of clarifying your objectives revolves around your identifying the reasons why you want to achieve this objective in the first place. Why is it important? Is it still as important as when you started off? Is this objective more important than any other objective that you could be working on? It is essential that you be clear about the answers to these questions.

Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do immediately to apply the principle of the objective to your personal and business life:

First, take out a piece of paper and answer the question: “What am I trying to do?” What are your goals? What are your objectives? Why are you doing what you are doing in the first place? Is this the very best use of your time and energy?

Second, question your assumptions. What things are you assuming are true about yourself, the people around you and the situation? What if one of these assumptions turned out to be false? What changes would you have to make if you found that your most cherished assumptions were not based on reality, or were contradicted by facts?

Click Here for Affiliate Elite: New Affiliate Marketing Software!

Four Ways to Test Your Idea

2007-11-07T00:30:00.000-08:00

How to be sure that you have a great business idea before you put time and money into it.

There are four great ways for you to test any product or service idea before you start a business built upon it.

The Best Source of Advice
Number one, seek out people who are already in the same business and ask their opinions of the product or service. Many people have saved themselves an enormous amount of time and money by finding that people who are already in the business wish they weren't in the business and who wish they hadn't invested the time or money to get in the business in the first place. So go and talk to them. Ask them what they think about the business. Ask them if they would recommend that someone else get into the business. Don't be shy or secretive.

Ask for Feedback On Your Idea
Every so often, at seminars, I have people come up to me and ask me if I would give them some advice on their business, and I say, “Well, what is your idea?” And they won't tell me what their idea is because they're afraid somebody will steal their idea. The fact is that ideas are a dime a dozen. So be perfectly open. Tell people what you're thinking of doing. And get feedback from people who are already in the business. That alone has saved me hundreds of thousands of dollars. It may even have saved my financial life on a couple of occasions.

Ask Your Bank Manager For Advice
Number two is to ask your bank manager for his opinion or advice. A bank manager, who deals with commercial accounts, very often has a tremendously accurate sense for what kind of businesses will succeed and what kind won't. One 5-minute interview with my bank manager a few years ago saved me $200,000 dollars in an investment. He pointed out to me the weaknesses in the particular business I was looking at getting into, and I had no answer for him. So I didn't go into the business and the people who did lost everything that they put into it. Ask your bank manager. Your bank manager can be one of the very best sources of business advice.

Check With Family and Friends
Number three, ask your friends, ask your family, ask your acquaintances for information. Family members are very good targets for market research. Ask your family and friends if they would buy the product or service that you're thinking of offering. How much would they pay for it? Listen to their questions. Listen to their criticisms. Listen to their concerns. Because if you can't answer their questions and concerns in a logical and believable way, it could be that there's something wrong with your idea.

Talk to a Potential Customer
The fourth way to do market research is to visit prospective customers for the product or service and ask if they would buy it. If you're thinking of selling something to a company, go to the type of company that you would sell it to and ask if they would buy it if you produced it. If you're thinking of selling something through retail, go to the retailer and ask them if they would buy it or sell it. Ask the customer. Customers are very open and very candid and sometimes they'll give you insights that will be worth their weight in gold. If you're going to sell through a retailer, ask the retailer if he or she could sell the product if they were carrying it. Why or why not?

Action Exercises
Now, here are two things you can do immediately to test your ideas more thoroughly before you invest in them:

First, visit people who are in the same business and ask for their opinions. Call them on the telephone. A person already doing the business is the best source of advice in that business.

Second, ask your bank manager for advice. Lay out your business plan or idea to him or her and ask for his or her candid feedback. This could save you an enormous amount of time and money.

Self Image in Selling

2007-11-07T00:29:00.000-08:00

Why Your Self Image is a Key Part of Your Personality
Your self-image is the way you see yourself and think about yourself. It is often called your "inner mirror." You look into this mirror in every situation to see how you should perform on the outside. You always behave on the outside in a manner consistent with the picture you have of yourself on the inside.

How Do You See Yourself
For example, if you see yourself, as calm, confident and competent in any aspect of selling, when you are engaged in that activity, you will feel calm, confident and competent. You will be positive and happy. You will perform well and get excellent results. If, for any reason, it doesn't go well at that time, you will throw it off and dismiss it as a temporary situation. Your self-image is clear. In your mind's eye you see yourself as good and capable in that area, and nothing can interfere with your mental picture.

Change Your Self Image
The most rapid improvements in sales results come from changing your self-image. The moment that you see yourself differently, you behave differently as well. And because you are behaving differently, you get different results.

My Own Story
Some years ago, when I was selling club memberships from office to office, I would end my presentation by giving the prospect a booklet outlining the membership benefits and encourage him to "think about it." My self-image was such that I could not bring myself to ask the prospect to make a buying decision. All day long, I would go from office to office giving my presentation and leaving a little book with descriptions to read. And as you might imagine, I was not making any sales. When I called people back after they had time to think about it, they would invariably say that they were not interested.

The Turning Point
I was getting desperate. I was living from hand to mouth at the time. Although I was seeing lots of prospects, I was making very few sales. Then I had a revelation which changed my career at the time. I realized that it was my fear of asking for the order that was causing all my problems. It was not my prospects. It was me. I needed to change my self-image and thereby change my behavior if I wanted results to improve.

Make A Decision
The very next morning, I made the decision that I would not call back on a prospect. The size of the purchase was small and, when I had completed my presentation, the prospect would know everything that he needed to know to make a decision. There was no benefit or advantage of leaving material behind or giving the prospect several days to think about it. At my very first call, and I still remember it, when I had finished my presentation, the prospect said, "Let me think it over." I smiled and told him that I did not make call backs because I was too busy, and then I said, "You know everything you need to know to make a decision right now. Why don't you just take it?" I remember him shrugging his shoulders and saying, "OK. I'll take it. How would you like to be paid?"

Double Your Earnings
I walked out of that office on a cloud. That very day I tripled my sales. That week, I sold more than anyone else in the company. By the end of the month, they had made me the sales manager with 42 people under me. I went from making one or two sales per week to making ten or fifteen sales per week. I went from worrying about money to a large salary with an override on the activities of all my salespeople. My sales life took off and, with few exceptions, it never stopped. And the turning point was that conscious choice to modify my self-image and make it more consistent with the results I wanted rather than the results that I was getting.

Action Exercises
Now, here are two things you can do immediately to put these ideas into action.

First, begin to see yourself the way you want to be. See yourself as strong, confident, competent and professional in every way. The person you see is the person you will be.

Second, identify an area of selling where your own ideas about yourself and the situation are holding you back. You always perform on the outside the way you see yourself on the inside.

Solving Problems Effectively

2007-11-07T00:28:00.001-08:00

How to solve problems and make decisions more effectively in discussions with other people. Your ability to communicate is the most important skill you can develop to get on to the fast track in your career. Perhaps the most important thing you do in business is to solve problems and make decisions, both by yourself and with other people.

Use A Systematic Process
A major type of communication in the business organization is meetings for problem solving and decision making. The key to effective problem solving and decision making discussions, is for you to all go through the process systematically.

Define The Problem Clearly
Right at the beginning, you ask the question, "What exactly is the problem?" Clarity of definition will resolve 50% of the issues before they go any further.

Focus On The Future
When discussing a problem, be sure to focus on the future over the past. Ask the question, "Where do we go from here?” “What do we do from here?” “What are our options for the future?" Too many problem-solving discussions end up focusing all of the attention of all the people present on what happened in the past and who is to blame. The effective executive uses this type of communication to focus on where the company and the individuals are going, and what can happen in the future - the only part of the situation over which anyone has any control.

Talk About The Solutions
A second element in effective problem solving communications is for you to talk about the solutions instead of talking about the problems. It is for you to keep the attention of the individuals in the meeting focused on the possible solutions and what can be done rather than what has already happened.

Release Creativity
The discussion of solutions is inherently positive, uplifting and has a tendency to release creativity amongst the group. A discussion of problems is inherently negative, de-motivating and tends to inhibit creativity.

The Key To Positive Thinking
You can become a positive thinker simply by becoming a solution-oriented person rather than a problem-oriented person. If you get everyone in your organization thinking and talking in terms of solutions, you will be astonished at the quality and quantity of ideas that will emerge.

Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do immediately to become a better problem solver and decision maker.

First, take some time to be absolutely clear about the problem that is under discussion. Give some thought to what an ideal decision or solution would accomplish. Instead of focusing on the situation as it is, talk about the situation, as you would like it to be.

Second, keep the conversation focused on solutions, on what can be done in the future. The more you think and talk about solutions, the more positive and creative everyone will be and the better ideas you will come up with.

The Key to Charisma

2007-11-07T00:27:00.001-08:00

There is a close association between personal charisma and success in life. Probably 85 percent of your success and happiness will come from your relationships and interactions with others. The more positively others respond to you, the easier it will be for you to get the things you want.

The Law of Attraction
In essence, when we discuss charisma, we are talking about the law of attraction. This law has been stated in many different ways down through the centuries, but it basically says that you inevitably attract into your life the people and circumstances that harmonize with your dominant thoughts.

You Are A Living Magnet
In a sense, you are a living magnet, and you are constantly radiating thought waves, like a radio station radiates sound waves, that are picked up by other people. Your thoughts, intensified by your emotions, as radio waves are intensified by electric impulses, go out from you and are picked up by anyone who is tuned in to a similar wavelength. You then attract into your life people, ideas, opportunities, resources, circumstances and anything else that is consistent with your dominant frame of mind.

The law of attraction also explains how you can build up your levels of charisma so that you can have a greater and more positive impact on the people whose cooperation, support and affection you desire.

Perception Is Everything
The critical thing to remember about charisma is that it is largely based on perception. It is based on what people think about you. It is not so much reality as it is what people perceive you to be. For example, one person can create charisma in another person by speaking in glowing terms about that person to a third party. If you believe that you are about to meet an outstanding and important person, that person will tend to have charisma for you.

Mother Teresa of Calcutta
One of the most charismatic people in the world was Mother Teresa of Calcutta. In a physical sense, she was a quiet, elderly, frail woman in poor health, and she wore a modest nun’s habit. She might have been ignored by a person passing her on the street, were it not for the tremendous charisma she developed and for the fact that her appearance was so well-known to so many people as a result.

How Would You Feel?
If someone told you that he was going to introduce you to a brilliant, self-made millionaire who was very quiet and unassuming about his success, you would almost naturally imbue that person with charisma, and in his presence, you would not act the same as you would if you had been told nothing at all. Charisma begins largely in the mind of the beholder.

Lasting charisma depends more upon the person you really are than upon just the things you do.

Continually look for ways to improve other’s perceptions of you so that you can be more influential with them. Be a living magnet.

Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do immediately to put these ideas into action.

First, be clear about the messages you are sending and the perceptions you are creating in others. Are these perceptions consistent with the impressions you want to make?

Second, see yourself and imagine yourself every day as an important powerful and charming person. Treat others as you would if you were already strong, famous and influential.

Fake it until you make it!

The Niche Strategy for Success

2007-11-07T00:25:00.000-08:00

The starting point of career success is for you to select your boss carefully and refuse to work for a difficult or negative person. Much of your happiness and job satisfaction depends upon your relationship with your superior. If you don't get along, make every effort to resolve it or get transferred but if you can't, be prepared to walk away.

Make The Right Choices
Choosing the right work, the right place to do it and the right people to do it with is laying the foundation for career success.

Now you are ready to implement the "niche strategy." The niche strategy is based on the fact that some jobs in any organization are more critical to the health of the organization than are others.

Influence The Cash Flow
A strategic niche is a job or position that influences the cash flow of the company. In most companies, cash flow is determined by sales and marketing and if you want to get ahead rapidly in those companies, you must work your way into the sales and marketing function.

How to Make More Money
Many people ask me how they can make more money at their jobs. When they tell me their positions, the problem is usually clear. They are working in areas of the company that are felt to be of lesser importance than other areas. As a result, their services are not highly valued no matter how hard they work or how well they do their job. Their increases are set at the level that will keep them from quitting or that will enable the company to hire someone else fairly quickly.

Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do to use the niche strategy in your career.

First, identify the positions in your company that are the most important for cash flow and company success. Find out the key skills possessed by the most respected and highest paid people.

Second, make a plan today to work your way into a key position in your company. Ask for a transfer, develop a skill, offer to work overtime - but never quit until you succeed.

Improving the Quality of Your Thinking

2007-11-07T00:21:00.000-08:00

Anyone, Starting From Wherever They Are, Can Become Wealthy In America
In one series of I.Q. tests given to children ages 2 - 4 years, 95% of the children were found to be highly creative with curious, questioning minds and an ability for abstract thinking.

When the same children were tested again at age 7, only 5% still demonstrated high levels of creativity. In the ensuing years, they had learned to conform; "If you want to get along, you had better go along," is what they had discovered.

The Dangers of Conformity
They had learned to color between the lines, to sit in neat little rows, to do and say what the other kids did and said, and to do as they were told. Over time, they lost the wonderful fearless spontaneity of youth and learned to suppress ideas and insights that were unusual or different.

Aggressively Seek New Ideas
Most of us have had similar experiences. The "Not invented-here" syndrome in many large companies is simply the adult version of "not rocking the boat." But fortunately, since creativity is your birthright, a fundamental part of your nature, you can tap into it at any time, no matter how long it has been since you really used it.

Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do to start thinking outside of your mental box.

First, imagine that there was a vastly better, cheaper, faster way to do your job — and somebody else had already discovered it and was going to put you out of business.

Second, imagine doing exactly the opposite of what you are doing today. Allow your mind to float freely and consider how current trends will change your business.

Three Reasons for Business Growth

2007-11-07T00:19:00.000-08:00

Three key considerations to assure that your business grows rapidly.

What to Look For
There are three reasons for business growth. Look at where you work right now and see if these three reasons apply there. Number one, the product or service is well-suited to the needs of the current market. That means that people want it and need it and can use it and can afford it and are willing to buy it now. Number two, careful market analysis is completed before commencing business operations. In other words, considerable thought goes into whether or not there's a market before the product was offered.

Do Your Market Analysis
Here are some of the questions that you have to ask with regard to market analysis. Number one, with regard to this new product or service, is there a market? This is a very important question. Is there a market? Will people buy it? Now here's the second question. Is the market large enough? Is the market large enough and concentrated enough so that you can sell enough of the product or service at a high enough price to make a living out of it?

Is the Market Concentrated Enough?
For example, there may be a market for 100,000 units of a particular product in the United States. But if it is one per community throughout the country, it's almost impossible to reach those people with any kind of advertising or sales effort. So the very fact that the market is not concentrated enough means it would be impossible to make a success of a business selling one per community.

========

Who Exactly is Your Potential Customer?
Another question is, who is the customer and why will he or she buy from you? Why does he or she buy? What benefits does he or she seek? And an important question is why will he or she switch from their current supplier to buy from you? Many small companies go broke because they do not have a pressing enough reason for a person to switch from their current supplier to the new product or service.

What Are The Alternatives?
And here's another question with regard to marketing analysis. What else is available? What other products or services are available to the same customer that you're going after and how is your product superior in a meaningful way, to the other product or service?

Control Your Finances
The third reason for business success is tight financial controls. Good budgeting. Accurate bookkeeping and accounting. Remember, practice frugality. Be cheap, cheap, cheap.

Hold on to your cash. Cash is the lifeblood of a business. All successful businesses have very careful financial controls. They very carefully consider every expenditure. They do an analysis of it. They work from very careful budgets, week by week, month by month, quarter by quarter.

Consider Every Expenditure
Carefully consider every expenditure, in advance, before you make it. Never buy new when you can get it used. Never buy it all if you can rent it. Never rent it if you can borrow it. Make it a game to conserve your cash and keep your costs as low as possible in everything you do.

Action Exercises
Now, here are two things you can do to assure that your business continues to grow profitably month after month.

First, be perfectly honest with yourself and your product or service offerings. Be sure that there is a big enough market that you can sell to profitably, and if there isn’t, find a different product or a different market.

Second, think about your customer all the time and why your customer would or should buy from you. Inaccurate customer analysis is a major reason for business failure while accurate customer identification is a major reason for business success.