Do You Take Action or Do You Take Inaction?

This is one of the “great questions” that can indicate that “entrepreneurial spirit” or a “worker bee” mentality. And you ask, how so? And I will elaborate.

Anyone who has ever read “Think and Grow Rich” by Napoleon Hill knows that one of the qualities of all the successful people he interviewed was that ability to evaluate the information presented and take action based on that information. This means that all the successful people are “action” takers and while it doesn’t mean that all the “thinkers” and “evaluators” will not be successful, the majority will never take the required action to put themselves in that group.

In my former incarnation, I was part of the “evaluator” set. I learned to stop that and found an “action” path that enables me to know when to stop gathering the data and just take the required action. The result is a better life. I now choose my outcome in advance and take the necessary action to achieve it.

Don’t Pay for Free Stuff by Don Silver

More and more lately, I have been seeing postings in different social networking sites that offer the “opportunity” to pay someone to learn how to do something simple. The range of these offerings includes “howto’s” in the amazingly easy use of social networks to expand your business and “lead generation” in a variety of methods.
Let me state it clearly and without fancy wording: ANYONE CAN FIGURE THESE OUT!
You want me to put it a different way? OK … here goes … ready? If some boob can figure out a way to make you pay for something, then you can figure out the “thing” on your own. AND if you are in any business and think you have  to pay to learn how to do it, then you are in the WRONG business.
I can hear it now … “it is easy for you” or even a better one is “what makes you such an expert?” … and my answer is yes, it is easy for me and I am an expert. I’ve been in business for over 15 years and also have completed my MBA so I know a thing or two about the basics of business.
Focus and Results:
When you spend your time and effort to learn how your business works, then your results will be your reward. When you pay someone else to complete a major function in your business, then THEIR focus is to collect your money for the completion of an activity. You ask me “what’s the difference?” and I’ll explain further. A person in the business of lead generation is focused on selling you names and contact information – their job is to provide names and numbers. When you generate your own leads, your focus is to find “qualified” prospects. You may sort through a ton of “names and numbers” in search of “qualified prospects” OR just find a few “qp’s” and enjoy the rest of your day.
The same guidelines apply to social network sites – Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and a ton of others. Just go to the sites and spend a few minutes a day expanding your “circle” and sending short notes to people.
Take control of your business and your results will be your reward instead of paying that and more to others and still having no results.

Why I CAN Shop at Walmart and YOU CANNOT

OK so I am feeling a bit provocative today. The fact is anyone can shop at Walmart if they choose to.

I recently received an email from someone detailing how they could never go to Walmart again because of all the poor people with poor and small thinking who went there. They continued to elaborate and made the claim that rich people never went there and they only went where rich people go.

Now, if I followed that logic, then places like Nordstroms and Nieman Marcus would be off the table. The really rich people don't go shopping at any mere department store, they only go to the upscale boutique places. So, now I am "forced" to buy designer clothes - no more Wrangler Jeans or even the very comfortable Calvin Klein Jeans I like. AND absolutely no more J Crew. So I started to do a personal evaluation on this considered my reasons for shopping at the places I like.

To begin, I choose where I go to shop and who I associate with and at no time are they mixed up. There are stores that have products I prefer and that is where I go to shop. I am not confused by lumping "being in the presence of" with "associating with" people of any social class.

I go to Walmart for certain items that I can easily find and prefer. I only visit them when they are near (I don't drive far to shop there.) And, strangely enough, I don't go there to socialize with the masses, only to shop. I like certain brands of clothing that feel more comfortable to me and fit me better than other brands. Let's face it that anyone who knows me also knows that I will NEVER wear low cut designer jeans. And I choose my wardrobe based on my preferences and not the whims of some odd designer.

One of the funny things it comes down to is this: are you capable of determining on your own where you are permitted to go, whether it is for shopping or any other reason OR are you always going to be a the mercy and whim of someone who writes an article TELLING you that you cannot go some particular place or do some particular thing - just because THEY have an issue with it.

Think about that for a bit!

Secrets to Mindset

As students of personal development and leaders in our industry, Karla and I are sometimes faced with the big question of "ok, how do I get that positive mindset that everyone says is so essential?" and today I want to explore some solutions.

The start is to recognize the steps to take and I will start with the final result first. Our "goal" is to be able to visualize our success at any time and in any place. Goals are a very important facet of visualizing success. To achieve this result we require a list of things we desire and a list of how we want our lives to appear. To this end we must first create a wish list of things.

Not sure what you want or even how you want to live? Then get a stack of magazines about lifestyle (Robb Report is one) and start cutting out pictures of things that look interesting. As you create your stack of photos there will be things that appeal to you more than others. Create a vision board with the photos that display the best of the things that appeal to you (use 20 to 50 photos or even more).

For some people the next step will be critical. See yourself in the photos - either you can add photos of you to each little segment on your vision board or just "see" it in your mind. Both ways work and only you can determine which one you choose. DO NOT SKIP THIS STEP BECAUSE IT MIGHT BE DIFFICULT.

Next step is easier. Look at your vision board every day for five minutes out of every hour. Seems like a lot? Do it anyway. And remember to turn off any noise in your room - no radio, tv, phone or family while you do this. Concentrate on seeing yourself in the items/places in your photos. Practice this every day for a month.

Voila - you can now make a new vision board and also visualize at the drop of a hat. Congratulations on your new ability.

Are You Uncomfortable Enough?

We often talk about taking different actions to create a different result or outcome. How many of us fail to see the bigger picture and miss out on results because we only change one tiny aspect of our actions? What I mean is to change many things in our daily routine and therefore have a different lifestyle.



What do I mean? We usually wake up at around the same time and in the same manner - some of wake "naturally" (no alarm or other external devices) and follow the same morning ritural - (off to the "room" and get dressed in some fashion - workout clothes for me). Have our coffee, check our email, morning phone calls ... et al. We can look back from day to day and week to week and see a pattern of "sameness" - not just similarity. If we only change the business activity by doing more or differently, we are not really changing much.


My call to action is to create a different life. When we moved to Truckee from Napa we changed our geographic location and this gave us a number of different experiences outside the house. It also gave us a few inside the house changes - furnished house eliminated the familiarity of our furniture - cooking at a higher altitude (6500 ft instead of sea level). How many more changes are there for me/us to make in this new location? The answer is unlimited. Because of listening to Dr Joe Dispenza (http://www.drjoedispenza.com/) I now get up a little earlier and are much more focussed in my visualization. Included is an entire workout (totally in my mind) that has resulted in some physical improvements.

Simple steps to follow:

1. Change Your Daily Routine. Wake up earlier and spend an hour or two in focussed "meditation" - what that means is to visualize yourself with all the things you want in your life. Include your physical appearance and physical "condition" to this. I spend about 20 minutes of my time doing a complete workout in my visualization. The results are astounding (ok - I really expected them).

2. Change Your Schedule. If you want a different result, then you must take different actions. One simple change is to do things at different times of the day than before. This will make you uncomfortable and will gain you the result you desire.

3. Make Life a Game. See yourself as the winner. Pick "prizes" for yourself. Keep in mind that a prize is something that will cost real money. Not just being "even" because that is not creating wealth in your mind.

4. Create a Vision Board. Photos of all the prizes in your game can be obtained on the web in many places. Search for the things you want and put a photo on your wall.

5. Set Goals and Play to Win. Or as Nike said many years ago in their commercials - Just Do It!

Which are You? Pedal to the Metal or Just Coasting?

How do you live your life? Do you always play the game "full out" or find yourself in the "going with the flow" mode? I know from personal experience and from watching other successful entrepreneurs that "full out" is the way to win and have the success.

As an example of the difference I will, once again, draw on the Olympics in Beijing. Michael Phelps (most people know the name by now) has won all the races he has been in, including (or especially) the 100 m Butterfly. Anyone who saw the race knows that he won by the tinyest margin of 1/100 of a second and it was actually by a fraction of an inch. One of the segments in the TV coverage showed the slow motion break down (frame by frame) of his winning effort. As he approached the wall he swam an extra half stroke and stretched his arm out to touch while keeping his head down. His competitor (came in second) had actually been ahead and was shown in this photo sequence as "coasting" and raising his head up to see where he was and what was going on. Simply put, he stopped swimming and was just coasting toward the finish - to come in second.

Examine your life and see if you are playing to win and driving to the finish or splashing in the pool and coasting along. In my own examination I discovered many places where I was not playing the game to win. With this new knowledge I can now resolve these limits and achieve more.

Will you join me at the top? Our game has room for many to be successful.

Success or Lack of Success

How does it happen that two people take the same actions and appear to exert the same effort and still have massively different results? Good question, you might ask? Maybe the answer is as simple. Belief is the key to success. Starting with the belief that you CAN be successful and continuing along each step of the way towards that successful finish.


I was watching the Olympics today, a tennis match between Roger FEDERER (SUI) - Rafael AREVALO (ESA). This was an amazing sight to see between one of the very best in the world and one of the "not very best" in the world (and I do not mean to offer offense to Rafael, he is just not at the same level as Roger). As I watched the play, I wondered at the mindset of each. Did Roger go into the game with certain knowledge of a win and use it to assist a lesser player in his game (thus bringing up the level of play Rafael was capable of) or did he just play the "full out" method and destroy his opponent. In watching this match I got the sense that Roger was playing his serves in his "normal" way and making his best hits with the intention of winning. During the times he was on the receiving end he returned the ball with skill, but not with "kill" and allowed his opponent to make the range of "unforced errors" that would be commensurate with his level of play. So, it seems that Rafael came into the match KNOWING he was going to lose and was able to play without the pressure and even appeared to be enjoying his match with one of the best in the world.


How does all this relate to our success? Simple. Are we showing up knowing we are the best and always going to win or are we coming to play and thinking it is only a matter of time before we are "out of the game". That simple shift in mindset is what can determine our success or lack of success (failure is the result of no longer taking action - not a lack of success). And if the premise is correct, then how can we adopt the mindset of success so that we can be as successful as we desire?


Take your first step by finding someone who is having success and know that "if they can do it so can I" (even if you think you cannot do what they are doing, begin the process by just "buying" the idea that you can do anything someone else can do).


Take advantage of every instance in your daily life that you can call a success and beging to acknowledge them. Include all the "mundane" things you do, from successfully waking up, successfully getting out of bed, successfully getting dressed ... and so on. Also, take advange of things you might have called "failures" in the past like "I successfully managed to spill my coffee on myself today". And please include a good sense of humor in this activity (another thing for some to be successful at).


Enjoy the things you do and do the things you enjoy. If your life is filled with things you have not enjoyed in the past, then find a way to make each more pleasurable. An example could be having a job that keeps you away from your family and knowing that you only have to do this for another fifteen years and then you can retire.

Be - Do - Have. Simply, be the person who has success. Do the same things that person does. You WILL have to results.