Believe In Your Dreams

Visualize Your Dreams, Plans, Hopes............

It doesn't hurt to dream......to make plans.......set goals. I am puting this down in writing so that we all can share.I believe in visualization. If anyone has read the book, "The Secret", you will know the power. Many of us have known about it prior to the book, but have not made a constant practice of it. Simply, it is the power of POSITIVE THINKING.I've known the practice since I was a child. (Thank you, Mother.) Much of what I read from the book was "common knowledge". SO WHY IS IT SO HARD TO DO?A number of years ago, I knew I had nothing to lose......... I would go to bed and lay out a visualization of having my own little baby girl. Larry and I had been told we'd never be able to have our own. Frankly, it was FUN to fantasize. I visualized many dozens of times as I fell asleep at night.Then, it came true. Very similarly to my "dream". My next visualization was a house and lots of property........... This time I wasn't specific. All I knew was that I wanted us to SIMPLIFY. And we did.Today, we are in a simple farm house with lots of land.............and now I am visualizing AGAIN.My best time is at night while going to sleep..........but other people tell me they are better with writing down their goals and even finding pictures to represent them so they can put them up on their Fridge (or wherever). I've done that too! Hey! Whatever works.What do YOU do? What are YOUR goals, dreams???SEE THEM. VERBALIZE THEM. WRITE THEM DOWN. MAKE THEM REAL. And if anyone needs help, let me know. This is a wonderful thing to do at night as you fall asleep.Please join me.________________________________________________________________On a side note........I have a dear friend who did this - visualized and wished for a "male companion" on what is called a Wishing Moon.............Her wish came true a couple of weeks ago........heehee......She is currently bottle feeding a 4 week old male miniature fox terrier pup! Rule number one: Be careful with what you wish for! LOL.________________________________________________________________Aha........MY dream.......my visualizations? I've told you about two of them.........Now it's YOUR turn, my friends. Yes, I have some future ones. And I bet my dear Larry doesn't remember what they are.... even though I've shared them with him........He probably won't even see this blog.......but, no problem. What's important is that the dream and energy has been put out there....... Please add yours........

Think Big!!!

You've Got To Think Big To Be Big.

If you don't have a dream, how are you going to make it come true?


High achievement always takes place in the framework of high expectation.
You'll always hit what you aim for in the long run.
Why not aim high?

Have the courage to follow your dreams.
It's the first step towards attaining your destiny.

Big thinking precedes big achievement.

" WHO/WHAT INSPIRES YOU."

Be Inspired , Be An Inspiration

" BY NOW... YOU SHOULD HAVE SOMEHOW... REALIZE WHAT YOU GOT TO DO... "

HATE.
DOUBT.
HATERS.
JEALOUSY
IGNORANCE.
STUPIDITY.
HEARTACHE.
LONELINESS.
DEPRESSION.
EMOTIONLESS.
NEGATIVITY.
PAIN.

Those and so much more are what inspire me. I could’ve sat here and shared all the positive things that too inspire me… but for me the negative things are the true challenge. They are things that truly test you. They are the things that inspire me to do more out of life. There’s nothing better when someone says you “cant” then when do it and prove them wrong.

The next time you are looking for inspiration… remember its all around you. It’s in everything. A song. A book. The sky or stars… in people… and yes even in the negative things. So for me at least I fully embrace the negativity for it only makes me stronger. This world isn’t perfect… it’s a cruel place at times…but only YOU can make what you want out of it. Never let anyone else’s negativity tell you anything different.

I believe there are two sides to everything. That everything happens for a reason. If we didn’t have the negative then how could be truly appreciate the positive? I’m just at a point where I’m determined not to let things get to me and bring me down. So throw all you want at me… for you are only inspiring me to be the best that I can be.

On Companionship: Walking with a friend in the dark is better than walking alone in the light. On Ability: We can do anything we want if we stick to it long enough. On Life: We would never learn to be brave and patient if there were only joy in the world. On Self Confidence: What I am looking for is not out there; it is in me. On Politics: Our democracy is but a name. We vote. What does that mean? It means that we choose between two bodies of real -- though not avowed -- autocrats. We choose between 'Tweedledum' and 'Tweedledee'. On Decision Making: People do not like to think. If one thinks, one must reach conclusions. Conclusions are not always pleasant. On Love: It is wonderful how much time good people spend fighting the devil. If they would only expend the same amount of energy loving their fellow men, the devil would die in his own tracks of ennui. On Optimism: Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see the shadows. On Faith: Believe. No pessimist ever discovered the secrets of the stars, or sailed to an uncharted land, or opened a new heaven to the human spirit. On Power: It is for us to pray not for tasks equal to our powers, but for powers equal to our tasks, to go forward with a great desire forever beating at the door of our hearts as we travel toward our distant goal. On Ambition: One can never consent to creep when one feels an impulse to soar. On Optimism: Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence.

Moving Upward and Onward

Moving Upward and Onward

Don't Sell Yourself Short
It's not what you have but what you do with what you have that will determine your success or failure. Abraham Maslow, the great psychologist said that the story of the human race is the story of people selling themselves short. He said people have a tendency to settle for far less from life than they are truly capable of. Many people are spinning their wheels in careers where they should be moving rapidly onward and upward. Here's how you can put your career on the fast track.

Choose Your Parents Carefully
Someone once said that the key to success was to choose your parents carefully. That may be partially true but it is even more important to choose your job or career with great care. The choice of a job or occupation for which you are ideally suited comes before anything else. If you try to work at something you don't enjoy or don't believe in, you'll never be happy, and you'll never be successful.

Be the Best At What You Do
Which leads us to the next point. If you want to reach the stars in your career, you have to become excellent at what you do. You have to pay any price, go any distance, spend any amount of time necessary to "be the best." Extraordinary rewards only go for extraordinary performance; average rewards for average performance; below average rewards, insecurity and failure for below average performance. And here's a vital key, you are being paid today exactly what you're worth - no more, no less. If you want to earn more, you must increase your worth, your value to others.

The Key to Motivation
The reason why choosing the right career, why doing what you love to do is so important, is because unless you really care about your work, you will never be motivated to persist at it until you become excellent. And until you become excellent at what you're doing, you can't move ahead.

The Key to Peak Performance
The antidote to these fears is the development of courage, character and self-esteem. The opposite of fear is actually love, self-love and self-respect. Acting with courage in a fearful situation is simply a technique that boosts our regard for ourselves to such a degree that our fears subside and lose their ability to effect our behavior and our decisions.

Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do to be more successful in your career.

First, set high standards for yourself and recognize that anything that someone else has achieved, you can probably achieve as well. There are no limits.

Second, select one key skill area that is important in your job and resolve to become absolutely excellent in that area. Start today to get better and better.

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"Dream,Believe & Achieve"

The Magic Hundred

I know you'll find this hard to believe but I've a pretty good idea about what brought you to this blog page today.

I know that, like many, many thousands of people around the world you've been searching for that one thing that will give you the answers to the question you've been asking yourself for most of your life.

The question that is first on your mind when you wake up and last on your mind before you go to sleep at night.

When Will I Finally Be Happy?

Now, you probably don't ask the question in those exact words, in fact, I'm fairly certain you ask yourself more 'ordinary' things like:

"Why can't I lose this weight?"

"Why am I always struggling to pay the bills?"

"Why am I always arguing with my kids or spouse?"

"Why has my life become so boring?"

"Is this all there is?"

You might ask any of these things or a thousand other variants of them but regardless of how you actually phrase it, you're basically asking "When will I be happy?"

I know, because I used to ask myself questions like these every single day.

In fact, up until around 7 years ago my life was a mess. I didn't always like to admit it at the time, but it really was.

I had a lovely wife and four beautiful children and wanted to give them all the great things that life had to offer but I also had a dead-end job that paid me peanuts, no money in the bank, bills up to my eyeballs and was living from paycheque to pitiful paycheque. It would be more than fair to say I was scratching a living instead of truly living a life.

That was bad enough but what made things even worse was that I couldn't figure out how things were going to get any better for me.

You see, I had left school early to join the army so I had no academic qualifications, no money to put myself back through college and get any and no obvious way out of the hole that I felt I had dug my life into.

I must admit, it seemed to me at the time that I would somehow be doomed to a life of 'getting by' just like my parents and their parents before them, being forced to stand by and watch 'the privileged few' seemingly effortlessly get everything they wanted from life.

But Fast-Forward 7 Years...

...and the picture is very different.

I own five businesses that generate over half a million pounds a year, I'm regularly featured in national and international press, I write for numerous magazines, appear at international conventions and on television and am counted by many as one of the leading experts in the world in my field.

I own my own 4 bedroom home just 5 minutes from a beauftiful forest, I drive the car of my dreams - a brand new Landrover Discovery series three - I take vacations all around the world with my family to jungles, deserts, the Arctic Circle and the Australian 'Outback' and have seen amazing sunrises and sunsets over temples and tropical paradises that I'd only ever seen in photographs until 7 years ago.

I'm So Grateful That My Life Has Taken This New Course But I Also Know How Easy It Could Have Been To Have Kept Things Exactly As They Were Because Of Fear, Frustration And Lack Of Belief

You see, I know EXACTLY what it's like to feel like you're never going to make it, like you're never going to be, do or have the things that you really want from your life.

I know!

Who hasn't felt this way?

Yet I also know that giving in to that feeling doesn't help. Not a single bit.

In fact, giving in to the thought that 'things are the way they are and there's nothing I can do about it' is the surest way to condemn yourself to a life of unhappiness.

After all, how can you be happy when you're 'settling' for what you're getting from life rather than going after and getting what you really want?

You can't!

But I also understand that it's not always easy to dream big dreams about being successful when the evidence that surrounds you every day reminds you that you're anything but.

Telling yourself to 'remain positive' or 'have faith' just doesn't help when life is giving you negative examples of how little your faith has helped you, does it?

There's only one way to break free from the inertia that's keeping you from the things you want for your life and that's to commit to a structured plan that will take you from where you are to where you want to be.

Sounds too simplistic, I know, but nevertheless it's true.

Of course, the difficult part in this is to find that structured plan in the first place!

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SUCCESS IS ON YOUR SPHERE

You can start at anytime if you want to be successful.

But you have to start.

You won't accomplish anything if you wait
for all the possible objections to be overcome.
Taking a new step, uttering a new word,

is what people fear most. Don't be afraid to live.

Don't wait for things to change. Don't wait until you have more time, until you are less tired, until you get the promotion,

until you settle down, until, until, until.

Don't wait for a major event in your life to occur before you begin to live. Begin where you are.

Work where you are. The hour you are wasting now,

dreaming of some far off success, is crowded with tremendous possibilities. When you take the first step, your mind will mobilize all its forces to assist you. Once you have started, all that is within and around you will come to your assistance.

The only way to start down the road to success is to start.

"Aiming For Success"

Productivity


Aim for success, not perfection.Never give up your right to be wrong,because then you will lose the ability to learn newthings and move forward with your life.

Remember that fear always lurks behind perfectionism.Confronting your fears and allowing yourself the rightto be human can, paradoxically, make yourself ahappier and more productive person.

"Opportunity Just Knocks Ones"

What We need to be prepared ?

In my life encountered a lot of twists and turns, I have vigorously opposed by the family.Before this i am a manager at industries development.I believe that if everyone started to direct the work, the first question is to be prepared to face other people’s views and vision.

Each successful entrepreneur is true, if you listen to their stories, then you should also hear the issue.

If you want to succeed in business sales, you need to first of all is family and friends for their support. In the case against the parents, you need to be patient and needs some times, try to comunicate to the parents and tell them about the content of your work.

If you still are not acceptable, then you can choose to be part-time, after u can secure your income, you can be turn it to full-time.

At this time I believe that your parents will begin to accept, and your friends will view in you through different eyes.

We will be selling a variety of very experienced setbacks. For example, a salesman in selling houses, cars, or other goods when customers have been refused. Even worse is that customers simply do not want to buy, so we can not sold. In fact, this is not a setback. Most important personal character.

Optimistic thinking

Please open your broad thinking. When working with an optimistic attitude can also enjoy themselves with pride. No matter what you are engaged in the cause of the work of the natural state of mind is important for one thing, many people often complain about his work, which makes they lost their jobs, then thought, “If the efforts at that time, a little optimistic, and that the number of good . “
To ask ourselves a question.When you engage in sales, would not think of your products and other products have no difference?You will not be impossible to think of their own success?Do you often compared with other companies?
At this point, you need to slow down and to establish their own “confidence.” With self-confidence before they can manage your business.

Doors open!

Listening to this story. A young man, his daily work can be said to have fixed carrier.Whenever he has spare time, he would go to overtime to earn more income.However,his income become higher, and also his spending was increased. He decided to be a lot of effort to do more, but in the end of the month, not more at bank deposits.After three years later, he was same working for every day.His life and almost 3 years ago. What has not changed.

In that case, I think we ask ourselves some questions;

Why do I have been looking for opportunities to make money?

My academic qualifications, age, salary, the character can successfully meet the conditions for it?
I am in a position to become wealthy?

I have the time? (No time is only an excuse)

In that case, you have the answer you think?

Only those who want to succeed will succeed

Your Belief Becomes Your Reality

The Determinant of Your Success
Perhaps the most powerful single factor in your financial success is your beliefs about yourself and money. We call this the Law of Belief. It says simply this: Whatever you believe, with feeling, becomes your reality. Whatever you intensely believe becomes your reality. That we have a tendency to block out any information coming in to us that is inconsistent with our reality.

What Successful People Believe
What we've discovered is that successful people absolutely believe that they have the ability to succeed. And they will not entertain, think about, or talk about the possibilities that they'll fail. They do not even consider the possibility of failure.

Positive Thinking Versus Positive Knowing
You always act in a matter consistent with your beliefs. The most important belief system you can build is a prosperity consciousness where you absolutely believe that you are going achieve your financial goals. We call this positive knowing versus positive thinking. Positive thinking can sometimes be wishing or hoping. But positive knowing is when you absolutely know that no matter what, you will be successful.

"Mi Vida"

MI VIDA COMO UNA MUJER

I want to be a woman, conscious of the privilege and miracle of life ... to feel that I have every right to live and enjoy what life has to offers me ...


I want to be someone, to thank and reward all the blessings that God has given me ...


I would be happy to be myself, without masks, without feelings of guilt, according to my vocation, my mission and my dreams ...


I want to have the courage to stand for what i believe and feel free to choose my ways, to overcome my fears and apprehensions, and bear the consequences of my actions ...


I want to have joy to laugh, and to go my way to happiness, to feel the energy of live fully and intensely ...


I want to feel, being a woman FULL, love, recognizing that I'm single, unique , worth it, and irreplaceable , because i believe that i have the divine gift within me ..a light that had been guiding me to make it through even the most darkest days of my life. I believe that there is so much more to unfold discover,the mysteries of life...so still i will to go to the places that no one had dare to go.....


I want to that my conscience guide me in everything i do, that no one can get hurt, unless I allow to, that nobody can attack you if you don't deserve it ...


I want to be a light for my SOL, my family and my children, help them to grow up without fear and with responsibility.


I want to stop being a victim and feel, to reproduce for the first time in my life, the ability to govern themselves, to be the protagonist of my story ...


I would LOVE this,to choose the future and strive to do whatever my heart desires without resigning, nor even sweat ...


I want to remember the past, but not dwell in it...past is past & there is nothing you can do about it but to learn not to commit the same mistakes.


I would dream of a bright future, full of stars, without ceasing to live and enjoy my present, in full awareness that the only thing that i can be sure of is today, here and now ... I want to forgive my mistakes, my guilt, my faults and release the burden within me, to make lighter walk toward a new life ...


I want everyday of my life, in this dimension, to thank every breath, every smile, every tear, every friend who gave me his hand on my pilgrimage, each experience, that have made me who I am today, with my flaws and virtues.

"Set Your Goals"

Set your goal, go like google

Is your goal big enough? Is it possible that you have set your career sights far too low? After studying many of the world’s most successful businesswoman and men, it was found that a common thread in all their stories – they all had inspiring visions and dared to dream big.

In the mid-nineties, two scruffy college students in Stanford University named Larry Page and Sergey Brin had a dream of organizing all the world’s information and making it universally accessible. What was born out of their small dorm room in Stanford is an internet search engine they called GOOGLE. Brin and Page have now employed more than 10 000 people worldwide in a research company. Millward Brown puts Google at number one in an annual top 100 global brand power list for the second year in a row. Their dream is now worth an estimated R688 Billion, affording them a personal wealth of R37 Billion each.

Frances Hodgson Burnett said, “At first people refused to believe that a strange new thing can be done, and then they begin to hope it can be done, them they see it can be done, then it is done, and all the world wonders why it was not done centuries ago.” Dreaming big is a prerequisite if you want to shift the world around you. It was our elder statesman Nelson Mandela who said, “there is no passion to be found playing small – in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living.” Outlined below are four key values necessary for the accomplishing the dream you have for your personal brand.

1. Intention – it is the setting of an intention that will call in wonder resources, opportunities and people. What do you intend to do, create or accomplish? You also want to have deeper, meaningful intentions about how you live.

2. Integrity – if you were to survey big dreamers on the qualities that they value most, at the top of the list is usually integrity. Keeping your word and delivering on your promises is essential.

3. Do Something – it is essential that you put everything you have learned into an action plan. Without action, we are just dreamers. Taking action and working hard gives you brand power.

4. Build you dream team – once you know what you want to accomplish, develop a team of supporters. Begin with one person who believes in you and your dream and then seek out others. Make sure these team members are clear about your strengths and weaknesses and are prepared to support.

Irrespective of your current plight in life, cultivate a dream large enough to inspire passion and go make it happen. Stay blessed!!

"Aim High"

SUCCESS

Success - The first few steps are always the hardest but they don't have to be. After starting my business last year, my definition of success has changed from that of having money to that of having time and money to that of having a core set of qualities which ensure my success in everyday life. I have learnt a lot about myself and how I need to change myself to stay at the top and continue to keep growing. In no particular order I present my learning's.

1) Lead from Within - This is most important, to keep a calm and listen to yourself amidst all the chaos. Feel your decisions, follow you passion, it all comes from within. Start making those difficult decisions. You might not be right the first time but start believing in yourself. Get in touch with yourself and carve your path in life. Write your own script !

2) Work Smarter - Prioritize - Nothing inventive about this but implementing this takes time. Write down all things you want to do and then prioritize it. I find the ABCDE method of prioritization very useful. Once you prioritize then make sure you focus all your energy towards the task at hand until it is complete.

3) Step Up and Push back - Often times you will be surrounded by people/situations which demand your attention on more than one thing at the same time. You have to realize you cannot please everybody. So just step up, prioritize your work and push back the rest without hesitation,fear or guilt. It is what it is !

4) Be Autonomous - self-governing; independent;Not controlled by others or by outside forces;Independent in mind/judgment; self-directed. Your ability to think for yourself is the single most ability which will get you ahead of the herd. So plan and execute with certainty and faith in your autonomous power.

5) Take ownership of task at hand - This is very important for your reputation. Every task you do should speak volumes about you. Do not try to do great things but to do small things greatly and you will become great. If you have been assigned a task then make sure that it is completed and is full proof. What i mean by full proof is test it inside out from every angle. Cover every scenario the solution can be used in and it still is durable and usable and performs well. Do this with every task at hand and you will be an unstoppable force.

6) Get disciplined - This is again something we all know but it takes time. Bring yourself to a state of order and obedience by practicing training and control. Learn to make the will stronger than the brain. Respect your word to yourself. 6:00 AM means 6:00 AM. No snooze. Decide a time and get up. If you make a promise to yourself respect it and then reward yourself for keeping it. You will develop enormous trust in yourself if you practice this.

7) Shut up and Listen - Listen ! Listen ! and then Listen some more !! There is a reason god has given us two ears and one mouth. Read a lot and listen a lot. Listen to your team and people around you but do what you decide. But it is very important to listen to others as it shows you respect them and consider them important. Also it gives you insight into something you did not know or thought that you knew.

8) Develop consistent work ethics and results - This again comes from discipline. If you decide to start working at 8:00AM then stick to it everyday. Consistent hard work will lead to consistent success. You will have more time to enjoy things you want to do and your life output will increase. You will be living more fulfilled in the same amount of time.

9) Have love for things around you but have more courage - This comes from my spiritual roots but it is very practical. Love things and people around you and be a fun person but have the courage and be strong to speak your mind even if people around you do not agree with you. Have the courage to go against the tide if you believe you are doing the right thing.

10) Focus on growth and results - Always focus on the solution. Plan your growth and track your success. Every time you feel down, look at your success tracks and you will be amazed as to how successful and powerful you are ! Be optimistic and strive for a solution !

11)See the reality, not the illusion of desires - Accept and see things for what they are. It is good to think big and dream bigger but you cannot achieve anything unless you happily accept you present situation and your weaknesses for what they are. Only then can you make your dreams real, by slowly aligning them with reality. Ex: If you get an interview for your dream job, do not lose your cool and start dreaming about all the money you will make and all the things you will buy. See it for what it is, an interview. Prepare for it and celebrate when you get the job. Focus on reality !

12) Be Grateful - for everything you have and you are. Each moment and every stressful situation is a blessing to be grateful for as it will make you a stronger person when you are through it. I am grateful for enjoying the sunrise on the lake while taking the morning train to work sometimes, every time I am stuck in traffic i realize it is time to slow down and be thankful for it. Really its the small things that make a big difference.

13) Be Organized - You don't have to be over the top and get the most fancy tool under the sun to be organized. Keep it simple. Pen and paper and a simple schedule. I use G! Calendar and iGoogle as it is the first thing i see every morning.

14) Get centered - Meditate and get in touch with yourself. Every now and then you will get lost and will need to get centered to find happiness and fulfillment. This is very important to stay calm and centered and to lead from within.

15) Clarity is power - Know what you want and then execute with single minded intensity. Focus on doing one thing for 20 days before you start scattering your energies. Power comes from focus. Do not have too many conflicting goals. YOU WILL NOT SUCCEED AT ANY.

16) Be practical - Remember the concept of circle of influence from 7 Habits of Highly effective people. Do not be bothered by outside events beyond your control. Be practical and stay focused.

17) Put yourself first and heckle for what you deserve - be selfish. If you want to be a winner and do good then there will be times when you will need to fight for your right to be first. Remember the small kid on the playground who always used to put a hell of a fight to the bully, after a few times the bully used to pick on other kids as he does not want to go through this trouble every time. Be that fighter who refuses to get pushed around.

18) Be in the present - Awareness of the moment is probably the single most factor which can change your life. Focus on the task at hand and do the best in the moment. You simple awareness of the moment and things around you will make you forget your worries and tension.

19) Feel good - Feeling good is the key to looking younger and living longer. If you are tired of your day then take a break. The key is to make the brain feel great. Train your brain. Change your negative self talk. You are better than you think you are. You are more attractive than you think you are. Go and get what you want, the world is yours.

20) No expectations - Do the best job you can and enjoy the process rather than worrying about the result. No pressure. Great success will come your way if you can live in a state of detachment from the fruit of your action

21)Be non-judge mental - Do not judge things/people around you. The less you judge the less the brain is focused on the negative. In work situations feel free to evaluate a product and give your opinion but refrain from judging people. When you judge you unknowingly focus on negative and I am better than you. Stop it, it will only hurt you.

22) ACT!! ACT !! ACT !! - Action is very important. All the above will be of no use if you do not apply it. Don't be afraid of failure or disappointing others. As Tim Ferris says in the Four Hour Work Week,"Its easier to ask for forgiveness than permission". So go out there and be bold and ACT !! By the time you make a mistake you will have enough people supporting you that they you will not be stopped.

These rules have served me well but every now and then I stray from the path. I would love to hear your comments.

Reasons You're Not Rich

10 (More) Reasons You're Not Rich

Many people assume they aren't rich because they don't earn enough money. If I only earned a little more, I could save and invest better, they say.

The problem with that theory is they were probably making exactly the same argument before their last several raises. Becoming a millionaire has less to do with how much you make, it's how you treat money in your daily life.

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The list of reasons you may not be rich doesn't end at 10.

Caring what your neighbors think, not being patient, having bad habits, not having goals, not being prepared, trying to make a quick buck, relying on others to handle your money, investing in things you don't understand, being financially afraid and ignoring your finances.

Here are 10 more possible reasons you aren't rich:

You care what your car looks like:

A car is a means of transportation to get from one place to another, but many people don't view it that way. Instead, they consider it a reflection of themselves and spend money every two years or so to impress others instead of driving the car for its entire useful life and investing the money saved.

You feel entitlement:

If you believe you deserve to live a certain lifestyle, have certain things and spend a certain amount before you have earned to live that way, you will have to borrow money. That large chunk of debt will keep you from building wealth.

You lack diversification:

There is a reason one of the oldest pieces of financial advice is to not keep all your eggs in a single basket. Having a diversified investment portfolio makes it much less likely that wealth will suddenly disappear.

You started too late: The magic of compound interest works best over long periods of time. If you find you're always saying there will be time to save and invest in a couple more years, you'll wake up one day to find retirement is just around the corner and there is still nothing in your retirement account.

You don't do what you enjoy:

While your job doesn't necessarily need to be your dream job, you need to enjoy it. If you choose a job you don't like just for the money, you'll likely spend all that extra cash trying to relieve the stress of doing work you hate.

You don't like to learn:

You may have assumed that once you graduated from college, there was no need to study or learn. That attitude might be enough to get you your first job or keep you employed, but it will never make you rich. A willingness to learn to improve your career and finances are essential if you want to eventually become wealthy.

You buy things you don't use:

Take a look around your house, in the closets, basement, attic and garage and see if there are a lot of things you haven't used in the past year. If there are, chances are that all those things you purchased were wasted money that could have been used to increase your net worth.

You don't understand value:

You buy things for any number of reasons besides the value that the purchase brings to you.

This is not limited to those who feel the need to buy the most expensive items, but can also apply to those who always purchase the cheapest goods. Rarely are either the best value, and it's only when you learn to purchase good value that you have money left over to invest for your future.

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Your house is too big:

When you buy a house that is bigger than you can afford or need, you end up spending extra money on longer debt payments, increased taxes, higher upkeep and more things to fill it. Some people will try to argue that the increased value of the house makes it a good investment, but the truth is that unless you are willing to downgrade your living standards, which most people are not, it will never be a liquid asset or money that you can ever use and enjoy.

You fail to take advantage of opportunities:

There has probably been more than one occasion where you heard about someone who has made it big and thought to yourself, "I could have thought of that." There are plenty of opportunities if you have the will and determination to keep your eyes open.

Perfection is A Goal, Not a Reality

...is A Goal, Not a Reality

Sometimes you may think that you need to be perfect that you cannot make mistakes.

At these times you put so much pressure on yourself.

Try to realize that you are like everyone else-- capable of reaching great potential but not capable of being perfect.

Just do your best and realize that this is not enough.

Don't compare yourself to anyone

Be happy to be the wonderful unique, very special person that you are.

"Do You Have What It Takes To Be Elite?"

Have You Got What It Takes to Be Rich?

Get over the notion that the rich have special powers, and look for what really drives their success. Chances are, you've got it in you too.


(MONEY Magazine) – American business lore is filled with tales of dynamic visionaries taking insane risks in pursuit of a distant dream--and then striking it rich. But get past the Texas wildcatters, railroad barons and Steve Jobs, and the heroes of the American dream begin to look more life-size, like the regular (but wealthy) folks profiled in the preceding story, "Road Trip to Riches." They look more, in fact, like you.

Are the rich smart? Sure. Ambitious? Yep. Blessed with gifts bestowed upon only a chosen few? Nah. "The people who get rich really want success," says Stephen Goldbart, a psychologist in Kentfield, Calif. who works with wealthy clients. "But where does that drive come from? I don't have a single answer."

There's nothing predetermined about getting rich, or so we'll assume until scientists identify the rich gene. Even people who end up wealthy often find themselves at a loss to explain why. "People pay me a whole bunch of money to make speeches," says author and management consultant Patrick Lencioni, who charges $45,000 to stand at a podium and does so about 35 times a year. He has also sold approximately a million copies of his five management books. "This is all foreign to me," he says.

No doubt he, and you, can get used to being rich. But before that, you have to start believing that you can make it big--and clear your cranium of all those myths about what you have to be like to do so. The rich may be different from you and me, to borrow from F. Scott Fitzgerald. But they didn't start out that way.

MYTH NO. 1 You've Got to Have Incredible Charisma

• Everyone believes a modern-day leader has to generate a few sparks. "You can't pull together resources and people if you don't have the capacity for making other people want to contribute," says Paul Reynolds, a management professor at Florida International University in Miami. Perhaps no business leader epitomized that notion more than Herb Kelleher, the chain-smoking, hard-drinking co-founder of no-frills Southwest Airlines, who revolutionized his industry, charmed the unions and inspired his thousands of employees by (among other things) impersonating Elvis and donning an Easter Bunny suit.

REALITY: It's not about charming people; it's about evaluating them. In Southwest's case, witness that the Dallas airline hasn't lost any altitude without the boss, who retired as CEO in 2001. It's on track to log profit growth of at least 15% this year. "Charisma was never the key to Herb Kelleher's success," says Bill Payne, entrepreneur-in-residence at Kansas City's Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, which promotes entrepreneurship. "He surrounded himself with an exceptional team."

To do that yourself, you need to assess people's skills in a calculating way. Business leaders "may be social misfits themselves, but they know how to size people up," says Bill Heiden, a Lyme, Conn. financial adviser to business owners. "They have the ability to extract the value from other people."

In fact, management guru Jim Collins argues that charisma can be a liability. The force-of-nature leader appeals to employees who need a hero--so when the chief exits, no one can measure up. Even Reynolds, who thinks charisma does help snare talent, agrees that "to be effective, a person has to have something to offer beyond personality."

MYTH NO. 2 You Must Be Able to See into the Future

• What George H.W. Bush called "the vision thing" does indeed exist. Think about Gordon Moore, the Intel co-founder who predicted in 1965 that chip processing power would double every two years. Or Bill Gates. Or the Amazing Kreskin, who claims only to be a "mentalist" but could probably do more. Get the vision thing wrong, and you're dead. The only thing foretold by minicomputer magnate Ken Olsen's famous 1977 pronouncement, "There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home," was the decline of his company, Digital Equipment.

REALITY: Plenty of visionaries were and are firmly rooted in the present. Did Henry Ford invent the car? (Hint: No.) Did Sam Walton invent discounting? (See earlier hint.) In each case, they took what existed, saw the potential in figuring out how to make it better, and then slaved away on the details.

Tom Kinnear, executive director of the Zell-Lurie Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies at the University of Michigan, refers to this pattern of action as "telescoping." Successful builders of businesses, whether they're on their own or in a corporate setting, can see the big picture well enough, but they succeed by mastering the little things. "They pay attention to the smallest details, so they can answer any questions," says Kinnear. "They want to be sure they're getting it right."

Amy Domini didn't invent the mutual fund, but 15 years ago she saw an opportunity to mass-market socially responsible funds that appealed to investors who felt they couldn't put money into businesses they found morally objectionable. Today, Domini Social Investments manages nearly $2 billion in assets.

Once she launched the business, Domini says, she quickly developed "an intense interest in minutiae." Sure she fretted over the details of structuring a product for big institutions. That seems sensible. But she also analyzed the thickness of the firm's brochure paper and looked at thousands of samples of exotic fabrics to find a combination that could muffle the sound in her company's New York City headquarters. "To build something, you have to fall in love with it," says Domini, 56. "Otherwise you might as well be a corporate cog."

MYTH NO. 3 You've Got to Stick to Your Guns, No Matter What

• "The concept is interesting and well formed, but in order to earn better than a C, the idea must be feasible," a college professor supposedly wrote in response to a student's term paper outlining the need for a reliable overnight delivery service. But Fred Smith ignored those discouraging words. "I thought this was a revolutionary idea.... I wasn't intimidated," said the fellow who founded FedEx in 1973. Kelleher, of Southwest Airlines, has been known to bray, "If it's conventional, it ain't wisdom, and if it's wisdom, it ain't conventional." After all, has anybody ever done anything innovative by consulting a focus group?

REALITY: Yes, actually. If you're intent on creating value--from either a giant company's command center or your guest bedroom at home--you carefully evaluate and absorb feedback. True, successful people don't change their minds easily, says the Kauffman Foundation's Payne. But they are strategically flexible when they have to be. In 1984, FedEx launched Zap-Mail, a high-speed fax service. But then cheap fax machines started popping up. "At that juncture," Smith once told an interviewer, "we knew we had to change."

When Sergio Zyman was chief marketing officer at Coca-Cola, he learned that sometimes things don't work out as planned. Remember New Coke? Years later, when he was on his own, Zyman raised $12 million to sell business-planning software. But he soon understood that the market was murmuring bad things about the product. "We had to kill it," he says. By the time he told his backers, he had concocted a plan for turning the Zyman Group into a consulting firm. Last year the Atlanta company raked in $65 million in sales. "You need to have enough conviction," says Zyman, "to know that you can find the right answer, even if you don't know it right away."

MYTH NO. 4 You Need to Take Big Risks

• When Viacom chief Sumner Redstone was trying to console investors after what looked like a career-crushing acquisition--the pickup of Blockbuster in 1994--he insisted, "Success isn't built on success; success is built on failure." He held on, and his big risk paid off. And Ray Kroc was down to his last two good customers as a milkshake-mixer salesman; once he saw the operations of those customers, who happened to be two brothers named McDonald, his career turned golden.

REALITY: The world offers plenty of options for those looking to live recklessly: Join a hedge fund, take up heli-skiing, make plans with somebody you've just met in a sudoku chat room. But if you're out to make a big score, you'll want to control risk any way you can. "If you know your skills, you can manage the parameters of the risk," says Kinnear.

"Invest in what you know" served as the mantra of former Fidelity fund manager Peter Lynch. And Warren Buffett has become the world's greatest investor by buying companies whose businesses he says he can understand. They have avoided the wealth-draining trap, says Reynolds, of thinking that their expertise in one area is easily transferable to another. Remember Trump Airlines? Probably not. "Successful people can forget how much they knew about a niche before they got rich in it," Reynolds notes. Redstone and Kroc, in fact, knew what they were getting into.

Now 28, Geoff Cook was 19 when he started EssayEdge, an online service that helped students with their college applications. "Editing seemed like a natural thing for me to do," he says. "I'm a good writer." The cost of starting up: a whopping $600 to cover computer servers and bank fees. Five years later he sold the business (which had grown to include ResumeEdge) to Thomson Corp. for a figure of around $10 million. In early 2005 he left his well-paid post at Thomson to follow his $250,000 investment in MyYearbook, a social-networking start-up targeted toward high schoolers. His brother and sister, both teenagers, had come up with the idea. Cook studied MySpace and Facebook, concluding that there was room for a niche player aimed squarely at teens. Having raised $1.1 million earlier this year, he's hoping to add another $6 million in funding before 2006 is out. "We've got what we need to compete, which is ideas for cool features," says Cook, who is based in New Hope, Pa. "This is either a $100 million idea or it's worthless. Either way, I know this isn't the only shot I'll have. It's just the shot I'm taking now."

MYTH NO. 5 You Need a Burning Desire to Get Rich

• "How much money is enough?" a reporter once asked John D. Rockefeller at a time when the oil tycoon was the richest man on earth. His quick reply? "Just a little bit more." To be sure, there are plenty of rich people whose sole motivation throughout their working lives was to be rich. And everyone who works hard in business wants to make money. "Certainly people who get rich want to be financially rewarded and expect to be," says psychologist Goldbart, who co-directs the Money, Meaning and Choices Institute.

REALITY: But, Goldbart adds, there's more to it than that. "Money isn't the only value they see in what they are doing," he says. "These are people who love to build." Adds Bill Dueease, co-founder of a life-coaching service in Fort Myers, Fla: "Rich people didn't get there by chasing money. They got there by chasing their passion."

So when Vu "Bill" Nguyen talks about how much he loves making it, he's not referring to all those greenbacks he's got. "I always want to make a wonderful product that people love," says the 35-year-old Nguyen, who has been part of seven tech-oriented start-ups, three of which he founded. He launched his latest venture, La La Media, last year.

The Palo Alto company operates a website where users can swap music CDs for $1. His heftiest payday to date came in 2000, when a company he'd co-founded called Onebox, a service for consolidating voice and electronic messages, was acquired for roughly $850 million. Nguyen earned more than $10 million on that deal.

He's used that windfall to underwrite a collection of 10 cars; he's also splurged on hiring brand-name bands, such as Fountains of Wayne, for his private functions. The rest? It goes into "bland muni bonds," he says. "I don't want any heartache from it." Leaving his investments in bonds lets him concentrate on his next endeavor. "I am maniacal about the product. I almost completely don't think about the other stuff."

That includes other people, he admits, and that character flaw has gotten him fired in the past. But he takes solace in the following: "I'm the living example of what your high school guidance counselor told you. Figure out what you love, and do that. It's an approach that has made me ridiculously lucky." And rich too.

Can You Handle Being Rich?

Once you've made it, how will you adjust to residing on Easy Street? Not easily, warns Thayer Willis. "People can get really obnoxious," says Willis, a wealth counselor and an heiress whose father co-founded Georgia-Pacific. Here's her prescription for a rich life.

Stay humble.

You made it. They didn't. You must be better than them, right? Feel that way and you'll end up alone with your riches. The best way to avoid arrogance is to have a strong value system--often it's grounded in religious or spiritual practice.

"TRUE SUCCESS"

" There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all "

Abraham Lincoln: Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other one thing.

Albert Einstein: The ideals which have lighted me on my way and time after time given me new courage to face life cheerfully, have been Truth, Goodness, and Beauty. . . . The ordinary objects of human endeavour -- property, outward success, luxury -- have always seemed to me contemptible.

Albert Einstein: Try not to become a man of success but rather try to become a man of value.

Albert Schweitzer: Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.

Alex Noble: If I have been of service, if I have glimpsed more of the nature and essence of ultimate good, if I am inspired to reach wider horizons of thought and action, if I am at peace with myself, it has been a successful day.

Anna Pavlova: To follow without halt, one aim; there is the secret of success. And success? What is it? I do not find it in the applause of the theater; it lies rather in the satisfaction of accomplishment.

Arie de Gues: Your ability to learn faster than your competition is your only sustainable competitive advantage.

Barbara Jordan: All my growth and development led me to believe that if you really do the right thing, and if you play by the rules, and if you've got good enough, solid judgment and common sense, that you're going to be able to do whatever you want to do with your life.

Benjamin Disraeli: The secret of success is constancy to purpose.

Benjamin Franklin: There are no gains without pains

Bernadette Devlin: Yesterday I dared to struggle. Today I dare to win.

Bessie Stanley: He has achieved success who has lived well, laughed often and loved much; who has gained the respect of intelligent men and the love of little children; who has filled his niche and accomplished his task; who has left the world better than he found it, whether by an improved poppy, a perfect poem, or a rescued soul; who has never lacked appreciation of earth's beauty or failed to express it; who has always looked for the best in others and given them the best he had; whose life was an inspiration; whose memory a benediction.

Bessie Stanley (adapted; erroneously attributed to Ralph Waldo Emerson):
Success

To laugh often and much;To win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children;To earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends;To appreciate beauty, to find the best in others;To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition;To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived.This is to have succeeded.

Often attributed to Ralph Waldo Emerson, it is an adaptation of a poem published in 1905 by Bessie Stanley. No version of it has been found in Emerson's writings.

For more information see http://www.transcendentalists.com/success.htm

Bruce Feirstein: The distance between insanity and genius is measured only by success.

Chet Atkins: Everything I've ever done was out of fear of being mediocre.

"Coco Chanel: How many cares one loses when one decides not to be something but to be someone.

Love the moment. Flowers grow out of dark moments. Therefore, each moment is vital. It affects the whole. Life is..."

Corita Kent: Love the moment. Flowers grow out of dark moments. Therefore, each moment is vital. It affects the whole.

"Corita Kent: Life is a succession of moments. To live each one is to succeed.

David Brinkley: A successful person is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks that others throw at him or her.

Demosthenes: Small opportunities are often the beginning of great enterprises.

Elaine Maxwell: My will shall shape the future. Whether I fail or succeed shall be no man's doing but my own. I am the force; I can clear any obstacle before me or I can be lost in the maze. My choice; my responsibility; win or lose, only I hold the key to my destiny.

Elbert Hubbard:
The man who is anybody and who does anything is surely going to be criticized, vilified, and misunderstood. This is part of the penalty for greatness, and evey man understands, too, that it is no proof of greatness.