A Curly Principle

Are you a light bulb or a laser beam?

I remember several years ago seeing the movie "City
Slickers" starring Billy Crystal and Jack Palance. Seems
Crystal's character was going through the proverbial mid-
life crisis, and he and some buddies decided to go out and
play cattle rustler for a week. Remember this one?

Well, in the midst of Crystal's confusion (and life-
search), Palances' character "Curly" seemed to have it all
together. Crystal asked him, "What is the secret to life?"
At which point Curly would always hold up his index finger
and say, "One thing" before riding away.

In frustration Crystal finally asked, "What is that one
thing?" To which Curly answered, "That is what you have to
figure out."

You see, if we are not careful, we live our life like a
light-bulb versus a laser beam. Never finding and deciding
upon our "one thing."

A light bulb gives off diffused light -- it can illumine a
large area...but a laser beam can cut through steel!

You cannot serve two masters, you cannot ride two horses at
the same time. The great teacher told us, "If your eye be
single...your whole body will be full of light," (light =
truth and power).

In what ways are you living your life like a light-bulb?
Becoming a jack-of-all-trades but a MASTER of NONE? Very
few individuals ever master anything -- they don't find and
commit to their own "one thing."

What do you need to let go of? Where do you need to
refocus? What do you want to accomplish with the rest of
your life?

I encourage you to practice "The Curly Principle," to find
your one thing and commit to focus with laser intensity!
Then exploit your one thing in the service of others and
you absolutely MUST win.

Have a great week and make your life magnificent,
Your coach,

James

A Dollar and Some Ambition

by Jim Rohn (Excerpted from "Building Your Network Marketing Business" audio/cd)

Capital in your business isn't what matters. It isn't the money that
buys you a future; it's your skills that buy you a future. Money and no
skills, I'm telling you, you are still poor. Money and no ambition,
where are you? Money and no courage, you're broke. A little bit of money
and a whole lot of courage is all we need.

When looking for people, don't always look for the ones with money,
money doesn't matter. What matters is somebody's willingness, somebody's
ingenuity, somebody's desire to try. If they have a dollar to invest
that's plenty for me. A dollar and some ambition and I can show you how to
get rich and it will be one of the classic stories of the company. When
I would be recruiting somebody and they would say, "I don't have any
money", I'd say "I've been looking for you for six months! Let me show
you how to do it without any money."

Because here are the rules of capitalism: you can either buy and sell
or, if you are in certain circumstances, you can sell and buy. That is,
if you've got ambition. Now if you haven't got ambition we can't cure
that and money can't cure it - lack of ambition. But if you have a
dollar and some ambition I will show you how to get rich. Even if you don't
have a dollar I will show you how to get rich, because you can sell and
buy. Somebody says, "As soon as the product arrives I'll sell it." No,
no, you don't understand. You don't understand the magic of fortune if
you say I have to wait till the product gets here. And you probably
don't understand the value of your own story.

By selling and buying you are simply sharing from your own excitement
and belief about the product and the opportunity. Once the customer says
yes, ask for the money and then go get the product. After doing this
three or four times, you will be able to buy and sell, but never let
money keep you from an opportunity when you have in it's place true
ambition, faith and courage.


To Your Success,
Jim Rohn

Thinking Success

Thinking Success
by Tom Hopkins

Success in anything you want to accomplish in life begins with your
thinking. The problem with too many people is that they don't think about
what they're thinking. I once heard a speaker say, "You will become
that which you think about most of the time." Those words have had a
tremendous impact on me and on those with whom I've shared them. I heard
that statement at a time when I was just beginning to understand what
self-improvement was all about. The basis of all self-help materials is
that you must have a healthy self-image, or attitude about yourself, in
order to succeed.

You see, your thoughts are reflected in your attitude. If you think
about failure, rejection and pain, your attitude will be negative. You'll
even have a tough time getting out of bed in the morning. How many
prospects do you think will want to get involved with your product if you
cannot express a positive attitude about what you do to earn your
living? I guarantee you it won't be many.

In fact, if you think about those negatives frequently enough, that's
probably what you'll become comfortable with. Then, it won't bother you
to fail. You'll be thinking, "Yep, that's just what I expected to
happen." And, as crazy as it may sound, acceptance of failure will become an
accepted fact in your subconscious. At this point, I would suggest
making a career adjustment because you won't be selling enough to keep food
on your table.

To counteract acceptance of negativity, you must begin by consciously
stopping those thoughts. Whenever you realize you're thinking
negatively, worrying or feeling anxiety about facing rejection, think to
yourself, "Hey, that's not what's going to happen." Then, force yourself to
turn those thoughts around. Come up with a positive thought for each
negative thought. You'll have to concentrate on this for a while, but
eventually, those negative thoughts will have to face too tough a battle to
stay in your mind and they'll go away.

At that point, you will be free to become one of the high achievers in
your field. The training and support offered by your organization will
become more valuable to you. You'll think more about giving service
than receiving income. And, as I've stated many times before, the income
you earn is little more than a scoreboard reflection of the service you
give.

If you have any doubts about that statement, take notice of the top
producers in your industry. They think achievement, service and
professionalism. You can see it in their eyes. You can feel it when you meet
them. They are comfortable only with achievement, recognition and
acceptance. They are so uncomfortable with failure, that it, too, has become a
motivator for them.

Once you have achieved a state of thinking positively you will believe
more strongly in what you are doing, take the steps necessary to
practice, drill and rehearse, and receive the tremendous rewards for doing
so.

Salespeople are often confronted with spontaneous situations. And,
selling is a very emotional business. So, when faced with the unexpected,
the untrained, unpracticed ones throw all their training out the window
and act on reflex. If your reflexes aren't aimed at serving clients and
closing sales, you're sunk. The great ones practice thinking success so
much that their attitude and knowledge carry them through situations
that may not have been covered in training. Thinking success will help
you, too, continue to radiate warmth, pride and knowledge during those
spontaneous moments.

What's Your Hurry Superman?

THINK ABOUT THIS.......(how ironic isn't it?)
(written by Rod Nepomuceno)

IN what sense do I feel like I'm Superman? Well, it's the way I have been living my professional life the past 8 years.

Ever since I passed the bar, my life has moved at the speed of light. I worked and worked like there was no tomorrow. I felt smarter than a locomotive! I felt I could leap tall corporate ladders with a single bound! There were times, when I was working in a law firm, where I would work the entire weekend in the office, typing away all throughout Saturday night, finishing Sunday afternoon and submitting the legal opinion to my boss' house Sunday night.

Then work all throughout Monday morning, afternoon and all through the night, take a quick shower at 5 a.m. on Tuesday and go straight to a hearing. When I left the law firm, I took my already crazy schedule to another level. I headed the corporate and legal affairs of a retail company, co-hosted a daily early morning TV show, called Wake Up Call, took up a masters degree course in business economics, and co-anchored the primetime news for Channel 9 -- all at the same time!

My mom used to tell me I was killing myself. I didn't realize it then but she was probably right.

There were several times when I found myself almost dozing off while driving back home from the news. If I hadn't been offered a better paying job by my present employer, IMG, I would have probably ended up killing myself!

However, it didn't stop there. Working for IMG was not a walk in the park either. As country manager, I was tasked to set up IMG's Manila office here and believe it or not, I started off in bedroom-with a fax, computer and a modem.

For a while I thought to myself-"Great! I could literally work in bed and take a snooze without ever worrying about a boss catching me!" What I didn't realize was-I was a tougher boss on myself than any other boss I ever had in the past.

I pushed myself to the limit in trying to prove myself in IMG, which has been successful in almost every market in which it has opened an office. I was certainly not going to let the IMG Manila office be the 1st IMG to ever be closed down. So, going against all odds, and withstanding even the worst economic slump the Phils. ever experienced, I worked long hours-sending faxes at 3 a.m. in the morning,answering e-mails at 4a.m. and sleeping for 3 hours and going on marathon meetings the whole day. I tried to do everything by myself. Just like Superman, I wanted to take on the whole world!



But then came a turning point in my life. Three deaths in 1 year-an aunt, and 2 close friends-shook the wits out of me. These deaths really made me reflect a lot. It's amazing and ironic, isn't it? Death often makes us reflect on life.

I needed a break.

RECENTLY, I took a short trip to Boracay-and I brought along a book which I've never gotten to finish but was always on my to-do list- Tuesdays with Morrie. I had read the 1st 30 pages but could not quite get into it again and I figured this Boracay trip would be a perfect time to read it. It was perferct for me because the book talks about a dying man who makes his hardworking, ultra busy former student realize what life is all about.

The message of the book is something I've always known,
but never quite practiced---at the end of the day, it doesn't matter what you get out of the world-what matters is what you give. And in the end, all we can give that's lasting is love. Cliche? Yes, it is. But it's so true and it can never be over-repeated. At one part of the book, Morrie (the dying man) talks about the problem that most professional people have-they are always in a hurry.

He said that the problem in this world is that everyone seems to be in a hurry---for NOTHING. "Oh, I have to send this fax ASAP."---"Man, I have to send this e-mail right away!"---"Wait, I can't meet you for coffee, I have to finish this report by 5 p.m." If you really think about it, there's no compelling reason to do these things as if your very life depended on it.

SOMETIMES, things can wait. Unfortunately for a lot of people, they think otherwise. Myself included. When I was reading this part of the book, I remembered the line Lois Lane said to Clark Kent in Superman II when he was going off in a rush ---"WHAT'S YOUR HURRY, SUPERMAN?"

That line kept on going over and over my head as I strolled along the white beaches of Boracay. Indeed, what's the rush?

More often than not, we're rushing because we put self-imposed deadlines on ourselves---deadlines that are NOT real deadlines-but rather just timeframes that we FORCIBLY pound on ourselves because we want to accomplish MUCH within the LIMITED time we have on our hands.

The weird thing is----the more we rush, the more we feel pressed for time. It seems that the rate of increase of our "hustle and bustle" is directly proportional to the number of things that we need to do. The truth is, we really don't need to do that much in such a limited time


JOHN LENNON, the slain Beatle, had an interesting line in one of his songs entitled Beautiful Boy. The song is for his son, Sean, and it talks about how Lennon valued the time he was having with his son and how he treasured this precious gift from God. I have a favorite line in the song-"Life is what happens to you when you're busy making other plans." This is so true.

Oftentimes, we find ourselves so engrossed in setting meetings, rushing to conferences, drafting reports, meeting deadlines. Why? So we can make a living and have a good life!

But then, before you realize it, you're hitting mid-life, and all you've ever done is run around like a headless chicken. John Lennon died at the young age of 40 and he accomplished much in his life. But to him, his biggest accomplishment was not his numerous top 10 hits; it wasn't his popularity or his sometimes crazy statements that stirred controversy worldwide...In the end, it was being able to spend quality time with his son, seeing him grow, and simply enjoying the simple things in life with him.

While I will not canonize him, I think John Lennon died a very happy man. And for all of us, I think that's the same way we'd like to "check out" for this world, too. But hey, it's important to live happy too! And living happy means enjoying what you do and savoring every minute of it-without the rush!

So for those who are ALWAYS in a rush---take it easy! Life is not all about sending out the most number of proposals or cutting the most number of deals.

The next time you find yourself in a daze with all the things you need to do, take a step back, and say "What's your hurry, Superman?" Then prioritize what you need to do, and do whatever you can within the TIME that you have IN YOUR HANDS.

Earn the Respect of Others

"Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do." - Johann von Goethe


THE MOST IMPORTANT MEASURE OF SUCCESS
Being respected by others is very important to each of us. A survey done by the Gallup organization found that the most prominent living Americans rated the respect of others as the most important measure of success in life. They worked very hard to earn the respect of their parents, the respect of their spouses and children, the respect of their peers and colleagues, and the respect of mankind at large.

WHY YOU RESPECT YOURSELF
It seems that we truly respect ourselves only when we feel that we are respected by others, and we will go to great lengths to earn and keep that respect. When we feel that someone respects us for who we are and what we have accomplished, we tend to be more open to that person's influence.

TWO THINGS YOU CAN DO
We can do two things to put ourselves in a position to be respected by others. The first is to develop our knowledge of our field. The more people perceive you know about your subject, the more they will respect you. The highest-paid people in almost every field are those who know more than the average people. They are recognized as experts, and they develop what is called "expert power." Because of their superior knowledge, they are looked up to and listened to, and they are much more capable of influencing others to act in a particular way than they would be if their knowledge level were just average.

KNOW YOUR BUSINESS WELL
The best salespeople are those who know their products cold. They deeply understand every aspect of their products and the ways in which their products can be used to achieve the most important goals of their customers.

DEVELOP YOUR EXPERTISE
Another way to put ourselves in a position of being respected by others is to develop our expertise. Expertise is closely tied to knowledge, but it is a little different. Expertise is the ability to do, the ability to perform well in your chosen field. Men and women with expertise are those who practice over and over in whatever they do until they become known far and wide as the very best in their field.

ACTION EXERCISES
Here are two things you can do immediately to put these ideas into action:

First, study your field in detail. Dedicate at least one hour per day to reading, listening to audio programs, studying to become more and more knowledgeable about what you do.

Second, continually upgrade your knowledge and skills in your field. Identify your weakest important skill and go to work on that.

Knowledge and know-how are the keys to the 21st century.

Decision Making

The story given below is quite interesting and really gives us an insight into DECISION MAKING.

Which one will you choose?

A group of children were playing near two railway tracks, one still in use while the other disused. Only one child played on the disused track, the rest on the operational track. The train came, and you were just beside the track interchange. You could make the train change its course to the disused track and saved most of the kids.

However, that would also mean the lone child playing by the disused track would be sacrificed. Or would you rather let the train go its way?

Let's take a pause to think what kind of decision we could make.















Most people might choose to divert the course of the train, and sacrifice only one child.

You might think the same way, I guess.

Exactly, I thought the same way initially because to save most of the children at the expense of only one child was rational decision most people would make, morally and emotionally. But, have you ever thought that the child choosing to play on the disused track had in fact made the right decision to play at a safe place?

Nevertheless, he had to be sacrificed because of his ignorant friends who chose to play where the danger was.

This kind of dilemma happens around us everyday. In the office, community, in politics and especially in a democratic society, the minority is often sacrificed for the interest of the majority, no matter
how foolish or ignorant the majority are, and how farsighted and knowledgeable the minority are.

The child who chose not to play with the rest on the operational track was sidelined. And in the case he was sacrificed, no one would shed a tear for him.

The friend who forwarded me the story said he would not try to change the course of the train because he believed that the kids playing on the operational track should have known very well that the track was still in use, and that they should have run away if they heard the train's sirens.

If the train was diverted, that lone child would definitely die because he never thought the train could come over to that track! Moreover, that track was not in use probably because it was not safe.

If the train was diverted to the track, we could put the lives of all passengers on board at stake! And in your attempt to save a few kids by sacrificing one child, you might end up sacrificing hundreds of people to save these few kids.

While we are all aware that life is full of tough decisions that need to be made, we may not realize that hasty decisions may not always be the right one.

"Remember that what's right isn't always popular...and what's popular isn't always right."

The 4 D's of Financial Success

"The successful person makes a habit of doing what the failing person doesn't like to do." - Thomas Edison


START FROM NOTHING AND BECOME FINANCIALLY INDEPENDENT BY DEVELOPING FOUR QUALITIES
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.

PUTTING 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.