Its an inspiration to watch such success stories knowing that even though its not easy being an entrepreneur its worth the persistence and perseverance if you'll just work hard and fight for what you believe in...
CNBC's Business Nation - How I Made My Millions
CNBC's Business Nation - How I Made my Millions
Business Nation The Super Soaker edited by David Lettieri
CNBC's Business Nation - How I Made Made My Millions
While many daydream about what it would be like to be enormously wealthy (the kind of wealthy that means owning a different tropical island for every day of the week), it's just not in the cards for most people. What we can do is study the principles of the uber-rich and learn their secrets to fulfill our own wealth destinies, albeit on a smaller scale. Who knows, maybe a tropical island is in your future!
1. Be Your Own Boss. According to the Federal Reserve, only 12 percent of Americans own a privately held business. Compare that number against the top 10 percent of wealthiest households, for whom 21 percent own their own business. Family-owned businesses are a considerable source of wealth for many of the most affluent households in America. Plus, that number is expanding with the new, startup businesses that are amassing small fortunes.
While starting and owning your own business poses potential risks, it can also be a direct precursor for unlimited wealth if careful considerations are weighed and you position yourself accordingly in the market. Read more about effectively managing your own business.
2. Trade and Invest Wisely. The ugly truth of investing is that many who do it actually lose money in the process. Not because the market is stacked against them, but because the investor isn't truly educated. Many become overconfident with the power they possess to trade and invest right at their fingertips. For those who are educated, savvy and patient, the market can offer great rewards. What it comes down to is behavior, and for more about how to adopt the right wealth-centered attitude. Read 5 more tips to improve your wealth attitude.
3. Borrow Like a Pro. There's a massive difference between those who are drowning in debt and those who borrow wisely. The wealthiest 10 percent of Americans are half as likely to have debt as their middle-income counterparts. Another thing the wealthy believe in is a mortgage-almost 60 percent have a primary mortgage, compared with a low 40% for the rest of the population. And although many own their homes outright, they're often more apt to put their money to work for them through investments that yield higher returns. If you're ready to learn the rest of what it takes, follow this link for expanded insight and expert analysis.
Jeffrey Gitomer is the author of The Little Red Book of Selling and The Little Gold Book of YES! Attitude. President of Charlotte-based Buy Gitomer, he gives seminars, runs annual sales meetings, and conducts Internet training programs on selling and customer loyalty at www.trainone.com. He can be reached at 704/333-1112 or at salesman@gitomer.com.When I say Think and Grow Rich, what comes to your mind?
Almost everyone in sales and those interested in personal development have read this classic by Napoleon Hill at least once. And almost everyone who's read it has a positive comment. Many (like me) will say, "Turning point in my life."
Everyone has a turning point in their quest for lifelong learning. Everyone has their Aha! In your personal development, it's what you choose to listen to, watch or read that enhances your understanding of your life and teaches you what you need to do to succeed.
Napoleon Hill's 1937 quote sets the standard. "Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve."
And once you have the information, it's all about what you are willing to do to take advantage of it.
Most people know Napoleon Hill was the author of Think and Grow Rich. The person Hill emulated and studied was Orison Swett Marden. Not many know that.
Marden was the leading positive-attitude genius of the 20th century. Well-known before 1930-almost unknown today. He was a founding father of personal development and positive thought. Aha!
Author of more than 40 books, Marden also was the founder of SUCCESS magazine. Here are a few of his words of wisdom from the book he wrote in 1908, He Who Thinks He Can.
"Every child should be taught to expect success." "The man who has learned the art of seeing things looks with his brain." "The best educated people are those who are always learning, always absorbing knowledge from every possible source and at every opportunity." "People do not realize the immense value of utilizing spare minutes." "No substitute has ever yet been discovered for honesty." "Poverty is of no value except as a vantage ground for a starting point." These are quotes worth learning and passing on to others. One hundred years old!
"Learn More about Orison Swett Marden."
Based on my personal experience and personal Ahas!, I'd like to challenge you with the rules of personal development and give you some examples of what I have learned so you might make your own plan to succeed or enhance the one you have.
1.Expose yourself to knowledge. At the end of a seminar I gave on positive attitude, I received an evaluation from a woman named Mary with a comment that read, "I wish I would have heard this 30 years ago." I got goose bumps of sadness and thought of a Jim Rohn quote: "All the information you need to succeed already exists; the only problem is you're not exposing yourself to it." This information existed 30 years ago. Mary just hadn't exposed herself to it.
Jim Rohn is known as America's leading business philosopher. His CD, The Art of Exceptional Living, is among the modern classics of personal development. Jim Rohn is the current master of inspiration and Aha! He imparts wisdom in every sentence.
Between Marden and Rohn, there is a long list of valuable books. I owe my career success to these books and to personal development information to which I have exposed myself.
Most of the books are more than 50 years old. Many with religious connotations-but still preaching the right words and thoughts. One of the most notable is The Power of Positive Thinking by NormanVincent Peale. Biblical and brilliant.
2. Simple is powerful. If you read it and it seems too easy or too hokey, reread it. It's probably part of your personal development foundation.
One of my early Aha! moments of personal development was the simplicity of the message. Sometimes it's so simple, you go right past it without understanding the impact it can make.
A classic example is the eternal How to Win Friends and InfluencePeople by Dale Carnegie. In 1936 he wrote, "You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you." How many salespeople could benefi t from that single Aha!? I think all of them.
Interesting to note that Dale Carnegie's lessons still are being taught in the classroom 70 years later!
3. Think and apply to improve. In As a Man Thinketh, published in 1902, James Allen says, "A man is literally what he thinks, his character being the complete sum of all his thoughts." Thinking what can be done is at the core of your personal development. About 54 years later, in the million-seller, The Strangest Secret, Earl Nightingale writes, "We become what we think about all day long." Get it?
In 1969, I listened to Glenn W. Turner on a cassette tape: "Act as though you have already begun to achieve. Not fake it-live it."
4. Take a daily dose. Think about the time-worn expression, "An apple a day keeps the doctor away." Apply that to personal development, and it means learn and apply one new thing every day. At the end of a year you will have 365 new pieces of information.
5. The older the better. If you want a new idea, read a book that's 100 years old. "The best educated people are those who are always learning, always absorbing knowledge from every possible source and at every opportunity." -Marden, 1908. Or, "History has demonstrated that the most notable winners usually encountered heartbreaking obstacles before they triumphed. They won because they refused to become discouraged by their defeats." -B.C. Forbes, 1919.
6. Personal development and positive attitude are joined at the hip-and at the brain. And there is another component-being of service. "There is little difference in people, but that little difference makes a big difference. The little difference is attitude. The big difference is whether it is positive or negative." -Clement Stone, 1946. Add that to the 5000-year-old Chinese proverb, "To Serve is to Rule."
7. Do it even as your butt falls off. In 1898, Elbert Hubbard wrote an essay titled, Message to Garcia. Deliver the message, get the job done, complete the task-no matter what. Many have read that essay. Few have emulated it.
Personal development challenges you to think forward. "Greater than the tread of mighty armies is an idea whose time has come." -Victor Hugo, 1874.
Personal development challenges you to be your best. "You cannot mandate productivity; you must provide the tools to let people become their best." -Steve Jobs, 1988.
"I am the greatest of all time." -Muhammad Ali, 1963.
Personal development challenges you to make decisions based on the person you seek to become. "The highest reward for a person's toil is not what they get for it, but what they become by it." -John Ruskin, 1869.
Wondering where you can "find more time" to devote to your own success? "It has been my observation that most people get ahead during the time that others waste." -Henry Ford, 1901. Just a thought.
The key word is not development; the key word is personal. Do it for yourself, in your own way, and make your own time for it-or not.
The biggest Aha! of personal development is from Russell Conwell's Acres of Diamonds. Considered to be one of the finest speeches ever written, Acres of Diamonds offers a multitude of lessons about the rewards of work, education and finding the riches of life in your own back yard-or your own library. Aha!
What will happen to you next month or next year? Whatever happens, you should follow certain overriding principles and predictable patterns. As you enter this world, receive parental instruction, classroom instruction, and gain experience, you may set ambitious goals and dream lofty dreams. However, as the wheel of life turns, you are subject to human emotions and vicissitudes. You must learn to experience changing of lifecycles without being changed by them; to make a constant and conscious effort to improve yourself in the face of changing circumstances.
That is why I believe in the power and value of attitude. As I read about people, their deeds and their destiny, I become more convinced that it is our natural destiny to grow, succeed, prosper, and find happiness here and now in every season of life.
By your attitude, you decide to read, or not to read; try or give up; blame yourself for your failure or blame others; tell the truth or lie; act or procrastinate; advance or recede; and succeed or fail. The God-given gift of free choice enables you to select your own development and achievement—or your own destruction.
You are placed here on earth to develop yourself and enhance your environment. How fascinating that God would leave both projects—earth and people—unfinished! Across the rivers and streams, He built no bridges; He left the pictures unpainted, songs unsung, books unwritten, and space unexplored. To do those things, God created you and gave you the capacity to do some of these things. But it’s your choice. Attitude determines choice, and choice determines results. All that you are and all that you can become has been left to you. For as long as you live, you have the chance to work, and in the cycles and seasons of life, attitude is everything!
Life is like the changing seasons. You can't change the seasons, but you can change yourself.
Winter
The first lesson in life is to learn how to handle the winters. They come regularly. Some are long, some are short, some are difficult, some are easy, but they always come right after autumn. There are many kinds of winters: financial winters, social winters, emotional winters, and physical winters—the winter when you can’t figure things out, the winter when everything seems to go wrong, the winter of sickness or disappointment. So you must learn how to handle the winters—the difficulty that always comes after opportunity, the recession that comes after expansion. What can you do about winters? You can get stronger, wiser, and better. The winters won’t change, but you can.
Before I understood this truth, I used to wish it was summer when it was winter. When things were difficult, I used to wish they were easy. Now I don’t wish winter were shorter or easier, I wish to be wiser and better. I don’t wish to have fewer problems, I wish to gain more skills. I don’t wish for less challenge; I wish for more wisdom.
"Life is like the changing seasons. You can't change the seasons, but you can change yourself."
Spring
Fortunately, following winter comes a season of activity and opportunity called springtime. It is the season for entering the fertile fields of life with seed, knowledge, commitment, and a determined effort. The mere arrival of spring is no sign that things will look great in the fall. You must do something with the spring. Either plant in the spring or go begging in the fall. Take advantage of the opportunity that spring brings. Believe in the promise of spring: as you sow, so shall you also reap. Faith provides you with an irrevocable law: for every disciplined effort you make, you will receive a multiple reward. For each cup you plant, you reap a bushel; for every good you give to another, you shall receive many in return. For every act of faith, you receive many rewards; and for every act of love you show, you receive a life of love in return.
Remember that springtime presents itself ever so briefly. You can be lulled into inactivity by its bounteous beauty. Pause long enough to soak in the aroma of the blossoming flowers, but then get to work, lest you awaken to find springtime gone with your seed still in your sack. With the intelligence, wisdom, and freedom of choice, you can exercise the discipline to plant seeds—in spite of the rocks, weeds, or other obstacles. These won’t destroy all your seeds if you plant intelligently enough. So choose action, not rest. Choose truth, not fantasy; a smile, not a frown; love, not animosity. Choose to work when springtime smiles on your life and to enjoy the good in life in all things.
Spring shows us that life is truly a constant beginning, a constant opportunity. We need only to learn to look once again at life as we did as children, letting fascination and curiosity give us welcome cause to look for the miraculous hidden among the common. Get busy quickly on your springs, your opportunities. There are just a handful of springs that have been handed to each of us. Life is brief, even at its longest. Whatever you are going to do with your life, get at it. Don’t just let the seasons pass by.
Summer
In this season of life, learn how to nourish and protect your crops. As soon as you plant seeds, the busy bugs and noxious weeds are out to take things over. And they will take it, unless you prevent it. Know that all good will be attacked, and all values must be defended. Don’t ask why. Just know that it’s true. Let reality be your best beginning. Every garden will be invaded. Social values, political values, friendship values, and business values must be defended. Every garden must be tended all summer. If you don’t tend your garden, you’ll never have much of real value. But for those who make diligent efforts to plant, protect, and preserve, there are not enough birds, bugs, or other obstacles to destroy all the efforts of last spring.
Fall
Fall is the time to harvest the fruits of your springtime labor. You can learn how to reap in the fall without apology if you have done well and without complaint if you have not. Nothing is more exciting than bringing in a bounteous crop, and nothing more dreadful than facing a barren field in the fall. In all areas, what you put into this world, you get back from it. It is nature’s way of evening the score. So regardless of the results, take full responsibility for your crop. The highest form of maturity is accepting full responsibility for your life.
Life is constantly recycling itself, and part of your challenge is learning to change with the seasons and balance opposites: day/night, good/evil, life/death, water/land, summer/winter, recession/expansion, joy/sorrow. You face many challenges and changes, but you will continue to have one winter, spring, summer, and fall each year.
Success Each Season
Much of your success will lie in your attitude and ability to plant in the springtime of opportunity, to weed and cultivate in the testing time of summer, to harvest without apology or complaint in the season of fall, and to get stronger, wiser, better in the transition and learning times of winter. It is not what happens to you that determines your future—it is how you respond and what you do about it.
If you think you are beaten, you are. If you think you dare not, you won’t. If you like to win, but you think you can’t, It is almost certain you won’t.
If you think you’ll lose, you’ve lost. For out in the world we find, Success begins with a fellow’s will, It’s all in the state of mind.
If you think you’re outclassed, you are. You’ve got to think high to rise. You’ve got to be sure of yourself before You can ever win a prize.
Life’s battles don’t always go To the stronger or faster man. But to the one who believes He can.
Karoly Takacs. You’ve probably never heard of him. However, in Hungary, he’s a national hero - everybody there knows his name and his incredible story. After reading his story, you’ll never forget him…
In 1938, Karoly Takacs of the Hungarian Army, was the top pistol shooter in the world. He was expected to win the gold in the 1940 Olympic Games scheduled for Tokyo.
Those expectations vanished one terrible day just months before the Olympics. While training with his army squad, a hand grenade exploded in Takacs’ right hand, and Takacs’ shooting hand was blown off.
Takacs spent a month in the hospital depressed at both the loss of his hand, and the end to his Olympic dream. At that point most people would have quit. And they would have probably spent the rest of their life feeling sorry for themselves. Most people would have quit but not Takacs. Takacs was a winner. Winners know that they can’t let circumstances keep them down. They understand that life is hard and that they can’t let life beat them down. Winners know in their heart that quitting is not an option.
Takacs did the unthinkable; he picked himself up, dusted himself off, and decided to learn how to shoot with his left hand! His reasoning was simple. He simply asked himself, “Why not?”
Instead of focusing on what he didn’t have – a world class right shooting hand, he decided to focus on what he did have – incredible mental toughness, and a healthy left hand that with time, could be developed to shoot like a champion.
For months Takacs practiced by himself. No one knew what he was doing. Maybe he didn’t want to subject himself to people who most certainly would have discouraged him from his rekindled dream.
In the spring of 1939 he showed up at the Hungarian National Pistol Shooting Championship. Other shooters approached Takacs to give him their condolences and to congratulate him on having the strength to come watch them shoot. They were surprised when he said, “I didn’t come to watch, I came to compete.” They were even more surprised when Takacs won!
The 1940 and 1944 Olympics were cancelled because of World War II. It looked like Takacs’ Olympic Dream would never have a chance to realize itself. But Takacs kept training and in 1944 he qualified for the London Olympics. At the age of 38, Takacs won the Gold Medal and set a new world record in pistol shooting. Four years later, Takacs won the Gold Medal again at the 1952 Helsinki Olympics. Takacs - a man with the mental toughness to bounce back from anything.
Winners in every field have a special trait that helps them become unstoppable. A special characteristic that allows them to survive major setbacks on the road to success. Winners recover QUICKLY. Bouncing back is not enough. Winners bounce back QUICKLY. They take their hit, they experience their setback, they have the wind taken out of their sails, but they immediately recover. Right away they FORCE themselves to look at the bright side of things – ANY bright side, and they say to themselves, “That’s OK. There is always a way. I will find a way.” They dust themselves off, and pick up where they left off.
The reason quick recovery is important is that if you recover quickly, you don’t lose your momentum and your drive. Takacs recovered in only one month. If he had wallowed in his misery, if he had stayed “under the circumstances,” if he had played the martyr, and felt sorry for himself much longer, he would have lost his mental edge – his “eye of the tiger” and he never would have been able to come back.
When a boxer gets knocked down, he has ten seconds to get back up. If he gets up in eleven seconds, he loses the fight. Remember that next time you get knocked down.
Takacs definitely had a right to feel sorry for himself. He had a right to stay depressed and to ask himself “Why me?” for the rest of his life. He had the right to act like a mediocre man.
Takacs could have let his terrible accident cause him to become permanently discouraged, to take up heavy drinking, to quit on life alltogether, and maybe even to end his own life. He could have acted like a loser.
But Takacs made the DECISION to dig deep inside and to find a solution. To pick himself up and to learn to shoot all over again. Winners always search for a solution. Losers always search for an escape.
Next time you get knocked down, DECIDE you will act like a winner. DECIDE to act like Takacs. Get up quickly, take action, and astound the world!
Read this first thing in the morning and last thing at night with power and passion (preferably while looking at yourself eyeball to eyeballl in the mirror) and watch your life change!
I am a champion. I believe in myself. I have the will to win. I set high goals for myself. I surround myself with winners. I’m cool, positive, and confident. I have courage. I never give up. I’m willing to pay the price of success. I love the struggle and the competition. I stay relaxed and in control at all times. I focus all my energy on the job at hand. I vividly imagine what victory will feel like. I am a champion and I WILL WIN!
After getting double pneumonia and scarlet fever, the doctors said she’d never walk again. Wilma’s mother refused to believe the doctors.
In her autobiography, Wilma wrote, “Every Saturday when I was a kid my mom would take me on a bus from our home in Clarksville, Tennessee, to a Nashville hospital 60 miles away for treatment on my leg. Then, during the week my brothers and sisters would take turns massaging my leg. If it wasn’t for my family, I probably would have never been able to walk properly, no less run.”
Wilma shed her leg brace when she was 11 years old. She went on to become a basketball star in high school. Ed Temple, the coach of the Tennessee State “Tigerbelles” track team.
At age 16 Wilma competed in the 1956 Melboourne Summer Olympics and won a Bronze in the 4×100 relay. Four years later she became the darling of the 1960 Rome Olympics when she won three Gold Medals - in the 100 meters, the 200 meters, and the 4×100 relay.
If you think about it, Wilma’s doctors were right. Wilma was not born to walk. She was born to RUN!
Next time a so-called expert tells you you can’t do something, think again. If it’s in your heart, if you believe it’s possible, and if you are willing to do the work, you just might prove the experts wrong - just like Wilma Rudolph did.
Playing the cards he was dealt! www.olympicmotivationblog.com
Oscar Pistorius (born 22 November 1986) is a South African Paralympic runner. Known as the “Blade Runner” and “the fastest man on no legs”, Pistorius is the double amputee world record holder in the 100, 200 and 400 metres events and runs with the aid of Cheetah Flex-Foot carbon fibre transtibial artificial limbs by Ossur.
In 2007 Pistorius took part in his first international able-bodied competitions. However, his artificial lower legs, while enabling him to compete, generated claims that he has an unfair advantage over able-bodied runners. The same year, the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) amended its competition rules to ban the use of “any technical device that incorporates springs, wheels or any other element that provides a user with an advantage over another athlete not using such a device”. It claimed that the amendment was not specifically aimed at Pistorius.
After monitoring his track performances and carrying out tests, scientists took the view that Pistorius enjoyed considerable advantages over athletes without prosthetic limbs. On the strength of these findings, on 14 January 2008 the IAAF ruled him ineligible for competitions conducted under its rules, including the 2008 Summer Olympics.
This decision was reversed by the Court of Arbitration for Sport on 16 May 2008, the Court ruling that the IAAF had not provided sufficient evidence to prove that Pistorius’s prostheses give him an advantage over able-bodied athletes. Although eligible to compete in the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, Pistorius still has to qualify for the South African team.
Natalie du Toit - Qualifies for Beijing Olympics in Swimming despite having lost her leg in an accident 7 years ago.
By the time she was a teenager, South African swimming had its eye on Natalie du Toit. The versatile Cape Town swimmer lit up the pool, setting multiple national age group records in both medley events and dominating many of her races. At 16, she nearly qualified for the 2000 Sydney Olympics in three events. People sensed great things were in store for the strong, determined swimmer. In 2004, Athens could become her playground. Then in 2001, those plans abruptly changed. Done with morning workout, du Toit eased her motor scooter into Monday rush-hour traffic and headed to school.
Just down the street from her pool, a careless driver exiting a parking lot ran directly into her left leg. The scene was gruesome; the devastation was immediately obvious. “I kept saying, ‘I’ve lost my leg, I’ve lost my leg,’” remembers du Toit. Her teammates rushed to her. Traffic snarled. The scene: total, horrible chaos. A motorcycle policeman racing to the accident crashed headfirst into a truck and had to be airlifted to a hospital. It would have been merciful if du Toit had fainted. But this is a girl who confronts reality without blinking. She stayed awake. At that moment, Natalie du Toit was not in the least preoccupied with her swimming career. But that state of mind would prove to be very temporary.
Did people record this raw defiance in their diaries? They should have, for it was the first clue that Du Toit planned to defy all the odds that got in her way.
STILL SUCCEEDING
You will know when Du Toit is racing. You will know because the crowd is on its feet. The crowd tries to process what it is witnessing. There in the water is an amputee racing with the lead pack. The crowd cheers because the other alternative is to sit in stunned disbelief.
Natalie du Toit, now 21, is one of the world’s fastest distance swimmers. Less than two years after the accident, she qualified for the finals of the 800 meter freestyle at the 2002 Commonwealth Games, marking the first time an amputee in the modern era had raced in the finals of an able-bodied international swimming competition.
That day, Du Toit wasn’t close to winning. But that hardly mattered. She was named outstanding athlete of the Games, beating Aussie Ia Thorpe, who had won six golds, one silver, ands set a new world record. Out of necessity, she switched to distance freestyle after the accident. But although her body and events have changed, her goals haven’t. “I have always had a dream to take part in an Olympic Games, and losing my leg didn’t change anything,” she says.
When she’s not training, she’s studying sports management. She’s also doing motivational speaking because she’s become one of South Africa’s best-known stories and a source of inspiration to the country.
Just imagine what it would mean if she competed in the 2008 Beijing Olympics. She doesn’t yet have the qualifying times, but she’s not that far off. Prior to the accident, a coach gave Du Toit an unattributed poem. She rediscovered it after her accident. Before, it didn’t mean much. Now, a laminated copy hangs on her wall, and she can probably recite it in her sleep:
The tragedy of life does not lie in not reaching your goals; The tragedy of life lies in not having goals to reach for. It is not a disgrace not to reach for the stars, But it is a disgrace not to have stars to reach for. www.olympicmotivationblog.com From an article title by P.H. Mullen “Everything is possible if you can just believe” that appeared in SwimmingWorld of July 2005.
At the age of 21 he failed in business. At the age of 22 he lost a race for State Legislature. At the age of 23 he failed at his second business. At the age of 25 his girlfriend died. At the age of 26 he suffered a nervous breakdown. At the age of 28 he lost a race for Congress. At the age of 30 he lost another race. At the age of 33 he lost yet another race. At the age of 38 he lost a race for Congress. At the age of 45 he was defeated for Senate. At the age of 46 he was defeated for Vice President. At the age of 49 he was defeated for Senate. At the age of 50 he was elected President of the United States. Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC
His tough life riddled with failure helped make Abraham Lincoln tough enough to be able to lead the United Stated through the Civil War. If you are going through struggles in life, you are being prepared for a big, important purpose.
Are you a leader just because you run a small business? No. But you need to be. Without leadership, the ship that is your small business will aimlessly circle and eventually run out of power or run aground.
It’s not having followers that defines leadership. Cool-headed, farseeing, visionary, courageous – whichever adjectives you choose, leadership is a winning combination of personal traits and the ability to think and act as a leader, a person who directs the activities of others for the good of all. Anyone can be a leader, even if the only person they’re leading is themselves.
But you can’t become a leader just by saying you are. Leadership needs to be worked at. Transform yourself into a leader with these five keys of leadership.
1. A leader plans.
The core of leadership is being proactive rather than reactive. Sure, leaders are good in crises – but that doesn’t mean they sit around letting crises develop. Leadership involves identifying potential problems and solving them before they reach crisis proportions – and the ability to identify and reap potential windfalls. So good leaders analyze and plan and adapt their plans to new circumstances and opportunities.
2. A leader has a vision.
Vision is essential to good leadership. Vision provides direction and without direction, there’s not much point to all that planning; your small business will still flail about. So if you don’t have one already, take your first step towards leadership by creating a Vision Statement for your business. Because it embodies your dreams and your passions, a vision statement will also serve as a leadership vision.
3. A leader shares her vision.
Sharing your leadership vision helps your vision grow and your leadership develop. As you tell your leadership vision to others, you will strengthen your own belief in your vision and strengthen your determination to make your leadership vision become reality. And other people will start to see you as a person who’s “going places”. Your leadership skills will grow as you and other people recognize you as a person with leadership potential.
4. A leader takes charge.
At this stage of leadership, you put together your planning and your leadership vision and take action. Whether it’s implementing a specific plan to improve your business’s bottom line or responding to a crisis, you, as the leader, are the one who makes the decisions and sees that the appropriate actions are carried out. You can’t just “talk a good game” to be a leader; you need to act and to be seen as taking effective action for the good of your small business.
5. A leader inspires through example.
If I asked you, you could easily name three people whose leadership qualities inspire you. If I asked you why, you’d tell me about the things these inspiring people did or are doing. Leadership is defined through action. Therefore, in developing your own leadership skills, you have to act in ways that are fitting to your leadership vision and your self – all the time. We can all name many actions of other people whom we admire, but what inspires us is the integrity that gives these actions meaning.
Becoming a leader isn’t easy because it takes a conscious commitment and consistent effort to develop one’s leadership skills. But on the positive side, anyone who is willing to make the effort can become a good leader.
And as good leadership is critical to business success, your efforts to improve your leadership skills will be amply rewarded. By working on these five keys of leadership, you can become the leader your small business needs.
Fortune magazine once published an article entitled “The Best Advice I Ever Got.” It was a great article that offered wit and wisdom about achieving business success. I liked it so much, that it motivated me to produce my newest book, Leadership: Best Advice I Ever Got, which describes the best leadership advice 136 successful CEOs, coaches, consultants, professors, managers, executives, presidents, politicians, and religious leaders received that most helped them become effective and successful leaders.
Here are seven secrets to leadership success:
1. Leadership is about making things happen.
If you want to make something happen with your life – in school, in your profession or in your community, do it. Perceived obstacles crumble against persistent desire. John Baldoni, Author, Leadership Communication Consultant and Founder of Baldoni Consulting LLC, shared this advice that had come from his father, a physician. He taught him the value of persistence. At the same time, his mother taught him compassion for others. Therefore, persistence for your cause should not be gained at the expense of others. Another bit of leadership wisdom!
2. Listen and understand the issue, then lead.
Time and time again we have all been told, "God gave us two ears and one mouth for a reason"... or as Stephen Covey said, "Seek to understand, rather than be understood." As a leader, listening first to the issue, then trying to coach, has been the most valuable advice that Cordia Harrington, President and CEO of Tennessee Bun Company has been given.
3. Answer the three questions everyone within your organization wants answers to.
What the people of an organization want from their leader are answers to the following: Where are we going? How are we going to get there? What is my role? Kevin Nolan, President & Chief Executive Officer of Affinity Health Systems, Inc. believes the more clarity that can be added to each of the three questions, the better the result.
4. Master the goals that will allow you to work anywhere in today’s dynamic business world.
Debbe Kennedy, President, CEO and Founder of Global Dialogue Center and Leadership Solutions Companies, and author of Action Dialogues and Breakthrough once shared this piece of advice that was instrumental in shaping her direction, future and achievements.
She was a young manager at IBM just promoted to her first staff assignment in a regional marketing office. For reasons she can’t explain, one of her colleagues named Bookie called her into his office while she was visiting his location. He then began to offer unsolicited advice, but advice that now stays fresh in her mind. He mentioned that jobs, missions, titles and organizations would come and go as business is dynamic - meaning it is always changing. He advised her not to focus your goals toward any of these, but instead learn to master the skills that will allow you to work anywhere.
He was talking about four skills:
The ability to develop an idea; Effectively plan for its implementation; Execute second-to-none; Achieve superior results time after time.
With this in mind, Kennedy advises readers to seek jobs and opportunities with this in mind. Forget what others do. Work to be known for delivering excellence. It speaks for itself and it opens doors.
More of the best leadership advice ever received by successful people, advice that helped them to become effective, successful leaders:
5. Be curious.
Curiosity is a prerequisite to continuous improvement and even excellence. The person who gave Mary Jean Thornton, Former Executive Vice President & CIO, The Travelers, this advice urged her to study people, processes, and structures. He inspired her to be intellectually curious. He often reminded Thornton that making progress, in part, was based upon thinking. She has learned to apply this notion of intellectual curiosity by thinking about her organization’s future, understanding the present, and knowing and challenging herself to creatively move the people and the organization closer to its vision.
6. Listen to both sides of the argument.
The most valuable advice Brian P. Lees, Massachusetts State Senator and Senate Minority Leader, ever received came from his mentor, United States Senator Edward W. Brooke III. He told him to listen to all different kinds of people and ideas. Listening only to those who share your background and opinions can be imprudent. It is important to respect your neighbors’ rights to their own views. Listening to and talking with a variety of people, from professors to police officers, from senior citizens to school children, is essential not only to be a good leader in business, but to also be a valuable member within your community.
7. Prepare, prepare, prepare.
If you fail to prepare, you are preparing to fail. If one has truly prepared and something goes wrong the strength of the rest of what you've prepared for usually makes this something easier to handle without crisis and panic. One of the best pieces of advice Dave Hixson, Men’s Varsity Basketball Coach at Amherst College has ever received and continues to use and pass on is this anonymous quote -“Preparation is the science of winning."
Along with this are two expressions from Rick Pitino's book Success is a Choice, which speaks to preparation. Hixson asks his teams every year: "Do you deserve to win?" and "Have you done the work?" This speaks to the importance of preparation toward achieving your final goal. If you haven't done the work (the preparation) the answer to the second question is an easy "no!"
Great advice comes from many sources – parents, other relatives, consultants, bosses, co-workers, mentors, teachers, coaches, and friends. The important point to remember is to stay open, listen to everyone, but also develop your own leadership style.
Paul B. Thornton is President of Be the Leader Associates and author of seven books on management and leadership. His latest book, Leadership: Best Advice I Ever Got, is available at WingSpan Press, amazon.com, and bn.com.
The true secret to becoming a billionaire is to develop a billionaire mindset and grow into billionaireship over time through experience. Overnight wealth always flies away nearly as quickly as it arrives.
Becoming a billionaire is a process in which you first become a ten-aire, then an hundred-aire, a thousand-aire, a ten thousand-aire, an hundred thousand-aire and so on until you reach billionaire status.
Each step up the ladder is a new stage of financial growth that will bring new experiences and challenges that one must overcome and master in order to move to the next level. Strategies that work well for investing $100 will likely be completely worthless when trying to invest $1,000,000.
Income generation strategies, tax strategies, priniciple preservations strategies, investment strategies, and so forth, must be learned or developed as you grow financially.
If a person wants to become a billionaire they should first work on moving to the next level from where they are now. Do you know what your net worth is right now? If not it is unlikely you are an hundred thousand-aire or above. One also needs to consider several factors in advancing financially. The biggest and most important question you must answer is WHY? Why must you become a billionaire? If you do not have a compelling reason that drives you to action on an ongoing basis, you will not make it unless it is by accident. (A suprising percentage of those who become millionaires do so by accident, as a result of striving to achieve other goals such as owning their own home and putting away enough to retire comfortably.) Another factor is to create a billionaire mindset. This will be the most difficult part if you do not have a billionaire mentor because the daily experiences, decisions and so forth that a billionaire has will be unimaginable to someone who does not have regular exposure to them. A person becomes a billionaire when they think and act like a billionaire.
You can bet that Donald Trump thinks different things are important than a person whose net worth is only $100. The reason the Donald was able to rebound back up to billionaire status so quickly after going bankrupt is that he thinks differently than people who normally deal in smaller terms. Get your thinking right and the money will just naturally flow to you.
While I am personally in the works to achieve hundred thousand-aire status at the moment I have the good fortune of being closely associated with several millionaires, and it has been through my association with them that I have learned many strategies that I am now employing to advance to the next level personally. I believe at this point that helping other people make money is a key factor to rising through the stages of financial growth, as that is a model donald Trump uses. Give enough people what they want and need and they will give you all the money you could ever want or need.
