Over the past 50 years, I have been thrilled and delighted to see hundreds of people succeed in business, but I have watched sadly as literally thousands of people have achieved little or no success.

There are a multitude of common characteristics among those who succeed, but there seems to be only one glaring common characteristic among those who achieve little or no success. That characteristic is simply never deciding upon one single plan of action and sticking with it day-in and day-out. They never achieve any success by doing a little of this, a little of that. They are, in effect, dabblers in business.

Back in 1987, a young man in Arkansas bought one of my $10 reports. It wasn’t a fancy business idea, but the young man took the idea and did it — over and over through thick and thin. Today, it still produces from $25,000 to $30,000 per month for him. He calls it his bread and butter business.

From his bread and butter business, he had money enough to pursue bigger and bigger business deals. Today, he is no longer a young man, but he is a multi-millionaire many times over.

If you really, truly, honestly and sincerely want to succeed, pick one business. Keep doing it day-in and day-out, even during the tough times when the business appears to be failing. That’s when your success will begin. It’s also when most people quit.

There are very, very few opportunities that couldn’t be the “best” for someone. It is all a matter of persistence.

Look around you. There are millionaires in every field of business endeavor. There are millionaire garbage collectors … millionaire bankers … millionaire shop keepers … millionaire day-care operators … millionaire internet marketers … etc., etc., etc.

As Albert Einstein said, “Anyone can be a genius, if they pick just one specific subject and study it diligently just 15 minutes each day.”

The same holds true in business. Just pick one specific business. Do it every day until you do it successfully.

Most people don’t fail, they just fail to stick with any ONE thing until they have mastered it.

As Benjamin Disraeli said, “The secret to success is the constancy of purpose.”

Do yourself a favor, pick something and do it until you can do it right.

–

J.F. (Jim) Straw began his long, successful career in business at the age of nine when he sold his first cans of Cloverleaf Salve and copies of GRIT newspaper. As a mail-order marketer with over 700,000 customers worldwide he has sold over four-hundred million dollars ($400,000,000) worth of products and services by mail — everything from beauty supplies to heavy equipment, burglar alarms to sleeping bags, fishing lures to women’s wigs, automobiles to wheelchairs, investment opportunities to seafood, consulting services to “how to” courses. His book Mustard Seeds, Shovels, & Moutains is to be published by Kallisti Publishing.

You can become a millionaire in one year or less using the tried and proven methods Jim can teach you. Visit http://www.businesslyceum.com/BeAMillionaire.html.

Oh those Mayans! As we leave 2011 behind us and enter into 2012, we do so with the thought that this may very well be the last year on Earth for all of us. That is, if the Mayan calendar and prophecies are true.

Chances are that they aren’t. That doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t at least live 2012 as if they were!

Think about it. What would you do if you knew with absolute certainty that this would be your last year?

One thing is certain: You would definitely live your life a little more (at least) fuller. You’d do some of the things you always wanted to do. You’d do your damnedest to make it the best that you could.

Right?

Well, why not live 2012 that way anyway?

Set some audacious goals.

Pursue them with a fervor boarding on obsession.

Stake your claim, make your case, and damn the torpedoes.

Why not? In life, I think you’ll find that you truly have not much to lose and everything to gain.

In 2011, we gave you the tools you need to attain everything you want. We released Claire McGee’s incredible book I Believe Therefore I Am. We updated Charles F. Haanel’s Complete Master Key Course and made it the most awesome personal development course you will ever find. We brought you the Master Key Coaching Teleseminars so that you could absolutely understand the Philosophy of Success.

In 2012, we’re going to take things even further.

We have J.F. (Jim) Straw‘s new book Mustard Seeds, Shovels, & Mountains, which will be released in January.

After that, we’ll supply you with books from such luminaries as Tom Papps, Dr. Maiysha Claireborne, and Alexandra de Scheel.

It’s going to be an incredible year. And we want you to experience all of the good that will be there.

It’s up to you, though. Make the choice that 2012 will be the most awesome year ever — for you, for your family, and for everyone around you. You can do it. Make the decision and then live it!

Live 2012 as if it were the last year ever.

I wish you and yours the best of everything in 2012!

I meet and learn from Champions every day. Not just in locker rooms but in classrooms, hospitals, homeless shelters, homes and office buildings. I’ve learned that to be a champion you must Think Like a Champion. Champions think differently than everyone else. They approach their life and work with a different mindset and belief system that separates them from the pack.

1. Champions Expect to Win – When they walk on the court, on the field, into a meeting or in a classroom they expect to win. In fact they are surprised when they don’t win. They expect success and their positive beliefs often lead to positive actions and outcomes. They win in their mind first and then they win in the hearts and minds of their customers, students or fans.

2. Champions Celebrate the Small Wins – By celebrating the small wins champions gain the confidence to go after the big wins. Big wins and big success happen through the accumulation of many small victories. This doesn’t mean champions become complacent. Rather, with the right kind of celebration and reinforcement, champions work harder, practice more and believe they can do greater things.

3. Champions Don’t Make Excuses When They Don’t Win – They don’t focus on the faults of others. They focus on what they can do better. They see their mistakes and defeats as opportunities for growth. As a result they become stronger, wiser and better.

4. Champions Focus on What They Get To Do, Not What They Have To Do – They see their life and work as a gift not an obligation. They know that if they want to achieve a certain outcome they must commit to and appreciate the process. They may not love every minute of their journey but their attitude and will helps them develop their skill.

5. Champions Believe They Will Experience More Wins in the Future – Their faith is greater than their fear. Their positive energy is greater than the chorus of negativity. Their certainty is greater than all the doubt. Their passion and purpose are greater than their challenges. In spite of their situation champions believe their best days are ahead of them, not behind them.

If you don’t think you have what it takes to be a champion, think again. Champions aren’t born. They are shaped and molded. And as iron sharpens iron you can develop your mindset and the mindset of your team with the right thinking, beliefs and expectations that lead to powerful actions.

About Jon Gordon:

This post is a guest post by Jon Gordon. Jon is the Wall Street Journal and international bestselling author of a number of books including The Energy Bus: 10 Rules to Fuel Your Life, Work and Team with Positive Energy, and his latest, The Seed: Finding Purpose and Happiness in Life and Work. Learn more at www.JonGordon.com. Follow Jon on Twitter @JonGordon11 or Facebook www.facebook.com/jongordonpage.

There is guaranteed success when you never give up! The lack of perseverance is the only thing that can prevent your success.Perseverance is one of the most important personal character traits needed to succeed in life. Nothing worthwhile can ever be accomplished without perseverance. Persistence and determination supersedes genius, education, and talent. Those who refuse to persevere have little hope for success.

All those at the top have the same character trait in common: perseverance.The history books are full of examples of people who succeeded as a result of never giving up.The biographies of great people proves that persistance pays off.Perseverance is required for successful achievement.The most successful people in all fields never give up. Persistence and perseverance will allow you to succeed also.

Temporary setbacks can’t stop you if you’ll refuse to acknowledge defeat or give up. Bounce back when it appears that you’re down for the count. No one achieves total success without going through setbacks, hardships, and opposition. Perseverance means to hold out and remain steadfast until the end. Let perseverance carry you through pain, distress, pressure, and disappointment. Perseverance is the only key that can turn defeat and failure into success and victory. It’s impossible for a persistent man or woman to be kept down for long.

If you fail, start over. Change your methods, learn from your mistakes, then try a new approach. Once you convince yourself that there has to be a way to do what you want, you become unstoppable. Believing that a problem can’t be solved makes it unsolvable. Believing that solutions are possible attracts the right answer to you.

When things aren’t working, back off and start fresh. Come back for another go at it and you’ll eventually reach your goal because of your persistence. Picture the end result in your conscious mind and your subconscious mind will take over and direct your actions. As you see your goal in your mind before it manifests and go over your future in your mind, your subconscious mind will lead and guide you in the right direction. Your subconscious mind will take care of any past missteps by directing you to do whatever is necessary to compensate for your errors. All you have to do is get action going toward the attainment of your innermost desires and your subconscious mind will guide you in the right direction.

But above all, persevere!

–

Jawara D. King

About this Article’s Author: Jawara King is a full-time author, philosopher, researcher, and writer, working in the metaphysical and spiritual fields. As a contemporary spiritual teacher, he conveys the timeless profound messages of the ancient spiritual masters of all traditions. His works blend physics, spiritual philosophy, Eastern wisdom, and mystical Christianity with life-changing results. Jawara’s foundational teachings bring together insights from a range of spiritual paths to form a spiritually global coherent practice; guiding thousands of people to transform their lives through one of the greatest teachings in the world today. He has written five self-improvement books outlining the philosophical and spiritual framework necessary to bring forth a spiritual awakening in the real world.

Grab an opportunity and see where it leads!

Opportunities. They’re all around us. From jobs to friendships to learning opportunities.

What’s stopping you from taking advantage of them?

One thing that might be stopping you, as it’s something I’ve seen within myself at times as well as in some Master Key Coaching clients is this:

Sometimes — too many times! — we fear making that leap of faith.

For whatever reason, instead of jumping into the ”fray,” so to speak, we hang back, almost as if we were awaiting the “perfect shot.”

Unfortunately, perfect shots are few and far between. If ever!

Sometimes, we have to grab an opportunity, even if it’s not exactly the one we want, and run with it.

Sometimes, we have to take the “low paying” job because it MAY LEAD TO the job that we real want!

We may have to do work that we’d rather not do as it may very well BE A STEPPING STONE to the work
we will actually enjoy — and which may make for us our fortune!

We just might have to work with people who rub us the wrong way because those “friends” may CONNECT US WITH the friends that will become our lifetime business partners or employers.

Do you see what I am saying here?

Everyday there are opportunities that you can grab.

Everyday there is something that you can reach for.

It might not be the “ideal.” It may even be the barely wanted.

It’s a start, though.

And it may lead somewhere.

Haanel wrote in The Master Key System that “Life is an unfoldment, not an accretion.”

Sometimes you have to have just enough faith to take a leap, even one that you would normally not take, and allow life to unfold.

Try it. If only for a day or so. See what happens.

I can practically guarantee that you’ll be glad that you did.

In the first Week of The Master Key System, Haanel describes what he calls the “world within” and the “world without.” What did Haanel mean by these terms?

Of course, we don’t have Haanel here as a reference. We can take the message of the book as a whole as clues to what he meant exactly, though.

The world within is one’s mind. It’s one’s thoughts. It’s one’s feelings. As Haanel wrote, it’s forces are mighty — mightier than we think.

The world without, on the other hand, Haanel described as a “reflection of the world within.”

I would make a slight change to that. I would say that the world without is or can be jaded or slanted or skewed by the world within.

The difference is small, but it is significant as we progress in our studies of this philosophy.

The world within can — and often does — alter the world without. Actually, it happens all the time. It’s part of the interplay that happens betwixt the two. It’s what I like to call the “Dance.”

There are many examples of the Dance all about us. Sociologists have been investigating it for quite some time, an example being Phillip Zimbardo‘s Stanford Prison Experiment.

Investor George Soros used Karl Popper‘s theory of “Reflexivity” to make more than a billion dollars trading currency. Popper’s reflexivity is an example of the Dance — the world within influencing the world without and vice versa.

The influence of the world without and the world within (and vice versa) is possible because, as Haanel wrote, we “live in a fathomless sea of plastic mind substance.”

I want to state here that this “plastic mind substance” is not and is not anything related to quantum theory, subatomic particles, or man’s mental influence on said particles as has been portrayed in various movies and books. Personal Development (the attainment of goals within our society) and quantum physics go together much like fish and bicycles. They don’t.

That being said, everything that we see and have and that moves us and influences us are ideas.

This world of ideas — this world in which we swim and which in turn moves us — is what Haanel meant when he wrote “plastic mind substance.” Think how often the world is changed by an idea — an idea that is brought to fruition by one’s actions and daring.

The car, the light bulb, the indoor toilet, the computer, the cellular phone: All ideas that in turn changed us and changed the world in which we “swim.”

The Master Key System by Charles F. Haanel. Find it for free at www.TheFreeMasterKey.com!

Since I’ve been publishing The Master Key System and Charles F. Haanel’s Complete Master Key Course, I’ve received (and answered!) literally thousands of calls and emails about Haanel‘s philosophy of success. From speaking with so many people, I noticed that the vast majority completely miss the point of The Master Key System, thus they’re not getting results.

Most of the observations I make on these calls come from the work I’ve done with my Master Key Coaching clients.

So, what should you really be learning as you read The Master Key System that will actually make a difference in your life?

Since 2000, when I began publishing The Master Key System, I’ve observed how other people, coaches, and publishers advertise or talk about the book. The most common description is that it is the “handbook about the Law of Attraction.”

Surprisingly, I think just the opposite. While the law of attraction is discussed in The Master Key System, it’s not the book’s (or, I dare say, Haanel‘s) main talking point.

From my years of study and coaching, I’ve found five main things you should learn from this philosophy. As you now read and study the book, keep these points in mind — you’ll see the book from a totally different perspective and you’ll reap great rewards from it.

1. You will learn how to focus.
   To be able to focus is the ability to dedicate your mind (your thoughts) to one problem (or goal) for an extended period of time. By mastering this skill, you’ll far outreach most people, who flitter from one thing to the other without result.
2. You will learn how to achieve mental clarity.
   Instead of a brain and thoughts beset with “noise,” you’ll see things clearly — rationally. You will rid yourself of the “shibboleths” of your mind.
3. You will se the things in the world for what they are rather than what they appear to be.
   Instead of seeing symbols and perceptions, you will see things truly — objectively.
4. You will learn the greatest skill of all: how to THINK.
5. You will learn that the Master Key System is really about solving problems.

The Master Key System is not a “magic” book. Merely by reading it will you attain anything. You must put this philosophy into action. You must use it!

If you’re looking to learn how to “manifest,” you will not get that here. Fortunately (or unfortunately), there are plenty of “teachers” that teach that. If you want to learn how to really attain and achieve, then concentrate on discovering the items I listed here. They are the “key” that will unlock you and help you to attain all of your dreams.

Q: A Business Lyceum Attendee once asked me …

“I’d like to call upon your expertise and years of experience … I have come across a manufacturer in China that manufactures a product that would appeal to the market here in the U.S. Therefore, I contacted the mfr. and expressed my interest to be an agent for them in the U.S. They responded by saying that they welcomed my inquiry and that they are in fact, in need of an agent for the U.S.

“What I want to do is get exclusive distribution rights for their product in the U.S. Since I’m a novice at this, I would appreciate your direction. What should my next step be?”

A: Since the manufacturer in China has already expressed an interest in establishing an agent in the U.S., all you have to do now is negotiate a deal with them.

If I were doing it (as I have before), my next step would be to write them a letter; something like this …

Dear Mr. (use the name of the person who responded to your inquiry):

Thank you for your kind response to my letter of (date).

In response to your letter of (date), my company would consider it an honor to represent your product(s) in the U.S. (or, the U.S. & Canada; or, North America) on an exclusive basis.

To that possible end, please provide us with your lowest possible distributor prices, along with quantity breaks, quoted CIF (name your nearest U.S. Port of Entry).

We have taken the liberty to enclose herewith a preliminary contract for your consideration.

Thank you for your consideration. We are looking forward to hearing from you at your earliest convenience.

Sincerely,

Along with the letter, enclose a contract for their consideration. You may want to have your attorney assist you in creating the contract in the proper legal form. The contact could be something like this …

EXCLUSIVE SALES AGREEMENT

This AGREEMENT is made on the dates signed below, by and between (your name) of (your address); hereinafter referred to as (your one-word name), and (the Chinese company name) of (their address); hereinafter referred to as (their one-word name):

WHEREAS (Chinese company) is the manufacturer of (name of product) and is desirous of having said product distributed in the U.S. (or, the U.S. and Canada; or North America); hereinafter referred to as “territory,î and,

WHEREAS (your company) is a distributor of such products in the above stated “territory;”

IT IS AGREED by the parties above named, in consideration of the promises and covenants hereinafter contained, as follows:

1. (Chinese company) grants to (your company) the exclusive sales and distribution rights to (name the products) throughout the above “territory.î

2. (Your company) agrees to diligently sell and distribute (name the products) in accord with the terms and conditions of this agreement.

3. (Chinese company) agrees to turn over to (your company) any and all orders and inquiries regarding stated product(s) it shall receive from the “territory.”

4. (Chinese company) will provide (your company) with all technical data regarding the products; sales literature, brochures, catalogs, etc. currently in use for the product(s); and any and all future improvements (Chinese company) may develop relative to such product(s).

5. (Your company) agrees to buy the stated products exclusive from (Chinese company) and refrain from marketing similar products in competition with (Chinese company).

6. (Chinese company) agrees to maintain production capacity capable of supplying the orders
produced by (your company).

7. (Your company) agrees to sell a minimum of XXX units (the quantity of products you plan to sell) of (Chinese company) product(s) during the first year of this agreement. Should (your company) not sell XXX units within the first year, it shall be to the determination of (Chinese company) whether or not this agreement shall be continued for additional years. This agreement shall renew automatically for additional years so long as a minimum of XXX units of the product are sold each year. (Define what one unit of the product is to be.)

8. (Your company) shall have the sole discretion to determine the methods of merchandising the products under this contract.

9. (Your company) has the unfettered right to, and may, assign its rights and obligations under this agreement to a third party.

We, the undersigned, agree to the terms and conditions of this agreement on the below written dates.

Signatures:

Note: Be sure the products you are going to be selling can legally be imported into this country. One time, in the mid-1960s, I had the exclusive rights to sell a “Magnetic Therapy” machine from Japan in the U.S. Only problem was, the F.D.A. forbid its import because of its unfounded medical claims. Today — over 30 years later — Magnetic Therapy has gained acceptance — without F.D.A. approval. So, check the product out with the Department of Commerce before you agree to sell something.

Although I, personally, have used letters and agreements similar to the above over the years, I went to the works written by the known authority on Exclusive Distribution Rights — the man the media call “The Millionaire Maker” — my dear friend, E. Joseph Cossman (may he rest in peace). For most of the wording above, rather than digging through my own archives, it was easier to find a draft copy in Joe’s course and edit it for you.

If you are really and truly interested in acquiring Exclusive Distribution Rights to products and, more importantly, learn how to effectively market those products once you have the exclusive rights, do yourself a favor: Go to your local bookstore and buy any book you can find by E. Joseph Cossman. Then again, if you wanna get the best of Joe’s material, go directly to his website at http://www.cossman.com and take a close look at his “Home Study Course.” You’ll be glad you did!

–

J.F. (Jim) Straw began his long, successful career in business at the age of nine when he sold his first cans of Cloverleaf Salve and copies of GRIT newspaper. As a mail-order marketer with over 700,000 customers worldwide he has sold over four-hundred million dollars ($400,000,000) worth of products and services by mail — everything from beauty supplies to heavy equipment, burglar alarms to sleeping bags, fishing lures to women’s wigs, automobiles to wheelchairs, investment opportunities to seafood, consulting services to “how to” courses. His book Physio-Psychic Power – The Ultimate Success System is to be published by Kallisti Publishing.

You can become a millionaire in one year or less using the tried and proven methods Jim can teach you. Visit http://www.businesslyceum.com/BeAMillionaire.html.

To succeed, you must first have a goal. Those who do not establish goals to achieve will fail because they have no objectives to attain. Every human should have a specific and concrete goal to shoot for. Once you reach a goal, to avoid stagnation, you must establish a new goal to strive to reach.

Proverbs 29:18 says,

Where there is no vision, the people perish.

You can give yourself goals to reach without knowing how they will come to pass. Simply concentrating on the goals you want to attain will cause the methods to take care of themselves.

As you visualize all the benefits you’ll gain after reaching your goal, you’re programming your subconscious mind. Visualizing your future gives your subconscious mind goals to reach for you. Establishing a goal for yourself is the first step to whatever you desire. Your subconscious mind cannot work for you unless you give it a goal to reach.

Mental pictures of yourself accomplishing your goal drives it deep into your subconscious mind. As long as you don’t allow thoughts of defeat or fear to stop you, your subconscious mind will show you how to manifest the goal you’ve programmed into it.

Dedicate yourself to the attainment of your goal. Make up your own plan for successful achievement and give it your best shot. Unswerving singleness of purpose and organized activity withdraws universal power. Determine to follow through on your plan without giving mental recognition to the possibility of defeat. Your controlled attention, sustained effort, and concentrated energy unleashes the power of your subconscious mind. Opportunities never come to those who sit around waiting, but to those who are motivated by a burning to desire to act.

Establish a goal for yourself, learn all the details, then do everything you can to achieve it. Exert all your efforts and energies on your goal without listening to the opinions of others. Discussing your plans and goals with others has the potential to bring chaos and confusion in your mind. The information and guidance you receive from your subconscious mind is more important than the opinions of doubters.

You should never discuss your dreams, aspirations, and goals with anyone because everyone has different ideas about how to reach a certain goal. Jesus gave excellent advice when he said, “Go and tell no man.”

–

Jawara D. King

About this Article’s Author: Jawara King is a full-time author, philosopher, researcher, and writer, working in the metaphysical and spiritual fields. As a contemporary spiritual teacher, he conveys the timeless profound messages of the ancient spiritual masters of all traditions. His works blend physics, spiritual philosophy, Eastern wisdom, and mystical Christianity with life-changing results. Jawara’s foundational teachings bring together insights from a range of spiritual paths to form a spiritually global coherent practice; guiding thousands of people to transform their lives through one of the greatest teachings in the world today. He has written five self-improvement books outlining the philosophical and spiritual framework necessary to bring forth a spiritual awakening in the real world.

Everybody wants to know How can I get rich?

Well, here’s how  I did it.

I learned very early in life that the only way to make money was to “sell” something — either a product or a service — something people wanted or needed or do something for them they couldn’t — or wouldn’t — do for themselves.

I learned to “make do” with what I had until I could get what I needed to do a better job.

I learned that I had to do anything necessary (but legal) to get to where I wanted to be, even if I didn’t like doing it. Especially if I didn’t like doing it. You can do anything you need to do, until you can do what you want to do.

Start by doing what is  necessary, then do what is possible, and suddenly you are doing the impossible.
– Saint Francis of Assisi

I learned to never ask anyone to do anything for me that I wasn’t willing to do myself. And everyone who has ever worked with me has taught me about what they have done for me and how they did it. After a while, I could do it, too, but maybe not as well as they did.

Anyone can be a genius if they pick just one specific subject and study it diligently just 15 minutes each day.
– Albert Einstein

I learned to pay for what I wanted. If I couldn’t afford it, I saved to be able to afford it. (Sometimes it seemed like forever.)

I learned that no matter how long it took to achieve my goal (whatever it was), it would have been just as long if I hadn’t persisted, but I would have accomplished nothing.

I learned that nothing is as easy or as fast as it should be. It only gets easier and faster when you know how to really do it — and learning how to really do it is just a matter of doing it over and over and over until you finally find out how it works. Of course, if you give up after the first (second, third, or fourth) try, you’ll never do it.

The secret to success is the constancy of purpose.
– Benjamin Disraeli

I learned most of what I know from my mistakes and failures.  My successes never taught me anything. They were only based upon what I had learned from my mistakes and failures. (That’s why those who are afraid to make mistakes or fail never achieve the success they desire.)

Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can’t lose.
– Bill  Gates

I learned that my most prized possessions were my customers. People who, directly or indirectly, paid for my lunch every day. That’s why, unlike my contemporaries, I reply to my customers emails personally.

I learned that money is not an end unto itself. It is only a way of keeping score. The saddest people in the world are those who are forever chasing the almighty dollar and the vast majority of them have no real respect for money.

If your only goal is to become rich, you will never achieve it.
– John D. Rockefeller

I learned to ask for what I wanted or needed and to graciously accept a “NO” as readily as a “YES.”

Yes, you can get rich, but you’ll have to do  it yourself. No one will do it for you!

I get tickled by people who want to start at the top of the ladder. For some unknown reason, they honestly believe they are better than I am, since I had to start on the bottom rung and climb up one rung at a time.

When I mention the above, I often hear  ”Yeah, I could do that, but it will take too much time. I need money now. And I don’t want to just make a little money, I want to get rich.”

Sorry, you’ll have to start where I started. Do what you need to do to make a little money? Then do more and more of it to make more and more money. As you make more and more money, the greater the opportunities you will have to make even more money.

Nothing succeeds like success. Even small success.

The more things you don’t want to do, the fewer and fewer things you will do until you are doing as most people do: Nothing but dreaming!

I can teach you how to do it, but you won’t get it until you actually start doing it yourself.

–

J.F. (Jim) Straw began his long, successful career in business at the age of nine when he sold his first cans of Cloverleaf Salve and copies of GRIT newspaper. As a mail-order marketer with over 700,000 customers worldwide he has sold over four-hundred million dollars ($400,000,000) worth of products and services by mail — everything from beauty supplies to heavy equipment, burglar alarms to sleeping bags, fishing lures to women’s wigs, automobiles to wheelchairs, investment opportunities to seafood, consulting services to “how to” courses. His book Physio-Psychic Power – The Ultimate Success System is to be published by Kallisti Publishing.

You can become a millionaire in one year or less using the tried and proven methods Jim can teach you. Visit http://www.businesslyceum.com/BeAMillionaire.html.

[This is a prepared text of the Commencement address delivered by Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computer and of Pixar Animation Studios, on June 12, 2005. Source: http://news.stanford.edu/news/2005/june15/jobs-061505.html]

I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I’ve ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That’s it. No big deal. Just three stories.

The first story is about connecting the dots.

I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out?

It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: “We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?” They said: “Of course.” My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.

And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents’ savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn’t see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn’t interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.

It wasn’t all romantic. I didn’t have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends’ rooms, I returned coke bottles for the 5¢ deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example:

Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn’t have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can’t capture, and I found it fascinating.

None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, it’s likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later.

Again, you can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

My second story is about love and loss.

I was lucky — I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees. We had just released our finest creation — the Macintosh — a year earlier, and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him. So at 30 I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating.

I really didn’t know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down – that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure, and I even thought about running away from the valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me — I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.

I didn’t see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.

During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the worlds first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I returned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple’s current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.

I’m pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn’t been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith. I’m convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You’ve got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle.

My third story is about death.

When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: “If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you’ll most certainly be right.” It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?” And whenever the answer has been “No” for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn’t even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor’s code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you’d have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.

I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I’m fine now.

This was the closest I’ve been to facing death, and I hope it’s the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept:

No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960′s, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.

Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: “Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.” It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

Thank you all very much.

Anything becomes possible when you can see it manifested in your own mind. The journey of success begins by first perceiving it, then having absolute faith without giving up. Actively pursue your goal every day and refuse to give up until you acheive it.

True success doesn’t happen overnight and takes time.

Success is never giving up and overcoming obstacles.

Your success or lack of it is determined by what you do with what you have.

The gaining of something planned is the standard definition of success. To accomplish anything, you must create a plan and work at it. Failure is failing to try. Without a plan of action, you don’t have a blueprint for your success.

Take authority over yourself through the successful development of your skills, talents, and abilities. Seek knowledge and create a plan to put into action.

Passion and motivation lead to success, which is only guaranteed by taking action now.

Create short-term and long-term goals for yourself. Every goal should be realistic and specific with a completion date. Goal-setting today will determine your success or lack of it tommorow.

Failing to plan is planning to fail. Write down the steps necessary to reach your goal and gather information relating to it. No goal will come to pass without a plan of action. Success is based on the importance of planning. Failure is failing to create the proper blueprint to achieve your specific goal.

Your success can only expand to the size of your vision. Proverbs 23:7 says,

As a man thinks in his heart, so is he.

Your thoughts set the course of your life, which is why you become what you constantly envision. Big dreams demand big expectations. When your vision is big, it’s more likely that your success will be big. Create your plan, work it, and refuse to give up. Have a written plan of what must be accomplished every day to ensure that you’re taking action related to your goals.

To reach your highest level of success, changes always need to be made. Knowledge alone doesn’t guarantee success; it’s action taken based on your knowledge that creates change. Success is only guaranteed to those who are committed to it.

Have big dreams and goals. Success begins one step at a time. You will become successful in every noteworthy area of your life by learning and gaining knowledge. You must gain understanding in the area you want to be successful in. We have the responsibility to educate ourselves because understanding and knowledge are essential to manifesting success.

Your ability to succeed is hidden in continuous self-improvement.

–

Jawara D. King

About this Article’s Author: Jawara King is a full-time author, philosopher, researcher, and writer, working in the metaphysical and spiritual fields. As a contemporary spiritual teacher, he conveys the timeless profound messages of the ancient spiritual masters of all traditions. His works blend physics, spiritual philosophy, Eastern wisdom, and mystical Christianity with life-changing results. Jawara’s foundational teachings bring together insights from a range of spiritual paths to form a spiritually global coherent practice; guiding thousands of people to transform their lives through one of the greatest teachings in the world today. He has written five self-improvement books outlining the philosophical and spiritual framework necessary to bring forth a spiritual awakening in the real world.

Sometimes I get tickled pea-green over lavender, especially when I receive an email like this…

Please remove me from your list. I don’t want to know about how to do business, I just want to make some money.

This puzzles me. You see, the only way I know to make money without doing business is by getting a job. So, if you don’t want to know about how to do business and you just want to make money, then get a job.

Unfortunately, all too many of the promoters both online and off lead people to believe that they can “make money” without applying sound, time-tested, and proven business methods.

I guess I’ve spent too long in the “real” business world (over 50 years) and the only things I have ever written about are “real” business methods that have worked for generations upon generations of “real” business people. That’s why some of my reports have sold well for over 30 years – with only minor updates.

Methods never change in the “real” business world. Applications change almost daily.

Real business just keeps on working for generations. Flash-in-the-pan “make money” programs have to be continually updated with new launches because they don’t rely upon real time-tested and proven business methods.

You’ll have to decide whether you want to try to “make money” using the latest magic formula of the week or do real business and make a fortune.

Think about it.

–

About this article’s author:

J.F. (Jim) Straw began his long, successful career in business at the age of nine when he sold his first cans of Cloverleaf Salve and copies of GRIT newspaper. As a mail-order marketer with over 700,000 customers worldwide he has sold over four-hundred million dollars ($400,000,000) worth of products and services by mail — everything from beauty supplies to heavy equipment, burglar alarms to sleeping bags, fishing lures to women’s wigs, automobiles to wheelchairs, investment opportunities to seafood, consulting services to “how to” courses. His book Physio-Psychic Power – The Ultimate Success System is to be published by Kallisti Publishing.

You can become a millionaire in one year or less using the tried and proven methods Jim can teach you. Visit http://www.businesslyceum.com/BeAMillionaire.html.

The “wealth consciousness” (or the “money consciousness,” the two will be used interchangeably in this article) is more than merely thinking that you are wealthy or that you have a “right” to be wealthy. It is a way of looking at the world and seeing opportunities, possibilities, and avenues for wealth creation.

Have you ever heard someone described as having a “mind for business”? Or that someone has the “Midas touch“?

To what are they referring?

They’re referring to that person’s ability (talent, skill) to see a way to make an activity or product or service profitable. Let’s use Bill Gates as an example.

The “secret” to Mr. Gates’ wealth is that he saw profit and a business opportunity where NO ONE ELSE saw one. At the time, the entire computer industry was focused on the hardware as the way to make money. When Gates pitched IBM on licensing his software (something which at the time was quite revolutionary) and he stipulated that he could license to other companies, IBM approved, their thinking being that you make money with the hardware and not with the few cents in the licensing fee for the software.

That is the deal that began Mr. Gates’ rise. It made him millions.

THAT is the money consciousness. Looking at a “deal” and making it a better deal.

Get it?

The same with Steve Jobs and Apple: They got many of their ideas from the Xerox PARC facility because Xerox did not see how those technologies could make them money. One (Apple) had the “money consciousness”; the other (Xerox) did not. (Although it must be said that they had and continue to have it it many other areas.)

So, it’s not a matter of gratitude nor of “putting the Law of Attraction into operation,” it’s a matter of looking at the things around you and seeing the economic possibilities with them. Develop a solution to a problem you (and perhaps others) have. See the world with new eyes and ask yourself the question “How can I make it better?” Look at the world around you like you’ve never before seen it and perceive the value in it.

Finally, take what you’ve found and make money.

You will have found the “money consciousness.”

Learn everything about the money consciousness with Charles F. Haanel’s Complete Master Key Course.

Your thoughts are physical vibrations of energy and real forces. The thoughts you are choosing to entertain are creating your life every moment. Any thought habitually repeated with emotion and feeling makes an imprint on the subconscious.

There is a direct relationship between your thinking and the problems and opportunities of your life. By working with your thought and beliefs, you can choose your reality.

Changing your thoughts and beliefs changes everything. What you believe is the attracting force by which life experiences are drawn to you.

You are a creative law unto yourself, so whatever you believe is right. What you see in your mind is what you get. All that we experience has its root cause within.

Open up your mind to various options and possibilities. The only real boundaries are those that exist in your mind.

Listen to what you are thinking and saying. How you perceive and frame your situation in your mind is very important because it’s being imprinted into your subconscious. Your subconscious picks up everything you say. What you say over and over again is what you’re programming your mind to believe.

Only speak of what you want to manifest in your life. Don’t live a life allowing your own thoughts and words to work against you. The power to get what you want and not get what you want is in your words.

Discipline your thoughts to focus on the positive side of life to keep negative forces from working against you. You will become what you talk and think about all day and every day.

Serious self-reflection is a tool to discover what you want out of life. You can’t get ahead without clearly defined goals and a plan to achieve them. Knowing where you are and where you’re going will determine your future situations and circumstances.

As you make the decision to do something, the plans and ideas will begin to flow. Don’t worry about how you’re going to do something or how it will happen. Opening up your thoughts will cause opportunities to open up.

The opportunities and problems you meet in life are related to your thinking. Your beliefs form an energetic vibration attracting or repelling events, circumstances, and people. Since you attract according to your beliefs, each belief should be carefully examined. Once limiting or empowering beliefs take root within the subconscious, they will be reflected back to you as experience. Therefore, you must examine which beliefs are working for or against you.

Free yourself of undesirable beliefs and embrace new ones that will work in your favor.

–

Jawara D. King

About this Article’s Author: Jawara D. King has emerged as one of the world’s finest spiritual teachers of our time and is a frequently invited to speak at schools and Universities. He has been interviewed by The Center For Union Facts, ABC-7 news, NBC-4′s Chris Gordon, MSNBC, and other television networks. He is a certified spiritual counselor and an internationally renowned author, researcher, and speaker in the field of self-development, consciousness, enlightenment, inner peace, and grief counseling, and facilitates clients in personal growth and discovery, appearing frequently on radio talk shows. He is the author of the spiritual classic WORLD TRANSFORMATION: A Guide To Personal Growth And Consciousness.

I am somewhat sensitive to sounds. If I hear something out of place — an errant squeak, a slightly off-balance picture on a shelf that knocks as it wobbles when a person walks by it — I have to investigate the source of the sound and fix it so as to make it stop.

When I heard a small, barely audible knocking in my office a couple of weeks ago, I just thought it was the wind.

Then I felt everything swaying ever so slightly. I still thought it was the wind.

It lasted longer than a burst of wind usually lasts, though.

That’s when I received an email that stated that my area was struck by a small earthquake.

Holy cow! What the heck is going one here?

I know that some of you in places like California are laughing at me. I’ve seen the web sites showing the “damage” from the earthquake that originated in Virginia: the toppled lawn chairs and shaken knick-knacks.

You must understand that this was my very first one! Ever. It was the first for probably everyone in my area. It was … Weird.

Moving forward a couple weeks later to this past weekend, my area found itself once again being toyed with by Mother Nature.

This time it was flooding.

The Susquehanna River rising and almost covering the Market Street Bridge in Wilkes-Barre, PA.

A couple places in my area were decimated. Our downtown was evacuated and people expected the worst. The levees that were built to withstand waters of up to 41 feet held strong even though the river crested at over 42 feet.

It’s been somewhat crazy. I even quipped that if hordes of locusts appear, I’m calling game over!

My area isn’t the only place. There are fires in Texas. Flooding in other places. Hurricanes.

What’s the point of all this?

Already in my area, clean up has begun in earnest. People who have lost everything are assessing things and planning their next move. Businesses are moving as quickly as possible to get things up and running.

Human nature, even when forced to the brink by Mother Nature, perseveres and prevails.

In our individual lives, we cannot control everything that happens. As Forrest Gump said in the movie, sometimes “crap happens.” (I sanitized that for our all-ages audience.)

What counts is how we react to the crap. What counts is what we do after the crap has passed. What counts is that we keep on keeping on after all the crap is thrown at us.

One of my favorite quotes comes from Friedrich Nietzsche who exhorted “Build your houses on Vesuvius.”

Life, no matter how safe we try to play it, will always toss something at us. It will do its best to knock us down a notch. It will take its best shot time and again.

We’re better than that, though. We’re stronger. We’re smarter.

So dream big and plan bigger.

Talk loudly and act boldly.

You might fall and fail. You might lose and be defeated. You might end up battered and broken.

But you’ll overcome it. You will prevail. You will stand tall.

That’s just what tough “sum-bitches” like us tend to do.

One of my favorite quotes — one that guides much of my life and work — is a Japanese proverb:

Your garden is not complete until there’s nothing more you can take out of it.

A garden cannot have EVERYTHING in it. If it does, it ceases to be a garden and instead becomes a mess. A tangled mess.

Beautiful gardens are those in which the person who tends to it carefully and with great thought removes that which is not necessary.

The result is that those plants and flowers that remain are able to get all the nourishment they need and thus they grow strong and true.

People who see the garden or who walk through it notice the care and fore-thought that went into the planning can care and they appreciate the beauty that surrounds them.

The same holds true for your life.

As you remove that which isn’t necessary to you, you begin to nourish those notions and ideas and things that do mean something to you.

So, first you remove the weeds.

Next, you remove the things that, while not weeds, tend to occupy your time to no end.

After that, you remove the not so important flowers and plants. This is where it gets tricky because it may be a close call between what you will keep and what you will discard.

Life is full of tough choices, though.

And they need to be done.

You will finally come to the point that there will be nothing more that you can take from your garden.

What you will be left with is your completed garden. If you tend to it and care for it properly, then you will have a resplendent garden that you will be proud to show.

Sometimes, life and work and play isn’t about acquiring or attaining. It is about removing, trimming, honing, and discarding.

Think about that quote for a little while. I think that as you do that, it will make more and more sense to you.

“Your garden is not complete until there’s nothing more you can take out of it.”

Writer’s block is something that most amateur and even the most seasoned professionals will experience now and again, or at least in one way or another believe that this is what they are facing. The real truth if the matter is that writer’s block is essentially, at least in most cases, a catchy title for procrastination, often serving as something of an excuse to put of the more mundane assignments for any possible reason going.

Either way, writer’s block can be enormously frustrating and therefore the following is a brief look into ten realistic measures to help combat the problem, or at least lessen its impact.

1 – Triggers

This can take a little thought but has the potential to avoid a great deal of writer’s block before it has a chance to take hold. Consider the circumstances around the bout in question and assess exactly what could be the primary cause. Self doubt? Boredom? Perfectionism? Confusion? Needless to say, combating each trigger can be a difficult task, but acknowledging and considering them is in itself a hugely beneficial practice.

2 – Perspective

Most believe that because they are writers by nature or profession, writing should come easily to them without exception. If this is the case, exactly what is there to suggest that writers do not have off days and dry spells just like every other person in any profession? Accept that even the most seasoned professional cannot function flawlessly 24/7 and favor a realistic perspective over one that demands perfection.

3 – Independence

A difficult habit to master, but if the worth of the work produced is allowed to be judged entirely by others, it is all too difficult to continually shift focus on what is needed for a successful piece – resulting in delays and confusion. Learn to judge pages independently and set personal standard without bringing others into consideration.

4 – Process

Think carefully about the writing process in terms of how personal moods and feelings affect writing encounters, what may have been done deliberately to avoid the task and why, what would make the task a more pleasant one and ultimately if the procrastination/avoidance is really worth it. The answer will of course be no.

5 – Time

Starting is by far the hardest part of any piece, but the simple fact of the matter is that it is also the most important. Set out a writing plan in advance and allocate a set period of time that will be used for this and ONLY this. If the beginning is to be a tricky one, allocate extra time and be excessive if it helps. Either way, begin and end at a set time to prevent the work spilling over and becoming all consuming.

6 – Incentives

So simple yet so often overlooked, everybody works better if they have an incentive to look forward to in the near future. Of course, rewards of fame and fortune may come with time, but do little to help a writer get through a painful afternoon. As such, an excellent idea it establish an incentive system where for every hour of work, perhaps ten minutes is dedicated to the pursuit of pleasure. Some would argue this leads to lost focus, but the truth is it will actually refresh it and renew inspiration. You avoid a penalty by writing, and that is rewarding; C. You finish with less strain and more of a gain and that is rewarding.

7 – Expect Setbacks

While some projects can be completed from start to finish with staggering simplicity, most certainly cannot. Expect the odd delay and setback here and there so that when they do come about, they don’t seem like the end of the world.

8 – Eliminate “Can’t”

When it comes to writing, there really is no such thing as “can’t” but there is definitely such a thing as “won’t”. Needless to say, thinking something cannot be done leads to it not being done and essentially becoming impossible, which is never productive by any stretch of the imagination.

9 – Rewriting

Expect that every now and again a piece may need to be extensively altered of entirely rewritten. This not only allows time to be set aside should such prove necessary, but also takes the pressure away of assuming that each and every text must be 100% flawless every time.

10 – Writer’s Block?

Stop focusing on writer’s block and thinking about it every single time a delay or difficulty pops up. The truth is, if it hadn’t been given such a memorable title then most would refer to it as simply wasting time, which is by far a much more simple matter to address!

—

About the Author

Christine is a freelance writer of both fiction and non-fiction (mainly in the areas of travel, property and personal finance). She has provided this brief guide to writer’s block on behalf of moving boxes and relocation specialists Upack.

I’m a publisher. Some people who read my emails or read my blogs are surprised to discover that.

That, in turn, surprises me!

I publish books. The first book I published was, of course, Charles F. Haanel‘s The Master Key System. After
that and over the years, all of Charles F. Haanel’s books were published, I wrote a book (The Master Key Workbook), and new authors were published.

It’s been an exciting ten plus years!

The activities I do with the Master Key material — the coaching, the writing, the teleseminars — are done mainly as labor of love as well as support for a book and philosophy that has influenced my life tremendously.

You see, it was the Master Key System that truly showed me how to start with nothing but an idea and then take that idea and make it a reality.

Things went from idea to plans to actions to what Kallisti Publishing is today.

This article is aimed at the aspiring writers out there. I receive quite a few submissions from authors. While I always respect their efforts, I see the mistakes that many make. It’s my hope that my little article will help you.

Even if you’re not an aspiring writer, this article will help you with things like office correspondence, writing letters, and things like that.

Writing is difficult. It takes talent, learning, courage, persistence, fortitude … So many things that it almost seems to be an impossible task.

That’s why I respect writers and look to help them as much as I can — even if I am not publishing them.

Thus, this article is for you. From all the submissions I’ve received — from the good to the bad — here are some of the most common mistakes that I’ve seen (and read!) that writers and aspiring authors make. If you’re writing something, keep these in mind. Your work will be better for it.

(1) The “I”s Don’t Have It

One of the first things I tell authors who submit their work is this: eliminate about 80% of the “I”s.

Many self-help and personal development books are written in the first person. That’s fine. Writing in the first
person doesn’t excuse you for turning your book into an ”I”-fest, though.

As a writer, you have to learn how to engage your reader and draw him into your world. Using “I” ad nauseum doesn’t do that.

Remove the “I”s and somehow and someway relate your subject to your reader. To learn how to do this, read autobiographies and self-help books where the authors successfully do this.

Short of that, just go through your manuscript and delete as many “I”s as you can.

(2) Including Everything and the Kitchen Sink

When an author writes, especially if it’s their first book, they tend to feel the need to include every bit of knowledge in their book. Thus, the book morphs into a tome of almost epic proportions.

I call this “kitchen sinking” the book.

With a book — especially in today’s market — you should pick a topic, write about it and only it, and then let it go. The key is to stay on target!

Yes, I know that you can add so much more to it. I know that you have much more information that you want to share.

But you know what? That can always be put into your second book.

(3) Writing Is Easy; It’s the Editing That’s Hard

Sitting down and writing is pretty straight-forward. You have your outline; you fill in the blanks; and you let your fingers do the “talking.”

The most important step, though, is often skipped: the editing!

Editing is not only looking for typos and grammatical errors. You’re looking to trim the fat, change wording, move sentences and paragraphs and sections, and anything else that will improve your work.

Editing is the hard part. You have to look at what you wrote and judge it as objectively as possible.

In general, you’ll spend much more time editing than you will actually writing. That is, if you actually want to write something that’s good.

Edit! Edit! Edit!

That’s all for now. Keep these in mind as you work on your future bestseller. Of course, if you have any questions, please zap me an email. Or, if you’d like to submit your work for consideration, then please visit http://www.kallistipublishing.com/manuscript-submission/.

["What's One Thing You Can Do Today?" was written by speaker, coach, and author Claire McGee, author of I Believe Therefore I Am.]

Inspiration comes in many forms: through inspirational messages, great authors whose words in a book make our eyes wide open with enthusiasm, a friend who asks us if we “ever thought of that,” to our family or our personal thoughts and dreams.

Unfortunately for many, our fears take hold — which prevents us from taking the idea by the reins and making them possible.

Fear is usually born out of doubt, worry, low self-worth, or the “What if?” factor.

One of the ways we can combat our fears is to be impulsive as soon as we get the idea. Avoid mentioning it to people who you know is likely to doubt your idea(s). Talk to others who can be your mentors (who have been there themselves and have succeeded). Make a decision to take one step toward making it happen.

“What’s one thing I can do today to make this happen?”

Find out the answer and then do it. Even if small, it is the beginning of an exciting journey. While you are taking these steps, each day, visualize the end goal of yourself experiencing a life having fulfilled this wonderful dream. Experience it so clearly in your mind as if it were a memory and has already happened. If the time makes it difficult to act on it right away, then write it down and place it somewhere where you can view it each and every day. Let it feed you and keep you inspired to do something with it.

If we let fear prevent us from bringing an idea into reality then what we have done is given the idea to someone else.

We either choose to move forward and make it happen — or we choose to let someone else do it for us while we sit back and kick ourselves for procrastinating based on fear and doubt.

Today is the day to…

• write down your ideas,
• ask “What’s one thing I can do today?”,
• hold the vision firmly in your mind,
• and take the next step to making it possible!

Have a fantastic week and remember to keep smiling that gorgeous smile of yours!

—

Claire McGee is the owner of T.S. Consulting Ltd. and the author of I Believe Therefore I Am. You can listen to my interview with Claire at the Master Key Coaching Teleseminars.

["10 Steps to Create a Productive and Successful Day" was written by speaker, coach, and author Claire McGee, author of I Believe Therefore I Am.]

Many people anticipate a stressful day. Many people believe their day was very unproductive and little was accomplished.

When we continue to have these experiences, we program our mind to expect this type of day before the day has even begun! A vicious cycle forms making it a challenge to break free from the daily routine of frustration, stress, and lack of motivation.

Here is a list of ten steps you can take to break the cycle of negativity and form new patterns and expectations within the mind. By doing this, you will begin to notice the positive things around you, deal with stress in a healthier manner, build stronger relationships, and enjoy a successful and productive day each and every day.

1. When you wake up, choose to have a productive day.
2. While driving, turn on your favourite music and sing your heart out.
3. When you first arrive at work look at your colleague and say “Good morning…Today is a good day!” If they ask why, answer “Because I chose it to be!”
4. Before you begin, prioritize what you would like to accomplish then write your goal list.
5. When you finish a task, tick it on your goal list with a check mark.
6. Give someone a genuine compliment.
7. Remember two questions: “What’s one thing I can do for you?” and “What’s one thing I can do for me?”
8. Before you head home for the day, look at your goal list and see the check marks!
9. As you head home, listen to music and tap to the beat or sing your heart out.
10. When you arrive home, announce “I’m home! Let the celebrations begin!”

Do this every day and notice the effect it has on your ability to have a great day!

Keep well and remember to smile that gorgeous smile of yours!

—

Claire McGee is the owner of T.S. Consulting Ltd. and the author of I Believe Therefore I Am. You can listen to my interview with Claire at the Master Key Coaching Teleseminars.

I was browsing my copy of The Master Key System by Charles F. Haanel, and found myself thinking about the idea of giving and receiving.

I sure do love to give! I get such pleasure from choosing a gift for someone.

But there is another part of the equation… I truly believe that one who enjoys giving should also enjoy receiving.

There cannot be one without another.

After all – in order to give, someone has to receive. And if you are to receive, someone has to give.

As much as I love to give, I also love to receive. If you want to give me a gift, and you are giving it with a glad heart, then bring it on! I absolutely love it!

Again, in order for there to be giving, someone must be able to receive.

In Part 4 of Charles Haanel’s The Master Key System, the idea of giving and receiving comes up in paragraph 20:

Here is the secret of power, of mastery. To overcome does not mean to go without things. Self-denial is not success. We cannot give unles we get; we cannot be helpful unless we are strong. The Infinite is not a bankrupt and we who are the representatives of Infinite power should not be bankrupts either, and if we wish to be of service to others we must have power and more power, but to get it we must give it; we must be of service.

And in the very next paragraph he states, “The more we give the more we shall get…”

Almost sounds a little like the conundrum of what came first, the chicken or the egg? That is, some might ask, “But how can I give what I don’t yet HAVE?”

I like what Mr. Haanel suggests in the passage above – he suggests that “…to get it we must give it; we must be of service.”

We can translate that to, “We must give value.”

It doesn’t necessarily mean we have to give money if we’re still working on receiving it – but we must give something. If you want your boss to write your paycheck next week, you need to do something in exchange. You need to give value.

Let’s say that there is a specific charity you really like – and they are fundraising.

Now, let’s say you have lost your job and you need to feed your family. You don’t have to send the charity a check from your food or rent budget. But you COULD do SOMETHING. You could volunteer a bit for them. You could post an appeal for them on your Facebook profile. You could Tweet their website to your Twitter followers. You could pray for them.

All those activities are giving activities. You are giving value. And you can be sure that if you give freely, and with an open heart, you WILL receive. You will receive the feeling of happiness for having helped another or for having brought joy to another.

Picture yourself giving a gift to a small child, and seeing his face when he opens it with wide eyes and eagerness.

If that in itself puts a smile on your face and in your heart, guess what? You have just received!

Now, go out there and give just for the joy of giving.

—

About this article’s author:

Kathy Tremblay is an entrepreneur who has been on a path of self development
for more years than she can remember. She lives in New Hampshire in the
summer, and on the southeastern US coast in the winter with her husband
John. She writes personal development articles for her blog at
http://www.SelfDevelopmentAndGrowth.com.

Enchantment: The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds, and Actions by Guy Kawasaki. Click on the cover to purchase at Amazon.com.

[tl;dr^*: Enchantment is the new book by Guy Kawasaki, so if you're a business person (or in the business world), then you simply must get this book. If you're not, then you may still want to get this book as Mr. Kawasaki's explication of the "new" social norms will potentially make your life better and easier.]

Enchantment “causes a voluntary change of hearts and minds and therefore actions. It is more than manipulating people to help you get your way. Enchantment transforms situations and relationships.”

That is Guy Kawasaki’s explanation of what enchantment is in the sense he uses it in his new book, Enchantment: The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds, and Actions.

I was privileged to receive a review copy of Mr. Kawasaki’s new book. I was also fortunate enough to interview Mr. Kawasaki about the book. These are my impressions of Enchantment and what it can potentially mean for you.

[Please note: You will not find in this review plays on the word "enchantment" nor any puns, jokes, or cute references. I have a feeling that when all is said and done, there will be no less than a few thousand tropes like that. I refuse to add to the bad "jokery."]

Who Is Guy Kawasaki?

Although he doesn’t like it, Guy Kawasaki is often referred to as a “legend.” He was one of Apple Computer‘s first “evangelists” — the people who were responsible for marketing the original Macintosh in 1984.

After Apple, Mr. Kawasaki started a software company and eventually became a venture capitalist. The list of the companies in which he used his “golden touch” is impressive, to say the least.

Mr. Kawasaki is also an author and a speaker. He has written ten books, including Enchantment.

The ten books Guy Kawasaki has written.

His most famous books, The Art of the Start and The Macintosh Way, are required reading for any person starting a business.

Mr. Kawasaki knows his stuff — and not from an “ivory tower,” theoretical perspective. He’s done it. He continues to do it.

That, in part, is what makes Enchantment so interesting…

The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds, and Actions

Enchantment is the culmination of Mr. Kawasaki’s life work. Between the covers of the book you will find the methods he used to help market the Macintosh. You will find what helps him launch new companies. You’ll see how ideas are taken from a person’s head into the “collective consciousness.”

You’ll find the heart and soul of Guy Kawasaki.

From achieving “likability” to using technology to how to enchant your boss, Mr. Kawasaki leaves no stone unturned as he details for you how, as Steve Wozniak is quoted on the cover of the book, “to create a company as enchanting as Apple.”

In Enchantment, Mr. Kawasaki makes frequent reference to two books: Influence by Robert Cialdini and How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie. The latter is about making and keeping relationships with people and the former is about persuading people so that you get what you want.

By using those two “ingredients” and adding his own special flavoring, Mr. Kawasaki creates “enchantment” — that state of having people interested in you, your company, and what you’re doing. It’s more than winning a friend and it’s not as immediate as persuasion. It’s a long-term relationship built on trust.

In short, it’s marketing in an age when just one dissatisfied customer can use the power of the Internet to air grievances and voice complaints — and those will echo far and wide (and perhaps forever) in the online world.

That very same power can make a company great. It can also give the “little guy” an opportunity to go head-to-head with the “big guys.” The act of enchanting oftentimes goes beyond the product or service because, when done properly, it hits the heart and mind simultaneously. Thus, a computer is not merely a computer; it’s a “Mac.” An airline flight is more than a mode of transportation; in the hands of Virgin (Sir Richard Branson‘s company), it’s an “experience.” A simple bed and breakfast when practicing enchantment becomes someone’s “romantic weekend getaway.”

In our digital world when businesses either “churn and burn” or “coddle and caress” in their marketing methods, Mr. Kawasaki extolls the virtues of creating magic by what can be best summarized as being “nice.” It’s not a one-way push in either direction; it’s a delicate balance of listening to what your customers want and delivering what you have in a way that they not only understand, but embrace.

More Than Marketing

Enchantment is a business book. It’s a book about getting new clients and/or customers and keeping the ones you have. It will more than likely be labeled as a marketing book.

That’s unfortunate.

It’s unfortunate because overall, Enchantment is more than that.

More than the marketing methods and greater than the business ideas is the overarching meaning of Enchantment. In some ways it’s a modern day, business world version of Emily Post’s Etiquette. It explains how we should act toward each other as we reach for business connections and present our ideas and products and services to the world.

That’s only scratching the surface, though.

Yes, the methods and actions and ideas are important, but it’s the “soul” underlying them that is more important. It’s about being nice; looking for and striving for the win-win; it’s about making the world a better place.

Those things don’t come from mere actions. Like good manners, when done hollowly, they come off as cold, distant, and fake.

Therein is the reason many will fail as they try to enchant their market. Instead of using Mr. Kawasaki’s methods like a well-stated compliment or an endearing politeness, some will wield these methods like a club and come off like a smarmy huckster.

Luckily, Mr. Kawasaki provides many real-world examples of enchantment in action throughout the book and even has a chapter about how one can resist enchantment, that is how to see through fake attempts at enchantment.

This “soul” is also what makes Enchantment timeless. Because it’s a book about getting your message to your audience, Mr. Kawasaki discusses the technology and services that we are using now, such as Facebook and Twitter. Will these technologies be around in five years? Ten years? Who knows?

It doesn’t matter, though, because the ideas in Enchantment transcend them. No matter what is coming around the corner, the technical details may vary but the ideology will remain the same. It’s not the tools that are important, but the person using them.

A Gift and a Curse

One of the charms of Enchantment is that it contains the ideology and the methods of Mr. Kawasaki. It’s as if the contents of his brain were dumped onto the printed page.

That is, as Adrian Monk from the television show “Monk” would say, a gift and a curse.

It’s a gift because a person can literally turn to any page in Enchantment randomly and find a useful idea or method that he or she can, more often than not, apply immediately. For example, while writing this I opened the book and it fell to page 151. That is the first page of Chapter 10, “How to Enchant Employees.” On that page is the idea “Provide a MAP.”

Providing an opportunity for employees to achieve mastery, autonomy, and purpose (MAP) is more important than money.

Whether you’re in business or not, that’s a good piece of information to know. It makes sense. A person can use that both in the boardroom and on Main Street. It works.

Enchantment is chock full of information like that.

That’s also it’s curse.

There is an awful lot of information in this book. There are also an awful lot of methods. I think that there needed to be a section in the book that tied them all together into some sort of action plan that one could follow.

What should a small business do first to begin creating enchantment? Is there a way to enact these methods systematically?

It’s a minor quibble, but I think this addition to the book would have proven invaluable to many readers.

A Few Words to the Publisher

The publisher of Enchantment is Portfolio/Penguin Group. As a fellow publisher, I must say that they did an excellent job on the book. The design and layout of the interior is beautiful. While the size of the text is small (there is, after all, a lot of information in the book), it’s still very readable.

I also love the size of the book. It’s smaller than the usual trade hardcover size and that makes it very easy to hold when reading while laying in bed or lounging on a hammock.

My kudos to the publishing team that edited and designed the book. Great job! Keep up the good work!

Should You Become Enchanting?

Should you buy this book? More precisely, if you buy Enchantment, will the ideas and methods outlined in the book be of service to you?

The short answer is a resounding YES.

If you’re a person who wants to make a change in the world — whether through a business or through a personal mission — then Mr. Kawasaki’s information and lessons will help you to accomplish that. Think of it this way: If it helped Guy Kawasaki achieve what he did, then it most certainly will help you.

As an addition to a businessperson’s library, this will be a well-thumbed tome. No one will be able to implement everything after just one reading. Over time, though, you can take what you need from the book and use it when you’re ready. Over time, Enchantment will change the way you do some — perhaps most — of your marketing. It may even change the way you approach and do business.

Start today to make the move from persuading your customers to enchanting the world. You’ll be glad that you did!

Click here to order Enchantment now!

Enchanting Links

Web quiz. Online test so that you can determine how enchanting you are — most people score in the low teens. http://great.guykawasaki.com/ or Facebook version: http://www.facebook.com/enchantment?v=app_6009294086

Facebook fan page. Upload your photos, videos, and commentary about  Enchantment. http://www.facebook.com/enchantment#!/enchantment?sk=app_4949752878

Enchantment infographic. One simple diagram that explains the basics of enchantment. http://www.guykawasaki.com/enchantment/infographic/

Enchantment wallpaper. Wallpapers for computers, tablets, and phones. http://www.guykawasaki.com/enchantment/wallpaper/

–

^* Too Long; Didn’t Read. From UrbanDicitonary.com: “Said whenever a nerd makes a post that is too long to bother reading.”