Archives For money

Why fit in when you can stand out?

Brad Stanton —  March 19, 2013 — 5 Comments

1228Billionaire Steve Jobs was adopted into a working class family; grew up in apricot orchards that would later become Silicon Valley. Dropped out of Reed College because he couldn’t pay the tuition; co-founded Apple in his parents’ garage in 1976. Ousted from the iconic brand in 1985 after power struggle with chief John Scully. Returned to Apple in 1996, creating iPod sensation. In interim, started Pixar animation, creator of hits like Toy Story and Finding Nemo, that was later sold to Disney. Jobs was on Disney’s board and is its largest shareholder. –Forbes online

Phyllis Diller was an American actress and comedienne. She created a stage persona of a wild-haired and eccentrically dressed housewife who made self-deprecating jokes about her age and appearance, her terrible cooking, and a husband named “Fang”, while pretending to smoke from a long cigarette holder. ~ Wikipedia

Diller competed with many beautiful women for the top spot in humor and many say she took it. She took what she seemed to think was her liability and turned it into an asset—her appearance.

The movie Rocky, was written by Sylvester Stallone. Complications his mother suffered during labor forced her obstetricians to use two pairs of forceps during his birth; misuse of these accidentally severed a nerve and caused paralysis in parts of Stallone’s face. As a result, the lower left side of his face is paralyzed – including parts of his lip, tongue, and chin – an accident which has given Stallone his snarling look and slightly slurred speech. ~ Wikipedia

Many would feel that if he had a mouth that was crooked, acting was not for him, but Stallone didn’t let it deter him. Actually, many think his mouth adds character.

Billionaire Ralph Lauren was the son of Russian immigrants and was born and raised in the Bronx where he shared a bedroom with two of his brothers. By age 12, worked after school to help pay for his fancy taste in clothes. At one time worked in department stores. Eventually dropped out of City College to launch Polo Fashions with a $50,000 loan. ~Forbes online

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How 21 yr old Dani went from homeless to millionaire in less than two years

Brad Stanton —  February 20, 2013 — 3 Comments

00000DaniJohnsonDani Johnson went from being homeless, living in her car, to millionaire in less than two years. She had flown to Hawaii and was working as a cocktail waitress, but she was $35,000 in debt and didn’t have enough money for a hotel. She had only a few dollars in change.

Dani got stoned on coke and woke up very confused the next morning. She had grown so despondent that she decided to end it all. She was on a beach and began walking out into the ocean and dove underneath a wave. Surprisingly enough, she didn’t die, in fact her life changed dramatically at that point. She said it was like a miracle.

“I heard a voice say, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’’

She rolled up her beach mat, turned around and walked a mile to her car.

Dani had lived through terrible problems, she was sexually abused and said this about her life:

“I was stoned out of my mind for two months – sleeping with eight different guys. I got to eat only by dating all these people. I realized that I had become worse than the family I grew up in and that was devastating. My mom and dad were drug addicts and I had never seen my parents sober. My childhood was filled with threats and getting beaten daily; week in, week out. My whole life was filled with horror and terror and lies and I vowed that I would never be like my family. And there I was doing cocaine…”

“I drove 45 minutes to the beach where I was living. And the whole time I was driving, it was as if the left side of my mind was saying, ‘This is not what is intended for your life, you shouldn’t be drinking. There is more to life,’ and the right side was saying, ‘You’re a failure, you’re a loser, you’re filthy; worse than your parents. Drive this car into the ocean.’ This was like a war inside my mind with these voices and I was literally in a trance.” From Forbes Magazine online

She got in her car and suddenly realized she had a money making opportunity in the back seat. It was a weight loss product. She made a handmade flyer (this was before computers were popular) and put it up in the Post Office where everyone in town went.

She had bargained for a voice mail account and the next day she found 25 messages on it from the flyer. She ended the month with 40 checks from new customers for a total of $4000. She used a liquor store address as her own by talking the owner into it.

Dani made $250,000 the first year by selling the weight loss program. She was a millionaire by the second year and sold her business after starting 18 weight loss centers around the country. After selling her stores she was a multimillionaire. I will tell more about how she did it in my new book The Ten Keys to Success, which I will publish soon.

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Sure fire way to solve any problem

Brad Stanton —  January 24, 2013 — 6 Comments

Brainstorming for solving any problem

Català: Imatge de la pluja d'idees

 

A technique called brainstorming can be used to solve just about any problem, whether it is a relationship problem, a technical problem, a writing block, or anything else.
Brainstorming just means that a person or group of people sit down and write down as many solutions to a problem as they can think of. No one should take time to decide whether the solutions are good or not, just list as many possibilities as possible. Later go through the list and keep only the good ideas. It is amazing how many discoveries were made on things not related to the original problem were found by using this method, and how many good solutions to the original problem were uncovered.

 

 

Creativity is a must for brainstorming. Most people use creativity in their home life and jobs. Whether you are a writer, an engineer, QA, manager, business person or other, creativity is a must to be competitive in the world today.

 

 

So if creativity is so important, how do we strengthen our creative brain muscles? One way is to do brainstorming. Sit down and write out a list of all the possible, including silly, things a pencil can be used for. A team of three people came up with over 50 uses for the lowly pencil. Here are just some of the uses:

 

 

• To write with
• As a paperweight
• As a weapon (use it as a knife)
• Tent peg
• Fire kindling
• Chew toy
• Use pencils as Tinker Toys

 

 

For example, if you are dimensioning an engineering drawing and you can’t decide whether to use a Perpendicularity control or a Surface Profile, you can sit and write out all the possible outcomes you can think of for each.

 

 

If you are trying to solve the problem of ensuring that your teenage son comes home to dinner on time you can sit down and make a list of methods you can use. Of course it might help to talk to a person very knowledgeable about that sort of thing first.

In the book A Whack on the Side of the Head by Roger VonOech, the author gives a hypothetical situation: Suppose you get a call from a company that accidently bought $1,000,000 too many ball bearings. The company asks you to think of some way to monetize the situation. Here are some possible uses of the ball bearings:

 

 

• Use them as level testers.
• Sew them into a canvas vest and use them as “weight clothing” for athletes.
• Make jewelry out of them: earrings, bracelets, and necklaces.
• Use them as confetti at a punk rock concert.
• Put them on the bottom of uneven curtains and use them as curtain weights.
• Serve them as robot caviar (when your “home robot” is having friends over).

 

 

The last idea is rather silly, but it’s brainstorming, right?

 

 

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How to keep winning

Brad Stanton —  January 21, 2013 — 16 Comments

English: Picture taken by John Maxwell in June...

Robert Ringer, author of Million Dollar Habits, explains it well: “The world is saturated with intelligent, highly educated, extraordinarily skilled people who experience ongoing frustration because of their lack of success. Millions of others spend their lives working hard, long hours only to die broke.… Success is a matter of understanding and religiously practicing specific, simple habits that always lead to success.”

“The secret to your success can be found in your daily agenda.” John Maxwell, bestselling author and success leader. This article is a brief synopsis in my own words of an article Maxwell wrote on the Success magazine website (Success.com). Maxwell says that success is a habit that we cultivate every day.

Winners are passionate about their goals and dreams
People who have a winner mentality enjoy what they are doing, they enjoy the journey and enjoy the dream even before they reach the goal. What really motivates you in life? What would you really enjoy doing if you could do anything in life? When you find that, you will never work a day in your life, you will be playing instead of working.

2. Winners focus on their strong points, not their weak points.

Some people think that in order to be successful you must work on your weaknesses. But actually it is best to find out what your strengths are and work on those. If you think about it, it makes more sense to start with what you are good at and cultivate that.

3. Winners have the right attitude.

It really is true, your attitude determines your altitude in life, in other words it determines how high you will go in life. Dr. Charles Swindoll, the prolific writer and speaker said:

“The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life.

Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company… a church… a home.

The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past… we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude… I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it.

And so it is with you… we are in charge of our attitudes.”

4. Winners don’t quit

If you quit, you are sure to lose, that is the only thing you can do to totally ensure failure. In many of my posts I write about people who failed many times but keep on trying, and then become fantastically successful. Even the best leaders get discouraged, but the difference between a winner and a loser is the winner finds a way to encourage himself. It might be reading stories of people who overcome great obstacles to gain victory, or it might be books about strategies to succeed in whatever they are doing.

“ We seem to love stories of overnight successes, but the truth is there aren’t any. If you want to be a consistent winner, you’ve got to work at it every day. Success comes from developing the habits of winning.” John Maxwell

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Get more done in less time, enjoy it more

Brad Stanton —  January 5, 2013 — 2 Comments

AM management

Brian Tracy is one of the top professional business and personal success speakers and authors in the world. His time management books are the bestselling in that genre in the world (in 38 languages). This information is from a free email that I received from his website at www.BrianTracy.com .

The importance of time management

Successful people all place high value on time management, they constantly work to be more and more efficient.

Most people think they are too busy, incapable of improving time management. But the more disorganized a person is, the more stress they have in life. You can improve time management if your motivation is high enough.

7 steps to get more done in less time

1.    Decide what you want

2.    Write it down in detail

3.    Set a deadline to get it done

4.    Make a list of everything need to do to accomplish the task

5.    Organize your list, what should you do first, second, etc.

6.    Take action

7.    Do something every day to achieve your goals

These steps will help you get more done in less time, be less stressed out and feel even better about your job performance.

Develop habits that get things done

Everything is hard before it is easy, time management is hard to start, but becomes easy later. One of the most important techniques is to visualize yourself as a highly efficient person

Develop habits that get things done.

Clear workplace of everything except what you need to get a task done

Think like a genius. Stop and think about how you approach decisions. Is it the smartest way?

Be aware of body language, think about how you sit. If you are slouching in your chair, that shows how you think of your job or your attitude of it. Sit up straight because you think with greater clarity and focus when you do.

Overcome procrastination

Procrastination makes people live lives of quiet desperation. Procrastination creates stress and hardship. Develop a reputation for speed and dependability. Fast workers are thought to be more intelligent and competent. Get job done fast and well. The highest paid, most rapidly promoted people are those who work quickly.

1.    Set deadlines on all important tasks and tell people of your dead line, this helps motivate you to get it done.

2.    Create reward system for completing each task. A cup coffee might be a reward for a small task, go out for lunch for a larger task complete, dinner for an even larger task. We are motivated by rewards.

3.    Refuse to make excuses or rationalize. If it is to be, it is up to me!

4.    Accept 100% responsibility, no excuses or blaming

Once you break the habit of procrastination it will pay off for the rest of your life.

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