Archives For rags to riches

The power of words

Brad Stanton —  April 24, 2014 — 5 Comments

0000000000012450“If you aim at nothing, you will hit it every time.” ~ Zig Ziglar

Words are much more powerful than most people realize. If you have goals and dreams in life, write them down. Speak them out. Words have an amazing, powerful effect on your subconscious brain. That in turn has a powerful effect on your life. Once you energize your subconscious, it finds ways to accomplish things that are often remarkable.

Suze Orman, the author of the bestselling book 9 Steps to Financial Freedom started out as an ordinary salesperson. She was afraid she would not meet her sales goals, so every day she wrote out these words many times a day “I will sell $10,000 worth of product this month.”

It didn’t take long before she did, in fact, begin to sell $10,000 worth a month. Then she began selling much more than that monthly.

She used the same strategy to become a bestselling author, speaker and radio and TV host. She is now an international speaker.

Scott Adams, the author of Dilbert comics, used the same strategy. He was working in a small cubicle in an office, doodling during the day. Finally he decided to pursue his dream of writing a comic. He began writing but newspaper after newspaper turned him down. He decided to write out his dream 15 times a day. “I will be a syndicated cartoonist.”

Then a newspaper decided to run his comics. Later another and another picked up his comics.

Then he decided to write something different. He wrote “I will be the best cartoonist on the planet.” 15 times a day. Now his comic is in over 2000 different newspapers around the world.

Your words have incredible power. In fact, an ancient Jewish proverb says “Your tongue has the power of life and death.”* That means that your words have power to ultimately cause things to happen, even life or death. Your words have power to do amazing things.

Be very careful, because your words have destructive power also. You have probably heard of children being scolded by their parents and developing a bad self-image. Most kids have that experience. They say it is important to praise children 4 times for each negative, or scolding.

*Proverbs 18:21

www.TLC33.com Get Motivated.    Thanks for helping me get over a million viewers on facebook. 

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A waitress who made it big

Brad Stanton —  April 13, 2014 — 3 Comments

0000000000000000;lkjhgf“Whatever you do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius and power and magic in it.”

~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“You can have anything you want if you want it badly enough. You can be anything you want to be, do anything you set out to accomplish if you hold to that desire with singleness of purpose.”
~Abraham Lincoln

Marie Calendar

Marie Calendar is famous for desserts. She started out as a waitress at a restaurant. One day her boss told her that he wanted her to bake pies. At first she resented this because she already worked hard and this would mean even longer hours. But instead of resisting and complaining she decided to give it her best effort. She cooked the very best pies she could. Soon customers were commenting on the delicious pies at that restaurant. The manager noticed that business was up and many people came just for the pies.

Maria decided to go into business for herself. It was a bit scary for her, there was equipment to buy, a kitchen to rent and other costs. But she had faith that she could do it. The faith she had in herself and in her abilities gave her the courage she needed to take the risk. The rest is history, now she is famous across the USA for delicious pies that are available in most grocery stores.

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“Failure will never overtake you if your determination to succeed is strong enough.” ~Og Mandino

Brad Stanton —  March 24, 2014 — 1 Comment

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Mandino wrote the best seller The Greatest Salesman in the World. It is a fictional book which teaches the fundamentals of success in not only selling, but just about any challenge that a person might face in life. The book is about ten scrolls of wisdom that will bring success to anyone who studies them and puts the wisdom into action. 30 years after the book was written, it still sold over a million copies per year.

One of the characters in the book says that anyone who masters the principles in the ten scrolls will be able to amass as much wealth as he desires. Apparently a lot of sales managers believed this was true because many recommended the book to their sales staff.

Augustine “Og” Mandino, started life well as a bombardier in a B-24 bomber in WWII. After the war he married and sold insurance, but it seemed no matter how hard he worked, he couldn’t get out of debt. He was not a good salesman. He became an alcoholic and his wife left him. He became so despondent that he almost killed himself by buying a gun from a pawn shop. He decided not to, and went to the library where he found W. Clement Stone’s classic, Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude, a book that changed Mandino’s life dramatically. You can listen to this book for free on Youtube.com

He became an outstanding salesman and remarried. He was promoted to manager and he trained salesmen, establishing a first rate sales team. Later he became good friends with the super successful salesman W Clement Stone who put Mandino in charge of strategic positions in his company.

 “The ten scrolls are time-tested wisdom of the ancients distilled into ten simple scrolls” which, if followed for the prescribed ten months, will as Og says, “seep into my other mind, that mysterious source which never sleeps, which creates my dreams, and often makes me act in ways I do not comprehend. As the words of these scrolls are consumed by my mysterious mind I will begin to awake, each morning, with a vitality I have never known before. My vigor will increase, my enthusiasm will rise, my desire to meet the world will overcome every fear I once knew at sunrise, and I will be happier than I ever believed it possible to be in this world of strife and sorrow.” (Scroll I) The Greatest Salesman in the World by Og Mandino

These are a few of the powerful ideas in the book. Selling is not an easy job. Rewards are great because most succumb to despair and quit.

If you have ambition and desire and are willing to work and learn, selling is a good profession.

Prove to me that you can endure the life of a salesman. Obstructions and obstacles are necessary for success. Victory comes only after struggles and countless defeats. Each obstacle is a friend forcing you to become better. Each rebuff is an invitation to become better.

“Failure will never overtake you if your determination to succeed is strong enough.” This phrase is repeated throughout the book.

In the book, a camel boy named Hafid is sold a cloak by a master salesman. He goes to Bethlehem, a poor town, to try to sell the cloak but instead gives it to a baby lying in a manger. A star follows Hafid back to his master, who takes it as a sign to give the scrolls with their knowledge to Hafid.

While listening to this book I asked myself: How did Hafid know that baby Jesus was worth the cloak? How do we know that Jesus is worth following? We just know, our spiritual intelligence tells us.

I have wondered why W. Clement Stone chose Mandino to be a close friend and business partner. Maybe it is because he demonstrated he was trustworthy by his devotion to Jesus. He also had certain skills, such as a burning desire to succeed and strong faith (some call it positive mental attitude), that Stone must have realized were necessary to succeed.

Mandino says that in some places each bull is tested on its courage to see how well it will do in a bullfight. The bull is allowed to charge the picador in the ring. It will be rated by how many times it is willing to charge even though it feels the pain of the blade. Mandino says we are like the bull and life is like the picador. Each day I am tested by life in the same way. If I continue to try, to charge forward, I will succeed. I am a lion. I refuse to walk, talk and sleep with the weak. I will persist. The prizes of life are near the end of the journey. I may encounter failure at even the thousandth step, but I will keep walking. One step at a time is not too difficult. I will consider each day as a blow of the lance of the picador.

Even a child can chop down a mighty oak tree if he persists on chopping one day at a time. I will remove from my vocabulary words like can’t, quit, impossible, retreat, give up. Where dry desert ends, green grass grows. I will persist because each failure brings me closer to success. I must fail often to succeed only once. Must have the night to understand how good the day is. I will persist until I succeed.

Every day I will say “This is the best day of my life.” I will persist, I will win. “Failure will never overtake you if your determination to succeed is strong enough.”

You can listen to the audio book free on Youtube. There are a few sentences of Chinese at the beginning for some reason. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dy3JnxaimUs

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Confidence is key

Brad Stanton —  January 6, 2014 — 4 Comments

7232b51d1e780b1845a7bba362702254_mOnce there was a middle school boy who desperately wanted to become a professional basketball player. He was tall, and his huge feet indicated he would grow even taller. However, he was so big that it was difficult for him to get up and down the basketball court. His huge, heavy feet were often a disadvantage because they were just too big. But he was a good basketball player.

His coach had seen many students throughout the years who wanted to play pro ball. He knew that only a tiny fraction of them would ever make it to the pros. He knew that students that age needed a plan B, not just a plan A of playing pro ball, so he tried his best to instill other dreams in the kids.

The coach realized he needed to talk to the big boy who was so intent on becoming a pro basketball player, even though he was built more for football. He didn’t want to discourage the boy, but he knew how difficult it had been for other students who put all their eggs in one basket and didn’t have a plan B.

Finally after watching the boy slow down during the game because he was too heavy to continue to run up and down the court, the coach took him aside and put his arm around the boy and said “Shaq, maybe you need a plan B.” The boy’s name was Shaquille O’Neal, but he went by Shaq.

In high school Shaq sometimes became discouraged about his goal to play pro ball. Then he met a college coach who understood that he needed encouragement. The coach realized he needed something to overcome his difficulty getting up and down the court. On a piece of paper he wrote out some exercises that would give Shaq more stamina. He gave him a pep talk, telling him that he really did have potential and that if he worked hard enough he might make it to the pros.

Coach Brown of LSU (shown above) was a gifted motivator and encourager. His words had a profound influence on Shaq, who later became a pretty good basketball player.

Who can you encourage? There are many people out there who rarely hear an encouraging word. One of my goals in life is to help street kids. Some of them have been abandoned by their parents, and that is definately not good for the self image. They not only need food, shelter and clothing, they also need encouragement and an education. More about street kids here http://wp.me/p2rHBL-1SB

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Never, never, never give up

Brad Stanton —  December 5, 2013 — 2 Comments

“Never, never, never give up.” Winston ChurchillCover of "Chicken Soup for the Soul: Livi...

Rick Little was only 19 years old when he decided to start an organization to help school kids with self-esteem, setting life goals, handling conflict and other important life skills. He began writing proposals and sent them to over 155 foundations. He got rejected over and over again, but he kept trying. He slept in his car and ate mostly peanut butter and crackers for almost a year.

But he never gave up on his dream. Finally, the Kellogg Foundation gave Rick $130,000. That was just a start. Rick had big goals so he kept working. Rick began forming a team of people and together they raised $100 million to start an organization called the Quest program. Three million kids in over 30,000 schools around the world work together with Quest to help kids have a better life.

Rick Little and his team worked hard and because they helped so many people he received a grant for $65,000,000. This is the second largest grant ever given in US history. He used it to start the International Youth foundation.

Rick got so many rejections, but what would have happened to him and all those kids if he had given up after he got one hundred rejections?

I first read about Rick Little in a book called The Success Principles by Jack Canfield, the bestselling author of the Chicken Soup for the Soul books which have sold over 150 million copies around the world. Jack was rejected by 144 different publishers before he was finally accepted for his book.

Novelist Steven King threw away the manuscript for Carrie because he was rejected over and over again, but his wife retrieved it from the garbage and the book went on to sell over 4 million copies and was made into a blockbuster movie.

Never give up on your dreams and goals in life.

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