How to Accelerate Your Success with a Mastermind Group

by Jack Canfield

We all know that two heads are better than one when it comes to solving a problem or creating a result. So imagine having a permanent group of five or six people who meet every week for the purpose of problem solving, brainstorming, networking, and encouraging and motivating each other!

This process is called masterminding and is one of the most effective success tools you can adopt! It is a powerful way to support your dreams and bring unlimited resources to your business and personal life.

Participating in a mastermind group has been critical to me. I can't imagine achieving all I have without one, and it certainly made my goals happen much faster.

A Process for Accelerating Your Growth

The basic philosophy of a mastermind group is that more can be achieved in less time when people work together. Sometimes called a "dream team", your mastermind group is made up of two or more individuals who voluntarily come together on a regular basis - weekly, biweekly, or monthly - to share ideas, thoughts, information, feedback and resources.

Your group can be composed of people from your own industry or profession or people from all walks of life. You can focus on business, increasing each other's income, building a business, raising better kids, or solving a social problem.

Within your mastermind group, you benefit from the other members who empower you and draw out your full talents, resources and abilities. They trigger, stimulate, and motivate you to become all you are capable of being.

Creating Your Dream Team

The key is to choose people who are already where you'd like to be in your life - or who are at least a level above you. In forming your mastermind group, start by carefully enrolling another friendly, on-purpose, like-minded individual. Start by meeting together and then adding other selected, unanimously agreed-upon individuals who will work in total harmony for the good of each other and for the good of the group.

1. Your Dream Team should consist of 4-8 people. Most people find that 6 is the ideal number.

2. Meet weekly, if possible, for an hour to an hour and a half. This meeting must be held sacred as a life-enhancing priority. The meetings should be upbeat, enriching, encouraging and beneficial to each individual and the group's purposes. I always start our meetings with a prayer or an invocation. You could also start with an inspiring story.

3. Each member must agree to play full out -- to openly share ideas, support, contacts, information, feedback, and anything else that will help advance the individual and group goals.

4. Start by having each member share something positive and good that happened since the last meeting.

5. Next, have each member share an opportunity or problem they have experienced since the last meeting and ask for whatever support they would like on it. Appoint a time-keeper to make sure that everyone gets the same amount of time. This is important if you want your group to last. Everyone must get value at each meeting.

6. End by sharing appreciations and acknowledgements.

You'll find one of the real values of a mastermind group is the accountability factor - other members checking up on you to make sure you meet your stated commitments. It's one way to ensure you'll accomplish a lot more!

For more details about masterminding, read Success Principle #46 in The Success Principles book or utilize the mastermind worksheets found in The Success Principles 30-day Journey.

I'll be back in two weeks with another edition of Success Strategies. Until then, see if you can discover ways to immediately implement what you learned from today's message.

© 2009 Jack Canfield

Jack Canfield, America's #1 Success Coach, is founder of the billion-dollar book brand Chicken Soup for the Soul© and a leading authority on Peak Performance and Life Success. If you're ready to jump-start your life, make more money, and have more fun and joy in all that you do, get your FREE success tips from Jack Canfield now at: www.FreeSuccessStrategies.com

Poised for Success

The 2nd Battalion, 327th Infantry is equipped to deploy anywhere in the world within 36 hours to capture or destroy enemy fighters. The men and women of the 2-327th represent some of the fiercest warriors in the United States military. In spite of its reputation for power and ferocity, the 2-327th Infantry produced a hero notable for bringing about peace through his poise and presence of mind early on in America's involvement in Iraq.

Lt. Col. Chris Hughes was leading 130 soldiers on a mission in Najaf to secure the crucial support of Shi'a cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali Hussein Sistani when an angry mob congregated. Suspicious that the American troops intended to harm the ayatollah; the agitated Iraqis showered the soldiers with a barrage of rocks. In a matter of minutes the infuriated crowd had swollen in size to several hundred civilians.

Sensing the delicate nature of the situation, Hughes rushed through the ranks of soldiers, ordering them to drop to one knee, point their guns at the ground, and smile. By adopting the least hostile pose possible, the soldiers befuddled the mob. Although the furor did not subside, its intensity lessened. Then, Lt. Col. Hughes calmly instructed his men to retreat 100 yards, after which they again knelt, kept their guns down, and grinned at the Iraqis. Next, Hughes requested that all combat vehicles slowly retreat from the area. Finally, he bowed to the Iraqis before coolly leading his soldiers in a march away from the mob.

If not for the poise of Lt. Col. Hughes the situation easily could have turned ugly. Angry protestors and armed soldiers can be a deadly mix (see the Boston Massacre or the tragedy at Kent State University in 1970). Leaders often find themselves thrust into combustible situations in which they must make calm decisions quickly when surrounded by chaos. In those moments, how can leaders keep their cool?

4 Pointers for Staying Poised in a Crisis

1) Contain Your Emotions

Anger, fear, and defiance were probably a few of the emotions swirling inside of Lt. Col. Hughes as Iraqis hurled rocks at his troops. Had he responded to the situation solely on the basis of emotions, disaster likely would have ensued. For instance, if anger or defiance had motivated him, then he may have threatened the crowd by flexing the muscle of the weaponry at his disposal. In that event, a hotheaded soldier may have fired into the crowd. Or, had Lt. Col. Hughes showed fear, then a jittery infantryman may have shot into the crowd as a self-defense reflex. Either scenario would have been calamitous to the American effort to win the hearts and minds of Iraqis.

Thankfully, Lt. Col. Hughes was able to contain his emotions. In the face of danger, he led calmly and with restraint. As a result, the peace was maintained, and no one was injured.

2) Size Up the Situation in Light of the Big Picture

In an emergency, poor decisions are made when the big picture gets clouded. Lt. Col. Hughes was savvy enough to know that the safety of his men was not the only concern in Najaf. His mission was to win the support of a prominent Iraqi, and he would have no chance of doing so if his troops injured or killed Iraqi civilians. In light of his ultimate goal, he not only saw the value of protecting his men, but also recognized the importance of protecting the crowd.

3) Swiftly Settle upon a Course of Action

Seeing that the Iraqis felt threatened by armed soldiers, Hughes knew the best way to defuse the situation was to adopt a stance of friendliness. He wasted no time in barking out commands for his men to kneel, smile, and look friendly. The situation demanded urgent action, and Hughes delivered-literally running through the ranks of his men to shout out his commands.

4) Act Confidently to Influence the Emotions of Others

In moments of crisis, leaders stay poised by containing their emotions. However, a leader's personal poise has minimal value if everyone on his or her team is freaking out. Leaders have to assist others in managing their emotions, too.

Through his confidence and the visibility of his personal example, Lt. Col. Hughes gave his men the courage to obey unorthodox orders. His unruffled demeanor rubbed off on the men and women in his battalion and allowed them to maintain self-control in the face of an angry throng of Iraqis. In the end, a potential crisis was averted because the 2-327th mimicked the composure of its leader.

Leading Through Adversity

By Dr. John C. Maxwell

Had Chesly B. Sullenberger known that US Airways Flight 1549 would fly through a flock of geese and lose both engines, then he likely would have stayed out of the cockpit that day. After all, who in their right mind wants to pilot an engineless aircraft? Thankfully for the 155 passengers on board, however, the veteran airman was at the controls to safely crash-landed the plane in the Hudson River.

Although he never would have volunteered for the adversity he faced in the skies above New York City, Sullenberger's influence soared as a result of his leadership in the midst of harrowing circumstances. Before January 15th, Sullenberger was an accomplished, but anonymous pilot. Afterward, he was recognized as an American hero, drew a captive audience whenever he spoke, and was highly sought after by federal aviation officials for his safety recommendations.

Going through adversity, though not pleasant at the moment, opens the door to new levels of influence. By staying poised and keeping a positive attitude under pressure, leaders can pass through adversity having grown in stature more than they ever could have in comfortable times. In this article, I'd like to focus on the potential benefits that can be gained by triumphing over adverse conditions.

Overcoming Adversity Creates Resilience

A study in Time magazine in the 1980's described the incredible resilience of a group of people who had lost their jobs on three occasions due to plant closings. Researchers expected them to be discouraged, but they were surprisingly optimistic. Their adversity had turned into advantage. Because they had already coped with job loss and found employment at least twice, they were better equipped to handle adversity than people who had always worked for the same company and found themselves unemployed for the first time.

Overcoming Adversity Develops Maturity

During more than four decades as a pilot, both with the Air Force commercial airlines, Chesly B. Sullenberger had to weather his share of storms and mechanical glitches. When questioned by Katie Couric about his heroic landing of US Airways Flight 1549, Sullenberger credited his past experiences for giving him the maturity to steer the plane. "One way of looking at this might be that, for 42 years, I've been making small, regular deposits in this bank of experience: education and training. And on January 15 the balance was sufficient so that I could make a very large withdrawal."

As an African proverb says, "Smooth seas do not make skillful sailors." The bumps in the road may seem only to be nuisances, but they're often the best instructors on the leadership journey. If we're observant, the lessons learned during hard times can be mined at a later date for our advantage.

Overcoming Adversity Creates Greater Opportunities

Just about every successful entrepreneur I've met has numerous stories of setbacks that opened the door to greater opportunities. Consider these not-so-flattering moments from the lives of famous Americans.

• Early in his career, Walt Disney's Laugh-O-Gram studio went broke, leaving the talented man out of work.
• Abraham Lincoln plummeted into financial ruin as a young shopkeeper.
• Milton Hershey failed dismally in his initial attempts to open a candy store.
• Henry Ford's Detroit Automobile Company went bankrupt before reorganizing as Ford Motor Company.
• H.J. Heinz's venture to sell horseradish flopped before his recipe for ketchup met with commercial success.

In the middle of adversity, it can be difficult to stave off feelings of hopelessness, but oftentimes a bright future waits on the other side of hardship. The mental strength acquired in dealing with misfortune can be an invaluable asset in pushing forward into new ventures.

Overcoming Adversity Wins Respect

Respect almost always is gained on difficult ground. In the words of Plutarch, "The measure of a man is the way he bears up under misfortune." No one sees your courage in the sunshine. It takes difficulty and darkness to prove bravery. When others see your character and persistence during the rough stretches in leadership, they walk away with an enhanced opinion of you.

SUMMARY

The economic crunch creates adversity, and leaders feel its pain and pressure acutely. While no one hopes for adversity, it can actually serve to benefit a leader. By bearing in mind the potential upside of leading through difficulty, it can be easier to deal with our present troubles.

This article is used by permission from Dr. John C. Maxwell's free monthly e-newsletter 'Leadership Wired' available at www.injoy.com.

Conducting a Personal Inventory of Your "Knowledge Resources"

by Denis Waitley

Self-knowledge has always been the key to preparing for competition. Knowledge of your attributes, abilities, interests, strengths, weaknesses, and traits is essential to riding the front end of the wave of change into the new century. To fully assess your own talents, realize that studies confirm that what we love and do well as children continues as our latent or manifest talent as adults.

Examination of your weekend or evening interests might reveal a gem of potential you can apply to your vocation. I strongly suggest you don't unthinkingly relegate what you love to do for yourself solely to hobbies. You might make it, or at least integrate it into your life's work.

The acquisition of knowledge, which is the new global power, is a life-long experience, not a collection of facts or skills. Not long ago, what you learned in school was largely all you needed to learn to secure a career. With knowledge expanding exponentially, this is no longer true. Hundreds of scientific papers are published daily.

Every thirty seconds, some new technological company produces yet another innovation. Your formal education has a very short shelf life. Life-long learning, once a luxury for the few, has become absolutely vital to continued success. Continue gaining expertise and avoid thinking like an expert.

Action Idea: An excellent benchmarking exercise is to spend a weekend with key associates or family members and dust off your childhood memories. Remember what you really enjoyed and wanted to do most as a child. The next activity in assessing your interests is considering your current ones. What do you most enjoy after work? What do you most want to do on weekends and vacations? What are your hobbies? Can you bring more of what you enjoy into your business life?

Action Step - Increase Your Reading, Writing and Vocabulary Proficiency. One of the most important qualities of successful leaders is an ability to express thoughts and knowledge. Research by management and human resource experts confirms that no matter what the field of employment, people with large vocabularies - those able to speak clearly and concisely, using simple as well as descriptive words - are best at accomplishing their goals. Well chosen, carefully considered words can close the sale, negotiate the raise, enhance relationships, and change destinies.

In a world of e-mail, fax dispersal, voice mail, sound bites, concise reports, business plans, and meeting briefs, the individuals who can articulate their goals, substantiate their claims, and support their visions, will own the future. In the 21st Century, literacy will be the major difference between the haves and have-nots.

Why do fewer than 10 percent of the public buy and read nonfiction books? One reason is that many would rather get home than get ahead. They are motivated to get by and get pulled along by the company, the economy, or the government.

Another reason is that many individuals believe that information found in books, computer programs, and training sessions has no value in the business world. How self-deluding!

As the new tools of productivity become the Internet, the Digital Versatile Disc, direct digital download of text, audio and video, and the combination of the interactive computer with telecommunications, the people who know how to control the new technologies will acquire power, while those who thought that education ends with the diploma are destined for low-paying, low-satisfaction jobs. In almost the blink of an eye, our society has passed from the industrial age to the knowledge era.

Increase your reading by 100 percent. Decrease your television watching, and that of any children in your family by 50 percent. Surf the Internet and subscribe to book summaries, or download free chapters from different sources. By reading book summaries, you can gain the essence of all the top business books in a very brief period of time.

Action Idea: Read at least one book each month, and listen to at least one additional audio book during commute or down time. One of the best sources for business audio books online is MP3audiobooks.com.

All kinds of reading and listening to fiction and non-fiction will increase your vocabulary, writing and presentation skills. Incredibly, a mere 3,500 words separate the average person from those with superior vocabularies.

Keep a dictionary beside you when you read and look up every word you don't fully understand. Doing that on the spot helps make the word part of your vocabulary forever. And don't depend on your computer's spellchecker for your spelling. Not all e-mail service includes spell check. Also, you may be called upon to write longhand notes, memos, or information on white boards or blackboards at meetings. You not only want to use the right words. You also will want to spell them correctly.

A great way to increase your literacy is to engage in Internet conferences and to read summaries on the web from services like Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble and other booksellers. The more interactive you become in communications and the less you indulge in prime-time television, the more successful you'll become in all areas of your life. Knowledge is the new power. And literacy is the door to knowledge.

-- Denis Waitley

Reproduced with permission from Jim Rohn's Weekly E-zine. To subscribe, go to www.JimRohn.com All contents Copyright © JimRohn.com except where indicated otherwise. All rights reserved worldwide.

It is a Challenge to Succeed

by Jim Rohn

It is a challenge to succeed. If it were not, I'm sure more people would be successful, but for every person who is enjoying the fruit from the tree of success, many more are examining the roots. They are trying to figure it all out. They are mystified and perplexed by what seems to be some strange, complex and elusive secret that must be found if ever success is to be enjoyed. While most people spend most of their lives struggling to earn a living, a much smaller number seem to have everything going their way. Instead of just earning a living, the smaller group is busily engaged in designing and enjoying a fortune. Everything just seems to work out for them. While the much larger group sits in awe at how life can be so unfair, complicated and unjust.

"I am a nice person," the man says to himself. "How come this other guy is happy and prosperous, and I'm always struggling?" He asks himself, "I am a good husband, a good father and a good worker. How come nothing seems to work out for me? Life just isn't fair. I'm even smarter and willing to work harder than some of these other people who just seem to have everything going their way," he says as he slumps into the sofa to watch another evening of television.

But, you see, you've got to be more than a good person and a good worker. You've got to become a good planner, and a good dreamer. You've got to see the future finished in advance. You've got to put in the long hours and put up with the setbacks and the disappointments. You've got to learn to enjoy the process of disciplines and of putting yourself through the paces of doing the uncomfortable until it becomes comfortable. You've got to be prepared and willing to attack the challenges if you want the success because challenges are part of success.

Now that may sound like a full menu of activities, but let me assure you that the process of going from average to fortune isn't really all that difficult. Thinking about it is the difficult part. Anticipating all the effort and the changes and the disciplines is far worse in the mind than in reality. I can promise you that the challenges you'll meet on the road to success are far less difficult to deal with than the struggles and the disappointments that come from being average. Confronting and overcoming challenges is an exhilarating experience. It does something to feed the soul and the mind. It makes you more than you were before. It strengthens the mental muscles and enables you to become better prepared for the next challenge.

I've often said that to have more, we must first become more, and to become more, we must begin the process of working harder on ourselves than we do on anything else. But in addition to gathering new knowledge, new skills and new experiences; it is also important to discover new emotions. It is how we feel about what we know that makes the biggest difference in how our lives turn out. How we feel about the chances we have and the choices we have determines the intensity of our effort. Whether we try or don't try. Join or don't join. Believe or don't believe.

I'd like for you to discover some strong feelings about your life and about what you want to do with that life. You probably have much of the knowledge and a lot of the experience and perhaps most of the skills that it takes to become successful. What you may be lacking in are the strong feelings about what you want and what you want to do. You may be one of those who have become so involved in the process of earning a living that you've forgotten about the choices and the chances you have for designing your own life.

Let these strong feelings help you take a second look at your life and where you're headed. After all, you've only got one life, at least on this planet. So why not make it an adventure in achievement? Why not discover what all you can do and what all you can have? Why not discover how many others you can help and in the process how that can help you?

Why not now take the Challenge to Succeed!

To Your Success,
Jim Rohn

Reproduced with permission from Jim Rohn's Weekly E-zine. To subscribe, go to www.JimRohn.com All contents Copyright © JimRohn.com except where indicated otherwise. All rights reserved worldwide.

Obstacles are the Stepping Stones of Success

by Harvey Mackay

A man was walking in the park one day when he came upon a cocoon with a small opening. He sat and watched the butterfly for several hours as it struggled to force its body through the little hole. Then it seemed to stop making any progress. It looked like it had gotten as far as it could, so the man decided to help the butterfly. He used his pocketknife and snipped the remaining bit of the cocoon.

The butterfly then emerged easily, but something was strange. The butterfly had a swollen body and shriveled wings. The man continued to watch the butterfly because he expected at any moment the wings would enlarge and expand to be able to support the body, which would contract in time. Neither happened. In fact, the butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling around with a swollen body and deformed wings. It was never able to fly.

What the man in his kindness and haste did not understand was that the restricting cocoon and the struggle required for the butterfly to emerge was natural. It was nature's way of forcing fluid from its body into its wings so that it would be ready for flight once it achieved its freedom. Sometimes struggles are exactly what we need in our lives.

If we were allowed to go through life without any obstacles, we would be crippled. We would not be as strong as what we could have been. And we could never fly.

History has shown us that the most celebrated winners usually encountered heartbreaking obstacles before they triumphed. They won because they refused to become discouraged by their defeats.

My good friend, Lou Holtz, football coach of the University of South Carolina, once told me, "Show me someone who has done something worthwhile, and I'll show you someone who has overcome adversity."

Beethoven composed his greatest works after becoming deaf. George Washington was snowed in through a treacherous winter at Valley Forge. Abraham Lincoln was raised in poverty. Albert Einstein was called a slow learner, retarded and uneducable. If Christopher Columbus had turned back, no one could have blamed him, considering the constant adversity he endured.

As an elementary student, actor James Earl Jones (a.k.a. Darth Vader) stuttered so badly he communicated with friends and teachers using written notes.

Itzhak Perlman, the incomparable concert violinist, was born to parents who survived a Nazi concentration camp and has been paralyzed from the waist down since the age of four.

Chester Carlson, a young inventor, took his idea to 20 big corporations in the 1940s. After seven years of rejections, he was able to persuade Haloid, a small company in Rochester, N.Y., to purchase the rights to his electrostatic paper- copying process. Haloid has since become Xerox Corporation.

Thomas Edison tried over 2,000 experiments before he was able to get his light bulb to work. Upon being asked how he felt about failing so many times, he replied, "I never failed once. I invented the light bulb. It just happened to be a 2,000-step process."

Franklin Delano Roosevelt, elected President of the United States for four terms, had been stricken with polio at the age of 39.

Persistence paid off for General Douglas MacArthur. After applying for admission to West Point twice, he applied a third time and was accepted. The rest is history.

In 1927 the head instructor of the John Murray Anderson Drama School, instructed student Lucille Ball, to "Try any other profession. Any other."

Buddy Holly was fired from the Decca record label in 1956 by Paul Cohen, Nashville "Artists and Repertoire Man." Cohen called Holly "the biggest no-talent I ever worked with."

Academy Award-winning writer, producer and director Woody Allen failed motion picture production at New York University (NYU) and City College of New York. He also flunked English at NYU.

Helen Keller, the famous blind author and speaker, said: "Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, vision cleared, ambition inspired and success achieved. Silver is purified in fire and so are we. It is in the most trying times that our real character is shaped and revealed."

Mackay's Moral: There is no education like the university of adversity.

-- Harvey Mackay

Reproduced with permission from Your Achievement Ezine. To subscribe, go to www.YourSuccessStore.com All contents Copyright © YourSuccessStore.com except where indicated otherwise. All rights reserved worldw

The Miracle of Personal Development

by Jim Rohn

One day my mentor Mr. Shoaff said, "Jim, if you want to be wealthy and happy, learn this lesson well: Learn to work harder on yourself than you do on your job."

Since that time I've been working on my own personal development. And I must admit that this has been the most challenging assignment of all. This business of personal development lasts a lifetime.

You see, what you become is far more important than what you get. The important question to ask on the job is not, "What am I getting?" Instead, you should ask, "What am I becoming?" Getting and becoming are like Siamese twins: What you become directly influences what you get. Think of it this way: Most of what you have today you have attracted by becoming the person you are today.

I've also found that income rarely exceeds personal development. Sometimes income takes a lucky jump, but unless you learn to handle the responsibilities that come with it, it will usually shrink back to the amount you can handle.

If someone hands you a million dollars, you'd better hurry up and become a millionaire. A very rich man once said, "If you took all the money in the world and divided it equally among everybody, it would soon be back in the same pockets it was before."

It is hard to keep that which has not been obtained through personal development

So here's the great axiom of life:

TO HAVE MORE THAN YOU'VE GOT, BECOME MORE THAN YOU ARE.

This is where you should focus most of your attention. Otherwise, you just might have to contend with the axiom of not changing, which is:

UNLESS YOU CHANGE HOW YOU ARE, YOU'LL ALWAYS HAVE WHAT YOU'VE GOT.

-- Jim Rohn

Reproduced with permission from Your Achievement Ezine. To subscribe, go to www.YourSuccessStore.com All contents Copyright © YourSuccessStore.com except where indicated otherwise. All rights reserved worldwide.

Good Game

by Ron White

I was eight years old. Looking back I remember walking across the baseball diamond of a little league field and forming a line to pass the team that we had just played. The drill was to shake their hands and say, "Good game!"

I learned something at the age of eight. It is a lot easier to do that when you win!

When you lose, you have a tendency to slap the hand - instead of shake it - and look at the ground instead of the eyes. This is not only true at eight, but it is true for adults as well. A few years ago, I played 16 games in a softball league. You know you are on a bad softball team when motivational speaker, Ron White, is the stand-out superstar of the team! We lost 15 games in a ROW! It was humiliating. During the age-old, "Good game" handshake after each loss, I made a point to look each player in the eye and shake, not slap, the hand. I did this because I knew that when I was eight years old I couldn't do it. I couldn't look my opponents in the eye and congratulate them on a good game. Somehow I took the loss as a hit on my self-worth and felt my self-confidence had been slapped, therefore I did what most eight-year-olds do and I slapped the opponent's hand, not giving the satisfaction of a shake. I was wrong at the age of eight. I'm happy today as an adult that I have learned this lesson, and the lesson is: There is something to be said for losing well.

In 1960, Richard Nixon could have contested the close presidential election. He didn't. He lost well and was elected a decade later to the same office. A few years ago, John Thune lost a razor thin election in South Dakota. He could have contested the election. He didn't. He lost well and eventually won a Senate seat.

In 2000, John Ashcroft lost a Senate race to a woman who was standing in for her husband who passed away months before. He could have contested. He didn't and became attorney general.

Whether it is a baseball game, office promotion or political race, you can tell a lot about a person by how they handle defeat. The individual who handles defeat as a minor setback is not allowing the event to define him. On the other hand, someone who cannot handle defeat is allowing the event to define his self-worth. Events can only define your self-worth if you allow them to. You cease allowing events to define your self-worth when you handle defeat as a learning experience and remount the horse that has thrown you for another ride.

In money, your career or love, when you lose - as hard as it may be - look them in the eye, refuse to allow the events to shape your self-worth and shake their hand literally or metaphorically as you say, "Good game." You just might find yourself winning the next game.

-- Ron White

Reproduced with permission from the Ron White Ezine. To subscribe to Ron White's Ezine, go to http://www.MemoryInAMonth.com Copyright 2009 All rights reserved worldwide.

Live and Work Like Your Mother is Watching

by Harvey Mackay

I had the great honor a few years ago of being inducted into my high school Hall of Fame at St. Paul Central in St. Paul, Minn. Previous honorees include Charles Schulz, creator of the Peanuts cartoon strip; Richard Schulze, founder and chairman of Best Buy; and Dave Winfield, a member of Major League Baseball's Hall of Fame.

Approximately 500 selected students were invited to the auditorium for the ceremony and to hear a few remarks from this year's recipients. I shared four ideas with students, the first three being: 1) Believe in yourself—even when no one else does, 2) Don't quit and 3) There is no "I" in team.

I want to touch here on my fourth point: Act like your mother is watching.

Let me tell you a true story about Professor Bonk who taught chemistry at Duke University. One year, three students were taking chemistry and all earning a solid "A" going into the final exam. The weekend before finals, they decided to go to another school to party with some friends. They didn't make it back to Duke until early Monday morning, in no shape to take the final.

They explained to Professor Bonk that they had been away for the weekend and had planned to come back in time to study, but they had a flat tire on the way back and didn't have a spare, so they didn't get back to campus in time.

Professor Bonk agreed to let them make up the final on the following day. What a relief! They studied all night. When they arrived for the exam, Professor Bonk placed them in separate rooms, handed each of them a test booklet, and told them to begin.

They saw the first question was simple, worth 5 points. Piece of cake! Then they turned to question 2, worth 95 points: "Which tire?"

Unfortunately the business community does not get stellar grades for ethics the past few years. Too many companies have tried to fool the public.

Ethics and integrity must be the cornerstone of your existence. If you want your employees to tell the truth, a company better start by being truthful with their employees.

Let me tell you about our mission statement at MackayMitchell Envelope Company, which is: "To be in business forever."

What does that mean? It stands for no hidden liabilities ... no cutting corners ... no small print under the small print ... no red flags.

We in the business community need to set a good example for our young people. Surveys show that a disturbing number of students cite recent corporate and political scandals to justify their dishonesty.

It's critical to use good judgment so that you aren't hauled up before a court. And I'm talking about the court of public opinion as much as any court of law. If you don't use good judgment, you're already judged—especially in business.

A mother was invited for dinner at her son Brian's apartment. During the course of the meal, Brian's mother couldn't help but notice how beautiful Brian's roommate, Jennifer, was.

Brian's mom had long suspected a relationship between Brian and Jennifer. Over the course of the evening, while watching the two interact, she started to wonder if there was more between them than met the eye.

Reading his mom's thoughts, Brian volunteered, "I know what you must be thinking, but I assure you Jennifer and I are just roommates."

About a week later, Jennifer came to Brian saying, "Ever since your mother came to dinner, I've been unable to find the beautiful silver gravy ladle. You don't suppose she took it, do you?" Brian said, "Well, I doubt it, but I'll send her an email just to be sure."

So he wrote: "Dear Mom: I'm not saying that you 'did' take the gravy ladle from the house, I'm not saying that you 'did not' take the gravy ladle. But the fact remains that one has been missing ever since you were here for dinner. Love, Brian."

Several days later, Brian received an email back from his mother that read: "Dear Son: I'm not saying that you 'do' sleep with Jennifer, I'm not saying that you 'do not' sleep with Jennifer. But the fact remains that if Jennifer were sleeping in her own bed, she would have found the ladle by now. Love, Mom."

Mackay's Moral: Never lie to your mother ... or anyone else.

-- Harvey Mackay

Harvey Mackay teaches profound business and life lessons in a compelling yet entertaining way in his program Outsell, Outmanage, Outmotivate & Outnegotiate Your Competition on DVD and CD. It's part of the Ultimate Collection package. Buy the complete package at a remarkable price. PLUS, get 3 incredible bonuses! For complete details, go to http://dvdset.jimrohn.com

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Reproduced with permission from Jim Rohn's Weekly E-zine. To subscribe, go to www.JimRohn.com All contents Copyright © JimRohn.com except where indicated otherwise. All rights reserved worldwide.

Facing the Enemies Within

by Jim Rohn

We are not born with courage, but neither are we born with fear. Maybe some of our fears are brought on by your own experiences, by what someone has told you, by what you've read in the papers. Some fears are valid, like walking alone in a bad part of town at two o'clock in the morning. But once you learn to avoid that situation, you won't need to live in fear of it.

Fears, even the most basic ones, can totally destroy our ambitions. Fear can destroy fortunes. Fear can destroy relationships. Fear, if left unchecked, can destroy our lives. Fear is one of the many enemies lurking inside us.

Let me tell you about five of the other enemies we face from within. The first enemy that you've got to destroy before it destroys you is indifference. What a tragic disease this is. "Ho-hum, let it slide. I'll just drift along." Here's one problem with drifting: you can't drift your way to the top of the mountain.

The second enemy we face is indecision. Indecision is the thief of opportunity and enterprise. It will steal your chances for a better future. Take a sword to this enemy.

The third enemy inside is doubt. Sure, there's room for healthy skepticism. You can't believe everything. But you also can't let doubt take over. Many people doubt the past, doubt the future, doubt each other, doubt the government, doubt the possibilities and doubt the opportunities. Worse of all, they doubt themselves. I'm telling you, doubt will destroy your life and your chances of success. It will empty both your bank account and your heart. Doubt is an enemy. Go after it. Get rid of it.

The fourth enemy within is worry. We've all got to worry some. Just don't let it conquer you. Instead, let it alarm you. Worry can be useful. If you step off the curb in New York City and a taxi is coming, you've got to worry. But you can't let worry loose like a mad dog that drives you into a small corner. Here's what you've got to do with your worries: drive them into a small corner. Whatever is out to get you, you've got to get it. Whatever is pushing on you, you've got to push back.

The fifth interior enemy is over-caution. It is the timid approach to life. Timidity is not a virtue; it's an illness. If you let it go, it'll conquer you. Timid people don't get promoted. They don't advance and grow and become powerful in the marketplace. You've got to avoid over-caution.

Do battle with the enemy. Do battle with your fears. Build your courage to fight what's holding you back, what's keeping you from your goals and dreams. Be courageous in your life and in your pursuit of the things you want and the person you want to become.

Reproduced with permission from Jim Rohn's Weekly E-zine. To subscribe, go to www.JimRohn.com All contents Copyright © JimRohn.com except where indicated otherwise. All rights reserved worldwide.