What many don’t realize is that the real currency of success is your character (not your reputation) and when you honor your deals you’re making deposits of integrity.

Sometimes honoring a deal is hard, especially when it doesn’t go the way you had planned… when it costs something you didn’t expect, or when honoring the deal means taking a backseat to your pride.

But it’s in these very circumstances when you need to honor the deal the most. Even when it stings the most.

It’s about you knowing that you did the right thing. Not about what the other person thinks.

I have a personal eight figure example of this, but one that recently tested my integrity involved a smaller but not so small amount of money. In essence I felt robbed and that I shouldn’t have to pay it. The person on the other end of the deal also felt robbed, but by me. As you know I hate it when someone steels my milk…. and this was a dairy farms worth.

Around the launch of Nothing to Lose, back in August of last year, we were running a contest on Facebook to get as many people to share about the book launch as possible. The grand prize winner (who shared the most) was going to win $10,000. Our goal was to have 100,000 people share. We had a lot of participation and thought it was going strong until we realized something wasn’t adding up. Long story short, after digging around we realized the contest had been hacked by those who were trying to “game” the system with bogus accounts, robot sharing, etc. And the technology provider for the contest didn’t do their job so tracking was a mess.

So, we pulled the plug.

We could have just stopped it right there. We could have rationalized not awarding a winner at all since things got corrupted and didn’t end up like we had planned, falling far short of the 100,000 shares we were seeking to justify the $10,000 prize.

But, doing so wouldn’t have been honoring the deal.

So, I decided to go ahead and award Gloria UAtanmo the grand prize since she was the person who was leading before the hackers stepped in and the technology provider failed.

Why am I telling you this?
Simple. I want to lead by example.

While paying out the $10,000 was costly and while we could have easily justified not doing so, honoring the deal meant doing what I said I would do, despite the challenges that we faced.

Honoring your deals is easy when the deals go like you expect.

The true test is when they don’t.

While the intent of the deal was to get the word out about my book (which you can do by sharing http://amzn.to/ntlamazon), it turned out to be an opportunity for something more.

What are your thoughts on Honoring Deals? Leave a comment below or send me a message on Twitter / Facebook.

Read the full ViSalus domain purchase story on TechCrunch here.

Momentum… can you feel it?

#ToldUSo

If you’re a ViSalus promoter, show some love in the comments, on Facebook and Twitter.

Think about that quote.

That IS the definition of the middle class.

You’re young, you don’t know what to do. You get a job at the same place where your friend works…you don’t even love it… it’s just good wages, or it’s comfortable or its easy… next thing you know, you get a girlfriend (or boyfriend), you get married, you get a mortgage, you have kids, and now you’re stuck in The Death Cycle of the Middle Class where you are spending the majority of your awake time, the most valuable asset that you’ll ever be gifted with on this planet, you’re spending that doing something you hate. Showing up to a job that you hate, on a commute that you hate, working with people that you hate. That is The Death Cycle.

Most people in America today… they are so afraid to lose their middle class status, they are so afraid of what their friends are going to think, that they don’t ever do anything… they sit in the same position for the rest of their life… and then one day it does get ripped away.

I wasn’t going to have that.

Are you?

Watch the full Dangerous Death Cycle video here or below:

I’m fired up and looking forward to even greater things in 2012. Are you?

Leave a comment below and/or Tweet me @ryanblair.

Watch the Bloomberg and WPIX interviews below.
Read the AOL Jobs article here.
Read the ViSalus Press Release here.

Ryan Blair on Bloomberg TV

Ryan Blair on WPIX

It’s not about finding balance; it’s about finding imbalance and adjusting.

For instance, one of the biggest sources of imbalance in a business owner’s life is time management. In my book Nothing to Lose, Everything to Gain, I included a chapter called “First Things First” where I talk about setting your priorities straight so you can reach your goals. My first goal as an entrepreneur was financial freedom. So I sat in front of that ‘mirror’ and asked myself what I needed to overcome to achieve that goal.

My biggest struggle was focus (because of my ADD) and staying consistent. I had a hard time compartmentalizing my time between work, family, and fun. All the societal, employee minded rules—you’re supposed to be at the office at 8am, weekends are for fun, nighttime is for family—didn’t work for me. They don’t work for most entrepreneurs, and likely these rules don’t work for you either, otherwise you wouldn’t be reading this post.

I was raised by a struggling single mother who escaped an abusive marriage split apart by drug addiction and alcoholism, and we lived in abject poverty until we were rescued by the man she eventually married, my stepfather and mentor Bob Hunt. With the work ethic instilled in me by my new father, I got off the streets, went back to school, and worked my way up in a company within a short period of time, before starting my own business and selling it for an absurd amount of money at the age of 25. You better believe I went out and partied like a rock star. I made great relationships along the way and I had a lot of fun, but eventually the imbalance started to prevent other pieces of my life from functioning efficiently. Not to mention that I ran out of money, and had creditors calling me around the clock. It was effectively my first lesson in time management. I had to go back to that mirror, rest and recuperate, adjust, and start over financially, and take a personal loan out at a very high interest rate as my last ditch effort toward my next entrepreneurial goal. This was a major adjustment period in my life.

After selling SkyPipeline, I was an employee for a short period of time within the company, until I could no longer tolerate the constraint of working for my new bosses, and launched another business. A short while (and a false start) later I became the CEO of ViSalus. As a result of my adjusting, experimenting, and tweaking, now I have an effective 24-hour a day lifestyle. I see my life as a whole, in its entirety, with all the compartments integrated. Everything I do is an entrepreneurial endeavor and my focus follows. My passion for my business ventures runs rampant in all aspects of my life, and I dream of business even during my average of four hours of sleep a night.

I have found my definition of true entrepreneurship, where the journey, not the destination, is the reward.

Now, instead of feeling guilty about being too social, I’m getting entrepreneurial results while I’m out being social. I’ve hired and done business with a variety of associates I’ve met at social events, whether it’s the CEO of a fortune 500 company, or an employee I’ve eventually hired—having fun isn’t a detriment to being productive. My employees even call me the Chief Entertainment Officer. This is called title, job, and life integration, and it’s fun. I prefer being called socially-made as opposed to self-made.

In Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers, he talks about putting in your 10,000 hours, the necessary time and practice it takes to master any given skill. Most people don’t put in 10,000 hours because their time is compartmentalized. When you’re working 24-hours a day at becoming a multimillionaire entrepreneur, logging those 10,000 becomes a lot easier. For instance, as I’m writing this, I have a bevy of my employees in my New York penthouse. That way I get to spend time with my friends, my son, and my family, while I’m working. And by the way, you shouldn’t hire someone you wouldn’t want to have hanging out in your penthouse. As a socially made entrepreneur, you should only hire people you’d like to spend the majority of your time with. So, if you wouldn’t take your employee out for a drink, then don’t hire him.

Today I’ve reached the point where I can jump on a jet, at any time, and go hang out on an island if I feel like it, without risking my business. But after attaining financial independence and time freedom, I’ve started to ask myself—what is it all for? So, my next goal is giving back. Now I teach others to do what I have done, whether that’s learning how to manage your time or think like an entrepreneur. I believe that we will take nothing with us when our days are over, so why not leave behind a better world? And that’s why I became an author. Because if one person successfully changes his or her life by reading my book or through one of the charitable foundations I’ve created or endowed, then, to me, it’s all worth all the time I am granted in this world.

So, what does this mean for you?

It means you need to find your rhythm and adjust to your imbalances as I noted above. The success of every entrepreneur is rooted in that. Once you find it, you can maximize it and use it to achieve whatever it is that you desire. It doesn’t mean that it will come easy, but if it truly matters to you, then you can find a way. Don’t give up… keep going… you have everything to gain.

Never have I seen the American public so disgusted with our Congress, Wall Street and the large corporations. Partisan politics, negative campaigning and seemingly no control over big business is literally sickening everyone.

I plead with you to lead the way in cleansing a system that is totally out of control.

Americans are not only fed up with the greed, the lies and the cheating but they are angry.

Please serve as a beacon light to change a system that so begrudgingly accepts change.

150 years ago, British historian Thomas Macaulay made this dire prediction for America,

“Your civilization will be destroyed in the 20th century, as Rome was in the 5th century. But the huns and vandals which will destroy you will come from within, from your own institutions.”

Yes, I know this is the 21st century but we had better wake up and demand that our Congress start putting the country first or his prediction could come true.

J. Paul Getty many years ago said,

“I fear that unless there are many drastic changes in both basic philosophies and actual practices in every sector of human existence, our society will deteriorate and decline. It may well be wracked with upheavals far greater than any in previous history. It could, and I do not take the possibility lightly, be totally destroyed.”

I now ask you, will you just read this and delete it or will you try to do something about it?

It has been said that nobody makes a greater mistake than someone who did nothing because he could do only a little.

Please contact your congressman and demand change or vote them out of office.

I have traveled in 90 countries throughout the world and fully realize there is no better place to live but if we truly want to make this a better place to live we should follow Gandhi’s advice,

“We must be the change we wish to see.”

When I was visiting Auschwitz I was appalled by seeing what one human being could do to another and thought how could this be possible. As I was leaving I saw a small plaque which gave me the answers, it said,

“The road to Auschwitz was built by hate but paved with indifference.”

We no longer can be indifferent to the ills of our society. Always remember when truth is in danger, silence equals guilt.

Great social transformation such as the end of slavery, the women’s and Civil Rights movements and the end of colonial rule all began with public awareness and engagement. Political leaders followed rather than led. A few courageous and committed people fed up with the system brought about the change.

I sincerely hope that you will be stimulated to do something constructive and demand that we return to the principles that made this country the best in the world.

The system in Washington, D.C. and the large corporations in this country are corrupt. It is rigged by the powerful special interest groups to benefit the very few at the expense of the many.

William Bennett in his book, Death of Outrage said,

“The leader must be whole, he cannot have his public character be honest and his private character be dishonest.”

We are to blame for many of our current problems because we have not demanded enough from those in powerful positions.

All of us Americans have a duty to end the corruption, greed, ineptness, and cronyism that have dominated the political and corporate world for far too many years.

What we desperately need today on all fronts are men and women willing to stand up for decency, truth, integrity, morality, law and order and who will respond to their conscience even when it is unpopular to do so especially when it is unpopular to do so.

So now the question is, can we change a sick system?

The answer is emphatically YES but only if we are vigilant, committed, disciplined, determined, and courageous enough to demand good ethics and honorable leadership.

The idea of saviors has been built into our entire culture. We have learned to look to stars, leaders, and experts in every field, thus surrendering our own strength, demeaning our own ability and causing us not to act when we see incompetence, dishonesty, and injustices.

Abraham Lincoln warned us when he said,

“At what point is the approach of danger to be expected, if it is to reach us it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of free men we must live through all time or die by suicide.”

If you have had enough please let your voice be heard.