Personal Success & Business Success Consultants - JLM & Associates

2009-06-07T13:25:00.001-07:00

We Make Ourselves

There is a couplet of Shakespear which goes: “It hath been taught use from the primal state / That he which is / was wished until he were.” And Manas adds: “Men make themselves.

We make ourselves, as persons, all the years of our lives, as a species, all the years of human history. What we wish will come. Remember how we could wish for something and have it come true. As adults, we do that. Sometimes we live to rue the day, and wish we could get our real wishes; we become the living embodiment of them.

That's why we know that the things on which scientists and engineers are working on today will eventually come about. We have never put an idea into the realm of possibility, and set out to work on it, which has not come about.

Today, we can walk on the moon, see different galaxies, and have an actual station in space. We can build artificial limbs, cure diseases and even some cancers. We can communicate verbally as well as visually instantly around the world via the Internet.

We make terrible and painful mistakes as we move onwards into time, fashioning our own world in the way in which we think it will best do the job. We often work at cross purposes and come to ruinous clashes, but our intention, as humans, is good. We really seek what is good, what is best for us. And because we do, we will in time achieve the kind of world we all want.

None of us now living may see it, but it's in the works, I truly believe. Everything in nature struggles upward, all humans included. Most of us want what is best, what is good, for ourselves, and our families. We are stopped most often by the anarchy of nations and by those who seek power, who think that they know what's best for us and that we don't.

But despite coming through the bloodiest century in the history of mankind, what we are making of ourselves is better than what we've been. We see a new social consciousness everywhere. People are beginning to care what happens to other people. It's almost as though, for the first time, they're beginning in really large numbers to realize that we're all part of the same family.

We make ourselves, collectively and individually. If we relinquish control over our own lives and just drift with the crowd, it is still our decision to do so.

When I mentioned that we would achieve the kind of world we want, I did not mean to indicate that we'll be happy with it when we get it; we'll probably wont' be satisfied and looking for some kind of new way. Perfection is an ideal impossible to achieve, so we'll always have something to strive toward. It's in the striving that we grow and in which lies our hope for the future.

Each of us is, at this moment, the sum total of his or her thoughts to this point. We make ourselves; through our wishes, through our real desires, through our daily thinking.

2009-05-03T13:29:00.000-07:00

How To Win An Argument Every Time

Some friends and I were talking this past week about how to avoid arguments. The answer is to ask questions, to make the other person define his or her terms and prove his or her point, and usually the argument will evaporate before it really begins.

That's the way to win an argument without having to argue at all. Just be gentle and wise as to how you go about it. Under no circumstances, tell a person he or she is wrong. No one likes to be told, emphatically and finally, “You are wrong.” It burns the person's ego; it makes him or her feel smaller and want to spoil for a fight and jump into a heated argument.

If you let the other person do the talking, you inflate his or her ego; listening is the direct opposite of arguing. You don't have to agree with everything the other person says but your willingness to listen makes the person know that you understand, or at least, will attempt to understand his or her point of view.

When you argue with a person, you are attacking his or her ego, which goes off the instant an outsider touches it. However, if you admit that the other person is right on small, insignificant points, you'll find yourself getting your own way on the big issues.

Arguments always tend to wander away from the main issues and get cluttered up with trifling connections to which you can yield gracefully without sacrificing your main convictions. By conceding points that don't matter, you'll get credit for being broad-minded, and this keeps the other person more reasonable.

Have you ever noticed how voices rise higher and higher during arguments? Have you ever been trapped into making rash statements and displaying bad manners? No wonder. Your system was full of adrenaline; you were ready for a fight. But at the same time, you'd sidetracked your capacity for straight thinking.

Benjamin Franklin once said that the ability to remain calm when the other person disagrees with you is the loftiest human accomplishment. He also said that the way to convince another is to state your case moderately and accurately. Then scratch your head, or shake it a little, and say, that is the way it seems to you, but that, of course, you may be mistaken about it. This, then, causes you listener to receive what you have to say and, like it or not have to turn around and convince you of it, since you seem to be in some doubt. But if you go at the person in a tone of positiveness and arrogance, you only make an opponent of him or her.

This was the kind of tact and good judgment that Franklin made one of the greatest sales in history. He sold a group of men the idea of adopting, and signing the Constitution of the United States.

2009-03-22T08:07:00.000-07:00

It Comes Down To Excellence

Here are few reminders for those of us who expect to survive and prosper in the world of business, and advice for the person who plans to go into business for him or herself or rise in the ranks of their current corporation.

The first piece of advice is to accept the fact that people do not need what you have to sell them. You may think they do, but they don't. Accept the fact that needs are not important, but that wants are very important. Millions of people ought to have what you are selling, but until you make them want what you have, they will never buy it.

Remember this: If someone is made to want something badly enough, nothing in the world can stand in the way of him or her getting it. Nothing happens until someone sells something. The salesperson, the want-creator is a very important person.

It's good, isn't it? Sometimes we forget who the salesperson is. The salesman or woman is the person with the briefcase getting on the plane, and visiting your office.

But the salesperson is also the man or woman behind the door marked “President.” And he or she is the person burning the midnight oil at the advertising agency who knows the truth of advertising great, Leo Burnett's comment that “Any fool can write a bad ad, but it takes a real genius to keep his hands of a good one.”

It was also Leo Burnett who said, “After all the meetings are over, the phones have stopped ringing and the vocalizing has died down, somebody finally has to get out an ad, often after hours. Somebody has to stare at a blank piece of paper. This is probably the very height of lonesomeness. Out of the recesses of his mind must come words which interest, words which persuade, words which inspire, words which sell. Magic words. I regard him as the man of the hour in our business today."

And the former president of BBD&O, Charles Brower once wrote: “When you try to formalize or socialize creative activity, the only sure result is commercial constipation. The good ideas are all hammered out in agony by individuals, not spewed out by groups.”

This should be of particular interest to the modern business owner or executive who carries the delegation of authority to the point where even he or she expects all good ideas to come from minds other than his or her own.

In the end, the formula remains the same today: Excellence in every department of your business. Excellence renewed every day.

We all know, really, what it takes to succeed in the world today. But it's good to be reminded once in while to re-affirm our belief and start looking in corners for signs of the dust of complacency.

2009-01-04T14:33:00.001-08:00

Only One Enemy

Each of us has only one enemy, himself or herself; an enemy difficult to ignore and full of cunning.

And no one knows their enemy better than the person who must manage his or her own time. For example, a salesperson working on commission, or a person trying to break a bad habit or lose weight.

One of the hardest things a person can do is to look at himself or herself objectively, realistically, without self-glorification, deception, or despair. An analysis of yourself can pay rich dividends in a variety of ways: increased effectiveness and impact on others, better personal relationships, and greater personal fulfillment

Getting to know yourself is not simple. Psychologists agree that each of us builds up a strong network of defenses which act to protect us from others and, incidentally, ourselves.

All of us are born into this world helpless and dependent. In order to survive, we need to lean on others. The child growing up learns to turn to mother not only for comforts of physical help, but for the rewarding comfort of approval.

As we grow older, we continue the search for approval from the widening circle around us. We want friends not only to like us, but to approve of what we do. In their approval, we find assurance of our own worth.

So great is the human need for love and approval that we will often deceive ourselves, if necessary, rather than face the fact that we might now deserve it. Undisguised, our behavior might not always merit approval all of us do things that are inconsiderate, unkind, and downright cruel. But rather than face ourselves in an unkindly light, even to our own eyes, we unconsciously will protect our image of ourselves.

We rationalize. We say, “I did it because,” providing supposedly good and substantial reasons for our behavior. We protect, disowning the fault and seeing it as the other person's problem. We displace by blaming someone else for our own faults that we can't accept. We compensate by stretching ourselves in one area when we have failed in another.

Our defenses serve two purposes. First, they represent an attempt to prove to others that we're really fine people, and anything we do wrong is done for the right reason, they help us to deceive ourselves.

Know your enemy, and you can overcome him or her. Know yourself, the ancient advice still heads the list, and perhaps you can overcome the only real enemy you have: yourself.

2008-11-26T15:46:00.000-08:00

If you take everything that's been said or written on human achievement, analyze and study it long enough, you'll be left with two vital factors. Two factors that every person needs to live a successful and happy life.

Do you know what the two factors are? The first is a goal; the second is creative thinking. This is why anyone can be successful; these two factors are there for the asking for every human being. They're free and they can lead us to the life we want. Sure, this is an oversimplification, but after everything else has been taken away, these two factors are all anyone needs for success.

First the goal; you decide what it is you want. Once this is established, the mind comes into play. For example, if a child wants to fly an airplane, he simply turns to his imagination, and away he goes. His goal is to fly, and in an instant he's doing it.

If he still has that goal as an adult, his mind draws him to learn. Soon, he's flying with an instructor; later, without one. If his goal is to build a better plane, well, that's tougher, but well within the ball park. He can do that too. He can become an aeronautical engineer and work on a new generation of airplanes.

It is the misunderstanding of the importance of these two factors that keeps millions living far below their true potential for living. If a person has a goal and doesn't understand the importance of creative thinking, the importance of his or her mind, the goal becomes and daydream, a harmless fantasy.

There is a place for daydreams and fantasy in our lives, and we all indulge in them, but we need to understand that with just these two factors, goal setting and creative thinking, there are few things that we can seriously consider that we cannot achieve. The important thing is to be able to distinguish between what is achievable and what is fantasy.

So, whether it's finding the right person to marry or the right job, or achieving a particular position in life, or earning a certain income, or owning a particular home, or playing golf in the middle eighties, whatever it may be, the odds are overwhelmingly in our favor if we stick with our goal and bring the full power of our mind to bear.

We have only to give it all we have to give, for a sufficient length of time, for it to be ours; really ours, not in fantasy, but in truth, in fact.

You can have anything you want in this life, within reason. The problem is, most people don't know what they really want. They never really decide on a goal, or, at least seldom do and then stay with it until it's achieved.

2008-10-05T19:28:00.001-07:00

Great Ideas

We often hear or read of people saying their idea or ideas have been stolen by someone, or large corporation, and complaining because they have not been properly compensated.

In the first place, if you've got what you believe is a valuable idea, apply for patent. Just call an attorney that specializes in intellectual property. If you're not willing to invest money in your own idea, it's best to give it away. Besides, what did the idea cost you?

Several years ago I sent an idea to one of the major car companies just to see how they would respond to it. My idea was to put some sort of electronic attention-getting device on cars when they back up, similar to warnings made when commercial vehicles back-up.

I felt maybe an idea like this could prevent a tragedy or even save the life of a playing child or a sleeping pet, to say nothing about hurting someone in a parking lot.

To make a long story short, I sent the idea. My letter was returned to me with a note that I should include proof of a patent or a copy of my patent application before submitting an idea. I didn't even get a thank you.

Most companies have many ideas already in their files that they have never bothered to develop. I can get ideas all the time and so can you. What's an idea worth? It's worth nothing at all unless we put it into action ourselves, or try to patent or copyright it.

It's no big deal. Just call an attorney, get a book on the subject or check out one of the many legal services available on the Internet.

One idea can make you millions if you put it to work and have enough faith in it to take some risks. I've received hundreds of ideas over my career from people to the effect that they have a great idea for a book, and why don't I write it? Why don't they write it?

Everything you see, buy, or use was once an idea in someone's head. Companies don't steal our ideas. They're usually getting along fine without them. If you get an idea you think might solve a problem, get it patented immediately.

Getting ideas is much like making a discovery: It can be worth a little or a great deal or nothing at all. Ideas are responsible for everything we see around us, the music we hear, the clothes we wear, everything that wasn't already here when we showed up.

Ideas can fill our lives with meaning and joy and love, as well as their opposites. If we're idea people, it shows in every department of our lives.

2008-09-15T18:31:00.000-07:00

The Reasons Why People Fail

Have you ever wondered why people fail? Here are the 10 most common reasons I have found during my career. Make sure you're not making any of these mistakes:

1. The misunderstanding or ignorance of the universal law behind success of any kind, which is, simply, that you have to give before you can expect to get; and you will receive in direct proportion to how much of yourself that you give. Your rewards will be in exact proportion to your service. Some may not like this universal law, but that doesn't change it. If you want to increase your income, you must increase your service to others.

2. The inability to concentrate on what is really important and what isn't. Give the great majority of your attention to the really important matters, delegate the details, and use your spare time for things that you enjoy.

3. The lack of organization. Make certain you know exactly where you're going, and plan to work to get the most out of your time and abilities.

4. One of the greatest causes of failure is thinking you can ever stop learning and trying new and better methods. Would you buy stock in a company that closed its research and development department? Of course not. Your continuing education is your own personal research and development, without it, you can't expect to grow.

5. The loss of faith in what you're doing, or in yourself. If you do not sincerely believe in what you're doing, if you lack faith in it, get out of it and into something that you can throw all your heart, talents and abilities.

6. Clinging to the status quo. Many people try to hang on to what they have and don't realize that the only thing upon which they can definitely count on is change. The world is changing every day, and more rapidly than at any time in its history. Welcome change, because it brings with it new opportunities for growth and expansion.

7. Forgetting who the boss really is, don't ever forget that throughout your working life, no matter what job you have, your boss is always the customer. The customer is king. Customers will continue to spend their money on the products and services you deliver if you earn and continue to earn their confidence and respect. You won't get one cent from a customer if you fail to earn it. That is the way it should be.

8. Another great cause of failure is thinking you should do just what you absolutely have to and no more. It doesn't work. You have to do more than you're being paid to do. Go the extra mile in everything you do.

9. A lack of understanding. At regular intervals, you need to take stock of your strengths and weaknesses, and work to strengthen both.

10. Giving up too soon. Never give up; persistence is still the most important ingredient for achievement.

Ten reasons for failure: For every one of them, there are a hundred ways to succeed by sticking with the universal rules. Success is really nothing more than knowing where you're going and making the best possible use of what you have.

2008-09-01T13:06:00.000-07:00

Assessing Management Potential

We live in a new age of identity in which your employees, customers, investors and stakeholders care about what your company really is.

Good management always makes a difference. It can turn a company around and positively impact the entire organization.

What should you look for in younger people coming into the business world when it comes to management potential? A college degree or even an MBA in business management is really the least of the qualifications you should be looking for.

Here are 13 variables to management potential:

Personal Impact: Forcefulness. How forceful an early impression does he or she make? Consider the impression he or she made on you.

Oral Communications Skills: How effectively does the person express himself or herself? Consider ease of expression, correct use of English, vocabulary, precision in explaining views, vocal clarity and tonal quality.

Human Relations Skills: How well can this person get people to perform effectively by good human-relations techniques? Sincerity is very important.

Personal Impact and Likability: How likable an early impression does he or she make? Consider the impression he or she made on you. Did you tend to like or dislike him or her?

Behavior Flexibility: How readily can the person when motivated, modify his or her behavior to reach a goal? Consider tendencies to persevere and frequency with which he or she has adapted to change circumstances.

Need Approval of Superiors: To what extent does the person seek approval of persons in authority over him or her? Consider his or her dependence on superiors for help and guidance, as well as tendencies to solicit praise and support for them.

Tolerance of Uncertainty: To what extent will his or her work performance stand up under certain or unstructured conditions? Consider person's need for structure and the impact of lack of structure on his or her behavior.

Inner Work Standards: To what extent will he or she want to do a good job even if less is acceptable.

Primacy of Work: To what extent will he or she find satisfactions from work more important than satisfaction from other areas of life?

Energy: How continuously can he or she sustain a high level of work activity?

Goal Flexibility: To what extent will he or she be able to change his or her life goals in accordance with reality's opportunities? Consider what the person says are his or her goals and his or her commitment to them.

Other points to look for are; what is the person's need for advancement, need for security, social objectivity that is how free is the person from prejudices against racial, ethnic, socioeconomic, educational and other kinds of groups? Does the person have the ability to delay gratification?

Finally, what is the person's range of interests? To what extent is he or she interested in a variety of fields of human activity such as science, politics, sports, music, art, etc? Consider his or her leisure time activities, hobbies, reading habits and community activities.

Whether you're interviewing for a managerial job or you are the one looking for a management position, you should take note. Each of these 13 variables together is critical for great management. If just one is missing you do not have management potential.

2008-07-30T19:51:00.000-07:00

Why People Remain Ignorant

I'd like to start this week's blog by asking you a few questions: Why are so many people unemployed? Why are so many people unhappy with their lives? Why don't more people accomplish more with their lives? Why do most people unnecessarily limit their lives to only a small fraction of what they could have?

The answer is the same for all the questions. It's because most people are, as general rule, so uniformly ignorant. It seems that people have built-in resistance to knowledge. And in my opinion there are two main reasons people why people don't want to keep themselves well informed:

First, people don't seem to understand how profitable knowledge can be to them in every way; how it can enlarge their horizons, give them more zest, charm and interest to their lives; and how it can improve their incomes and standards of living.

Second, they live in fear that they might learn something that would upset some of their pet beliefs. They would much rather close their eyes and cling to their superstitions and prejudices than run the risk of having to admit they might have been wrong. The easiest way to spot the person with a small, closed mind is by his or her refusal to ever admit he or she was wrong about something.

I've never been able to understand this. What's wrong with being wrong? The only thing that's wrong with it is to cling to it regardless of the evidence.

The person who has never admitted to others that he or she has been wrong about something, or refuses to admit it to himself or herself, is sick. No one can go through life without being wrong about hundreds of things. Because of the constantly changing world we live in, there is probably not a human being alive on earth who is not wrong about 60 percent or more of what he or she believes in.

Reading and learning the thoughts of the great minds past and present; keeping an open mind to all information; actively pursuing knowledge as the answer to success in all areas of our lives, this is the mark of the person who, during his or her lifetime, has a chance to reach fulfillment, to really succeed as a person.

This type of a person will also tend to have a better sense of humor, be more agreeable, more forgiving, and more open minded.

People must understand that knowledge can set them free; that it is good, not bad; that we should embrace it, not be suspicious of it. What most people call living is only an appetizer, while the real life, like a great feast, goes unnoticed and unsatisfied before them.

Unless you're smarter today than you were yesterday, you've got a problem. And if you learn only from experience, or from that which comes to you as a part of daily life with no other effort on your part, you're missing out, and you have no one to blame but yourself.

2008-06-24T17:44:00.000-07:00

Keep Your Life In The Proper Perspective

When a person is busy working toward economic well-being, that is, getting a nice house, food on the table, an education, good health care and so on, often times the individual is too busy working toward these goals to worry about other important things.

It's at this time that the person is most productive and innocently engaged toward his or her own good, but what happens after the goal has been reached? When that person achieves financial freedom and becomes affluent, when all the economic goals have been reached, what then?

During my career I have given many talks to high school and college students and I often find students that are not happy with their life, and many of them surprisingly will blame their parents for their problems. On the other hand I've often heard my friends and clients voice disappointment in their children.

I think this disappointment stems from a lack of understanding on the part of people in different age groups not understanding one another. For example, parents who work hard so that their children can have all the things they themselves never had are often amazed that their children could care less. They are also shocked discover that the easy life they have provided for the kids, when they themselves had to get out and work at an early age, did not produce conscientious, hard working people like themselves, but just the opposite.

People who reach their goals are often unsatisfied. For example, a man or woman who hasn't planned beyond retirement. The person now has the rest of his or her life and doesn't know what to do and therefore finds the rest of life very unfulfilling.

Economic goals are excellent and you must have them. We all must earn a living before we can look beyond our daily income to other meaningful accomplishments, but to not look beyond economic goals, to not have economic goals in the proper perspective is to miss a great deal of living.

For example, parents will often think and sometimes say to their children, especially when the children are in their more-difficult teens, “Look what we've given you; a fine home, good clothes, good food, good schools, vacations, a car, spending money, everything a young person could want.”

But all this isn't everything a young person could want and that's the trouble. In the hierarchy of needs, once security and want have been satisfied, it is perfectly natural for a young adult to look for something else. It's not the teen's fault that once his or her material needs have been met the he or she is not satisfied completely.

Parents too will often find new dissatisfaction, new arguments and new problems once the children are gone off to college or have moved out on their own. For example, one of the parents might think or say, “I wish we could go back to the time when were living in that small apartment, when we wondered where out next meal was coming from. We were really happy then.” Yes, they were happy then, because people are happiest when they're striving toward identifiable goals, when they know what it is they're trying to accomplish.

They are least happy when all their needs are taken care of and all the fun has been taken out of striving. That's when they become unhappy, lethargic, critical and often develop a sense of entitlement.

Are your goals in the proper perspective? How would you feel if you achieved them tomorrow? Remember to set some goals for your own health and peace of mind. For example, how about, “I will laugh a lot this year, or I will spend more time with my kids.”

2008-05-05T09:48:00.000-07:00

The Power Of Belief

One of the most difficult things to teach, and because of this, the most difficult thing for someone to learn is the all powerful force of faith or belief.

Faith is a power that every person has, but which few people use. No one has a monopoly on faith. In other words one person possesses the power of faith above another, or to a greater degree. Everyone has it, since we all live and have a consciousness. The question then is not: Do you have the power? It is merely; Are you using it correctly?

When you discover the extent of your powers, by the conscious and correct use of faith or belief, or whatever you want to call it, you find that there has been introduced an entirely new set of laws into your experience.

New to your experience, yes, but the laws are not new themselves. When you discover what the power of belief can mean, how it can revolutionize your life for the better, you will at first be astounded until you realize that your life had been operating on the same principle all along.

The difference is that when you understand and use this power for good to achieve your goals, while other people who don't understand use this same power to hold themselves back, to limit themselves, and to live a sort of half-life.

It would be a great surprise to most people to discover that the very law which now holds them back, holds them in a kind of bondage, is the very law which could free them if they just used it in a slightly different way.

To illustrate this point let's look for example, at a sailboat. With a sailboat, you can go east or west, steer into the rocks, or bring the boat gently to anchor at the dock, all with the same wind, blowing in the same direction. It's all up to you and the way you steer.

In the Bible it says “Go thy way; and thou hast believed, so be it done unto thee.” I think this is a wonderful summary of belief or faith because it says; as he believes, so is it done unto him, but the power of belief is with him, it's his sailboat, and it's his hand on the wheel whether he knows it or not, or whether he likes it or not.

The same force that leads one person into fulfillment, happiness and abundance unfortunately keeps another person muddling through life with no purpose or reason, fearful, afraid and often bitter.

The tragedy of it is that the world could be his if only he understood that most difficult thing, to teach or learn; that we become what we think about most of the time; that as we believe, so it is done unto us.

2008-04-20T16:32:00.000-07:00

What Business Executives Do

In this year's highly charged political atmosphere corporations and especially the executives of those corporations are being made out to be villains. As people who don't work hard. Many in our society think that all business executives do, is play golf, take vacations, and make exorbitant salaries at the expense of the public.

In reality nothing could be farther from the truth.

What does the average business executive do? They read. They read reports and articles about their business, and very often they write an article or report. Good business executives read a lot more and have a library of books and other materials pertaining to their business and industry, to their specialty, whether it's sales, engineering, finance, or whatever.

They subscribe to various trade journals and read the financial and businesses sections of various newspapers every day. Business executives produce nothing of value themselves, except by indirection. What they do is manage the efforts of others.

Sometimes they watch others as they manage themselves and hope for the best, but their function is leadership, meetings, visits with suppliers, with dealers and distributors, with members of the financial community.

Talking is the chief job of a business executive. Talking is an exercise of the mouth and tongue and certain parts of the brain, depending on the executive you're thinking about.

Good business executives listen more than they talk because they know they can't learn anything when they're talking. In fact, you can judge the real effectiveness of executives by the ratio of their listening to talking. They listen, asking penetrating questions, and then listen some more. Usually what they are listening to is a proposal that must get their Ok before it can put into operation.

Every sort of productive activity that takes the form of numbers of people working toward a common goal demands a business executive, a director. They are as necessary to humanity as is the importance of the function they direct. Their efforts are directed toward the accomplishment of important goals, and toward those ends, they direct the work of others.

That's what good business executives do!

The tools of business executives are their brains and their words. To the extent that they work to develop both will they know success and the many perquisites of a business executive's job.

2008-03-09T14:33:00.000-07:00

The Key To Happiness

To me, there's no more interesting subject than what a person does, how his or her life is spent. The average working person today will spend an average of 50 years in the workforce. That's a long time and it's important! In fact 50 years is the average life expectancy for people living outside the North American continent.

But with a life expectancy of almost 80 years, the fortunate North American will spend at least 50 of his or her years holding down some kind of a job.

If he or she works 40 hours a week and averages 50 weeks a year, he or she will work about 100,000 hours during his or her lifetime. Quite a bit of time, so much time, in fact, that it becomes very important as to just how it's spent. It's too much time to waste and far too much time to be spent doing something we don't like to do.

But did you know that surveys have indicated that, an average of 60 percent of the working people today are not happy with their work? And the same surveys showed that an additional 20 percent are not sure, or don't particularly care one way or the other.

What makes matters worse is that studies show that the average non-professional college graduate today will have an average 12 to 14 different jobs in his or her working lifetime.

We've all been it work, at some time or another, that we didn't like. Even the work we do like has its own unpleasant parts. But it has always seemed to me to be an incalculable waste for someone to spend 50 years working at one particular job or going from job to job that he or she does not like, nor finds interesting.

I've said this many times before, but I think it bears repeating: The happiest people in the world are those who do for a living that which they'd be doing anyway, even if they didn't have to work. And they're not just the happiest, they're the most productive.

When you're happy and truly fulfilled with your work it spreads to all the other areas of your life; your family and friends. You want to share with others around you. Money is not a dominant issue in your life.

In this group you can list the world's best scientists, writers, teachers, accountants, lawyers, doctors and entrepreneurs. They find interest, enjoyment and fulfillment in their work and wouldn't trade places with any other person on earth. You'll find them in show business, in the world of sports; they are bus drivers, auto mechanics, plumbers and construction workers.

There's an easy way to spot them; they're good at what they do. You'll never find a person who likes what he or she is doing who isn't good at it. Or, if you'll give him or her enough time, he or she will become good at it.

Finding the right work for us is like finding the right shoes. They're wonderfully comfortable when the fit is right, and we're seldom unaware of the discomfort or pain if it isn't.

2008-02-04T17:34:00.000-08:00

Things People Need To Know

Contrary to what the news media, politicians and the special interest groups would have you believe; every person in this country does get an education. He or she gets it at home, away from home, in school, through his or her conversations with others, and from the books he or she reads.

The amount of knowledge obtained varies widely with each individual and to a large extent, reflects their desires, interests and is in keeping, as a rule with the size of their goals, if they have goals. All of this constitutes what we know.

By and large, with most people, their knowledge is heterogeneous, covering a wide range of things. Their knowledge may consist of facts and real information, half truths, superstitions, out-dated beliefs, and so on.

Let's look at few things most people do not know; things which, if known, would dramatically change their lives for the better.

* Most people really don't know that life can be an enormously rich and rewarding experience, and a lot of fun.

* Most people don't realize or fully understand that they are in control of their own lives and that their daily environment is nothing more than their own accurate reflection of themselves. In fact, the majority of people will call you an liar on this one, but it's true all the same.

* Most people don't know where they're really going.

* Most people don't know that everyone has within them deep reservoirs of ability, even genius that he or she habitually fails to use.

*Most people don't know how little they know, and as result, generally believe that an education stops with graduation from school, the exact point where it really should begin.

* Most people believe that their lives are shaped by events and forces over which they have no control. That they are in effect pushed around by fate, circumstances, luck or lack of it.

* Most people seem to resent and fear change. They seem to be basically suspicious of anything new or different and suppose it will be for the worse.

* Most people emulate the people whom they associate with in the misguided conception that these people know how to live successfully. As a result they don't even play follow the leader; they play follow the follower in kind of circular game that can only come back again to the beginning, if it ever leaves the beginning.

* Most people look upon their work as a necessary evil. They long for quitting time, weekends and vacations and then they don't know what to do with their leisure time. They don't realize that the majority of their work and satisfaction and all of their success will come from their work.

Well, today I gave you a list of things most people don't know. Things which, if they were only understood, could change a person's life dramatically for the better and result in the individual achieving far more than he or she could have dreamed possible.

2008-01-22T17:23:00.000-08:00

What The Goals Of A Good Education Should Be

Education is the key to success. With a good education a person's future regardless of race or gender is unlimited, but without it there is no way a person can succeed.

With this being an election year our education system is at the forefront of attention and rightfully so, because it is failing in some many areas. I'd like to list what I feel the goals of a good education should be:

1. To learn to understand, appreciate and take care of the natural world we live in. Most people go through life unaware of the fascinating and complex events around them, of climate and terrain and vegetation and animals and people and their interrelatedness. People of all ages need to know not only what the environment is like but how to keep it habitable.

2. To understand, appreciate and learn to live with the people from every country. Every child must learn about the races of the world and rich variety of the world's cultures. Students must learn about the history of humankind and of nations. They must learn that there are many people in the world today who differ from them profoundly in habits, ideas and ways of life, but perceive these differences not as reason for uneasiness or hostility, but as challenges to their capacity for understanding.

3. Every student should have an area of aesthetic experience, which includes religion and spirituality. The significances, the meanings we perceive, are private. Students need to learn how to give themselves some kind of beauty and order so that they can not only enrich their own lives but also contribute more to the lives of others.

4. Everyone must be capable of earning a living. Students need to learn about business and finances. They need to have entrepreneurial skills as well as how to manage and invest their money. These skills can be learned in school or out of school, and at any level, from humble work to highly paid, professional skills. Throughout all of high schools and colleges there needs to be a strong and active relationship between the academic world and the world where people make a living.

5. I have saved for the last that which I regard as the most important of all, namely, the leaning of some kind of critical or intellectual method. Bombarded daily with millions of word by print and electronic media we all have to have some kind of critical method by means of which to decide whom and what to believe, and to what degree. Students must given a chance to see both sides of every issue so that they are able to make an objective decision.

In summary, the five goals of education should be (1) our world, (2) the world's people, (3) an area of aesthetic experience, the search for order, (4) earning a living, and (5) learning a critical or intellectual method, a way of sorting the important and the true from the unimportant and the false.

2007-11-20T17:35:00.000-08:00

Why We Should Always Want More

The thing that gives our society its energy, excitement, and constant change is the fact that we're a people who are never satisfied with what we've got. And that's good!

Societies that become satisfied and content with what they've got tend to stagnate. You can see this in the United States by comparing certain parts of the country and different cities and towns. The people in them tend to want and expect their financial security to come from government programs. They're not interested in new ideas. Instead, they're suspicious and often hostile to anyone who tries to tell them that they alone are responsible for their own destiny.

These cities and towns right within our own borders, remind me of those foreign countries that have slowed to a standstill because of their socialist policies, but these places are in the minority. Most areas, towns and cities in this country are not content. They're building and growing because that's what the people in them are doing.

What gives this country its vitality is that our people want more. They want to earn more money, do more things, see more places, have more things, play more, do more and be more. When they move, it's usually because they want more room, more property, a bigger house with more rooms and a bigger garage for more cars.

In the Industrial Age it was often the case that because a parent didn't have a college education but had a good and secure job that he or she wouldn't encourage his or her child to do so either, but now that we are in the Information Age we know that our kids have to get more and more education to succeed.

There are those who deplore this drive to have more, but I'm not one of them. You're either growing or you're dying you can't stand still even if you want to. We want more and better products and services, more and more customers, more schools, more teachers. This is the history of man and wherever this spirit has slowed down and stopped, stagnation and rot have set in.

So don't feel guilty if you want more than you've got. It's the natural state of growing, moving and producing human beings, but watch out for complacency. When you stop trying to come up with better ideas, better ways of doing your job and living your life, chances are you've reached your greatest growth and have started going backwards.

As the Italian Author and Philosopher Guissepe Mazzini once wrote, “The moral law of the universe is progress. Every generation that passes idly over the earth without adding to that progress remains uninscribed upon the register of humanity, and the succeeding generation tramples its ashes as dust.”

So, what do you want? Now is a good time to start going after it, to start progressing toward that dream in your heart. It is human to want, to progress, to achieve, to improve, to win. The great writer and poet, Ralph Waldo Emerson brought out this point best when he wrote, “Progress is the activity of today and the assurance of tomorrow.”

A person who is always improving and doing whatever it takes to get better is guaranteed to become a success in whatever he or she sets out to do, but on the other hand a person who is constantly stagnating and never tries to become bettter will always be a failure; for vice, virtue and time are three things that never stand still.

2007-11-08T19:09:00.000-08:00

Planting Seeds Of Dreams

We possess the greatest piece of imagination equipment ever assembled in civilization; it is called the mind. If we were somehow able to access all the computers that exist in the world today, they would not collectively duplicate the intricate thinking and “imagination” of a single human mind.

The tragedy lies in the fact that most people do not apply and use the awesome faculty of the mind in constructive and creative ways. Many, in fact, go through life abusing this wonderful gift.

What can you do to optimize and maximize this most personal and dynamic asset, your mind?

First, you must recognize and respect the mind as a visioning tool, one so powerful that it can make you well or make you ill as Kenneth R. Pelletier pointed out in his outstanding book, Mind as Healer, Mind as Slayer.

In looking at the mind as a positive visioning tool, it is important to appreciate that we are capable of seeing things that are invisible. Things that have not yet occurred can be conceived in your imagination in unlimited dimension and scope. This fact is especially important because your future will be influenced by the thoughts and insights that occur in your mind today.

To foresee what is possible, you must be prepared to step outside of what may be considered current reality. In this context, reality is defined as the convergence point of the feelings that are physically present in our environment and our individual mental attitudes toward those objects.

You can visualize this reality by dreaming. As Victor Hugo said, “There is nothing like dreams to create the future.” Dreams may materialize in different ways and at different times. They may occur in sleep or a relaxation state as the serendipitous incubation or in an intentional altered state of consciousness. All that is needed for a dream to manifest itself is openness of mind and intense faith and belief that the dream will happen.

It is our capacity to dream that creates within every one of us the power to motivate ourselves. If we simply choose to let our imaginations soar free and high with a positive purpose, new ideas and thoughts will present themselves to us in the form of a dream.

The dream seed that is thus subconsciously planted can then be consciously allowed to surface. It is here that we must nurture our dreams to grow into fruitful fields that will yield the pathways to a better tomorrow.

2007-10-16T18:18:00.000-07:00

The Best Investment You Can Make

If you feel your life needs a change for the better, if things seem to have gotten into a rut with nothing much happening, there's one thing that anyone can do and afford irrespective of race, background and economic status. Begin a continuing education program.

Start with history, world history. It's the most fascinating story every written, and it'll spark ideas. Check out a good book on world history at your local public library, or buy one for a bookstore or on the Internet, or if you don't like to read, then, checkout or purchase and audio program.

Then study world religions, another fascinating study. Most people in our society know almost nothing about the great religions of the world, how they began and what they teach. Often time, a person knows practically nothing about his or her own, the one in which he or she was raised.

After getting started with that, start on philosophy. Read or listen to the great philosophers. You can find books and audio programs with the teachings of many of the world's wisest people. After that, tackle business and investment, which are both fascinating studies, not to mention that they are critical for success in today's world.

What you'll be doing is acquiring a first-rate education, and you'll wonder why you didn't find the same subjects interesting back when you were in school.

I guarantee that once you start a program of continuing education such as this, you'll find yourself living in the most interesting world you can imagine and never want to stop learning. You'll be constantly amazed and delighted about what you learn, and you'll wonder why everyone doesn't know how much fun, how rewarding it is, to start getting a real education.

Then, add to the history, religion, philosophy, business and investment, the study of English. After you master the tricky subject of English to the point where you can talk and write with ease and fluency, then, tackle a foreign language, but don't ever be bored.

If you find you don't know what to do some evening or on a Sunday afternoon, reading a book or listening to an audio program on any of these subjects I've mentioned will fill the time interestingly and rewardingly.

You will have invested a few minutes, or an hour or two, in yourself, your mind and in your fortune and your future, and it's the kind of investment you can't lose. Your mind controls your life, present and future. There is no way a life can be better or more enjoyable, or richer that what is stored in the mind.

People will say, “I took those subjects in school,” as though you can finish with a subject in a year or two, complete as you would some special project. You could spend a lifetime of studying any one of the subjects I've mentioned and still find it a rich source of unending enjoyment and discovery.

There is no such thing as an “educated person.” You don't finish an education and then stop learning. Either you're becoming educated or not. The trouble often stems from an unfortunate memory or unrelieved boredom in school. Maybe you were too young to take a real interest in them, maybe it wasn't presented in an interesting way, but the subjects themselves are interesting to anyone who takes the time to read or listen to them, and for the person who has never tired, it opens up an entirely new world, a whole new life.

Look at your private library. Are there books and audio programs on history, philosophy, religion, English, business and investment? If not, take my word for it, they'll represent the best investment you've ever made in time and money.

2007-09-30T11:31:00.000-07:00

How Important Is Money?

Whenever I give a seminar on the subject of “Finding Your Purpose In Life” or I write an article on the subject I inevitably get questions from the audience or emails asking me how I can talk about the importance of making money in the same context. They'll say or write things like, money doesn't buy happiness and it shouldn't be part someone's true purpose.

I always appreciate and welcome these questions and comments, but let me expand on what I mean by the importance of making money. For example, if you live on a remote tropical island, where there's plenty of free fish and coconuts, you're right, money isn't important, but if you live in the industrialized world where money is the medium of exchange, as it is in every industrialized world, then money is important. It is, in fact, extremely important.

It is particularly important to parents who want to send their kids to college; who want to live in a nice home and share in all the abundance of our society. It's important to people who want to travel and see what the rest of the world looks like. People who want to have the things that make living a little easier and more enjoyable, so that they won't grow old before their time through drudgery. People who want to surround themselves with good books, beautiful things, and have their leisure time to develop their minds and spirits.

Anybody who says money isn't important is not living in the real world. Money is every bit as important as air, water and food; you need it to survive in the industrialized world.

I wish people would stop coming up with the old, tired and ridiculous saying that, “money won't buy happiness.” Neither will poverty! Nothing can buy happiness, so that premise is absurd.

One of my favorite quotes is from Abraham Lincoln, who once said, “People are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.” So, since it doesn't make a bit of difference as to how much money you have to determine how happy you'll be, you might just as well have money.

If you have a positive mental attitude toward life, money will make you just that much happier; and if you have a negative attitude toward life in general, at least having money will permit you to be miserable in comfort.

As to how important money is, that's up to each individual. Money and the accumulation of a lot of it can be as important to one person as becoming a champion golfer, or making a world-changing discovery or becoming outstanding in a particular field is to another.

The next time someone tells you that money isn't important, ask that person if he or she would turn down a pay raise or refuse an inheritance. Chances are that person downplays the importance of money because he or she hasn't figured out how to get his or her share.

2007-08-29T17:57:00.000-07:00

What Are Your Core Values?

I recently had lunch with a group of my friends and business associates, the conversation turned a very important but overlooked part of life; it turned to personal core values and why so very few people today have them.

If someone asked you to give him or her, the core values by which you live, could you tell him or her, what they are? Successful people in all walks of life, whether they're students, housewives, employees, business owners, no matter who they are or what they happen to do, really need to have a set of core values to live by.

My friends and I came up with six values we all felt should guide the life of any person who desires to live a successful and happy life. See if you agree with them.

1. Awareness. Without awareness, a person becomes little more than a machine, marking time and living mechanically. You need to be consciously aware of the need to be aware; to notice things, to see things, to be curious, to maintain a youthful zest for what's going on around you; to see the limitless opportunities begging for attention everywhere.

2. Skepticism. You need to have to have a good and healthy skepticism. You need to be a challenger of the way things have been done in the past. All human advancement has been brought about by people who have refused to believe that just because something is done a certain way it is the best way, or even a good way. You need to try to get the facts for yourself instead of just going along with the crowd. If something has always been done a certain way, there's likelihood that it's obsolete.

3. Integrity. You must be a person who others can trust and believe in. You should never compromise with what you believe to be honest, and because of this you will be a person of great value that others can trust implicitly.

4. Courtesy. This is always the mark of a well-rounded, successful person. You should always be courteous to other people no matter who they or what their social or economic status in life is.

5. Learning. You should learn something new every day of your life. You do this because you know that life is a lifetime journey of learning and without knowledge you cannot succeed.

6. Commitment. You commit yourself completely to what you choose to do. Unlike millions of people who have no goals, you put your whole heart and soul into accomplishing what you want.

If you have these six core values you will become outstanding in every area of your life and opportunities will continuously come your way. Whatever you set out to do you'll do to the very best of your ability and you'll do it a little bit better each time.

You may and should have other core values to live by, but I think these six will most certainly guarantee your success and happiness in life.

2007-08-22T17:23:00.000-07:00

Creating Your Own Reality

I have had the opportunity during my 25 year career to meet thousands of people from all over the world and I have found two things to absolutely true time and time again regarding people no matter what their background, education or social status in life.

First, is that the more optimistic a person is the more successful and healthy he or she is likely to become.

Second, is that both optimism and pessimism tend to be self-fulfilling prophesies. Our reality becomes what we expect it to be.

There is a circular self-feeding loop of human nature that you can use to your advantage. For example, a woman who lacks confidence can acquire confidence by an act of will and convince herself with confident action and self-suggestion that she is confident.

This change in her thoughts and actions will produce a corresponding change in the way other people respond to her, which reinforces her original act of will. In effect, the world proves her right and her own certainty increases because objective, concrete events have proven that her confidence is justified.

Negativism works the same way. For example, a man with indigestion caused by stress may worry about the pain, further increasing his level of stress and making his indigestion worse. Since his pain is worse, he is even more worried, which makes the indigestion even worse.

Faith and doubt work the same way. When a person doubts his ability to succeed, he lowers his energy level because he feels defeated before he starts, and he impairs his health, which further lowers his energy level.

A lower energy level limits his progress, which causes him to doubt even more, further depleting his energy. Because of the self-defeating nature of the feedback loop, doubt makes success less likely.

Conversely, if you assume that your efforts can and will succeed your assumption helps create the fact by making you more energetic in the pursuit of your goal, giving you robust vitality and health.

Because you feel more energetic, you take confident strides forward, and you make more progress. You can then see that you are gaining on your goal which validates your assumption that you can succeed. This, in turn, gives you more confidence that you will succeed, which makes you even more energetic.

Faith is the starting point for creating your own reality. When you have faith that you will succeed, your faith that you will succeed, your faith feeds itself, building and growing as you make progress. The result is a positive self-fulfilling prophesy.

2007-08-14T17:35:00.000-07:00

Planting For The Future

Right now in the middle of August, many farmers have planted seeds despite the fact that it might not rain, it might rain too much or it might be too hot. In August, just when everything is looking good, the big wind might blow and they will lose everything.

When harvest time comes, it might be too wet, and the crops may die in the fields. Who knows what prices will be and don't forget the bugs.

Before trains, trucks and supermarkets, spring was the hungriest season. In winter people still had stores from the harvest, but by springtime the stores had run out. Even though spring might be beautiful, nothing had produced. It was possible to starve amidst the beauty.

Those hungry farmers would look at the seed they saved with ambivalence. They had no choice: They could eat the seed and ease their hunger or plant their seed and go hungry, now.

Of course, if they didn't plant, they would surely starve the next year. So what should they do?

Their dilemma is one each of us faces every day. Kids must ask themselves whether they should study or play. The fruits of study won't be harvested for many years. Play feels good now.

Adults must decide whether to save money to invest in the future or blow it now on something that promises instant gratification. Should you make the next sales call? Write the next sentence in your proposal? Bite off a piece of the large task that will really pay off, or finish a job that makes little difference?

The big question is, “Shall I sacrifice not for a better future, but one which is not guaranteed?

The answer separates the wheat from the chaff. Nobody in the history of the world who consistently answered “no” to this question ever accomplished anything worthwhile.

There are no guarantees. There never were. Ask any farmer. Some seeds never sprout. Some are eaten by birds and bugs. Some harvests are ruined by weather.

Even in the sunny spring, seeds are safer out of the ground. Much safer than when you plant them. It's possible that you can lose them all and go hungry, but keeping seeds safe is not what seeds are for.

As General Douglas MacArthur said, “There is no security in life; there is only opportunity.”

2007-08-01T17:31:00.000-07:00

The Importance of Recreation

I recently spoke to a group of young business professional during a seminar I gave in Cincinnati, Ohio and one of the topics I covered was the need to make time for recreation.

In today's highly competitive business world we live in, where the need and pressure to succeed is greater than ever most people fail to make the time for recreation; a time for rest, relaxation and most importantly renewal.

Most people look at recreation as a chance to have fun and maybe play their favorite sport, but to me recreation is more important than that. To me recreation is all about taking the time away from work to reevaluate your life, your life, work, goals, and reason for living.

Taking a morning or an afternoon off to play a round of golf or a game of tennis, simply doesn't give you enough time reevaluate your life. You need more time than that, several days or even a week or two.

For me it's taking the time to go to a beach and just walking along the beach or just sitting and watching the waves come in. It's the therapy of the fresh are, the sea itself

Everyone has his or her own way, or should have his or her own way or recreation or renewal, so that he or she can look at life once again with a new interest and enthusiasm. What's yours?

My friends and associates have different ways as well; for some it's gardening; for others it's painting, cooking, fishing, and camping. I have one associate that get recreational therapy from mountain climbing. Everyone needs to get away for some recreation.

For any recreation to be meaningful and fulfilling it must do three things: (1) It must stimulate your identity, the person you really are: (2) It must be stimulating: (3) It must give you a level of security as to take away your anxieties from work.

Occasional recreation helps you find yourself, reestablish who you are, and what you want, it helps with your identity. It most certainly involves change and stimulation, and it helps you develop inner security, the kind you need the most. If you have inner security, real security as a person, your world can come crashing down all around you and you can still emerge secure within yourself and build a new and possibly better one.

So when you find yourself getting stale, what you need is some meaningful recreation; you need to stop the world and get off for a while and look at things from a distance. You'll be surprised at the new ideas you'll get; and the new opportunities you'll see, opportunities that have been there all along but you've been too close to see them.

When you're lost in the recreation that you love, you're really living; you're living as fully as it's possible to live. That's the whole idea of life, isn't it?

2007-07-17T18:59:00.001-07:00

Cultivate The Happiness Habit

I think the three greatest blessings that a person can ever have on this earth are: the privilege of rendering some useful service which will help others; keeping our own mind busy working toward a worthy ideal; and being in good health both mind and body.

I think it's actually good for someone to be unemployed at one time in his or her life, because it teaches you what a real blessing a meaningful job really is.

When you find a career that you really love and want to put your whole heart and soul into, one that is truly making a positive difference in this world, then, you have found life's greatest gift, happiness!

No man or woman can be happy unless he or she is engaged in some sort of work that he or she likes. A person who is working just to collect a paycheck may seem to be happy, but he or she isn't. If that person smiles at all, it doesn't come from the heart.

Too many people have the mistaken notion that money brings happiness. It doesn't; at least not to the person who quits working because he or she has an abundance of money and material possessions.

Happiness does not come from having, but from working. It is not the mere possession of wealth that makes a person happy. It is the enjoyment a person receives from pursuing, working and achieving; from using wealth in the endeavor to multiply it; it is the game and not the tools with which the game is played that brings happiness.

There would be very little fun in a long, tapered hardwood stick if it were not for the baseball that goes with it and the game which is played with it.

Likewise, there would be very little fun in just hitting the lottery if it were not for the great game of work that you could play with the winnings.

What a wonderful blessing it would be if we could all learn to stop cheating and backstabbing other people just to get a raise or a promotion in the belief that it is essential for happiness.

Find happiness in you daily work, whatever it may be, and it will make little difference to you whether you succeed in piling up few or many dollars.

I have never hit the lottery, inherited any wealth or hit it rich overnight in business or an investment, but I've know people who have. Those people have never felt very comfortable until they adjusted themselves to this new environment and some of them lost all their wealth because they never adjusted.

Happiness is not an exclusive something that is just for a chosen few. It is accessible to all, regardless of age or condition, who will extend themselves a little and strive for it.

2007-07-08T14:59:00.000-07:00

Discovering Opportunity In Adversity

My first job as an advertising copywriter was for a small agency that handled mostly car dealer and radio station advertising. Their ads up to that point were not very creative so I made it my first priority to improve them. Every time I got an assignment, I wrote two commercials: one the way the agency had always done it and a second that was more creative and exciting.

Every time I presented the commercials for approval, they always chose the one that was just like what they had always done, stuffy and boring. Their attitude was that if they had not done it before, they weren't going to try it.

I would have gotten depressed, but I had a good friend who had been in the business a long time and he kept telling me that every defeat sowed the seeds of success for the future. I became determined to wear them down. I tried even harder. If they saw my “better” commercials enough, eventually they would see the light and start to use them. I had been with them for a year now and I would give it just one more year.

As it turned out, they never once used one of my “better” ads. They never even showed a single one to any of their clients to see how they might react to them. It was a tough year, but by the end of it I had built up quite a portfolio.

Armed with my new portfolio, I arranged interviews with some of the biggest advertising agencies in the country. One of them loved my commercials and offered me a job on the spot, at almost twice the salary I was earning at my current job.

When I informed my boss that I would be leaving, he told me that while I was a nice enough guy, he didn't give me a year at my new job, because the agency I was going to was much too big and competitive for me. He said I stuck to my own ideas too much and that would get me nowhere. He said big companies like people who go along and don't make waves.

To make a long story short, it's been over twenty five years since I left and I'm doing great, but today that small agency is out of business. As a matter of fact a few years after I left the company I learned that many of the agency's clients had left them for one simple reason: They felt that they were getting the same old thing year after year, and they wanted fresh and original commercials, something I had tried to convince them to do for the two years I worked there.

If my friend had not given me the courage to believe in myself and my ideas, I would have never kept writing commercials the way I believed they should be done. I would have given in to their way of thinking. I would not have developed a portfolio that allowed me to find a better job and I would never have started and built the successful business that I have today.