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12/28/2005: "Essays on Excellence # 652"
Good Morning Freedom Fighters and Truth Seekers,
What a week! I actually slept in a little this morning to recharge the emotional and physical batteries.
Thought you might enjoy a poem that we found at my Mother's which she wrote in 2003.
I wish for you:
The jingle of laughter,
A basket of stars,
A ribbon of moon beams,
A package of dreams,
All this and the tenderness of enduring love
Harriet Prouty, 2003
As my sister and I reflected on her life and its impact on the two of us we realized the we had received all of the things in her poem. She is now at rest and peaceful without pain or anguish. The celebration gathering at my sister's home brought together so many people from so many walks of life that Mother had touched. We had photo albums on tables for people to thumb through. The tears and cheers were plentiful.
As we move toward the close of 2005, we wish for each of you great joy and success in the hours, days, months and years ahead.
The Central Skill
by Brian Tracy
Time management is the central skill of success. Your ability to manage your time, to focus and channel your energies on your highest value tasks, will determine your rewards and your level of accomplishment in life more than any other factor.
Success Leaves Tracks
When I began searching for the secrets of success many years ago, I discovered an interesting principle: success leaves tracks. A wise man who had studied success for more than 50 years concluded that the greatest success principle of all was, "learn from the experts."
Learn From The Experts
If you want to be a big success in any area, find out what other successful people in that area are doing, and do the same things, until you get the same results. When I studied the interviews, speeches, biographies and autobiographies of successful men and women, I found that they all had one quality in common. They were all described as being "extremely well organized." They used their time very, very well. They were highly productive and they got vastly more done in the same period of time than the average person.
Be Both Effective and Efficient
High performing men and women were both effective and efficient. They did the right things, and they did them in the right way. They were constantly looking for ways to improve the quality and quantity of their output. As a result, their contribution to their organizations was vastly higher and therefore much better paid, than the contributions of the average person.
Action Exercises
Develop a study plan today to learn from the experts in your field. This can save you years of hard work.
Decide what is the most important thing to do, and then decide how to do it.
Practice Golden Rule Selling
By Brian Tracy
To improve your sales performance, adopt the Golden Rule mentality. The Golden Rule says to, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." It also says, "Love your neighbor as yourself." The Golden Rule mentality in sales, says simply, "Sell unto others as you would have them sell unto you."
Different Strokes for Different Folks
What does this mean? Aren't there all kinds of different personalities that require different approaches and techniques? Well, yes and no. Practicing the golden rule in selling simply means that you sell to other people the way you would like to be sold to. You sell with the same honesty, integrity, understanding, empathy and thoughtfulness that you would like someone else to use in selling to you.
Seek First to Understand
If you would like a salesperson to take the time to thoroughly understand you and your situation before making a recommendation, you practice the same thing with your customers. If you would like a salesperson to give you honest information and to help you make an intelligent buying decision, you practice the same with your customer. If you would like a salesperson to be thoroughly knowledgeable about the strengths or weaknesses of his or her product or service, and that of his or her competitors, then you do the same with your product or service and your competitors.
Care About Your Customers
Perhaps the most important part of golden rule selling is the emotional component embraced in the word, "caring." Top sales professionals care about their customers. They care about themselves, their companies, their products and services, and they really care about helping their customers to make good buying decisions.
They Don't Care How Much You Know
If you think about the very best salespeople you know, you will recognize that they are caring individuals. If you think about your very best customers, you will recall that these are invariably people you care about, and who care about you. When you think about the people you buy from, you will recall that they seem to care about you more than the average. In every part of your business life, you will find that the significant people all have the denominator of caring as part of their character and their personalities.
Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do immediately to put these ideas into action.
First, resolve today to sell to your customers with the same honesty, empathy and understanding that you would like them to use in selling to you.
Second, take time to genuinely care about your customers, their individual needs and their unique situations. Make people feel important and they will make you feel important.
The Billionaires Strategy for Success
By Brian Tracy
John Paul Getty became the richest man in the world by practicing a few basic principles of risk-taking and reward throughout his life.
In this newsletter, you learn his key insight to risk reduction and success and how you can apply it to any decision you have to make. You learn a series of additional ideas that can help you to make better decisions and reduce the risks associated with success.
How To Assess A Decision
Whenever John Paul Getty was considering a business decision, he would ask, Whats the worst possible thing that could happen in this situation? Then, when he was clear about the worst possible outcome, he focused all his attention on making sure that it didnt happen. You should apply this technique to every risk situation or investment you ever make.
The Billionaires Strategy for Success
Remember Murphys Law: Whatever can go wrong will go wrong. There are several secondary laws to Murphys Law, such as Whatever can go wrong will go wrong at the worst possible time and Of all the things that can go wrong, the most expensive thing will go wrong at the worst possible time.
Another sublaw is Everything takes longer than your best calculation. In advising businesspeople, I suggest that they take their very best estimate of break-even for any business venture and then triple it to arrive at a more realistic number. Whenever businesspeople follow this advice, they are amazed to find that, in spite of their best initial calculations, it indeed takes about three times longer than they thought it would to start making money.
Always Add A Fudge Factor
Another sublaw is Everything costs more than you can possible anticipate in advance. In minimizing risk in any venture, always add a fudge factor to account for the degree of uncertainty. Whenever I do a business plan, I always add 20 percent to the total of all costs that I can identify, to come up with the probable cost. Anything less than this, whether in business or your personal life, is likely to be an exercise in self-delusion and open you up for some unhappy surprises.
Once you have identified the worst possible things that could go wrong, make a list of everything that you could do to offset these negative factors. Engage in what is called crisis anticipation. Look down the road, into the future, and imagine every possible crisis that could arise as the result of changing external circumstances.
Be Intensely Realistic
Men and women who have achieved a high level of success are intensely realistic. They do not put their trust in luck. They carefully calculate every possible risk, and then think about what they would do should it occur. They always have a backup plan in case things do not go as they wish them to. They have a Plan B and options to that plan that take all kinds of variables into consideration.
Do The Things You Fear
One of the very best ways to develop your ability to take intelligent risks is to consciously and deliberately do the things you fear, one step at a time.
A very good way to overcome the fear of risk taking is to set clear, written, measurable goals for yourself, and then to review those goals regularly.
When you have clear goals and plans, and you continually work on them and evaluate your progress each day, you will see what youre doing right and how you could improve your performance. Youll feel more competent and capable and better about yourself. Youll become more thoughtful and reflective and willing to take on even greater challenges. Youll feel like the master of your fate and the captain of your soul. And your likelihood of success will become greater and greater.
Action Exercises
Now, here are three steps you can take immediately to put these ideas into action.
First, take any worry situation in your life today and ask, What is the worst possible thing that could happen? Then go to work to make sure it doesnt occur.
Second, look into the future in your life and determine the worst things that could happen. Engage in crisis anticipation regularly and continually be taking steps to guard against them.
Third, work from clear, written goals and detailed plans. Review them regularly. Consider alternatives and always look for ways to increase the likelihood of your success.
William Prouty, CLU RHU CBC CEC MBA PhD
CEO and Founder
Champions For Life Foundation
PO Box 989, Sun City, CA 92586-0989
Phone 951-301-0605 FAX 951-301-0606
Skype account: williamprouty
wprouty@aol.com
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