I was reading a recent issue of Success Magazine and came across an interesting story about a blind mountain climber and what he has experienced to overcome what, for most, is a disability.

The story reminded me of my friend, Stephen Hopson, who, although profoundly deaf, is a professional motivational speaker to hearing audiences.  Read that again!  Here’s a guy, deaf — can’t hear even the loudest of sounds — who speaks to hearing audiences.  All the time.  And, gets them all pumped up.  Shivers me timbers every time I think about what Stephen is doing.

So, I thought I’d dash off a note to Darren Hardy, the Success Publisher.  I don’t know Darren, but perhaps you do?  Or, perhaps you know someone who might?

If that’s the case, might you share Stephen’s journey with them?

Here’s my letter to Darren:

Hello Darren Hardy: Simply LOVE the new publication, sir.The audio component alone is worth far more than the price of admission.

I look forward to subscribing for years to come.

Suggestion?  I know someone who you guys really ought to do a story about.  His name is Stephen Hopson and he has overcome a serious bit of diversity (he’s profoundly deaf) to become an amazing motivational speaker to hearing audiences. In his spare time, he became the world’s first deaf instrument-rated pilot.Neat guy. You can likely learn more about him here:  http://www.adversityuniversityblog.com/ Over and out, and keep the good stuff a flowin’, Michael

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Henrik Edberg over at the Positivity Blog is a young chap to keep your eye on.  I like his style and he writes with a sense of wonderment and fun.  He recently ran an article about the best things Confucius ever said, and I thought they might bear repeating here for the Dream Job crowd, as many relate directly to how you see yourself and your life’s work mission.

I encourage you to check out Henrik for his takes on each of these Confucian thoughts but, for now, here’s a summary: Read more »

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By Michele Schermerhorn

4. “Mind Meld” Your Customer

Just knowing your customer isn’t enough for long-term success in your small business. In Star Trek, the Vulcan race had the ability to perform a mind meld. At the time of the mind meld, they could see, think, and feel everything their partner was seeing, thinking, and feeling. This is how close you must come to understanding your customer. The closer you get, the more successful you will become.

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If you are serious about your goals, drop the conditions. Go directly to your goal. Be your goal! Conditions often disguise strategies for escaping accountability. Why not just take charge and create the experience you are looking for?
Eric Allenbaugh

Is that powerful stuff or what?  You bet it is.

And, I love this way of thinking.  I first got turned on to “being the goal” through the master of them all, Earl Nightingale and his book Earl Nightingale’s Secret Discovery.

You become what you think about, says Earl.

That man can deliver a powerful message.

Speaking of powerful messages, I’ve really been getting into a CD series lately (got ‘em on MP3 downloads) by Mike Dooley — Infinite Possibilities.  Mike’s mantra is that thoughts become things.

Be the goal.

You become what you think about.

Thoughts become things.

Wowie, zowie!  Take a sip-o-that nectar, Dream Jobber.  Powerful, mighty powerful stuff.  (Hint:  It works!)

If you want to invest a tad in your future, check all of these out.

I mean it, if you can learn that becoming the goal — turning your thoughts to things through becoming what you think about — you are there . . . you’re on the cusp of having your dream job . . . and a whole lot more.

Let me know how you’re getting on.

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By Michele Schermerhorn

Millions of people start new small businesses in the United States every day. Many fail. What causes one business owner to succeed where another fails?

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Long before he became a star in the television series, House, I got to know Hugh Laurie for his incredibly funny roles in the Blackadder British comedy series that starred the equally funny Rowan Atkinson, who later went on to create the outrageously hilarious Mr. Bean character.

When Life magazine interviewed Laurie recently, the interviewer asked about his father, an Olympic gold medal winner in rowing for England, and also Laurie’s coach in that same sport.  Here’s what Hugh had to say about his padre:

My father didn’t deliberately coin aphorisms.  He was far too modest a man to think that anyone would be writing down his profundities.  I do remember him saying some very good things like “Any idiot can win.”  That’s always stayed with me.  What he meant was “Winning doesn’t actually teach you anything.”  You win.  End of story.  But the losing and how you deal with it and what you take from it — that’s the interesting bit . . .

The whole thing about rowing is that you’re facing the wrong way.  If you fall behind, you can’t see who’s winning.  That starts to mess with your head:  how you keep in contact until you push for the finish line.  My father and I were discussing these very strategic pushes and he said:  “Well, you could do all that, but I remember when I rowed, we’d just have one push.  You put everything into that one push, and if it doesn’t work, well, we all lose some races.”  The funny thing about it was, he never did lose any races.  He won everything.  But I thought it was a wonderful way of looking at life:  You have one big push.  Put everything you’ve got into it.  If it doesn’t work, well, we all lose some races.  If you’re trying to hold back, if you don’t commit, you’re never going to get results.

Wow!

 

 

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Secret No. 1: Make a commitment to yourself!
Decide right now that you’re genuinely serious about getting out of your runadamill-boring-as-dog-poop job and into your dream career.  You are the only thing that’s holding you back.

Secret No. 2: Identify what’s keeping you from being successful..
Okay, so you have some artistic talent and you’d like to be a full-time painter.  Tough, tough world to break into, and for most people (who have the talent), the toughest part is not the art, but the business side of things.  So, say that’s you . . . you need to identify which part of the business you not good at and then devote yourself to improving every day.  So, you hate sales, right?  Art and sales don’t mix, right?  Well, you damn betcha they mix . . . if that’s you’re limiting skill, take a sales seminar, join a public speaking group and practice, hang around other artists who’re good salespeople . . . commit to doing what it takes to increase your limiting skill.  Yeah, and don’t gimme that old song and dance about what you really want to do is just paint.  If that’s what your destiny holds, go out and find a benefactor!

Secret No. 3: Hang around the right people.
You’ve heard this from me a gazillion times.  Stay away from the complainers and moaners and stick to successful, fun, positive people.

Secret No. 4: Get and stay healthy and in shape.
Success (in anything) requires a lot of energy; energy requires a lot of good health.  I don’t know about you, but when I’m feeling physically good, my mental energy is just higher.  When I’m not eating the right foods, I feel like crap, and I usually end up thinking like crap.

Secret No. 5: Think of yourself in your chosen profession.
Picture yourself working in your dream job.  Picture yourself doing what you love and being very, very good at it.

Secret No. 6: Be kind and gentle with yourself.  Always.
Congratulate yourself on your small successes.  Tell yourself how good you feel and about how you feel about how the progress you’ve made, even if small, the last couple of days has been good.  Tell yourself how you want to be rather than beating yourself up over your current shortcomings.  Check out Jeffrey Gitomer’s classic tome, the Little Gold Book of YES! Attitude, for lots of help in this area.

Secret No. 7: Make a positive contribution toward your goal, every day.
Do at least one thing every day that moves you toward your dream-job goal.  Talk to others in the field, take a course, read a book about your desired job, make a to-do list, and keep moving forward.  The Japanese call this kaizen . . . small steps, regularly.  So, practice kaizen.

The successful people I know are action-oriented, sometimes to the point of obsession.  Get out there and do stuff.  Don’t just talk about it.

Ready-fire-aim should be your motto.

Do it, then fix what’s not working.  And, keep doing the stuff that works.

Don’t over think and over strategize.

Let me know how I can help you.

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NB:  Please don’t confuse this article about business success with success in life.  They’re not the same.  These are things that worked for me in business, and some apply to life . . . and many apply to getting and keeping your dream job, but being successful in life does not equate to being successful in business.

Here goes . . .

I made a bunch of money creating and running a business.

The business was software and Internet publishing and the money was quite a lot.

I believe that I can attribute my success to seven things that I learned; through books and from watching others, but mostly just from trying ideas out and flopping on my face the first couple of times.

Now, mind you, I didn’t come up with those seven things at one time and I didn’t “discover” them in some sort of a Eureka moment.  They just evolved.  In fact, it took me about 10 years to get my company to the point where I could sell it for the amount I was expecting.  And, it took me 8 of those years before we were even making a decent profit.

Despite what many purveyors of schemes (offline and on) might have you believe, there really is no special product, program, or plan that’s going to put you over the top.

Believe me, along the way I’ve tried some of the most highly praised get-rich-quick schemes in the business.  I do think you can learn a lot from many of them but,  in and of themselves, as complete programs, they’re not worth a lot.

Mind you, I don’t claim to have the answer to everyone’s future.  But I do have a series of key
elements that I know work for me.  They helped me make it in my last business, and I’m employing the very same keys in my current growing business.

1. Forget the money. If you’re even remotely doing something for the money, it’s not going to be successful in a big way.  I am not sure of why this is so true; but it is.  If you’re thinking about all the great things you’re going to do once you’ve made the money, you’re doing the wrong thing.  But, if all you dream about, and all you can think about when you first wake up in the morning is how anxious you are to get back to work, you’re on the right track.

2.  So, follow your passion.  Figure out what you love to do, I mean REALLY love to do, then do it.  There’s money to be made everywhere.  If you love something, chances are you’ll be pretty good at it; and if you’re better than most others around you, you’ll be successful.  Of course, I’d like to think that you’ve been striving to be the best in your field, but don’t forget that there are a few million quite happy and wealthy and successful number 2’s and 3’s around as well.

3.  Then create a product or service that matches your passion.  Don’t resell something somebody else makes. Make your own.  You’ll get into it and you’ll love your business because it’s truly yours.  My passion is teaching; I get a real buzz by explaining stuff to beginners . . . so, I love to run seminars, write books and articles, creating teaching and learning products and services, and run Internet businesses that relate to all that.  Whatever your passion, there are books, videos, seminars, and software that need to be made for it. Go, make stuff of your own.

4. Don’t be a perfectionist.  One of the biggest and earliest stumbling blocks to my own success was that I couldn’t let go of anything until it was perfect.  Phooey!  Make it fast, get it on the market, and let your customers tell you what’s good.  Then fix what needs to be fixed and move on.

There’s an old adage that goes something like this: “it’s better to be first than better.”  I think that’s true, and although most of us can’t really be first, we can be sooner!

5.  Drop what doesn’t work.  Fast.  And, do more of what does work.  There’s a sign that hangs in one of MIT’s engineering labs that I just absolutely love, and it says this:

-Do simple things first.
-Learn to do them flawlessly.
-Add new layers over the results of the simple tasks.
-Don’t change the simple things.
-Make the new layer work as flawlessly as the simple.
-Repeat, ad infinitum.

So, don’t screw with what works.  Just do more of it.

6.  Do not give up.  Ever.  I’ve never met anyone who achieved any real level of success quickly (Okay, okay, I know . . . those YouTube guys that sold out to Google for a couple billion in less than two years . . . but, know anyone else?).  It just doesn’t happen. Maybe it appears to outsiders like it has, but it doesn’t.  Come on, every single great leader, writer, business person, and motivator in sports, politics, business, and life tells us this simple truism:  Don’t quit.  So, why is it so hard for many of us to believe them?

Sure, I almost quit.  A dozen times.  It was only through the ongoing support of my partners (business and spouse) that I didn’t.  So, suck it up once in awhile.  How will you ever know if tomorrow’s mail or the next telephone call brings the order that will nudge you forward if you quit?

7.  And, finally, learn to trust your gut.  If you have a passion, it’s there for a reason.  Don’t do stuff because that’s the way it’s always been done, just because.  Do it because you believe in it.  Do it because it makes you feel good inside.  And, do it because, in your own private world view, it just feels right.

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You probably know by now that I’m a big Jeffrey Gitomer fan.

He’s written a number of sales-oriented books over the years and I’ve scanned them with only mild interest, so it wasn’t until his most recent book, Jeffrey Gitomer’s Little Gold Book of YES! Attitude, that I got hooked on Gitomereze.

I’m also a true believer in following the advice of people you trust, so now that I know Gitomer a bit, I wanted to pass along his advice on the four books he says you need to read if you want to get your head on straight (Jeffrey calls it attitude self-awareness).

Think and Grow Rich, by Napoleon Hill

How to Win Friends and Influence People, by Dale Carnegie

How to Stop Worrying and Start Living, by Dale Carnegie

The Power of Positive Thinking, by Norman Vincent Peale

Notice that all of these are true oldies.  But, so what, they only get smarter with every year.

Check ‘em out.

And, of course, check out Gitomer’s latest when you get the chance.

These are all Top 5ers.

 

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1. Change your input to change your attitude.
2. You were born to win.
3. The will to win is nothing without the will to prepare to win.  (Vincenzo Lombardi)
4. You will get whatever you want if you help enough people get whatever they want.
5. Make every day as productive as the day before you go on vacation.
6. Ignore people who tell you, “You can’t.”
7. If you have nothing nice to say, say nothing.
8. Don’t dwell on or whine about the problem; concentrate on the solution.
9. Forgive and go forward.
10. Self-talk equals self-importance.
11. What is the picture you have of yourself?
12. You will hear the word “No” 116,000 times in your lifetime.
13. What you do off the job determines what you are likely to do on the job.
14. Strengthen your weaknesses and strengthen your strengths at the same time.
15. Failure is an event, not a person.
16. It’s not what happens to you; it’s what you do with what happens to you.
17. Every obstacle presents an opportunity, if you’re looking for it.
18. Hard work makes luck.
19. How many of your problems are cured with ten grand?  (If money cures it, so will the right attitude.)
20. It’s not what you say, it’s how you say it.
21. Resign your position as general manager of the universe.

Source:  Jeffrey Gitomer’s soon-to-be classic, Jeffrey Gitomer’s Little Gold Book of YES! Attitude

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