Look on the bright side!

Are you an optimist? You will know if you try to see the opportunity in every misfortune, Are you a pessimist? You will soon tell if you tend to focus on misfortune in every opportunity. An optimist sees the doughnut, the pessimist a hole. Please really understand that you too can develop success from every failure. A set back is only the stepping stone before success. Do not confuse discouragement or even total failure! These are not going to hold you back and you just need to see this as two stepping stones to success. These elements do so much for you simply study them and make them work for you. View every problem as an opportunity or you will absorb these set-backs into your persona and that will be most unattractive. The darker the better so you can see the stars.

"You can do anything if you have enthusiasm." - Henry Ford

Life's greatest accomplishments are those that at first seem
impossible.
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I never worked a day in my life. It was all fun!
- Thomas Edison
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You must have long term goals to keep you from being frustrated
short term failures.
- Charles C. Noble
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One step at a time is enough for me. Impatience is simply a way
of beating yourself up.
- Susan Jeffers....

Risk failure also stand a chance of success

If the business equivalent of Simon Cowell came across your company, would he think it had the X-factor?

For every business that succeeds, there are many more that go up the tubes.

Some people attribute this to luck, some people seem to be lucky over and over again

I agree that those who risk failure also stand a chance of success and both groups deserve a BIG pat on the back!!

Does such a thing as the business X-Factor exist and if so, how do you know if you’ve got it?

Practice makes perfect

In his best seller, Outliers, Malcom Gladwell explains that talent is a necessary, but not sufficient requirement for success on its own. Years of effort are also required and ten thousand hours of practice seem necessary to achieve world class performance. This principle is epitomised by the who famously said “the more I practise, the luckier I get”.

Gary Player golfing legend

We may think that Beckham could bend the ball with natural talent, but he spent a large part of his childhood practising. In fact, if you ask Alex Ferguson for the footballers secret, he'd say that “the important thing is practice”.

Did Bill Gate just do one thing and crack it?
Sorry, turns out that Bill Gates did huge amounts of programming – ten thousand hours - before he hit the big time.

The list goes on much longer than we have time for, I have seen this first-hand in direct sales business with (most) some agents not listening, not working hard enough and quitting because it is really harder than a job.

Some however, get rejected, get back in the game, get rejected, get sworn at, people cross the road to avoid a pitch and they get back in the game and just keep going

The result is a million or two, not in one lump, certainly in income from the day the buy that first starter kit and by the time the heirs to the estate and finished spending it... and perhaps they leave it as an heirloom and it is worth multiple millions. Those who do this don't just like driving all night after late night long distance meeting, or enjoy spending the food money on national adverts, or enjoy speaking with 70 or 80 phone callers from marketing and neither do they really want to phone 100 people on the list of a distributor that they just sponsored..... Some do because they know that a dynasty is being built

Direct Selling and Traditional Business is no different, and hard work in gaining the right knowledge and skills is crucial. Luck also plays a big part, being in the right place at the right time, but that won’t do any good if you haven’t put in the graft.

I come from a Chicken Farming background. But I soon escaped, my goal was the largest tyres on the pub car-park, not on a tractor, something very fast with huge servicing bills and would look good on a day at the races, firs selling, then started my business, Manufacturers Agent, I studied sales and marketing extensively and had been involved in marketing smaller businesses at board level for several years. I saw the whole marketing thing was try it, fail, try it, fail, try it, IT BLOODY WORKS, hang on to that, find another marketing tool.... Then the selling process, wwatch your appearence, manner, words.... try varioius things, fail, try again, fail, fail, and then you find that you convert more as the system works .....In other words, I practice first.

Dare to fail

Some people start a business because they want to get rich, others want to change the world, no one wants to fail.

To succeed in businesses you have to make a profit. Profit is oxygen, and is necessary even if the principle objective isn’t about money.

The biggest show stopper.........No profit means no reserves which means that the slightest setback kills you. So forget the X Factor if you haven’t set profitability as an early objective – you won’t be around to find out whether you’ve got it or not. If you know that part of what you do will take a medium term then do something to make short term cashflow

Having a compass

To arrive at your destination, you need to know where you are going.

Occasionally a business succeeds by accident, but that’s unusual. You must create a plan which gets to your objective.

So spend time working out who are your customers, what you are going to provide, what they will pay and how you will market. Then you need to understand your costs and find out what the competition is doing.

Customer obsession

SIMPLE

Customers pay the wages; if we forget this we’re in trouble. All successful businesses need to centre on their customers.

Flexibility

The newspapers take great delight in recounting stories about hapless travellers whose satnavs took them up a track, across a river or over a cliff. They thought they had the route cracked.

It’s is no different in business, when disaster is imminent it’s critical to be flexible.

Fun makes good business sense

If we find something enjoyable, we are generally good at it. Starting a business takes a lot of energy, and it is much easier to focus on an area where you have some expertise and interest. These are the same areas where we are likely to exhibit the X-Factor. If we are exceptional at something, we are very likely to enjoy it. So try to find a business you will enjoy, it makes sense on every front.

X-Factor

I wonder if any of this comes naturally? Concentrating on customers, having a plan yet being flexible enough to change it and enjoying the whole process is a tall order. Is this the business X-Factor?

If you watch the ITV show you know that the truly talented are sometimes hesitant about their capabilities. The crazy ones often come with the most certainty and the least talent. The best ones always want to improve, and maybe that’s it. The X-Factor could be a commitment to listen to advice, practise and continually improve.

It could be that’s what really matters. Or the bank manager might be your Simon Cowell and wipe the floor with you .....

This too shall pass!!

Accept Change With A Smile

So today life is great!
You can be sure that this tooshall pass!

For every person in every country we kind of bound about from life being great and then horrid and then back to great!

Any silly so and so will enjoy great.... the fun is dealing with the other stuff...............
Every country has a way of expressing this and its not just a Western or European thing as the following Wiki quote shows;

"This too shall pass" (Persian:این نیز بگزرد, een niz bogzarad, Hebrew: גם זה יעבור‎, gam zeh yaavor) is a proverb indicating that all material conditions, positive or negative, are temporary.

Sooner or later we'll experience a crisis in our lives, and what we do when we meet it will determine our future happiness and success.

Since the beginning of time, everyone has been called upon to meet such a crisis.
A closer look will show you that most "crisis situations" are opportunities to either advance or stay where you are.

In fact, most changes in your life will take place out of either "inspiration" or "desperation."
Whatever comes your way, give it meaning and transform it into something of value.

Prepare (brace yourself) as personal growth is the process of responding positively to change.
A precious stone cannot be polished without friction, nor humanity perfected without trials.

The bigger the trial the BIGGER the reward is often found

ARE YOU IN YOUR BEST ENVIRONMENT?

Always be mindful that if you're a product of your environment you must choose an environment that will best develop you toward your objective.

Are the things around you helping you toward your success, or are they holding you back and if so have you set yourself up for some self sabotage?

The first step toward getting somewhere is to decide that you're not going to stay where you are. You're not a captive of any environment and you can dictate the way you need to go.

If you don't like where you are today, make some changes everyday in every way and even tiny steps will take you in the right direction. You're not planted permanently in the ground like a tree. Don't say, "You would, if you could," start saying, "You will, because you can and you can if you want to."

When you become a part of anything it becomes a part of you.

Most people have one of three common relationships with their environment:

1. They try to protect themselves from it
2. They tolerate it
3. They try to 'work around it' so that it does not get in their way or slow them down."

Everyone knows the phrase, "You are a product of your environment," but most people never realise that they have the potential to proactively design and create environments that bring out their best. If you have any of the above three relationships with your environment, then chances are you are using a lot of personal energy and willpower to get things done. When you design empowering environments, the environments themselves support you and naturally pull you forward.

Here is a simple analogy to help you shift your thinking in this area. Many of us know people that have physical disabilities. We sometimes refer to such people as having "special needs". For example, we understand that people in wheelchairs need homes and offices with wide doorways, ramps, slip-resistant floors, grab bars, etc. We recognize that these modifications to their environment allow special needs individuals to function more effectively and efficiently. The secret is to realize that we all have special needs. Ask yourself:

• What is unique about me?
• How do I work best?
• How can I design and create an environment that will be ideal for me, and will support and inspire me?

Properly constructed environments can do all of the following and more:

• Nurture you - make you feel safe and protected
• Support you - provide you what you need to be your best
• Protect you - from the physical elements and other people
• Inspire you and naturally pull you forward; release your creativity
• Manage you - focus your time and attention

There are hundreds of other examples of how people have designed their environments to improve the quality of their lives. The key is to discover what works for you. Then instead of spending all of your energy trying to work on yourself - for example trying to make yourself more creative, productive, or organized - work on creating an empowering environment and let the environment bring out your best.

For me I enjoy sitting under a coconut tree in my PJ's and making sure that I keep away from that standard 9am-5pm

Think hard about the lifestyle you want and not the money.

As the saying goes Be careful what you wish for

Once in a far off land many years ago, there lived a poor stone-cutter who was unhappy with his lot in life. He longed to be happy and wished as hard as he could to be more powerful. Now this land was one full of magic and strange powers and it so happened that the stone-cutter wished so hard, he got his wish. With a gust of wind the stone-cutter was transformed into a rich man, riding on his own camel in fine clothes and beautiful jewellery.

As he rode, the stone-cutter thought to himself, ‘I wish I was more powerful … I wish I was a king. No one is more powerful than that.’ And once again his wish was granted.

Now he rode on a fine white stallion, with a crown of gold upon his head. As he rode on, the stone-cutter – now a powerful king – was caught by a great gust of wind which tore off his crown and sent it flying high in the air.

The stone-cutter thought for a moment before deciding that he wanted to be the wind, which was certainly more powerful than any king and could move anything it wanted. Lo and behold, the stone-cutter was transformed into a raging current of air which blew through the land, shifting everything in his path.

That was until the great wind came up against the side of an enormous mountain which simply would not budge. And, as you’ve probably guessed, the discontented stone-cutter wished he could be a great mountain standing proud and impenetrable, and through the magic once again he transformed into the object of his desire.

As the stone-cutter looked out across the land enjoying the feeling of strength and power, he noticed another lowly stone-cutter chopping large slabs from the bottom of his mound. The mountain saw this and longed with all his heart to be a stone-cutter again, as clearly such a man had the power to tame even the greatest peak.

So finally, as the mysterious powers once again transformed the stone-cutter, he at last realized that the grass is not always greener and perhaps he should have been content with his lot in life in the first place.

Be careful what you wish for, you might just get it, and then the chances are you’ll quickly tire of it and long for what you had! Appreciate what you have and make the most of your talents.