What Goes Around, Comes Around

I love stories of synchronicity. This is one of my favorites (considered urban legend by some) that shows how the universe conspires for the good, sometimes years later. Much of the time we will never know why things happen. We should always keep in mind that it does not matter if we know, as long as we understand, whatever the circumstance is, it's for the good.

A poor Scottish farmer named Fleming heard a cry of help coming from the nearby bog. He dropped his tools and ran to the bog. There, mired to his waist in black mulch, was a terrified boy, screaming and struggling to free himself. Farmer Fleming saved the lad from what could have been a slow and terrifying death.

The next day, a fancy carriage pulled up to the Scotsman's sparse surroundings. An elegantly dressed nobleman stepped out and introduced himself as the father of the boy Farmer Fleming had saved. "I want to repay you," said the nobleman. "You saved my son's life."

"No, I can't accept payment for what I did," the Scottish farmer replied, waving off the offer. At that moment, the farmer's own son came to the door of the family hovel. "Is that your son?" the nobleman asked. "Yes," the farmer replied proudly.

"I'll make you a deal. Let me take him and give him a good education. If the lad is anything like his father, he'll grow to a man you can be proud of."

And that he did. In time, Farmer Fleming's son graduated from St. Mary's Hospital Medical School in London, and went on to become known throughout the world as the noted Sir Alexander Fleming, the discoverer of penicillin.

Years afterward, the nobleman's son was stricken with pneumonia. What saved him? Penicillin.

The name of the nobleman? Lord Randolph Churchill.
His son's name? Sir Winston Churchill.

You're Probably Right

“The way to get past a fear is to plainly confront it,” says Jim Dailakis. Jim is an actor, comedian, screenwriter and voice over professional. Jim says a young boy in Perth, Australia, his ambition was to be a comedian and make people laugh. He was good at it, doing great impressions of teachers, family members and friends but always thought that being a comedian was for comedians and he was just a kid from Perth and being a comic was not an ambition he should even consider.

Dailakis reminisces, as a boy he was inspired by the great movie Rocky. The lesson he took away from the movie was that anyone can do anything if they just start with a small step. Another movie called Dog Day Afternoon changed the life of Dailakis. Jim says when the movie was over he remained in the theater and pondered how a guy named Al Pacino could act like that. He did some research and found out what acting school Pacino attended and the wannabe actor/comedian took his first steps toward becoming his dream. At that point all he did was say he WILL attend that acting school in New York. How was not the question, all that mattered is the fact that he had the will.

Jim was inspired by the fact that Pacino himself was scared silly while shooting the original Godfather movie. The now legendary actor recounted in an interview how he felt vulnerable while doing the first shoots. After all, the production house didn’t want the no-name Pacino; only Coppola the director wanted him. Pacino threw caution to the wind and won the production studio execs respect. This little tale made Jim understand that the difference between people who make it and who don’t has a lot to do with self-confidence and patients – it takes a lifetime to master your brain and emotions. Your emotions will throw you under the bus if you let them.

Jim finds that every little step and accomplishment gets you ready and fuels the next step. There are many steps to get to the top of Mount Everest but it all starts with making a decision to go to the top. Even when the hiker slips and takes a step back the climber always looks up toward the top of the mountain. You never see a mountain climber look down, they always look up – they keep their “eye on the tiger.” When the air gets thinner and slope steeper and breathing difficult, those are the signs that you’re about to reach the top.

Now Jim can be seen doing comedy nationwide. In addition he’s currently juggling five different movie roles in front of and behind the camera. I guess whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re correct!

For info on Jim Dailakis visit: www.jimdialakis.com.

Impossible Math Question?

Three guys check into a hotel room. They get to the register to pay and the cashier says okay that's $30. So each guy paid $10 and they went up to their room. A couple minutes later the cashier realizes he charged too much so he sends the bellboy up to the room with $5. On his way up he decides to keep $2 for himself. So he gave each guy back a dollar. Now each guy has paid $9. $9x3=$27. plus the $2 the bell boy has is $29. What happened to the 30Th dollar?

Lessons from Y2K - Time Flies!

The first decade of the millennium has come to pass. It seems like yesterday that we were all obsessed with being annihilated as a result of the Year 2000 computer malfunctions (Y2K). It seems that things we worry about are never as horrific as we make them out to be in our minds. Everything is temporary and a teaching tool. All things pass. Everything is changing and in the big picture; that’s a good thing. If not we’d all rust – or worse.

While most people are preparing for Christmas celebrations, Festivus or Chinese food and a movie, whatever your tradition may be, I wanted to get right into 2010 and resolutions. What’s your New Year’s resolution going to be? Will you resolve to quit smoking, eat less and exercise more? Other popular but less talked about resolutions are spending more time with family, learning something new, helping others and simply enjoying life more. The great news is that these less recognized goals can be achieved through owning a business. Time moves so quickly and we're on this planet for such a short time. Why continue to do something for a living that you hate? What are you waiting for? “I have no business experience,” you say? Maybe a franchise is just the thing for you – a business with training wheels!

Moreover, starting a new franchise will not only help you get to your dreams but you’ll create about ten new jobs in your community. In this job market, you’ll be hailed as a king for that!

As with any resolution, there is a lot of commitment and excitement on the first day of the year. In a business search the determination is never stronger than when that first inquiry is made – at that time, all possibilities are real. Images flash before your eyes of no boss to report to, no long commute and playing golf mid-week. Unfortunately, business searches, like most New Year’s resolutions, are usually short lived. According to Joe Mathews, author of Street Smart Franchising, out of 100 people who think about owning a franchise business, only 1 will actually become a franchisee.

One night, mid-slumber, the prospective entrepreneur sits straight up in bed and thinks, “am I crazy?!” All of the “what if’s” creep in: Can I make money? Will I have customers? Suddenly, she recalls a vague story about her baby-sitter’s uncle’s barber who cuts the hair of a guy who lost his shirt in a business – and it’s back to working for that idiot boss, waking to traffic reports on the alarm clock and waiting two hours on a Sunday morning to tee off. Wow, that was a short lived fantasy, it’s only February. What happened?

Fear of the unknown is what happened. Thankfully, there are ways to overcome the inevitable mountain of fear. Getting past the fear is the quintessential right of passage for a new entrepreneur. It’s a test all business owners face and it truly separates the wanna-bes from the people who know in their soul that there can be more to life than working a J-O-B.

How do you get past the fear? Acceptance. You need to acknowledge that this decision to change your life will have more anxiety than anything else that you would freely volunteer to do. Without facing the fear you will inevitably stay stuck where you are. There is no one forcing anyone to buy a franchise – unlike some to other high anxiety situations like making a speech at your brother’s wedding. There’s a sense of obligation to the sibling, so you make the speech and pray that it will be over soon. (The speech that is, not the marriage).

If you’re considering buying a franchise, address all of the fears up front and create a strategy for dealing with them before they arise. We all know that 98% of those things we fear never come to pass. Focus on the positives of business ownership and what it can do for you and your family. Understand that at the end of your due diligence, the real and final decision is yours and yours alone. If you get this far you will find that the real choice is between unhappiness (the boss, the commute, lousy pay) verses uncertainty (the possibilities of what could be if the chance is taken). I hope you choose uncertainty because life is not about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.

My wish for you in 2010 is to reach out, without fear, for newer, richer experiences.

Tom Scarda
Reach for the Top!

Schrödinger's Cat

If you take a moment to think about the world beyond your everyday life you’d discover that there is an unseen energy that is always in control of the universe. The human ego makes us think that we have power over what we do. To an extent we do and we don’t. Is that confusing? Well it gets worse.

Did you ever stop to think about how certain bodily functions happen while we’re asleep? How are we able to keep our blood pumping, digest food, grow hair and nails and even dream? Where does that energy come from? How do we keep our bodies somewhere between 97 and 104 degrees for our entire life span?

While we’re thinking about “stuff,” how does the ocean move? What makes the sun go around? Why do animals’ coats get thicker in the winter and thinner in the summer without effort? Why do squirrels, in the middle of a vast metropolis like New York City still gather nuts and food for the winter when they’re not in their natural habitat?

We all know the scientific explanation behind these phenomena but how did it all start? Is it possible that the same energy that controls the waves also controls human’s breathing? Did you know that the time it takes to take a full breath of air is the identical time it takes for a wave to roll on to a beach? Coincidence?

I submit that we are part of a grand energy system that we don’t consider, take for granted, nor use for our greater good. I believe all things are possible if we learn to tap into our God-given ability to create our existence. If we let go of the concept good and bad, or wrong and right decisions and just live for the experience, we would be amazed at the results, and the grand events and the miracles we’d relish.

I suggest that every possibility in the world, and even more than our feeble imaginations can conjure, are available to us at this very moment. Everything exists at all times. The Physicist Niels Bohr stated that observation is necessary to determine the state of an object. Before the observation is made, all things exist in all possible variations. This is called the Copenhagen Theory in quantum physics.

What exists in your reality is present because you choose it with your decision. I can list pages of examples here but I’ll keep it to a few items.

If you want a new car, all possible autos are available at this moment. For various reasons such as price, gas consumption and size of vehicle, you narrow down your choices to a few models. Once you “decide” which model you will buy, you suddenly start to notice the same exact vehicle in parking lots, on the street and even two on your own block. Now that you’ve put your attention on or “observed” a specific vehicle, that particular vehicle comes into your reality-vision.

Too illustrate this theory I want to talk about a quantum physics example called Schrödinger's cat. In 1935, the scientist Edwin Schrödinger proposed a thought experiment. Schrödinger suggested that if you put a live feline in a box with poison and left it alone for an hour that cat is both alive and dead for that hour. Both realities exist. Until one makes the decision to look into the box, all out comes are possible.

Can this translate into every decision you make? Henry Ford said, “Whether you think you can or you can’t, you are correct.” Until you open the box of your life nothing happens. When you look to see what’s inside – or out there for you – you’ll never know.

The Power of Persistence by Justin Sachs

If there’s anything I’ve learned in the past seven years that I’ve been in the personal development industry it’s that there is one characteristic that, above all, creates success among the most extraordinary people. That one characteristic is persistence.

If we look throughout the world in every industry, in every culture, there’s one consistent trend among every single successful individual, and that trend is the ability to persevere beyond a shadow of a doubt. It’s the ability to stand up beyond everyone else and take a step forward when everyone else sits down.

Before we get started I’d like to take a moment to acknowledge you, because it’s not just anyone who would read an article called The Power of Persistence. It isn’t every day that people decide to do what they need to in order to be successful.

Only the most extraordinary individuals, the top minute fragment of a percent, who actually step up and take action towards creating success in their lives. Simply by picking up this book, you’ve chosen to step up and I acknowledge you for taking on that feat.

The Power of Persistence is available at www.PowerofPersistenceBook.com with over $3,000 bonuses when you purchase.

If we look throughout history at some of the greatest leaders-- Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr., Colonel Sanders, Mark Victor Hansen, Steve Jobs -- the most extraordinarily successful people are those who have persisted beyond the norm.
Everywhere we look we see signs of persistence in those that are creating the most challenging and rewarding results. It is not always natural; it’s a learned trait. What this means though, is that success is simply a choice.

There was once a politician who failed at business at the age of 21. He was defeated in a legislative race at age 22, he failed again at business at age 24, overcame the death of his lover at age 26, had a nervous breakdown at age 27, lost a congressional race at 34 and 36, lost a senatorial race at 45, failed to become vice president at 47, lost a senatorial race at 49 and then finally was elected to President of the United States of America at age 52.

Now imagine, if he had considered any of these past experiences as failures and had allowed that to stop him from moving forward, he would never have become one of the most extraordinary Presidents of the United States, Mr. Abraham Lincoln.

There’s a famous story about Thomas Edison: he tried 9,999 times to perfect the light bulb and he couldn’t do it. Someone said, “Are you going to have 10,000 failures?” And he responded, “I didn’t fail, I just discovered another way not to invent the electric light bulb.”

He got to choose how he perceived his previous experiences and whether or not he perceived them as failures.

Mark Victor Hansen, a close friend of mine and an extraordinary mentor and businessman. He is the coauthor of Chicken Soup for the Soul Series that has now sold over 144 million copies in over 20 languages worldwide.

But did you know that over 110 publishers, in their pursuit to be published, turned down Mark Victor Hansen and Jack Canfield? They went to New York, and it wasn’t until a publisher’s wife got a hold of the manuscript and all night long she was waking her husband saying “Look at this, look at this” Finally the publisher agreed to publish it.

Now here’s a story about another individual. His name was Colonel Sanders, the founder of Kentucky Fried Chicken. He was a military retiree and had nothing to his name, except his mother’s chicken recipe. So what did he do? He took his old sports wagon out and began driving to restaurant after restaurant after restaurant.

His intention was to sell the chicken recipe, but he was turned down time and time again he was turned down; 1,007 times before he received his first yes and that one yes is what made possible Kentucky Fried Chicken possible.

The last individual I want to tell you about is Steve Jobs, the President and founder of Apple Computer. Members of his own board of directors kicked him out of his own company. He could have allowed this to stop him, but instead he stood up. It was only because he persisted that he was voted back in as Chairman of Apple. He created the iPod, the iPhone and a new line of Mac Computers. Had he not, we probably would not have ever experienced an iPod or an iPhone.

As you can see the stories go on and on of the most extraordinary individuals creating powerful results, as a direct reflection of their persistence. Because time and time again, individuals are stopped along their journey. Just because they’re stopped, it doesn’t mean that they are failures or that their project will never work. It simply means that they’re one step closer to achieving the result that they desire

Justin Sachs is the best-selling author of The Power of Persistence, and leading success coach for entrepreneurs, corporate executives, and business owners. His latest book can be found at www.PowerofPersistenceBook.com with over $3,000 in bonuses from leading experts like Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, and Loral Langmeierfor anyone who purchases a copy.

Parents, Teachers, Preachers

The Buddha said: “Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations. But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it.”