Slow Climb to Greatness

Reading through Success magazine always give me new perspectives, a variety of useful information, and a mental boost that’s sometimes needed when I find myself “stuck”.

An article that got my attention this month is about Jim Collins who has written numerous books about entrepreneurs and what makes exceptional companies (see below for a list of the great ones).  I particularly liked this comment from him:

“You can either follow a paint-by-numbers kit approach to life and do what everybody thinks you should do and stay within the accepted lines, or you can decide you want to create a masterpiece and start with a blank canvas.  It might not ever turn into a masterpiece, but the only way you can hope for a masterpiece is starting with a blank canvas.”

Jim studies and researches what makes some companies successful and others not.  In one of his books he describes the results of a 6 year project of former startups and their evolution.  Did you know that:

• Marriott hotels started out with a single A&W root beer stand?
• George Merck had a continue reading »

How To Separate Effectiveness From Efficiency

Here’s a catch up on Part 3 of Darren Hardy’s article for Workaholics .  You may recall the first 2 steps he reviewed:

• Figure out the things you need to stop doing
• Learn to set and protect boundaries

In the next step Darren reviews the importance of going in the right direction of your goals versus focusing on the speed of getting there .  I happen to agree with him on this point.  It doesn’t do much good to be going like crazy, throwing marketing materials out right and left, if they’re not continue reading »

The Power of Your Positive Mind

I’m a fan of Success Magazine (in fact it’s a link on my Blogroll). Periodically I reference something from their writings for those who may not read the magazine. Here is a recent article from their "Seeds of Success". Just might be good timing for a new years resolution!

It’s hard to believe that the father of positive thinking, Norman Vincent Peale, was once a young boy plagued by an inferiority complex. But through faith, and his realization that people take you at your own self-appraisal, Peale began a journey to a new way of thinking. If your self-appraisal needs some refinement, incorporate Peale’s timeless truths into your life:

• Start thinking you can do things.When people believe in themselves they learn the first secret of success.

continue reading »

What if You Are Forced to Press Pause?

In a time when we rely so heavily on technology, what would you do if one day you woke up to not having access to all the familiar "tools" to run your business, even simple things such as your computer?  In a nutshell, you’d be forced to press the "pause button" – just as I am today!  It appears my system was overtaken by something bigger than what my skills could eliminate, so off to the "computer whiz" shop it went.  I am borrowing my husband’s "clunker" this morning until he needs it.

While I won’t be able to run my business today and possibly tomorrow "as usual", it will give me an opportunity to catch up on other types of business activities that I tend to put off such as filing, and possibly reading the last couple of issues of Success magazine!  (Yes, I am that far behind).  Meanwhile, here are some items for you to think about doing, so an event like this doesn’t turn catastrophic.

1.  Perform Regular System Backups – I cannot stress this enough.  It will make a system "hiccup" or hard drive failure much less stressful when you know all of your files can be retrieved.  Either back them up on a disc, a thumb drive, or as I do, on an external hard drive.  This is the easiest because continue reading »