Saturday, June 30, 2012
Quote of the Day! Jim Rohn
"I now have one of the better libraries. I admit that I haven't read everything in my library, but I feel smarter just walking in it." -- Jim Rohn
Friday, June 29, 2012
Update Ryan Blair
Here is an update from Ryan Blair on running a business while facing tragedy!
lRyan Blair, opens up about facing tragedy while running a business.
Financial Expert Author Speaker & Pastor
Here is a story I came across by accident. It got my attention because Pastor Gary is my Pastor. I know his story very well and decided to share this website and Gary and Drenda's story with you. I have made some updates to the story due to some statements that are outdated as their story continues to change at a quick pace. Enjoy!
for more info on their ministry click here
Gary Keesee Story: Fixing The Money Thing
Here’s a cool story from a dad I met recently…
Gary and Drenda Keesee now have five children whom they homeschool, three businesses, pastor a growing church in Ohio called Faith Life Church, travel internationally speaking at conferences, air television programs called “Fixing the money thing & Drenda”, books, Fixing The Money Thing by Gary Keesee,Faith Hunt and now Money Mystries from the Master and by Drenda, She gets it.
The year was 1990. Gary Keesee was a husband, a dad to 3 children, a business owner, active in a local church, and in a lot of trouble. Gary and Drenda Keesee had TEN maxed out credit cards, three finance company loans, two car payments, unpaid medical bills, $14,000 in back taxes, and they even owed their parents $26,000.
Needless to say, their circumstances felt very overwhelming.
But Gary remembers the night when God revealed to him the solution to his financial problems.
When this happened, Gary and Drenda held hands and agreed in prayer that they would not use debt any longer but would trust God for their finances.
This was quite a commitment for them because they had been leaning to debt on a regular basis to make up shortages in their cash flow.
Gary began to study his Bible, searching for answers, and applying anything he learned. When he began walking in the principles God showed him, he and Drenda paid all of that debt off in two and a half years! He began paying cash for his cars, and was even able to pay cash for 55 acres of land that his family lives on today.
Gary and Drenda Keesee now have five children whom they homeschool, three businesses, pastor a growing church in Ohio called Faith Life Church, travel internationally speaking at conferences, air television programs called “Fixing the money thing & Drenda”, books, Fixing The Money Thing by Gary Keesee,Faith Hunt and now Money Mystries from the Master and by Drenda, She gets it.
Last month, my family and I attended Gary’s conference in Florida and were able to meet and spend some time with Gary Keesee and his wife Drenda. We are now personally applying what we learned in the area of finances and business so we can carry out God’s assignment for us and our family and be a blessing to many others.
Learn more about Gary’s new books, audios, videos, and the conference he teaches.
If you know another dad who is under financial stress (or anyone for that matter!), send them to this blog post to read Gary’s encouraging story.
Blessings to you and your family,
Joey Watkins
Founder, FamilyDads
Joey Watkins
Founder, FamilyDads
P.S. – Gary Keesee’s resources are excellent, and are highly recommended if you know someone who is going through difficult times financially, or if your need greater provision to achieve a vision God has given you.
Thursday, June 28, 2012
Secrets to persevering & what it takes to overcome the inevitable plateau
How many people are getting involved with the Body by VI 90 day Challenge?
Here it is from the source
160,000 New Sign Up's per Month
for full article check out Blake Mallen
Here it is from the source
160,000 New Sign Up's per Month
for full article check out Blake Mallen
Glen Beck Program today @ 5pm is free
As you have recently read the story of Ryan Blair, here is an interview of Ryan from Fox New Business yesterday (6-27-12)
Just click the link below
Great Interview with our favorite Ryan Blair!
Andy Andrews Comedian Author & Communicator
Andy Andrews
• Three Time New York Times Bestselling Author
• "Modern day Will Rogers"
• Author of The Traveler's Gift and The Noticer
article from premierespeakers
Bio
Andy Andrews, author of the New York Time's bestselling The Traveler's Gift and The Noticer, and now How Do You Kill 11 Million People? has impacted millions with his creative writing and speaking. An international sensation, Andy's challenging personal message contains truths for those in all walks of life.
What call to action can possibly challenge four US Presidents, the Commander of the Allied Air Forces, General Schwarzkopf and Hall of Fame golfer Nancy Lopez? Could this same message cause every senior leader of the United States Air Force in Europe and the Middle East to assemble in one room - at one time - to listen? What life-changing thoughts could cause ninety-one year old Bob Hope to summon a writer to chat by the backyard swimming pool?
For 17 weeks, The Traveler's Gift: Seven Decisions that Determine Personal Success, remained on the New York Times bestseller list. It has been translated into 20 languages, featured as ABC's Good Morning America's book of the month and sold millions of copies. The author, Andy Andrews, was hailed as a “modern day Will Rogers who has quietly become one of the most influential people in America" by theNew York Times.
In his tale of one man's search for meaning and success, Andrews captures three qualities most important to an individual's growth - hope, faith, and perseverance. As the main character travels in time encountering seven historical figures, knowledge is imparted to the character and the reader. The Traveler's Gift's wisdom has spurred a teen version (The Young Traveler's Gift,) journal, home study audio program and life-study curriculum now used in schools, mental health organizations and prisons.
Andy Andrews' life was a typical American story until the age of 19. The loss of both parents - his mother to cancer and his father to an automobile accident - forever altered Andrews' path. He recalls, “I took a bad situation and made it much worse." Within a short span, he found himself homeless, a pier or garage often provided bed, and without direction. The dramatic change in circumstances forced Andrews to ask himself a simple question: "Is life just a lottery ticket or are there choices one can make to direct his future?" This very question fueled a search that led him to the local library.
After reading biographies of over two hundred great men and women, Andrews was challenged to consider, “Were they simply born this way? Or were there decisions made at critical junctures in their lives that led to success?” He resolved to determine the common denominators between each historical figure. The Seven Decisions were born, and the rest is history.
Many authors and communicators speak from their personal experience. Andy Andrews is shaped by his life path, but his message also carries the weight of hundreds of lives. Each of these past successes adds credence to the simple yet profound wisdom entertainingly presented by Andrews. With the wit of an entertainer and the gravitas of a powerful communicator, Andy Andrews is unique in today's media driven world. He communicates to audiences from the heart.
Andy Andrews lives in Orange Beach, Alabama with his wife Polly and their two sons.
For your free download from Andy Andrews click here
For your free download from Andy Andrews click here
Wednesday, June 27, 2012
If you never read anything else on my blogs PLEASE read this!
I would urge all my friends on twitter, facebook, linkedin etc. to take a few moments to read this blog article from Andy Andrews. I copied with permission directly from Andy Andrews.
If you never read anything else on my blogs PLEASE read this!
Wednesday, June 27, 2012
Here We Go . . . Again!
Hey everyone! We've had a lot of new readers find their way to the
blog over the past month or so, so I wanted to give everyone a little
refresher on just what this blog is all about. This is a post I wrote
almost three years ago that I think will give you a good idea of what my
hopes are for this little line of communication we've opened with one
another. Let's keep the conversation going!
I
don’t know when you are reading this, but I am writing it in the middle
of the night. That seems to be the proper time for a decision such as
this. Most public figures would be counseled earnestly to avoid what I
am about to do . . .Let me begin by acknowledging that I am a public figure, certainly a minor one, but my career is largely determined by whether people buy and share my books and materials . . . or not. Therefore, somewhat like a politician, I am keenly aware that everything I say or do bears heavily on whether or not I am able to pay my bills. And as we all know, words tumbled into cyberspace, once entered, can never be lost, retracted, forgotten, or successfully re-explained.
I have wondered for a couple of years now just what the heck I am supposed to be doing. Isn’t that an odd thing to admit? Really! You and I are adults . . . aren’t we supposed to have a handle on everything? Confident, chest out, chin up, follow me, and all that . . .
From my point of view, day to day, doing the best I know how . . . I know I am supposed to write and speak. Okay . . . but what do I do? I mean, the world is changing quickly, my country has changed already and is in the process of changing everything for my boys, and their children, for a long time.
PAUSE . . .
Back to the Text . . .
To what degree has the culture in which I live . . . changed? Overall, am I content with the changes that I now face. Am I happy with schools, movies, my choices at the grocery store, my government locally and nationally?
Do I contribute enough to society?
Do I accept things and ideas and actions into my life and family that I would not have considered ten years ago? How have I changed with society? Is this a good thing or a bad thing? What will the world be like when my boys are in high school?
Is there a reason to insist my children respond “yes sir” or “no ma’am” to an adult? Have I been raised in an area of the country that made me feel one way or the other about that kind of thing? Is there a reason for “yes, sir” or is it an opinion—a preference—that one can let get in the way of more important things?
Am I producing this book or product just to make money or does it have another purpose? Would I read this? Do I wish I had known this information thirty years ago . . . or twenty . . . or ten? Will this product I have produced help someone who is hurting, who needs direction, who needs confirmation?
Is the limited time I have available in my life being used wisely? Was the 2 hours I spent with that one person at the request of a friend really what I was supposed to do with my time? Or should I have been with Polly and the boys? Writing? Praying? Reading? Fiction or Non-Fiction? How much should I sleep? Should I ever just . . . play?
Why am I so drawn to history? Is there something else I am supposed to find, to figure out in order to reveal to people? What do I think I can do anyway? Can I, one person, really do anything about our country’s direction or it’s ability or it’s culture? Is my work with Special Ops or Military or Government people a justifiable use of the time I give? Am I flying on this gunship to be cool and say I did it . . . or is there a reason for me to be here with these people? Should I be somewhere else?
Do I drive or fly? Business or coach? Is one client more important than another? Is Augusta National Golf Club (who paid for me to spend an entire day speaking to every employee) more important than the Rotary Club in Zachary, LA (who gave me a coffee cup)? I spoke to them because my friend Chris asked me to do so . . . and I had the hour open.
Should I attend the church supper on Wednesday nights? Is a football game worth 3 hours of my time? Do my clients think so? Do my boys think so? Does God think so?
These are among the many questions I ask myself . . .
So . . . what are we seeking? More importantly, if we want to ask a really good question:
What do our actions indicate we are seeking?
What difference are we making? What difference did we intend to make this morning? Do we even think about intending to make a difference?
The last few months have pointed me toward a specific search I am about to make in my life. It will be a search for
The Real Truth
if I invest the time to do THIS . . . then THAT will occur.
In The Noticer, Jones’ proof of hope to Willow Callaway are the same words the old man spoke to me so many years ago. Their urgent accuracy resonates now like a bell rung on a clear winter morning!
There is more! Now!
So here is what I intend to do:
I hereby offer you a Backstage Pass into my life.
By way of Twitter, Facebook, and this blog on AndyAndrews.com, I invite you to join me and involve yourself in actively building groups of people with whom you will influence in the future.
For a long time in my life, I believed that to change the world, I should stretch as high into society as I could possibly reach, touching Presidents and Kings and CEO’s. There, I thought, was where the power existed to change everything. I now know for a fact that the power to change everything, my friend . . . lies with you and me.
Remember this: Whether President, King, or Governor, a politician is only an actor reciting lines and making moves according to a script that the audience is writing!
Most politicians make promises, react, vote, and shake specific hands according to the latest poll (script) they are given. You and I write that script with our voices and our votes.
Now before you think you know where we are all headed in such an all fired hurry, listen carefully to what I have to say:
If you had asked me a year ago whether I was a Republican or a Democrat, I probably could and would have answered you. But as my life has unfolded, I am increasingly aware that I am not an “us or them” kind of person. I am a “WE” kind of person. I believe there are “plumb lines” we can use and watch to establish right and wrong, forward or backward, yes or no.
You and I will search for guiding principles. I will put them into stories that will become books and recordings that you will be free to choose whether or not to use them in your search to create a team of people empowered to write what you believe should be the script for our next generation.
I invite you, whatever your age or technological ability, to learn to use Twitter, Facebook, and the Internet itself right now in order to join me and lead friends of your own to new levels of understanding and empowerment. We will strive to create better families, more successful financial incomes for you, and a voice of civility and reason that will be heard around the world.
I believe there was a time in our past when leaders understood how to disagree. They would disagree and argue points publicly, with humor and without the personal anger that serves only to divide their followers. These men and women disagreed, but they remained friends (and friendly) to each other.
Only a few decades ago, we lived in a world where we knew our neighbors watched out for one another’s children, and encouraged each other personally and professionally without fear of violence or lawsuits.
It is a fact known to historians that less than 10 percent of the population of the former Soviet Republic actively worked to move their society into a nightmare of paranoia, isolation, and genocide that devoured several generations. Accurate figures show that between 1917 and 1987, there were 61,911,000 lives lost to mass murder of their own people! This was done, remember, in an attempt to create a utopian society. Less than 10 per cent of the population was actively involved in creating the movement to power that caused this historical disaster. And 90 percent did what? Waited? Watched? Believed obvious lies?
I am not attempting to use fear as a tactic. History simply “is what it is”. Neither am I pointing fingers at any particular leader, media group, celebrity, or politician who might be in office or out of office at this time. Read nothing into what I am writing. At this moment, I ask you to think no further than these words:
Let us not be scared about the future, let’s just do something!
Our children, our very world is waiting for us to move . . . to write the script that is right and good and necessary. It’s time to move.
Here we go!
Yours,
Andy
P.S. Click below to watch some of my very best friends. . . listen carefully to their words!
© 2009-2012, Andy Andrews. Used by Permission. Originally posted on AndyAndrews.com.
Darryl Strawberry, the life and times What changed
Watch Darryl's Story
SPORTS
Darryl Strawberry: A Changed Man
By Shawn Brown
The 700 Club
CBN.com – Darryl Strawberry was perhaps one of the most electrifying players in Major League Baseball history. He entering the league with the New York Mets in 1983. Throughout his 17-year career, he made eight consecutive all-star game appearances and captured four World Series championships! But his baseball prowess on the field at times was largely overshadowed by his controversial life off of it. It had lot to do with how he grew up.
“My childhood always was a real disaster,” he tells The 700 Club, “due to the fact that I had a tremendous fear factor in my life from my father. He was a very abusive, raging alcoholic.”
Darryl grew up in south central Los Angeles with his four siblings Mike, Ronnie, Regina and Michelle. Their father, “Big Hank”, was prone to fits of rage -- mostly to Darryl and his older brother Ronnie.
“Me and Ronnie was basically his whopping pole. He would lay us across the bed. We had our shirts off, and he would have like an extension cord. He would beat us and tell us, ‘You’re never going to be nothing. You don’t do nothing right,’ and it was just so bad. I was terrified inside of the fact that what he was saying to me I truly believed it.”
When Darryl was 13 years old, one night he and his brothers decided to take a stand.
“That night when he came home, he was drunk, abusive to my mom. My older brother Mike finally confronted him,” Darryl recalls. “Told him to just get out of here and leave us alone. My dad was went into a rage. He pulled out a shot gun and started making threats about, ‘I’ll kill all of you guys.’ Ronnie grabbed a butcher knife, and I grabbed a frying pan skillet. Ronnie was thinking along the same lines I was thinking. Only one’s dying here tonight is him.”
Big Hank backed down. The police came to their home and told him to leave. Their mother was left with five kids to raise on her own.
“What a remarkable woman. She loved her kid. It didn’t matter whatever the struggle it was going to be. She was going to take care of us.”
While Darryl’s life at home was finally peaceful, his father’s abuse stuck with him. But he began to use baseball as an outlet to channel his anger.
“I thought I was bigger than life and nobody could tell me nothing. That wasn’t anything personal, it was always because of the fact that I had been controlled for so long. Now, this was my outlet, and this was where nobody was ever going to control me again.”
Despite his bad attitude, his talent was undeniable. He was the No. 1 draft pick in 1980 and was selected by the New York Mets. After three long years in the Minors, he was brought up to the Majors. He also married his first wife Lisa. He had a stellar rookie season and earned the Player of the Year award in 1983. But with all the fame also came the pressure to perform.
“If I did something good, ‘he’s great.’ If you do something wrong, ‘he’s not hustling. He doesn’t look like he’s playing hard.’ When I hit tremendous bombs and win games, ‘oh, he’s great.’ So it was a no-win situation.”
The pressure came in from all sides. Eventually, Darryl turned to drugs to deal with it.
“I did everything to make me feel good. I drank alcohol, took amphetamines. Later down the line, I got introduced heavily into cocaine, which was my outlet and my escape. That was the biggest escape for me. When I found that, I can escape away from everybody and everything.”
Even though Darryl’s personal life was crashing, he helped lead the Mets to the 1986 World Series championship. Then in 1990, he accepted a lucrative deal to play with the Los Angeles Dodgers.
“I regret that I left New York. I had had it with New York, not the fans. I had had it with the media.”
Darryl spent three seasons with the Dodgers, and because of his drug habit, his career was hitting rock bottom. He was eventually traded to the San Francisco Giants. But while he was in L.A., his wife invited him to a convention by evangelist Morris Cerello.
“That weekend, all I did was cry when I heard him up there preaching,” Darryl says. “He said, ‘This Sunday, I’m going to lay hands on everybody that comes in here.’ That was the most remarkable move I had ever seen in my life. There was a line formed. The power of God hit me, and when I got up, my belly was like a river. It was just like a river. I had never experienced anything like that in my life.
“I was out of baseball, and I was not with anyone at that time. My mom passed away. I wasn’t going to play any more baseball, because I had been suspended from the league for drugs. I had went through that battle, and I just kind of like had had enough.”
After rehab Darryl entered the lesser known independent league. It wasn’t long before he received an unexpected call, it was the New York Yankees.
“Mr. Stienbrenner brought me back to New York. What a gift. He’s a person that I’m always grateful for, because of the fact, when everybody had written me off, he didn’t care what the opinions were. He said, ‘He’s a New Yorker. He belongs in New York. He’s going to play for the Yankees.’”
Darryl’s career was back on track. He married his second wife Charrise and also helped his team win the ‘96 and ‘98 World Series championships. Again his life appeared to be shaping up on the field, but at home, his drug habit had resurfaced. It began to affect his marriage.
“It was more different relationship with Charisse than with Lisa. Things had changed a little different in my life, but I had that anger and those abusive ways.”
Not only were things at home coming undone, but at the end of the ‘98 season Darryl was diagnosed with colon cancer.
“The doctors said it’s just amazing. This tumor didn’t burst open and spread throughout your body,” he remarks.
Miraculously, after surgery and six months of chemotherapy, he was back on the field the next season and helped the Yankees their third World Series championship in four seasons. But after the ‘99 season, Darryl’s life took a turn for the worst again when he was arrested for soliciting a prostitution and drug possession. He was suspended from the League. Over the next five years, Darryl lost everything -- his career, his wife, and he almost lost himself, but he managed to go to a drug recovery convention where he met Tracy.
Tracy could relate to Darryl, because she had her own struggle with drug addiction. She says, “I saw a man that was very broken, even physically. A person who has addiction themselves, I could look in him and see he wasn’t even clean yet. He was sitting in his seat full of heaviness.”
“I was hurting so much,” Darryl recalls. “I was angry and mad. She came into my life, and I saw something different in her eyes.”
Tracy and Darryl became good friends. Even though, Darryl was still struggling, a born again Christian Tracy proved to be a guardian for Darryl.
“I would plead with God not only for my own life, but standing in the gap for Darryl. Not even knowing what that statement meant,” Tracy explains. “Just being on my face and praying and crying out to God. ‘God, show Yourself to me. Save us, transform us, take this desire out. Get this out of me. , Get this out of him. Wherever he is, cover him.’ I had enough light in me, just a flicker in me, to want to reach out and literally save him.”
Tracy’s example soon began to rub off on Darryl, and he knew it was time to make a change.
Darryl says, “I just had to surrender. I had to get with God myself. I had to separate myself from everything and everybody. God was calling me, and it was either I was going to answer this call or I was going to die.”
Darryl went back to church and rededicated his life to the Lord. This time it was for good. Tracy and Darryl married in 2006. Today, they are both doing better than ever. Darryl is currently working closely with the Mets organization. Together with Tracy, they founded the Darryl Strawberry Foundation, which is dedicated to children and adults with autism. For years, Darryl’s life was surrounded by controversy, but these days he’s a changed man.
“I want them to see the remarkable man who I always knew I had the capabilities of being. And not playing baseball, but the remarkable man God has me. They see that today. I am so proud of what the Lord has done for me and through me. You become a splitting image of God’s image when the world can see that You’re different.”
Tuesday, June 26, 2012
How I Went from Gang Member to Multimillionaire Entrepreneur.”
5 Steps of Compartmentalization: The Secret Behind Successful Entrepreneurs
The answer is compartmentalization.
+ Comment now
As a young entrepreneur I often get asked this question: “How do you deal with ____________ (insert word here: pressure, people, balance, challenges, family, etc)?”
What they’re really asking is, how do you deal with all these things, all at once. It’s a good question; one I’ve struggled with myself.
In the past year I saw my effectiveness increase significantly, while the challenges I needed to deal with were more dramatic than I had ever experienced. How did I deal with losing my stepfather unexpectedly, my mother falling down a flight of stairs a few weeks later (she is still on life support today), being a father to a son diagnosed with autism, and running a company with extreme growing pains (we grew from $20M in Quarter 1, 2011 to $136.7M in sales, Quarter 1, of 2012)?
The answer is compartmentalization.
Psychology defines compartmentalization as a defense mechanism, or a coping strategy, which doesn’t impart a very good connotation. Put simply, it’s how our minds deal with conflicting internal standpoints simultaneously. Some examples would be: a doctor who is religious, but has to separate her belief system from her practice at a women’s health clinic; a man who leaves his office at 6pm, and refuses to think about work for the rest of the evening, so he can enjoy his time with his family or, at its extreme, soldiers who need to file away the trauma of horrific events in their minds, so they can continue operating in battle.
Coping strategies are short-term solutions, and they have positive and negative aspects. You want to compartmentalize, but not push out. For instance, those soldiers I just mentioned; pushing out trauma works in combat, but once they come back to their regular lives, they often find those pushed away memories coming back to haunt them, like in cases of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
Isolating and focusing on difficult issues separately is something I’ve used my entire life to get through trauma as a result of my upbringing; so one could say this skill was innate, however I never really noticed its implications in business until recently. Last January I first saw its effectiveness as a tool for entrepreneurs when I got hit with having to close the biggest deal of my career that would make my cofounders and I the second largest shareholders inside a public company (NYSE:BTH). I was also fully engaged in learning how to make progress with my son’s autism, fighting the courts to get my mother released from the hospital so I could take her off of life support, and institutionalizing culture in my company while adding hundreds of jobs to our growing employee base.
One of the key reasons I had such a successful year, despite the private and professional paradox, is that I accepted the fact that I had several fulltime focuses, but only a limited amount of emotional and mental energy to devote to each one. Normally entrepreneurs think about their businesses all day long and therefore focus on nothing else. In the past I would have worked on a long list of projects. Instead, I had all these other things that were demanding attention from my mind and heart, and there were only a few events or priorities I was humanly capable of focusing on per day. I learned prioritizing is saying “no” and focusing on only the few things that matter most.
So, to sum it up, here is a five-step system for dealing with adversity and extreme challenges while running a business:
- Compartmentalize it. Isolate the issue from all the other challenges you are dealing with.
- Apply extreme focus on each compartment, but only for a short period of time.
- Move forward in incremental steps. And once you see progress…
- Close the compartment and open the next one.
- Say “no” to things that don’t deserve a compartment.
As an entrepreneur you’re going to have to compartmentalize your entire life. The stress of being a father (or mother), potentially running out of money, being rejected by an investor (or several investors), getting involved in lawsuits, or having public opinion suddenly sway against you or your company—even balancing your dating life with everything else (I fail at this one, miserably). In short, as a business owner, you’re going to get hit by big traumatic, potentially harmful, or life ending events, sometimes in succession. Your ability to compartmentalize, prioritize, and focus enough time on each area in order to make incremental progress towards a conclusion will be your most important skill set to achieve significant success.
This is my leaving advice to my fellow entrepreneurs: open, focus, and then close the compartment. Most entrepreneurs cannot open up a compartment, see slight progress in it, and then close it. They’re too emotionally attached. They fail to accept small incremental steps in matters that weigh heavy on the heart. Like entrepreneurs that blow up their business when their marriage fails, or quit working when things don’t go their way. My favorite excuse is the economy, and I know this excuse very well. It actually forced me to shut down the “Excuse Department” in my company. If your Excuse Department is still open, and you’re letting traumatic events affect your business, it will kill it.
Here’s a visual for compartmentalization; pretend as if everything you’re dealing with in your life is a room where you have to walk in and solve an equation on a white board. You have a countdown clock with less than an hour to get the problem solved, or take a single step in the right direction, and then shut the door and go into another room equally as important. You spend your entire life going from compartment to compartment.
Sounds sleepless, doesn’t it? A lot of you are probably asking—with this strategy how do I sleep at night? Is there a bedroom in this compartment analogy? In my system, yes there is, and that compartment gets about four hours of my time every night…and it tends to dream about all the other compartments.
Article from Forbes
Article from Forbes
Ryan Blair is the CEO of ViSalus, a serial entrepreneur and New York Times bestselling author of “Nothing to Lose, Everything to Gain: How I Went from Gang Member to Multimillionaire Entrepreneur.” Follow Ryan on Twitter@ryanblair or Facebook.
Story of Dexter Yager another rags to riches story
Everybody likes to read success stories. Especially stories about a person
who rose from a virtual nobody, having no skills and little going for
them, to become a giant in the network marketing industry.
A lot of folks have the dream of starting a small business, like an e-commerce business and then see that e-business become a major network marketing opportunity.
It really doesn't take a genius to accomplish a winning opportunity, but it does take goal setting, persistence, and the ability to overcome adversity.
Dexter Yager is a true rags to riches success story. Right now, he is not only one of the most successful people in network marketing, but perhaps the one who has given his parent company, Amway, one of the best track records in the industry.
Yager started his career in the small town of Rome, New York, as a beer salesman. Most of the folks in that town were broke, lived paycheck to paycheck, and had no hope of ever getting out of their daily rut at the local mill.
Yager says of those early days, "We didn't know anybody who had big dreams, or at least, talked about them."
When he would talk about his dreams for the future, his friends would ridicule him. Yager had little education, no money, and didn't know a thing about business.
They would tell him, "Who do you think you are? You're never going to to make it."
Dexter said this was one of the toughest obstacles he ever had to face. "The fear of becoming a failure in front of your family and friends," he says, "is a negative force that outweighs people's concerns about their own family's future."
The second adversity Yager had to overcome was the fact that he stuttered so badly it took him 4 hours to give a normal 2 hour presentation. It would have been easy to just give up. But neither one of these obstacles prevented Yager from whole-heartedly going after the goals he had set.
But it wasn't easy. Just starting out, he was still working his day job. Then at night, Yager would go out making presentations, often arriving back home very late.
This was an added burden on his wife, who was trying to raise 7 small children at the time and was used to a husband who came home every night after work.
Dexter Yager first set a small goal for himself. When he met that goal, a larger one was set. After every goal was met, he would keep setting bigger and bigger goals.
He believes, "The most important thing in this business is to have a big dream and keep it in front of you every day."
Another key to his success was that Yager was always reading positive material, or listening to motivational tapes.
Keeping his mind in a positive mode, allowed him to eventually develop a tremendous training system that helped Dexter immensely to build perhaps the largest downline in MLM history.
Dexter loves people and loves to see them succeed. "My expertise is loving the people and caring about them. I teach people to take responsibility for themselves and I empower them to stretch, to reach beyond where they
thought they could go."
He goes on to say, "Success is not luck, nor is it a gift. Here's how I define success: work plus failure. We have failed more times than anyone else I know.
One hundred percent of the people who are willing to keep working and keep failing make it."
"People should look at their own businesses the way they look at their kids. Remember when a toddler first starts to walk? They take those first wobbly steps and then, splat! They fall on their behinds. Do we run to those kids and say, why don't you just stop trying to walk. No! We know they will eventually learn to do it right. Now, as grownups, do we remember all those falls? No: we just walk."
"Success doesn't just happen. You reap what you sow - and you always have a choice in what you sow."
"Success is a struggle. I've heard people say, this can't be of God - God would have made it easier! They should take a look through the Old Testament! Every prophet in the Bible struggled."
"In a race, the obvious winner should be the one with the longest legs - but it's not. Most often, the winner is the one who beats the odds. When a winner makes a decision, the facts don't count. The past doesn't count. The odds don't
count. The only thing that counts is the winner's decision." "The first step in your success is to change your thinking. Change it from a failure mentality to a winning mentality. When you change your thinking, you change your life."
Wise words from one of the most respected men in network marketing.
A lot of folks have the dream of starting a small business, like an e-commerce business and then see that e-business become a major network marketing opportunity.
It really doesn't take a genius to accomplish a winning opportunity, but it does take goal setting, persistence, and the ability to overcome adversity.
Dexter Yager is a true rags to riches success story. Right now, he is not only one of the most successful people in network marketing, but perhaps the one who has given his parent company, Amway, one of the best track records in the industry.
Yager started his career in the small town of Rome, New York, as a beer salesman. Most of the folks in that town were broke, lived paycheck to paycheck, and had no hope of ever getting out of their daily rut at the local mill.
Yager says of those early days, "We didn't know anybody who had big dreams, or at least, talked about them."
When he would talk about his dreams for the future, his friends would ridicule him. Yager had little education, no money, and didn't know a thing about business.
They would tell him, "Who do you think you are? You're never going to to make it."
Dexter said this was one of the toughest obstacles he ever had to face. "The fear of becoming a failure in front of your family and friends," he says, "is a negative force that outweighs people's concerns about their own family's future."
The second adversity Yager had to overcome was the fact that he stuttered so badly it took him 4 hours to give a normal 2 hour presentation. It would have been easy to just give up. But neither one of these obstacles prevented Yager from whole-heartedly going after the goals he had set.
But it wasn't easy. Just starting out, he was still working his day job. Then at night, Yager would go out making presentations, often arriving back home very late.
This was an added burden on his wife, who was trying to raise 7 small children at the time and was used to a husband who came home every night after work.
Dexter Yager first set a small goal for himself. When he met that goal, a larger one was set. After every goal was met, he would keep setting bigger and bigger goals.
He believes, "The most important thing in this business is to have a big dream and keep it in front of you every day."
Another key to his success was that Yager was always reading positive material, or listening to motivational tapes.
Keeping his mind in a positive mode, allowed him to eventually develop a tremendous training system that helped Dexter immensely to build perhaps the largest downline in MLM history.
Dexter loves people and loves to see them succeed. "My expertise is loving the people and caring about them. I teach people to take responsibility for themselves and I empower them to stretch, to reach beyond where they
thought they could go."
He goes on to say, "Success is not luck, nor is it a gift. Here's how I define success: work plus failure. We have failed more times than anyone else I know.
One hundred percent of the people who are willing to keep working and keep failing make it."
"People should look at their own businesses the way they look at their kids. Remember when a toddler first starts to walk? They take those first wobbly steps and then, splat! They fall on their behinds. Do we run to those kids and say, why don't you just stop trying to walk. No! We know they will eventually learn to do it right. Now, as grownups, do we remember all those falls? No: we just walk."
"Success doesn't just happen. You reap what you sow - and you always have a choice in what you sow."
"Success is a struggle. I've heard people say, this can't be of God - God would have made it easier! They should take a look through the Old Testament! Every prophet in the Bible struggled."
"In a race, the obvious winner should be the one with the longest legs - but it's not. Most often, the winner is the one who beats the odds. When a winner makes a decision, the facts don't count. The past doesn't count. The odds don't
count. The only thing that counts is the winner's decision." "The first step in your success is to change your thinking. Change it from a failure mentality to a winning mentality. When you change your thinking, you change your life."
Wise words from one of the most respected men in network marketing.
Monday, June 25, 2012
What's happening this week
Coming this week
Monday Zig Ziglar's Life Story
Tuesday The Story of Dexter Yager (from broke to 1 million dollars per month income)
Wednesday Darrly Strawberry Story
Thursday Andy Andrews (free ebook from Andy)
Friday Author, Financial expert, speaker and Pastor
Gary Keesee
Watch for the common thread between these successful people.
Monday Zig Ziglar's Life Story
Tuesday The Story of Dexter Yager (from broke to 1 million dollars per month income)
Wednesday Darrly Strawberry Story
Thursday Andy Andrews (free ebook from Andy)
Friday Author, Financial expert, speaker and Pastor
Gary Keesee
Watch for the common thread between these successful people.
Zig Ziglar's Life Story
Today
I’m going to be sharing with you my spiritual journey. Interestingly
enough, it started when I was ten days old. I died that day. Ten days
earlier the doctor had delivered me to my mother and said, “You have a
perfectly healthy baby boy.” Ten days later, he laid me on the bed and
said to my mother, “He is no more.”
My
grandmother reached down and picked up this lifeless body. And they said
she started talking to me. But you of course know that she was not
talking to me, she was talking to her heavenly father. She was pleading
for my life. God responded to that prayer, and obviously I did survive.
As a child, I watched a widowed mother who lost her husband who left her with six children too small to work –there
to continue reading click here
Saturday, June 23, 2012
From drugs with no hope to riches & on top of the world. A MUST READ
Ryan Blair grew up in an environment all too familiar within today’s American society. As a child, Blair was the product of an appalling upbringing. Abandoned, neglected, and abused, his story of triumph over tragedy, to become a highly successful entrepreneur and industry visionary, inspires his audience to overcome life’s struggles, living the American dream of financial and emotional independence. In his upcoming memoirs “Uniting Minds” (Spring 2005), Blair describes his early suburban childhood as content and worriless. But at the age of 11 his environment changed and his whole world was flipped upside due to his drug and alcohol addicted parents. Blair’s story shares the emotional lows of a young boy who had it all, and then had it all taken away being forced to live in poverty and on his own. “Uniting Minds” details his first fifty memories as the most terrible experiences a young boy could endure ranging from his mother’s attempted suicide to later rescuing his mother from his fathers attempt to murder her. However, Blair did not let this adversity hold him down for long. Blair takes the reader on a mind numbing journey through the dark area of his past into the brightness of the present. By 22, Blair overcame great obstacles to live a life that far exceed his wildest dreams.
As a result of Blair’s early childhood he adapted some poor behaviors and beliefs about life. By the time he was a young adult his path was headed in the wrong direction, he had been kicked out of high school, couldn’t read beyond a remedial level and considered by many to be a rebellious troublemaker. By his own admission he was a single decision away from prison or death. For a period of time, Blair’s future did not seem promising. However, a mentor intervened and rescued him from his disempowering beliefs and poverty stricken environment. Blair’s mentor saw in him something that no one else previously had; he saw potential. His mentor began working with him, helping him set and achieve his goals, creating empowering beliefs and developing the self confidence necessary to pursue a career as an entrepreneur. Leveraging his new found attitude, at 21 years old Blair founded 24×7 Tech, his first startup, applying his street smarts and natural ability to lead people he grew the company to over $1MM in sales within just 12 months. By the end of his second year as an entrepreneur he successfully sold his interest in the company and achieved his first independence event. Yet, he wanted more, so he risked everything and in July of 2001, he founded his second venture, SkyPipeline. This time Blair wanted to test his capabilities and take his game to the “next level.” He wanted to prove that he could build an industry pioneering wireless communications company. To do so he would need to raise millions of dollars and that’s exactly what he did. In his book he describes the process that he used to convince the greatest venture capitalist in the world to back him. With just a few months of fundraising in the most difficult money raising economy ever, (just after September 11th 2001), Blair raised millions in venture capital and began his mentorship under one of the venture industries’ greatest capitalists of all time. Under Blair’s visionary leadership, SkyPipeline became the fastest growing most profitable Wireless Broadband Communications Company in the USA and was named the 29th fastest growing company in Southern California. In March, 2004 less than three years after founding the company, SkyPipeline was acquired by Nextweb in a $25,000,000 transaction.
Blair was recently named to the Business Times “Forty under Forty” and “Who’s Who in Tech & Telecom Enterprises”. He has been published and featured in many prestigious publications and news services such as the LA Times, Daily News, MSNBC, and CNBC.
Blair has conducted hundreds of lectures and seminars to leading corporations, universities, colleges, high schools, youth organizations and conferences. In addition to writing and speaking, he is an executive producer for his upcoming documentary about the start of his 3rd company PathConnect.
Blair’s upcoming media engagements include an interview on the October 4th award wining television show “Voices of Tomorrow” he will also be a guest host on the 4th season kickoff show of KidsTalk TV and has several upcoming interviews in national newspapers and magazines.
Ryan is on the board of directors of the Los Angles based KidsTalk Foundation and is an executive producer for the foundation’s award wining television show KidsTalk. KidsTalk is an educational TV talk show designed to provide an intelligent alternative for youth to voice their opinions in family TV programming. The show has garnered ten Telly Awards, bringing the total number of accolades the show has received to 45 awards across the USA.
Blair is an expert speaker in several key areas that include: Inspiration, Influence, Leadership, Overcoming Obstacles, Becoming Successful, Becoming an Entrepreneur, Raising Venture Capital, Goal Setting, Sales & Marketing, and Technology and Communications. Having experience in a variety of subjects, one of his key abilities is to customize a speech or a workshop to fit his audience’s specific needs.
A partial client list includes: MIT Entrepreneurial Forum, World Broadband Wireless Forum 2002 & 2003 Keynotes, Wireless Communications Association Keynote, Pepperdine University, California State Northridge University/School of Education, Westlake Village High School, Thousand Oaks High School, Newbury Park High School, Conejo Valley High School, Remax, Century 21, Hyatt, Holiday Inn, Xircom, Intel, Ambertel, Del Rey Laser, CalNet Technologies, Tri-Core Securities and many more.
Blair’s most popular speech is the true story of a boy born into a violently abusive, drug addicted family. This sad tale does not end in tragedy however. It rises above the situations to show how a challenge can turn into the foundation for major success. Blair inspires people (both young and old) to leverage the challenges and obstacles of life to become successful. He sets an example of how he overcame his personal obstacles himself. Having reached a high-level of success at such a young age, Blair’s story is an example of how a person can go from rags to riches in just a few years with the right tools and attitude.
His personality is passionate and inspiring. His speaking style is humorous and easy to identify with, creating a feeling of comfort and connection with his audience. He awakens people to the simple formula he discovered to be successful. Set goals, create empowering beliefs, focus and get the right mentors behind you. You will be amazed at the emotional journey that Blair will take you on, in merely an hour this empowering story of triumph encourages all to think of themselves and their mistakes not as a negative but rather as an advantage in life.
Source material: http://www.happytalk.org/ryanblair.html
Remember the story of John Henry
The Man - Facts, Fiction and Themes
By Carlene Hempel
By Carlene Hempel
There are two John Henrys, the actual man and the legend surrounding him. Defining the first is a matter of assembling facts. He was born a slave, worked as a laborer for the railroads after the Civil War, and died in his 30s, leaving behind a young pretty wife and a baby.
Pinning down the second, the legend, is not so easy.
It's
as varied as the thousands of people - menial workers, scholars, professional
musicians - who have studied, sung and recorded it over the years.
The story of John Henry, told mostly through ballads and work songs, traveled from coast to coast as the railroads drove west during the 19th Century. And in time, it has become timeless, spanning a century of generations with versions ranging from prisoners recorded at Mississippi's Parchman Farm in the late 1940s to present-day folk heroes.
From what we know, John Henry was born a slave in the 1840s or 1850s in North Carolina or Virginia. He grew to stand 6 feet tall, 200 pounds - a giant in that day. He had an immense appetite, and an even greater capacity for work. He carried a beautiful baritone voice, and was a favorite banjo player to all who knew him.
One among a legion of blacks just freed from the war, John Henry went to work rebuilding the Southern states whose territory had been ravaged by the Civil War. The period became known as the Reconstruction, a reunion of the nation under one government after the Confederacy lost the war. The war conferred equal civil and political rights on blacks, sending thousands upon thousands of men into the workforce, mostly in deplorable conditions and for poor wages.
As far as anyone can determine, John Henry was hired as a steel-driver for the C&O Railroad, a wealthy company that was extending its line from the Chesapeake Bay to the Ohio Valley. Steel drivers, also known as a hammer man, would spend their workdays driving holes into rock by hitting thick steel drills or spikes. The hammer man always had a partner, known as a shaker or turner, who would crouch close to the hole and rotate the drill after each blow.
The C&O's new line was moving along quickly, until Big Bend Mountain emerged to block its path. The mile-and-a-quarter-thick mountain was too vast to build around. So the men were told they had drive their drills through it, through its belly.
It
took 1,000 men three years to finish. The work was treacherous. Visibility
was negligible and the air inside the developing tunnel was thick with
noxious black smoke and dust. Hundreds of men would lose their lives to
Big Bend before it was over, their bodies piled into makeshift, sandy graves
just steps outside the mountain. John Henry was one of them. As the story
goes, John Henry was the strongest, fastest, most powerful man working
on the rails. He used a 14-pound hammer to drill, some historians believe,
10 to 20 feet in a 12-hour day - the best of any man on the rails.
One day, a salesman came to camp, boasting that his steam-powered machine could outdrill any man. A race was set: man against machine. John Henry won, the legend says, driving 14 feet to the drill's nine. He died shortly after, some say from exhaustion, some say from a stroke.
So why would one man - one among a hundred years of other men and other stories - emerge as such a central figure in folklore and song? For this, we can only speculate.
Like Paul Bunyan, John Henry's life was about power - the individual,
raw strength that no system could take from a man - and about weakness -
the societal position in which he was thrust. To the thousands of
railroad hands, he was an inspiration and an example, a man just like
they who worked in a deplorable, unforgiving atmosphere but managed to
make his mark.
But the song also reflects many faces, many lives. Some consider it a protest anthem, an attempt by the laborers to denounce - without facing punishment or dismissal by their superiors - the wretched conditions under which John Henry worked.
This old hammer killed John Henry
But it won't kill me, it won't kill me.
Another refrain perhaps allowed the men to imagine they could walk away from the tunnel. And of course they could have. The whites driving them were not their owners. But still, for many blacks, the railroad was an extension of the plantation. Whites were barking the orders; an army of blacks was doing the work. And, for the most part, they had no other option.
Take this hammer, and carry it to the captain,
Tell him I'm gone, tell him I'm gone.
Whatever John Henry meant or has come to mean, his legend has persevered. Perhaps that's because it reminds us of a time in history - the war and Reconstruction - that we know we ought not to forget. Or, perhaps it's that John Henry represents to us a man who stayed true, despite living in a time and place where, just like in Big Bend, the roads were blocked and the choices, limited.
In other words, like all good heroes, his story still applies.
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