Here are 13 harsh, yet truthful indicators as to why you are nowhere near success at this very point in time.

Reasons Why You Are Not Successful Yet

1 – You procrastinate

Actions speak louder than words, the longer you leave something as just a thought someone else out there is taking action and achieving YOUR dreams, only problem with that is, you will never feel what it’s like to achieve success because someone came along and took the rug from underneath your lazy ass.

2 – You forget that you are mortal

No one lives forever, time is of the essence and every minute that passes you by is another chance gone to make your dreams come true.

3 – You listen to others stupid advice

“That’s too hard”, “that won’t work”, “you’re too young”, “you’re too old”. All of that advice is bullsh!t. If everyone listened to the negative advice of others, no one and no thing would really progress in this world.

4 – You are in a bad place

You need to position yourself in an environment where you can be stress free, creative and surrounded by positive people. Your environment is very important, it can influence the way you think, feel and see things.

5 – You dont have a strong enough belief

You need to believe in your dream. It has to be as real as you can make it. If you believe it, you can conceive it and achieve it. The mind and body is an incredible machine, why waste it on the easy and average things in life.

6 – Your motivation is not compelling enough

Why do you want to be successful? Paint a vivid picture in your head of why you deserve to be successful, why you? How are things going to look once you achieve your dreams? This picture needs to be so motivating that it will inspire you to do anything to reach your dreams.

7 – Your crew sucks!

The great motivational speaker Jim Rohn once said “You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with”.

As humans we learn through repetitious info and the influence of others. We unconsciously learn a lot of things from one another and are affected by our closest of friends and family members. This been said, make sure whoever is in your circle is of good benefit towards your growth, whether it be financially, spiritually, physically or mentally. Don’t be afraid to cut off those who will only drag you down.

8 – You haven’t learned how much regret can really be a bummer!

You never want to be the one who said “I wish I did this” or “I wish I did that”. The one emotion you don’t ever want in life is regret.

NOW has never been a better time to work towards your success.

9 – You are a part time player

You only work towards your goals when it is really convenient for you, or when you have nothing else to do. You look forward to your weekends so you can go out and party instead of using some of that time to work towards your dreams. Balance is good (don’t get me wrong), because you SHOULD take a break from time to time,  but if you live for the weekend, every week, then your plan to be successful is most definitely broken.

10 – You have not set any reminders

Everyone needs a reminder or a wake up call.

Set goals, an inspirational wallpaper on your phone, revise a collection of top quotes, tell your partner or best friend about your dream and make it a daily ritual to remind yourself of what you are truly capable of and what you are working towards.

11 – You think you have arrived already

You cannot afford to settle and stay complacent if you want to achieve success, there is always room to grow, there is ALWAYS more good that we can do in this world.

Keep moving, keep winning.

12 – You are not persistent enough

You hit a bump and you gave up. It’s just a hurdle, so pick yourself up and TRY AGAIN!

Studies show that the most successful people in life are passionate and overly persistent in reaching their goals and dreams. As this picture below would suggest, you could be inches away from success, Never Give Up:

13 – You forgot to be happy

What is all the fame and fortune worth if you are not happy? See, we grow up believing success leads to happiness, when in actual fact our brains work in exactly the opposite order.

Everyone’s view of what success means to them will be different, but at the end of the day if you are not happy with your achievements, the people around you or the journey itself then you should re-evaluate the direction you are headed in and adjust your plan accordingly.

Your journey may be a while on the road to success, so why not enjoy the view along the way

Article By Joel Brown | Addicted2Success.com

You can’t assure success, but you can increase the chances of it happening. After all, opportunity favors the prepared. With the following 15 success principles, you can dramatically increase the chances of success in your life.

Success Principles

1 – Prepare

The first success principle is preparation. It’s the foundation of success. With preparation you create your own opportunities. Once you have all the different elements lined up, it only takes a small opening to realize your goal. At the same time, taking advantage of big opportunities without enough preparation means risking your success, as you’re building without a well-laid foundation.

2 – Do something you love

You have to work very hard whatever it is you choose to do. Your work or your project will dominate much of your time and your life. Therefore, find something that you enjoy doing and do that.

3 – Get started

You have to start somewhere. Today is as good a day as any to start. Get into action today and start moving in the direction you want. Putting it off can only lead to failure, whereas if you start and see an early setback, at least you conquered that setback early on.

4 – Move in the right direction

Keep everything moving in the direction you want. It doesn’t matter if things go slowly initially. As long as the overall direction is favorable, you’ll get where you want to go eventually.

5 – Use the power of dreams and your imagination

What you dream and visualize today will become true tomorrow. You just have to work on turning it into reality. Just as your dreams can only influence your life if you let them, the cities you build in your imagination can only become real if you build them.

6 – Think big

If you set your aim a bit too high you might fall short. If you set your aim too low you might achieve your goal… and miss out on the other opportunities. By thinking bigger, the only limit is what is possible. You’re no longer limited by what you think is possible.

7 – Focus on growth

Seemingly impossible challenges are just cleverly disguised opportunities for growth. If you take those challenges and, in solving them, improve yourself, you’ll find yourself continually moving in the right direction.

8 – Maintain your determination

With enough determination, you can succeed through almost any odds. Enough determination means you’ll find a way no matter the situation.

9 – Set a clear vision

Think through where you’ll want to go. Develop a clear sense of what your final goal is, and keep this with you. By knowing the destination you want to reach, you can continually look at your current path and decide if it’s a route that will help you get where you want to go.

10 – Set goals along the way

A final goal isn’t enough. You need intermediate goals that set the path. These goals should be specific, measurable, realistic, attainable, and timely. These intermediate goals define the steps that you need to take to get to the final one.

11 - Work out plans of action for your work

For each goal, it helps to have plans to reach them. Your plan describes how you can reach each step from where you are, or where you will be. Keep in mind that the future is never certain. Things rarely work out exactly how you plan. Therefore, see these plans as showing one or more possible routes, not necessarily the route you’ll end up taking.

Still, knowing the plan means you can avoid long detours that might compromise your chances of reaching a goal on time — or at all.

12 - Commit to taking action

Once you start going, keep going. Never, never, never give up. If you find an obstacle in your way, chip away at it or go around it. The only way to really fail is to give up. If you keep going you’ll succeed. If you hit the limits of what’s possible, you can regroup and find another way.

13 - Use affirmations

Affirmations are just short, positive, and above all direct phrases in present tense. Things like “I’m getting more and more successful.” The idea is that they reinforce a positive world view. With affirmations, you are defining your own reality. By transmitting a positive world view to your mind, it adopts this view. As your mind adopts this view, it helps shape the world around you to fit it, which means it helps make the world around you one that reflects a reality of you getting more successful every day.

14 - Get rid of negative influences

Avoid harmful influences around you that might shake you from your goal. Keep people and ideas around you that support your success and your belief in yourself.

15 - Be grateful and appreciate what you have

The final success principle is to appreciate what you have already. Realize that — by sheer virtue of the fact that you can be reasonably certain you’ll live from one day to the next — you already have enough. Enjoy it! Appreciate what you’ve achieved so far, and see that what you want, where you’re going, is not what you need or what you must do. Rather, these are things and actions that will make your situation even better.

Article By James Meyer | Addicted2Success.com

Over the years Les Brown’s audio tapes, books, radio shows and speeches have inspired millions around the world to improve the quality of all areas in their life.

We came across the Keys To Self Motivation by Les Brown and have found these keys very helpful in improving and planning our self motivation. Read on, take note and enjoy!

Les Browns 6 Keys To Self Motivation

Self Mastery

One of the things we MUST alway be working on is achieving Self Mastery.

You must work on yourself continuously, never be satisfied with yourself. Always know that as you invest the time and effort on you that’s the greatest ability that human beings have above animals. A dog can’t be anything but a dog, a tree can’t be anything but a tree.

Human being you’ve got unlimited potential, you can put effort on you, and by concentrating on you and developing you, you can transform your life no matter where you are right now.

Stop Settling

Most people settle, What have you settled for lately? You know when you make an out of court settlement that means that you have decided to take something less than you originally wanted to get had you gone in to court and the reason that you’ve settled out side of court is because you didn’t believe that you could get it. Many of us are making an ‘In life Settlement’. We are settling for less than what we actually deserve. We don’t feel good about it but we make it work in our minds.

Develop A Health Plan

You can’t perform if you don’t have good health, your health is VALUABLE. Develop a health plan, a plan that you will follow because this is the only vehicle that you have to carry you through this experience we call LIFE.

Live Life with Energy & Passion

You want to make a conscious effort to be lively. In life you either ‘sing hello or sing goodbye’. You are either ‘on your way or in the way’. You want to smile, you want to be happy, you’ve got a lot to be thankful for.

Monitor Your Inner Conversations

The things that you say to yourself, you want to watch them and in watching them you want to take charge.

Short circuit and override that conversation that’s always going on, 85% of what that conversation will tell you is NEGATIVE. It will tell you that you’re tired when you’re really not tired, it will tell you you can’t do it, it will fill you with FEAR. So you’ve got to watch that conversation, and when you find it going on you’ve got to stand up to it and say “I’m gonna do this anyhow, I’m afraid but I’m afraid not to do it, and I’m not gonna let you stop me”. The biggest challenge in life that you will have is with you.

There is an old African Proverb that says, “When there is no enemy within, the enemies outside cannot hurt you.”

Know Why You Are Doing It

It is important to know why you are doing it, because your mind will say “Why bother?” “Why go through all of this?”, “This is too hard”.

Here’s how you can override that… Write down 5 reasons why you deserve it, why you? why do you deserve it? “What meaning and value will it bring to your life”, “what’s so different about you, that you deserve your goal?”

When you write down those 5 reasons, when you have those down moments and you will have them, When that conversation starts talking to you, and it will start talking to you, what you can do is, you can pull that out and read it and it will build you up. It will be your rod and your staff to comfort you through some challenging moments, because you’re gonna have some. Life will knock you between the eyes, it will catch you on the blind side and come out of nowhere, stuff you can’t anticipate. That’s why it is important for you to work on your self, listening to tapes, building yourself up, talking to yourself with power, feeling and conviction, building yourself up day in and day out.

Keys originally from Les Brown’s Audio – Keys To Self Motivation

(Video) Les Brown – Why People Fail

Article By Joel Brown | Addicted2Success.com

There is a lot to learn in business from a classic movie  like ‘The Godfather‘. This film is cram packed with advice to take on board when dealing with the hard knocks of business (minus the violent actions that take part in the film).

Read on for business advice we can all take from the classic film ‘The Godfather‘.

Make Them An Offer They Can’t Refuse

Obviously. One of the best ways to get what you want in business is to tailor your product to your customer’s needs. And this works for managers, too. If you want to incentivize your employees, there’s often a way that you can make your request primarily beneficial to them and the company both. Barring using horse-headed death threats as a strategy, make sure that when you want a certain result, you make the incentive good enough to warrant it.

Trust No One

Whether you’re a bona fide wise guy or not, it’s wise to watch who you trust. That’s not to say that you should be suspicious of everyone all the time, it’s that the only person whose decisions and actions that you can safely rely on are your own. Even being in business with people for years doesn’t mean that you can trust them, but you can trust them to be themselves. And whether you’re running the underground or just the office, that’s another key lesson to learn.

Keep Your Friends Close and Your Enemies Closer

Well, maybe not your enemies. More like your competitors. It’s important to have a good idea the landscape of your market competition, both larger and smaller than you. And when there’s an industry-wide issue that could improve your field, do yourself a favor and be the one to lead the charge to unity. You’ll stand out among your competitors while also improving things for all involved when you’re the one to get a group to band together faster than you can say “five families.”

Patience is a Virtue

Don’t expect for things to blow up for you overnight — it takes time to build a mafia empire strong business. And this advice goes for both rookies and veterans: quality comes from patience, planning, and having a great product.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6YBnIE2-zc

Always Have A Plan

When you’re running an international crime syndicate, you’ve simply got to have a plan. It’s not profitable to do things willy-nilly, with no discussion or lack of a business model. It’s probably best to avoid a business plan that involves gunning people down in the street, but appropriate foresight, planning, and action can lead to, ahem, legitimate business success.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9j2ONndiFdA

Learn from Your Failures

Failure happens. Even to mafiosos. Let this fact lead you, and give yourself permission to fail. But also let yourself learn from your missteps, as it’s possible to turn any short-term failure into long-time success. If you lose some guys in a gun battle, or lose money from a dirty double cross, you know how crucial it can be to pick yourself up, dust yourself off, regroup, and move forward. Also, what kind of job did you say you had, again?

Loyalty Matters

One of the most important lessons to take from the Don is that loyalty is key. In this day and age, economic security is a spectre — but it’s paramount to remember never to bite the hand that feeds you. Whether you have a boss or have to deal with distributors, it’s always best to be loyal to your higher-ups and those who depend on you. It’s as simple as this: the better everyone does, the better everyone does.

Respect Must Be Earned

While loyalty is important, respect must be earned. Make sure that you’re commanding respect, and not just because of your great work product. If you act with dignity and put integrity first on your value list, you’ll see how easy it can be to build up mutual respect with co-workers, superiors, and those in other areas with whom you have to work. Additionally, take caution to respect respect: it’s easy to build up, takes time to cement, and can be gone forever in a flash.

Business Is Personal

Tom, don’t let anyone kid you. It’s all personal, every bit of business. Every piece of sh-t every man has to eat every day of his life is personal. They call it business. OK. But it’s personal as hell.And there you have it. Michael Corleone said it best, and it’s the honest truth: business is made up of people. People who care, people who create, people who perform, and everything in between. The great thing about a business is that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, but its parts are people — and those are pretty great, too.

Guest Post By: Online Business Degree

Success has become an overly and not always appropriately used buzz-word in life nowadays. That is because the very concept is often muddled by myths which cause people to approach their goals the wrong way.

Here are some mistaken perceptions you need to avoid if you want to stay on the right track.

#1: You Just Have To Go Through The Motions

Here’s a basic truth: The world will not make it easier for you to succeed. The path isn’t laid out for you, so you can’t expect stellar results with half-baked efforts.

As a wise man once said, “Do or do not. There is no try.” Life has a way of dealing in absolutes, especially when it comes to making a name for yourself. Never assume that you just have to show up and everything will follow. Nobody got to where they are without shedding blood, sweat and tears.

#2: You Can Do It Alone

It’s one thing to rely on your own strengths to succeed; believing that you already know everything is another matter entirely. Success doesn’t exist in a vacuum, and there are other people in the scene that can enrich your existing knowledge.

It isn’t wrong to acknowledge that other people’s perspectives can inspire you and help come up with new ways to succeed. The first step to broadening your horizons is by simply asking other people about their own ideas.

Have the initiative to ask for their input and learn what you can from them. You might be surprised by how much you’ll grow after circulating within your professional community.

#3: There Is No Margin For Error

Ok, so maybe life-and-death scenarios do exist, but most of the time, making mistakes won’t mean the end of the world. Of course, there will be a time when you’re not supposed to screw up, but this doesn’t apply to all parts of your life.

Expect to make a handful of mistakes along the way. Only through hands-on experience will you learn the right way to do things. You might think you have it all figured out – especially when you’re just getting started – but doing it in the real world will reveal unforeseen factors which you didn’t take into account. This is why trial and error is an essential part of the learning process.

Remember, it’s not about the mistakes you make, but rather how you make use of the lessons you’ve learned from them.

However, don’t think this is an excuse to be mediocre because the point is to always give it your best shot. If you miss the mark, take notes and do it again.

#4: You Need To Keep At It Non-Stop

In the long run, it’s important to be consistent with your efforts and maintain the desire to succeed. However, perseverance should also be tempered with knowing when to take a step back and reflect.

What does this mean? There’s nothing wrong with taking a short breather to give yourself a chance to see where you’re at. Part of succeeding is about re-evaluating your current approach every now and then.

Are you still using the most efficient way to meet your ultimate goals? You might find that you can refine what you’re doing by reflecting for just a bit. This also prevents you from developing “tunnel vision”.

At the most basic level however, you also can’t ignore the need to recharge your batteries. Regardless of everything else, there is a physical aspect to your being so you need to take care of yourself through proper rest and eating well. In the big picture, this is a good investment because getting sick could throw a wrench in your plans.

#5: You Can Slack Off Once You’ve Reached The Top

You know how they say that it’s not the journey, but the destination? Success is awesome, but it’s not the end-all, be-all. It’s not just about hitting a target – it’s also what you do after you’ve reached your initial goals.

Are you just going to take it easy and switch off your “motivation switch”? Or are you going to make new goals and challenge yourself? These choices represent your desire to grow as a person.

Sure, you don’t always have to move on to a new project right away, but it is important to ask yourself “How can I do things better?”

Here’s the thing: people change, whether you like it or not. Think about it – are you the same person that you were 10 years ago?

We’re never static and always remain in motion. Even after you’ve earned your first million, you’re either moving forward or backward. Although you should never take your current success for granted, you do need to understand that everything you do in the present will either help you evolve or decline.

Besides, you’re not the only one – the rest of the world is also in a state of constant change. This means you need to avoid being complacent to stay on top of your game and adapt to ever-shifting circumstances.

In many ways, long-term success is not just about adding another trophy to your collection. In the greater scheme of things, it boils down to maintaining the same attitude and mindset that made you successful in the first place. The way to do this is to stay sharp, stay hungry!

Article By: Joel Brown

The CEO of “Virgin”, Sir Richard Bransonowns over four hundred companies and is estimated to be worth US$4.2 billion dollars. Now in his sixties, Branson’s business ventures range from Airlines, Formula One, Cosmetics and Space Exploration just to name a few.

It’s plain to see that Richard Branson knows a thing or two about achieving the ultimate success. So we have decided to share what can be learned from this widely successful, charismatic and respected entrepreneur.

Richard Branson’s 7 Success Tips To Live By

Saying “Yes!” is Fun

What makes Sir Richard Branson unique is that he is entertaining. He often defies conventional wisdom, pushes the envelope, and says, “Yes” more than he says, “No”.

One of Branson’s many books is entitled, Screw It, Let’s Do It: Lessons in Life and Business. This flamboyant attitude towards business is a primary reason he has become a corporate iconoclast and continues to amaze, and overall – create value and make money.

If You Are Going to Dream, Dream Big!

For a man who started out with his own local newspaper and record store to an airline and telecommunications magnet, Richard Branson knows how to dream big. He has built eight billion-dollar companies and there are no signs of slowing down. Branson’s grandest project that is blowing everyone’s minds is Virgin Galactic, a ship for suborbital space travel.

In addition to space travel, Branson continues to dream big with his Virgin Oceanic project which offers deep sea travel. It is in hopes that people can soon see the lowest trenches of the oceans. It’s hard to think one can dream much bigger than that.

Having Fun is Fun

Richard Branson gets asked what the secret to his success is regularly. He replies that he has no secret. He just works hard, works smart, and above all has fun doing it.

“Have Fun, Work Hard and Money Will Come” – Sir Richard Branson
“When it’s Not Fun, Move On” – Sir Richard Branson

Branson states that as soon as he stops having fun on a project, it’s time to move on. A life is too short to be unhappy.

Always Take Risks – Calculated Ones

It seems Richard Branson’s lifestyle can be construed as irresponsible and brash. Branson is highly intelligent and while pushing the envelope, the risks he takes are always scrutinized before committing.

While Branson likes saying, “Yes”, his decisions always come with extreme due diligence which is standard in any business venture or acquisition, especially in the numbers Branson is known for dealing. One of Branson’s mottos has always been, “Be bold. Don’t gamble.”

Live for the Moment

Live for the moment. It’s a cliché however resoundingly applicable and true. Often aspiring entrepreneurs forget to live and enjoy the things life offers them. Because hard work and long hours are a part of entrepreneurship, these people need to live for the moment and enjoy the experiences life throws at them.

Branson says that even dedicating 80 hours a week to a business still allows for a few hours of fun. Don’t forget, people can have fun at work too.
Branson encourages people to still have goals outside business. In 1997, Branson participated in a race around the world in a hot-air balloon. He says people still need to live their lives as best as possible.

Always Give Respect

Respect in business was an attribute Richard Branson learned early in his career.

In his first meetings with Japanese businessmen in the early 80s, Branson was amazed at the politeness and the respect they gave young Branson despite his shaggy-sweater jean-wearing appearance. The Japanese taught Richard to always treat everyone in your business with respect, not just those that you need to impress. Someday you could be doing business with them.

Give Back

Another commonly used cliché is that money is the root of all evil. Unlike living for the moment, this does not have to be true. Many of the largest charity organizations were founded by very successful entrepreneurs who had very humble beginnings.

Richard Branson believes the true meaning to life is to help others; to make the world a better place to live for all living creatures. I’m sure most would agree.

Here is a final word that resonates clearly. “Success can take off without warning.” Richard Branson has experienced a few dark hours; where he thought he was finished and hope was fading fast. However like many successful entrepreneurs they believe they make their own luck; and the harder you work the luckier you get. Success can come in a blink of an eye.

An award-winning sitcom might seem like the last place to get business advice for successful people, but it’s funny what every entrepreneur can learn from The Big Bang Theory.

For those who are unfamiliar with the series, it revolves around a group of socially challenged science geeks named Leonard, Sheldon, Howard, and Rajesh who differ greatly from Penny, an attractive and outgoing girl-next-door.

The hilarious situations the characters have been through have revealed the gang’s loveable qualities and serve as valuable lessons successful people can learn from.

#1: Don’t Hog All The Work

When Leonard comes up with an idea to develop a smartphone app with the gang, Sheldon tries to seize control of the project.  After appointing himself as the chief executive, financial, and operating officer, Sheldon gets himself fired for being a control freak.

In the business world, you can only do so much by yourself. While devoting long hours is a given, you need to figure out how to make the best possible use of your time.  Being hands-on is important, but learn how to entrust certain functions of your company to the other people in your team.  This way, you can focus on the other areas of your business.

#2: Don’t Overthink Everything

In one episode, Leonard was seriously considering what would happen if he asked Penny (who previously broke up with him) out on a date.  Although it seemed that it wouldn’t work out after all, it turns out that the date and the events that followed were all in Leonard’s head. Realizing that he thinks too much for his own good, Leonard actually asks Penny out and eventually start a new relationship.

To coin a phrase from a famous athletic brand, there will be a time when you need to “just do it”.  If you’re venturing into business without previous experience, don’t be afraid to learn from the mistakes you’re going to make along the way.

Although you can make an educated guess about what will happen after you launch your product or service, you can’t predict everything. Nonetheless, you need to get out there and give it your best shot after you’ve done the necessary groundwork, such as market research and discussing your sales strategy with your team.  Only then will you see the big picture.

#3: Technology Is Your Friend

To supplement her income, Penny gets the idea to start a home-based business by making handmade hair clips.  With the help of the guys, she gets her startup off the ground by launching a website (with Leonard’s help) and end up filling out a thousand orders.

What every entrepreneur can learn from the Big Bang Theory is that the internet can level the playing field for those in the business world.  With the right tools in place – such a well-developed sales website and viral marketing through social media – you can go up against the big players in your niche. Make sure to keep abreast of the latest technological trends in sales and marketing which you can use to your advantage.

#4:  Learn The Importance Of Being Organized

As a theoretical physicist with a number of degrees under his belt (Ph.D. and Sc.D to name a few), Sheldon has established himself as an authority in his field. He owes this to the fact that he’s highly organized and systematic with his work process and daily routine.

Although Sheldon’s love of being organized often borders on the obsessive (and is often a source of the show’s humor), successful people can extract real-life lessons from his characteristics.  Having a well-defined workflow that clearly maps out all the aspects of business will greatly help tighten up your operations and keep things from “slipping through the cracks.”

#5: Learn How To Be Flexible

On the other hand, Sheldon’s strict adherence to routine can be impractical at times and often clashes with Leonard (whom he shares an apartment with) because of his constant inflexibility.

Although it’s vital to have a system in place, what every entrepreneur can learn from the Big Bang Theory is that there will be times when you’ll need to improvise during unexpected difficulties.

As mentioned earlier, you can’t anticipate all the possible scenarios you’ll encounter, so you’ll have to think on your feet from time to time. That’s why it’s important to be adaptable because more often than not, your unique circumstances won’t be covered in the manual.

This color makes others view you as someone who is “focused, committed and trustworthy”.

If you’re planning on meeting a new client or someone equally as important, red is the best color to wear when trying to persuade or impress someone in the workplace.

The color makes others view you as someone who’s “focused, committed and trustworthy,” Kenny Frimpong, brand marketing & development manager at Eredi Pisano, stated at the Small Business Summit 2012 in Manhattan.

“We’ve been in business for about 15 years and we encourage most of our clients to wear red.”

Eredi Pisano is a high-end Italian clothing store for professionals with customized suits ranging from $1,500 to $8,000.

Frimpong says that the way you present yourself in the workplace matters more today than it did in the past — mainly because there’s more competition and highly qualified people who are after the same clients and job as you.

To appear “highly disciplined,” he suggests wearing a blue or red tie alongside a blue, navy or gray suit since these are all “serious” colors.

“If you look at politicians, they always wear red and blue,” Frimpong says. “They don’t wear yellow. You only  wear these loud, happy colors when you go to more informal settings.”

These louder colors — yellow, purple and orange — work well for happy hour gatherings or in-house meetings, because they’re fun and attract attention, but they don’t necessarily elicit feelings of trust or commitment.

Colour Advice For Women

Neutral colors are safe and those wearing it are considered “dull and lacking in self confidence.”

Tangerine is an aggressive color and associated with “strong emotions and high energy.” Those who wear it are thought to be creative, fun and playful.

Plum is a winner in the workplace since it makes those who wear it feel confident, attractive, calm and relaxed, yet the warm color doesn’t scream for too much attention.

Teal exudes “confidence and feminine energy.” It has a calming effect that doesn’t intimidate others and is associated with creativity and self-expression.

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So I have created this list….. Well, lets call it a reminder of why it is so important to follow your dreams.

The 16 Reasons Why It Is So Important To Follow Your Dreams

1. The secret of living is giving, if you follow your dreams then you will have something worth sharing with others, hope, inspiration and a meaning to live, and that to me, is a great contribution.

2. Chasing your dreams will develop your courage. Courage is your fuel to achieve amazing success in life, follow your dreams and exercise courage. In sure enough time you will be unstoppable.

3. There is a reason why as kids we loved magic and dreams. Stop chasing your dreams and you will forget how it feels to live hopeful and young.

4. Great dreamers grow to be independent, learning that they can make a difference all by themselves.

5. Dreams can distract you from the negative events in life. You will weigh up what is more important, your dreams or the drama. Drama seems obsolete when you are passionate about following your dreams.

6. It gives you something to share and inspire your kids with, you have led by example that anything is possible when you put your mind to it.

7. Through accomplishing your dreams you will come to appreciate the experience of failure and know that failure is just part of success and that it wasn’t really all that bad as it was all worth it in the end.

8. Regret is a terrible thing, and a dream is powerful enough to bring you regret if you don’t take the chance to at least follow it.

9. Because you are never too old to dream. Age means nothing when we know what we want.

10. You become an interesting person, you show others you have meaning, direction and purpose.

11. The unknown of following your dreams may spark a little fear, this is okay though because a little fear is known to make you feel more alive.

12. It is fun proving the world wrong, so why would you follow the status quo?

13. The more you chase and accomplish your dreams the more the lines of the boundaries that the world puts in front of us fade, as we learn that any and everything is possible.

14. When you accomplish your dream, you are the first to see it happen. You can share your accomplishments with the rest of the world but you where there in the front row on a single chair to experience the magic that unfolded.

15. Your dreams have no limits, you are the creator of your dreams, big or small. When this is understood, you are able to design a way to favour you plan and accomplish your end goal.

16. A dream is strong enough to define you, once accomplished you prove to others they have no say in who you can and can’t be.

Never Give Up on Your Dreams

Article By: Joel Brown – Addicted2Success.com

Why don’t we have the things that we want? Ever think it’s because we don’t deserve it?

Of course we don’t. “I deserve what I want. I work harder than the kid driving a Lambo because his dad’s a millionaire. What did he do to get that car? Nothing! Am I right?”

Nope. I don’t deserve the Lambo because I haven’t done what I need to do to get the Lambo. That kid did exactly what he needed to do; he came out of the right lady, and was born into the right family. What he doesn’t have: the opportunity to EARN the Lamborghini… more on that in a bit.

We spend so much time wishing and complaining, that we fail to come to grips with the fact that we have everything that we deserve to have. We’re as happy as we should be because our attitude and outlook on life determines our happiness.

We’re as successful as we deserve to be because we’ve put in the amount of work that determines the amount of success we’ve achieved. We’ve also risked and sacrificed what is necessary to be where we are. No more successful, and no less successful than we are right now.

We’ve done what’s necessary to be where we are at this very moment. We HAVEN’T done what’s necessary to achieve everything we want to achieve. Otherwise, we’d be there.

Now what about the spoiled rich kid driving that Lambo… Why shouldn’t we be pissed off at him from being born with a silver spoon while we have to work our asses off for everything we want? Or what about our buddy who has had everything go his way in life; don’t we have the right to be mad at him?! We’re slaving away here, and he’s off in South America living the good life, that lucky son of a bitch.

Yah, we have that right if we want to be a sour, jealous, shadow of a man for the rest of our lives… on second thought, no we don’t have that right. But we do have an opportunity. A great opportunity.

The kid with the Lambo and the silver spoon will never have the greatest opportunity a man can ever have: the chance to elevate his status, to work hard, and to EARN. I have this opportunity. This gift. This blessing. And so do you.

We can be sour, mad, and jealous of our buddy who’s had some good breaks. But will he feel the same towards us when we achieve our success? Probably not, he’s a good dude.

So where do we stand?

Exactly where we deserve to be standing.

Success, no matter how you define it isn’t a right. It’s something that has to be earned. Wherever we are right now in life is where we deserve to be.

Sometimes it sucks to say this because some very hard working and deserving people don’t get the breaks that others get. Sometimes this leads to a change in attitude or a break in their faith. The shaken faith can lead to a lack of hope. The lack of hope can lead to poor decision making, which can lead to more bad breaks ending in a life that had promise, but was never realized.

We are never put under circumstances that we can’t handle. Believe it?

If you do, when time’s get tough and life seems unfair, you’ll know that you can handle it. That no matter how dark life gets, it’s nothing but a passing phase. Like the night is before daybreak. The darkness will always pass if you’re strong enough to stand through it.

If you don’t believe it. If you instead become angry that life isn’t going your way. If you resent other’s success and hate the world for the lack of your own, the darkness will never cease until you decide to change how you view it.

Yes, we are where we deserve to be. Even more, we are where we’re supposed to be.

No higher. No lower.

Only you can create the change that will determine the most important position: where you end up.

Like most of us, Steve Jobs personality had many sides. He could be aloof, super-intense, gross, passionate, creative, driven, unfair, conciliatory and deeply introspective. He lived a rich and unique life. Here are 20 Lessons that we can all glean from Steve Jobs’ remarkable life.

Don’t Wait

When the young Steve Jobs wanted to build something and needed a piece of equipment, he went straight to the source.

“He began by recalling that he had wanted to build a frequency counter when he was twelve, and he was able to look up Bill Hewlett, the founder of HP, in the phone book and call him to get parts.”

 

Make Your Own Reality

Steve Jobs learned early that when you don’t like how things are in your life or in your world, change them, either through action or sheer force of will.

“As Hoffman later lamented, “The reality distortion field can serve as a spur, but then reality itself hits.” – Joanna Hoffman, part of Apple’s early Macintosh team.

“I didn’t want to be a father, so I wasn’t,” Jobs later said, with only a touch of remorse in his voice.

 

Control Everything You Can

Steve Jobs was, to a certain degree, a hippie. However, unlike most free spirits of the 1960s-to-1970s love-in era, Jobs was a detail-oriented control freak.

“He wants to control his environment, and he sees the product as an extension of himself.”

 

Own Your Mistakes

Jobs could be harsh and even thoughtless. Perhaps nowhere was that more in evidence than with his first daughter. Still, as Jobs grew older and began to face mortality, he more readily admitted his mistakes.

“I’ve done a lot of things I’m not proud of, such as getting my girlfriend pregnant when I was twenty-three and the way I handled that,” Jobs said.”

 

Know Yourself

While not always aware of how those around him were reacting to his appearance or demeanor, Jobs had no illusions about his own formidable intellectual skills.

“Then a more disconcerting discovery began to dawn on him: He was smarter than his parents.”

 

Leave the Door Open for the Fantastic

Jobs was a seeker, pursuing spiritual enlightenment and body purification throughout his life. He wasn’t a particularly religious person, but did not dismiss the existence or something beyond our earth-bound realm.

“I think different religions are different doors to the same house. Sometimes I think the house exists, and sometimes I don’t. It’s the great mystery.” — Steve Jobs

 

Don’t Hold Back

Apple’s founder was famous for his outbursts and sometimes over-emotional responses. In product development, things were often amazing or sh_t.

“He was an enlightened being who was cruel,” she recalled. “That’s a strange combination.”– former girlfriend and mother of Jobs’ first daughter, Chrisann Brennan

 

Surround Yourself with Brilliance

Whether he was willing to admit it or not, Steve Jobs could not do everything. Yes, he could have a huge impact on every product and marketing campaign, but he also knew that there were others in the world with skills he did not possess. Jobs’ early partnership with Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak perfectly illustrated this fact. His early success with Wozniak provided the template for future collaborations.

“After a couple of months he was ready to test it. ‘I typed a few keys on the keyboard and I was shocked! The letters were displayed on the screen.’ It was Sunday, June 29, 1975, a milestone for the personal computer. “It was the first time in history,” Wozniak later said, “anyone had typed a character on a keyboard and seen it show up on their own computer’s screen right in front of them.”

 

Build a Team of A Players

Far too often, companies and managers settle for average employees. Steve Jobs recognized talent and decided that any conflict that might arise from a company full of “A”-level players would be counterbalanced by awesome output. He may have been right.

“For most things in life, the range between best and average is 30% or so. The best airplane flight, the best meal, they may be 30% better than your average one. What I saw with Woz was somebody who was fifty times better than the average engineer. He could have meetings in his head. The Mac team was an attempt to build a whole team like that, A players. People said they wouldn’t get along, they’d hate working with each other. But I realized that A players like to work with A players, they just didn’t like working with C players.”– Steve Jobs

“I’ve learned over the years that when you have really good people you don’t have to baby them,” Jobs later explained. “By expecting them to do great things, you can get them to do great things.”

 

Be Yourself

Steve Jobs was often so busy being himself that he had no idea how people saw him, especially in his early, dirty-hippie days.

“At meetings we had to look at his dirty feet.” Sometimes, to relieve stress, he would soak his feet in the toilet, a practice that was not as soothing for his colleagues.”—Mike Markkula, Apple’s first chairman.

Be Persuasive

While it’s true that early Steve Jobs was a somewhat smelly and unpleasant person to be around, this same Steve Jobs also trained himself to stare without blinking for long periods of time and found that he could persuade people to do the seemingly impossible.

“If it could save a person’s life, would you find a way to shave ten seconds off the boot time?” he asked. Kenyon allowed that he probably could. Jobs went to a whiteboard and showed that if there were five million people using the Mac, and it took ten seconds extra to turn it on every day, that added up to three hundred million or so hours per year that people would save, which was the equivalent of at least one hundred lifetimes saved per year.”

 

Show Others the Way

Jobs wasn’t truly a programmer or technologist, certainly not in the way that Microsoft founder Bill Gates is, yet he had an intuitive understanding for technology and design that ended up altering the world’s expectations for computers and, more importantly, consumer electronics.

“To be honest, we didn’t know what it meant for a computer to be ‘friendly’ until Steve told us.” — Terry Oyama, part of the early Macintosh design team.

 

Trust Your Instincts

I have, in my own career, navigated by gut on more than one occasion. Steve Jobs, though, had a deep and abiding belief in his own tastes and believed with utter certainty that if he liked something, the public would as well. He was almost invariably right.

“Did Alexander Graham Bell do any market research before he invented the telephone?” — Steve Jobs

 

Take Risks

Throughout his career, Steve Jobs took chances, first with the launch of Apple, then in walking away from it and then returning in 1997. In an era when most companies were figuring out ways to diversify, Apple — under Job’s leadership — shed businesses and products, and focused on relatively few areas. He was also willing to steer the entire Apple ship (or at least some aspects of it) in a single direction if he thought it would generate future success.

“One of Jobs’ management philosophies was that it is crucial, every now and then, to roll the dice and ‘bet the company’ on some new idea or technology.”

“I had this crazy idea that we could sell just as many Macs by advertising the iPod. In addition, the iPod would position Apple as evoking innovation and youth. So I moved $75 million of advertising money to the iPod, even though the category didn’t justify one hundredth of that. That meant that we completely dominated the market for music players. We outspent everybody by a factor of about a hundred.” — Steve Jobs.

 

Follow Great with Great

In everything from products to movies (under Pixar), Steve Jobs sought to create great follow-ups. He wasn’t so successful in the early part of his career (see Lisa), but his third acts to Pixar and Apple proved he had the sequel touch.

“There’s a classic thing in business, which is the second-product syndrome,” Jobs later said. It comes from not understanding what made your first product so successful. “I lived through that at Apple. My feeling was, if we got through our second film, we’d make it.”

 

Make Tough Decisions

Good managers and leaders are willing to do hard work and, often, make unpopular decisions. Jobs apparently had little concern about being liked and therefore was well-equipped to make tough choices.

“The most visible decision he made was to kill, once and for all, the Newton, the personal digital assistant with the almost-good handwriting-recognition system.”

 

Presentation Can Make a World of Difference

The Apple founder hated PowerPoint presentations, but perhaps somewhat uncharacteristically, believed elegant product presentation was critical.

“Packaging can be theater, it can create a story.” — Jony Ive, Apple designer.

 

Find a Way to Balance Your Intensity

It’s unclear if Steve Jobs ever truly mellowed, but he did learn that a buffer between him and the rest of Apple could be useful.

“In a company that was led by a CEO prone to tantrums and withering blasts, Cook commanded situations with a calm demeanor, a soothing Alabama accent, and silent stares.”

 

Live for Today

Even as Steve Jobs struggled with cancer, he rarely slowed down. If anything, the disease helped him focus his efforts and pursue some of his grandest dreams.

“Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life.” — Steve Jobs

“Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.” — Steve Jobs

 

Share Your Wisdom

Steve Jobs was not a philanthropic soul. He had a passion for products and success, but it wasn’t until he became quite ill that he started reaching out and offering his wisdom to others in the tech community.

“I will continue to do that with people like Mark Zuckerberg too. That’s how I’m going to spend part of the time I have left. I can help the next generation remember the lineage of great companies here and how to continue the tradition. The Valley has been very supportive of me. I should do my best to repay.” — Steve Jobs

 

Article By Lance Ulanoff @ Mashable

Benjamin Franklin, the man on the $100 Bill, the guy who invented the heated stove, the lighting rod and the odometer among a thousand other achievements in his life. What made Benjamin Franklin such an over achiever is that he lived a purpose driven life. At the age of 20 years old Benjamin Franklin laid out 13 key values for himself which he would go on to master and become the well known man in our history to this day.

Read on for a translated and updated version for the business world today of Benjamin Franklins 13 Key Values.

Benjamin Franklin’s 13 Key Values For This Day & Age

1. Stop wasting time

2. Get a calendar app and use it

Our bookshelves are lined with habits that successful people do on a daily basis. We read about them and implement them into our routines and practices. Quite often these practices improve our productivity and make our lives better as a result. But that’s not what this article is about. It’s not about what successful people do, but what they did.

Here’s a brief study of 10 things that these hungry and unstoppable people did to see the success they all eventually achieved.

The 10 Things Successful People Live By Before They Make It

1. They didn’t use excuses.

We all have two voices. There’s the voice that tells us to work hard, to focus on the task at hand and to finish it before we move on to the next. And to finish it well.

We also have the voice that tells us to take a break, to think about what’s on TV, or to visit a site that we like to visit that entertains us – whether it’s ESPN.com or facebook.

In life we’re the victim of injustice from time to time. It could be a promotion that we deserve but don’t get. No matter who we are, we’re going to be treated unfairly at some point. We can either feel sorry for ourselves, or push forward and put it behind us – even use it as motivation.

Nelson Mandela could have used his unjust imprisonment as an excuse to give into his anger. Instead, he used it as an opportunity to learn, grow, and eventually free others.

Listen to your excuses. Understand why you have them. Then figure out how you can use them for good.

2. It wasn’t just about them.

‘Things’ can be a motivator, they can even be a reward, but they can’t be the motivator. The truly successful in life always get there because they created change in the lives of others, not just their own.

If something drives you that is greater than just the ‘ends’, we’re going to work harder, longer, and we’re going to give more of ourselves to our project.

Yes we can make money when we have the primary goal of making money. Some might even use that money for good – which is awesome. But there’s no fulfillment in simply making money. And isn’t that the point?

3. Early mornings and late nights.

People who have achieved true success in their lives have worked for it.

This might come at the detriment of other areas of their lives, such as family or social life. But their mission is first and foremost. Until it’s complete, everything else comes second.

There’s literally no substitute for hard work. Abraham Lincoln said, “Things may come to those who wait… but only the things left by those who hustle.” If you want to be successful, you’re going to have to out hustle everyone else.

4. The greatest commodity.

Energy is a huge commodity that is often not talked about. Yes, energy in the sense of fuel and electricity is talked about everywhere, but I’m talking about our own energy levels.

The fact is that the more energy we have, the easier it is to focus, and the higher the quality of our work is.

One of Richard Branson‘s ‘key’s to success’ is staying in great physical shape. So would raised energy levels be the greatest benefit to working out? It may be.

Keeping physically fit gives us greater blood-flow to our brain, enhanced alertness and improved focus. Make training a routine part of your life and increase your chances at success – in every meaning of the word.

5. Principles.

History will be kind to me. For I intend to write it.

Winston Churchill had principles. The difference between him and the rest of us, is that he stuck to his principles at all costs. He didn’t waver when they weren’t popular – an extreme rarity in politics.

What are your principles? All of us should have them, know what they are, and live our lives by them.

One of Apple’s principles is to bring change to the world through technology, and they do it with every product they release.

Identify what principles you have that guide your life through tough times, and when things couldn’t be any better. They shouldn’t change, and at your core, neither should you.

6. Wavering, yet unbreakable faith.

We all have moments of doubt. Even the best of us question if our dream is going to come true. The one thing that separates the truly successful from those who never reach their true potential is an unbreakable faith in the fact that what they’re doing is right.

Even if they have moments of doubt, they’re soon quelled, where other’s listen to that doubt and let it eat them up and finally they quit.

Have your moments of doubt. You’re human. Just don’t let that doubt eat you up. Instead let it motivate you to prove your optimism right.

7. A reason.

Many of the greatest accomplishments in the world were accomplished by insecure men and women, people who had something to prove to others. A desire to elevate their status and create change that was so strong, that failure is simply never and option.

Abraham Lincoln‘s reason(s) had to do a lot with his view of himself in relation to how other’s viewed him. Where others saw a poor, illiterate boy, Lincoln saw someone capable of achieving more, even if he had to do it completely on his own. He also saw the need for change. A nation that preached freedom wasn’t free. He saw something fundamentally wrong with this and set out to change it. His why wasn’t about him. Which in turn made him one of history’s great men.

Understand why. You have that reason to work when others sleep, to sacrifice a safe life for a risky one with no ceiling. Find it by asking why, and not stopping until you hit your core, emotional reason for wanting to change your status, or the status of others.

8. They persevered when others didn’t.

How does the guy who quit on his dream know how long it would’ve taken him to become a success? He doesn’t. None of us do. It could be tomorrow, or ten years from now.

What separates a lot of the great people we read about in our history books from those we’ve never heard of is the fact that they never quit. Quitting was never an option. They only stopped when they reached their dream. And even then, they created a new mission.

Take James J. Braddock, or even Nelson Mandela, for example. They didn’t achieve their greatness or success early on in their careers or in life like some. They achieved it after surviving. They survived while others literally died, or quit. In their cases it wasn’t just that they were the best, but they were the best because of what they endured. They were the last one’s standing.

We don’t know when our breakthrough will come. So don’t guarantee your failure by quitting. You can adapt, change, and evolve, but never, never, never quit.

9. Great people relentlessly studied their craft.

Tony Gwynn and Mike Tyson studied their craft as much as anyone. Gwynn spent hours upon hours studying opposing pitchers. He studied their patterns. He wasn’t the most athletic guy around, but he put his work in to be the best at what he did: hit baseballs.

When people think of Tyson, they think of an animal, but what we fail to see is the student. No one studied boxing like Tyson did. Watched more film than anyone in the history of the sport. He was a student first, a fighter second.

These great athletes studied film, but how can we perfect our craft?

Using myself as an example; much of my job has to do with writing, and obviously fitness. So, I study those two things. I read books about how to become a better writer, ways to connect with the reader, and I simply read great books written by authors who are much better at writing than I am. If you’re in sales, read and study sales. If you’re a marketer, then do the same with marketing.

Being a drone that simply goes through the motions is no way to achieve greatness. Assuming success is something you want, you have to study your craft, whatever it may be. Learn it inside and out. Build a wealth of knowledge. It’ll help you create great, inspiring, and unique work.

10. Risk.

No risk, no reward. Yes it’s an over-used, cliché of a phrase. But it’s true. Those who have achieved real success have often risked the most to get there.

There have been billions of people throughout history who have had the ability to achieve greatness, whether it was the talent or smarts, they had it. What they didn’t have was the guts to risk the life that they were living. They also didn’t have the work ethic to see their talent realized.

The greatest tragedy in life is wasted talent ~ A Bronx Tale

Your big, audacious dream might be to marry the girl of your dreams and have a family with her. You risk might be to leave the career that you love in order to support her and your family. Your dream might be to help millions live longer, healthier lives. Whatever your dream is, give it enough of a chance to be realized.

Risk if you truly want to see the reward.

Find your dream. Then risk everything to get it.

As a business leader, you only have so much time and energy. Therefore, it is imperative you direct your time and energy to getting the results you want and not just completing activities.

Some business leaders attempt to do it all (they have the Superman complex) and those that do typically fail. So be realistic about what you can and can’t, should and shouldn’t do, and determine how you can best avoid the Superman complex by recognising and practicing the following tips:

1. You can’t do it all.

Running a business requires a variety of skills and few business leaders are experts at all of them. However, to compete in a challenging marketplace your company must be highly effective at a few essentials, e.g. sales, marketing, operations, finance, service, etc. Therefore, you need to be brutally honest with yourself and determine what you should be doing and what someone else should be doing to make your company excellent. For example, if you’re OK at operations but really love and excel at finance – stay the heck out of operations! Do what you do best, nothing else. Develop a sense of what excellence is in every part of your business and then bring in the experts to help you.

2. You’re not as smart as you think you are.

You wouldn’t be running a successful business if you weren’t a cut above the average. Congratulations! But skill, talent, and know-how require continuous improvement. Business and economic conditions are changing rapidly, bodies of knowledge on most topics are expanding exponentially, and more and more people (read: competitors) are getting, well, smarter. As a business leader, you must stay abreast of your industry and your personal specialty. So set some annual goals to do so. For example, for your industry or specialty: attend at least two leading edge workshops or seminars per year; read at least four books; and give at least three informative presentations. That’s the minimum just to stay current. If you really want to expand your knowledge, conduct a research project or teach a class.

3. People really do want to help.

If you can handle another analogy – don’t be the Lone Ranger. There are plenty of excellent people in your world that have or could have a keen interest in your success. If you know such people now, write their names on a list and then identify their specific skills or points of view that would be beneficial for you to tap into. Send them an example of something you are working on and attach a post-it note with a specific question or simply a request for “what do you think?” You will be amazed at the feedback, which often sets up an opportunity for continued collaboration. Just make sure you provide an opportunity to reciprocate. If you don’t know such people, contact a university professor, association director, maybe a local business owner. You’ll again be amazed at the response and the good feedback. There’s plenty of help out there, if you just ask.

4. Even Superman takes a vacation.

No matter how busy you are or how confident you are about meeting the demands of running your business, you must take time for yourself – to recharge your batteries and clean out your head trash. There’s a positive correlation between the amount of free time business leaders make for themselves and their success, the more the better. So try it. At the beginning of next month, select a couple free days for the month (not weekends or holidays) and block them out on your calendar. Use these days to do something outside of your business, something you really enjoy doing and find rejuvenating. Be sure to use the entire day for yourself and do not conduct any business, none! At the end of the month, evaluate how these free days affected you and your business for the month. I believe you’ll discover that your business can do just fine without you for a couple days, and you’ll feel renewed as well. And if you apply the other tips listed here, you may just start taking a few more.

Mark Akerley
SIGMA Resource Group

As an Entrepreneur, you often need to start from scratch, go up against the corporate big guns, and take massive risks. Its not as easy as it sounds, that is why we have decided to share with you the 10 Top Entrepreneur Essentials For Bulletproof Success.

Read on and share with us any other pointers that you may have come across in your adventures as an Entrepreneur.

Top 10 Tips For Bulletproof Success

1. Be passionate about life, as well as your business. Entrepreneurs who have passion in business, as well as their life, may drive us all batty, but there is never a dull moment. These moments are always being transformed into options to be explored. They make life interesting and an adventure, and everyone loves an adventure.

2. Be delightfully authentic and honest. Authentic entrepreneurs are destined and determined to have fun, as well as move forward in business. They have an unerring confidence that’s inspiring yet attainable. They savor relationships, and are generous with themselves and their smarts, so they attract a savvy following.

3. Be revered for an amazing positive attitude. Rather than cave when things get tough, optimistic entrepreneurs go analytic, looking for pivots that keep their goals in sight. They are disciplined, upbeat thinkers, but they don’t take themselves too seriously, and know how and when to laugh it off. A negative attitude takes everyone down.

4. Be warm and completely accessible. Warmth comes from your smile, and facial expressions that indicate genuine interest. Investors and partners look for entrepreneurs that will look them straight in the eye when speaking, and give their full and undivided attention while you’re speaking. Everyone looks for “rapport talk” rather than “report talk.”

5. Have impeccable manners and flair. Entrepreneurs who are always looking for opportunities to be gracious and considerate are going to be liked, admired, sought after, and trusted. In business, that means staying connected, showing up on time, with no signs of boredom or preoccupation. It’s not always about you, so dress and talk for them.

6. Be competent and confident. Competent people accomplish more in business because they’re driven by a pronounced sense of purpose. They are willing to put themselves on the line, and have confidently done their homework to know what it takes. They are reliably consistent, and unafraid to ask for help.

7. Able to just “get it.” Entrepreneurs who “get it” are emotionally attuned to peers and customers, so that their gut-level instincts become informed judgments that move the business forward. “With-it”-ness takes work, like reading the right blogs every day, challenging yourself to stay abreast of the latest technology, and social media marketing.

8. Have a big bandwidth. Can you talk, with equal engagement and respect, to your company’s CFO and the guy who pumps your gas? Look for opportunities to praise and nurture the people with diversity. Get comfortable out of your circle of interest and expertise. Go for that black belt in networking.

9. Be vivid virtually. Developing a superior virtual presence requires a mastery of several mediums – phone, email, text messaging, as well as handwritten notes – but the payoff is undeniable. But don’t overuse virtual communication to the exclusion of face-to-face time In all cases, don’t forget your sense of aplomb, mastery of tone, and the spell-checker.

10. Build and use a board of advisors. The right board is a group of individuals who may not know one another, but know you, and know your business domain. Plus, they need to be willing to put their brains and their expertise at your disposal as long as you need it. No entrepreneur is an island, so take the initiative to build and use an advisory board.

Article By: Martin Zwilling

I have watched this video 3 times over now and I am still blown away. Meet “Dean Karnazes” the man who can run forever. Running 50 back to back marathons in 50 days you’d say that this guy has the mental and physical stamina to accomplish most things thrown at him. Dean Karnazes recently featured on comic book legends, “Stan Lee’s: Superhumans” TV show, where Stan Lee tracks down and follows a handful of superhuman beings with amazing abilities.

So when you feel like you can’t pull yourself out of bed for that 5am run, flick this video on for some hardcore motivation and see if you can top this guy!

Dean Karnazes – Superhuman Ultra-Marathon Runner

Dean Karnazes Advice

Below is some training advice from the pro himself “Dean Karnazes“:

Run Like a Pro
Focus on maintaining good form by tightening your core, leaning your upper torso forward, and thrusting your arms.

Train Twice as Hard
“Build your endurance with dual cardio workouts,” Karnazes says. “Do cardio in the morning and repeat it in the evening — a minimum of 45 minutes each on the treadmill, the elliptical, or whatever your preferred machine is.”

Put on the Blinders
“Ignore any sort of mile markers,” Karnazes says. “Inevitably, you’ll look at them, see how much distance you have left, and think you can’t go on.” Instead, focus your attention on your form.

Listen to Your Body
A cramp or gut stitch is a surefire way to lose time on the course. But ignoring it is even worse. “It’s painful, but you’ve really got to slow down and work through it.” Since cramps are caused by oxygen and electrolyte deficiencies, breathe deeply to pump in fresh oxygen to your muscles, and if possible, swig a salt tablet with an electrolyte beverage.

Dean Karnazes Quotes:

You cannot grow and expand your capabilities to their limits without running the risk of failure. – Dean Karnazes

Regardless of how distant your dreams may seem, every second counts. - Dean Karnazes

Even if you’re inches away from the finish, never take success for granted. - Dean Karnazes

I never feel more alive than when I’m in great pain, struggling against insurmountable odds and untold adversity. Hardship? Suffering? Bring it! I’ve said it before and I’ve come to believe it: There’s magic in misery. - Dean Karnazes

Pain is in the neurons of the beholder. - Dean Karnazes

Running has an uncanny ability to mellow the soul, to take the edge off hard feelings, and put things back into healthy perspective. - Dean Karnazes

23 Rare Motivational Quotes to inspire the lazy, complainers, procrastinators and the ‘all talk, no walk’ people out there.

Everybody needs a little motivation sometimes so share these around and take ACTION! In your life right now, execute that plan you have been talking about all week. It’s never too late to make it happen!

Rare Motivational Quotes

‎”It’s always down to you and the choices you make. Work on the things you can change and never dwell on the things you can’t. You choose… ‘results’ or ‘excuses’ it’s always down to YOU… no one has ever given their BEST and regretted it. GO HARD NO EXCUSES.”

“No one said this would be easy, just know that nothing beats the feeling of accomplishment.”

‎”Turn those dreams into ACTION …action turns into results… sooner or later you will be living the dream.”

“There’s no substitute for consistency.”

‎”Once you learn to quit, it becomes a habit…. KEEP GOING!!”

“Hardwork can out-do genetics!!”

“Whatever doesn’t kill me… had better start running”

‎”Our fears don’t stop death,… they stop life.”

“Do it now. Sometimes ‘later’ becomes ‘never.’”

“Kick yourself in the ass, or someone else will.”

“The pain of discipline is far less than the pain of regret.”

‎”I’m not telling you it’s going to be easy… I’m telling you it’s going to be worth it.”

“Tears will get you sympathy, sweat will get you results.”

“Dear tomorrow, do whatever you wanna do .. I have already lived my today and I am not afraid of you anymore .”

“If we understood the power of our thoughts, we would guard them more closely. If we understood the power of our words, we would prefer silence to anything negative. In our thoughts and words we create our own weaknesses and strengths. Our limitations begin in our hearts where we can always replace negative with positive.”

“You can have results or excuses. Not both”

“You will never know your limits until you push yourself to them.”

“Pain is just weakness leaving your body.”

“I was not delivered into this world in defeat nor does failure flow through my veins. I am not a sheep waiting to be prodded by my shepherd. I am a lion and I refuse to talk, walk, to merge with the sheep. I will not hear those who weep and complain for their thoughts are contagios. Let them join the sheep. The slaughterhouse of failure…Is not my destiny.”

‎”Good things come to those who wait… greater things come to those who are willing to work for it”

“Set small goals for yourself and meet them. You are responsible to take care of yourself. You should be your priority!!”

‎”If we’re growing, we’re always going to be out of our comfort zone…deal with it!!”

“Failure does not mean defeat; to succeed you must fail first.”

Everybody wants to be successful. So do I. So do you. What makes somebody achieve their dreams and others to fail theirs?

Read on as we outlay the “Top 9 Hurdles That Most Entrepreneurs Will Encounter At Some Point In Their Life“.

Entrepreneur Advice

1. Fear of the unknown. People get used to the familiarity of the past and are afraid of anything new. This might lead you to decide to leave everything just the way it has always been. A winner knows that sticking with the old ways will never lead to satisfaction.

2. Fear to get involved. If you do not have the habit of engaging yourself, but rather passively undergo what others decide for you, then you will have to create new habits that give you the feeling you are actively creating your life, choosing what you want and making an effort towards your goal.

3. Fear that others will leave you. When your environment has gotten used to looking at you as a weak person, undecided, unhappy or sad, then you might be afraid of changing. Maybe you are afraid of losing their attention if you no longer show weakness, illness or fatigue. Is this the reason why you want to keep the status quo? Do you really want to continue suffering from the low vibrations of disease, despair, complaining, just to please your environment, afraid of losing their attention once your are successful?

4. Fear of success. If you got used to looking at yourself as a failure, not capable of doing anything right, then the idea of being successful might be quite uncomfortable. In this case you need to expand the image you have of yourself and start accepting that you too can succeed and be happy, and enjoy abundance in your life.

5. Refuse to be tested along the way. Be aware that you will be tested along the way, in order to make sure your choice is clear and firm, that you are sticking to your decision to walk your own path. The firmness of your decision and the depth of your engagement will be proofed. Accept this and move on.

6. Negative thoughts about life. Carrying negative beliefs about life will make it difficult to attain success, riches and happiness. Make a list of all your negative thoughts and systematically replace them by positive ones. Encourage yourself on your way to success instead of cutting yourself down.

7. Refuse to start anything before you are 100% sure to succeed. You will never have absolute certainty as your mission is constantly unfolding as long as you live. Look at it as a journey. It’s a process, an itinerary, where the important thing is who you are becoming along the way rather than where you are arriving. When you are experiencing more energy, joy, enthusiasm and wealth, then you can be sure to have made the right choice. This ought to be enough to dare take some risk and take some big decisions.

8. Being oversensitive to remarks from people around you. To complete your mission and stay your course you need to learn to face negative remarks from your environment. Surround yourself with people who support and encourage you, and ignore the remarks of those frustrated people who prefer cutting you down over taking charge of their own life. Leave their remarks with them, as their remarks say more about who they are than about who you are. Especially don’t start analyzing their behavior, but rather concentrate on your own life goal. This way you are an example for all who one day also start living their mission.

9. Thinking you still need a lot of time to prepare yourself. Make sure not to waste too much time and energy on lengthy preparations and considerations. There’s no need to go get professional help all the time. One day you will have to get your feet wet yourself. It doesn’t have to be perfectly planned before you can get it going. It is practice that makes perfect! What matters is to take that first step and start things up. Your experience in the field will eventually turn you into an expert. You cannot obtain experience through endless thinking and preparing. Concrete action is the only ground you can build on.

Do not be discouraged. This resistance is part of the package. A life without challenge would be quite boring. Make use of your resources to make sure you stay on track.

In any case, you will be enjoying more energy and happiness, now that you head towards your goal and overcome your resistance to change. This energy and joy can be radiated to your environment, and your example will urge others to start looking for their own mission.

Article By: Ineke Van Lint

Today we feature a list of “The Top 7 Reasons Why Youre Losing All That Money“. The aim of behavioral finance is to better understand why people make the financial decisions they do. The field of study is becoming widely accepted. In fact, it’s such a crucial part of the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) curriculum, a course of study for Wall Street research analysts.

Don’t be intimidated. You might learn something about why you make the financial and investment decision you do.

You think you’re great at investing.

Word of mouth marketing can be one of the most powerful marketing tactics. Think about it - it costs nothing and every person who hears about your product is a potential genuine referral. Sometimes you are asked to give business presentations to a group of people interested in your ideas. It can be very difficult to put your ideas into words that your listeners will relate to and appreciate.

I have discovered that there is a checklist of guidelines. I need to make sure my listeners are able to follow along with me and capture my enthusiasm as I deliver a speech selling my ideas. Read on for this “Award Winning, Speech Giving Checklist“.

1.    Relate: Make your speech relate to its audience. Often you will be giving a presentation to a class of people who come from all kinds of different backgrounds. Find a common point they all have in common. Alternatively, you can find a common aspect of life they will all have to face some day. Use that as the grounds for your presentation and refer back to it more than once.

2.    Preview/Review: When you’re giving a presentation, having pictures is great but what if you have no access to pictures or any visual board? A wrap-up at the end – (i.e. a recapitulation of “what we just saw”) acts in a similar way. It helps everyone keep on track and get a better overall understanding of what you are talking about.

3.    Covering your Tracks: This point is more about unity than covering your tracks. When you speak to your class, turn the feared Q & A session at the end into an open floor discussion with everyone. If you don’t know the answer to a question, invite other people to answer. It’s not about what you know; it’s about what people you know know!

4.   The Poor Presentation. Everyone in life has a purpose. If you sit through a boring presentation, take note of what aspects of it are boring. Are you making these same mistakes? If you are, reexamine your speech and put yourself in your audience’s place. What would you rather hear sitting with the audience?

5.   Looking Professional: Probably the reason why dressing up in a shirt and tie is so effective when you give a conference or speech is because no one else does it. Being one of the few who goes out of their way to look good shows that you care about your appearance and reputation. Moreover, it demonstrates enthusiasm and confidence – two qualities that you cannot do without, especially when teaching people something they assume you are the expert in.

6.   Confidence: There are hundreds if not thousands of different ways to acquire a feeling of 100 percent confidence as you walk on the stage or in front of your class. Some tell themselves they are the best repeatedly in their minds. Others study for hours and hours until they have convinced themselves or until they have mastered the material they wish to present. If you give a speech and you fumble because you’re nervous, you can get rid of this by doing the following:

o    Identify the root cause for the fumbling. This is usually fear, however you need to be certain that you recognise where it is coming from. For example, it could be fear that you are not good enough, or fear that you will make a mistake, or fear of what others will think.

o    Next replace the root fear with its polar opposite. If you are afraid of what people think, remind yourself that what they think is none of your business. If you feel that you are not good enough, remember that we are all unique and have different special abilities in different areas. If you are afraid of making a mistake, focus very hard on what you are saying and practice! Practice! Practice!

o    Think positively! Visualise and believe in yourself as a vehicle that will allow you to attain your inner most desires.

7.   Enthusiasm: Half of the audience thinks you are waving your hands too much, the other half feel you are not into your speech enough. What do you do? Get excited. Engage your audience by asking them questions and crack a joke while you’re at it if the context allows (this tends to reduce tension). This builds momentum, which puts you in a complete feeling of joy. No one will notice the annoying details if you are giving them an experience to remember.

8.    Test-Run: Doing a test run with the equipment you will be using can be very rewarding. Avoid possible difficulties/embarrassments that increase the level of stress on your presentation day. You will also want to use the opportunity to proof-read your presentation to to make sure the text is legible on the background of your slides.

9.    My last point is called “Journey” because it is the journey that is the reward, not the end, and not the beginning. As you take your audience through your presentation, you are guiding them through a journey. Hand-feed them all the way, and make sure everything is very well explained. Remember that your presentation is a tool to convey your message, not the object of your presentation. Do not look back at the screen or down at your monitor. Do not read of your slides either – your audience can read off the slides. If you are presenting to 30 people or less, make eye contact with everyone. If you’re presenting to a larger group it is ok to look above the crowd’s head, since eye contact isn’t really possible. One or two large images, key points and “sound bites” will help the audience to remember things you said and to follow you through the journey of your presentation.

And that’s all there is to it! Imagine yourself being electrocuted – you are excited – this will create a contagious smile and energy to flow around the room.

Article By: Daniel Massicotte

Toastmasters ‘WINNING’ Speech

Checkout this award winning speech. Delivered by Spiritual comedian and law of attraction expert Andy Dooley as he shares his his HUMOROUS story about meeting Tony Robbins on top of a mountain.

Only one in four companies in the US are run by women. Does this mean that women aren’t cut out for the suits, ties and big decisions? This subject has been debatable for a long time so we are are here to clear the scene with 7 cold hard facts as to why women make great entrepreneurs.

We can see this comment section turning into battle of the sexes as we type this, haha. Enjoy this post and dont forget to chip in your 2 cents worth.

Do Women Make Great Entrepreneurs? Read On:

1. Women possess strong communication skills and social intelligence. The digital economy requires these skills, and women enjoy a slight edge over their male counterparts (according to numerous studies). A stronger network means they will be better resourced throughout the life of the venture. By leveraging their connections, they will have to reinvent the wheel less and learn fewer lessons the hard way.

2. Female-owned companies tend to offer family & friendly benefits. These include such perks as job sharing, parental leave and telecommuting. They argue that their more worker-friendly policies boost morale and lead to less turnover, less absenteeism and higher productivity.

3. Women also make good listeners. One study found that the collective intelligence of a group rose if the group included more women. They have open minds. They’re not autocratic.”

4. Women start companies to better balance their work and family lives. Wealth is not their primary focus, so most remain smaller. But there are exceptions, like Martha Stewart (Omnimedia), Ruth Furtel (Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse), and Lillian Vernon, which make big money.

5. Women collaborate. Women have worked well together since the earliest female enterprises, whether dividing grains in the village or working in quilting bees. Even some of today’s cultural stereotypes have legs, for instance, women’s joint trips to the restroom!

6. Female owners are more likely to have positive revenues. They prefer lower risk opportunities, and are willing to settle for lower returns. Some women feel that pushing profits is “not polite.” More women entrepreneurs are single person businesses, while men tend to have more employees. Researchers have begun focusing on the relationship between testosterone and excessive risk, thus evaluating whether groups of men spur each other toward reckless decisions.

7. Females aren’t afraid to ask for help. Many men (not all) have difficulty asking for help when it comes to something like their very own business. Pride can sometimes get in the way. But most women don’t have a problem admitting that they’re not sure how to accomplish a certain task or what needs to be done next in the building-a-business game. This can sometimes provide an advantage in a well-spring of knowledge from sources that help ground their business more quickly.

If you haven’t already, make sure you checkout “The 7 Reasons Why Men Make Great Entrepreneurs“