What's On My Mind...

I'd like to talk about 2 things today.

#1 Other blogs/people I follow on twitter I follow that can be beneficial to you.

#2 My book club

#1 Other blogs/people I follow on twitter that can be beneficial to you.

Blogs/Twitter:

http://philanthropy.com/section/Blogs/208/

http://www.tribaltim.com

http://twitter.com/BillGates

http://twitter.com/yaniksilver

http://www.techcrunch.com

http://twitter.com/tferriss

http://twitter.com/kellyfelix

http://mashable.com

http://twitter.com/tonyrobbins

http://www.thegatesnotes.com

#2 My book club

I am starting a book club. Your probably asking yourself what does this mean? Well I am a very avid reader and I read new books usually on a weekly basis. Mainly I read books on marketing, business, success, investing, personal development, staying fit and being healthy. However sometimes I may read a book a little off those subjects. Anyways from time to time I read books that are really good and have made a big impact in my life.

So I am going to send a copy of these books to people in my book club. I am not doing this to make a profit. I am doing it to share knowledge that has helped me and I want to pass it along to you so it can help you too.

If you are interested in joining my book club send me a message either on this blog, facebook, twitter, or email. I would be happy to add you to the list. I will not be sending out books on a normal schedule. It will only be when I read a book that I feel is really good. I will then send you a copy. So I may send you a book every week or every month or every three months. It will all depend on when I come across a good book that I feel can help you.

If you are interested in growing and changing as a person and want to be successful then my book club may be for you. Let me know I would be happy to add you to the list.

Be Persistent

One of the key reasons that most people never become successful with a business or with anything else for that matter is very simple. Most people are stopped too easily. They give up at the first sign of failure.

There is a barrier to success you must know this when trying to accomplish anything. It is very rare for somebody to get through the success barrier on the first try. Before I accomplished my first real success in business I had more than 20 prior businesses that I started. Some had minor success, while others were complete failures. But it took me more than 20 tries in business before I had a real success. 90 percent of people who are successful in any field were failures many times before they became successful.

You must understand that failing is a part of success. There is usually one main ingredient that separates the successful from the unsuccessful and that is persistence. The success barrier is just like a brick wall, it must be hit many times before it cracks and finally crumbles.

Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not, nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not, unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not, the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.

Be persistent and you will be successful!

Love those who don't love you

Anyone can love someone who loves them.

But is that love?

Do you really love people if you only love those who love you. I am not trying to preach religion but here are a few good passages from the bible that are worth reading and living your life by regardless of your religious outlook.

Don't just read them but live them. By loving thy enemy you are making the world a better place. Hate only breads more hate and love breads more love.

Luke 6:27 - "But I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you"

This reminds me of a story Tony Robbins was telling me a few months ago when we were in Mexico. Tony was telling me about a plane ride he took with Mikhail Gorbachev the former Soviet President. Tony asked President Gorbachev what was the exact point when he knew the Cold War was going to end. Mikhail told him it was in the middle of a heated debate with President Reagan when President Reagan came over to him and put his hand on his shoulder and said lets go out side and take a walk. The two presidents took a walk outside and Gorbachev said that Reagan showed him so much love and compassion and it was at that moment that he knew the cold war was about to end.

This is an example of how a person who showed some love to someone who did not have love for him in return changed the history of the world. You can change your world by loving those who don't love you. I ask you to "know no enemy, only friends."

Luke 6:28 - "Bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you"

Pray for those who mistreat you. Everyone in this world has people who love them and people who hate them. By wishing the best for those who curse you and mistreat you not only are you helping them, but you are helping yourself. People can sometimes say mean and nasty things to others. Sometimes they even say these things to those who they don't know. But thats OK you can't alway please everyone, not everyone is going to like you. But don't hate those who hate you, shower them with love. I have nothing but love and wish the best for both those who love me and those who do not. I wish both those who love me and hate me love, happiness, health, wealth, and success.

Below are a few passages that are worth reading and worth living your life by.

Luke 6:32 - Luke 6:36 - If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even 'sinners' love those who love them. And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even 'sinners' do that. And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even 'sinners' lend to 'sinners,' expecting to be repaid in full. But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

My best wishes go out to all who read this blog, rather you love me or hate me. Remember I Love You.

Do You Need School To Be Successful?

Success takes persistence. Success takes being willing to fail and learn so you can go back and start again. I truly believe anyone with average mental capacity, common sense, self-confidence, and perseverance can be successful.

I do not believe advanced schooling is necessary for someone to achieve success. But don’t trust my word for it. A lot of geniuses throughout history did not do well in school. Take a look at the list of people below who are and were considered highly successful.

Sir Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein flunked out of school. Winston Churchill failed one year of high school. Thomas Edison was considered inept at math and a poor reader. Richard Branson dropped out of school at the age of 16. Steve Wozniak, the genius behind the first Apple computers flunked out of college. Dave Thomas, founder of “Wendy’s” did not complete high school.

These are just a few people though out history who did not do well in School but went on to become massively successful. The reason I am writing about this subject today is because I know first hand you don’t have to do well in school to become successful. I myself dropped out of high school and have gone on to become successful.

Many people in life believe the myth that they are not smart enough to become successful because they didn’t get good grades in school. This is an absolute lie. School only measures one thing. The ability to do those tasks which are required in school. Tasks required in school do not take a high level of mental ability and are only a one-dimensional measurement of intellect. School is important for learning the basics, but it is not the begin-all, end-all that educators will lead you to believe.

The biggest reason people don’t succeed is because they have a low self-image and don’t have any self confidence. If there is one thing I could pass on to you it would be to develop self-confidence and a positive self image.

You do not have to be born with self-confidence and a positive self-image. It can be developed over time even if you have no self-confidence today and a poor self-image you can turn that around. I can tell you this from personal experience. I used to have absolutely no self-confidence in almost all areas of my life and I had a horrible self-image. Today I have more self-confidence than anyone I know and I have a great positive image of myself.

99% of problems that are holding people back from achieving success come from their own belief that they can’t succeed. Throughout history, the biggest enemy of success for an individual has always been that person himself or herself. Your biggest roadblock to success will be a lack of self-confidence.

If you don’t have a winning attitude you don’t stand a chance of success. People who succeed do so because they believe in them selves and they believe they are going to succeed before anything ever materializes.

People who have the most success in life also have the most failures. The people who succeed don’t let the failures get them down. They realize that it’s all just part of playing they game. In order to have massive success most times you have to have massive failures, however those who win in life look at those failures as learning experiences.

I never think about failing it is not even a thought that ever enters my heard. In order to be successful you need to develop the same confidence and attitude. A reporter once asked Muhammad Ali “Since you are so boastful, don’t you worry about what’s going to happen if you lose?” Ali replied, “I’m not going to lose. It doesn’t even enter my mind. I just don’t think like that.”

Having this attitude does not make you immune from having failures. To a loser a failure is the end of it all. But to a winner, it is simply just part of the learning process. Something to be corrected next time around, an obstacle to overcome. It’s not the end.

Here are two old proverbs that I believe to be true – “You can do anything you want to do, if you want to do it badly enough” and – “You are what you think you are.”

Expanding Your Vision Of Success

It's always good to expand your vision of success. Sometimes when people become successful they feel as if they have reached the pinnacle and no longer feel the need to grow or change as a person. In life you are either growing or dying, you can not remain at the same level for a long period of time. The rich get richer because they keep growing their financial skills, super star sports athletes get better because they keep practicing.

Today my vision of success became expanded even more. My personal story is this, I grew up on the wrong side of town in a low income area. I struggled as an entrepreneur and finally became successful. After achieving success I did what so many other people who achieve success do. What is that you ask?

I stopped what I was doing. I no longer was reading books, working on new businesses, getting out there to meet new people. I felt as if I had reached the mountain top. I was successful and I no longer needed to grow as a person and learn more. I felt as if I had "made it."

So this attitude I had continued on for about two years after my first major success. Guess what happened? Yep thats right you guessed it. My business didn't grow, my net worth went down and I wasn't even happy. Here I was with all this "stuff" that I used to think would make me happy. Then when I got it, it was not very fulfilling. I was thinking to myself...."is this it." I always used to think that the accumulation of the "stuff" was what made someone happy. This is not the case at all.

I was happiest during the journey, not once I had achieved the "success". Finally after about two years of sitting on the sidelines enjoying my "success and my stuff" I realized that everything I had read about a person either growing or dying is true. I then got off my butt and started back on my next journey toward a greater success. I have been on this journey towards my next big success in life for about two years now and it is amazing how much your perspective changes as your experience grows.

When I first started out in business my idea of success was to make a lot of money. My idea of success is completely different now days. Today my idea of success is to help make the world a better place and positively impact the lives of as many people as I can through my businesses and charitable donations. I'm sure that in 10 years my idea of success will have expanded and changed and will be completely different than what it is today.

Today I spent sometime at the home of Scott Wolstein who is the former CEO of Developers Diversified Realty. Scott has been a very successful businessman. In 2006 he was #76 on Forbes list of total CEO compensation. That year Scott made $17.5 million dollars to round off his last 5 years coming up to 2006 of $69.3 million dollars in compensation.

Now that you know who Scott is let me tell you what it was about my experience at his home today that expanded my vision of success. When I was young before I ever had any financial success at all I always used to drive around all the nice neighborhoods across town and look at all the big homes thinking to myself one day I am going to own a home like this. At the time I was looking at 4000 square ft homes thinking they were really big mansions. At that time for me they were as I grew up in an 800 square foot house.

As I started to achieve a little success I found myself driving by houses that were a little bigger 6000 to 9000 square ft.

Today my vision has expanded even further. Scott's home that I spent time in today is 36,000 square feet and sits on 150 acres. It was the most beautiful home I have ever been in and I have been in a lot of very nice houses.

I want to get the message across that sometimes in order to have a clear vision of your goals you need to put those goals right in front of your eyes. For example if you want a big new home then you should go and call a realtor and have them show you big new homes. I did this when I had $1000 in my bank account. I had a realtor show me million dollar homes, I would go to open houses every weekend for almost a year. I had a goal and I wanted to make the goal vividly clear so I went and put myself in the environment of that goal.

If your goal is to own a Ferrari then you need to to go a luxury car store and sit in that car and picture yourself having it in your garage one day. I did the same thing here, I used to go to the luxury car store an hour away from where I lived at the time and sit in the cars before I could even afford the insurance on a $100,000 + car. The message I want to get across is that whatever your goal is you need to put yourself in proximity of that goal. Picture yourself having it, take action and before you know it you will have accomplished your goal. The only person holding you back from achieving your goals is yourself.

In this post I'm using goals that are material based goals. My major goals in life are not material based goals. Once you accomplish your material based goals you will realize there are much more important goals that are so much more meaningful than any "thing" you can buy. My important goals in life, are family and philanthropy. These are much more important than all the nice homes and cars in the world. But don't get me wrong it feels good to have nice stuff. I have been both well off and poor and I like being well off much better.

I want to end this with one simple message. The more you give the more you get. The people who contribute the most to the world are compensated the most. It really is true the more you give the more you get.

Getting The Best Results In Business and In Life

I am going to share two secrets with you right now that will help you get the absolute best results both in your business and in your personal life.

#1 Find the best people. This goes both for business and your personal life. Let's talk about finding the best people in business first.

Finding the best people is one of the most important aspects of having success in business. Without having the best people on your team it is very hard to succeed, however if you have the best people on your team it's very hard to fail.

Always hire and work with people who are better than you in whatever area of business you are working on. I will talk about an example of this in my company. We have been struggling for the past two years on one key part of our business. This was a part of business that no one in our company was an expert. We tried training several people from within the company on how to become an expert in this field, however we did this with no success. After spending almost two years and tons of money we were back to square one.

Finally we decided to go after an actual expert in the field who had a proven track record. Now this person will end up paying for himself 10 times over. A very nice asset (also a great person) who will be paid very good for the work he is doing for our company.

We missed out on a lot of potential profits by not finding the best person to fill the position earlier. After almost two years of just dragging along finally we decided to go out and hire the best person for the job and it has paid off big time. He is now generating as much revenue in 2 days as the entire department used to generate in a whole month.

If you have an area of your business that is not prospering I urge you to go out and find the absolute best person you can add to your team. When you have a WINNER on the team he/she also helps bring up all the other players on the team as well.

The people in business who have the best people on their team always make the most money and they alway win!

This is also true in your personal life. I would say this is more important in your personal life than in business. Surround your self with the best people. You were born into a certain social environment. You are not forced to stay there, if the people around you are not the people who you could look up to or look at as a good role model. Surround yourself with new people. What determines where you will be at in 5 years is the books you read and the people your surround your self with.

#2 Focus - One of the easiest ways to fail in business and in life is to try and focus on too many things. Those people who do this never accomplish one singular thing with excellence. If you find yourself working on too many projects that you never end up having massive success with any one of them, you need to step back look at everything you have on the table. Figure out which one looks to be the most promising and focus all your energy and attention on that project until it is complete.

This is a huge stumbling block for so many people. I have been very guilty of this myself in the past. I would try to work on 30 things at once and I would never have success with any of them. When I started focusing on one project at a time my results went through the roof.

Baja Mexico - Off Road Trip / Teaching High School Kids About Being An Entrepreneur

Here's a picture of our group teaching high school entrepreneurs in Baja Mexico. The guy standing up pointing is Marketing Expert Joe Sugarman the creator of the Blue Blocker Sunglasses. Joe sold 20 million pairs of sunglasses. "I'm sitting on the left with the tie".

I want to talk a little bit about a great site that allows you to give micro loans to entrepreneurs in third world countries. But first I will share a little info about my trip I just returned from.

On Sunday night I returned from a week down in Baja Mexico. I took a trip with a great group of entrepreneurs, business leaders and philanthropists. The trip was a great experience we had 3 days of wild off-road adventure driving starting outside Loreto, Mexico and ending in Cabo San Lucas. We drove a good section of the famous Baja 1000 course along mountain roads, majestic ocean-view vistas and untamed trails not accessible to most others.

After arriving in Cabo we held a mini seminar for a group of young entrepreneurs in high school. Luckily one of the guys in our group was from Spain so he was able to translate to the kids. This was a great experience and proved to be very beneficial for the kids. The group brought some reading material down for the students unfortunately it was in english and the children can only read spanish so I am sending 50 copies of the book Rich Dad Poor Dad in spanish down to the children. If you have not read this book yet it is an absolute must read. It is a great book for anyone with an entrepreneurial mindset.

I met a great business owner and philanthropists down there by the name of Bobby Chang. Bobby is one of the founders of the company "Incase" they produce computer and phone cases for Apple - www.GoInCase.com. Bobby was very generous in donating $10k to the charitable causes we were down there supporting.

Bobby informed me of a great site that allows you to give micro loans to Entrepreneurs in third world countries. Kiva.org - you can give business loans to people in third world countries, loaning as little as $25. These loans are changing the lives of thousands of people. Check out the site, you can view information on the person, what they are using the loan for along with a bunch of other useful information. I am going to start giving micro loans via Kiva on a regular basis and I urge you to check it out. You can change someone else's life with a loan of as little as $25. Kiva has a very high repayment rate of over 98% on all outstanding loans.