Posted by Brian Tracy on May 30, 2007
Anyone, Starting From Wherever They Are, Can Become Wealthy in America
Anyone, Starting From Wherever They Are, Can Become Wealthy in America
In one series of I.Q. tests given to children ages 2 - 4 years, 95% of the children were found to be highly creative with curious, questioning minds and an ability for abstract thinking.
When the same children were tested again at age 7, only 5% still demonstrated high levels of creativity. In the ensuing years, they had learned to conform; "If you want to get along, you had better go along," is what they had discovered.
The Dangers of Conformity
They had learned to color between the lines, to sit in neat little rows, to do and say what the other kids did and said, and to do as they were told. Over time, they lost the wonderful fearless spontaneity of youth and learned to suppress ideas and insights that were unusual or different.
Aggressively Seek New Ideas
Most of us have had similar experiences. The "Not invented-here" syndrome in many large companies is simply the adult version of "not rocking the boat." But fortunately, since creativity is your birthright, a fundamental part of your nature, you can tap into it at any time, no matter how long it has been since you really used it.
Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do to start thinking outside of your mental box.
First, imagine that there was a vastly better, cheaper, faster way to do your job - and somebody else had already discovered it and was going to put you out of business.
Second, imagine doing exactly the opposite of what you are doing today. Allow your mind to float freely and consider how current trends will change your business.
Tags: Financial Success
Posted by Brian Tracy on May 14, 2007
seminars in Calgary, Alberta, Vancouver, British Columbia, Las Vegas and Sacramento.
This has been a busy week for me. I gave seminars in Calgary, Alberta, Vancouver, British Columbia, Las Vegas and Sacramento. In all, my audiences tolled more than 2,000 people, almost all of them sales professionals, sales managers, entrepreneurs and business owners.
As I travel, I am continually amazed at the high standard of living and affluence that we enjoy in North America. One of the things that frustrates me is the continual drumbeat of negativity in the press, almost purely for political reasons.
Even though we are enjoying the strongest and most powerful economic times in all of human history, with 69% home ownership, an unemployment rate of 4.4%, the highest profits for companies, large and small, and greater increases in personal wealth than have ever taken place at any time in history, the newspapers continually tell us that our economy is in trouble.
Fully 28% of Americans believe that the economy is in recession. This is so silly as to be almost unbelievable. Every year, the US creates 22 million new jobs, while shedding or downsizing 20 million jobs. This is a net increase of two million new jobs per year, more than all of Europe put together.
More than one million Americans take the plunge and start a new business each year. Money pours into the US from all over the world, as do new immigrants from 194 countries. The OECD in Paris ranks the United States as the most entrepreneurial country in the world, offering more opportunities and possibilities for the average person to start a business and become success than any other country.
One of the little secrets I learned when I was in Europe is that more than two million young entrepreneurs from France and Germany, what they called “Old Europe,” have quietly immigrated to other countries seeking opportunities, many of them to the United States.
This is the best time in all of human history to be alive. And if anything, it is only going to get better in the years ahead.
When you read negative stories about America, Americans and the state of the economy, just look around you. Fully 50% of all the wealth in America has been created in the last 25 years, and wealth creation continues all around us, every single day.
Most of the negativity you read in the newspapers is politically motivated. Fully 89% of writers for the newspapers, magazines, television and radio have put themselves on record as being opposed to the current national government, and committed to getting their party back into power. To this end, they are twisting and misshaping news and information to the point where the truth is almost unrecognizable today.
Bill Gates was once asked, “If you could ask a person standing behind a screen just one question, what one question would tell you the most about his or her possibilities for success in life?”
Bill Gate’s answer to this question was that he would ask, “What country do you live in?”
If the person behind the screen answered, “The United States,” he or she would have a better chance of success than a person living anywhere else in the world.
We should get up every morning and thank whatever God we believe in that we live in this wonderful country and have endless possibilities unfolding before us.
I’ll talk to you again soon.
Tags: Brian's Words of Wisdom
Posted by Brian Tracy on May 2, 2007
The world is changing at a rapid rate today
Traveling In Eastern Europe
The world is changing at a rapid rate today, and in no place is it changing faster than in the old communist countries of Eastern Europe.
On April 22, I flew out of Los Angeles to Munich, and then onto Bucharest in Romania. Under the communist government, Romania was a repressed state with no freedoms and the people living in terror most of the time. When the Revolution came, the Dictator and his wife were tried on television, sentenced to death, and taken out in front of the courthouse and executed by a firing squad. Everyone cheered.
The people of Romania are now busy, optimistic and building a dynamic, free market economy. I stayed at the beautiful Hilton Athenee in the heart of the old city of Bucharest and gave a seminar all day Tuesday on Professional Selling.
The seminar was put together and coordinated by three amazing businesswomen – Renata, Joanna, and Liliana. They did a wonderful job coordinating all the details and channeling 200 businesspeople into the beautiful ballroom of the hotel.
On Wednesday, April 25, I flew through Vienna to Vilnius, Lithuania. Again, the entrepreneur and promoter was a talented woman named Skirmante Laucyte who organized the entire seminar from beginning to end. We had about 200 Lithuanian businesspeople all day learning about Personal Productivity and Effectiveness.
Lithuania was also under control of the Russians from 1945 to 1989, very repressed and impoverished. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Lithuanian people demanded that the Russians depart, which they eventually did.
Skirmante was telling me that, during the Russian times, her parents kept a bundle of warm clothing next to the door so that they could grab it if they were arrested in the night and deported to Siberia. They never knew, from one day to the next, if the secret police would burst in and exile them for life. Most of the population lived in this relentless state of terror and insecurity.
On the evening of April 26, I flew to Warsaw via Copenhagen. Unfortunately, Scandinavian Air Services, for which Copenhagen is their international hub, had gone on strike the day before, shutting down hundreds of flights and filling the airports with thousands of people sleeping on the floor. Fortunately for me, I flew via Air Baltic to Copenhagen and via Polish Airways to Warsaw. I was only delayed three hours, arriving in Warsaw after midnight.
In Warsaw, as in Romania and Lithuania, the economy is booming, growing at 7% - 8% per year. There are new office buildings and hotels going up everywhere, plus restaurants, shopping centers, new cars in the streets and an optimistic, happy population bustling around.
All day Friday, April 27, we had 400 people in the Warsaw Marriott taking notes and learning about Business Leadership. In the evening, we had dinner at the home of one of our Polish partners in the Brian Tracy Academy of Success. They are translating and delivering my video-based learning programs throughout the country, and are setting up our first international branch of Brian Tracy University.
Most of Warsaw was destroyed by the German army during World War II. They have rebuilt the old town almost exactly as it looked hundreds of years ago, with old buildings and cobblestone squares. The weather was beautiful, the people were happy, and it is clear that Poland has a great economic future.
On Sunday, April 29, I rose early, met once more with my Polish partners, and then caught the flight to Frankfurt. From Frankfurt, I flew back to San Diego via Denver, departing and arriving exactly on time. Throughout my trip, there was not a single word of criticism or negativity directed at the United States. Americans are popular and well liked everywhere. Most of the businesspeople are studying English so that they can integrate themselves into the world economy. They all want to enjoy the same rights, freedoms and prosperity that we have.
This is a great world that we live in. We should count our blessings everyday.
I’ll be back to you again soon.
Tags: Brian's Words of Wisdom
Posted by Brian Tracy on May 1, 2007
There are several different aspects of courage. Perhaps the most important is the courage to endure, to persist, to “hang in there” in the face of doubt, uncertainty and criticism from others.
There are several different aspects of courage. Perhaps the most important is the courage to endure, to persist, to "hang in there" in the face of doubt, uncertainty and criticism from others.
Practice Patience in Adversity
This is called "courageous patience," the willingness and the ability to "stay the course" in the face of uncertainty, doubt and often criticism from many quarters.
Stay the Course
In my experience, there is a critical time period between the launching of a new venture and the results that come from that venture. During this hiatus, this waiting period, many people lose their nerve. They cannot stand the suspense of not knowing, of possible failure. They break and run in battle, they quake and quit in business.
The True Leader
But the true leader is the person who can stand firm, who refuses to consider the possibility of failure. The turning points of many key moments in human history have been the resolution, or lack thereof, of one person. Courageous patience is the acid test of leadership.
To encourage others, to instill confidence in them, to help them to perform at their best requires first of all that you lead by example.
Allow Honest Mistakes
The second thing you can do to help alleviate the fears of failure and rejection in others is to encourage them to take calculated risks and allow honest mistakes.
Build People Up
Give the people who look up to you regular praise and approval. Celebrate good tries as well as success, large and small. Create a psychological climate where people feel safe from censure, blame or criticism of any kind. Then do things that make people feel terrific about themselves.
Become Unstoppable
Courage comes from acting courageously on a day-to-day basis. Your personal development goal should be to practice the behaviors of a totally fearless person until you become, in your own mind, unstoppable.
Action Exercises
Here are two ways for you to develop courageous patience.
First, prepare yourself in advance for the inevitable disappointments and setbacks you will experience on the way to your goal. Don’t be surprised when they occur.
Second, resolve in advance that you will bounce rather than break and continually encourage others to think and act the same way.
Tags: Leadership Success
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