Travel In the Middle East

Posted by Brian Tracy on Jun 11, 2007

We are living in an amazing world today

We are living in an amazing world today. I have just returned from 10 days in the Gulf, speaking to more than 2,000 people in five different seminars and three different countries.

Some months ago, we received a contact from a company in Tehran. They wanted to invite me to come to Iran to meet with them and speak with their many clients. Our initial reaction was to decline the invitation because of the political situation between the United States and Iran.

However, it turned out that Americans regularly visit Iran, travel all over the country as tourists and never have any problems or difficulties. We therefore decided to go.

In my three days in Tehran, I met hundreds of people, almost all of which were warm, friendly, interested, curious and open to new information. It turns out that Iran does not recognize copyrights on books or anything else. As a result, they have published more than 20 of my books in Farsi and sold more than 3,000,000 copies, making me one of the most popular authors in the country. There is a special section of Brian Tracy books in every bookstore in Iran.

The history of Iran goes back almost 3,000 years, but really began with the rise of Cyrus the Great, who built the first empire in world history, stretching from what is today Russia and Pakistan all the way to the Mediterranean, including Egypt and Greece. He built beautiful cities and brought an enormous part of the globe under Persian influence. His empire endured for more than 300 years, until 330 BC when the Emperor Darius II was defeated by Alexander the Great at Arbela.

When I traveled in Iran many years ago, I read an excerpt that said, “And the great caravans came from East and West when Isfahan was the center of the world.” The city of Isfahan is one of the great archeological treasures. It is full of temples, mosques, and beautiful buildings that attest to the richness of the Persian culture.

My trip to Iran was completely with incident, arriving and departing smoothly and on schedule. From Tehran, I flew onto Kuwait where I spent a day and a half with my friend Khalid al-Kanzi, one of the most talented and entrepreneurial businessmen I have ever met. Khalid organizes high-level training and development programs for leaders, managers and entrepreneurs in Kuwait, as well as assisting them in setting up websites to trade internationally.

My friend Tom McCarthy, one of the top business speakers in the world, who lives only two miles from me here in Solana Beach, was also in Kuwait speaking to the same group of people for Khalid. Kuwait is a remarkable country, sitting on an ocean of oil, and having one of the highest per capita incomes in the world. It is a beautiful, modern city with new hotels and office buildings going up everything. It is easy to see why the Western world reacted so strongly and came to the defense of Kuwait when Saddam Hussein invaded in 1990.

After a productive day in Kuwait, speaking on the Military Principles of Leadership as Applied to Business, I flew onto Dubai to give a one-day seminar for DAMAC, one of the fastest growing real estate developments in the world today. Dubai is booming in every sense of the word! The government has decided to make Dubai a business and financial hub for the Gulf, and for the entire region. They have liberalized business and banking laws, and are encouraging corporations and banks to open headquarters offices in the country.

DAMAC has built, or is building, 38 high-rise condominium towers to accommodate the explosive growth of Dubai. They are expanding throughout the Gulf with projects in other countries that include the construction of entire new cities.

My friend, Anand Menon of DAMAC, who brought me into speak to 185 of their top associates, executives and sales professionals, is one of the most talented personal and business development experts I have ever met. Together with his team, he is helping to build DAMAC into a world-class development and construction giant.

Interestingly enough, there was virtually no discussion of Iraq during my visit. Everyone I spoke to is pro-Western and pro-American. They have the same desires and ambitions as anyone else. They want to be successful in business, make as much money as possible, build a happy family life and enjoy all the benefits of the modern world. In addition, most of the people I worked with are highly intelligent, well educated, knowledgeable about the world, well read and hard working. Just like you!

It took 18 hours of flying to get out to the Gulf, and another 18 hours to get back. I departed Dubai on Wednesday and flew all day long, changing planes in London, and flying onto Toronto to arrive on the afternoon of the same day. After a well-received talk to 600 top executives and financial service experts of Assante Wealth Management in Toronto, I caught the afternoon flight and arrived back in San Diego by midnight Thursday, May 31 – 12 days on the road.

Here in Solana Beach, Brian Tracy University is growing and expanding. Mr. Mehran Hamidi, an experienced Internet executive, has taken over the sales and marketing activities of the University, expanding our reach worldwide. Our primary programs on Sales and Entrepreneurship are bringing about rapid increases in income and profitability for our students. Please come to www.briantracyu.com, download a free Business and Sales Assessment for yourself or your company, and watch a complete presentation on how our programs can help you achieve all your personal and business goals, guaranteed.

Next week, I am on my way to New Zealand to speak for a week. In the meantime, I continue to wish you the best of health and prosperity.

Tags: Brian's Words of Wisdom

Stand Up At Crunch Time

Posted by Brian Tracy on Jun 7, 2007

Cord Cooper’s thoughts

Dear Friends,

Cord Cooper of Investor’s Business Daily wrote some nice words about my book, Crunch Point that I thought you might benefit from. Here they are:

Stand Up At Crunch Time

Whether businesses face crises or individuals suffer setbacks, everything depends on how they respond under pressure.

They can slam into overdrive – leaping obstacles – or slam into a wall, Brian Tracy says in his latest book, "Crunch Point."

If execution’s important in good times, he says, it’s more crucial when your mettle is tested.

To pull out of a rough patch:

Stay calm. "Lower your emotional flash point by asking questions, listening carefully and thinking only about possible solutions," Tracy said.

When crisis hits, staying calm produces three benefits: perspective, wisdom and the ability to focus.

Take control. Accept responsibility for dealing with the problem. "Don’t dwell on the past," Tracy said. "Focus on what can be done" now.

"People fail because they don’t think the thoughts and take the actions that will change their circumstances. People stay stuck in their failures when they blame (everyone else) for their failures. Blame immobilizes."

Pinpoint constraints. "Determine the most important goal or objective you could attain to get yourself out of this crunch, and then identify your key constraint – the limiting factor that determines the speed at which you attain that goal," Tracy said. "Focus on alleviating that single constraint."

Zero in on priorities. Focus on key result areas – the 20% of activity that’ll bring 80% of results. The critical point? Keep things simple. "In a crunch or emergency, you may find yourself overwhelmed," Tracy said. Focusing on a short list of priorities often makes the difference.

If you run a business, protect your core – your key people, customers and your unique selling proposition. "What are your most important selling avenues (and) key profit centers?" Tracy said.

Close more sales. "Practice the 100-call method," Tracy said. "Set a target to get face to face with a hundred prospective customers in the shortest period of time possible" and employ your strongest closers – salespeople who are expert at closing deals.

Tracy says he has recommended this to clients for 25 years, and it almost always has precipitated turnarounds.

Look for ways to up sell, he says, and offer incentives for slow-paying customers to become current.

Conserve your energy. If your health nose-dives, you’ll face another hurdle, Tracy notes. During a crisis, it’s critical that you eat the right foods, exercise and get plenty of rest.

Remain ethical. "You demonstrate your true character when you’re under stress, when you face setbacks (and) reversals," Tracy noted.

Rise to every challenge without compromising your integrity. "Act as if everyone is watching, because they are."

Persist. "Your decision to never give up is the ultimate guarantor of your eventual success," Tracy emphasized.

In the final analysis, there are no limits to what you can accomplish except the limits you impose on yourself.

Talk to you soon!

Crunch Point

Tags: Brian's Words of Wisdom

Three Rules for Developing Courage

Posted by Brian Tracy on Jun 7, 2007

The step-by-step development of courage in yourself is the first responsibility of leadership.

The step-by-step development of courage in yourself is the first responsibility of leadership. The second responsibility is to develop and instill courage in others, your staff, your children, your spouse, and your friends. But you must begin with yourself because you can’t give away something that you don’t have. You can only encourage others to the degree to which you experience and demonstrate courage yourself. You set the tone and determine the standard.

Control Your Fear
Here’s the first rule: "Everyone is afraid." You’re afraid, I’m afraid, everyone you meet is afraid in some way, often in many ways. As Mark Twain said, "Courage is not absence of fear; it is control of fear, mastery of fear." The brave person is the person who acts in spite of his or her fear, who faces the fear, feels the fear and moves forward regardless.

Here’s the second rule: "Fears diminish and lose their power over you as you confront them and move toward them; conversely, every time you back away from a fear situation, the fear grows and becomes more powerful."

Confront Your Fear
The only way to develop courage is to consciously and continuously make a habit of confronting your fear of treating every fear-inducing situation as a challenge and as an opportunity to become stronger, more resolute.

Do the Thing You Fear
Here’s the third rule: "Do the thing you fear and the death of fear is certain." Psychologists call this the process of "systematic desensitization," doing it over and over until it holds no fear for you at all. Many businesspeople who have been so afraid of public speaking that they couldn’t lead a silent prayer in a phone booth have used this process of eliminating fear. By going to meeting after meeting of Toastmasters International, speaking and getting feedback each time, they have developed competence and confidence where once they experienced only terror. So can you.

Action Exercises
Here are two ways to apply these rules to develop courage in yourself.

First, confront your fears directly and immediately. Whenever you feel afraid for any reason, do it anyway! You’ll be amazed at your success.

Second, do the thing you fear over and over until it has no more power over you. The more you repeat the action, the more courage and confidence you will have.

Tags: Leadership Success