Posted by Brian Tracy on Nov 7, 2007
Your self-esteem is the most important part of your character.
The Reactor Core of Your Personality
Your self-esteem is the most important part of your character. This is the emotional part of your self-concept. It is the "reactor core" of your inner power. It is the emotional component of your life. It is the most important single element determining your attitude and your personality. It is the key to your success in life.
The Definition of Self-Esteem
Your self-esteem is best defined as how much you like yourself. The more you like yourself, accept yourself and respect yourself as a valuable and worthwhile person, the higher your self-esteem is. The more that you feel that you are an excellent human being, the more positive and happy you are.
The Source of Self-Motivation
Your self-esteem determines your level of energy, enthusiasm and self-motivation. Your level of self-esteem is the control valve on your performance and effectiveness. Your self-esteem is like the fuel in the first and second stages of a rocket blasting off from Cape Canaveral. People with high self-esteem do well at everything they attempt.
Who Do You Want to Be?
Your self-ideal can be defined as the person you want most to be, sometime in the future. Your self-ideal determines the direction of your life, of your growth and evolution as a person. Your self-image, on the other hand, determines the way you perform in the present. You self-image is the way you are now, today, this moment. Your self-esteem is largely determined by the relationship between your self-image, how you are performing in your day-to-day activities, and your self-ideal, the way you would perform if you were the very best person you could be.
Strive for Congruency and Alignment
The more that your day-to-day activities are consistent with the person you want to become, the higher is your self-esteem. If your ideal is to be well-organized, calm, positive and working progressively toward the achievement of your goals, and in reality, you are behaving in a well-organized, calm, positive manner, working step-by-step toward your objectives, you will have a high, healthy level of self-esteem. You will like and respect yourself. You will feel calm and confident. You will feel happy, healthy and optimistic. You will be a high-performance personality.
Develop the Keys to Sales Success
Self-esteem is the foundation of a positive self-concept. High self-esteem and self-acceptance are the critical elements in sales success. The more you like and respect yourself, the better you perform at everything you do. Developing and maintaining high levels of self-esteem is the most important thing you can do, every day, in building yourself to the point where you are capable of achieving all your goals.
Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do immediately to put these ideas into action.
First, repeat to yourself the words, "I like myself! I like myself!" again and again throughout the day. These powerful words make you feel happier and perform better.
Second, think continually about your successes, your high points and your "wins." The more you think about your best moments and experiences, the more you like and respect yourself and the better you do.
The Psychology of Selling
Tags: Sales Success
Posted by Brian Tracy on Nov 5, 2007
The most common form of stress that we experience is the feeling of being overwhelmed with far too much to do and having too little time to do it in.
The most common form of stress that we experience is the feeling of being overwhelmed with far too much to do and having too little time to do it in. In fact, "time poverty" is the biggest single problem facing most managers in America today. We simply do not have enough time to fulfill all our responsibilities. Because of budget limitations, staff cutbacks, downsizing, and competitive pressures, individual managers are forced to take on more and more work, all of which appears to be indispensable to the smooth functioning of our company or department.
Become an Expert
The solution to this problem of work overload is for you to become an expert on time management. There is probably no other skill that you can learn that will give you a "bigger bang for the buck" than to become extremely knowledgeable and experienced in using time management practices.
Be Open to New Ideas
The most foolish manager of all is either the manager who feels that he has no time to learn about time management or, even worse, the manager who, while being overwhelmed with work, feels that he already knows all that he needs to know about the subject.
Never Stop Learning
The fact is that you can study time management and take time management courses for your entire business life and you will still never learn everything you need to know to get the most out of yourself while doing your job in the most efficient way.
The Keys to Time Management
The two indispensable keys to time management are:1) the ability to set priorities; and 2) the ability to concentrate single-mindedly on one thing at a time. Since there is never enough time to do everything that needs to be done, you must be continually setting priorities on your activities. Perhaps the very best question that you can memorize and repeat, over and over, is, "what is the most valuable use of my time right now?"
The Best Question of All
This question, "what is the most valuable use of my time right now?" will do more to keep you on track, hour by hour, than any other single question in the list of time management strategies.
The natural tendency for all of us is to major in minors and to give in to the temptation to clear up small things first. After all, small things are easier and they are often more fun than the big, important things that represent the most valuable use of your time.
Start With Your Top Tasks
However, the self-discipline of organizing your work and focusing on your highest value tasks is the starting point of getting your time under control and lowering your stress levels.
Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do immediately to get your time under control.
First, make a decision today to become an expert on time management. Read the books, listen to the audio programs, and take a time management course. Then, practice, practice, practice every day until you master time management skills.
Second, set clear priorities on your work each day, before you begin. Then, discipline yourself to start on your most important task and stay at that until it is complete. This will relieve much of your stress immediately.
Double Your Productivity Double Your Time Off
Tags: Leadership Success
Posted by Brian Tracy on Nov 5, 2007
A transformational leader is one who excites and inspires people to perform far beyond their own expectations of themselves.
Inspire Others to Peak Performance
A transformational leader is one who excites and inspires people to perform far beyond their own expectations of themselves. Transformational leaders practice certain behaviors that cause their people to feel stronger, happier, more confident and more committed.
Delegate Responsibility
The first of these behaviors is the delegation of high levels of responsibility for results. Transformational leaders pick the right people, match them to the right jobs, achieve mutual clarity on the desired results and then they get out of the way and leave the individual with maximum freedom to perform.
Let People Do Their Work
Lao-Tse, the great Chinese philosopher, had this idea when he wrote, "A leader is best when people barely know he exists… when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say, ‘We did this ourselves.’"
In a recent study, thousands of people were asked to describe their best bosses. Over and over, the respondents said things like, "I hardly saw him" or "He left me alone" or "He gave me complete freedom to do the job."
Give Them Freedom
There is something liberating and empowering to know that you’ve been entrusted with a major responsibility and that you’ve been given the freedom to fulfill it. When the right person has been matched with the right job, the conditions for exceptional performance have been created.
Confidently Expect Success
Another behavior of transformational leaders is their confident attitude of positive expectations. They radiate a belief in themselves and in the ability of their subordinates to succeed. They know that the leader sets the psychological tone for the whole organization, so they consciously project a positive attitude no matter how distressing the external situation may appear. They are in complete control of themselves and their emotions.
Action Exercises
First, delegate complete responsibility for results to your subordinates. Discuss and agree on exactly what is to be done, when it is to be done and to what standard. Then, get out of the way and let them perform.
Second, express complete confidence in your subordinate’s ability to do an excellent job. Radiate an attitude of confident expectations. Even if you have personal doubts, never let them be seen by others. This is the role of leadership.
Uncover the secrets of how the most successful people in the world manage their businesses – and then blow your competition out of the water!
21 Great Ways to Become an Outstanding Manager
Tags: Leadership Success
Posted by Brian Tracy on Nov 2, 2007
In the first week of October, I took a business cruise from Athens in the eastern Mediterranean around the Greek Islands to Italy and then to Sicily and Malta.
In the first week of October, I took a business cruise from Athens in the eastern Mediterranean around the Greek Islands to Italy and then to Sicily and Malta. At each port of call, we went ashore for several hours to tour remarkable cities and ruins from antiquities that go back twenty-five hundred years. Perhaps the most impressive was the Temple of Apollo at Delphi, one of the “Seven Wonders of The Ancient World.”
It is in ruins today, but very much restored and fascinating to explore. I walked on the same path that Alexander the Great walked when he visited the Delphic Oracle to ask about his fate. It is said that the Delphic Oracle told Alexander that he could “Have a long life full of peace, or a short life full of glory.” Alexander choose the short life full of glory and went on to conquer the known world before dying of pneumonia at the age of 33.
At the end of the tour, from Malta, Barbara and I flew to Moscow for two days of speaking and meetings with our clients and publishers. Moscow is a booming and exciting city, the most expensive city in the world today.
Fully 70% of the tens of billions of dollars of wealth in Russia flow through Moscow. Beautiful, luxury hotels are going up everywhere. The streets are full of Mercedes Benz, BMW and Rolls Royce.
My client was a company called Infinum, with 500,000 distributors across Russia selling an excellent cross section of products and services for both health and beauty and financial planning.
The company was founded by two Slovenian businessmen who moved to Moscow after the fall of the USSR and began building their business. Their distributors are positive, highly motivated, and eager to learn new methods and ideas to sell more of their products and services to more people.
We stayed at the Savoy Hotel, right around the corner from the Lubyanka, the old KGB building, with the torture dungeons downstairs. When people were arrested by the secret police, they disappeared into the Lubyanka for torture and interrogation, during which they always confessed to something, and then were sent onto Siberia into the Gulag Archipelago, the chain of forced labor prison camps that consumed the lives of millions of Russians when the communists were in power.
Around the corner from our hotel was the Bolshoi Ballet, one of the most prestigious ballet companies in the world. Down the street was the Kremlin and Red Square, with Lenin’s tomb available for viewing. On Red Square is Saint Basil’s Cathedral, reputedly one of the most beautiful churches ever built in human history.
It was built by Tsar Ivan the Terrible. When it was complete, Ivan asked the architects if there was a more beautiful cathedral anywhere in the world. When they assured him that there was none other, he had all their eyes put out so that they could never build another building to compare with it.
All the workmen had their hands cut off so that they could never aid in the construction of a church to rival this one. Unfortunately, this type of cruelty has been a part of Russian history for more than 1,000 years.
Russia has the potential to be a valuable and respected partner and participant in the world economy. Today, it appears to be sliding back into authoritarianism under Putin who has choked off the newspapers, radio and television stations and magazines that were critical of him in the past. Today, everyone belongs to the government party and anyone who speaks up or protests is quickly silenced and punished.
More about what is going on in Europe in the future. Meanwhile, I wish you a wonderful week.
Tags: Brian's Words of Wisdom
Posted by Brian Tracy on Nov 2, 2007
The way you think about money will determine how much of it you accumulate more than any other factor.
The way you think about money will determine how much of it you accumulate more than any other factor. Your attitude toward money affects your emotions and your motivations.
The Five Ways to Become a Millionaire
If you are really serious about becoming wealthy, you will want to know the five main ways that fortunes are made in this country. Number one, top of the list, top of the hit parade throughout the history of America, is self-owned businesses. It is entrepreneurship of all kinds, including in real estate. 74% of self-made millionaires in America, not only in this generation and in this century, but in the last century as well, come from self-owned businesses.
How Wealthy People Start Out
The great majority of wealthy people started businesses and built them from the ground up. In the 19th century, fortunes were built by people like Andrew Carnegie, Jacob van Astor, Thomas Edison, Commodore Vanderbilt, J. P. Morgan and others. In the 20th century, especially in the last few years, businesses and fortunes alike have been built by people like Bill Gates, Steve Case, Larry Ellison, Ross Perot and Sam Walton. Each of these people started with nothing and succeeded in building a business from scratch.
Become a Millionaire Where You Are
The second major source of self-made millionaires in America is senior executives. Ten percent of the self-made millionaires in America are men and women who have joined large corporations and worked with those corporations for many years. They rose to positions of seniority, were paid extremely well, given stock options, profit sharing and bonuses, and as a result of holding onto the money, they became millionaires.
Success Pays Big Rewards
Michael Eisner of Disney Corporation received a $126 million dollar bonus in a single year. Lee Iacoca of Chrysler Corporation was paid $26.7 million dollars as a bonus in a single year. It’s not hard to become a self-made millionaire when you are making that kind of money.
The Professional Road to Wealth
The third source of self-made millionaires in America is doctors, lawyers and other professionals. Men and women who become very, very good at what they do and rise to the top of their professions are eventually paid, very, very well. The top five percent in every field earn 10 and 20 times as much as the average person in that field.
Sell Your Way to the Top
The fourth major source of self-made millionaires in America are salespeople and sales consultants. Fully five percent of self-made millionaires are men and women who are the top salespeople in their fields. They never started their own businesses. They never went to college or university to get professional degrees. They just became very good salespeople for their products or services and were paid very good money. The secret was that they then invested the money conservatively and held on to it. 99% of self-made millionaires come from these four categories: self-owned businesses – 74%; senior executive positions – 10%: doctors, lawyers and other professionals – 10%; and salespeople and sales consultants – 5%.
Other Ways to Get Rich
The final one percent of self-made millionaires is made up of all the people in all other areas. This one percent consists of people who have made their money by inventions, in show business, in sports, through authorship of books and songs, lottery winners and inheritances. But these people make up only one percent of the total. The bottom line is that there are so many ways for you to become a self-made millionaire that it is almost impossible for you not to achieve this goal if you are really serious about it.
Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do to put this information into action as soon as possible:
First, decide what it is that you really enjoy doing and then throw your whole heart into doing it extremely well. There is a direct relationship between excellent performance and the kind of high income that leads to financial independence.
Second, be perfectly honest with yourself on an ongoing basis. Is what you are doing right now going to lead you to financial independence, or do you have to begin making some serious changes in your work and in your life? Whatever your answer, take action on it immediately.
Goals!
Tags: Business Success
Posted by Brian Tracy on Nov 1, 2007
If you’re looking at a multi-level marketing opportunity, here are eight key considerations.
Look for Quality Products
If you’re looking at a multi-level marketing opportunity, here are eight key considerations. Look for a multi-level business which has, number one, quality products with a good reputation. Never waste your time trying to sell anything that is not of excellent quality. Quality products is the starting point of your success in business. No successful business can ever be built on an average or mediocre product.
Check the Prices Against Competition
Number two, look for a company that has prices that compare favorable with the competition. Remember, nobody’s going to pay more for your product or service if they can get the same or equivalent somewhere else at a lower price. So check the price comparisons.
The Money Back Guarantee
The third thing you look for is a 100 percent unconditional money-back guarantee. In other words, the product must be so good and the company must stand behind it so strongly that they’re willing to give a 100 percent refund guarantee on anything that they sell. That’s a very good rule for starting and building any business.
Low Or No Inventory Required
The fourth key in finding a multi-level marketing opportunity is that there should be a small or zero inventory requirement. You should be able to get into a multi-level marketing business with very little money. Not more than a hundred dollars.
The fifth requirement is that the company provides prompt delivery and efficient internal bookkeeping. A multi-level marketing business that’s well-organized will be able to deliver your products within 24 or 48 hours for you to sell, or deliver to your customers. They’ll also take very good care of the books and give you accurate financial statements each month.
Strong Support Organization
A sixth thing to look for is a strong support organization. This is perhaps as important, if not more important, than anything else. Look for a support organization that will offer you training, that will give you seminars on product knowledge, that will give you motivation, and give you opportunities for personal and business development.
Many people who have started with multi-level marketing companies have gone on to be very successful in their own businesses because of the training they got from the multi-level company. If the company doesn’t have a training system, try to find a company that does.
A Company to Be Proud Of
The seventh factor that you require is honesty and integrity. Make sure that the parent company has an impeccable reputation in the marketplace. Remember it has to be a company that you can be proud of. You should never have to make excuses for the company you’re working for.
Consumable Products
Number eight is that products should be consumable, leading to reorders and repeat business. You should try to sell a product that people use up on a regular basis, so that if they’re happy with it, they’ll continue to reorder and reorder and reorder. And once you get a customer, sometimes you can have a customer for years.
Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do if you are considering a multi level marketing opportunity:
First, look for a product that you really like, use and enjoy yourself personally. You can only sell something to someone else if your heart is in it. And if your heart is in it you will enjoy using the product yourself.
Second, look for a product that has something new or special that makes it different and better than any other similar product in the market today. The number one reason that any product fails is because it is not superior to and different from the competition.
Simplify Your Life
Tags: Business Success
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