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Why Money Is Good

Posted by Brian Tracy on Oct 17, 2008

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.

Do You Feel That You Have Enough?
In psychology, money is what is called a "deficiency need." This means that it only motivates you when you feel deficient in it, when you don’t feel that you have enough. Above a certain level, when you feel that you have enough, it is no longer a motivator. Put another way, when you have enough money, you don’t think about it very much. But when you have too little, you think about it all the time.

Determine Your Attitude Toward Money
The effect money has on your emotional life depends on your attitude toward it. If you feel that you have too little, money can become an obsession for you. It can dominate your thinking, feelings and actions. Arguments over money are a major reason for marital breakdown. Problems with money are the primary reason for business failure, the ruination of friendships and psychosomatic illnesses of all kinds. It’s not uncommon for people to even kill themselves over money problems.

The 21 Absolutely Unbreakable Laws of Money will help you with your money matters.

Practice the Reality Principle
The Reality Principle applies especially to matters of money. This principle states that, "You must deal with life as it is, not as you wish it were, or could be." Most people live in a world of partial self-delusion, with regard to money. They wish, hope, and pray about their financial futures while at the same time, deep in their hearts, they know their dre ams will never mat erialize. In Lewis Carroll’s book, Alice in Won derland, one of the characters says quite happily that he is quite capable of believing several impossible things before breakfast each day. In the same way, many people believe quite impossible things about money and then they wonder why they are having so many financial problems.

Overcome Deep Seated Beliefs
One of the most common obstacles to achieving financial ind ependence is a deep-sea ted belief that somehow money is wrong and that people who have a lot of it are inherently evil. This belief is not based on any factual foundation. It goes back to early childhood conditioning when the growing child is often told this because of other people’s desire to rationalize away their own financial failures.

Money Is Good
The fact is that money is good. It takes money to buy homes, cars, clothes, food and most of the good things in life. Money has an energy of its own and it is largely attracted to people who treat it well. Money tends to flow toward those people who can use it in the most productive ways to produce valuable goods and services, and who can invest it to create emp loyment and opportunities that benefit others. At the same time, money flows away from those who use it poorly, or who spend it in non-productive ways.

Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do immediately to improve your attitude toward money:

First, be perfectly honest to yourself with regard to money and to the amount you want to acquire in life. Pretending that you don’t care about money when you really do will only make you unhappy.

Second, begin today to think about all the wonderful things that you could have in your life if you had more money. Then, begin to think of all the things that you could do to increase the amount you ear n and the amount you keep.

The 21 Absolutely Unbreakable Laws of Money

Partnering For Profit

Posted by Brian Tracy on Oct 16, 2008

The way you can stand out from your competitors is for you to position your self as a business part ner, always looking for ways to improve your customer’s business.

Help Your Customer’s Business
When you deal with a business person, you can be sure of one thing: that person thinks about his business day and night. It is very close to him. It is dear to his heart. And if you come in and talk to him and ask him questions about his business, looking for ways to help him run his business better, the customer is going to warm up to you and want to be associated with you and your company.

Differentiate Your self from Your Competitors
As a part ner, you should always be looking to help your customer to cut costs and improve results in his or her area of resp onsibility. You should look for ways to help your customer in non-business areas as well. You should position your self as someone who cares more about the success of your customer than anything else, even more than you care about selling your product or service. This approach to partnering in profit with your customer is a key way to differentiate your self and to keep your customer for the indefinite future.

Practice the Reciprocity Principle
There is a principle of reciprocity in business that is very powerful. It is simply this: If you do something nice for someone else, they will feel obligated to do something nice for you. You should be looking for opportunities to go the extra mile, to do more than you are p aid for, to put in more than you take out. By extending your self, you improve your positioning in the customer’s mind and increasingly differentiate your self and your company from your competitors who are after the same business. If you do this long enough and strong enough, you will eventually develop the partnership to the point where your competitors don’t have a chance against you.

Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do immediately to put these ideas into action.

First, think about how you can help your customer’s customer with your product or service. Take time to understand how your customer uses your product to do his business better.

Second, focus on increasing your customer’s profits and fin ancial results. Show your customer that doing business with you is both satisfying and profit able in the long run.

Customers for Life

What Nobody Tells You About Selling

Posted by Brian Tracy on Oct 15, 2008

Have you ever lost a sale because a prospect came up with an objection?

It may have happened at the start when they said they were too busy to talk to you or later when they told you your price was too high.

Has this ever happened to you? Has a prospect ever said:

"I have to think it over."

"We have a supplier for this."

"I have to get approval from my boss."

"We really don’t need this right now."

"I have concerns about your ability to do all this."

It’s like someone out there is playing a dirty trick on you. You know your company has great products, great services and compared to your competitors are the absolute best. And you know for a fact the prospect could really benefit from your product or service. But then what happens?

Prospects start doing battle with you by throwing multiple objections at you or by just chucking one simple deal killing objection out there.

You may even have come up with or been given answers to these common objections, but trying to come back with rebuttals is like chasing the horse after it’s out of the barn. It’s usually too late!

The Secret to Selling
When I first started in sales the same thing happened to me. I’d launch into my sales pitch only to find it derailed by the simplest objection. I’d leave, frustrated and wishing I knew what to do to ensure I never had to deal with those objections again so I could close more sales. Have you ever felt this way too?

Then I discovered the simple secret to selling that turned my career and my life around. I discovered how to eliminate objections before prospects ever brought them up so that when it was time for the close, there wasn’t anything in the way of finalizing the deal.

The key to getting in the door and closing more sales is having a system for eliminating objections so prospects never bring them up. It’s that simple!

The Art of Closing the Sale can be learned and perfected.

Selling Is Like Flying A Plane - Or Should Be
Plane crashes are rare. It’s far safer to fly than drive to the grocery store in your car. Why?

The airlines don’t just wait for something to break and then try to fix it when the plane is falling out of the sky, they identify and address maintenance issues before they become problems. It’s not a perfect system, but their overall record of getting people where they want to go is excellent.

For most businesses and sales people the preventive maintenance program is missing from the sales process. You’re stuck trying to respond to objections in mid-flight when in fact it’s far easier to get rid of them before you get anywhere near the closing process.

Keep Your Selling Process in Peak Health
Only a generation ago polio struck fear in the hearts of parents everywhere, and people died often of smallpox and measles, yet you hardly hear mention of these diseases today. Why is that?

People got tired of treating deadly diseases, and thanks to our scientists, came up with quick and easy ways for preventing them.

Selling is just like your health. If you want to keep it from getting infected with deal-killing objections you need to treat them before they ever infect your sales process.

The Art of Closing the Sale

Three Skills to Improve Conversation

Posted by Brian Tracy on Oct 13, 2008

One key to becoming a great conversationalist is to pause before replying. A short pause, of three to five seconds, is a very classy thing to do in a conversation.

When you pause, you accomplish three goals simultaneously.

The Benefits of Pausing

First, you avoid running the risk of interrupting if the other person is just catching his or her breath before continuing. Second, you show the other person that you are giving careful consideration to his or her words by not jumping in with your own comments at the earliest opportunity. The third benefit of pausing is that you will actually hear the other person better. His or her words will soak into a deeper level of your mind and you will understand what he or she is saying with greater clarity. By pausing, you mark yourself as a brilliant conversationalist.

Ask Questions
Another way to become a great conversationalist is to question for clarification. Never assume that you understand what the person is saying or trying to say. Instead, ask, "How do you mean, exactly?"

This is the most powerful question I’ve ever learned for controlling a conversation. It is almost impossible not to answer. When you ask, "How do you mean?" the other person cannot stop himself or herself from answering more extensively. You can then follow up with other open-ended questions and keep the conversation rolling along.

Paraphrase the Speaker’s Words
The third way to become a great conversationalist is to paraphrase the speaker’s words in your own words. After you’ve nodded and smiled, you can then say, "Let me see if I’ve got this right. What you’re saying is . . ."

Demonstrate Attentiveness
By paraphrasing the speaker’s words, you demonstrate in no uncertain terms that you are genuinely paying attention and making every effort to understand his or her thoughts or feelings. And the wonderful thing is, when you practice effective listening, other people will begin to find you fascinating. They will want to be around you. They will feel relaxed and happy in your presence.

Listening Builds Trust
The reason why listening is such a powerful tool in developing the art and skill of conversation is because listening builds trust. The more you listen to another person, the more he or she trusts you and believes in you.

Listening also builds self-esteem. When you listen attentively to another person, his or her self-esteem will naturally increase.

Being a great listener will enable you to Communicate With Power.

Listening Develops Discipline
Finally, listening builds self-discipline in the listener. Because your mind can process words at 500-600 words per minute, and we can only talk at about 150 words per minute, it takes a real effort to keep your attention focused on another person?s words. If you do not practice self-discipline in conversation, your mind will wander in a hundred different directions. The more you work at paying close attention to what the other person is saying, the more self-disciplined you will become. In other words, by learning to listen well, you actually develop your own character and your own personality.

Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do immediately to put these ideas into action.

First, make a habit of pausing before replying in any conversation or discussion. You will be amazed at how powerful this technique really is.

Second, continually ask, "How do you mean?" in response to anything that is not perfectly clear. This gives you even more time to listen well.

Communicate With Power

Earn Ten Times As Much

Posted by Brian Tracy on Oct 9, 2008

Here’s an exercise for you.

Imagine that it’s possible for you to earn ten times your current annual wage. If you’re earning $25,000, imagine for a moment that it’s possible for you to earn $250,000, a 1000% increase.

Don’t Sell Yourself Short
The first reaction of most people to that exercise is to smile briefly and then to begin thinking about why it isn’t possible. One man said to me, "If you knew how many years it’s taken for me to get to what I’m earning today you wouldn’t be suggesting that I could earn ten times as much."

Never A Good Excuse
Mark Twain once wrote that there are a thousand excuses for every failure but never a good reason. The tragedy of the average American is that whereas his or her main preoccupation seems to be money, or the lack thereof, the average person has the inherent potential to earn far more than he or she is doing currently.

Increase your income by Motivating Yourself to Peak Performance!

Is the manager earning $250,000 per year ten times as smart as the manager earning $25,000? 10 times as experienced? Does he or she work 10 times harder? Of course not. None of these are physically or mentally possible, but there are people in every business earning many times more than others with the same average age, experience and intelligence.

The Results Are In
In fact, a few years ago in New York, a thousand men and women were selected at random and tested for I.Q. Between the one having the highest I.Q. in this sample and the one with the lowest, there was a difference of only 2 1/2 times. But between the person earning the most, who by the way, was not the one with the highest I.Q. and the one earning the least, who was not the one with the lowest I.Q., there was a difference of 100X in income.

Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do to start increasing your earnings.

First, identify the highest earning, most successful people in your field and find out what it is that they are doing differently from others who aren’t doing as well. Copy them every day.

Second, set a goal to double your earnings over the next two or three years and then figure out how to accomplish that goal.

Motivating Yourself to Peak Performance

You Deserve to Be Happy

Posted by Brian Tracy on Oct 6, 2008

Achieving your own happiness is the best measure of how well you are living your life and enjoying your relationships.

You can learn how to be happier and more fulfilled in everything you do.

Everyone is Different
Happiness in life is like a smorgasbord. If 100 people went to a smorgasbord and each put food on their plate in the quantity and mix that each felt would be most pleasing to him, every plate would be different. Even a husband and wife would go up to the smorgasbord and come back with plates that looked completely different. Happiness is the same way. Each person requires a particular combination of those ingredients to feel the very best about himself or herself.

Listen to Your Heart
And your mix is changing continually. If you went to the same smorgasbord every day for a year, you probably would come back with a different plateful of food each time. Each day-sometimes each hour-only you can tell what it takes to make you happy. Therefore, the only way to judge whether a job, a relationship, an investment, or any decision, is right for you is to get in touch with your feelings and listen to your heart.

Be True to Yourself
You’re true to yourself only when you follow your inner light, when you listen to what Ralph Waldo Emerson called the "still, small voice within." You’re being the very best person you can be only when you have the courage and the fortitude to allow your definition of happiness, whatever it may be, to be the guiding light of every part of your life.

There Are No Limits
A very important point on the subject of happiness is whether or not you feel that you "deserve" to be happy.

Accept the notion that you deserve all the happiness you can honestly attain through the application of your talents and abilities. The more you like and respect yourself, the more deserving you will feel of the good things in life. And the more deserving you feel, the more likely you will attain and hold on to the happiness you are working toward.

One of the keys to happiness is Thinking Big.

Make Happiness Your Key Measure
You should make happiness the organizing principle of your life. Compare every possible action and decision you make against your standard of happiness to see whether that action would make you happier or unhappier. Soon, you will discover that almost all of the problems in your life come from choices that you have made - or are currently making - that do not contribute to your happiness.

Pay the Price
Of course, there are countless times when you will have to do little things that don’t make you happy along the way toward those larger things that make you very happy indeed. We call this paying the price of success in advance. You must pay your dues. Sometimes these interim steps don’t make you happy directly, but the happiness you achieve from attaining your goal will be so great that it totally overwhelms the temporary inconveniences and dissatisfactions you have to endure in order to get there.

Action Exercises
Here are three steps you can take immediately to put these ideas into action.

First, accept that you deserve all the joy and happiness you can possibly achieve through your own efforts.

Second, make your own happiness the chief organizing principle of your life and judge everything against that standard.

Third, be willing to work hard and pay the price for the satisfaction and rewards you desire. Always go the extra mile and your success will be assured.

Thinking Big

The Law of Accumulation

Posted by Brian Tracy on Oct 6, 2008

The Law of Accumulation: how your financial fortune accumulates slowly over time and then becomes enormous, like a snowball.

The Law of Accumulation: Every great financial achievement is an accumulation of hundreds of small efforts and sacrifices that no one ever sees or appreciates.

Develop Discipline
The achievement of financial independence will require a tremendous number of small efforts on your part. To begin the process of accumulation, you must be disciplined and persistent. You must keep at it for a long, long time. Initially, you will see very little change or difference but gradually, your efforts will begin to bear fruit. You will begin to pull ahead of your peers. Your finances will improve and your debts will disappear. Your bank account will grow and your whole life will improve.

Build Up Momentum
The first corollary of the Law of Accumulation says: "As your savings accumulate, you develop a momentum that moves you more rapidly toward your financial goals."

It is hard to get started on a program of financial accumulation, but once you do get started, you find it easier and easier to keep at it. The "momentum principle" is one of the great success secrets. This principle says that it takes tremendous energy to overcome the initial inertia and resistance to financial accumulation and get started, but once started, it takes much less energy to keep moving.

The Universal Laws of Success and Achievement will help you accumulate all that you desire!

Start Slow, Finish Fast
The second corollary of the Law of Accumulation says, "By the yard it’s hard, but inch by inch, anything’s a cinch."

When you begin thinking about saving 10 or 20 percent of your earnings, you will immediately think of all kinds of reasons that it is not possible. You might be up to your neck in debt. You might be spending every single penny that you earn today just to keep afloat.

If you do find yourself in this situation, instead of saving 10 percent, begin saving just 1 percent of your earnings in a special account, which you refuse to touch.

Increase As You Go Along
This small amount will begin to add up at a rate that will surprise you. As you become comfortable with saving 1 percent, increase your savings rate to 2 percent, then 3 percent, then 4 percent and 5 percent and so on. Within a year, you will find yourself getting out of debt and saving 10 percent, 15 percent and even 20 percent of your earnings without it really affecting your lifestyle.

Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do to apply this law immediately:

First, decide upon your long-term financial goals and then resolve to work toward them one step at a time. The first steps are the hardest and you must discipline yourself to avoid backsliding into old habits.

Second, practice the law of accumulation in other parts of your life as well. Resolve to master a subject one page at a time. Lose extra pounds one ounce at a time. Learn a language one lesson at a time. The cumulative effect can be enormous.

The Universal Laws of Success and Achievement

Four Strategies to Find A New Business

Posted by Brian Tracy on Oct 2, 2008

There are four strategies you can use to find a new product or service to start or build your own business.

Search Your Own Field
The first strategy is to find a new product or service in your own field or skills. You may have a million dollar idea in your own mind. Many people have had the experience of having an idea for a product or service nag at them over and over again, and you keep pushing it away or ignoring it.

They say the average person has four ideas each year driving to and from work, any one of which would make them a millionaire if they would just follow it up. So look into your own field or skills. Look into your own mind. Look into your own ideas.

Keep Your Eyes Open
The second strategy is to find a new product or service while you travel. Keep your eyes open for opportunities.

A very good friend of mine who is now a multi-millionaire, started his fortune by traveling east and seeing a unique type of orange drink called Orange Julius and then getting the exclusive rights to sell it in a large Western city. From there, he expanded into other restaurants, into real estate, and into apartments. He developed a high positive cash flow from his Orange Julius business that made him a millionaire.

Sometimes just finding a new product or service that is doing well somewhere else that hasn’t come to your market area can make you wealthy.

Get the Rights to Sell It
Remember your objective, when you find a new product or service, is to acquire the rights to sell the product or service exclusively in your market area. Sometimes these rights are available for the asking.

A gentleman I know named Peter Thomas got the rights for Century 21 to Canada simply by going to the offices and asking for them when Century 21 was a young company. From that, he turned Century 21 into one of the most successful real estate franchises in Canada. He is now worth millions of dollars, having taken the cash flow from Century 21 and channeled it into other real estate investments.

Create a great referral system with Power Networking.

Be Sure it is Already Successful
Sometimes just asking for the right to sell it in your market area is all you have to do. Here’s the key, though. Before you bring a new product or service back to your market area, be absolutely sure that it sells well somewhere else. Many people advertise products outside their market area because they are not selling inside their market area, so make very sure that the product is selling well already in other markets.

Look For Business Opportunities
Strategy number three is to keep your eyes and ears open and alert to new business opportunities occurring around you. Develop a money-making attitude. A friend of mine became very successful by building commercial property across the street from a new shopping center that was being developed. The traffic from the shopping center made that commercial space extremely valuable. He opened two businesses in it, and started his fortune. So be alert to what is going on around you.

Be Sure You Believe In Your Product
And strategy number four is this. Remember you will only be successful marketing and selling something that you believe in, use yourself and would recommend to your best friend.

Many times, I see people who make the critical mistake of trying to sell a product or service that they themselves would neither use nor afford, nor would they recommend to someone else, but they think that other people will buy it even though they wouldn’t. So remember you must really, really believe it the product. You must be excited about the product. You must absolutely believe that this product can enhance the life or work of someone else and then be eager to tell them about it.

Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do to put these business building strategies to work in your own life:

First, develop a new business mentality. Continually look around you for new products and services that people need, want and are willing to pay for.

Second, develop a money making attitude. Look around you for opportunities to sell products or services that are not currently being offered, at either higher prices or in greater quantities. The possibilities are everywhere.

Power Networking