Here are strategies that saw Exxon Mobil becoming one of the world’s largest companies, which you can also adopt in your business.

Learning Your Business Before Starting

Having a thorough knowledge of your business before investing time and money into it is pivotal to the success of the business. It gives you the knowledge and the insight you require to deal favorably with the stakeholders in the industry and to recognize opportunities when they come.

There are different ways by which you can learn the business of your interest, and these include, apprenticeship and being on a paid job. These two ways are the most effective in assuring success.

Rockefeller’s success in his commodity trading business can largely been attributed to his four year job with Hewitt Tuttle where he learnt all he could about succeeding in large scale trading in the US.

Saving To Invest

As your business begins to make profit, you must continually save a good part of it to be able to explore juicy business opportunities that may come up later. Great business opportunities don’t come everyday, if you are not prepared for them by having enough funds to invest when they appear, you will lose out.

You could also use your savings to expand your business into a bigger enterprise.

Rockefeller and his partner, Clark were able to tap into the highly lucrative oil industry because they had saved quit some money from their commodity trading business.

Recognizing Good Business Opportunities

An important success factor in business is to be able to recognize a good business opportunity when you see one and go for it. Assessing a business idea to be sure it will be profitable involves checking if it carters for the need of a huge population of people, and if the product it offers is needed repeatedly and frequently.

The oil industry possessed huge profit potential and Rockefeller quickly recognized it even at the early stage of the industry. And this shaped his vision for his company taking a leading role in the industry, which he eventually achieved.

Forming Partnership For Success

Working and pulling resources together with other people in partnership can enable achieve your goal faster and easier. Getting into partnership is a great way to leverage on other people’s talent, skill, energy, and money, however, be sure you are going into partnership with people you trust, and with the terms of the partnership known and agreed on by the partners and legally documented.

From partnering with Clark, Andrews, and Flagler, Rockefeller’s rise in business was largely due to his going into partnership with other people possessing the talent or funding he needed to access bigger businesses.

Committing To Improving Your Operation

Business growth and success is achieved when you commit to investing in developing and improving your operational facilities.

In 1869, Rockefeller Andrews invested $60, 000 to improving and expanding its plant’s capacity. This was huge money, but it was well worth it, as the company could increase its production to 60 carloads a day, thereby making more income and attracting more investments.

Seeking To Vertically Integrate Your Business

As your business grows, plan to vertically integrate it by investing in others businesses that support your core business. This will enable you to both gain total control of your production as well as reduce its cost. And in addition you will also generate revenue from them.

By 1870, Standard Oil Company had vertically integrated, owning barrel-making plant, dock facilities, a fleet of railroad tank cars, warehouse in New York, and forest land for providing lumber used in producing barrel staves – all these other businesses were supporting businesses to Standard Oil Company’s operation.

Focusing On Your Core Business

A lot of times business owners fall into the temptation of abandoning their major business to try to make quick and seemingly easy money from other businesses. Unfortunately, they usually end up failing at both.

Without the knowledge and experience to succeed, it is very unwise to leave your core business where you have built enormous expertise to getting into a turf you are not familiar with. Don’t abandon your core business because it is having problem at the moment. Continue to work on it; soon you will discover the solution to the challenge.

Your best bet to achieving success in business is to remain focused on the business you have adequate knowledge, experience, and expertise in.

Exxon’s venturing into other businesses than oil in the 1970s in response to OPEC’s refusal to sell crude to the United States was a huge failure - $7 billion down the drain.

Cutting Cost Can Remarkably Increase Your Profit

A lot of businesses don’t make much profit because they run at high cost. By imbibing cost cutting measures in your operation, you will be able to save lots of money and record appreciable profit at the end of the year.

Cost cutting was Exxon Corporation’s top strategy for remaining profitable in the face of falling oil prices in the 1980s and 1990s. By 1996, the company’s operating cost had been reduced by $1.3 billion yearly, allowing it to make profit of $7.51 billion that year.

Cost cutting is so crucial to Exxon that it was cited as the basis of its merging with Mobil in 1999.

Read Exxon Mobil business success story here

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Today, Exxon Mobil is the second largest and profitable company in the world, second to Royal Dutch Shell (according to Fortune Global 500 – Fortune magazine’s annual ranking of the world’s largest corporations 2009).

At the close of 2008, the company raked in revenue of $443 billion of which $45 billion was pure profit with shareholders smiling to the bank as they received $40 billion of it. And amazingly, this feat was achieved in spite of the fall in oil price from over $146 a barrel to about $45.

With the colossal structure of Exxon Mobil in the world’s business sphere, matched with its enviable global operational effectiveness and efficiency, not many people would believe this was only a small regional company several decades ago whose formation and development are traceable primarily to one man, John D. Rockefeller.

Indeed, the history of Exxon Mobil is a proof that with perseverance and dedication in building a business, and taking hold of opportunities as they emerge, one can build any business to a monumental level.

This was how John Rockefeller created and developed his business into the multi billion dollars Exxon Mobil brand, even though he wasn’t born into wealth.

Born into an average family in the Finger Lakes area in New York in 1839, John D. Rockefeller completed his schooling in Cleveland, Ohio where his family later relocated to. While growing up he showed great interest in business and later attended business school for a few months to refine his innate business skill.

After his schooling Rockefeller began working for Hewitt Tuttle as bookkeeper in 1855. On the job, young Rockefeller learnt all he could on how large-scale trading in the United States worked. Then four years later at the age of 19, Rockefeller left Hewitt Tuttle to begin his own business in partnership with Maurice Clark.

The partners’ business known as Clark Rockefeller was into basic commodity trading, purchasing and reselling of grain, meat, farm implements, salt, and other basic commodities. With Rockefeller’s exceptional business acumen, the business grew, and by 1863 the partners had made and saved lots of money, and were searching for new business opportunities to explore.

The most attractive business idea to Rockefeller and his partner was oil refining. A few years before then America had discovered and drilled its first oil at Titusville, western Pennsylvania, and by 1863 Cleveland had become the center for refining and shipping activities, resulting from the emergence of several newly opened oilfields.

Refining oil to produce kerosene was particularly a great business idea to Rockefeller. The product, kerosene, which was needed daily in every household, was to revolutionize the way people illuminated their homes, and Rockefeller could envision its use, instead of animal fat as the new source of energy in home lighting across the country. And he was determined to capture the lion share of the huge market.

To ensure success in the oil industry, the partners joined up with an oil specialist named Samuel Andrews to form Andrews, Clark Company in 1863. Although, Rockefeller’s name wasn’t part of the name of the new business, he was however, actually the brain and engine of the company.

By 1865 Rockefeller had grown the business to being the largest oil refiner in Cleveland, and bought out his Clark family partners for $72,000. The new company was then known as Rockefeller Andrews.

Four years later, Rockefeller Andrews invested $60,000 to improve and expand its plant’s capacity, and was producing 60 carloads of products a day.

Realizing the need to get larger and enjoy special rebates and benefits from crude suppliers, railroads, as well as being able to lead the industry and negotiate with industry stakeholders, Rockefeller partnered with Henry Flagler to incorporate their business and raise the capital they needed to enlarge the company.

The new company, Standard Oil Company was incorporated January 10, 1870 with John D. Rockefeller and his brother William, Flagler, and Andrews holding the majority of its stock worth $1 million. With its huge size, resources and capacity, Standard Oil Company became a leading refiner in the entire country.

It refined 10 percent of the nation’s oil. It also owned a barrel-making plant, dock facilities, a fleet of railroad tank cars, warehouses in New York, and forest land for providing lumber used to produce barrel staves. With this structure, the company was already vertically integrated at a time when such term wasn’t known.

However, the industry was almost an all comers affair with many small independent refiners holding sway. This was leading to excess production and fall in price, and Rockefeller and Flagler decided on a plan to unify all oil refiners in the United States into a single company.

Rockefeller offered Standard Oil stock or cash to a number of refiners in Cleveland and New York in exchange for their plants. And by the end of 1872, all 34 refiners in Cleveland agreed to the offer. (It is said that the offer was so good that the smaller refiners couldn’t resist, and so voluntarily sold.)

By 1873 Standard Oil was employing 1,600 workers and refining 10,000 barrels of oil per day more than what any other region of the country could produce, and was making $500,000 yearly. With this enormous success in Cleveland, Rockefeller proceeded to duplicating his strategies in other regions of the country.

By the close of 1874 the country’s largest three refiners located in New York, Philadelphia, and Pittsburgh had been absorbed. Rockefeller also started buying several new pipelines that were being laid across the country, as he also moved into the field of distribution.

And four years later Standard Oil controlled over 90 percent of the country’s annual refining capacity, and also a huge proportion of America’s pipelines and oil tankers, making Rockefeller, who was just 39 one of the five richest men in the US.

At this time, allegations from competitors of Standard Oil becoming a monopoly was gathering, and to overcome state laws restricting the activities of a corporation to its home state, Rockefeller and his associates reorganized their dominions and created a Trust in 1882 to control all Standard Oil’s 30 subsidiaries in the different regions of the country. This was the first Trust in US business history.

The Trust controlled 80 percent of the refineries and 90 percent of the oil pipelines in the US, making the organization the largest business in the world, earning $11.2 million the first year, of which $7 million was reinvested to boost expansion.

The Trust was however dissolved in 1890 following the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890. But Standard’s directors immediately took advantage of the newly liberalized state laws in New Jersey and changed Standard Oil of New Jersey to Standard Oil Company (New Jersey).

Standard Oil Company (New Jersey), also simply referred to as Jersey consisted of only 20 large companies, and was later to become the sole holding company for the entire Standard interests.

In 1896, Rockefeller retired from active participation in the day-to-day running of Standard Oil. He was 56 and had successfully built a business empire that controlled the American Oil industry, and a personal wealth that was valued at $900 million in 1913.

The monopoly allegation was still trailing Standard Oil (New Jersey) into the twentieth century. In 1911, after several years of litigation, Standard Oil (New Jersey) was forced to break up and shear 33 of its major subsidiaries by a US Supreme Court decision, which upheld a lower court’s verdict convicting Standard Oil for monopoly.

Taking $285 million worth of assets and smaller companies along with it from the $600 million worth of the whole company, Standard Oil (New Jersey) was set to chart an independent course in the global arena. The company’s direction was focused on foreign countries for the source of its crude. And in the decades that followed, a number of acquisitions, alliances, and investments were made that positioned the company as not only a refiner, but also a world leading crude oil producer.

The company, which became known as Exxon in 1972 prospered immensely in the 1970s when OPEC cut off oil supplies to the United States in 1973 in response to US sponsorship of Israel. By selling its inventoried oil, Exxon generated more than $100 billion by 1980.

Although Exxon made huge profit from the situation, its business was however threatened as it appeared OPEC was so powerful to be able to starve anyone of crude at will. To remain profitable in the face of crude scarcity, Exxon tried diversifying into other businesses, such as office equipment, coal (with the purchase of Reliance Electric Company), and shale oil. These investments, which cost Exxon about $7 billion, were largely unsuccessful.

However, with the weakening power of OPEC as evident in the fall of oil price from 1981 and almost throughout the decade, Exxon decided to once again focus solely on the oil industry which it knew so well, and divest from other businesses it went into earlier.

And to maintain profitability this time around with the dwindling price, which brought down its sales, Exxon took certain decisions, though very hard. It cut down on its workforce and assets.

As oil prices fell deeper through the years, Exxon laid off 5, 000 employees between 1990 and 1992, and cut spending on exploration from $1.7 billion in 1985 to $900 million in 1992. The company also squeezed some savings from reengineering production, transportation, and marketing processes.

By 1996 Exxon had reduced its operating costs by $1.3 billion annually. This savings enabled Exxon to increase its profit, netting $7.51 billion in 1996 and $8.46 billion the following year, and putting it on the number one position on the Fortune 500 list of the world’s largest companies.

Propelled by the need to cut operational costs and increase profit in their industry, both Exxon and Mobil in 1998 agreed to merge, with Exxon buying Mobil for about $75 billion. The merger was projected to save the emerging company $2.8 billion per year.

The acquisition, an $83 billion stock transaction was finalized in November 1999, making Mobil Corporation a wholly owned Exxon subsidiary. The new company, known as Exxon Mobil Corporation, with combined revenue of $168.8 billion was then the world’s largest oil company.

Read Exxon Mobil business strategies here.
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Happy New Year! And welcome to 2010.

I believe you will be more successful in your finances, health, career, relationship, and other areas of your life where you need success this year. I’m confident about this even though I don’t know you personally because for you to be reading my blog today, it means you have been searching for how you can achieve your goals for a successful life.

It means you are ready to make the necessary changes to your life that would enable you achieve the life you desire.

And I know that if you apply what I will be sharing with you shortly, you will definitely be able to achieve a great deal of your goals this year, if not all, than you have previously been able.

At this time of a new year it is important you take a moment out and take a critical look at the passing year. In fact, you should get the piece of paper where you wrote out your goals – what you were going to achieve in 2009.

Go through the list and mark the items you achieved partially or completely. From this exercise you will see how much of your goals you were able to achieve in the year, and what you couldn’t achieve.

Also, get the second piece of paper where you detailed the specific steps you would be taking to achieve the goals. Again, mark the ones you actually took.

Taking a look at the two pieces of paper, it will be clear to you why you couldn’t achieve some goals, and why you were able to accomplish others. From the actions you took, and the result you got, you would have discovered what works, which you can build on. You would also have discovered what doesn’t work, which you will avoid in the next plan.

This review of your last goals performance is very helpful as it provides you valuable information to help you achieve bigger success in the coming year.

If you didn’t write down your goals for 2009, or haven’t been writing down your goals for the year, as well as the actionable steps to realizing them, I encourage you to begin with this year’s.

For many years now after I discovered the power of writing down one’s goals, including the strategies or ways to achieving them, I have always made it a point of duty to do it at the beginning of each year, and I can assure you I have been able to achieve a lot more of my goals each year.

It works almost like magic, and the reason is simply that when you put your goals in writing, you are unconsciously committing yourself to achieving them. And by reading this paper frequently, like weekly, the commitment becomes stronger, causing you to pull in whatever is needed to realizing it. You will never get such commitment and focus to making your goals a reality if you only have them in your mind and not on a paper.

As a matter of fact, the process of writing down the actionable or practicable steps you will be taking involves brainstorming. This helps you to generate quality ideas, which you can pursue to realize the goal.

I really recommend you start doing this if you haven’t.

Get two clean sheets of paper. On one, write down your goals – a list of all you want to achieve in the year – financial, health, relationship, career, etc. On the other paper, write down what you will be doing to achieve each of the goals on the first paper.

For instance, if one of your goals on Paper A is to make monthly income of $10,000, then you should brainstorm and write on Paper B what you need to do to make it possible for you to earn $10,000 in a month. It could be to change your job, do more jobs, start a business, expand your business or add new businesses.

If you act on what you have on Paper B, you will be on your way to achieving the goals you have set. You may not achieve all of them, but you will surely achieve a good degree of them. And you can work on the areas you didn’t achieve much success in your next year’s plan.

I didn’t fully achieve all my goals for last year, but looking at my two Papers, I don’t need anyone to tell me why it is so. I can see for myself that I had too many actionable steps, and I tried to implement all.

But I couldn’t fully implement any of them to completely realize their benefits.

So this year, I’m reducing my activities for reaching my goals, and I’m focusing only on those activities that have proven to work. I will commit more time, energy, financial and material resources to those activities.

Since I have seen some level of success from those activities last year, even though I didn’t give them enough attention, I’m sure I will get much more result by channeling more of my resources to them. It is easier and surer to achieve goals this way.

When you have found what works, then things become easier. The wisest thing you then have to do is to scale it by investing more into it.

I recommend you do the same this year. Identify the actionable steps that worked to some measure in reaching your goals last year, and work on them solely this year -commit more of your time and money to them.

If a certain business brought you $1,000 a month last year, and your goal this year is to make $10,000 a month, it will be more profitable to work on that business, and expand it to be able to make $10,000 monthly, instead of adding a different business. By this you will be stretching your business to its full potential.

You may need to take some courses or learn from experts so as to gain the knowledge and expertise you need to take your business to a higher level. The investment is well worth it.

Again, I wish you a wonderful New Year, and pray you achieve your all your goals!

Please I will like to hear from you. Share with other readers about your goals this year, and how much of your last year’s goals you were able to achieve.

Do You Desire Success in Life?

Would you like a FREE program from Brian Tracy that teaches you how to achieve it?

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It is now about 170 years when a certain businessman called Reckitt, refusing to give up on his chosen career after experiencing two failed businesses, founded what was to become one of the biggest companies in the world – Reckitt & Colman

This is a story that will inspire you to making success of your business; however the difficulties you may be facing right now, or even if you have tried and failed at running businesses before. The circumstances between the time Reckitt & Colman was founded and now may be different, but the principles of success which were applied are still the same.

Read on and enjoy it.

Born in 1792, Isaac Reckitt had always desired to own a business. Not deterred by the failure of his two previous businesses in which he lost all his capital, Reckitt moved on to borrow money from his relations, and with it purchased a starch factory in 1840.

His first business card simply read “Isaac Reckitt Starch Manufacturer – late Middleton” for he had purchased the business from Charles Middleton. The factory was situated in Dansom Lane, which today remains the location for the company’s U.K. pharmaceuticals factory as well as its main U.K. office.

Whilst Isaac started the business, there were no developments until his four sons became old enough to help. Indeed, it was Isaac’s son Frederick who became the company’s first chemist and his other son, George, its first salesman.

From this point on, the business was known as Reckitt & Sons. For the first nine years in the company’s history, the only product sold was starch. But by 1854 Reckitt & Sons sold 22 products which competed in four product categories: starch, laundry blue, metal polish and washing paste.

During this time, the company began to expand its sales throughout England and to further diversify its product line into related areas. But despite this, it took seven years for the company to make a profit. Unfortunately, in 1862, only four years after he had paid off all his original loans, Isaac Reckitt died at the age of 70.

Reckitt & Sons also grew through the development of new markets. Its first export took place in 1864 when it sent laundry blue to Montreal, Canada. The Canadian market was developed through agents until finally a branch was opened in Vancouver and in 1924 a factory was acquired in Montreal.

Competing in these new markets was fierce and it was because of this that Reckitt & Sons decided to join forces with a company based in Norwich, England, by the name of J&J Colman.

Jeremiah Colman, Like Isaac Reckitt, was also from a family of millers. Jeremiah began milling mustard and flour in 1814. His diversification into starch and laundry blue took him into direct competition with Reckitt both at home and abroad. However, in 1913, the two decided to join the forces of their South American businesses.

The partnership worked well and by 1921 they were working together in all their export markets until eventually, in 1938, they formed Reckitt & Colman Ltd.

Colman’s expertise in the food industry was further enhanced by its purchase in 1903 of Keen, Robinson & Co., manufacturers of food and soft drinks. The acquisition of the RT French Company based in New York, USA, which made food, mustard and spices was appropriate and it strengthened the company’s presence in North America.

Keen’s Mustard was one of the original brands marketed in Canada.

The company entered the pharmaceutical business in 1929 when they began the development of a liquid antiseptic that would not harm human skin. The leading brand in the market at the time was Lysol, which was an excellent household disinfectant, but was not designed to be used on the skin.

In 1932, Dettol antiseptic and disinfectant was launched and it became the company’s biggest product marketed in Canada. Little did they know that in just over 60 years, the company would also come to own the Lysol brand.

Reckitt & Colman continued to grow both through internal development of new products and the continuous improvement of existing lines. In order to fulfill its vision, it also pursued a strategy of acquisition to both strengthen its portfolio and its presence around the world.

It purchased the Airwick Company in 1986 and with it the famous “Magic Mushroom” and “Stick-up” products, Boyle-Midway in 1990, bringing with it many leading household brands.

It also bought Lehn & Fink in 1995, which added Lysol and Prosolve to the fold.

In 1999, Reckitt & Colman Plc and Benckiser N.V. merged to become Reckitt Benckiser Plc and became the world No. 1 in household cleaning.

To solidify its global leadership position, the new company acquired Tiga Roda – an Indonesia pest control business in 2000, and again took over Oxy, a leading household business in Korea and disposed of firelighter business and Dr. Becher, both being non-core businesses, in 2001; and acquired outstanding minority interest in India and Sri Lanka the following year.

Reckitt & Colman, now Reckitt Benckiser, has continued to build on its solid foundations by concentrating on what it does best – marketing a wide range of quality, strongly branded consumer products. With its leading brands and its passion to be the best, it has well prepared itself to tackle the challenges of the 21st century.

Today, Reckitt Benckiser is undoubtedly a world leader in the manufacture and marketing of household, toiletry, food and pharmaceutical products.

Looking back to its small beginning with only 25 employees, the company now employs over 25,000 people worldwide. Its brands have become internationally renowned and are sold in over 40 countries, many of them leaders in their categories.

Discover Reckitt & Colman’s business success strategies here.

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Here are the strategies by which the management of Toyota Motor Corporation successfully built their business from start-up to becoming one of the biggest companies in the world, in spite of the huge competition and difficult economic environment the company operated.

Difficult Times Bring Out the Best in You

In any situation that your business might face, however tough it might seem, there always lie an opportunity for you to actually unleash your creativity and find the needed solution for your business.

As long as you don’t yield to the challenge, your mind would begin to work on possible solutions to them. And before long, you would come up with solid ideas that would crush the challenge to dust.

The fact that Japan was not much naturally endowed with resources did not discourage Toyota; rather, it was seen as a boost to create engines and vehicles that could efficiently use fuel, a position that became one of its strongest competitive advantages worldwide.

Research and Development – The Engine Room to Success

Whatever business you are in, to remain effectively in competition or to move to the top of your industry, you need to constantly develop products or services that consumers will gladly accept. That means you will need to have it as part of your operational activities to study your market and product offering constantly.

It is more rewarding if you have a unit or department in your organization to be responsible for research and development.

Toyota’s “engine room” for success has always been its belief in the importance of research and continual product development. This is reflected in it setting up research and development centers only four years after the company was formed.

Avoid Head-on Competition with Market Leaders

This is a warning you must register firmly in your heart if you do not wish to publish your business’ obituary sooner than it began. Even if you are coming with a higher quality product, the market leaders have already captured the hearts of consumers of that product type.

No matter the size of your advertising and promotional budget, you will only get a crumb, which will not be enough to sustain your business. Worse still, they may just decide to drive you completely out of business – they have the means and they know exactly what to do!

The wise thing to do when coming into a new market, which Toyota did, was to find a niche, a virgin land to plough.

Toyota skillfully avoided confronting the established American manufacturers by taking on the production of small cars.

Give Priority to Your Marketing

Being able to roll out top quality products without a complementary marketing effort will not give you the desired success. It is when you are able to make sales that money can flow in, and of course you need money to keep your operation going.

Therefore, adequate attention should be given to marketing your products. You must have a full-fledged sales/marketing department to be solely responsible for ensuring sales targets are met.

One of the smartest decisions Toyota made when faced with mounting debt from its inability to make enough sales was to incorporate Toyota Motor Sales Company Ltd to perform the function of marketing Toyota’s automotive products.

Do What Is Needed To Save Your Business

Especially at times of severe difficulty, entrepreneurs or business owners must have the courage to take tough decisions that might not be popular, but are the only way out of saving the company from collapsing. However, the reason(s) for such decisions should be communicated to the stakeholders, including employees.

To prevent the imminent liquidation of Toyota in 1950, Toyota’s management had to take the unsavory decision of laying off two thousand employees while the company’s President, Toyoda himself and all his executive staff resigned.

Get Fresh Insight

Remaining abreast with industry trend is surely a smart thing to do to be top in your industry. The importance of this is especially obvious in the present era of rapid technological innovations that can easily leave you behind to continue grapping with inefficient and less effective operational processes, while your competitors are achieving huge results.

Ways by which you can keep in touch with your industry include reading industry journals, going on excursions, and researching the Internet.

The visit of two of Toyota’s executives to Ford Motor Company’s factory, without mincing words, birthed great ideas that sky-rocketed the company’s fortune.

One of them, the “Suggestion System” that encouraged every employee to give their suggestions for the company’s improvement, helped the company to find solutions to its problems.

Another was the realization by Toyota of the need to continually invest in only the best modern technology for their operation.

Reducing Cost of Production and Increasing Product Quality

All over the world, people love to buy things of high quality at the cheapest possible price. This is basic human nature that is not faulted by race, creed, or even financial status of individuals. I haven’t seen or heard a rich man asking for the price of an item he wants to buy to be increased before he buys it, or have you? If you have, please let me know.

In the light of this, you will be on your way to great success if you strive to give your customers this desire.

Toyota’s relentless efforts at reducing its cost of production while stepping up its products’ quality did not only endeared it to its local customers, it also made it to be devastatingly competitive in foreign market.

Read Toyota Motor Corporation’s success story here: From Brink of Bankruptcy to World’s No.2 Auto Maker

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The story of Toyota Motor Corporation is a complete lesson to business owners on how to grow their business, take it out of difficult times, and establish it as a global company. It is a story of focus, resilience, and passion to succeed against all odds.

It will inspire, motivate, and fill you with ideas to take your business to a higher level. Enjoy it

In 1933, a Japanese man by name Kiichiro Toyota traveled to the United States, where he visited a number of automobile production plants. Upon his return to Japan, the young man established an automobile division within his father’s loom factory, and in May 1935 produced his first prototype vehicle.

General Motors and Ford already were operating assembly plants in Japan, but U.S. preeminence in the worldwide automotive industry did not deter Toyota.

Since Japan had very few natural resources, the company was naturally drawn to developing engines and vehicles that were highly fuel efficient. In 1939, the company established a research center to begin work on battery powered vehicles.

This was followed in 1940 by the establishment of the Toyota Science Research Center (the nucleus of the Toyota Central Research and Development Laboratories, Inc.) and the Toyota Works (later Aichi Steel Works, Ltd). The next year, Toyota Machine Works, Ltd was founded for the production of both machine tools and auto parts.

When World War II ended in August 1945, most of Japan’s industrial facilities had been wrecked, and the Toyoda (or Toyota as it became known after the war) production plats had suffered extensively. The company had 3,000 employees but no working facilities, and the economic situation in Japan was really bad.

But the Japanese tradition of dedication and perseverance proved to be Toyota’s most powerful tool in the difficult task of reconstruction.

Just as the Japanese motor industry as a whole was beginning to recover, there were fears that American and European auto manufacturers would take control of the Japanese market with their economic and technically superior automobiles.

Japan’s auto marker knew that they no longer count on government protection in the form of high import duties or other barriers as they had before the war.

Since American manufacturers were concentrating their efforts on medium-sized and larger cars, Toyota’s executives thought that by focusing on small cars, the company could avoid head-on market confrontation.

Kiichiro Toyota likened the postwar situation in Japan to that in England. In his word, “The British motorcar industry also faces many difficulties, but its fate will be largely determined by how strongly American automakers feel they should concentrate on small cars.”

Therefore, Toyota’s focus was placed on building small cars, and by January 1947, the company’s engineers completed their first prototype for a small car: its chassis was of the backbone type (never used before in Japan), its front suspension relied primarily on coil springs, and its maximum speed was 54 miles per hour. After two years of difficulties, the company seemed headed for success.

But this was not to be accomplished as early as expected. Two years later, in 1949, Toyota suffered its first and only serious conflict between labor and management.

Nearly four years had passed since the end of the war, but Japan’s economy was still in bad shape: goods and materials of all kinds were in short supply, inflation was rampant, and people in the cities were forced to trade their clothing and home furnishing for rice or potatoes to survive.

Japanese auto manufacturers found themselves unable to raise the funds needed to support their recovery efforts, for the new governmental policy had discontinued all financing from city banks and the Reconstruction Finance Corporation. Under these conditions the company’s financial situation deteriorated.

Production dropped to 992 vehicles in March 1949, to 619 in April, and to 304 in May. Crucial restructuring efforts included a proposal to incorporate Toyota’s sales division as a separate company, leading eventually to the formation of Toyota Motor Sales Company Ltd. in April 1950.

Toyota Motor Sales Company handled all domestic and worldwide marketing of Toyota’s automotive products until July 1982, when it merged with Toyota Motor Company.

In the meantime, discussions between labor and management finally focused on whether to admit failure, declare bankruptcy, and dissolve the company, or to agree on the dismissal of some employees and embark upon a rebuilding program.

In the end, management and labor agreed to reduce the total workforce from 8,000 to 6,000 employees, primarily by asking for voluntary resignations.

At the management level, President Kiichiro Toyoda and all of his executive staff resigned.

Kiichiro, Toyota’s founder and a pioneer of the Japanese automotive industry, died less than two years later.

Not long after the strike was settled in 1950, two of the company’s new executives, Eiji Toyoda (then the new Chairman of Toyota Motor Corporation) and Shoichi Saito (later Chairman of Toyota Motor Company), visited the United States.

Seeking new ideas for Toyota’s anticipated growth, they toured Ford Motor
Company’s factories and observed the latest automobile production technology. One especially useful idea they brought back home from their visit to Ford resulted in Toyota’s “Suggestion System”, whereby every employee was encouraged to make suggestions for improvements of any kind.

On their return to Japan, the two men inaugurated an even more vital policy that remained in force at Toyota through the 1990s: the continuing commitment to invest in only the most modern production facilities as the key to advances in productivity and quality.

Toyota moved quickly and aggressively in the 1950s, making capital investments in new equipment for all of the company’s production facilities. Not surprising, the company began to benefit from the increased efficiency almost immediately.

In 1955, ten years after its defeat in World War II, Japan became a member of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), but automobiles remained one of Japan’s least competitive industries in the international arena.

Toyota, foreseeing the coming age of the large-scale international trade and capital liberalization in Japan, decided to focus on lowering its production costs and developing even more sophisticated cars, while at the same time attempting to achieve the highest possible level of quality in production.

This was a joint effort conducted with Toyota’s many independent parts suppliers and one that proved so successful that ten years later, in 1965, Toyota was awarded the coveted Deming Prize for its quality-control achievements. That was also the years that the Japanese government liberalized imports of foreign passenger cars. Now Toyota was ready to compete with its overseas competitors both in price and quality.

In 2005, Toyota, combined with its half-owned subsidiary Daihatsu Motor Company, produced 8.54 million vehicles, about 500,000 fewer than the number produced by GM that year. In some months in 2006, Toyota passed Ford in selling cars.

Toyota now has a large market share in the United States, Europe and Africa, and is the market leader in Australia. It has significant market share in several fast-growing Southeast Asian countries.

In the 2006 Fortune Global 500, Toyota Motor was the 8th largest company in the world, outpacing Ford Motor Company in all listings in terms of revenue and growth and also in the 2006 Forbes Global 2000, it was the 12th largest company in the world with revenue of $185 billion.

How did Toyota achieve this monumental success? Find out by clicking here: Toyota’s Business Strategies.
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Success in business is achieved by the application of effective strategies. And the good thing is that with a little modification one can make use of the winning strategies of one business to achieve the same success in theirs. This is irrespective of difference in time and geography.

Here are strategies which ConocoPhillips have implemented in the course of their history, and which have enabled them to achieve their goals and become one of the biggest companies in the world. You can also apply these strategies to your business and position it for the success you desire.

Identifying a Problem and Providing Solution

The ability to identify a pressing need that is faced by lots of people, and then set up a business to provide the needed solution at affordable price is the foundation of business success. Business is not an organization set up primarily to make money, but to offer solution to an identified problem at a cost the consumer can afford.

The more the number of people needing the solution, and the more their frequency of needing it, the greater and more consistent your business will thrive and make money.

Conoco’s business was an immediate success right from its inception because it provided a huge relief to the masses in Ogden, Utah who could not purchase kerosene to light their homes because it was too expensive. By noticing this problem and going ahead to fixing it immediately put Conoco on the path of success.

Seeking Synergy with Other Businesses

Two heads are always better than one. Combining resources with other businesses can enable you to easily and quickly achieve your goals. It’s a great way to leverage on other businesses’ expertise, experience and facilities.

There are different ways through which synergy can be obtained. It can be by forming partnership, or by acquiring or merging with other businesses.

From merging with Standard Oil, DuPoint, Phillips, and Burlington Resources, seeking synergy has always been Conoco’s vital strategy for achieving its business goals.

Growing Your Business As Quickly As You Can

You shouldn’t remain offering one product or service for too long. There should be other related products you can create or acquire and grow your business quickly. Relying on a single product offering is dangerous to your business as your income could suddenly freeze if the product goes out of need.

Apart from kerosene, which it started business with; Conoco also sold other products, such as benzene to clean stoves, candles, hoof oil for horses, and ready-mixed paints at the early years of its existence.

Then recognizing the surge in the number of automobiles on roads, Conoco knew it would be profitable running refineries and service stations to provide fuel for automobiles, and therefore merged with Marland Oil in 1929.

Doing What You Need To Do

For your business to survive difficult times, you must have the courage to take certain decisions, which may not be popular, but needed to save the situation.

In the wake of the stock market crash of 1929, Conoco had to cut down salaries, amongst other measures that it took to salvage the situation. Though these were tough decisions, they however helped to save lots of money for the company, which was used to finance important projects.

Rewarding Your Staff Appropriately

Just as you shouldn’t hesitate to cut staff salaries in difficult times, you shouldn’t also hesitate to lavish them with incentives and bonuses when your business is doing well.

Few years after the stock market crises of 1929 that made Conoco to cut down on staff salaries, the company’s staff was rewarded with bonus checks worth $770,000 in 1937 when Conoco came back to profitability.

Expand To Foreign Lands

The more the number of people needing your product or service, the more your business prospers. You need to find a way of exposing your product or service to the international market, and you will be surprised to find your product could even be more accepted in foreign lands than at home.

Expanding to markets outside your local operation should be prepared for and should be in your business plan. Today, with huge advancement in communication technology it has become a lot easier to expose your business to the global market – using Internet technology.

The era between 1945 and 1972 saw Conoco executing a great deal of its expansionist plan, expanding its refinery operations nationally, and its petroleum exploration and production operation internationally.

Read ConocoPhillips’ Success Story Here: How ConocoPhillips Became a Global Business

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Here is another business success story to inspire, motivate, and guide you to building your business to success. Learn from ConocoPhillips’s huge experience of building a small business into a global company – its challenges and strategies for success.

The history of ConocoPhillips is primarily the combined histories of two highly successful companies, Conoco Inc and Phillips Petroleum Company, which individually began as start up businesses and grew into giant corporations that extended into many countries of the world before their merger in 2002.

Combining their strengths to form what is today the fourth largest petroleum refiner in the world, and the third most integrated energy company in the US, Conoco and Philips’ success stories are not only captivating, they are also a light to any discerning entrepreneur to find their way to profound business success.

Conoco was founded in 1875 by Isaac Elder Blake after he noticed that townspeople in Ogden, Utah were still using candles and whale oil to light their homes instead of kerosene lamp. Kerosene was available, but it was too expensive for the people to buy due to the cost of transporting it from a refinery in Colorado.

This situation provided Blake a business idea. If he could import kerosene from eastern refineries using railroad tank cars as means of transportation and sell in bulk, the price would be lowered and lots of people would be able to easily afford it, he reasoned. Following this idea, Blake floated his business, which he called Continental Oil and Transportation Co. (CO&T) on November 25, 1875.

The business was an immediate success as it provided people in Utah, Idaho, Montana, and Nevada with affordable kerosene. Not long after, the company’s operation was extended to Denver and San Francisco with the construction of the first pipeline in California, from a railroad station in Pico to Ventura, where the oil was loaded onto steamers sailing to the Golden Gate.

And in addition to kerosene, the company included new products such as benzene to clean stoves, candles, hoof oil for horses, and ready-mixed paints.

In 1885, CO&T merged with Standard Oil’s Rocky Mountain operations, with the company now reincorporated in Colorado as the Continental Oil Company. The new company consolidated both Continental and Standard Oil’s operations in Colorado, New Mexico, Wyoming, Montana, and Utah.

And in 1888 Continental acquired minority interest in United Oil Company, which had production and refining interests in Colorado. This removed the need for transporting products from the East Coast.

In 1913 the U.S. Supreme Court ordered for the dissolution of the merger between Standard Oil and Continental Oil and Transportation Company on antitrust ground; however Continental had become the topmost marketer of petroleum products in the Rocky Mountain region.

With automobiles plying the roads in greater number, Continental built the first filling station in the West in 1909, and made huge investment in fleet of delivery trucks, each with three tanks to deliver different types of fuel.

In the twenty years that followed, the company built over one thousand service stations in fifteen states. It moved into the production and refining of crude oil, merging with other producers, but always retaining the name Continental Oil.

One of such mergers which took Continental to another level in business was with Marland Oil Co. in 1929. Marland was a fast growing petroleum refiner which had built hundreds of service stations, and owned several oil wells. It was also the first in the industry to develop seismography techniques and new drilling methods to discover more oil.

Continental Oil Company, Conoco, as the new company was named, owned close to three thousand wells and thousands of retail outlets in thirty states. And it became a leading force in the industry.

However, just one month after Conoco stock was first traded on the New York Stock Exchange, the stock market crashed, necessitating the company’s management to take certain tough measures to save it. These included cutting salaries, selling marginal oil producing properties and abandoning big exploration projects.

Money was saved from these measures, and was used to finance refinery expansion, build the Great Lake pipeline connecting Ponca City with Chicago, and to finance many new product developments, including the first lubricant to reduce engine friction – Conoco Germ-Processed Motor Oil, which was a huge success and found superior to other brands that came later.

Conoco also endeared itself to its target market using cleaver advertising tactics. Some of these were “Gentlemen Prefer Bronze,” the advertisement for the newest gasoline brand, and the Conoco Travel Bureau, a publication that provided drivers free travel information, with the location of Conoco service stations included in it.

And as a way to show its appreciation to its workers for their contribution to its success, Conoco gave out 5,000 bonus checks in 1937. This was worth $770,000, and was the biggest any company would give that year.

The era between 1945 and 1972 saw Conoco expanding its refineries in Ponca City, Baltimore, Denver and Lake Charles, and establishing a new refinery in Billings, Mont.

It also expanded its operations in foreign lands. These included its discovery of oil at the Dahra field, Libya, and in Dubai where it found oil at two major offshore locations.

To take as much advantage of the retail potential of these discoveries, Conoco embarked on massive acquisition of relevant businesses across Europe, establishing a network of service stations in Luxembourg, Belgium, Australia, West Germany and the United Kingdom, with each marketing a different brand of Conoco gasoline.

The era also saw Conoco diversifying into minerals, coal, chemicals, fertilizers and plastics. It had become an integrated, worldwide business with assets valued over $2.3 billion.

Conoco continued to invest heavily in oil exploration in Indonesia, the Gulf of Mexico and the North Sea through the decade, and also in developing new drilling technologies for greater production.

On September 30, 1981, after both Conoco and DuPoint Boards have agreed, Dupoint acquired Conoco for $7.4 billion, with Conoco retaining its existence as a Dupoint subsidiary.

However, seventeen years later, Dupoint wanted to refocus its business in the field of biotechnology rather than continuing in the energy sector, while Conoco wanted to focus more on the upstream sector of the petroleum industry rather than its downstream operations.

With this difference in focus, Dupoint agreed to sell off Conoco through Public Offer, which was effected in 1998 when Conoco stock started trading again on October 22, 1998.

Then in November 2001, Conoco and Phillips Petroleum agreed to merge, and this was completed in August 2002 with the formation of ConocoPhillips.

Phillips Petroleum, formed in 1917 by the Phillips brothers, Frank and L.E. Phillips, brought to the union nine decades of experience and innovations in petroleum exploration, production and marketing. The new company became the sixth-largest publicly traded oil company in the world and the third-largest in the United States.

With exploration activities in 29 countries, including the United States, Canada, Venezuela, the United Kingdom, Norway, Nigeria, Dubai, Russia, China, Indonesia, Vietnam, Australia, and East Timor, ConocoPhillips annual income reaches $105.1 billion (2003).

In 2006, ConocoPhillips’ position as a leading natural gas producer and marketer was consolidated when it acquired Burlington Resources, a business with over 100 years experience in natural gas production and marketing.

With the fusion of three giant companies Conoco, Phillips Petroleum, and Burlington Resources, in one, pulling together a total of more than three hundred years of experience in the petroleum industry, it is no doubt that ConocoPhillips will continue to break new grounds and remain tops in the industry.

Read ConocoPhillips’ Business Strategies

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There is no need reinventing the wheel, if you desire success in your business, your best bet is to find out what others did to achieve success in theirs and also adopt it. Now, here are the business strategies, and keys to AT&T’s business success for your own success.

Take Advantage Of Cutting-edge Technology

You don’t have to be afraid of using cutting-edge technology or to oppose it, rather take advantage of it, find out how it can help your business to achieve it goals faster, easier and cost effectively.

In Alexander Bell’s time the cutting-edge technology was electricity. Many businesses were directly or indirectly raised from the use of electricity, including AT&T, which came to being after Bell discovered how to transmit voice through electricity, which was the telephone.

Today, the cutting-edge technology is the Internet, so, how much are you taking advantage of it?

Don’t Lose Focus

Frankly speaking, it is difficult to keep focus on our business goals because of so many seeming unrelated fabulous opportunities to make more money that usually get our attention everyday, but the truth is that if you are going to be successful in achieving your business goals, you must push aside every other thing and concentrate hundred percent on achieving the set goals.

AT&T veered off its business goal of connecting the whole of America to its telephone network by seeking international business opportunity with International Western Electric Company, before the new President, Walter Gifford decided to sell International Western Electric Company in 1925 and keep the company focused.

Continue To Innovate

Innovation will keep you on top of your industry as it allows you to keep creating new and increasing value, and enables you to improve on your offer to the customer. Frequently innovative companies are difficult to compete with because they continue to remain fresh in the customer’s mind.

Therefore, research and development, which would enable you to innovate, should be a priority concern in your business.

Without doubt, AT&T’s repeated innovations all through its history have been a major reason for its huge success and leadership in the industry for over a century.

From the invention of loading coils in 1913, which fixed the difficulty of having strong signals over long distances, to the installation of the world’s first digital electronic toll switch between 1975 and ‘76, AT&T kept being number one in the industry.

Prepare For Competition

Whatever business you are in, or about getting in, know that there will be competition. There will be other businesses offering the same value as yours to the same market. Even if you are a monopoly right now, a time would come when competition will come, so get prepared for it.

And the best way to prepare for competition is to develop you business to the level of giving the best possible value to the customer at a price they can afford, or even at lower price they didn’t imagine possible.

AT&T could have been dangerously hit by competition when the Bell System was dissolved in 1982, but for it strong technological and human resource base that it had developed over the years.

Upgrade Your Facilities And Processes

Technology change almost everyday providing new effective and efficient ways of running a business. If you do not upgrade your operations accordingly, your business may be extinct before you know what’s happening.

AT&T knew just how important it is to business success to have the best working systems. That was why it invested heavily in the digitalization of its entire network in the 1990s.

Grow Your Business

It is equally important that to achieve and maintain success in business, you have to invest its growth. And one way to grow a business is through acquisition of other businesses that are relevant to helping you achieve your business goals.

AT&T’s buying over NCR in 1991 enabled it to tap into the increasingly popular and lucrative computer industry, as well as to be able to offer its customers greater value as they enjoy the benefits from two companies in one.

And by buying McCaw in 1994, it secured direct access to consumers and made it the leading player in the wireless telecommunications industry.

Restructure Your Business To Be Better Efficient
If the effectiveness and efficiency of your business has been decreasing for sometime, or you feel you want to pursue a new goal, then it might be time for you to restructure the business.

Restructuring helps a business to be revitalized and refocused on its primary goal. It’s like having a shave after ten years you had the last one – you’ll certainly feel renewed.

AT&T success in business cannot be said without the mention of its strategic restructuring processes that it embarked upon severally in its history. The 1995 breakup of AT&T into three separate companies, and the one of 2000 were quit remarkable.

Don’t Be Rigid

Successful companies run flexible systems and operations that can easily be channeled in a different direction if need be. You should have operational systems that will enable you to transform your business quickly and easily from a non viable business area to a lucrative one.

AT&T didn’t sink with the crises that enveloped the global telecommunications industry in the early 2000s because its operational systems were flexible and could easily be transformed to do other businesses.

That was why Dorman could transform AT&T from a consumer oriented voice company to an enterprise-focused networking company, and therefore avoid being hit by the meltdown and remained in business.

Be Alert To Possible Government Policy Changes

As a business owner, one of the things you must learn is to be abreast with the workings of government, and be able to read between the lines where government policies are swinging to.

Your ability to understand this can save from terrible business loses resulting from policy changes that are not in favour of your business.

This ability helped AT&T to avoid being hit below the belt when government amended the Telecommunications Act in 1996. Knowing the outcome before hand enabled the company to divest from certain businesses and chart another direction of profitability.

Read AT&T’s success story here.

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Here again is another Business Success Story to inspire, motivate, and give you the ideas you need to also take your business to success!

it’s the story of the world’s premier telecommunications company, AT&T, whose history is tied with that of the telephone.

Read on…

AT&T, formerly known as The American Telephone and Telegraph Company was established on March 3, 1885 as a subsidiary company of Bell Telephone Company, which was formed in 1875 by the inventor Alexander Graham bell and two investors, Gardiner Hubbard and Thomas Sanders.

Alexander Bell had succeeded in inventing the telephone in 1875 and had therefore secured two patents for it. To commercialize his invention, the Bell Telephone Company was formed, with the first telephone exchange opened in New Haven CT in 1878.

The company acquired majority share of the Western Electric Company in 1882. The Western Electric Company was the biggest electrical company in the United States at the time, and it became American Bell’s (American Bell was the name Bell Telephone Company was bearing at this time) manufacturing unit.

When The American Telephone and Telegraph Company was being formed in 1885, its mandate was to build and operate the long distance telephone network across America, beginning from New York. It was to firmly establish the leadership of the company in the industry before its second patent would expire in 1894 and opening the door to competition.

By 1915, AT&T had connected up to Chicago and San Francisco, and on December 30, 1899, American Bell’s assets were absorbed by AT&T, making it the new parent company of the Bell System (the name the whole business organization was called).

From the years that followed, AT&T continued to develop new technologies and infrastructures to enable efficient telephony nationwide. The company invented loading coils, which fixed the difficulty of having strong signals over long distances.

In 1913, AT&T’s George Campbell and Michael Pupin of Columbia University independently invented the first practical electrical amplifiers, which made transcontinental telephony possible.

Lured by the huge business opportunity outside America, AT&T, through its subsidiary, the Western Electric Company set up International Western Electric Company to manufacture and sell equipment to telephone companies worldwide.

By 1914, International Western Electric Company’s presence was in several locations of the world, including Sydney, Vienna, Budapest, Antwerp, Berlin, Milan, St. Petersburg, Montreal, Buenos Aires, London, Paris, and Tokyo.

However, when Walter Gifford became President of AT&T in 1925, he decided to be focused on AT&T’s core mission purpose, which is to provide universal telephone service in the United States, and therefore sold the International Western Electric Company for $33 million to International Telephone and Telegraph Company (ITT).

In 1927, AT&T achieved the first transatlantic conversation between the US and London through two-way radio. The capacity was only one call at a time, and the cost was $75 for the first three minutes. And in 1934 it also achieved the first transpacific conversation between the US and Japan by radio, which cost $39 for the first three minutes.

As the years rolled by, AT&T continued to set the pace in innovation, technological development and advancement in telephony, and was no doubt the best telephone service provider in the world.

It developed the microwave relay system, which was a better alternative to copper wires for long distance telephone transmission in 1948, and launches the first trans-Atlantic telephone cable, TAT-1 in 1956. Cables provide much stronger telephone signals than radio waves, which are impeded by atmospheric interference.

This reduced the price for calls across the atlantics to $12 for the first three minutes, and took 36 calls at a time.

More notable innovations and technologies that came from AT&T over the years included: 1958 introduction of commercial modem; launching of the first active communications satellite, Telstar I in 1962; introduction of touchstone service, with the replacement of the usual telephone dial with keypad in 1963; launching of the first submarine telephone cable, TPC-1, across the pacific in 1964.

AT&T continued to innovate and invent new technologies that took telephony to a greater level. It installed the first world electronic telephone switch in a local phone exchange in Succasunna, NJ in 1965, and introduced 911 as a national emergency number in 1968.

1971 saw AT&T creating the Unix computer operating system, which later became the foundational language of the Internet. Between 1975 and ’76, AT&T installed the world’s first digital electronic toll switch, the 4ESS in Chicago.

The switch replaced the electromagnetic type, which took up to 350,000 calls per hour - a much greater volume than the former type.

The advent of digital electronics in telecommunication brought immense efficiency to the industry and value to the customer and the nation, but it also put AT&T’s business at high risk.

Since required equipment were now less expensive to procure, technological barrier to entry the industry was lowered, and there gradually came massive competition to the Bell System.

Then in 1974, as fallout of several changes in telecommunication, the US Government filed an antitrust suit against AT&T, which was settled in 1982 when AT&T succumbed to divesting from the Bell operating companies that provided local exchange service.

By this, the Bell System was broken into seven Regional Bell Operating Companies (RBOC) that provided local exchange service and AT&T, each being independent of the other.

This break up exposed AT&T to serious competition, which had never been before since AT&T had always been a Government regulated monopoly removed from market pressures. But AT&T had the technology, and the human resources (including seven Nobel Prize Winners in Physics) to stay on top of the competition.

It continued its technological breakthrough in 1988 with the launch of TAT-8, the first fiber optic submarine telephone cable across the Atlantic. This facility took about 40,000 calls at a time, which was ten times that of the last copper cable - today cables have capacities for over 1,000,000 calls.

The 1990s saw AT&T embarking on multi-billion dollar digitalization of its entire network, moving into the international market, reaching close to 200 countries, merging and acquiring some businesses strategic to its future success.

One of such acquisitions was the taking over of NCR, a major computer maker in 1991 for $7.3 billion, and another is the buying over of McCaw Cellular for $11.5 billion in 1994, which gave AT&T direct access to consumers, and made AT&T a leading player in the wireless telecommunications industry.

On September 20, 1995, AT&T revealed it was going to restructure into three separate companies: a communications services company (AT&T), a computer company (NCR), and a systems and equipment company (which became Lucent Technologies). By January, 1997 the break up, which was the largest voluntary break up in the history of America, was formalized.

Noticing that most of the traffic on its network was becoming data rather than voice, AT&T started changing from being a long distance company to an integrated voice and data communications company.

Also, realizing that the impending rewriting of the Telecommunications Act in 1996 would not favor stand-alone long distance telephone service business, AT&T smartly launched an Internet service, AT&T WorldNet Service, while it sold off AT&T Submarine Systems and Skynet Satellite Service that were no longer relevant to its new focus.

And in the four years that followed, AT&T pumped in more than $35 billion in upgrading its infrastructure to accommodate the increasing volume of Internet protocol and other data traffic, and to create a direct link to business customers; and also in acquiring some companies strategic to its growth.

It acquired TCG, a leading provider of local telephone service to business customers, IBM Global Network, a leading provider of global data networking services, and also merged with TCI and MediaOne, two big cable companies.

Again, in October 2000, AT&T declared it was going to restructure over the following two years into three separate public companies, namely: AT&T, AT&T Broadband, and AT&T Wireless.

The restructuring process was completed on November 18, 2002 with the merger of AT&T Broadband with Comcast to become Comcast Corporation.

David W. Dorman became Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of AT&T in November 2002, and shortly after he assumed office, the global telecommunications industry ran into overwhelming crises that led to rampant bankruptcies and business failures, loss of billions of dollars by investors, and countless job loses, no thanks to fraud, a complicated regulatory environment, oversupply and ceaseless pricing pressures.

To escape the inferno, Dorman embarked on a mission to transform AT&T from a consumer oriented voice company to an enterprise-focused networking company.

The reformed AT&T became a global IP networking provider delivering strong networks, applications and capabilities to business and government customers.

Along with their offerings, AT&T released a successful alternative to traditional services – VoIP, or Vioce over Internet Protocol for consumers and small businesses.

Then in January 2005, the business world was pleasantly stunned when AT&T disclosed its $16 billion merger with SBC Communications to create the industry’s premier communications and networking company.

By this monumental transformation, AT&T positioned itself adequately to be the company to look up to in the twenty first century for the best delivery of networking solutions and a complete suite of integrated communications services throughout the United States and the rest of the world.

Discover AT&T’s Business Strategies that enabled it to achieve the monumental success it has achieved: AT&T Winning Business Strategies.

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The Way To Wealth, with the sub-title Success Strategies Of The Wealthy Entrepreneur, is a new book from the business guru himself, Brian Tracy. In this book, Brian revealed his proven formula for starting, building, managing and growing a business successfully, and in the process creating enormous wealth.

If you are an entrepreneur, or you are thinking of going into business some day, this book is for you. You have to read it and discover business success strategies, ideas and tools that will put your business on the path of success.

Success in business in achieved when you do certain things right, it doesn’t happen by chance. You will discover what you need to do, and how you need to do them to make your business successful, even if your business is presently lying flat on its belle.

Here is just a tip of the ice berg - an excerpt from the book - which gives you a clue of what to expect:

Systematize Your Business Activities

Your business will be successful, generating steady, predictable sales and cash flow, to the exact degree to which you develop systems that put as much of your business on autopilot as possible.

A system is a step-by-step process, from beginning to end, that you use to ensure consistency and dependable performance in every area.

Every new business or business activity requires tremendous time, effort, expense, and even “genius” to learn and develop for the first time.

But once the system has been developed, through trial and error, it can eventually be systematized to the point where the business activities can be carried out by ordinary people. Until a business activity is systematized, it exists largely in the mind of the individual who knows how to do it.

As a result, it cannot be duplicated or replicated. If the person who knows how to do the job is not there, the business can eventually grind to a halt.

The Systems You Need

1. Lead Generation. You need a proven system of marketing, advertising, and promotion that generates a steady steam of qualified leads, whether phoning your place of business, responding on the Internet, or personally coming into your store to buy your product or service.

Without this continuous and predictable stream of leads, your sales and revenues will dry up and your cash flow will slow to a trickle, threatening the survival of your business.

2. Lead Conversion. You need a proven sales system to convert interested prospects into buying customers. This system begins with a sales script that every customer service representative and salesperson uses from the first contact with the prospect through to the completed sales.

The use of a preplanned sales script can triple your sales almost overnight. By using a sales script, each person who answers the phone, calls on a customer, or greets a customer walking in the door knows exactly what to say from the first greeting through to the final purchase.

Your sales system will be developed as the result of trial and error. As you evaluate your sales process, you will find that there are things that you do and say that are effective and others that are not.

Over time, you will smooth out the rough spots in your sales process, machining and polishing the words and actions so that you turn interested prospects into buying customers over and over again.

3. Production of the Product or Service. You need a proven system, from beginning to end, for producing the product or service that you have sold to the customer. This proven system will ensure consistency of quality, ease of operation, efficiency of activity, and continually lower costs of production and delivery as the system improves.

4. Delivery System. You need a step-by-step system to fulfil orders and deliver the product or service to the customer in a timely fashion. This system enables you to get your product or service to the customer quickly and efficiently with minimum delays and with a high level of quality.

5. Service Systems. You need written policies and procedures for follow-up service to each of your customers, including established ways to handle customer needs and complaints, to generate additional sales, to keep in regular customer contact, to elicit referrals and recommendations from satisfied customers to new customers, and to alert your customers of new products and services that they may be interested in buying.

6. Accounting Systems. You need smoothly functioning accounting systems that track every penny of revenue and expense coming into or moving out of the business.

Fortunately, there are computer programs for small and large businesses that you can use to keep track of all financial flows in your business so you will always know your proper financial status.

7. Hiring, Training, and Personnel Systems. You need written systems that clearly describe each job and how it is to be done. In addition, you need systems for training, development, and personnel relations.

Each person who works for you must know exactly what he or she is expected to do and to what standard of quality. Your employees must understand the terms and conditions of their jobs, what is deemed unsatisfactory performance, and what are grounds for termination.

They must know exactly what they are entitled to in terms of medical insurance, sick pay, vacation days, and other key elements of the work experience.

System Development

The way you develop systems is quite simple. You take a piece of paper and describe the job, step by step, from the first function to the last. List every task that must be completed to do the job well. You then review the job description with the people who are doing it to “debug” the process and ensure that it is accurate.

Once you have developed a complete description of a particular job or activity, it should be so clear that a new person can learn the job by simply following the system until he or she has memorized it and can do it automatically.

What is most important is that the details of the job are put down on paper rather than left in the mind and memory of the individual doing that job. The most important word in systems development is the word “replicability.”

Every job must be systematized and documented so that an ordinary person can replicate it by simply following the steps that you have written down.

Critical Success Factors, Benchmarks, and Metrics

The final part of business planning and setting up business systems is for you to determine measures, metrics and scorecards for every job and for every part of every job.

These are often called key success measures or critical success indicators. These are numbers that you can attach to any activity to determine whether or not that activity has been carried out satisfactorily.

We often refer to key result areas, those specific results that must be achieved by each person in his or her particular job. Attached to each key result area is a standard of performance, a measure that tells the individual and the superior exactly how well that job has been done.

Your Economic Denominator

In every business, there is a critical number that is the key to the success or failure of the enterprise. Jim Collins, in his book Good to Great, calls this the “economic denominator.” The economic denominator in a business is the number that most accurately measures and determines the success of that business.

In some businesses, the economic denominator is the number of prospects who phone for further information as the result of advertising and promotion activities. In other businesses, it is the number of prospective customers who walk in the door seeking information in order to decide whether or not to buy the product or service being offered.

The economic denominator can be the number of sales that the company makes each day or the average size of the sales that are made on a daily basis.

The Measure of Success

Some years ago I built a shopping center, and I was seeking a restaurant as a tenant in a 6,000-square-foot part of the shopping center next to the supermarket and facing the parking lot.

It was a prime location, and I soon found a successful pizza restaurateur, Peter, who was operating three successful restaurants in other communities.

Peter invited me to come with him one evening while he did his market research among the other pizza restaurants in the town.
What I learned was that, whenever a pizza restaurant took an order, in person or over the phone, it would place the order stub on a spike on top of the cash register.

When Peter did his market research, he simply walked into the restaurant, went up to the cash register, and did a quick count of the number of orders on the spike at 8 o’clock in the evening.

After we had visited three pizza restaurants on a Wednesday night, all with their spikes almost full of orders, he turned to me and said, “It’s a deal. We can sign the lease agreements tomorrow.” He subsequently built and opened a new restaurant in that location that became a tremendous success.

I never forgot that “market research” experience. What is the equivalent of “orders on a spike” for your business?
What is your economic denominator? This is like the bull’s eye in the target that you are aiming at. What is the one number that more than anything else indicates the financial health of your business?

Personal Standards and Goals

Each person in your business should have an economic denominator as well. He or she should have a key success indicator or metric to determine whether or not he or she is doing the job in an excellent fashion.

This number should be clear, visible, and objective. Everyone should know what it is and be able to determine whether or not he or she is reaching that number regularly. This is the answer to the question, “How do I measure success at my job?

Remember the Basics

In business, there are three basic activities: market and sell the product or service, produce and deliver the product or service that you have sold, and manage and administer the money and activities of your business. Whenever a company runs into trouble, it is because of a problem in one or more of these three critical areas.

At the beginning of this chapter, I said that the highest paid work in business is thinking. Your ability to gather the information necessary to create a complete business plan and to think through the critical issues of your business will have greater consequences in determining your success or failure than any other factor.

This is a great book by all standard, and I very much gladly recommend it to you if you are an aspiring entrepreneur, entrepreneur, or business owner, and you need ideas and strategies to make your business a success and create wealth for yourself.

Get Your Copy of The Way to Wealth Here

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Book Review: Cash In A Flash – Fast Money In Slow Time - Mark Victor Hansen And Robert G. Allen

I read the book, Cash In A Flash, with the rider Fast Money In Slow Time, authored by the duo of Mark Victor Hansen and Robert G. Allen, and it was simply amazing!

Cash In A Flash – Fast Money In Slow Time is the newest book of the best selling authors who do not need any introduction, for their past work such as The One Minute Millionaire, Cracking The Millionaire Code, and Multiple Streams Of Income, which have sold in millions across the world speak volume for the quality of their books.

Cash In A Flash – Fast Money In Slow Time couldn’t have come at a better time than now with the economic recession seemingly reducing the power of so many people to making money.

It is actually the authors’ answer for many who are wondering how they could make enough money to sustain their livelihood and live financially free. In this book, the authors show you strategies to use to make more income within 90 days from what you already have.

Very helpful is the book’s treatment of mind training, with lots of mental activities to help anyone overcome the negative voices that usually present millions of ways why what they are striving to achieve will not work, and so prevent most people from achieving their dreams in life.

The coverage and commitment the authors gave to helping their readers gain complete control of their minds, to be able to disregard any limiting thoughts that may come to them and move ahead to achieving success, is quit commendable.

And, it is a reflection of their expertise and experience as success coach, and of course their passion to helping people live financially successful. For without first and foremost dealing with that “negative voice” that will always come to stop us from going ahead with our plans to achieve our goals, we will never be able to realize our dreams, and that’s where the majority of people anywhere in the world are shut out of success!

There is no doubt about it, if you are searching for how you can increase your income in 90 days or less as Mark Victor Hansen and Robert G. Allen promised in the book, I believe you will be able to achieve it with the knowledge and experience you already have.

Cash In A Flash – Fast Money In Slow Time is written in the same “two-books-in-one” as in One Minute Millionaire, with the left-hand pages providing step-by-step instructions to developing the millionaire mindset and building wealth, while the right-hand pages offer fictional narrative (story of Michelle from The One Minute Millionaire) to drive home key points.

Here is an excerpt of Hansen and Allen’s newest book, Cash In A Flash – Fast Money In Slow Time, enjoy it!

The Three Key Ingredients: Wow Now, Inner Winner, Dream Team

If you look through any ordinary cookbook, you’ll discover that there are a few basic, essential ingredients that are found in almost every recipe. Most dessert recipes contain sugar. Many breakfast recipes contain eggs. The majority of recipes contain flour or salt or butter.

No matter which recipe you select, there will be three or four key ingredients. They form the foundation of every recipe. If you try to leave out any of these key ingredients, your creation will likely fall flat, and in the end you will fail.

When it comes to financial success, what are the key ingredients? They are simple yet profound. We’ll touch on the three key ingredients briefly in this chapter and revisit them in the chapters that follow.

The First Key Ingredient

Although it seems obvious, the first key ingredient in every recipe is a clear vision of what you are trying to create. We don’t know about you, but we both find it easier to follow a cooking recipe when we can see a picture of what the ultimate dish will look like after it comes out of the oven. We can more easily imagine it – taste it, smell it, experience it – as we try to recreate it. Do you have an image of the lifestyle you are attempting to create?

Any book on success will tell you the importance of imagining your ultimate objective. Although this is important, we’d like to share with you our “secret sauce” when it comes to visioning.

It’s a process that we call Wow Now.

Have you ever been wowed by something you experienced in your past? Scan back and remember something that blew you away. Maybe it was a special moment in an important/meaningful relationship. Maybe it was the experience of receiving a unique reward or extraordinary acknowledgement. Maybe it was the birth of a child. Maybe it was a well-earned accomplishment – a diploma, a degree, or a certification. What was it about that experience that knocked your socks off?

As you remember that special experience, we encourage you to remember it more vividly. Remember it as if it was happening again, right now. Remember what it felt like – what it feels like. Remember what sounds were (are) going on all around you.

Remember what you smelled, what you tasted, what you saw. See, smell and taste it. Step into that special memory that you begin to notice details that escaped you the first time. Make the colors more vivid. Remember part of it more precisely. Make it more real than you remembered it.

Why do this?

This is excellent practice for a visioning process we call “virtualization.”
It’s more intense than visualization, which just uses visual inputs. To virtualize it, you imagine it in all five senses – as if you were virtually experiencing it. This drives the memory deeper into your psyche. It imprints your brain and body with what it feels like to be living your ideal lifestyle. It makes it more real.

Scan forward in your mind to five years in the future. Skip over your current money worries and income challenges. Fast-forward through your credit card pressures and short-term cash crunches. Imagine living your ultimate lifestyle of financial freedom – of freedom in every sense. Freedom to live the life of your dreams. Never mind how you might have accomplished such a lifestyle. Just imagine that you’ve found an honest and ethical way to achieve your dreams.

Imagine what kind of house you live in. Walk up to the front door, open it, and walk inside. Imagine what you might see as you enter. A chandelier? A grand staircase? An open view to the ocean?

It’s your dream, so imagine it exactly the way you want. Smell something cooking in the kitchen. Your favorite recipe! As you walk down the hall toward the kitchen, feel the flooring beneath your feet. Is it wood? Or carpet? Or marble? Follow your nose toward where the chef has created a masterpiece for your taste buds. You enter the kitchen and the chef offers you a taste on a silver utensil. It’s even better than you thought! You smell deeply. How delicious!

You absorb yourself in the sensations of your surroundings. You’ve created a space where the best of your love of life can grow and flourish. You hear music. The sound of laughter. The warmth of a crackling fire. The view out to the back lawn. Down to the stream or river or ocean or lake or forest or golf course. Step into the image as if you were experiencing it now in all five senses.

Wander the rooms of the home in your dream lifestyle. Notice how every room is a special place for the special people in your life. What kind of relationships do you want to nurture and enhance? Whom do you picture enjoying each room? Your home is the center of your world. From this center, your influence spreads to bless those around you.

See it. Feel it. Smell it. Taste it. Hear it. Make it virtually real. As if it had already happened. Now, heighten your visualization and ask yourself the following questions.

Whom did I build this for?
Why did I build it?
Where did I build it?
What did I build?
When did I build it?

Don’t concern yourself with how you did it. For now, just imagine having already achieved it.

Without question, it’s fun to imagine the ingredients of an ideal lifestyle. But that’s not the only reason we do it. There’s a deeper reason.

There is an unwanted ingredient that most people add to the recipe of their life that ruins almost every meal. That dangerous ingredient is fear. Fear is a destroyer. Fear entices you to vividly imagine the worst possible outcome.

How real are your fears? Have you ever hesitated moving toward your goals? Have you ever been burned by the fear of rejection?

Has the fear of failure ever stopped you? Just the thought of failure can cause even a courageous person to hesitate. These fears are real! Your palms sweat. The bile in your stomach starts to burn. Your brain goes blank.

Your heart begins to pound like a bass drum. The voices in your head begin to shout, “You can’t do it. You’ve never done anything like this before. Who do you think you are?”

You feel it. You hear it. You smell it. You taste it. You see it. Most of us experience our fears in all five senses! That’s why fear is so real. Fear is intense. Fear is absorbing. Fear virtually seizes every cell in your body. Are your dreams more real than that? Most of your dreams are just fleeting fantasies-nice images of possibly positive outcomes. But do they wow you?

This is the secret. For you to achieve your dreams…

Your dreams must be more real than your fears!
If your dreams don’t wow you, then they aren’t real enough to combat the fears that will eventually arise to stop you. Your dreams must be more real than your fears. Your dreams must be connected to your soul. They must excite you. Simply thinking about them must cause you to stay awake at night.

When a fear comes in contact with such a dream, the fear itself must be wowed into submission.

Therefore, when we say Wow Now, we mean for you to go out into the future and create a vision that wows you. The first step in this wow process is to visualize your ideal dream lifestyle. Make it as real as possible – in all five senses.
In part one, we’ll teach you more powerful techniques to more quickly turn your now into wow.

The Second Key Ingredient

The second key ingredient in any success recipe – from better health to greater wealth – is to make friends with your Inner Winner. There is an inner world inside all of us that few people have learned how to manage. Are you aware of what is going on in there?

As we speak to audiences around the world, we ask a few simple questions.
“How many of you have a critical voice-a nagging, negative part of you that often brings you down?” The vast majority of every audience raises their hands. Then, we ask, “How many of you have a true voice – a part of you that whispers to you, encourages you, supports you, leads you in the right direction?” Once again, most everyone raises their hands.

Everyone has at least two inner voices. All of us have a nagging, negative, or critical voice that tries to talk us out of almost everything that we do to better our lives. Have you ever berated yourself for thinking about doing something to improve your life and then gotten down on yourself for not doing it? We call this the Inner Whiner.

How prevalent is this critical self? Experts say that everyone has one – although this critical voice is louder in some of us than in others. If you were to listen in on the conversations that people have with themselves incessantly throughout the day, you’d wonder how anyone got anything done.

Where does this critical voice come from? There are dozens of psychological theories. Did it come with you at birth? Is this part of your personality? Is it your anti-self? Frankly, who knows? No matter where it originates, one thing is certain: this critical voice definitely affects your life – primarily for the negative. It slows you down, sometimes even stops you.

What about that other voice – your true voice? Have you ever had a hunch where you just knew something was going to happen? Have you ever heard a faint whisper encouraging you to do something that would be good for you? Have you ever found yourself being nudged toward something positive or away from something negative? Most likely this was your Inner Winner.

Sometimes we don’t hear our Inner Winner because the Inner Whiner is so loud. You’ll be amazed at what you hear when you become more attentive to your true voice. Your true voice is your friend. That still, small voice you hear wants you to win, to succeed, to triumph.

Could it be that most of us are held back in our pursuit of success by an inner critic that talks us out of it? Could it be that the most successful among us have learned how to silence their critical voice, while listening more to their true voice?

The really interesting question to ask yourself is: where are these voices? Generally speaking, the critical voice is heard in your mind. It’s a “mind” voice. The Inner Winner, your true voice, is heard in your heart. It’s a voice you feel in your heart.

Throughout this book, we’ll teach you techniques to remove the unwanted ingredients from the field of your mind – such as the bitter messages from the critical voice.

And in Part Two we’ll show you how to add the second essential ingredient to your recipe for success – learning to notice the sweet assuring heart whispers from your true voice, your Inner Winner.

The Third Key Ingredient

In America today, there are more that twenty-four million separate businesses. Less than 2 percent of those businesses take in more than a million dollars a year in gross revenue. The vast majority of entrepreneurial enterprises are solopreneurs – sixteen million businesses that are operated by a single proprietor. Most of these solopreneurs are men.

But women are coming on strong.

Here is a shocking statistic: as many as 95 percent of the businesses that launch today will be out of business within five years. There are a lot of reasons for the high failure rate, but in our experience, one of the key reasons is that most entrepreneurs don’t know how to team up.

The odds of going it alone – of solopreneuring your way to financial freedom – are not promising. To say it bluntly, the solo way can be said this way: so low! The success rate is so low and the failure rate is so high, it’s foolish to go solo.

We see bright spots on the horizon of entrepreneurship. In the past decade, the fastest-growing segment of the business world has been made up of women entrepreneurs. This is the century for women entrepreneurs. Women find it more natural to team their way up to success.

One of our mentors, Dr. Stephen Covey, teaches that there are three stages of maturity on the continuum of success:

Dependence - Independence - Interdependence

In our opinion, many women find themselves at either end of the spectrum. They’re familiar with being depended upon by their young children and often find themselves dependent on an outside source of income – a job, a spouse, public assistance. But most women have successfully achieved the third stage of interdependence. Why? Women are more people-friendly. They know how to support and be supported by a wide array of female friends.

Men are usually stuck in the middle – to a fault. They’re too independent. They want to do it by themselves. It’s the American tradition: they want to pull themselves up by the bootstraps. Their theme song is Frank Sinatra’s “My Way.” That’s the male way.

Women are much more team-oriented. This is good, because it is essential. You need a team. In The One Minute Millionaire we called it a Dream Team. The forming of a tight group of like-minded people is the third key ingredient to your success.

Our literary agent is Jillian Manus. This book would not exist without her. She’s incredible. When we asked her about the most essential ingredient to her amazing success, she replied without hesitation, “My Broad Squad.” This is the name she uses to describe her women’s group, made up of highly successful women who go to extreme lengths to support each other.

In Think and Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill talks about the power of the mastermind. Whether you call your group a Mastermind, a Dream Team, a Chick Clique, a Guy Tribe, a Dude Crew, a Bro Patrol, or a Broad Squad isn’t important. What is important is to decide to form such a group. The forming of a support team is as essential an ingredient to your entrepreneurial activities as flour is to a rich chocolate cake.

We’ve done special research with women to capture the essence of how women entrepreneurs bond to make results happen. We’ve also drawn heavily on women’s microcredit groups worldwide.

After thirty years of experience, Muhammad Yunus’s microcredit movement has discovered that the ideal number of women per group is never less than five and never more than six.

When we get to later chapters, we’ll share with you how to find, form, and perpetuate your team – your own Broad Squad, Guy Tribe, or Dream Team.

Once your team is functioning, we’ll teach you strategies for earning rapid streams of income. Then, as an enlightened entrepreneur, we encourage you to “send the elevator back down.” Transfer your new skills to other groups of men and women who are searching for a way up.

So let’s review the three key ingredients:

• Wow Now. Make your dreams more real than your fears. Experience your ideal future now. No matter what you’re experiencing now, your goal is to find the wow in it. We want to wow your soul and make your pocketbook grow.

• Inner Winner. Learn how to befriend your Inner Winner and silence your Inner Whiner.

• Dream Team. Create as quickly as possible a unique support team – your own unique Broad Squad or Guy Tribe – that will guide you toward your dreams, in the shortest and easiest way possible.

Before we begin our moneymaking adventure into the Wow Now, Inner Winner, and Dream Team, let’s explain the bird on the cover of this book – the hummingbird.

What comes to your mind when you think of a hummingbird? Speed. Agility. Flexibility. Boundless energy. The hummingbird is the perfect example of making the nearly impossible appear quite effortless. Have you ever known someone like that? Does this describe you? By the time you’re finished reading this book, we hope you’ll begin to identify and access your “inner hummingbird”.

The hummingbird is a multitasker – feeding and buzzing off to the next responsibility with lightning speed. It hovers and darts from project to project, focusing intently on the nectar that’s needed, and then speeding off to insert itself into the next project with intensity.

It can fly up, down, sideways, and backward with amazing flexibility. But one of the most powerful and little-known aspects of the hummingbird is the speed at which it learns and can be trained. And if anything is needed in today’s rapidly evolving world it is the ability to acquire and assimilate new ideas. Our modern world requires speed.

Information is multiplying exponentially, and we have a need to assimilate new information and convert it into usable daily food.

In this book, we’ll be sharing dozens of new ways of thinking and acting in today’s ever-changing world. Five hundred years ago, the world sped up dramatically as Gutenberg created the printing press. In the past twenty years, the digital age is causing the next massive revolution.

A lot of people will feel dislocated and disoriented as we go from one iteration to the next. The world is speeding up. It will take all of your hummingbird instincts to keep up with it.

In addition, the world of money is becoming increasingly volatile. Almost every traditional moneymaking method has recently suffered substantial shocks. Is there such a thing as a secure job anymore? What about the stock market? The real estate market? The bond market? The arena for small business? Where is a safe haven for your money?

Although today’s turbulent economy might cause you to wonder whether financial freedom is still possible, we assure you that the three essential ingredients in the recipe for financial freedom will never change. Yes, you can still become financially successful!

There are many ways to create cash although some of them may be unfamiliar to you. Throughout this book, we’ll share with you our best financial recipes for times like these.
Now that you’re beginning to understand these three essential ingredients, let’s explore some specific recipes to rapid financial freedom.

This is a great book by all standard, and I very much gladly recommend it to you if you are looking for strategies and ways to generate more income and boost your finances.

Cash in a Flash: Fast Money in Slow Times
Get Your Copy Here

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1. Book Review: The Ultimate Depression Survival Guide - Martin D. Weiss
2. How To Own A Car For Free And Still Make Money From It: Strategy From The Book Breaking The Wealth Code

The Ultimate Depression Survival Guide by Martin D. Weiss

Today, I’m reviewing a book, titled The Ultimate Depression Survival Guide written by Martin D. Weiss.

With the present downturn in the economy, it has never been more vital than now to have a sound and effective financial and personal plan for the future. You need to know how to safeguard your money, and grow it even in the face of the present credit crunch, housing bust, and fall of the US dollar.

In this book: The Ultimate Depression Survival Guide, Dr. Martin Weiss provides the strategies and guidance to help you avoid losing your hard-earned money in stocks, real estate, currency trading, and other investment windows, but instead be on top of the investment game.

Written in simple, easy to follow format that almost everyone can read, understand and implement, the book explains how the current economy depression came about, how to profit in it, what the next phase will be like, and how to take position now to solidify your wealth tomorrow.

And it didn’t forget to expose and dissect the hidden profit making potential in such investment windows as global investing, foreign currencies, and commodities for tomorrow’s smart investors.

It’s a book you must read to tap into the brain of one of America’s most gifted Consumer Advocate for Financial Safety, who actually precisely warned of the present financial crises long before it happened, as attested to by the New York Times, which described him as, “The first to warn of the dangers and say so unambiguously”.

By his accurate forecasting, Dr. Martin Weiss also helped thousands of investors from losing their money in Fannie Mae, Wachovia Bank, Washington Mutual, General Motors, Citigroup, Lehman Brothers, and the other major firms in distress, when he predicted their financial difficulties long ago.

I read this book recently, and it was wow! Here, I want to share with you an excerpt from the book, where Dr. Martin Weiss revealed how one can actually make money in the present economy meltdown:

How To Profit Directly From The Decline

Most people don’t think about profiting directly from a market decline. They don’t understand the concept, and they don’t know how. That’s a shame, because one of the key things you need to help get you through tough times is money. And in bad times, sometimes the best defense is to go on the offense.

Others don’t consider this opportunity because they think there’s something sinister about making good money in bad times. The fact is that the more people who can build wealth, the better it will be for everyone.

From an early age, we are taught that “up” is good and “down” is bad. So most people don’t like declines. But that kind of bias has no place in investing strategies. Especially in a depression, serious investors must learn how to invest in both up and down markets.

Bernard Baruch’s axiom to never follow the crowd is especially critical. It you follow the crowd, you could end up buying stocks when investors are the most enthusiastic (at the market’s top) and selling when they are the most downtrodden (at the bottom). Don’t fall into that trap. Even if Wall Street experts or your own friends deride your approach, do not let that stop you from making rational, prudent decisions.

You don’t have to be an expert to make money in the market. In fact, sometimes, those who are new to the world of investing can see the big picture more clearly than veterans who have been cocooned on Wall Street.

Whenever the government makes a new announcement to bail out this or that company or to prop up this or that credit market or to announce a new economic stimulus package, you can typically expect bursts of optimism on Wall Street. But that’s probably the worst time to buy and the best time to sell. If you see that kind of a rally in the market, use it as your window to get out, or to buy contrarian investments like inverse ETFs.

Large Profit Potential With Inverse ETFs

With inverse ETFs, the potential for profit is quite extraordinary, even if the market is not moving dramatically. For example, between June 5 and July 15, 2008, as tech stocks fell, the inverse ETF that’s tied to technology stocks enjoyed a gain of 30.9 percent, while the inverse ETF tied to the semiconductor index rose 37.2 percent. Those are large gains for such a short period of time.

As the markets became more volatile in September and October 2008, the potential gains in inverse ETFs were even larger. We saw a 61 percent gain in just 15 days as the technology sector fell between September 25 and October 10; an 89.1 percent gain in just 19days as the real estate sector dropped between September 26 and October 15; an 89.6 percent gain in 19 days as the consumer services sector plunged between September 26 and October 15; and an 89.9 percent gain in 8 days as the financial sector slumped between October 1 and October 9.

Unfortunately, we can’t go back in time to grab those profits. Nor is it possible to catch the tops and bottoms of each major move. But it’s crucial to understand two things: First, unlike short-selling on margin, which exposed Dad to much higher risk, in each case I just cited, your risk is inverse ETFs is strictly limited to what you invest- not a penny more. And second, these kinds of gains can go a long way toward helping you through an economic crisis.

Just bear in mind that the market does not go down in a straight line; there are always going to be rallies, and sometimes they could be quite sudden. When that happens, the inverse ETFs fall in value. Like any other investment, the goal is to buy them low and sell them high. If you wind up doing the opposite, you will suffer losses.
If you cannot afford any losses, this strategy is not for you. But if you have risk capital and you can set aside a modest portion for an aggressive strategy in falling markets, follow the steps below.

How To Go For Profits In A Down Market

Step 1. Make sure you understand the ins and outs of inverse ETFs.

Step 2. Recognize that you can lose money in inverse ETFs. So for this strategy, allocate strictly the funds you can afford to risk.

Step 3. Apply essentially the same tried-and-tested discipline for investing in a bull market, but in reverse:

In a bull market, astute traders seek to buy on dips and sell on rallies. When using inverse ETFs in a bear market, do the opposite: Buy the inverse ETFs on a stock market bounce; sell them after major stock market declines.

In a bull market, astute traders wait for temporary bouts of bad news to help drive prices down and give them a bargain-buying opportunity. They know that, as long as there are solid signs that the economy will continue growing, the stock market can climb a wall of worry.

When using inverse ETFs in a down market, do precisely the opposite: Wait for good newsto help drive prices up. Then, buy the inverse ETFs in anticipation of another decline. As long as it’s clear that the economy will continue to contract, the stock market is likely to slide down a slippery slope of hope.

Step 4. Recognize that fundamental indicators that make sense in an up market may not be appropriate for a down market. For example,

In normal times, the cheaper the stock in relation to its earnings, the more attractive it is. But in a depression, many companies have no earnings, rendering useless any measures of value based on earnings.

Normally, the company’s book value (assets minus liabilities) is another good measure. In a depression, however, as asset values fall and large debts are still outstanding, the book value is less than zero.

Step 5. Diversify among several stock market sectors while also using inverse ETFs that represent the most diverse basket of stocks. Examples of the most diversified ETFs include those with the symbols DOG or DXD, which move inversely to the Dow Jones Industrial Average; and SH, SDS, or RSW, which move inversely to the S&P 500 Index.

The Ultimate Depression Survival Guide by Martin D. Weiss is a book I very much recommend for all investors, and anyone who is interested in growing their money through investing - you need to know exactly what you are doing to avoid burning your fingers.

Get The Ultimate Depression Survival Guide Here: Protect Your Savings, Boost Your Income, and Grow Wealthy Even in the Worst of Times

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The Hildebrandt’s Out Of Debt Success Story

If you are like some many people these days with lots of credit cards and other debts hanging on your neck, and you are wondering if you would ever get out of it, then this story of how a family was able to completely get out of their $106,000 credit card and personal debts will give you the encouragement and strategies to be free too from your debts.

Five years ago, the Hildebrandt who lived in New Richmond, Wis., realized their debts had climbed to the level they could not pay anymore. They owed $89,000 to various credit card companies, and another $17,000 to a family member. As much as they tried keeping up with their repayment, their creditors – the credit card companies – made things even more difficult for them.

With the credit card companies increasing their interest rates, which shot up the minimum monthly repayment the family was required to pay, it became almost impossible that the Hildebrandt were ever going to be able to offset their debts.

Russell, the husband, was a chemist who worked with an environmental testing laboratory, while Kandy, was a house wife. It was therefore obvious that the family’s resources could not meet up with the debt repayment.

Many family friends advised they filed for bankruptcy, but the Hildebrandt were prepared and determined to do whatever it would take to pay off the debts, and not go for bankruptcy. They knew it would be very tough trying to pay off the debts, but they didn’t want to take the seemingly easy route of bankruptcy either, which would spoil their credit rating.

Taking the first step

To begin their walk out of debt, Kandy visited FamilyMeans, a nonprofit organization that provides financial education and counseling services in Stillwater, Minn. where she got her family’s finances reviewed and a five-year debt management plan developed for them.

Though the repayment plan looked very scary, the Hildebrandt were however ready to make the necessary sacrifices they needed to make if they were going to be debt free.

To save as much money as they could possibly save, the couple completely stopped buying things they could do without. They shifted to buying more basic foods and visited thrift stores often for their clothing purchases at cheaper prices. Even the usual exchange of gifts between the couple themselves, and members of their family at birthdays and Christmas was stopped.

In addition to the money they were saving from the cut backs on their expenses, it was still necessary for Russell to get a second job so they could meet up with the monthly payment of $2,000 to be disbursed to their creditors.

He got a night job cleaning a local grocery store. For several days in a week, he would head to his second job by midnight after coming back from his day job, having dinner, and taking a few hours of sleep. And after the night job closes at 4:30 in the morning, he would rush home to take another few hours of sleep before jetting out again for the day job.

With Russell’s exhaustive jobs, and Kandy’s making do with the scare resources at home to the best that she could, life was indeed very difficult for the Hilderbrandt, who used just one car for almost a year before Kandy’s family gave them a used van.

However, instead of quitting the debt settlement plan, their minds were focused on been free from the debt, and they were determined to pay it off, and nothing was going to stop them even though it didn’t appear they were making progress in the first two years though their credit card balances were reducing.

As the years rolled by, and as they remained committed in paying off their debt, their efforts started showing good result. Their credit cards balances were getting reduced and eventually getting totally paid off one after the other. As one card is paid off, the money that would have gone into making payment for it would be used for another in the following month.

In April this year, the Hildebrandt were only six months away from completely paying off their debt. And by using the tax credit for first-time home buyers, the Hildebrandt were able to pay off the remaining balances on their credit cards – six months ahead of time.

Now, the Hildebrandt are free from all the credit cards and personal debts they were in five years ago. The only debt they own now is the mortgage on their new home, which they loved and got in a good deal.

For their perseverance and determination in paying off their credit cards and personal debts of $106,000, and not going the seemingly easy way of declaring bankruptcy, the couple were recently named winners of the Professional Achievement and Counseling Excellence (PACE) 2009 Graduate Client of the Year Award.

This is a national award given by the National Foundation for Credit Counseling to people who resolutely commit to paying off their debts, changing their lifestyle and taking charge of their spending habit.

The hildebrandt’s out of debt success story shows that if you are determined and focused at achieving any goal, you will certainly reach it, however tough and long it might be. Once you have made up your mind about where you want to get to, and you start working towards it, you will surely get there.

It also shows that you must be prepared to work hard to enjoy success – there is no easy road to success. They could easily have opted to filing bankruptcy, but apart from the fact that their credit rating would be soiled, they wouldn’t have tasted the sweet victory over debt, and felt the joy of accomplishment.

Congratulations Mr. and Mrs. Hildebrandt.

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How To Make Your First Public Speaking Event A Success

Public speaking is a skill everyone should develop, because you never know when you might be called upon to speak to a group of people. Don’t think public speaking is only for professional speakers and so you don’t need to prepare for it, that’s not true because there are many instances when you might be required, even without prior notice, to speak to a crowd of people.

It could be your Pastor calling you up one Sunday service to say something to the Church. It could be at your child’s school PTA meeting, and you are asked to express your thought about something. It could even be at your work place, something happened and you are to address a board.

There are many other occasions where you might be asked to speak to a public without you knowing before hand you will be doing it. And if you haven’t been preparing, it could end up in disaster.

Developing public speaking skill can be very rewarding as you can make extra income from it. In addition to your major source of income, sharing your special knowledge and experience with people each week or month at conferences or seminars can greatly shoot up your income.

In fact, with information marketing industry pulling in billions of dollars annually, a lot of this money goes to public speakers, as public speaking is a big part of the industry. Many people are actually making full time income, running into six figures as public speakers.

Even if you don’t want to be a professional public speaker, you will still find that the ability to give excellent public presentations is a major success factor in many professions, and could determine how speedily you will advance in your career.

Seeing how important public speaking skill is to your success, let’s now see how you can make your very first public speaking engagement a success.

For most people, speaking to a group of people the first time can be very tough. In fact, they can give anything just to avoid it.

It has to do with the fear of been ridiculed. The fear of saying the wrong things, not saying them the right way, or forgetting your line and get laughed at. The fear of been regarded not good enough; the fear of failing to get the deal, because you could not captivate the audience to believe in your offer.

There is always this enormously strong fear of failure that grips one in their first time to speak to a public.

Deal With This Fear

The fear of speaking in public was also very real to me on my first major public speaking engagement. The organization I worked for had a free seminar, and over eight hundred people attended it. As part of the event program, I was to make an announcement, to inform the crowd about our upcoming events, what we do, how they could join our membership club, and so on.

Before then, I hadn’t spoken to a crowd that much in number and maturity. These were adults from different states, and walks of life. I had only spoken to a group of teenage students before in my days as a teacher – this was hugely different.

I didn’t want to disappoint my boss, who is almost a perfectionist, by saying the wrong things, or not delivering the message as I should, and so fail in my part to make the attendees rush to join our Club.

When it was time for me to come on the platform, I was so tensed up that it seemed my heart stopped beating, and my body frozen momentarily, as I heard my boss introducing me to the platform.

Good man that he was, he thought I might not be able to handle it, so he didn’t leave the platform after introducing me, he stood close to me as I began to read the announcement from a paper that I came with.

Then he gave me a booster! He whispered “well done”, into my ears as I read. Boy did that help? Sure it did. The fear that was choking my throat melted away.

I’m really thankful to him for helping me out that first time I had to speak to a “real public”. But you may not be lucky to have your boss standing close to you to help you kill that fear, and that means you just have to deal with it yourself.

Dealing with this fear, which is the only thing that stands between you and having a successful public speaking event, is to understand where it comes from, and put it in its place.

The fear, as I have stated before, is simply that you don’t want to fail. You are afraid you will say the wrong things, and so fail to achieve the purpose for which you were called upon to speak. You are afraid people will perceive you to be less intelligent or knowledgeable, and laugh at you.

Putting the fear in its right place

Everyone, including the audience you are speaking to has that fear too. If there should be an exchange of places, and each member of the audience was to come on the stage to speak to the public, they will even be more tensed than you are.

You may not know it, but even the people you regard as experts in public speaking today had this fear too when they were starting out.

My former boss, who I talked about earlier, once told us how he couldn’t comfortably speak to a group of teenage students when he, as the Chairman of his children’s school PTA, was asked to address the students.

According to him, he was practically shaking while reading a note he had prepared the previous night to them – he didn’t have the courage to speak to them without reading from a note.

But today, by working on his fears, and with repeated public speaking engagements, he has become an expert in public speaking, and has addressed people in many countries.

You mustn’t allow fear to stop you. Again, what you may not know is that most people in the audience want you to succeed. They understand how tensed anyone can be speaking to a public the first time.

You can start your opening remark by jokingly saying something like, “I’m sorry if I guff, but this is my first time speaking to a large audience as this, I hope you understand, it’s pretty hot here!” This kind of remark can immediately put the audience on your side, and they will encourage you on. And on your part, you would have just smashed your fear into pieces.

Having put fear away, I will now tell you some practical things you can do to make your first public speaking event a success.

Know your topic very well

As part of your preparation for the event, you have to study the topic you will be speaking on thoroughly, to the point that you could discourse it without reading from a paper. This will help you avoid the incidence of missing a line or two, or running short of what to say.

And very importantly, the audience will see it in you that you know what you are talking about. There is nothing as bad in public speaking as the speaker obviously showing he or she knew little about his or her topic.

Write down the key points of your presentation

If you are not using power point presentation, you should write on a piece of paper the points you want to speak on. This will enable you to take your presentation sequentially without missing anything.

Boost your confidently with your dressing

Put on the dress that normally gives you confidence. You can also wear perfume if that also makes you feel good. Reversing this, don’t wear any cloth you are not comfortable in.

Be yourself in your presentation

Don’t try to be like the last speaker who almost brought the roof down. You cannot be like them because you are different – you have your own style. Besides, that person may have been speaking publicly for years, with lots of experience.

Be yourself, and make your presentation your own way. What is really important in public speaking is not the method, or words you used, it’s your ability to clearly convey the message you have for your audience to them.

Don’t worry about getting a standing ovation from the crowd. This is only your first time, and that will be too early to happen. However, as you continue to have more public speaking engagements, you will get to understand what gets the crowd jumping off their seats, then you will have also joined the league of public speaking experts.

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Finding Your Purpose In Life

The most important key to living a successful life is first finding your purpose in life. What are you met to do, or to be in life?

Most people are not successful in their careers, businesses or the job that they do because they are into the wrong endeavor. They aren’t lazy or less intelligent, not at all, but their achievements never pass the average mark, no matter the amount of effort they put into the task.

Each one of us is wired differently to excel in a particular aspect of life, that’s why no two finger prints have ever been found to be exactly alike, not even for identical twins. We are all different in special ways, with special abilities to get optimal result applying minimal effort.

But the problem is that most people the world over, by the circumstances influencing their upbringing, are brought up and schooled to do things they are not designed for, to be effective and efficient at. So what happens is that they struggle each day to achieve very little.

It is like using a table in the place of a chair. Imagine organizing a conference and somehow you could only get tables, no chairs, and there was no other thing anyone could sit on but the tables.

Definitely, attendees to the conference would be uncomfortable all through the event, and would not wait for it to end.

Even the tables themselves wouldn’t be comfortable too. They will be subjected to greater weight than they were designed to carry, and some may even crumble under the excess weight.

This is why so many people are not happy or excited with their lives. They are designed to be tables, but the circumstances of life have subjected them to be used as chairs. There are people who should be world tennis stars by the way their bodies are formed, but haven’t even held a racket all their lives.

Some have been wired to be great cooks, but are struggling with singing, while many who have been made to be great singers are living as under achieving office assistants.

Life shouldn’t be a struggle or a bore. It becomes so if you have not found your purpose of been here, and are not living by what you have been created to be, by what your DNA have been encoded to perform exceptionally well. If you do, your work or activity will be fun and effortless. And you will enjoy true happiness all day.

You will be so happy doing what you do that it will not seem like work to you; in fact, it will be strange to you when people talk about it as work. Consequently, the passion and enthusiasm with which you do it will rub on the quality of your output, and will touch people’s souls such that they will be willing to pay you handsomely for it.

Certainly, there is no match against anyone who has found his or her purpose, and is doing what his or her being has been constituted to do in life!

That’s why Usein Bolt, the World, and Olympic 100 and 200 meter Champion could so effortlessly shatter records while his fellow competitors struggle from behind. Only recently, this young man ran the 100m race in an unbelievable time of 9.58 seconds without looking exhausted in anyway.

Of course you don’t have to be Usein Bolt, you don’t have his exact DNA constitution, you are You, specially designed to be world champion too in something! But you must find that thing if you haven’t yet discovered it. This is very important to your success, happiness and fulfillment in life.

And I’m glad to help you discover that purpose for which you are made, and so find true life success and satisfaction. Here are ways you can find your life’s true purpose:

Assess Your Physical Makeup

How does your body make up enable you to perform certain tasks quicker and easier than most people? Are you stronger, more athletic?
Are you faster, slower, taller, or shorter than most people? Are your legs, arms, or shoulders stronger than that of the average person on the street? Or, are you bigger, slimmer, more handsome or beautiful than most people? Are you bones so flexible that you can practically fold yourself into the figure 8 shape?

You need to identify the aspect of your physical makeup that stands you above the average person, and build a career around it. In the world we are in, your physical endowment can bring you before kings and presidents. And that’s if you used it.

If you have stronger shoulders that could carry and throw heavy objects than most people, you stand a better chance of succeeding in life as a wrestler, weight lifter, or in any other profession where the ability to lift or throw heavy objects is a critical success factor.

You could even become an Olympic gold medal winner, world record holder, and make fame and fortune doing what your whole body has been designed to do naturally.

If you are more handsome or beautiful than most people, your success can easily be assured in industries such as Television and Show Business. I sure do believe everyone is beautiful as they are, however, when I say people who are more handsome or beautiful, I’m basing my classification on societal standard.

Let’s be honest, in whatever society you are, there are certain individuals you do acknowledge as very handsome or beautiful. And you may not know it; their looks usually open doors of opportunities for them as people are usually attracted to them and would want to grant them favor.

If you have such physical endowment as recognized by your society, you would be receiving compliments from people wherever you go about your good looks.

Having people admire your natural beauty or handsomeness is a sign that you will hit success easier, quicker, and almost effortlessly in professions where physical looks is crucial to success.

But, don’t get me wrong. I don’t mean only your beauty or handsomeness is enough to get you to the top, not at all, you will have to develop yourself in the industry, and work for your success.

However, the good thing for you is that because physical appearance is important in the industry, when someone is needed you will be on the top list because you’ve got all it takes.

Your physical makeup can be one of your strongest assets to achieving success in life almost effortlessly. Therefore, you must discover which part of it you have more than most people, and build a career around it.

Assess Your Innate Ability

Everyone is born with certain skills, which they exhibit better than the average person, even without any formal training in it.

A few days ago I was watching my little nephew; he is only five years old as he played around the house. He found two sticks which he used to turn one of the plastic chairs outside into a drum. I was struck to hear the musical sound he produced, and he was also singing and dancing harmoniously to the beats.

I was amazed to see how much he was enjoying himself. And I have also seen him sing popular songs and dance to them well.
Certainly, this little boy will not struggle to achieve success in life if he built a career around music and entertainment.

It is not for nothing that we are all born with one talent or the other. It is for us to make use of them to make our society better and bring joy to other people. There are different ways people are talented. It can be with their voice, hand, leg, head, eye, ears, nose, fingers, feet, etc.

Identify where certain aspects of your being perform better, more effectively or efficiently than most people and develop yourself in the industry where such talent is crucial to the product or service it offers, by getting the relevant education or training.

Assess Your Mental Ability

Again, every human being has a unique mental constitution. This is why if you teach a class of say, twenty students the same subject, using the same method and tools for all students, and you give them a test on it, you can never have all scoring the same point, however simple or difficult the test might be. If you are a teacher, or have taught before, I’m sure you will be nodding your head now.

This simply shows that people’s brains function and process information differently. Some people use the left side of their brains more than the right side, while for others it is the other way round.

People who think more with their Left Brain tend to be more analytic and logical in their reasoning. They stick to rules, and perform well in mathematics and science, and are also good with words and languages.

They give greater concentration to projects, and are comfortable been to themselves.

On the other hand, people who use their Right Brain more than the left will tend to be more intuitive and imaginative in their thinking. They see the “Big Picture” in a project, and are good with pictures, symbols, shapes, and sizes.

Such people are not certain to follow rules, but they are creative, and will exhibit artistic skills such as writing poetry, singing, and painting.

They are comfortable been with people, and cannot remain at a spot for long – they are more responsive in informal settings.
You need to know which part of the brain you use more, and so develop a career around it.

This makes it less difficult for you to fit into the peculiar challenges and demands of the industry. And success will be easier to achieve because you are in a profession or business which you have naturally been prepared for. It removes the struggles a lot of people go through trying to make success where they have not been wired for.

As I end this article here, let me emphasize the fact that it is very important for you to first and foremost find out your purpose in life if you haven’t already. Read this article again, and do a sincere examination of yourself.

Get to know who you really are, what you have been naturally wired to do excellently in life. Then you can build a career around it.

If you discover you are in a wrong profession or career where you are struggling to meet up, be courageous to make a change – it is never too late to change. Don’t mortgage your success and true happiness that comes with living your purpose to fear of change.

Please leave your comments/questions below.

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How To Get A Job In Recession – Strategies To Apply

I want to share with you certain strategies you can apply to get a job in this era of recession, where jobs have become so difficult to get.

Though I don’t believe getting a job is the best thing to happen to anybody, however, having a job can help you to gradually move towards owning your business, which gives you the freedom to use your time as you please, and to make even much more money than you could possibly make on any job.

This is the ultimate life that anyone should strive to get to, a life that you are truly in control of. If you want to find out how you can successfully move from working on a job to owning a business and be in control of your life, you can read my earlier article on it here: Keys To Success: Four Step Plan To Move From Employee To Business Owner.

Now, back to how you can get a job in this era of economy recession when lots of businesses are closing down and people are been laid off from their jobs.

The job nailing strategies I’m about sharing with you are not common, and that’s why they are profoundly effective. With thousands of people hunting for the same job as you are, it will take you to do certain things beyond the ordinary to get noticed by job givers far and above the rest of the pack.

These strategies are not the usually recommended “having compelling resumes and cover letters”, though these are very important tools to have in the job hunting industry, however, almost everyone already knows it, and so does not really take you out of the competition that much.

To distinctively stand out of other job seekers, and immediately get access to the job giver, here are some uncommon things you can do.

Do A Free Unsolicited Consultancy For Your Target Employer

A University graduate had been hunting for a job for several months after finishing school without any success at getting his dream job, which was to work in a bank, and from there develop his banking career.

Then an idea came to him!

One of the leading banks in the country was marking its tenth year anniversary in a couple of days time. The young job seeker set forth to give the bank, perhaps one of the biggest gifts it would get for its anniversary.

He researched the bank thoroughly, found out almost everything about how it had been doing business for the past ten years; discovered its area of strength and weakness; and recommended to the bank’s management new business ideas they could go into and increase their revenue, and also ways they could get on top the industry.

Everything was documented with his contact and profile stated, and an offer to work for the bank if there was ever a job vacancy. He put the document in an envelope, which he addressed to the CEO, and personally delivered it at the bank’s headquarters where the CEO had his office.

When the CEO got it, he was shocked to see how someone who wasn’t in the company could know so much about the bank than even some of his managers. And could be so passionate about the bank as to wanting it to succeed above other banks in the country.

“This is the kind of person we want in this company,” he said.

A few days later the job seeker was invited to see the CEO, who thanked him for the love he has for his company, and asked him if he would like to work for them.

The job he had always wanted was now been put to him to accept or not – just for him to say yes – without writing any job test or been subjected to a grueling interview.

And to make it even sweeter for him, he wasn’t placed at the entry position of the bank, which was the usual starting point for all new intake, but a step higher where he would be quickly prepared for future management position.

Employers want people who know a lot and are passionate about their business. They want people who can deliver and help them fix a problem in their business efficiently and effectively.

If you are looking for a job, one of the best ways you can demonstrate to a prospective employer that you know a great deal about their industry and business, and are capable and passionate about helping them grow and achieve much more is to do what the young job seeker did.

This is a very effective strategy that could even make the employer to create space to accommodate you in their business even if there was no job vacancy at the time – they wouldn’t want to lose such valuable asset as you have shown to be.

However, for this strategy to work you must be sincerely passionate about the company you are targeting, and truly prepared to help it reach success.

Meet The Job Giver One-on-one

Here is another story of how someone got a job doing something quit unusual.

A young man in need of job saw an advertisement for a vacant job in a local newspaper that read: Wanted, young man as an understudy to a financial statistician, P.O. Box 5902, Ihube.” It was just the kind of job he had been looking for, so he immediately sent his application.

But there was no answer from the advertiser, so he sent another response letter, and a third one when there was still no answer, yet the advertiser didn’t reply. Then he went to the local post office where the box was and asked the clerk, and then the post office manager who owned the Box, but they wouldn’t tell him.

Instead of giving up, he decided he must get this job, whatever it would take him, and then an idea came to him. One early morning, he rose up, took the first means of transportation to the local post office, and stood close to Box 5902, watching who would come for it.

Some time later, a man walked up, opened the box, emptied its contents and left. The young job seeker followed from behind until they reached the advertisers office – it was a stock brokerage company.

The job seeker came in and asked for the man in charge of employment - the manager - and was taken to him. The manager was surprised how the job hunter knew he was the one who placed the advertisement, and asked him how he found him out.

After telling him how he came to his office, the manager was deeply impressed, and could not thank his star enough for bringing the job seeker his way. He had actually been looking for someone like him with a fighting spirit, who would not easily let go until he/she had achieved his/her goal.

In excitement, the manager said, “Young man, you are just the kind of determined fellow I want. You are employed!”

Getting directly to the job giver puts you in far greater chance of getting the job than just sending letters. But know that most prospective employers will not like to be reached directly until at the interview; they usually prefer job seekers go through all stages in their employment process. Therefore, you have to come up with an idea of how to reach them personally if you are sure you are the right man or woman for the job.

Think Out Of The Box

Recently, I read a Reuters News report by Matthew Jones, where a 24-year old history graduate by name David Rowe did something no one would have thought of or have the courage to do concerning his need to get a job.

Right through Fleet Street, London, Rowe was seen wearing a sandwich board with a bold heading: “JOB WANTED”. On the board, Rowe also told his prospective employers to use his service free for a month and if they were satisfied they could go ahead to hire him.

getting job using uncommon strategy

Rowe got the job, according to Gavin Walker, because “I liked the fact he had thought out of the box. I was impressed by that. I was even more impressed after the interview. He’s very employable, so much so I offered him a job to work with me.”

You surely need to be able to draw the attention of job givers to yourself, and that entails doing the uncommon things, which of course must be legal and moral.

I know it is not easy for most people to be on the spotlight, but this is one area of your life you can work on. For Rowe too it was difficult, even his father betted he wouldn’t be able to do it, but Rowe had made up his mind, and just went with it anyway, “The first 20 paces are the hardest, you feel very conspicuous, but you just steel yourself to get on with it,” he said.

Job may be difficult to get in this time of recession, however, if you would apply the strategies I’ve shared with you above, you are sure to nailing one sooner than you could ever imagine.

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Why You Should Be Happy Losing Your Job

Not many who have just lost their jobs will be happy with me for the title above. They will certainly attack me for being insensitive to their situation.

Here you have just been given the boot from your job, your source of income, which gives you the ability to pay your bills, and meet your daily need, yet I’m asking you to be happy. “What an insult,” you might say.

I’m by no way insulting you. I’m only congratulating you for your newfound freedom.

One of the greatest fears lots of people all over the world have is the fear of losing their job. They will do everything possible to remain on the job, even if they hate it terribly. They will continue on it from 8am to 5pm, day in, day out, even if their boss is a pain in their neck.

They keep at it for just one reason – the salary they will receive at the end of the month.

I happen to sometime interview people for job positions, and the reason I can see why almost everyone who comes for a job offer have for wanting the job is to earn a salary or income. Some interviewees will even tell you straight that the reason they wanted to work with you is to be able to earn some money for their livelihood, and for their family.

No doubt, these folks are honest about why they wanted a job, but such reason doesn’t put them in the position to get the job. In fact, they will probably be the least to be considered.

Employers don’t want people whose biggest motivation for their job is money. They are smart enough to know that money is a very weak motivation to keep anyone delivering their best on a job.

You can pay someone $10, 000 a month to do a job for you. That’s some money, and if that person hadn’t earned as much before, they will be excited about the job, and will do it very happily at the beginning. However, if it isn’t a job they actually like doing that enthusiasm will wane after a few months. The money will have stopped been a motivation for that person to do the job well.

Even if you increase it to $20, 000, it will only motivate that person for a few more months before it wears off again. Money can never be enough for anyone who trust in money for their happiness, and so they can never find true happiness, even when they have succeeded in amassing it.

This is why you shouldn’t ever take up a job, marry to someone, or do anything just for the money you hope to earn. Taking this route will never lead to success in life and fulfillment. Sooner, you will find that the money is no longer big enough to make you happy doing that thing.

If you have been doing a job you didn’t really like, but for the money, and now you are fired, you should roll out the drums and let’s celebrate!

You have been freed from self-imposed slavery.

Now, you will be able to think, reach to your potentials, and use them to create wealth and fulfillment for yourself.

It amazes me to see how some people weep when they are handed a sack letter. They feel the world has come to an end because they cannot see how they will be able to make money outside of working on a job.

But this is a big lie. You have got the skills, the experience, and the capacity to make money. If you didn’t have them, your former employer wouldn’t have given you the job in the first place.

Employers look for certain skills, education, and experience in prospective employees, which they need to increase their bottom line. Before you are given the job, the job giver must be sure your contribution to their business must help them to make more money, or save it from losing money, no matter what you are specifically employed to do.

If anyone paid you $10, 000 a month to work with him or her, know that that person could make or save up to $100, 000 from your effort. That’s it; employers are neither Father Christmas nor fools. They are businessmen and women who put their money where they will make profit.

So if you could make ten times more money for yourself than you are earning from working for other people, wouldn’t it be better then to work for yourself?

To be fired from a job gives you the freedom to be totally in charge of your life and time, and to make much more money doing what you love, and be happy and fulfilled in life. You will never experience true freedom as an employee; instead, your job schedule will be the determinant of how you use your time.

You may never, like most people, have been able to free yourself from the slavery that been an employee is. No matter how much you are paid to do the job that you do, the truth is that you have lost the possession of your time. For some people, the situation is so bad that they can’t even find time for their family and for other things that matter to them, because they are on their jobs almost all day, and all week. They don’t even have the time to think about their future.

That’s why you should be happy losing that job now, else you will continue living the life you don’t want until you are eventually retired, or pass on.

You now have the opportunity to make a living from what you are passionate about and love, without selling your time. When you are able to make a good living, and still have time to attend to people and things that touch your heart, then you will surely find true success in life.

And that is the kind of life everyone should live, but which having a job will not allow you to.

I’m not saying you should put in your resignation letter right away if you are still working for someone, but you have to plan towards leaving the job in the future. It is always better to prepare resigning from the job after you have put some things in place, than to be sacked, and pushed to acting reactionary, which could result in more pains.

I have earlier, in one of my posts, written on how to move from employee to owning a business, which will guide you to successfully build a business while you are still on a paid job. You can read it here: Four-step Plan To Move From Employee To Business Owner.

However, if you got fired or laid off in the wave of the present economic recession, don’t panic, you will now be able to explore your potentials to the fullest, which have been locked up for many years while you chased after money for the sake of it.

I’m glad to help you make this critical shift in your life, from an unfulfilled employee to a happy wealth creator and job giver, bubbling each day with renewed zest and freshness you have never before experienced.

Just do these exercises with me:

See Yourself As Job Creator
The most important aspect of making this shift successfully is first to position your mind rightly. Some people cannot stand the thought of losing their job. They think that’s the worst think that could happen to them, even worse than death.

Such people are those you hear about who kill themselves just from hearing the news of a coming economic recession. Can you believe that! They only hear that things are going to be difficult, that lots of people are going to lose their jobs, but it hasn’t even happened; yet they take their own life because they are afraid they wouldn’t be able to cope.

That’s what having a wrong mindset or mental attitude could cause. Yes, in recession, lots of people will get laid off from their jobs, and things will be very tough for some, yet in the same economy and condition, many others will be more prosperous than they have ever been. The difference between the two sets of people is basically their mindset.

If you believe you will make it through difficult time, you certainly will, as long as you have a goal and work assiduously to achieving it.

Once your attitude towards a problem is positive, that is, in spite of the challenges facing you, you could see in your mind’s eye a solution, a way out of it, then the ideas and resources you need to overcome the challenges will present themselves in one way or the other.

Therefore, I want you to see yourself right now, without a job, as a job creator. Once you can see yourself as that, then you have already set up the process that will bring what you need to achieve that to pass.

I remember some years ago I attended a teaching job interview, and at the end of it I was told I did very well and I should expect their letter to resume work. I did get the employment letter some days later, but something strange happened.

Reaching the school the next day I was told someone else had taken my position, that I didn’t respond earlier enough, so they had to give it to the guy that came second to me at the interview.

Although I only got the letter the previous day, I was told they had sent it several days before. Up till now when I think about that incidence, I still can’t understand what could have really happened. How could the letter have been delayed getting to me – it was self delivered to me by someone who said he was one of their staff.

Anyway, though I was very disappointed, as I really wanted the job, I wasn’t broken. I said to myself, “I will build my own school!”

On getting home, I started writing a chemistry book. I didn’t have a computer system of my own then, and I didn’t have money ready for the typing, proofreading and setting, yet I started. Somehow, I met someone who directed me to a place where, as if they had been waiting for me, I was assigned to a computer system they were not using to work on my book.

I was allowed to use their computer without making a down payment. I could pay their charges bits by bits as I could. In fact, it was from there I learnt how to use the computer.
And some months later my book was ready.

I haven’t built a school yet, but through the book I have imparted, and continue to influence much more students than I could ever have been able to as a classroom teacher. I may not have even been able to write the book in the first place if that job was not denied me.

You can actually turn a disappointing event into a valuable creation if you would allow the event, however negative it might seem, to motivate you rather than to depress you.

So now my friend, you must see yourself as a wealth creator and job giver.

Identify Your Passion

The next thing you need to do to create job for yourself and other people, and in deed create wealth, is to identify what you are passionate about. What are the things that get you really kicking? You could do them almost all day without getting bored. Is it sports, writing, cooking, baking, swimming, dancing, teaching, reading, caring for animals, caring for plants, caring for people, singing, telling stories, etc.

We all have one or two things we have great passion for. If you can identify yours, and if there are appreciable number of people who may need a service or product in the industry, then you can find a niche in it and set up a business.

For instance, if you love watching football games so much, to the extent that you have come to know a lot about the game and the capability of each club and their players in the league, you could set up a business in it feeding hundreds of thousands or millions of football fans with your in-dept knowledge about the game.

You could become a football consultant and design football related programs for TV and games. You can own a football magazine, author football related books, and become a public speaker on football. There are so many other money making opportunities that you can create from your passion for football – you only need to think about it deeply.

Go with your passion, get some training wherever you have to, and you will find you are making more money in a month than you had ever earned in a year while you were on a paid job. And the best part is that you will be making the money at your own set time and condition – you’ll be truly happy!

Use Your Special Knowledge And Experience

What did your former employers hire you to do for them? This is the time for you to use such expertise and experience to work for yourself. You can find a way to set up a business with it.

Have you been an accountant, engineer, teacher, nurse, clerk, librarian, journalist, computer scientist, maintenance supervisor, nutritionist, etc., whatever you have worked as on a paid job, you can turn it into a business, offering a service or creating a product with it.

You could become a consultant and a best selling author with millions of people happy to use your software, or read your books and be educated and enlightened. Again, there are certainly many ways you can turn your expertise and experience over the years into money-making avenues.

So you can see that losing your job is actually a great blessing for you to reposition your life to living happy and fulfilled, while you also make much more money than you could ever have been able. Rejoice!

Do You Desire Success in Life?

Would you like a FREE program from Brian Tracy that teaches you how to achieve it?

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How To Own A Car For Free And Still Make Money From It: Strategy From The Book Breaking The Wealth Code

I just read John Hrimnak’s book, Breaking The Wealth Code, with the sub-title: How You Can Earn Your First Million And Create A Lifetime Of Wealth, and it was great.

If you knew John’s background, you wouldn’t expect less. John was born into a poor home in an equally poor area of El Paso, Texas, growing up without a father to guide him through life.

But he never allowed that to stop him from achieving success in life. From his child to adulthood, he learnt and applied the principles of success that allowed him to gradually built up cash flow from his first business with his wife Shannon, and with smart investment strategies he turned his investments into millions of dollars in just three years.

In this book, he shares his strategies and uncommon skill in building cash flow, avoid falling into debt, and creating wealth, with anyone who is desirous of living a life of financial abundance.

John’s teachings are practical and simple, and anyone can easily copy his success strategies.

I particularly want to share with you one of his strategies in the book, of how you could turn something that would have been a liability, into a super income stream.

Here is an excerpt from his book, Breaking The Wealth Code, of how John usually turn buying a personal car into lots of profit:

One of the biggest items that people believe is an asset is really a huge liability – their cars. People brag, “I got a low interest rate and I’m getting a great deal and making an investment into my future by buying the car I’ve always wanted.”

They buy the car for $45,000. They make payments for five years. At the end of the five years, the car that they bought for $45,000 plus the interest over that time is now worth $10,000 if they’re lucky. The car now has almost 100,000 miles and is approaching being out of warranty.

The next thing most people do is decide they want to invest in the future some more. They could easily sell the car for $10,000 but instead they trade the car in. The dealer gives them $2,500 and says it’s a great deal and they start all over again. If you follow it all the way through, that is not an asset. It’s a liability.

I have a great system for buying cars and having them be assets most of the time. When they are not assets, they are an even tie with a liability. Sometimes it’s right in the middle. They don’t cost me any money, but they also didn’t make me any money. Even if I don’t make money on a car that I own, I think that’s still a great deal considering I got to drive it for free. I’ve been doing this since I was about twenty-one years old.

Back in those days, I didn’t have a whole lot of money to work with and so what I would do is find a vehicle that I could afford somewhere between $2,000 and $3,000. I would buy the car for cash. I would clean it up and do any minor repairs that it needed and I would immediately place an ad in the classifieds for it.

I would drive the car typically a month to three months before it would sell. I wouldn’t lower the price too much because, after all, it was a car I was driving and, in some cases, I wasn’t really too motivated to sell it. Not being motivated to sell it caused me to get what I wanted for the cars most of the time.

I had a system that I stuck with that really worked and I still use it today. First of all, I would never buy a vehicle with over 80,000 miles. The reason for that is most cars are beginning to develop major problems or have problems that are occurring at that point which is why people are selling them in the first place.

In addition, most people are not looking for a car with these miles because their perception is that it’s not going to run for very much longer. I’m not a mechanic and I can’t verify which cars last longer than others. The issue was people’s perceptions that led them to make decisions either to buy or not buy vehicles with a certain number of miles.

In addition, I would research, based on what the cars were actually selling for in publications like the Auto Trader and the local newspaper. It didn’t matter and it still doesn’t matter what Kelley Blue Book or other services similar to it say the car should be worth. All that really matters is what people are selling the car for.

Once I find the make and model that seems to be holding its value and for which there seems to be just a few of them available for sale, I target that type of car. I don’t buy makes and models of which there are substantial amounts available for sale. I don’t want to have a lot of competition drive the price of the vehicle down.

The second thing I would do is to verify if the miles are original. Back in those days they didn’t have such convenient sources as they do today. I love CARFAX. So what I had to do and I still do today, in addition to CARFAX, is I would ask them a series of questions before I saw the car such as how long they’ve owned it and why they are selling it.

The biggest question that led me to what I was looking for was always my last question, tossed out as though I didn’t care too much and it wasn’t that big of a deal. But it was a major issue that I needed to know. The question was, “Who did you buy it from?” I would later verify this question by looking on the title or by looking at it in the bill of sale that they provided so they knew they couldn’t lie and not be found out before the transaction was over.

This question, if it provoked anger, which it did most of the time, was due to the fact that the individual had purchased the car in an auction or was a dealer in disguise. For whatever reason. People like to sugarcoat or flat out lie about the fact that they own a car with a salvaged title or something less than normal on the title. If this was the case, I wouldn’t touch it with a ten foot pole.

No matter what kind of a great deal you might think you’re getting, most banks won’t finance such cars and most prospective buyers don’t want anything to do with them either. Individuals locate these vehicles from insurance companies and body shops and buy them for pennies on the dollar. Who knows the workmanship that went into them to repair them? They get them back to their original condition so that they can turn around and sell them for high profits.

In such cases, I was not interested. My system, then and now, means I only buy from private owners who have owned the vehicle for a minimum of a year. I don’t do this because I have a phobia of dealers or auctions but because people’s perception, much like with high mileage, is that they don’t want an auction car or a vehicle that showed a series of dealers owning it. I quickly learned this and only purchased first - or second-owner vehicles.

When I resold them, I advertised it in big, bold letters. People, for whatever reason, feel like if it’s a first or second or third owner vehicle, it’s a good car. For the most part I have to agree.

The third thing I would do is take the car to a mechanic. As I mentioned, I wasn’t very mechanically inclined so I needed to depend on someone whom I could trust to look over the vehicle and insure that there were no major problems with it, since I planned to sell it.

I also had a mechanic, to the best of his knowledge, try to verify if the miles seemed original by looking at the number of parts under the hood that were original or recently replaced.

My mechanic would always legitimately find something wrong with the vehicle, minor or major. I would then assess what it was going to cost me to get that item fixed with him and I would use that as a point of negotiation with the owner.

Typically the owner was present and could find out for himself what was wrong with the vehicle he was trying to sell me. If he knew it already, he seemed upset and defensive and if he didn’t realize it beforehand, he would be apologetic and gladly negotiate the difference.

Depending on what was wrong with the vehicle and after I made the purchase, I would either fix it or, in some cases, just tell the prospective buyer about the problem in advance. As long as I was asking a fair price and was being honest about what I knew, they didn’t have a problem with it.

Today my price range is a little bit different so I only buy vehicles that carry the original manufacturer’s warranty and that have less than 20,000 miles. I don’t take the cars to mechanics anymore. I simply get the VIN number and call the dealer to verify the warranty on the vehicle and the last services that were done on it.

A dealer typically has access to some service that’s overdue or coming up and I always use that as a negotiating tool and it works 80% of the time. If you can afford to buy vehicles in this price range that carry an original manufacturer’s warranty, you eliminate all the risk of buying a car that has potential major problems.

However, do not forget to verify with the dealer the current status of the warranty. I’ve had the experience before of a vehicle owner telling me that the warranty on the car expires in a certain month and year, only to find out from the dealer that the warranty was not nearly as long as the owner thought.

The reason for this is that the manufacturer’s warranty starts from the date of in-service or the month it was The reason for this is that the manufacturer’s warranty starts from the date of in-service or the month it was created and shipped.

I highly recommend using CARFAX anytime before you buy a vehicle. It’s not 100% accurate, but it does offer some strong guarantees. They guarantee that the vehicle was never in an accident, that the mileage is original and that the title is clean.

Whether you finance the vehicle or you pay cash is really up to you. The bottom line is that you’re are buying a vehicle for a certain price, then driving it for a few months and, in most cases, selling it for more than you paid for it.

Finally, be aware of your state’s Department of Motor Vehicles rules and regulations before buying too many cars within the same year.

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Recommendation

John Hrimnak’s book, Breaking The Wealth Code is a great read, loaded with practical, simple, but powerful strategies to help you crush financial lack, and create immense wealth.

I strongly recommend you read this book.

You can pick up your copy by clicking here: Breaking The Wealth Code.

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Success doesn’t just happen; it is brought about when certain things are done rightly. Here are keys and strategies that DHL employed to achieve great success, which you can of course implement in your business.

Creating Business From The Desire To Solve Problems

If your desire is to own a business, then it means you have to look for a problem to solve. You have to think out ideas of how you can go about solving the problem at a cost and convenience that will be acceptable to the people in need of the solution.

If you continue to provide the solution, then you have a business – that’s what makes a business.

And the larger the population of those you are providing the solution for, or the greater the problem is, the greater and more rewarding the business will be.

The founding of DHL in 1969 was based on Adrian Dalsey, Larry Hillblom and Robert Lynn’s quest to help shippers reduce port costs caused by late arrival of shipping documents. They reasoned that by flying in documents to be processed before the ships arrived, documentation process would speed up and port costs would be greatly reduced for shippers.

Know Your Major Customers And Where They Are

Your ability to clearly define your core customers will not only allow you to be focused on creating products and services that directly and effectively solve their problems, it will also prevent you from dissipating your resources in trying to satisfy everybody – no single business can meet everyone’s needs.

Equally important is to know exactly where you can find the people who need your solution. This will enable you to employ the best and cost effective strategies to reach them with your offer.

At its inception, DHL’s main customer was the Bank of America, which it concentrated most of its resources on, helping to deliver the Bank’s letter of credit and other documents between California and Hawaii.

And in the early 1970s, DHL became focused on developing and satisfying the international market rather than the domestic market.

Expansion Is Key To Business Success

After establishing a firm foundation, your next move should be to quickly replicate your business in other locations, locally and internationally. You must not remain in one place because your products or services may be needed strongly elsewhere – even more than the demand is at the place of origin.

Certainly, operating from several locations, providing multiple sources of income to your business, is a key to business success than just one.

Realizing that expansion is key to business success, the three DHL founders in 1972 solicited the help of Po Chung to help them establish a global network, with Po Chung starting DHL International Ltd, which expanded to other parts of the world in the 1970s.

Make Win-Win Your Stand With Stakeholders

Stakeholders of your business are people or organizations, such as your customers, investors, employees, suppliers, etc. These are people who have the capacity to affect your business in no small way. And that means you very much need their support to achieve success.

The best way to gain these people’s support and loyalty is to show concern and care for their interests and needs in your relationship with them – let your dealings with them be win-win.

DHL’s win-win agreement with Hilton International Co. in 1980 contributed hugely to the firm making about $100million sales the following year.

Give Equal Chance To Your Employees To Progress

A big motivation to any employee is to know that they could climb to the highest position in the organization through excellent contributions to the organization. They will give the best of their creativity, talents and dedication to the business.

In 1984, a former DHL courier driver named Joseph Waechter became President of DHL Airways.

Find Innovative Ways To Beat Competition

You will always have competition as long as your industry exists, and when there is much money to be made, it becomes even stiffer. To stay ahead of the competition therefore requires high degree of innovation from your business.

You must continually come up with new and better ways of satisfying your customers.

As the competition grew tougher with the entrance of both Federal Express and UPS into the international express delivery market in 1985, DHL embraced a strategy where it partnered with certain businesses.

For instance, it collaborated with Western Union to deliver the company’s documents created from its EasyLink electronic mails, thereby making it possible for people to send documents through courier without needing to hand-deliver them at the courier’s office.

Diversifying Into Related Businesses Makes You More Competitive

In addition to the fact that moving into related business areas increases your revenue, it also enables you to compete effectively in your industry as you offer your customers a wider range of products or services.

Failure to extend into closely related business areas could be dangerous because it may give room to your competitors to gradually eat into your market share.

After 20 years of carrying small packages, DHL in 1990 started carrying heavier cargo when it entered the freight services industry – this enabled it to remain on top of the competition.

Read DHL’s Business Success Story here
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I love success stories. And they have been one of my greatest motivators to success. When you read the success stories of businesses or people who have gone before you to achieve what you are now striving for, it will make it easier for you to achieve the goal.

You will be aware of the possible challenges on the way to reaching the goal, and from the strategies applied by the one who came out successful; you also have the solution to the obstacles in your hand.

It’s like having the answers to an examination even before sitting for it. Your chance of succeeding in achieving the same goal is sure higher if you knew the story of how someone else succeeded in it.

That’s why I like bringing you these stories because I know they are immensely valuable, and will greatly motivate, inspire, and guide you to achieving success in your business.

Although some of these stories may not be about modern day entrepreneurs or businesses, however, the principles they exhibited or applied that enabled them to start and build their businesses to global enterprise, touching lives in several places around the world for decades (or centuries), is timeless, immutable, and universal.

Your geographical location might be different, and time may have changed very much from the settings in the stories, but one thing is certain, if you implement the principles that made success possible for these entrepreneurs or businesses, you will surely hit success also in your business and in your life.

Today, I’m bringing you the amazing success story of DHL, a company formed by three young men with a common passion to help shippers quickly process their documentations at the ports and so save lots of money and time. Propelled by that desire, DHL is now the global leader in international express and logistic business.

Here goes the story…

DHL was founded in 1969 by three young shipping executives by name, Adrian Dalsey, Larry Hillblom, and Robert Lynn, who observed the huge cost shippers incur because their documents arrive late for processing.

They reasoned that if the shipping documents could be flown from port to port, they could be examined and processed before the ships arrived, and that speeding up the process would decrease port costs for shippers.

With this in mind, the trio combined the first letters of their names to form the acronym DHL, thus beginning an air-courier company that revolutionized the delivery industry.

DHL rapidly developed into an express delivery service between California and Hawaii, then quickly expanded to points east. The company’s primary customer was the Bank of America, which needed a single company to carry its letters of credit and other documents.

DHL branched into the international market in the early 1970s when it began flying routes to the Far East. And when its competitor Federal Express was developing its domestic overnight delivery network, DHL focused on further developing its international service.

In 1972, the three original investors recruited Po Chung, a Hong Kong entrepreneur, to help them build a global network. Chung started DHL’s sister company, DHL International Ltd., headquartered in Brussels, Belgium.

Beginning then, DHL Worldwide Express functioned as two separate companies, DHL Airways Inc., based in Redwood City, California, and DHL International. While each company acted as the exclusive agent for the other, by 1983 DHL International had grown to be five times its domestic counterpart.

DHL International’s rapid expansion continued throughout the 1970s, adding destinations in Europe in 1974, the Middle East in 1976, Latin America in 1977, and Africa in 1978.

The 1980s would bring the firm increased growth as well as greater competition. During this time, DHL continued to expand, by turns cooperating with competitors and warring with them.

The company also sought new outlets for service, working out an arrangement with Hilton International Co. in 1980, agreeing to provide daily pickup of documents at 49 Hilton Hotels, and arranging for international delivery – its couriers moving the packages through customs – then delivering them locally.

It was a win-win situation as Hilton was able to offer its patrons a high-class delivery service and DHL was guaranteed new outlets for its business.

The next year, 1981, DHL flew ten million shipments between 268 cities and made approximately $100million in sales.

In 1983, DHL estimated it carried 80 percent of the bank’s material traveling by courier from Europe to the United States. Revenues jumped to approximately $600million.

In 1984, as former courier-driver, Joseph Waechter, became President of DHL Airways, DHL provided service to more than 125 countries, and its 500 stations were handling 15 million international and domestic shipments annually.

Yet, just as DHL was looking to cut into the business of its domestic competitors, those same companies were aiming to siphon off portions of DHL’s international business.

In 1985, both Federal Express and UPS entered the international express market. As competition became more intense, DHL increasingly began to co-operate with businesses in similar areas.

The company teamed up with Western Union to deliver documents generated on Western Union’s EasyLink electronic mails, allowing people to send documents via courier without having to hand-deliver the material to the courier’s office.

Revenues for the entire DHL network, in 1988, were calculated to be about $1.5billion, helped in part by another joint venture with a Hungarian company to create DHL Budapest Ltd. That year, DHL controlled 91 percent of the packages bound for Eastern Europe from the West and 98 percent of all outbound shipments.

In 1990, despite a 60 percent share of the international overnight delivery market, the company began to expand into new areas of business. To keep up in an increasingly competitive industry, DHL Worldwide entered the freight services industry and began carrying heavier cargo.

In the company’s 20-year history of carrying small packages – generally under 70 pounds – this was DHL’s first major departure from its core business.

In 1991, DHL Worldwide’s revenues were $2.3billion, and it was the 59th largest private company in the United States, with 21, 000 employees handling more than 80 million shipments.

By 1994, DHL Worldwide was 25-years in business, and it controlled 52 percent of the Asian express shipment market, leaving FedEx and UPS with 24 percent each.

The following year, DHL poured over $700million into expansion of its Pacific Rim operations. DHL was not only shoring up facilities in Hong Kong and Austria, but also venturing into 16 new cities in China, India, and Vietnam.

DHL Worldwide grew even larger in August 2003 when it completed the acquisition of Airborne, Inc. for $1.05billion. Based in Seattle, Airborne was the third largest express delivery company in the United States.

By acquiring Airborne, DHL augmented its air express operations within the United States, and, perhaps more importantly, gained control of Airborne’s nascent ground delivery network and thereby gained ground on its US arch-rivals, FedEx and UPS.

With the vision to remain highly competitive, and maintain its market leadership in future, DHL unveiled its state-of-the-art research and development center, The DHL Innovative Center in 2007 with the mission to develop new, highly innovative and marketable products from the logistics trends of the future.

Starting as a three-man business only four decades ago, DHL now has over 300,000 people in its workforce in more than 200 countries, and generating tens of billions of Euros annually in revenue.

How was DHL able to achieve such monumental feat in just forty years? Read the strategies and keys to DHL business success here: Keys to DHL’s Business Success.

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Don’t Eat The Marshmallow Yet is a great book filled with priceless principles; revealing the secret of achieving success in life. The book is a product from Mr. Posada’s many years of research to find the secret of success -.the reason why some people succeed and others fail.

I want to share with you a particular part of the book where Mr. Posada brought out a very important principle of success with a parable, which he called “The Marshmallow Parable”.

You have to read this parable, which is also explained at the end, to be sure you are safe from been one of the 90 percent of people who wind up in their sixties and seventies still working for money, or depending on social security or children for their basic needs – people who, sad to say, fail to secure their future financially.

Here is the Marshmallow Parable:

Marshmallow Eating Is Self-Defeating

Jonathan Patient, normally as serene and confident as the Brooks Brothers suits he favoured, was feeling slightly shopworn as he left a tense business meeting. When he reached his limo, he found his chauffeur stuffing the last ketchup-covered bite of a burger into his mouth.

“Arthur, you’re eating the marshmallow again!” he admonished.

“Marshmallow?” Arthur was as bewildered by his employer’s harsh tone as he was by the publishing mogul’s words. (Jonathan Patient was known to be verbally cryptic.) “It was a Big Mac, honest. I can’t even remember the last time I had a marshmallow. I didn’t even get any Peeps in my Easter basket this year, and I haven’t had a fluffernutter sandwich since-”

“Relax, Arthur. I know you weren’t eating a real marshmallow. It’s just that I spent the morning surrounded by marshmallow-eaters, and I was frustrated to see you doing the same thing.”

“I think I feel a story coming on, Mr. Patient. Would you like me to drive while you talk?”

“Please, Arthur. Esperanza is making her world-famous paella – your favourite, as I recall – and I asked her to begin serving in twenty minutes – at one o’clock – which ties into the point of my story, as you’ll see.”

“So what does a marshmallow have to do with anything, Mr. Patient?”
“Patience, Arthur. You’ll find out soon.”

Arthur pulled the Lincoln Town Car smoothly into midtown traffic and tucked his nearly solved New York Times crossword puzzle behind the passenger-seat visor as Jonathan Patient settled back into the soft leather seats and began:

“When I was four years old, I participated in what eventually became a famous experiment. I just happened to be the right age at the right time. My father was studying at Stanford-he was working on his master’s degree-and one of his professors was looking for preschool participants to help gather research for an experiment about the effects of delayed gratification in children.

“Basically, kids like me were placed in a room, one at a time. An adult came in and placed a marshmallow in front of me. Then she said she had to leave the room for fifteen minutes. She told me that if I didn’t eat the marshmallow while she was gone, she would reward me with a second marshmallow when she returned.”

“A two-for-one deal. A hundred percent return on your investment! That would be pretty intriguing even to a four-year-old,” Arthur mused.

“Certainly. But at age four, fifteen minutes is a long time. And with no one around saying no, the marshmallow became awfully hard to resist,” Jonathan said.

“So did you eat the marshmallow?”

“No, but I almost ate it about a dozen times. I even licked it once. It was killing me not to eat that marshmallow. I tried singing, dancing – anything I could think of to distract me – and after what seemed like hours, the nice woman finally returned.”

“And did she give you… a second marshmallow?”
“Absolutely. Those were the two best marshmallows I ever ate.”
“But what was the point of the experiment? Did they tell you?”

“Not then. I didn’t find out until years later. The same researchers gathered up as many of the original ‘marshmallow kids’ as they could – there were about six hundred of us in the first study, I think – and asked our parents to rate us on a series of skills and traits.”

“And what did your parents say about you?”
“Nothing. They never got the questionnaire. I was fourteen by then, and we’d moved a few times. But the researchers found nearly a hundred of the marshmallow families, and the results were quite remarkable.

“It turned out that kids who didn’t eat the marshmallow – and even those who resisted for a longer time – did better in school, got along better with others and managed stress better than the children who ate the first marshmallow shortly after the adult left the room. The marshmallow-resisters turned out to be vastly more successful than the marshmallow-eaters.”

“Well, that certainly describes you,” Arthur said, “but I don’t get it. How could your not eating a marshmallow at age four turn you into a billionaire Web publisher at age forty?”
“It didn’t directly, of course. But the ability to delay gratification of your own free will turns out to be a strong predictor of accomplishment.”

“But why?”
“Let’s get back to my original comment when I saw you eating that Big Mac. Weren’t you the one who told me this morning that Esperanza promised to save a nice dish of paella for your lunch today?”

“Actually, she promised me the best serving, the one with the most langosta-but I wasn’t supposed to tell you that.”
“And what were you doing thirty minutes before she would have served you the best paella in town?”

“Eating a Big Mac – eating the marshmallow! I get it. I couldn’t wait to eat, and I spoiled my appetite with something that I could get any time.”
“That’s right. You went for instant gratification rather than hold out for something you really wanted.”

“Gee, Mr. P, you’re right. But I still don’t get the big picture. Does eating or not eating marshmallows really have anything to do with the fact that you’re sitting in the back of the car, relaxing, while I’m up here driving?”

“Yes, Arthur, it makes all the difference in the world. But I’ll explain it more tomorrow when you take me back into the city at nine. We’re home now, and I’m on my way to enjoy a delicious lunch. What are your plans, Arthur?”
“To avoid Esperanza until I’m hungry again.”

Arthur dropped off Jonathan Patient, opening both car and house doors for the man who’d handed him pay-checks and, when he listened, valuable lessons for five years. He didn’t know why yet, but he suspected that the marshmallow lesson would prove the most important of all. Without pondering it further, Arthur exited the estate, drove to a nearby grocery store and purchased a bag of marshmallows.

Successful People Keep Their Promises

“Good morning, Mr. P. I hope you’re going to keep your promise about explaining the marshmallow story. I can’t stop thinking about it.”
“I’ll explain as much as we have time for on our way into the city, and as much as you want to know on every drive thereafter. Successful people don’t break their promises.”

Jonathan slid into the backseat as Arthur held the door open for him.
“Really, Mr. P? Seems in business all you hear about is people lying and reneging on deals.”

“That’s true, Arthur. And some people make a lot of money without honoring their commitments. But sooner or later, it catches up with them. People are more likely to produce the results you want if they trust you. But that’s another story. And, Arthur –”

“Yes, Mr. P?” asked Arthur, still standing with the rear door open.
“We’ll get to the marshmallow story faster if you get inside the car.”
“Oh, ha! Right, Mr. P.” Arthur donned his cap, hurried around the car and started its engine.

“Well, Arthur, as I recall, you wanted to know how to apply the marshmallow theory. You wanted to know why marshmallow-resisters are more successful than marshmallow-eaters.”

“Yes, I want to know if that’s the secret to your success and my, er, limited fulfillment.”
“Limited fulfillment. That’s a clever phrase. I can see why you do well on those crossword puzzles you solve during your downtime.”
“Thanks, Mr. P. I’ve always been good with words. Not that I get much chance to use them.”

“You can change that, Arthur, and I’m going to show you how. But first, let’s get back to your earlier marshmallow-eating days. We’ll start in high school. What kind of car did you drive?”

“Oh, man, Mr. P, I had the hottest car! It was a cherry-red Corvette convertible, a guaranteed babe magnet. I even got the homecoming queen to drive around with me in that car.”

“And is that why you bought it?”
“To get hot girls? Absolutely! And it worked too. My little black book was full, from Angelica to Zoe.”
“I believe you. How did you pay for the car, Arthur? Was it a gift?”

“No, I used the money I got for my sixteenth birthday party for the down payment. Then I had to get a job to afford the monthly payments and insurance and a second one so I had enough money to spend on all the girls who wanted to date me. Then, if the car needed repairs, I was really in trouble, begging my bosses for extra hours so I could get the car fixed before the weekend. I was broke most of the time.”

“That ‘Vette of yours was a pretty big marshmallow, wasn’t it?”
“Huh? What? Oh… it was that instant gratification thing, wasn’t it? I had to have the best car and the hottest girls immediately. And they’re all long gone. Today, I don’t even have a car – I drive yours – and none of the classy ladies are interested in a guy who wears a driving cap. This is depressing. Mr. P. But doesn’t every guy in high school want hot cars and hot girls? Didn’t you?”

“Of course I did, Arthur. I often envied guys like you in high school. Do you know what kind of car I drove in high school? A ten-year-old Morris Oxford. It was the cheapest transportation I could find – in fact, it cost me three hundred and fifty dollars.

But it got me back and forth to my job and school and even carried the occasional willing girl on a date. Neither the car nor I were ‘babe magnets,’ as you call them, but I chose to save my money for college, believing that education was the key to getting all the nice things in life I wanted.

I didn’t eat the marshmallow and look what I got instead.”
“About a gazillion marshmallows, Mr. P. Including some mighty tasty-looking marshmallows of the feminine variety, soft and fluffy in all the right places – when you were single.”

“Yes, Arthur, you’re right,” Jonathan said with a chuckle, “although that wasn’t exactly the example I had in mind. Try this one. If I offered you one million dollars today or the sum of a dollar doubled every day for thirty days, which would you choose?”

“Mr. P, I am no dummy. I would go for the million bucks. Don’t tell me that you would go for the damn buck doubled every day for thirty days!”
“Again, Arthur, you ate the marshmallow. You go for what is obvious instead of thinking long-term.

“You should have taken the dollar. If you had done that, you would have more than five hundred million dollars, yet you settled for a mere million.”
“I can’t believe it, Mr. P, but I know you don’t ever lie to me, so it must be true.”

“Yes, Arthur, that’s the amazing power of resisting a marshmallow. Five hundred million dollars in a month is a whole lot better than one million dollars in a day.”
“OK, Mr. P. I think you’re starting to convince me, but what do I do with the theory?

How can I apply it to my life, and how do you apply it to yours?”
“We’re almost at the office, Arthur, so I can’t answer both questions completely. But let me give you a quick example. Remember, yesterday, when I grumbled that the people in the meeting were all marshmallow-eaters, and how we got started on this conversation?”

“Of course. I think it’s the first time I’ve ever seen your tie out of place.”
“We were negotiating a deal to sell our e-sales training courses to a major Latin American corporation.

They wanted to buy one course from us that, because of the company’s size, would have meant a one-million-dollar deal. I was pushing, as I always do, to sell a more complex package of services, courses and seminars that would have meant establishing a long-term relationship with the company – ten million dollars to start and an important connection in the Latin American market.”

“So, what happened?”
“The president of the company was out of town, and we got a call from the Vice President, who wanted to meet with us. Our Vice President of sales went for the sale when their vice president told him exactly what he wanted, which was the one-million-dollar package.

What he should have done was to get away from the easy solution and start probing to find out other needs they have. He went for the marshmallow, Arthur, instead of developing a business case strong enough for us to get the ten-million-dollar deal. This happens all the time, Arthur, in many companies all over the world.”

“So you got the one-million-dollar deal. Not what you wanted, but not horrible, right?”
“Nothing’s been signed. And it gets worse. Yesterday the president of the company calls me and wants to know why we backed out of the long-term relationship.

He thought I’d broken my word. He was insulted, believing we’d lost confidence in him, and was opposed to signing any deal with a company that would only think of immediate gain and would not find a solution that exactly met their needs.”

“He didn’t want to deal with marshmallow-eaters!”
“Exactly. We may have lost the ten-million-dollar deal and the one-million-dollar deal because we ate the marshmallow!”
“Can you fix it?”

“That’s what I’m about to find out, Arthur. But in any event, it’s going to be a long day, possibly a long night. You can go on back to the house, and I’ll call you if and when I need you to pick me up today.”
“Good luck, Mr. P. I’ll be rooting for you!”
“Thank you, Arthur.”

Arthur drove back to the Patient estate, parked inside the six-car garage and walked back to the carriage house that he lived in, rent-free, as part of his salary. His life was pretty comfortable. Low-stress job, no major expenses.

But after five years, what did he have to show for it? Nothing in the bank and about sixty bucks in his pocket. And no plans that extended beyond next week.

Arthur sighed, entered his modestly furnished home and picked up the bag of marshmallows he’d purchased the day before. He ripped open the plastic bag and started to pop one into his mouth, then stopped and set it on his nightstand.

If it’s still there in the morning, he told himself, I’ll have two.

The End.

Hope you got something valuable from the story! Please leave your questions or comments below.

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Recommendation

I recommend Don’t Eat The Marshmallow Yet by Joachim de Posada to you if you desire to discover how you can become successful at your work and in your life - you will find it highly rewarding.

Read the complete book: Don’t Eat The Marshmallow Yet! here.

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More Articles.

At one point or the other, as we strive to reach our goals, we find that we desire something from someone else or from a group of people. No one ever grows out of needing something from other people.

If you are unemployed, you need someone or some company to give you a job. If you desire to help people in need, you would need donations from other people or foundations; if you have a business that needs funding, you may need an investor to bring the needed money.

If you need more sales in your business, it means you need to reach more people to buy, or your existing customers to buy more. If you need items in bulk for your production, you would need suppliers to help you out.

I could go on and on with more instances where you could need something from another person or institution, but that would be overwhelming. I’m sure as you read this, you can easily relate to it because there is something you are needing from someone else right now.

The point I want to bring out here is the fact that we are interrelated, and interdependent on one another. All of our activities in life connect with other people. And if we must succeed at anything, be it in our personal life or business, we need other people to help out, to give us that which we need.

But nobody will give you anything just because you want it, there must be something about giving it to you that will make that person feel happy giving it to you. And the only way you can strike that code in them is in your communication with them.

Communication is a powerful tool which successful individuals and businesses use to achieve their goals easily. And it is a skill you must develop to have easy success in life. You must be able to communicate with other people, such that their resistance to doing what you desire is totally removed.

You must know that people always hold themselves back when there is a call for them to give out something they possess to someone else. They will ask themselves, consciously or unconsciously why they should do it.

Your target customer will want to know why they should buy from you. There is always the “What is in it for me?” question that pops up in the mind of any person that is been asked to give or buy something.

If a compelling answer does not follow that question, then you will most likely lose getting that thing. And a persuasive answer will only come up if you’ve previously had a good communication with that person.

As a matter of fact, 85% of your success in life or business will depend on your ability to communicate effectively with other people. No wonder the majority of people the world over are not successful.

The majority of people on earth don’t understand just how critical their communication with other people or institutions affects their success.

This does not mean they don’t work hard. You may be the hardest working fellow around, but if you cannot get what you want from other people, then there is no way your hard work will translate to success. And to get what you desire from other people means your communication with them must be effective.

Now what must your communication have for it to be effective, and for you to be able to get what you want from people? But before I go ahead let me first state that communication is not just conversation, it is beyond that.

It involves emails, letters, proposals, fax, resume, CV, cover letter, sales letter, and ads. It involves all platforms through which two or more people can interact.

Back to what makes effective communication:

It Should Be Friendly

It is easier to get something from a friend than from a total stranger. This is because the person giving the thing has certain positive perception about the receiver that makes it very comfortable for him or her to easily release it.

And of course, this perception would have been created partly by the communication and actions of the person to his or her friend over time.

A friend is someone who is understanding, compassionate, loving, accommodating, protecting, reliable, kind, dependable, caring, and freely giving. These are some qualities expressed that will make one a friend to someone else.

So tell me, who wouldn’t give out something to a friend - someone who is seen in the above light?

You can equally apply this basic psychology in your communication with people even if you haven’t related or met them before. All you have to do is to reflect the friendship-building qualities above in your conversation, letter, email, proposal, resume, or any other medium of communication you are using with people.

But you should be sincere about it; otherwise the gains you make will not last long. If you give somebody the impression that you are reliable only to default on the very first assignment given to you without a justifiable reason, could immediately lead to the termination of whatever deal you had gotten before.

It Should Dispel Any Fear

There is always a fear, doubt, or concern in the mind of anyone when they are asked to give out something to another person. Will this person be able to do this job? Will he or she have the time for this project? Can we really trust this company with our funds? Can this product actually solve my problem? These are some fears people could have that could prevent them from going ahead to granting other people’s requests or buying from them.

If you must get what you need from other people or get them to buy your product, you have to find out what their fears might be concerning giving it to you or buying from you – don’t think there are non, there is always one or two. Then assure them, with convincing evidence or guarantee in your communication with them, that you are right above the fear.

It Should Answer The Second Party’s Desires

The person or company you want something from also has a need or desire they would like to be met. Remember the “What is in it for me question?” You must therefore identify their burning desires and address them in your communication with them.

Sometimes, you may be able to know right away what the second party’s desires are. For instance, if you were applying for a job, you would easily see what is of importance to the company you are seeking employment from in the job description, and so tackle it in your cover letter and resume.

Where the need of the second party is not openly stated, it means you will have to do a little research to find it out.

It Should Be Sincere

Let your communication be sincere. Everyone loves to deal with sincere people. Don’t try to claim what you are not, you will definitely be found out, and then you will lose everything.

It Should Acknowledge Your Weakness, But…

As part of been sincere in your communication, if you think there could be a weakness on your part that could prevent the other person or people from giving you what you want, you should point it out, but you should also be quick to point out how you could easily improve yourself or make up for the deficiency.

For instance, if a job you are applying for requires that you know how to speak Latin, but you could only speak English at the moment, you should acknowledge this set back, but let them know you are prepared to take a crash course in Latin, and that you could get a handle on it in a week or two.

This will definitely turn the table around in your favor. One, it shows you are sincere to accept your disadvantage (which is a plus on the character scale), and two, it shows you have a fighting spirit to overcome obstacles on your way; and three, it shows you are willing to change or learn something new.

It Should Clearly Express Your Desire

Your communication cannot be said to be effective if it keeps the other person or people guessing what it is that you want. Don’t assume the other party should know what you want, make it very clear to them. You could list them out so that there is no ambiguity about your position or desire.

It Should Emphasize Your Strength

Your strength, especially when it is relevant to the other person you need something from, could be your greatest selling point to having what you want.

Carefully, and strongly pointing out what you can do very well for the other person, more than anyone else, will put you in the position of getting what you desire. It will quench a big fear or doubt the person may be having about you.

A lot of people miss the opportunity to nail a job, land a good business or other deals, because they are not able to communicate their strength strongly enough to assure the other person or people that they are the right one.

Without been boastful, or arrogant, you must communicate what you can do exceptionally well to the other person. If you don’t, there is no way they can know it. And that means you will likely lose the position you desire to someone else with less ability.

More Articles.

Soichiro Honda’s Business Strategies For Growing His Small Business Into Global Corporation

How was Honda, an ordinary apprentice boy, able to create the multi billion dollars business empire that the Honda Motor Company is today? What were the strategies that he implemented that brought him success, and took his small business into every part of the world?

That is what I want to reveal to you in this article – some golden secrets of business success as proven by Honda. Be aware that these strategies are still very much relevant to business success today, and you can freely apply them to your business.

Whether you are running a small, medium, or large business, these strategies are for you, and your business will definitely experience a monumental growth if you apply them – I’m damn sure of that!

Honda’s Business Strategy One: Knowledge is Key To Business Success

To achieve success in business, and indeed anything in life, adequate knowledge of the thing is needed.

Soichiro Honda got himself thoroughly prepared for his business before setting out by getting the needed knowledge. As an apprentice automobile mechanic for six years, Honda was able to study the automobile industry from the basics, acquiring great deal of knowledge about the workings of machines, and the common faults in automobiles.

And when he was having difficulty making piston rings, he realized he needed a higher knowledge, and he went to get it at a technical school.

The huge knowledge of automobile machines, and the problems consumers have with their motorcycles, without doubt enabled Honda to create motorcycles that are of high quality, light, easy, fun and exciting to ride; as well as effortlessly to maintain, and affordable.

These qualities in Honda motorcycles, made possible by Mr. Honda’s knowledge of the industry doubtlessly made his motorcycles a global success.

As with Honda, your knowledge of your industry can actually be one of your strongest competitive advantages, as it will enable you to create products and services that meet and even surpass what your market want. It will also enable you to create systems to run your business efficiently and successfully.

To succeed in business therefore, it is important to have adequate knowledge of your industry, which you have to continue to update to remain abreast of modern trends.

Honda’s Business Strategy Two: Expanding Into Other Lands

Another strategy that Honda implemented in his business that made it hugely successful was to expand it into foreign lands. Honda’s coming to the US market allowed it to explore a massive market with great purchasing power. This enabled him to sell much more of his motorcycles than would have been possible if his business had remained in Japan only.

To hit success big time and grow your small business, do not restrict your operation only to your immediate environment, for your product or service may even be more valuable and needed by people in other places than you know. It is therefore important to include expansion strategy in your business plan, and determine where, how, and when to spread.

Expanding your business undoubtedly brings huge reward as your sales are enormously increased and your business firmly rooted.

Honda’s Business Strategy Three: Identifying Virgin Lands

The ability to see good business opportunities to profit before everyone else does is an asset that every successful business owner has and uses to dominate their industry.

When everyone thought the US market was a ‘no go area’ to sell motorcycles, because of the low image of motorcycles then in the US, the Honda Motor Company thought the opposite. They saw a huge market in the US to develop and dominate.

And in just five years Honda had achieved their dream in the US. They had replaced the negative image of motorcycle with that of fun and excitement, making millions of Americans happily desiring to own theirs.

As a business owner or manager, you must develop the ability to quickly spot business opportunities that other people have not seen, and go for it. This will allow you to be first choice on people’s minds when that business opportunity fully matures.

Honda’s Business Strategy Four: Avoiding Direct Competition

It is extremely unwise to come into a market newly with similar product or service as the market leaders. Your small business may not have the resources to knock them off the position they are already occupying in the consumers’ minds. And if competition is stiff in that industry, they could easily and mercilessly over run your business.

But why go through all that trouble when what you should do is look for a niche and differentiate your business and what you are offering clearly from the competition.

That was exactly Honda’s strategy for entering the US market. They were not trying to be another large-displacement models, which were already in the US market, but a small, affordable, easy-to-live-with machine, that provided transportation and excitement.

Honda’s Business Strategy Five: Having A Business Philosophy

Honda’s success from a small business to a world giant wouldn’t have been possible without their business philosophy, which everyone in the company knew and believed in.
Everyone’s work in Honda was guided by the business philosophy:

“Maintaining an international viewpoint, we are dedicated to supplying products of the highest efficiency, yet at a reasonable price for worldwide customer satisfaction.” The philosophy helped them to know exactly what kind of products they want to make and who is it for.

With this philosophy, every worker knew he or she is working to satisfy the global market and so must upgrade his or her performance to international standard, as well as to keep an eye on cost of production.

Having a business philosophy is a must if you want your work force to be galvanized into a winning team, working with a singular motive.

Honda’s Business Strategy Six: Defining Your Target Customers

A business owner who is crystal clear about who their customers are will surely be successful. It will enable him or her to concentrate his or her resources in understanding the needs of the customer, and to look for how best to satisfy them.

Naturally, the customer will pick such businesses first before others, because they know, and meet the needs of the customer more than other businesses.

Applying this strategy, Honda was very clear about who their customers were: people who wanted small, light, easy to handle and maintain two-wheeled vehicles.

Know that it is not possible for you to sell your product or service to everybody in your market. Don’t even attempt it because there is no such product that everybody needs!

You must have a clear understanding and definition of who your product or service is exactly for. That way, you will be focused at really satisfying those people. And consequently, you will also reach success just like Honda did.

Honda’s Business Strategy Seven: Setting Big, Achievable Goals

The Honda Motor Company was out to sell a staggering 12, 000 motorcycles a month even though they were then new to the US market. Although they did not achieve this immediately, they were however motivated by this goal, and four years later they had even surpassed it.

Don’t limit yourself, but set big and achievable goals. This will give you the purpose and the motivation to work harder. You will be amazed to see how much more you can achieve if you sought more. There is a wise saying that says, “Aim at the moon, if you miss you will land on one of the stars.” Apply this strategy and see your business jumping to greater heights.

Honda’s Business Strategy Eight: Preparing For Delayed Success

Though the ultimate desire of any business owner, be it small or large, is to be successful quickly, the success however may not come that soon. There may be initial set back, but if you keep pushing, you will get there.

The Honda Motor Company was not discouraged for venturing into the American market even though they made a loss in their first year of operation because they had a strategy in place to expect initial loses, with their eyes fixed on the possible future gains.

Honda’s Business Strategy Nine: Giving Your Customers Great Quality And Service

Giving their customers high quality products complemented by great service have been one of Honda’s most effective strategies in taking their business to the pinnacle of success in their industry.

Mr. Honda himself revealed this strategy in his business when, while addressing his dealers from the US in 1961, he said, “Dealers must give their customers the very best service. Quality and service are like the two wheels of a motorcycle, with one, the vehicle will fail…. This is the reason we have been able to draw away from our business rivals.”

Whatever business you are in, and whether it’s a small business or big, this is a strategy you must never fail to inculcate in it if you desire success.

Honda’s Business Strategy Ten: Demonstrating The Efficiency Of Your Product To Consumers

It is not enough to state what your product can do in an advertisement; publicly showing proof of its strength and abilities is a more effective advertisement.

The Honda Motor Company realized this strong marketing strategy and took advantage of it to clear American consumers’ minds about Japanese products being inferior when in 1962 three Honda’s motorcycles survived a week-long-24-hour-per-day Maudes Trophy endurance test in England.

If you really want people to give you attention and buy your product or service, you have to find a way to show them, or to demonstrate to them how effective and efficient it is, rather than just saying it.

Honda’s Business Strategy Eleven: Advertising, A Major Key To Success

The impact of advertisement to business success cannot be over emphasized. People need to first be aware of what you are offering before they can decide whether to patronize you or not. It should therefore be of top priority in your plans and budget to advertise your business exhaustively.

However, it is important to come up with strategies that will make your advertising efforts effective and worth the money you expend. For example, you will need to be sure how much impact the media you are choosing for any campaign will have, and the message you are communicating to the public.

Honda’s advertising strategy in the US was to use media, such as general interest magazines, that could reach a huge number of the population, and to change their unfavorable mindset about using motorcycles by making them see motorcycles as a fun and exciting thing to have.

And when the opportunity to reach even greater number of their target customers presented itself during the 1964 Academy Awards telecast, American Honda didn’t fail to seize it, even though at a very high cost, because it fell right on their strategy to reach a massive audience with their message.

As a small business owner, you may not have enough advertising budget to hire an agency to help you design your campaigns, and to advertise on big platforms like the Academy Awards, but there are lots of smaller and far cheaper platforms you can advertise your product on.

Sometimes, you may be able to get free advertising for your business. I have written about how to get free advertisement before, you can read it here: How To Get Free Advertisement.

Read the full Soichiro Honda’s business success story here

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Soichiro Honda’s Success Story: How He Created The World’s Most Successful Motorcycle Business

The success story you are about to read ranks among the world’s amazing rags-to-riches stories ever told. It is about how a man, Soichiro Honda by name, with no formal education surmounted all odds to successfully build his business from scratch into a multinational enterprise, leaving huge lessons for today’s small and big business owners alike to draw lessons.

Here it goes:

Soichiro Honda's success story

Born to a blacksmith father, who owned a bicycle repair business on November 17th 1906, Honda grew up in the rural neighborhood of Iwata-gun, helping his father with his business until he was 15. At this age, with no formal education he thought his chance of succeeding in life would be better if he moved to Tokyo to get a job.

And by 1922, young Honda was working as an apprentice car mechanic at a garage in Tokyo, learning all he could about the workings of automobile machines. He was on this work for six years before coming back home in 1928 to set up his automobile repair business.

Eager to put his knowledge and experience of automobile machine repair to work, Honda organized the Tokai Seiki Company Ltd to make piston rings, but the project was not yielding result. And after seven years of trying without success, Honda realized his technical knowledge was not enough, and that he needed to upgrade it, so he got enrolled into a technical school in 1935 with the singular goal to discover why he couldn’t produce piston rings.

With his knowledge enhanced, Honda was finally able to successfully make piston rings, not only for automobiles, but also for motorcycles and airplanes.

In 1948, he observed that the supply of motorcycles or motorbikes as it is also called, was short, and saw a big opportunity to make profit in the business. Quickly, he formed the Honda Motor Company Ltd with 13 employees, housed in a 12 by 18 foot shed in Hamamatsu.

A year later, Honda launched his first motorcycle, which he named Dream D, and two years later he introduced the 1500cc “E” model Dream. The motorcycles were successfully accepted in the market and sales were doing well.

Honda success story: the Honda Dream

Without getting carried away by his success, Honda continued to improve on his motorcycles’ quality and design, and by 1959 Honda was the largest motorcycle manufacturer in the whole world, producing 500, 000 units yearly. With this monumental success, and the belief that a huge market exist globally for his light, fun to ride, and cheap motorcycles, his next plan was to expand his business internationally.

To decide the region to expand to, a survey was carried out and the result advised that the Honda Motor Company should spread their business into Southeast Asian and the European market, rather than the US. The US market was not favored primary because of the very low motorcycle riding culture prevailing at the time, with annual sales of only 60, 000 units as proof.

But instead of heeding the advice to leave out the US market in his expansionist drive, Honda did the exact opposite.

He reasoned that he stood a big chance of succeeding in the US market - his light motorcycles will not be competing directly with the large-displacement models that Americans loved, and that if he could take away the low image Americans had about riding motorcycle, and replace it with a positive one, he would be able to win the hearts of millions of people to buy his motorcycles since the US combine a large population with strong purchasing power. And that he was determined to achieve.

Therefore, bound by their marketing philosophy, which says, “Maintaining an international viewpoint, we are dedicated to supplying products of the highest efficiency, yet at a reasonable price for worldwide customer satisfaction,” the Honda Motor Company entered America market June 4, 1959.

With eight men, including Kihachiro Kawashima, the General Manager and leader of the American operation, a small shop on Pico Boulevard in Los Angeles, and with an operating capital of $250, 000, America Honda Motor Company had come for one kind of customers: people wanting small, light, easy to handle and maintain two-wheeled vehicles.

At first they were taken as jokers by competitors and industry watchers to think Honda motorcycles could succeed in America.

In one meeting, a competitor asked Mr. Kawashima how many motorcycle he thought he would sell, and Mr. Kawashima answered 12, 000. “Well, that’s pretty good number for a year… about 1,000 a month?, the competitor asked again. “No, that’s not what I mean,” Mr. Kawashima replied, “I mean 12, 000 a month.”

Fired by the passion to establish their business in the US, Honda personnel were everywhere seeking dealers to sell their motorcycles. Though many known dealers they met turned them down, they were not discouraged. And instead of wasting more time trying to convince the established dealership structure to accept them, Honda focused on creating new dealership with sporting goods stores, hobby shops, and hardware stores.

Honda did not immediately strike success in the US. By the end of the year they were able to get only 15 dealers to distribute their motorcycles and pull in sales of 1,732 units, netting $500, 000 in gross income and a net loss of $54, 000 for the company.

However, by the close of 1961, Honda’s US dealership had climbed to 400, due mainly to the superb performance of their newly introduced Hawk range of motorcycles – the CB72 250 Hawk, the CB77 305 Super Hawk, and the CL 72 250 Scrambler.

Honda success story: the 1961 Hawk range - CB77

Honda knew if they continued making only high quality products at reasonable price to their customers, and back it up with excellent service, it would only be a question of time before motorcycle lovers begin shifting to theirs. This belief was spread to their American dealers when Honda addressed them in 1961 in Japan:

“Dealers must give their customers the very best service. Quality and service are like the two wheels of a motorcycle, with one, the vehicle will fail. It’s the same in enterprise. We, the manufacturers and the dealers, have worked together to run our business positively based on the universal truths I have mentioned.

“This is the reason we have been able to draw away from our business rivals. You have the world’s largest market, while Honda is the world’s Number One motorcycle manufacturer. If we combine the biggest market and the excellent Honda products – like the two wheels of the motorcycle – then we can easily develop ourselves to the utmost business in the world.”

And proving Honda Motor Company actually walk their talk, three Honda 50cc motorcycles passed a week-long 24hrs per day Maude Trophy endurance test in England in 1962, traveling a distance of about 16, 000 miles.

This feat brought immense popularity and sales to Honda as lots of people began to take them seriously as a manufacturer of quality product. That year, Honda received their first manufacturer’s award in a decade, which they held for eleven years. They moved into truck and automobile business while maintaining a 65% domination of the Japanese motorcycle market.

Though, they had warmed their way into the hearts of many American motorcycle lovers, most Americans still didn’t like riding on motorcycle. This was the next thing Honda was determined to change.

Honda embarked on an advertising campaign to remove the negative perception Americans have about motorcycle by presenting motorcycles as socially acceptable vehicles, and to plant the idea of motorcycling, Honda and fun in non-users’ minds.

The campaign slogan was “You meet the nicest people on a Honda”, and was carried out using general interest magazine advertising. Before long the strategy proved to be a huge success, with a great number of Americans clamoring to have a ride on Honda’s light, easy to ride and maintain, and affordable motorcycle, which also provided fun and exciting to be on.

By 1963, just four years of Honda Motor Company’s arrival in the US, they were importing about 150, 000 Honda motorcycles to the US market, and their staff strength had grown from eight to 150.

The following year, Honda did something incredible. They decided to spend half of their advertising budget for the year in one night – to place two 90-seconds advertisements in the Academy Awards telecast of 1964 – this cost $350, 000.

The reaction the adverts drew was explosive. Like magic, millions of Americans were ordering their own Honda motorcycles. The adverts threw Honda instantly into National lime light, attracting big companies, such as Westinghouse, Coca Cola, RCA, Pepsi Cola, and DuPoint to do joint ads with Honda.

By the close of 1964 American Honda was the clear leader in image direction, marketing and education, and held 62% of the US motorcycle market.

In only five years, Honda had taken over the American market for motorcycles, and had converted millions of Americans into happy motorcycle riders far from what it used to be.

Apart from been the largest motorcycle manufacturer in the world, Honda Motor Company has equally gone ahead to distinguish itself as one of the world’s largest and trusted automobile manufacturers, with every of their products sealed with the unshakeable Honda business philosophy of quality product and excellent service.

Soichiro Honda died on August 5, 1991 at the age of 85, but not before seeing his dream come true; his once a small business in Japan, becoming a global market leader spreading to many countries of the world. His success story does not leave only inspiration for today’s entrepreneurs and business managers, but also great practical lessons to adopt for business success.

How was Honda able to turn his small business into a world class business empire? Discover his business strategies and apply to your business here: Honda’s Business Strategies For Growing His Small Business

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Looking through the path I’ve come from in my online business journey, I have identified those things I eventually found after groping in the dark for sometime trying to figure things out by trial and error, and did that gave me success, and I’m sure if you imbibe them your learning curve will be shorter and you will hit success quicker and less expensively.

So here are my keys to owning a successful online business:

Have The Right Mindset

There are certain wrong notions about making success in online business that you have to be aware of and guide against if you will have a successful business online. In order to get you to purchase their course, a lot of Internet marketers out there will tell you their product will enable you to start making tons of dollars instantly with little or no effort.

That all you need is to bring out your credit card and place an order, and the money will start pouring into your account ceaselessly.

Of course this is a deceitful tactic, which not few new comers to the Internet fall into. With the prospect of making lots of money quickly and then be able to solve all their financial problems, a lot of them are immediately fired up to wanting the product desperately. But after one, two weeks of purchasing the product and no money is made, they get discouraged, abandon the program, and order another.

And after going through the same cycle several times, spending lots of money, they will most likely become completely despondent and cynical about anyone really making money online, and therefore pack up the idea of having a successful online business.

But the truth is that online businesses are not too different from businesses in the physical world. A business, whether done on the Internet or physically requires time to build. Success in business doesn’t happen overnight, it gradually builds up when you are consistent in it.

There is a learning phase, which you have to pass through to be able to understand the business and know how things work online, before you can get close to success. Remove from your mind the thought of making money fast; even the so called Internet marketing gurus who sell these courses never made money in their business as quickly as they say you would when they were starting out. Many of them started making money several years after they began their business.

The same goes for effort. Please know that there is work to be done to succeed in any online business just as in physical businesses. In fact, there is a load of work you will have to do yourself if your budget is not big enough to allow you outsource or pay for some of them.

Having an untainted perspective of what to expect owning an online business is the foundation to achieving success in it. You will be more prepared for the challenges ahead and gradually build the business to the point it will begin to make money.

Learn As Much As Possible

There is no question about it, without adequate knowledge of any business, success can never be made. You need to learn as much as you can about online business generally, and fortunately, there are lots of materials on the Internet that can help you with the education. Again, fortunately, a lot of these materials are free. You can get free information about online business or marketing by subscribing to newsletters published by proven experts, researching the Internet, reading blog posts, and visiting forums.

Choose A Business Model And Be Focused On It

There are many online business models, and you cannot do all of them together at the same time. To achieve success online, you will have to choose one business model and be completely focused on it for a reasonable length of time, say one to five years, before adding something else.

Your knowledge of the industry will help you here to decide the business model you want to do, and having decided it, you now have to concentrate on the model, and learn the deep secrets in it. You may have to attend seminars or take courses online, or buy relevant books to take your knowledge beyond the average, and this will definitely cost you some money, but it is worth it, and it will pay off good later.

Get A Coach To Understudy

You need to find somebody in the business model you have chosen who is already successful, and is passionate about teaching it. You can have him/her as a coach by subscribing to his/her program.

Apart from the fact that your coach will give you the necessary assistance to achieve success in the business, you will also be able to see the inner workings of his or her business, from which you can model yours after.

In addition to the person you have taken as your coach, you can also pick two or three successful people in the business to understudy. Visit their sites or blogs regularly, read their newsletters and sales letters and observe how they do their thing.

You will be able to identify the strategies that produce success for them, and implement them in your business too. I have personally gained a great deal of knowledge from this underground study of successful online businesses, and you too can explore this free avenue to picking the Gurus’ brains.

Build Trust In Your Business

Even more than is demanded from physical businesses, the success of online businesses hugely depends on trust. Your potential customers may be visiting your site from different countries of the world and they don’t know you personally. There will therefore be some resistance against their making purchases, however, if you have built integrity and credibility, you will sell more.

There are different ways you can make your site and business credible and trusted for people to comfortably do business with.

One way is to have trial or free versions of your products for your visitors. This gives your potential customers the chance to see how good your product or service really is. And if they are satisfied, they will not only buy, but also refer other people to you, as well as give you good testimonials.

Another way to make people trust your business and so buy from you easily is to have the testimonials of satisfied users of your product placed on your website for your potential customers to see.

Also, you can have a newsletter published frequently to give your subscribers updates, tips, and free useful information relating to your business. By doing this, you will be establishing a strong relationship with your potential customers, and with time many of them will freely buy from you.

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3. Making Money From Online Surveys: What to Avoid

However, failure by anyone to understand how much they can influence life, and allow their minds to be ruled by negative thoughts will definitely lead to a failed life.

The principle of Thoughts and Reality is a simple principle of life, which can bring anyone who uses it positively the good things of life, and enable them to experience success, happiness, and fulfillment; while wrongly used will result in the opposite life.

It is to fill your heart with thoughts of the good things you desire to achieve or possess, and think of yourself already having them and using them for the general good of humanity. If you think of these things frequently each day, gradually, in the course of time you will find yourself possessing them.

Whatever you think strongly of having, so much that it is always on your mind day and night, you will surely get to have it – that is the law!

When I first got to know of this life’s principle several years ago, and began to examine my thoughts and my successes, I was stunned to note that there was nothing I had achieved or possessed that I hadn’t thought intensely of having before.

Let me give you just one example, because there are lots that I discovered as I examined my life.

In my early years of using the Internet, one of the things I really wanted to know was how websites were created. I was always astonished when I visited a good website and saw the graphics and the various functionality operating automatically.

I deeply desired to know this, but I couldn’t afford the training. I only had a part time job and with what I was earning, I would have to put all of it aside for a year to be able to take the training, and that I couldn’t endure.

I thought of who I knew that I could meet to give me at least an idea of what website designing is all about, but there was known. However, my desire to know it did not waver.

Then about a year later, I got a job with an NGO as a writer for its magazine publishing arm. Not quite long, I was asked to include updating certain aspects of the NGO’s website. To enable me to do this job, the organization had to sponsor me to attend a website design training seminar – something I had so much desired earlier.

If you take a minute or two to think about your life you will definitely see that there is nothing you have now that wasn’t just a thought sometime ago. Think about it, that car, that house, and that job.

Did you not first thought about them, imagining how they would enhance your life? Of course, you had the image of that car in your mind for days, weeks, months, or even years before you eventually possessed it materially.

That is how it is for everything that is ever created or brought into reality, and for every living soul on earth who ever possesses. Everything in life, good or evil must emanate from thoughts.

From your thoughts come success and wealth. There is no way you can ever be successful in what you do, or be in possession of great wealth without having the thought impressed indelibly on your mind, and becoming inseparable from you.

As you fix your thoughts on whatever that you so desire, you would have set up the process that would convey them to you, and as you continually think and imagine yourself in sound health, success and wealth; and as you believe this, you will be gradually brought to live in them.

In the passage of time, you will find yourself in possession of information, employment, in the circle of people, etc., who will unfold the opportunity for you to possess them. In fact, you will come into the right place at the right time to walk into that which your heart so longeth after.

Like I said before, I have lots of personal experiences since I began to seriously observe my thoughts, and I believe you would too if you examine yours. And I ask you to begin to use your thoughts to create the successful person that you desire to be.

Those things that you so desire will Surely come to you! The Principle of Thoughts and Reality is infallible and has been proven again and again, and will still work for you or anyone, irrespective of time and place on the earth.

Thought is supreme. Your thoughts build your circumstances. Think success, think love, think wealth, think health, and so you will become! “For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he…” – Prov. 23 vs 7

As potent as thoughts are, do not waste a minute filling your mind with negative ideas and information. Do not think of yourself as failure, poor, sickly, foolish, stupid, never-do-well, alcoholic, drug addict, fearful, unhappy, hateful, worrisome, etc.

These are negative thoughts and will conform you to them. They will become your reality. Rather, see yourself as being successful, intelligent, rich, happy, loving, healthy, brave, kind-hearted, etc., which you actually are! Yes, You deserve to be!

“Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.” [phi 4 vs 8, emphasis mine]

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Recommended for Further Reading

Financial Success: Harnessing the Power of Creative Thought

This intriguing book shows how freedom from both economic and emotional insecurity can be achieved in practical, creative, and noncompetitive ways. The approach outlined in this book enables the reader to find their proper place in the cosmic scheme and to create for him or herself a harmonious environment in which to grow in wealth, wisdom, and happiness.

You can see detail of the book here: Financial Success: Harnessing the Power of Creative Thought

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Success Quotes

Here is a quote I love and I know it will inspire you to success too.

Whenever you go out-of-doors, draw the chin in, carry the crown of the head high, and fill both lungs to the utmost; drink in the sunshine; greet your friends with a smile, and put soul in every handclasp. Do not fear being misunderstood and do not waste a minute thinking about your enemies. Try to fix firmly in your mind what you would like to do; and then, without veering off direction, you will move straight to the goal.

Keep your mind on the great and splendid things you would like to do, and then, as the days go gliding away, you will find yourself unconsciously seizing upon the opportunities that are required for the fulfillment of your desire, just as the coral insect takes from the running tide the elements it needs.

Picture in your mind the able, earnest, useful person you desire to be, and this thought you hold is hourly transforming you into that particular individual…Thought is supreme. Preserve a right mental attitude - the attitude of courage, frankness, and good cheer. To think rightly is to create. All things come through desire and every sincere prayer is answered. We become like that on which our hearts are fixed. Carry your chin in and the crown of your head high. We are gods in the chrysalis.

- Elbert Hubbard

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1. Success Begins in Your Thoughts

I have to ask you this question straight away because your success in achieving anything in life very much depends on it. Take a minute or two to think about what you want to do or have already started doing and look at yourself, do you feel you can do it? Are you convinced you could succeed at it?

Be honest to yourself now, if you think you are not intelligent, not smart, not skillful, not educated, not strong, or not good enough; or that you do not have enough money, or connections, to enable you succeed on the project, please don’t do it. It is better to go do something else because you will definitely fail in this.

I’m sorry if I sounded hash, but the truth is, you can never achieve success in anything without first having a strong belief you could do it. It is not possible, because the road to success is packed with challenges that must be surpassed to achieve it, and if you’re not sure you will succeed, you will easily give up against the very first difficulty that comes up.

The way to success is like a journey from point A to B and in-between there are stages to contend with. Take for example; you have this idea of creating a computer game. To get this game successfully into the market, it will need to pass through certain processes, such as, designing, production, marketing, and distribution.

Success will not just come about because you desired to have a computer game, you will have to make it happen by working out these processes.

But each of these processes or stages in your way to success comes with its challenges. You could have spent tons of hours, working day and night for several months only to end up with a design that appears to be dead from the start; a product only a handful of people seems to be interested in. If you didn’t have a strong belief in yourself and your product, you would immediately pack it up.

Innumerable number of great dreams have prematurely ended at the foot of rejection, and million more people the world over are everyday giving up on reaching success because the people they thought would believe in them and support them on their projects are not forth coming.

Don’t expect everyone to believe in what you are doing, in fact, be prepared to be rejected. But don’t ever reject yourself, your abilities and who you are!

You are unique and special in your own way. Don’t try to be someone else, and don’t get intimidated by other people’s successes or achievements. If you believe strongly in yourself, soon other people will begin to believe in you too, and you will also be celebrated.

Today, the name JK Rowling is widely known in many parts of the world for creating the Harry Potter series, but it wasn’t so about a decade ago. In fact, in 1993 she was on welfare and tending a baby while she wrote her first novel, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.

Without doubt, she believed strongly in her book, which she started in 1990, and completed five years later. But not many people thought she could succeed as a children’s book writer. Twelve publishers rejected the book before a small London publisher finally accepted to take it on.

Even then, the editor of Bloomsbury (the publishing company), out of his doubt about the success of the book, advised Rowling to get a day job as it was unlikely she would make money from it.

But Rowling’s belief in her work didn’t sway. The book was eventually published in 1997, with a print run of 1000, five hundred of which distributed to libraries.

Following the release of the book, a series of events started playing out to catapult a once massively rejected author into the world’s most successful and richest author today:

A couple of months after her book was published, she got a grant of £8000 from the Scottish Arts Council for her to concentrate on her writing. And the following year she got a deal of $105,000 from Scholastic Inc. to publish the book in the US.

Since then, Rowling and her Harry Potter Series novel have never looked back. They have leapt from one success to another, beyond anyone’s imagination.

Harry Potter and the Goblet, the fourth in the series broke sales records both in the US and the UK when it was released in 2000, selling three million copies in the first 48hrs in the US, and over three hundred and seventy thousand in the first day in the UK.

The sixth novel, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince equally shattered previous sales records for books the world over when it hit nine million copies on the day it was released in 2005.

Then came the seventh and last Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows in 2007, breaking the last one’s record to become the fastest selling book ever published in the world. The book sold a staggering eleven million copies both in the UK and the US in 24hrs of release, making JK Rowling the world’s first billionaire writer.

JK Rowling couldn’t have reached this monumental success if she didn’t believe in herself. She moved on with her work, disregarding whatever anyone thought about her book not good enough to succeed. She was even compelled by her editor to use her initials as the author of the book, instead of her full name because the editor feared young male readers who are her primary audience would not be inclined to read a book by a female writer.

JK Rowling’s success story simply shows that there is nothing you cannot achieve if only you believe in yourself. You may be working on something that hasn’t been done before and people tell you it’s not possible. But it can be possible if you believe it can!

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