Success or Failure? It’s all in your Mind…

What is it that separates people who are successful from those who are not? Is it hard work? Is it education? Or is it luck? Certainly all these factors – and many more- play a role in determining if you are successful or not. But there is one factor that seems to stand above all the other factors, and that is a belief in and the want to succeed.

If you think about it, what every successful person has in common is that they have a firm belief in themselves and a belief that they will accomplish what they want to accomplish. There is not one successful person who didn’t believe deep-down in their heart and soul, that they could be successful.

I know what your thinking, how can it possibly be that easy? How can just believing that you’ll be successful lead to actual success? Well, it’s much easier said than done. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t true.

Obviously there’s more to it then just believing you will be successful. In fact, there are many people in the world who think they’ll be successful but they don’t actually do anything about it. They just somehow believe they’ll magically “make it”. But these people are dreamers. And they don’t really want to succeed. If they did, they’d do more than just dream.

If you truly believe you have what it takes to succeed, and you truly want to succeed, then you will succeed. Why? Because you’ll keep working until you actually make it. And you won’t mind doing whatever it takes, you won’t mind working very hard, because you’ll know it’ll all be well worth the effort. You’ll know you’re going to succeed.

This is why there are so many people in this world who are wildly successful without taking the conventional paths to success. There are many people who quit college. There are many people who went against what everyone told them and did things the way they wanted to do them.

But you know what? These people probably would’ve succeeded even if they did finish college and even if they did what other people wanted them to do. This is because these people had a solid belief that they would succeed and they really wanted to succeed.

So what can you learn from all of this?

Well, the main lesson you can learn is that the path you take isn’t nearly as important as your will. This should be a great comfort to you.

What this means is that you can take many different paths and still reach your goals. You can make mistake and still achieve success. You don’t need to do everything perfectly in order to make it. As long as you keep your belief in yourself and what you’re doing, and as long as you really want to succeed then you will succeed.

So, always remember that your mind can be your best friend or your worst enemy. If you don’t believe you will succeed, then you won’t. But if you believe you can succeed – and you’re willing to do what it takes to do so – then you will achieve your goals and you will be successful.

Tunnel Vision…

It separates the mediocre from the empire builder

Special Guest Post by: J.F. (Jim) Straw

Have you ever wondered …

“What is the major difference between people making an extra $1,000 per month and those who are making the really big money?” The answer is simple. — Well, maybe not so simple – but – over the years, I have observed that one of the greatest differences between those who achieve mediocre results … or no results … and those who start a small business and build an empire is that they have developed a …

Tunnel Vision Approach! Although “tunnel vision” … represented by a closed-in and very narrow view of the objectives of the company; like looking through a tunnel …i s one of the curses of big, bureaucratic businesses, it is an absolute necessity for the beginning entrepreneur.

Too many people who want to become rich and successful never reach their goals simply because they do not develop a tunnel vision approach to their goal. Instead, they are constantly searching for that one perfect business; that one BIG deal, that will put them on Easy Street … overnight … for the rest of their life.

One week they are trying to get into the export business. The week after they want to own a franchise, or buy an apartment building, or start a mailorder business. Each new book they read creates a greener pasture for them to explore. They don’t miss out on trying any, and every, new opportunity. They manage to eke out an existence, or even achieve a modicum of success – but – they never make any real money.

Most of them keep their “day-job” while they explore opportunity after opportunity…never making a true commitment to any business…just dabbling in the business world; looking for that one big deal to give them “overnight success.” — If it wasn’t for their “day-job,” they…and their family…would starve to death.

The beginning entrepreneur who, on the other hand, develops a tunnel vision approach to making money usually makes it.

As an illustration, let me tell you a true story about my first successful full-time business…the business upon which I began building my empire.

Since the age of nine, I have been an avid reader of “how to make money” books. — Each time I read a new book, I discovered a new opportunity and chased around trying for a time to make my fortune in that field. The grass was always greener in this new pasture. After all, I had been trying my current business for a couple months and hadn’t yet made my fortune.

Back in the mid-1960s, as a result of some of my reading, and with my wife’s urging, I had opened a small retail Women’s Wig Shop. — There was supposed to be a real fortune to be made in that field.

In a few months, I had read another book and was ready to get started on yet another quick fortune. After all, I had opened the Wig Shop, like the “book writer” told me, and the world had not beaten a path to my door.

While I was explaining my proposed plans to my wife, she nearly floored me when she said, “Why don’t you just give up and let’s try to at least make a living from this Wig Shop.” (By the way, nobody ever becomes rich and successful until they “give up” and quit chasing non-existent rainbows.)

Her comment cut deep into my male ego. It intimated that I was less than a good provider and hadn’t really earned a living for us. It made me mad … mad enough that I told her, “All right, if that’s what you want, I’ll do nothing but run the Wig Shop. If it fails, we can starve together.”

In other words, I was going to show her that we couldn’t make it in the wig business. I would be right, and she would have to agree that we should have gone ahead with my latest plans.

Since I was no longer spending my time developing or investigating new plans, I had plenty of time to get involved directly in the sale of wigs in the shop.

In no time at all, I learned that I couldn’t answer the questions the customer were asking about the wigs. This led me to start reading everything I could about wigs. How they were made. Where they came from. The differences in construction. The tests of quality…what made one wig worth more than another. — All so I could answer the customers’ questions.

While I was learning these things, I also discovered that I was buying from third and fourth party dealers, and was paying entirely too much for my inventory…only allowing me a gross profit of from 25% to 40%. I found purchasing directly from the importers and manufacturers reduced my costs, and increased my profits.

Every time I got side-tracked and started working on a “new” project (outside the wig business), my wife would put it down by saying, “Look, we’re making money in the wig business. Let’s stay with it.” — Slowly but surely, with my wife’s urging, I developed that all-important tunnel vision.

To make a long story short, in less than three years I was one of the largest wig dealers in the southeastern U.S. My fortune was made. — I had bought a new Cadillac, a 14-room mansion with five bathrooms and a 20′x60′ swimming pool.

If you are now, like I was then, I can just about hear the comments running through your mind. — Hey, I’ve been there. I know what I was thinking at the time. — If your reasoning follows what mine was back then, your thoughts are probably something like this…

“If I put all my eggs in one basket, I could lose everything.”

Or…

“What if I get so involved in only one business that I miss that really big, one-time break that might come along?”

Or…

“What if the business only pays me a living wage? I’ll be trapped. I want to make a fortune, not just a living.”

Set your fears aside. If you develop and use a tunnel vision approach in any business, you will eventually make your fortune through a logical progression of accumulation, leverage and natural diversification.

I didn’t make my first fortune by only operating one wig shop. In less than six months, after I started really concentrating on, and dedicating my time to, the wig business, I had two shops, then three, then four. Each one producing more revenue, income and profit.

Then I discovered that I could buy-out whole wig shops that had bankrupted for pennies on the dollar and resell the inventory through my wig shops…at full retail prices. — I even exported some of the wigs…made in the orient…to wig dealers in other countries (at prices lower than what they would have paid if they had bought the wigs directly from the manufacturer).

Later, I began selling the bankrupted inventories to other wig dealers before I ever owned then. I didn’t even have the wigs shipped to me. I bought them on the West Coast, sold them on the East Coast, had them shipped direct, and pocketed the difference in prices. — In some cases, I just introduced the buyer to the seller and pocketed a fat finder’s fee…without ever buying or selling anything.

What I did was to take the techniques and ideas I had learned about in other businesses in which I had been involved and applied them, while staying within the scope of my tunnel vision…the wig business.

If you’ve been reading “how to make money” materials for any time at all…whether you realize it or not…you have soaked-up literally hundreds, upon hundreds, of business ideas, techniques and applications you can use in your business (no matter what that business may be).

As an example: At one time, I had thought about getting started in a “Party Plan” business. It didn’t pan out, but I applied the party plan idea to the wig business by going back to the party plan book and adjusting everything to fit my wig business.

It wasn’t unusual for one of my “wig parties” to produce from $300 to $500 in one evening. — More that a month’s salary back then.

Another book I had read told how a restaurant had increased its business by painting its building bright colors, adding banners and hand-painted signs.

So, I had the outside of one of my wig shops painted yellow, orange and red…using “day-glo” paint. The windows were painted red, green, blue and yellow in a carousel pattern. Hand-painted, brightly colored signs were everywhere…inside and out. — The business doubled overnight.

Reading about a novelty shop franchise, I had learned that they used a “loss leader”…an item they offered at cost; or less…to bring customers into the store.

Beauty salons in our area, at that time, were charging from $7.50 to $15 to style women’s wigs. So, wig styling became my “loss leader.” We did wig styling for $2…if the woman bought at least one wig from our shop.

When a woman left a wig for styling, or picked one up, we could show them new styles. They just kept buying. One lady bought over 50 wigs from us in less than 2 years. — We did all of her wig styling at $2 each…saving her a fortune in stying charges alone – plus – she was a walking advertisement for our wig shop and referred countless new customers to us.

Once I learned, developed and used a tunnel vision approach in my wig business, I made my fortune through a logical progression of accumulation, leverage and natural diversification.

“Natural diversification” catapulted me from a successful business as a wig merchant to world-renown as a writer, publisher, mailorder marketer, when I began writing articles about making money in a Wig Shop…for publication in trade magazines…then, getting paid to write similar articles for other wig merchants to help them market their wigs.

Throughout the years, I have observed that all successful business people have developed that all-important tunnel vision approach in their businesses.

So, the major difference between people making an extra $1,000 per month and the ones that make big money … the difference between beginning entrepreneurs who just eke out a living in business and those who build empires …i s that, those who succeed are those who develop and use a tunnel vision approach. The others keep thinking there has to be something else … better, more profitable … that they could be doing, so they keep looking-for it, instead of using what they have to achieve the success they want.

Give up on finding a better, more profitable opportunity. Apply yourself to the opportunity at hand…whatever it may be (selling my products, or somebody else’s). — Give-up spending your time developing or investigating new plans. — Make what you have work for you. Accumulate, leverage and diversify logically. — You won’t succeed in anything until you develop and use a tunnel vision approach in your business endeavors…as all successful business people have.

J.F. (Jim) Straw made over One Million Dollars ($1,000,000) in less than 60 days … over $50,000 in 15 minutes … on one single deal. When he told a friend what he had done, his friend made $20,000 in 3 weeks … without any money … doing the same thing. — Find out how they did it. Visit: http://marketingyell.com/JimStraw

Knowledge Is Power! Or is it?

Special Guest Post by: J.F. (Jim) Straw

When you have learned that 2 + 2 = 4, you have gained a useful piece of “information.” – When you have learned that 2 apples + 2 apples = 4 apples, but, that 2 apples + 2 oranges = 2 apples & 2 oranges, or 2 pairs of fruit, or 4 fruits, you have gained all-important “knowledge.”

Information is nice to know. It lets you answer the questions on tests (or when watching TV game shows). But, until you learn to use that information in a practical application, it isn’t knowledge.

Any child of 2 or 3 years of age can tell you that 2 + 2 = 4. They have heard it repeated, over & over, until they can repeat it themselves. But, when confronted with 4 apples, they are at a loss to apply that information.

The same holds true for older students (and even adults) who can readily tell you that Einstein’s Theory of Relativity can be expressed by the formula, E = M times C squared. – Until they know what the E, M & C stand for and can use the formula in a practical application, it is only information, not knowledge.

A fine line exists between information and knowledge. That fine line is nothing more than “use.” — You can memorize bits and pieces of information all day, every day, but, until you actually use that information, it is not knowledge. Once used, information becomes knowledge and, thereby, power.

SUCCESSFUL PEOPLE; whether they be self-employed or wage-earners, executive or common laborer, are seekers after knowledge. They absorb information from every direction. The information they can use becomes knowledge, while the information they have no apparent use for is simply stored on the chance that someday it may become useful.

UN-SUCCESSFUL PEOPLE, on the other hand, claim to be seekers of knowledge, but, they believe that knowledge itself can be imparted. Because the books they read, the courses they take, and the plans they buy contain only “information.,” they are forever disappointed. Because it is ONLY INFORMATION (not the “knowledge” they thought they were going to get), they never use the information and, thereby, the knowledge they sought is lost to them forever.

Since I am the author of a great many books, booklets, reports, articles and editorials about success and making & using money (somewhere over 300 so far), those people stick-out like sore-thumbs on my customer lists. They write me long letters detailing their trials and tribulations and explain to me just why the information won’t work for them. But, not one ever writes to say “I used the information and it didn’t work.” – Had they ever used the information, that information would have turned into knowledge and they could have reaped the rewards they have coveted for so long.

If there was a way I could “force” those people to use the information they have, I could literally GUARANTEE their success. And, in those few cases over the years where I have been able to shame or intimidate people into actually using the information I have provided, those people have achieved successes they had only dreamed were possible.

The RULES OF SUCCESS used by successful people & businesses since the beginning of time have never really changed. Those rules have been written-down for all to read, learn and use, but they appear as “information” only and can only be changed to “knowledge” by use. If there were a way to “force” every person and every business to “use” those known and proven rules of success, there would be NO UN-successful people or businesses in the world.

Statistically, 90% of small businesses fail, and 90% of people live a life of sustained mediocrity, simply because they will not “use” the information available to them.

In your quest for financial independence you MUST learn to force yourself to use the information you have at your disposal. — No one (but YOU) is going to force you to assume that responsibility.

Of course, some smart aleck reading this is going to say, “Yeah! But, I’m not going to use any bad information.”

Granted, there is bad (counter-productive) information out there. BUT – there is NO WAY of telling good information from bad information, UNTIL YOU TRY IT. Judging the value of information without using it is like trying to judge the flavor of a pie without ever tasting it.

If you learn nothing else from life, learn that information only becomes knowledge when you use it – and – the information you have used or failed to use in the past is the reason you are where you are today.

YOU can be your best friend, or your worst enemy. No one forces you to be what you are, or do what you do (or don’t do). – What you have today is a direct result of what you did yesterday. What you will have tomorrow will be a direct result of what you do (or don’t do) today.

It’s up to you!

Visit: http://marketingyell.com/JimStraw

Success Secrets

Success Secrets Of The Self-Made Millionaires

It is common knowledge that most people will never get rich working for someone else. And sorry but if right now you’re working at a “job” that’s just the way things are…

If you haven’t figured it out already, you should know that whenever you follow the majority of the people, whenever you do things the way the masses do it, you’re pretty much doomed. Because, by following the masses, you’ll get the same results as they are getting, which is usually pretty dismal.

I learned the hard way that in order to get results similar to those of the rare 5% of the successful crowd, I would have to break away from the norms of the rest of the population and follow the methods of the successful 5%. To do the same you need to unlearn what you know and learn what the successful people are doing.

So, what is the fastest road to financial independence?

I’m willing to bet that you already know the answer…

… The quickest way to gain financial independence is to have your own business. A business where you call the shots, you set the hours, and you keep 100% of the profits!

BUT! If all it takes to be financially successful is to start and run your own business, how come everyone isn’t doing it? And how come everyone isn’t successful?

You probably also know that for most people, starting a business is not that easy, is it?

And if you already have your own business, you probably know all too well that it’s not that easy to earn a consistent profit and make a living running your own business.

Also, it’s often not as “fun” as some people try to make it out to be.

Well, if this is ringing a bell with you then you should take a look at “Success Secrets Of The Self-Made Millionaires (click here) because that’s what this new book is about. It is about giving you the tools and knowledge that few people know and use to make their business a success, to earn generous profits.

Now maybe you have your own business and you’re already making good money from it but would like to make more money, and become more successful!

Well, that’s covered too. Whether you have a successful business, an average business, or no business at all, the information in this book will help you be as successful as you’d like to be!

Check out – Success Secrets Of The Self-Made Millionaires Today!