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A Wayne Dyer Lesson

Over Memorial Day weekend, Rex Hoover sent me this email and I thought the message was powerful. Even more powerful to me was the comment in the message that only 2 people out of the 50 people in the story embraced the winning ideas and the rest made excuses.

This is a Wayne Dyer lesson. He really inspires us to look at life differently, and with a sense of humor, he's very easy to listen to.

DUCKS QUACK, EAGLES SOAR
No one can make you serve customers well.....that's because great service is a choice. Harvey Mackay, tells a wonderful story about a cab driver that proved this point.

He was waiting in line for a ride at the airport. When a cab pulled up, the first thing Harvey noticed was that the taxi was polished to a bright shine. Smartly dressed in a white shirt, black tie, and freshly pressed black slacks, the cab driver jumped out and rounded the car to open the back passenger door for Harvey .

He handed my friend a laminated card and said: 'I'm Wally, your driver. While I'm loading your bags in the trunk I'd like you to read my mission statement.'

Taken aback, Harvey read the card.. It said: Wally's Mission Statement: To get my customers to their destination in the quickest, safest and cheapest way possible in a friendly environment...

This blew Harvey away. Especially when he noticed that the inside of the cab matched the outside. Spotlessly clean!

As he slid behind the wheel, Wally said, 'Would you like a cup of coffee? I have a thermos of regular and one of decaf.' My friend said jokingly, 'No, I'd prefer a soft drink.' Wally smiled and said, 'No problem. I have a cooler up front with regular and Diet Coke, water and orange juice... 'Almost stuttering, Harvey said, 'I'll take a Diet Coke.'

Handing him his drink, Wally said, 'If you'd like something to read, I have The Wall Street Journal, Time, Sports Illustrated and USA Today.'

As they were pulling away, Wally handed my friend another laminated card, 'These are the stations I get and the music they play, if you'd like to listen to the radio.'

And as if that weren't enough, Wally told Harvey that he had the air conditioning on and asked if the temperature was comfortable for him. Then he advised Harvey of the best route to his destination for that time of day. He also let him know that he'd be happy to chat and tell him about some of the sights or, if Harvey preferred, to leave him with his own thoughts.

'Tell me, Wally,' my amazed friend asked the driver, 'have you always served customers like this?'

Wally smiled into the rear view mirror. 'No, not always.. In fact, it's only been in the last two years.. My first five years driving, I spent most of my time complaining like all the rest of the cabbies do. Then I heard the personal growth guru, Wayne Dyer, on the radio one day.

He had just written a book called You'll See It When You Believe It. Dyer said that if you get up in the morning expecting to have a bad day, you'll rarely disappoint yourself. He said, 'Stop complaining! Differentiate yourself from your competition. Don't be a duck. Be an eagle. Ducks quack and complain. Eagles soar above the crowd..'

'That hit me right between the eyes,' said Wally. 'Dyer was really talking about me. I was always quacking and complaining, so I decided to change my attitude and become an eagle. I looked around at the other cabs and their drivers. The cabs were dirty, the drivers were unfriendly, and the customers were unhappy. So I decided to make some changes. I put in a few at a time. When my customers responded well, I did more.'

'I take it that has paid off for you,' Harvey said.

'It sure has,' Wally replied. 'My first year as an eagle, I doubled my income from the previous year. This year I'll probably quadruple it. You were lucky to get me today. I don't sit at cabstands anymore. My customers call me for appointments on my cell phone or leave a message on my answering machine. If I can't pick them up myself, I get a reliable cabbie friend to do it and I take a piece of the action.'

Wally was phenomenal. He was running a limo service out of a Yellow Cab. I've probably told that story to more than fifty cab drivers over the years, and only two took the idea and ran with it. Whenever I go to their cities, I give them a call. The rest of the drivers quacked like ducks and told me all the reasons they couldn't do any of what I was suggesting..

Wally the Cab Driver made a different choice. He decided to stop quacking like ducks and start soaring like eagles.

How about us? Smile, and the whole world smiles with you... The ball is in our hands! Let us do good to all people.

Ducks Quack, Eagles Soar.

Paradigm Shift

There comes a point with most of us where we have a paradigm shift in our thinking as a result of some circumstance in our lives. A shift that tells us that it is time to change the way we are doing things in order to change the less than satisfying results that we are having. In other words, to get what we want, we have to change the way we think about the pursuit of same.

A paradigm shift has recently happened to me and many of the leaders at HBW. Thanks in large part to HBW Head of Operations, Joe Bonanno, we now have the ability to run our multi-level compensation system, multi-carrier /company enterprise, as well as our multi-business model, free from the control or influence of any carrier or company. It has occurred to us that we now have everything in place necessary to build the world class company we desire. With an infrastructure capable of supporting massive growth and volume, the paradigm shift is that it is now time to focus on the next element that we need in order to accomplish our long-term goals and that element is massive, qualified recruiting. Bringing in large numbers of qualified people to help us build the corporate work of art that our business model justifies.

There are no more excuses, no more reasons why it can’t be done. Now is the time, particularly in this economic environment where people are now more than ever, open to the idea of new opportunities, being in business for themselves but not by themselves, with people committed to building something great and with the products and services that really allow us to do what is right for our clients every time.

To this end, HBW has recently retained Richard Burnett as a consulting Vice President of Sales to lead our charge in creating a recruiting surge. Richard has 39 plus years experience in building hierarchies and companies, as well as being V.P. of Corporate Sales for the late, great Jim Rohn’s company.

Let me close with this notion, middle-America needs and deserves great products instead of the mediocre products so often thrust upon them by most firms working in that arena. We have the great, competitive products they need and the only way we will be able to compete in that arena on a large scale is to recruit people into our system on an equally large scale. Now is the time and everything necessary is in place for spectacular results. Let’s do something great together.

Commitment and Emotional Drive

Your level of commitment will most likely determine your level of success. The greater your emotional involvement, the easier it is to remain committed. This is true for anything in life including marriage, family, business, faith, etc. It is this level of commitment fueled by your emotional desire that sustains you through tough, challenging times, times of despair; the stuff of life that can sometimes rock even the most committed of us.

This level of commitment which is fueled by that strong emotional drive must be enhanced and nurtured every day. Some days it is so easy to love your spouse, your job, your religious faith, etc., while sometimes it takes great effort. A great example can be raising teenagers. There is a time when the children are little and they are so much fun; however, for many, if not for most of us, when the kids enter into their teen years, it can be very difficult at best to deal with the emotional issues they are going through. It is during these times that they need our love the most and our commitment is also tested the most. Usually, there is a great payoff when your children become their own person and are accomplishing their goals and dreams, and they become a definite source of pleasure.

It is exactly the same in business where we are all tested at times, and only our level of commitment, supported by the strong emotion we must have for what we do that carries us through difficult times. Yet the payoff, again, is so worth it as you see your business and personal success rise to unprecedented levels after overcoming great adversity. As the president of the first company I was with used to say, “The first step to greatness is total commitment”. I would add that the first step to total commitment is total emotional involvement, call it absolute passion for whatever you are doing. Develop that passion, that emotional involvement and you will likely experience a level of success and freedom that may have been heretofore missing from every aspect of your life.

The Power of a Supportive Partner

While I know this is my blog, my wife, Bonnie, wrote this and I thought it valuable enough to pass along. Enjoy.

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I got to thinking about the above title recently. I had an email from someone at HBW about how you can look at ALL the leaders at HBW with a supportive spouse and see how successful they are because they pull together. Then Barney’s last blog spoke about the emotional involvement a person needs to really become successful in our business. This being true, the importance of partner support becomes even more apparent. How can a person become and stay emotionally involved in their endeavor without a supportive partner – they simply cannot. Everyone involved in our business knows that it is through continual efforts with inherent successes and failures that we build a dynamic ongoing business. How is it possible to stay focused and positive if you don’t have the support of your partner? Your partner needs you to be there for them in times of trouble and challenge in their business lives as well as their personal lives.

As you may know, Barney loves the game of golf, and consequently we have learned all about Phil Mickelson, recent Masters champion's, life. There may be many reasons for his success, but the fantastic support of his parents seems to be the most compelling reason behind his success. His parents nurtured him and did whatever was needed to help him develop into the awesome player he became.

Have you ever thought about the power of Two over the power of One? I recently helped my daughter moved from one home to another. Of course movers moved the large items such as furniture, etc, but you know how much stuff most of us have. With another person the job was challenging but not insurmountable, whereas attempting it alone would have been almost impossible. Like minded people can accomplish almost anything; our whole civilization was founded on these principles but it’s not something you think about.

Having determined that a supportive partner/spouse is important and crucial, I think it is a good idea to take a closer look at what a supportive spouse means and what they can accomplish. There are many aspects and manners of providing support as a spouse/partner, and therefore there is no one exact right way to be. For some HBW partners, this involves becoming licensed and actually assisting in those activities in which a license is required. There are considerations concerning this, as there are costs involved with acquiring and maintaining any license in financial services. It is not essential that the partner get licensed, but is an option if they are interested in being involved to that extent.

It all depends on what your partner needs. A supportive partner must be willing to do what is needed, period. When at first thought a response might be, “why should I have to do that”, upon more introspection you realize that doing whatever is needed is the only way to operate. We all have different talents, and analyzing where your strengths lie and utilizing them can be the difference between real success and otherwise. Most likely it will become necessary to do things you may not be comfortable with, such as speaking to strangers or in front of a group of people. Many people have trouble with this, but it’s absolutely necessary if you want to have a thriving organization. I can tell you from personal experience that overcoming a weakness in your efforts to do what is needed can be exhilarating. The possibilities start to unfold and you may find you are capable of so much more than you ever realized in the past. On the other hand, some times it’s things like running errands, making coffee and cleaning up that are required which may invoke the “why should I have to do that” thought. You have to do that stuff too because that is what is required at that time, period.

My recommendation is to explore the possibilities with the amount and type of support you are involved in. As with everything in life, things change, and what might work or be needed at one time can be quite different at another time. Being involved in your partner’s/spouse’s business can add so much to your own life and add really interesting layers to your relationship.

I would like to offer this theory: HBW has become the great organization it is in part because of the great partners we have!

Becoming Emotionally Involved

When thinking about our success, we need to consider the fuel required to propel ourselves to where we want to go. What is the difference maker for those people accomplishing their goals from those others who always seem to be barely scratching out a living? Above anything else, I think the difference is how we feel about what we do. Truly successful, happy people love what they do and are enthralled by almost every aspect of their chosen endeavor. They can’t wait to start every morning, and even the frustrating challenges can be exciting to overcome.

It is about understanding the importance of what we do and being emotionally involved; as if we are doing something that we were meant to do, as if it were imbued in our very DNA. That is when we can begin to be truly successful and accomplish our goals. As with many of us in the financial services industry, when we “fall in love” with what we do, it may be something we had never even thought of or considered prior to becoming involved.

This emotional attachment gives us the energy, enthusiasm and excitement to keep moving forward, even in the face of seemingly overwhelming adversity. This is true in every aspect of our lives. You will fight very hard for something you love, where it is easy to walk away from something for which you may have little regard. Some people do not let themselves truly love or commit to anything or anybody for fear of being hurt or disappointed, which is sad. This leaves them living empty, dull lives filled with constant disappointments.

Truly committed, motivated people live lives of excitement and fulfillment which some other people cannot relate to. I remember the president of the first company I was with used to say that “The first step to greatness is total commitment”. I think I now finally realize why this is true. It is true because when we finally become totally committed to those things that are really important to us: our faith, our families, our businesses, our friends, we are finally free to be totally fulfilled in these aspects of our lives. That is where the greatness lies.

At HBW we genuinely change people’s lives in a significant and positive way that is sometimes difficult to measure. We offer among the very most competitive products in a range of financial services that make a huge difference, particularly in the middle markets where folks have often received among the worst products. When somebody grasps the significance of what they can do for people and becomes emotionally involved and totally committed to what they do, they will finally be free to become the person they dream of and live the life they have always imagined.

I challenge you to “fall in love” with what you are doing today!

Are YOU World Class?

I just finished reading a book called, “177 Mental Toughness Secrets of the World Class” by Steve Siebold. This book was referred to me by AVP, Joel Johnson, from Michigan and is an absolute game changer. The author breaks down the thinking and attitudes of people from the various classes of performance and living standards, poverty level to working class, to middle class, upper class and finally world class in a simple, concise, easy to read book. This book points out the attributes of each level and allows you to see where you are presently and how you can change to become the world class performer you may desire to be.

The book describes how the difference between middle and world class is often just a tweak of an attitude. I think of the Ron Dortch’s, Chuck Reinhold’s, Miguel Romero’s, et al, who read everything they can get their hands on, attend every meeting possible and simply find every way they can to get better. The World Class represents only about 5% of the population and attribute 41 in the book is one worth mentioning; “Champions dedicate their lives to Greatness.” “The top 1% of world class performers invests thousands of dollars every year on self-development books, DVD’s, CD’s, seminars, workshops and retreats. Most amateur performers haven’t read a book since high school and wouldn’t attend a self help seminar if you paid them. Amateurs tend to believe that education ends with high school or college graduation. The world class believes real education begins after school lets out. Dedication to getting what they want from life is the driving force behind champions. While the masses seek perpetual pleasure, the great ones focus on achievement. The irony is that professional performers tend to experience greater pleasure as a result of their achievements. Such feelings of accomplishment and achievement are an additional benefit only the great ones enjoy.”

I think about all the local training sessions we hold around the country, as well as our annual conference in Las Vegas. In almost every case, at every event, the most successful people are in attendance, eager to improve in every way. At the same time, because we care about people being successful, we always miss those people who choose not to attend, those who already “know” everything and feel that they don’t need to attend. Inevitably, these are the people who absolutely need it the most and are constantly frustrated. The book represents that 85% of people are in the middle class or below, living the life that Henry David Thoreau described as one of “quiet desperation”.

There will never be a better time than right now to make a decision to lead a life of world class, effort, commitment and achievement and become the person you are truly meant to be. Interestingly, the ones who are already on that path will buy this book, attend every seminar, etc, while the people who need it the most will simply ignore this message because they already know everything and don’t need to waste their time.

My question is which are you?

How To Excel During Challenging Economic Times

I want to share some ideas about how we can excel during these most challenging economic times. I have been reading about Winston Churchill, and I believe he is one of the most interesting characters in the history of mankind. Further, Churchill led England during the most perilous times of the 20^th century, World War II.

There is a short biography about Churchill by English writer Paul Johnson, who has the advantage of being likely the last biographer who actually knew the great man. The story of Churchill is about how a man fights on in the face of overwhelming failures, frustrations and overwhelming opposition and scorn. These are the lessons we need to learn to succeed in what is the toughest business and economic environment in the last at least 70 years.

The author identifies five Churchillian attributes that guided his eventual success: 1) He aimed high, but never cadged (begged or groveled) or demeaned himself to gain office or objectives. 2) There was no substitute for hard work – even though he was brilliant. 3) Churchill “never allowed mistakes, disasters – personal or national – accidents, illness, unpopularity and criticism to get him down. His powers of recuperation, both in physical illness and psychological responses to abject failure, were astounding.” 4) Churchill wasted extraordinarily small amounts of energy on hatred, recrimination, malice, revenge, grudges, rumor mongering or vendettas. Energy expended on hate was energy lost to productive activity, and 5) he always had something other than politics to give joy to his life.

Of course, there are so many other attributes that made Churchill a great man, but it seems to me that the above principles are definitely transferable to our lives and how we all need to overcome adversity in everything we do. As I observe our top performers, as well as successful people in most walks of life, they all seem to embody most or all of these attributes and behaviors. Another behavior that I observe among top producers and successful people is that unlike unsuccessful or very low producers who are often very focused on themselves, successful producers are most often focused on others and how they can be a benefit to the world they live in. In other words, successful people are outward looking, concerned with the needs of others while unsuccessful people are inward looking concerned with their own needs.

This is true regardless of endeavor. Families, friendships, associates, teammates, whatever, are always best with people who care about other people. Selfish, self centered people are always the most frustrating and difficult to deal with. What is also very interesting and seems contradictory, but is really not, about the differences among top producers compared to low producers is that top producers seem to look to themselves for answers and take personal responsibility for their lives, while the less successful look outside themselves for answers, take little or no personal responsibility and blame others, outside factors, anything but themselves for their lives. I can’t stress enough that successful people seem to be learning based, always trying to grow and learn as a person, while unsuccessful people seem to be knowledge based, they know everything already and are often closed to new ideas.

The Right Time to Seize an Opportunity

When is it the right or appropriate time to seize an opportunity? I think that it is when everything is aligned in such a way that you have the greatest ability to maximize said opportunity. Having said that, let’s consider where we are today at HBW.

First, we have developed the most amazing compensation system ever devised. This system is unique in that it rewards our most productive producers, base shop builders and organizational builders. An 8 generation override structure and increasing compensation as your production grows. Add to that the Charter designation with the ability to combine all production for higher comp and revenue sharing among other things, and you have a powerful formula for success.

Next we have our own exclusive product from American General, HBW Income Advantage Term, that gives us a distinct edge in the term insurance market. This product was designed for us because of our long-term commitment to AG and our history of large amounts of quality production. This product gives us the ability to provide true income replacement for our clients, as well as the lump sums needed to handle a premature death.

Now, in addition to our Broker/Dealer, HBW Securities LLC, we have added HBW Advisory Services LLC, one of the most exciting businesses I have ever seen and one of the most compelling. Giving our associates the opportunity to develop assets under management and the resulting steady stream of income is an absolute game-changer in the commission only world we have lived in. Also, because it is so compelling, we are able to recruit many new people who may have previously been uninterested in some of the other things available at HBW.

When you consider all the innovations and developments at HBW over the last couple of years and further realize that we operate in a learning culture, always looking for new ways to innovate and develop better methods of growing a business, it seems to me that now is the absolute best time to focus on building the business of your dreams!

Planning for Success

It has been my observation over the years that many people seem somewhat cavalier about their success. They never really make specific plans or decide what is important as they drift through life. Much of this in my opinion is due to the lack of a long-term vision in conjunction with too much focus on the immediate gratification reflex which we all have. It appears to me that there is also often a natural fear of failure that manifests itself in acting “cool” possibly to hide these personal insecurities.

On the other hand, the most successful people make a plan, focusing on what they want to accomplish, and diligently follow that plan to meet their objectives. Incidentally, I am not just talking about success in monetary terms. Successful families have a plan for how they want to raise their children and the expectations for same. The same can be said for successful marriages; something as simple as never taking for granted a great relationship is integral for long-term marital success.

Are you treating your success and business in a cavalier manner and just drifting along, hoping something good will happen? Or, are you focused diligently on your goals, specific in what you are trying to accomplish and taking steps to plan for the future?

To give you some examples, HBW as a company, has long-term goals, which are very specific on what we would like to accomplish. We have a goal of developing 5,000 Charter Vice Presidents throughout the United States which would make us the largest independent distribution in the country. In order to accomplish this goal, a great amount of planning has gone and continues to go into developing relationships, systems, compensation models, infrastructure and so much more.

We also have shorter-term goals that require specific, intense planning. This includes such things as our regional FasTrack meetings scheduled on all across the country throughout the year, as well as an annual incentive trip and training convention. These meetings take months and sometimes years in planning.

Are you planning on attending these events which are so critical to your success? For us, this is just an everyday, regular part of business and business planning, seeking every opportunity to help our associates maximize their opportunities.

Are you planning for your success? Are you looking ahead one month, 1 year and even 5 years to project where you want to be? This is absolutely critical for your success. It is difficult to arrive at a destination if you have no idea where you want to go and what you plan to do to get there!

As we have always said, “Most people don’t plan to fail, they fail to plan.”

Attitude

Recently, I gave a talk where I asked the audience a few of questions and the response was extremely revealing to me. Let me say in advance that I believe that reading books, particularly biographies, studying successful people is a huge key to success. Learning from their experiences, and their attitudes about business, life and what makes them tick gives us perspective on what we need to do to experience that success ourselves. The first question was, how many of you read the newspapers and practically every hand went up. The next question was how many of you watch the news and practically every hand went up again. The final question was how many of you have read the last book I placed on our website, “How I Raised Myself From Failure To Success In Selling” by Frank Bettger and practically no hands went up.

The point is that what you put in your head matters. What we think about is what we get. If we watch the news and read the newspapers, we get all the problems and troubles in the world. If you don’t believe me, look at the front page of your newspaper today. Tell me if you think that war, budget cuts, plane crashes, job losses, murders, political partisanship battles, etc is helping you build your business. Yes, you say, but I need to know what is going on in the world. My reply is why? Are you in public office? How is filling your head with that stuff going to help you succeed? If it is really important, believe me, everyone will be talking about it and trying to make sure you are as miserable as they are.

In 1980 I attended a three day sales training class conducted by Tom Hopkins. Besides sales techniques, Tom taught about the attitude people needed to develop in order to become top sales producers. He talked about how to reduce and stop the habit of worrying and about how to deal with the “no’s”. He also spoke about how, if you want to be successful you must stop watching the news and reading the newspaper in order to maintain a positive attitude because you can’t succeed in sales without a positive attitude. The news and newspapers will absolutely destroy that positive attitude you need to succeed. From that point forward I stopped watching the news and reading the newspaper except, the sports section until even that became too negative with drugs and the malice and mayhem of professional sports.



I have spent years focusing on what I want while eliminating thoughts about what I don’t want and all the negativity that bombards us daily. In order to get what I want, which is to be part of the building of a great company, I focus on that and ignore the reasons why people will tell me it can’t be done. I have become very adept at fighting off negativity and the people who attempt to deliver that news.

As I have said for years, you will win in spite of your circumstances, not because of them. Regardless of the economy, winners will find a way to win and others will make excuses as to why they can’t succeed. Winners will continue to stay positive by reading every book they can find on how others have and continue to win and go to every possible meeting and training event they can find in order to accomplish their goals. Others will make excuses about why they can’t afford to buy that book or attend that meeting and training. They will say that they have “heard it all before”.

My reply is that they obviously haven’t heard it all before because if they had really heard what the successful people were saying, they would far less likely be in the situation they are of not being able or willing to read the books or attend events.

In closing, if you want your world to change, you need to change. Remember that your brain is a computer and the expression GIGO, garbage in, garbage out, remains true. Read every book that you can, the library has almost every one we recommend. Attend every meeting you can. If you can’t afford it, change your thinking and find a way, because if you say you can’t afford to go, what you are really saying is that you can’t afford not to go. And when you go, really listen, really observe, really work, really study the people who are succeeding and accomplishing what you dream of accomplishing. Only through your focusing on what you really want, will you be able to create the life and world you want.

The Importance of Training

I am writing this prior to our Los Angeles FasTrack training this weekend. These meetings are a tremendous opportunity for our associates to learn from some of the best and vastly improve their skill set. As Raymond Berry always says, “There is a huge difference between talent and “trained” talent”. This is true for all walks of life. There are extremely, naturally talented musicians; but the musician who works at their craft and hones their skill through diligent training and attention becomes a virtuoso.

This is particularly true for people in our profession. There are people who are naturally open and able to approach potential prospects in a sale or recruiting situation. These people will enjoy a certain level of success based on the power of their personality. However, the super-star sales person or organizational builder combines whatever natural talent they may have with a virtuoso’s work ethic and a world class athlete’s training mentality. They look for every opportunity to increase their knowledge and skill set and they rarely miss a meeting or a chance to improve. It is interesting to note that some of the very top producers in our industry are not outgoing personalities, but simply people with a desire and drive to excel regardless of personality.

I was having dinner with HBW NDA, Chuck Reinhold last evening and one of the traits you immediately recognize in Chuck is his intelligence. Chuck is very bright and also very prepared. Earlier in the day we had met with a potential money manager, and I was extremely impressed with all the research Chuck had done on that firm prior to our meeting. He knew everything about that firm and was completely prepared for the meeting. He is focused on preparation and increasing his knowledge base. I have never known Chuck to miss a meeting in all the years we have been working together.

This same trait is obvious among nearly all of the successful leaders at HBW. They combine above average intelligence (most are extremely bright) with great commitment to their education and training. Basically, they all share an intense desire to maximize their potential and ultimately their success.

Do you share those traits? The good news is that you can decide at any time to become better, positioning you on a path to greatness, by simply putting forth the effort. In other words, it is up to you how successful you will choose to become.

HBW Is Looking For Quality People With Passion And Goals

HBW is looking for people who care about others. HBW has built a successful company with a culture where the needs of the client are paramount to our sales force. Our people are trained to focus on their mission, not their commission. The people who have joined us who care more about their commission than the needs of their clients (and there are a lot of those types around) over time find themselves extremely uncomfortable at HBW. When they are around HBW people, it is almost comical to observe their frustration about their situation. Many of them want to be around our folks because they admire these caring people, but where the rubber meets the road, they can’t help but put their needs ahead of their clients and then rationalize about how what they’re doing is really good. They simply don’t fit in with most HBW people who are passionately committed to doing the best possible job for every client they serve.

If you are someone who has a passionate commitment to helping people, literally changing people’s lives, either through the products and services we offer or through the opportunity that we provide, we believe you will be hard pressed to find a better environment or group of people to work with than those at HBW.

Think about this; whenever there is a commission generated for the sale of a product, there is almost always a conflict of interest between the sales person and the client. We are absolute stalwarts and totally committed to the concept of people buying term insurance and investing in vehicles providing the lowest risk and best returns possible for middle-America. One of the great things about term life insurance is that it usually offers the least conflict of interest that can be found, particularly with a non-captive agent using multiple carriers and products. Why? Term life insurance, by its very nature is about providing the most face amount of a life product for the least amount of expense to a client. The agent, particularly in the case of one at HBW, is able to find and offer among the most competitive term products for their client, regardless of carrier, thus providing the most coverage for among the lowest cost with a product where generally, the more one buys the better off they are. Further, insurance companies have continued to lower rates for clients, as we all continue to live longer and they are better able to determine risk. Since every company sees certain risks differently, the freedom to shop among multiple carriers further reduces conflict as compared to a captive agent who is forced to sell for just one carrier.

As for investing using professional, fee based money management within our Registered Investment Advisory business, HBW Advisory Services LLC, there are no commissions in or surrender fees out, and the better our clients do, the more they earn and the more fees we generate. In other words, instead of the conflict of interest existing in most sales situations, we are actually concretely on the same side as our clients, knowing that they must win in order for us to win -- the more their money grows, the more we earn.

As you explore the great opportunities at HBW, I think you will discover that if you are a person who really cares about helping other people, you are someone we are looking for to help us reach all those families desperately in need of assistance to help them solve the financial issues that are causing them massive frustration and anxiety.

HBW is a company with great passion for what we do and compelling goals of where we want to be and what we want to accomplish in the future. This weekend, I was listening to NBA legend, Jerry West, on passion and goals. His life has been a testament to great passion and goals. We can all learn from his comments; “Life is not worth living unless you have passion. I really believe in two things, really, deeply; goals and passion. And without goals, most people don’t go anywhere in life, but if you don’t have the passion to match those goals, certainly it is not going to be a good result.”

Your passion for what we do will provide powerful fuel for the accomplishment of your goals and dreams.

The Importance of Choosing the Right People

On Thursday morning, I spent quite a bit of time with a nice gentleman who has been tremendously successful over the years as an organizational builder in our industry. In the last few years, as a result of some poor decisions, his circumstances have deteriorated and he is forced to start over again. This situation is made more difficult by the fact that he is at an age where most would give up, but he is determined to rebuild again, and he believes, as I do, that HBW provides him with the best platform in the industry to finally accomplish all the dreams and goals he aspired to when he entered this industry.

The key element for his present circumstance, we both agreed, were his less than stellar decisions about whom he chose to be in business with each time he joined a new enterprise. What is so fascinating and frustrating about this pattern continuing with most people is that most of us actually know better than this. As kids, our parents would warn us to “stay away” from certain kids. As parents, we are so concerned about who our children play with. Yet as adults, we so often seem to jump into relationships and business associations with nary a thought as to how this will impact us down the road.

Particularly in a business like ours, where we are recruiting and leading other people, the people you choose to be in business with, the business model, the structure, the company is absolutely critical. If you are building a business, the most frustrating thing would be to have to start over. Yet this is an absolute inevitability if you are not thoughtful on the front end of any relationship or venture you may consider.

We built HBW as a company that would be a vehicle where there would be great stability and possibilities of long-term prosperity. Many competitors have come and gone, changed their names, changed their management style, changed products or relationships. In our 19th year as HBW, I think it will be difficult to find an organization like ours anywhere; the same name, management, core companies and carriers, philosophies, principles and track record over these last 19 years, a wonderful success story. Nevertheless, this most important lesson always seems to have to be learned the hard way. Whom you choose to be in business with and associate with is something that, as critical as it is, is so often ignored.

At HBW, we are almost manic about this issue and are attempting to always work with the right people and be the right people. Making the best possible decision on the front-end, while not a guarantee, gives you the very best possibility for success. And, as Raymond Berry always says,”I rather learn from other people’s mistakes than have to make them all myself!”

Protect Your Attitude

During these difficult economic times, it is more crucial than ever to protect your attitude. We sometimes see people react impulsively and with a tinge of panic to what would otherwise be benign events in better circumstances.  Things seem to take on a heightened sense of impact based on a heightened level of uncertainty, leading to a downward spiral of negativity which is difficult to extricate one’s self from.

It is of utmost importance to remind people in a leadership role that while times are certainly challenging, tough times don’t last, but tough people do.  We should try and understand that there will be a time down the road when things will be back on track and what frightens people now will be virtually unnoticeable at that future time.  Further, for those people with the courage to recognize the opportunity, this is a period from which great fortunes and success stories will emanate.


Leadership, though, is the key.  Leading by example, moving forward with boldness and confidence, searching for everything positive to believe in and cling to is the key.  That is part of what HBW brings to the table; an optimism and confidence that we can change our lives and the people we care about and serve.  We think that HBW is going to emerge from this present world-wide malaise in a position of leadership and even dominance in the businesses in which we are involved. This will be as a result of our boldness and confidence in who we are, what we do and how we feel about the tremendous opportunities we have at hand.


The secret is to protect your attitude at all cost and regardless of circumstance.  We should attempt to avoid and eliminate anything that places fear and anxiety in our path.  The television news, the newspaper, gossip, negative people, anyone or anything that causes negativity must be limited or completely removed in order to protect the most precious things you can control -- how you think, feel and your attitude in general.  Never forget that people want to be around and follow excited, motivated, positive people and avoid negative, frustrated, down people.  I once heard that people may root for underdogs, but what they really want is to follow top dogs.


Protect your attitude; be a great leader and someone people want to follow -- a top dog. The world needs you to be that way now, more than ever!

Freedom

At HBW, we offer Real Hope, Real Opportunity, Real Freedom for Real People! This is not just a motto, this is a way of life, an approach to everything we believe and do. I was recently thrilled to discover that Winston Churchill, from a speech at Royal Albert Hall in London on May 14, 1947 said “All the greatest things are simple, and may be expressed in a single word: Freedom: Justice: Honour: Duty: Mercy: Hope.”

For me personally, my highest value is Freedom. The desire to be free to live the life you choose, to become whatever you are capable of, to pursue the dreams that move your soul, this is what is worth fighting for. To be in an environment that restricts this freedom in any way causes great anxiety for me, personally. Even as an employer, we give our folks tremendous latitude believing that if someone needs management, they are probably in the wrong place. In other words, we value other people’s freedom as much as we do our own.

This same concept of freedom permeates our entire organization at HBW. Our associates understand that they have the latitude to build their businesses in an environment suited to their goals and desires, whether as a great personal producer, organizational builder or both, all within a non-captive environment with multiple cariers, companies and businesses under the HBW umbrella. While we understand that “the first step to greatness is total commitment”, it is each person’s responsibility and privilege to decide what their goal of greatness is and how they want to accomplish that goal.

Interesting Article and thoughts...

Hi All,

Attached is an article from Investment News talking about “Next decades (the 2010’s) hottest industries? Retirement planning near the top.” It talks about the baby boomers and how they are now at or coming to the age where retirement planning is critical and second on the list of winning industries in the coming years. It also speaks about Trusts and Estates as a corollary to retirement planning. All these are right in the wheelhouse of HBW when you consider our expertise lies in all the areas and the need for recruiting to support the demand. So, if you have ever wanted to be in the right place at the right time, there is no better place to be than our industry and particularly HBW with all the tools we have to capture and support this market and this opportunity!

I also want to share some ideas about how we can excel during these most challenging economic times. I have been reading about Winston Churchill, and I believe he is one of the most interesting characters in the history of mankind. Further, Churchill led England during the most perilous times of the 20th century, World War II.

There is a short biography about Churchill by English writer Paul Johnson, who has the advantage of being likely the last biographer who actually knew the great man. The story of Churchill is about how a man fights on in the face of overwhelming failures, frustrations and overwhelming opposition and scorn. These are the lessons we need to learn to succeed in what is the toughest business and economic environment in the last at least 70 years.

The author identifies five “Churchillian” attributes that guided his eventual success: 1) He aimed high, but never cadged (begged or groveled) or demeaned himself to gain office or objectives. 2) There was no substitute for hard work – even though he was brilliant. 3) Churchill “never allowed mistakes, disasters – personal or national – accidents, illness, unpopularity and criticism to get him down. His powers of recuperation, both in physical illness and psychological responses to abject failure, were astounding.” 4) Churchill wasted extraordinarily small amounts of energy on hatred, recrimination, malice, revenge, grudges, rumor mongering or vendettas. Energy expended on hate was energy lost to productive activity, and 5) he always had something other than politics to give joy to his life.

Of course, there are so many other attributes that made Churchill a great man, but it seems to me that the above principles are definitely transferable to our lives and how we all need to overcome adversity in everything we do. As I observe our top performers, as well as successful people in most walks of life, they all seem to embody most or all of these attributes and behaviors. Another behavior that I observe among top producers and successful people is that unlike unsuccessful or very low producers who are often very focused on themselves, successful producers are most often focused on others and how they can be a benefit to the world they live in. In other words, successful people are outward looking, concerned with the needs of others while unsuccessful people are inward looking concerned with their own needs.

This is true regardless of endeavor. Families, friendships, associates, teammates, whatever, are always best with people who care about other people. Selfish, self centered people are always the most frustrating and difficult to deal with. What is also very interesting and seems contradictory, but is really not, about the differences among top producers compared to low producers is that top producers seem to look to themselves for answers and take personal responsibility for their lives, while the less successful look outside themselves for answers, take little or no personal responsibility and blame others, outside factors, anything but themselves for their lives. I can’t stress enough that successful people seem to be learning based, always trying to grow and learn as a person, while unsuccessful people seem to be knowledge based, they know everything already and are often closed to new ideas.

I just finished another great book, How the Mighty Fall, by Jim Collins, the author of bestsellers, Good to Great and Built to Last. Collins lists 5 principles on why great businesses fail. I would take it further and say many of these principles are why not just businesses but any enterprise fails. One of the principles is mentioned above; successful people and enterprises have a learning culture while companies that are failing have a knowledge culture, based on hubris, excessive pride thinking their success is a matter of how great and smart they are. They know everything, lose humility and believe they are special and deserving, as opposed to being appreciative and concerned that success is fleeting and they have to continue to fight for every edge to maintain their success.

At HBW we say that one of the most important keys to personal success is to work harder on yourself then you do on your business. Success follows personal development, it doesn’t precede it. If you are receiving this writing, it is because you either already are, or are on your way to becoming a top producer/builder in our business. The principles we are speaking of are timeless. As you work to build your organization, we work to build a great company. It is important that we look for every edge while also realizing that in spite of the vicissitudes of life, like Churchill would say, we will never give up, never, never, never. We have set out to build a great, world class organization and circumstances do not dictate our goals and objectives. You should expect success to be harder, take longer, and be more frustrating and challenging than anything you have ever attempted. If this were not true far more people would be successful. Therefore, we will all win in spite of our circumstances, not because of them.

In this New Year, 2010, begin to become all you’re capable of being. Make this year and this decade the year and decade where everything changed. It only takes a few highly motivated and determined people to change an enterprise, a business and even the world. Let this be the time where you decide, as Churchill extolled, never give up, never, never, never!

View the Attachment

Failure Traits

A few years ago I read a book about Major League Baseball called “Money Ball”. It was about how the Oakland A’s discovered a new way of studying statistics in order to find players that others might have overlooked in order to compete with teams that had more money in bigger markets like Los Angeles, New York, etc. In other words, they learned to take a new and different look at the old game of baseball in order to better compete. For example, one of the main criterion baseball has always used is batting average to determine the hitting ability of a player. One of the criterions the A’s used is what they call OBP, on base percentage, including walks to determine a player’s value. In their perspective a player who walks a lot is a very valuable commodity.

I remember our high school varsity baseball coach always exhorting our pitchers that “walks will kill you” as a way of trying to get them to focus on throwing strikes because walks inevitably ended up turning into runs for the other team. However, I never heard him exhort our batters to “work the count” in order to try and get on base using walks to kill the other team. He was only looking at the situation from one perspective.

For quite a while, I have been trying to figure out where this applies to our business. How and where will looking at what we do from a different perspective be valuable to HBW and help our associates maximize their opportunity for success. I think that I have discovered a notion where we can relook at a particular area to help people in a dramatic way.

Something we seem to spend a lot of time with is talking about what successful people do and how we should emulate their behavior in order to be successful ourselves. While this is obviously important, a better, or at least, another approach is to study the reasons why people fail, which are often generally far more obvious, and by recognizing and eliminating these behaviors, we may give our associates a far better chance to succeed.

Our personal behaviors regarding failure, I think, may be the hardest thing for many of us to acknowledge because of our ability to rationalize. I do think; however, that all of us will recognize some aspects of our behavior or activities that have been or continue to lead us to places we don’t really want to be, places where we are failing or losing when we really want to be succeeding and winning. It is my hope that someone will have the courage to take a hard, close look at them self and be willing to relate to, identify and then take the necessary steps to change the patterns that have not brought the results that they desire.

I have come to realize that in many cases it is actually easier to see why most people fail or are failing than to understand why so relatively few people succeed. In other words, traits that cause failure are often easier to identify than success traits, although the failure traits are simply the other side of the same coin. We all are able to see what the other person is doing that makes no sense and yet often turn a blind eye to our own, similar behavior. An easy example is observing someone who smokes, abuses alcohol, over eats and is obese, never exercises and has a terrible negative attitude about everything. We may be doing some or all of these things our self but with us, personally, it is somehow “different”.

Another example is that we have all known someone or have been personally involved in a romantic relationship with someone who we finally realized, only after the fact, was entirely wrong for us. All our friends and family knew it but we were blind to all the clues that a disaster was coming until we were out of the relationship with some distance, in order to see what everyone else clearly saw. Tons of other examples such as an employee coming to work late every day and doing the least instead of the most is probably not going to keep their job very long. Or a husband who mistreats or abuses his wife is unlikely to experience a happy, fulfilling marriage. These and others are examples of failure behavior that is easy for almost anyone to identify in others. The trick in becoming successful is to be able to identify these poor behavior patterns in ourselves and reverse or eliminate them.

The great Basketball coach, John Wooden was given three rules by his father when he went off to college, don’t whine, don’t complain, and don’t make excuses. In other words, if when things don’t go your way and you are whining, complaining and making excuses, you are exhibiting behavior that leads to failure. I often quote the great golfer, Ben Hogan’s ten, two letter word mantra, “If it is to be, it is up to me.” Personal responsibility is the opposite of whining, complaining and making excuses.

An aspect of failure that we all recognize in people is blaming others, our parents, our spouse, our boss, our employees, our community, city, state, country, politicians, the media, teachers, coaches, friends and even God. It is always someone else's fault for whatever is going on in most people’s lives. The proverbial “they” are holding them back. For the successful person, see Ben Hogan above.

One of the classic traits of a person in failure mode, the unsuccessful person, is their often absolute inability, refusal to deal with failure. This is so interesting because we all grew up with stories of Thomas Edison and his 10,000 failures to make a light bulb work before he finally succeeded. We learned that Henry Ford said that “The only time you can’t afford to fail is the last time you try.”

In this vein, many successful people from foreign countries comment about the American entrepreneurial trait of embracing failure on the road to success, but perhaps there are so few entrepreneurs, as a percentage, because so few people really understand this notion or develop, yes I said develop, the ability to deal with failure. Unsuccessful people take failure personally and their often fragile self esteems are shattered by the concept of failure and what other people will think of them if they fail.

This fear of failure compounds itself with many to the point where they don’t want to even try anymore. Unwilling to risk ridicule or perceived slights by peers, they choose a path of least resistance and live a shallow, mediocre life, ultimately controlled by other people and blaming others for their circumstance. People who fear failure often take things personally, particularly those things that are not even really personal. They think people, the world, “they” are out to get them and things are conspiring to keep them down.

Successful people realize that most people are not trying to do things to them. They understand that people usually are just doing things for themselves. They may get annoyed by someone’s foolish behavior and then usually quickly get over it.

Successful people simply realize that it, failure, is just part of the game and except it, learn from it and move on. Making another golf reference, bad shots really bother most mediocre players and we can carry a bad shot in our minds for several holes, compounding the mistake as a result. Then, you take a guy like Tiger Woods. I have heard him curse when he hits a bad shot and then it looks like he immediately forgets it as he considers his next shot. It almost seems as if he really likes his bad shots because he loves the creativity of figuring out how to overcome that shot, a truly great and exciting attitude which is why it is so fun to watch him play.

Another interesting trait exhibited by unsuccessful people is their decision making process. Unsuccessful people are usually very slow and ponderous when making a decision and very fast to change their minds. They don’t have the strength of their own convictions and so, with their toe barely stuck in the water, when things get dicey, a little challenging, or it’s just not what they totally expected, they cut and run. Again, the fear of failure is so deeply rooted that quitting and excuse making becomes an escape mechanism for avoiding failure, in their minds. This is ironic because this behavior guarantees ultimate failure.

On the other hand, successful people are fast to decide and slow to change their minds. Their motto is, “when you have a decision, make it and forget about it. The moment of absolute certainty never arrives.” They do their due diligence, make sure they are dealing with the right people, the best people for whatever they are doing and than off they go to make their dreams a reality. At that point, they fight like crazy to make their decision the right one, but if they fail, they do so knowing they gave it their best shot, get over it and quickly move on.

As part of decision making, it is ironic that unsuccessful people seldom consider the people they are involved with or recognize the importance of this aspect. Because they don’t understand why they fail, they can’t understand why this is important. Unsuccessful people generally tend to believe nonsense and so avoid careful due diligence because they want to believe that success is simply luck, being in the right place at the right time and not the reality of diligence, hard work, lots of regular, thoughtful good decisions, planning and preparation, which are some of the traits which truly leads to success. Unsuccessful people seem to buy into the nonsense, the hype, the baloney because they don’t seem to want to do the real work. Hype, nonsense and baloney are often far more appealing than reality, hard work, etc. This helps explains a Bernie Madoff who was showing returns clearly too good to be true, particularly as he was an unregistered advisor, which was very appealing for so many people. It didn’t matter how he was getting those bogus returns and many of his investors really didn’t want to know because the hype, nonsense and baloney was so intoxicating. Madoff is not the only one. In fact these scams are everywhere today, accelerated in a bad economy by people desperate for answers, answers that sound good with little or no basis in reality. An example of this is salespeople selling expensive, non-competitive products, which they paint as far better than they actually are, to get the unsuspecting, less educated client or customer to part with their hard earned money. The same is true for large sections of our population who believe that a politician, any politician is going to make government more efficient and improve our lives. That is simply not the nature of the beast. It is more likely that a good result in government is more accident than planning.

On the other hand, successful people generally want to deal in reality. They recognize that the best opportunity can be wrecked by the wrong people and the worst opportunity can be made by the right people. Who they are in business with is priority number 1, the extreme opposite of unsuccessful people who seldom if ever even considers this aspect as an issue. Successful people deal with “what is” and try to make the best of every situation, turning lemons into lemonade. They are optimistically realistic and see answers within a problem, opportunities within a challenge.

Unsuccessful people generally rail about everything that is wrong in their eyes and about how things ought to be so that than they can finally get their due and be successful. The unsuccessful person sees problems and challenges without seeing solutions and opportunity. They also tend to believe things that are most likely often not true to help them feel better about their existence. Things like, luck, right place at the right time, genetics, deciding that rich people are miserable, successful people are unhappy, and other nonsensical beliefs and statements are what unsuccessful people make to rationalize the frustrating failure that eats at their very being. They don’t want to consider the possibility that successful people, studied harder, sacrificed more, took more chances, dreamed harder, fought harder, worked harder and made better decisions and often have wonderfully fun, interesting, fulfilling lives because if they do, than they must acknowledge their failure which successful people don’t deal with. That is why they love the occasional anecdotal stories of miserable rich people. It makes their fears and failures seem little different from the lives of most successful people, lives that are startling, remarkably different in so many ways.

Successful people usually deal with the same problems, challenges, adversity and life issues that unsuccessful people deal with. They have generally developed better skills for handling these issues and don’t allow these issues to derail them or overwhelm them.

One last comment about success and failure is that either of those stations in life often have little to do with money. Consider this statement: success is getting what you want; happiness is wanting what you get. Being successful is about an attitude, as is being unsuccessful.

Let’s look at some comparisons, the opposite side of the same coin to draw an analysis between unsuccessful people compared to successful people.

Unsuccessful people make excuses, whine, complain and blame other people for their problems and failures.

Successful people don’t whine or complain or blame others. They take personal responsibility for their situation, look for answers from within themselves, learn from their mistakes and move on as quickly as possible.

Unsuccessful people live in fear and rationalize as to why they are failing.

Successful people live in boldness and see opportunity while recognizing that failure is simply part of the equation that leads to success.

Unsuccessful people are slow to decide and quick to change their minds.

Successful people are quick to decide and slow to change their minds.

Unsuccessful people think that successful people are lucky, born with a silver spoon, at the right place at the right time and etc.

Successful people make their own luck by outworking, out planning, outthinking and out preparing their competition.

Unsuccessful people blame others or say, “It wasn’t my fault” when they make a mistake.

Successful people say, “I was wrong” apologize if necessary and take responsibility.

Unsuccessful people say “I’m not as bad as a lot of other people”.

Successful people say “I may be good but I am not nearly as good as I can be or plan to be”.

Unsuccessful people generally have unrealistic fantasies like winning the lottery, or their ship is coming in.

Successful people realize that winning the lottery is not going to happen because they seldom buy tickets. They also know that the only way their ship is going to come in is if they send several ships out in the first place.

Unsuccessful people, regardless of income level, spend more than they make, live above their means, and are most always frustrated.

Successful people, regardless of income level, know that the only way to have money is to save money and live below their means.

Unsuccessful people usually view the world as things first, people second and money third.

Successful people usually view the world as people first, money second and things third.

Unsuccessful people tend to believe that successful people have fewer problems and life is easy. Unsuccessful people think there problems are worse than anyone else’s problems and bigger than they are.

Successful people recognize that, in life everyone has problems and simply handle the problem by realizing that every problem has a solution. Successful people see themselves as bigger than the problem.

Unsuccessful people know all the reasons why something won’t work and are delighted to tell everyone just why it won’t work

Successful people look for any reason why something can work and go about trying to do just that, make it work.

Unsuccessful people love money and use people.

Successful people love people and use money.

Unsuccessful people act like they think know everything and yet have little thirst for knowledge or self improvement.

Successful people realize how little they actually know and have a thirst for knowledge and self improvement.

Unsuccessful people spend a great deal of time addressing short-term problems at the expense of the long-term, which is why they are constantly addressing short-term problems.

Successful people spend most of their time looking at the big picture and primarily keep their focus on their long-term goals.

Unsuccessful people are takers, always looking for what is in it for them.

Successful people are givers, looking for ways to be of more value to others.

Unsuccessful people generally seek the company of other unsuccessful people.

Successful people generally seek the company of other successful people.

Unsuccessful people often live in the past and focus on their mistakes and regrets.

Successful people live in the present, having learned from their mistakes. They learn from the past but don’t live in the past.

Unsuccessful people care more about how they look, how they are perceived than how good they really are. All show and no go, style over substance.

Successful people are about substance over style and focus on others as a means to success.

Unsuccessful people hate change, resist change and often refuse to accept change.

Successful people embrace change and recognize the inevitable, that change is the only constant. Successful people like to experiment and try new things and explore new ideas.

Unsuccessful people want it all now, which often leads to poor and short-term destructive decision making. They are unable to defer gratification.

Successful people realize that good things take time and that time is not a factor in the pursuit of great goals. They learn how to delay gratification

Unsuccessful people generally don’t like what they do for a living.

Successful people love what they do, are passionate about what they do.

Unsuccessful people often act impulsively, on instinct or impulse and don’t consider the consequences of their actions.

Successful people think about what they are doing, consider the consequences of a decision and how it will affect their long-term goals.

Unsuccessful people give up fast and easily when faced with the first signs of adversity.

Successful people fight for their dreams and goals with a tenacious persistency.

Unsuccessful people try and bring down others to their level.

Successful people try and bring others up to their level.

Unsuccessful people are often aimless and waste a lot of time.

Successful people are focused on always trying to do the most productive thing at all times, while recognizing that relaxing and vacationing can be very productive after working hard for a long time.

Unsuccessful people are always looking for short cuts and are often trying to find the easy way out.

Successful people know there are generally no short cuts and the hardest way is usually the way that leads to success.

It's hard to beat a person who never gives up.
Babe Ruth
The greatest test of courage on earth is to bear defeat without losing heart.
Robert Green Ingersoll
Great minds have purpose, others have wishes.
Washington Irving
Thomas Edison (1846 - 1931):
I haven't failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.
Howard Ruff:
Plan ahead, it wasn't raining when Noah built the ark.
Teddy Roosevelt:
No man is justified in doing evil on the ground of expediency.
Martin Luther King, Jr.:
If a man is called to be a streetsweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted or Beethoven composed music or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause and say, "Here lived a great streetsweeper who did his job well."
Norman Vincent Peale:
Believe that you are defeated, believe it long enough, and it is likely to become a fact.
We tend to get what we expect.
Thomas Jefferson:
Whenever you do a thing, though it can never be known but to yourself, ask yourself how you would act were all the world looking at you, and act accordingly.
Confucius:
Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.
When prosperity comes, do not use all of it.
Franklin D. Roosevelt:
When you come to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on.
Margaret Thatcher:
You may have to fight a battle more than once to win it.
John Wooden:
Failure to prepare is preparing to fail
Henry Ford:
Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young. The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young.
Booker T. Washington:
I have learned that success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which one has overcome while trying to succeed.
You can't hold a man down without staying down with him.
George S. Patton, Jr.:
Always do more than is required of you
An old Cherokee was teaching his grandchildren about life. He said to them, "A battle is raging inside me ... it is a terrible fight between two wolves. One wolf represents fear, anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority and ego. The other stands for joy, peace, love, hope, sharing, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, friendship, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith."
The old man fixed the children with a firm stare. "This same fight is going on inside you, and inside every other person, too."
They thought about it for a minute and then one child asked his grandfather, "Which wolf will win?"
The old Cherokee replied: "The one you feed."