Influence

Want more influence in the office or workplace? Author Phil Cooke writes:

I meet too many people who feel ignored and dismissed at the office.  Their co-workers have stopped asking them for advice, they’re not being invited to key meetings, and management seems to overlook them.  Some people call it an “office doormat.”  Is that you?

Click here to read Phil’s full article.

Setting an example is not the main
means of influencing another,
it is the only means. -Albert Einstein

What If You Work For a Bad Boss?

It happens. No matter how hard you try, the fact may be that you simply work for a bad boss. But how is a Fivestarman to respond in such a situation?

Michael Hyatt offers the following five key points if you are in that situation.

• Manage your expectations.
• Evaluate the impact.
• Consider your options.
• Be assertive.
• Support him publicly.

Read Michael’s complete post and in-depth explanation of each point.

Be Happy

Of course that’s much easier said than done. Jon Gordon believes it may just be  a matter of focus. His suggestions?

• Focus on “Get to” instead of “Have to”
• Don’t Expect your Boss, Co-workers and Customers to Make you Happy
• Don’t Seek Happiness
• Focus on Excellence instead of Success
• Celebrate Together

Read Jon’s full article, Five Ways To Be Happier At Work here.

Since you get more joy out of giving joy to others,
you should put a good deal of thought into
the happiness that you are able to give.
-Eleanor Roosevelt

“Entrepreneurs are risk takers, willing to roll the dice with their money or reputation on the line in support of an idea or enterprise. They willingly assume responsibility for the success or failure of a venture and are answerable for all its facets. The buck not only stops at their desks, it starts there too.”

~ Victor Kiam, CEO of Remington

Today, let’s look at a few things we can do to better our finances, our goals, and perhaps our attitudes as we tackle the remainder of the week ahead.

Overcoming Procrastination

First up, Steve Olson shares keen insight into beating procrastination. What does procrastination have to do with being an entrepreneur? If you’re like many of us… everything! Putting things off until the ‘perfect’ time often means they won’t get done in a timely manner, if at all.

If you find yourself procrastinating, this guide will help you learn why you do it and how to change it. Also, if you have a procrastinator in your life, a child, an employee, a spouse, you can turn to this guide to help you understand why they do it and how you can help. Read the full article here…

“Never leave that ’til tomorrow which you can do today.”
~ Benjamin Franklin

Attitude Adjustment

Author Keith Harrell with Success Magazine says one of the most important steps you can take toward achieving your greatest potential in life is to learn to monitor your attitude and its impact on your work performance, relationships and everyone around you.

He outlines 10 strategies for improving our attitudes:

1. Self-Coaching Through Affirmations
   Affirmations repeated several times each day, every day, serve to reprogram your subconscious with positive thinking. An affirmation is made up of words charged with power, conviction and faith. You send a positive response to your subconscious, which accepts whatever you tell it. When done properly, this triggers positive feelings that, in turn, drive action.
2. Self-Motivation Through Discovering Your Motives
   Discover what motivates you—what incites you to take action to change your life. Basic motives include love, self-preservation, anger, financial gain and fear. Self-motivation requires enthusiasm, a positive outlook, a positive physiology (walk faster, smile, sit up), and a belief in yourself and your God-given potential.
3. The Power of Visualization
   Studies of the psychology of peak performance have found that most great athletes, surgeons, engineers and artists use affirmations and visualizations either consciously or subconsciously to enhance and focus their skills. Nelson Mandela has written extensively on how visualization helped him maintain a positive attitude while being imprisoned for 27 years. “I thought continually of the day when I would walk free. I fantasized about what I would like to do,” he wrote in his autobiography. Visualization works well to improve attitude.
4. Attitude Talk for Positive Internal Dialogue
   Attitude talk is a way to override your past negative programming by erasing or replacing it with a conscious, positive internal voice that helps you face new directions. Your internal conversation—that little voice you listen to all day long—acts like a seed in that it programs your brain and affects your behavior. Take a closer look at what you are saying to yourself.
5. The Power of Words—WOW
   Once released to the universe, our words cannot be taken back. Learn the concept of WOW—watch our words. What we speak reflects what is already in our hearts based upon all the things we have come to believe about ourselves. If we find ourselves speaking judgmental and disparaging things about our circumstances or those around us, we know the condition of our hearts needs to change. You can create a direct path to success by what you say.
6. The Power in a Positive Greeting
   When people ask me how I am doing, I say, “Super-fantastic.” Most people enjoy working and living with others who try to live life for what it is—a beautiful gift.
7. Enthusiasm: Vital Tool for Staying Motivated
   Enthusiasm is to attitude what breathing is to life. Enthusiasm enables you to apply your gifts more effectively. It’s the burning desire that communicates commitment, determination and spirit. Enthusiasm means putting yourself in motion. It’s an internal spirit that speaks through your actions from your commitment and your belief in what you are doing. It is one of the most empowering and attractive characteristics you can have.
8. Connecting to Your Spiritual Empowerment
   The ultimate level of human need extends into the spiritual realm. Just as we feed our bodies in response to our primary need to survive physically, we need to feed our spirit because we are spiritual beings. Many people find powerful and positive motivation in their faith. I happen to be one of them.
9. Lighten Up Your Life with Humor
   Humor is a powerful motivator. The more humor and laughter in your life, the less stress you’ll have, which means more positive energy to help you put your attitude into action. There are also health benefits to lightening up.
10. Exercising Will Help Keep You Motivated
    One of the best ways to move to a more positive and motivated frame of mind is to exercise. A regular exercise routine can provide relatively quick positive feedback in the form of weight loss, muscle development and a sense of doing something positive for yourself.

Read Ken’s full article here…

Receive instruction in wise dealing and the discipline of wise
thoughtfulness, righteousness, justice, and integrity…
Proverbs 1:3 AMP

Young Entrepreneurs Are The New Norm

As the following video from Fox News illustrates, young entrepreneurs fresh out of college are becoming the new norm. (Click here to view on Fox News.)

Goals or Objectives?

At first glance it may seem that goals and objectives are one and the same. But as Andrew Smith points out, if you want to convert creative ideas into concrete results, there is an important difference.

An objective is a specific description of what is required to be achieved. They are usually described using “objective” language. In other words, precise and non-emotional terms.

A goal is a softer and more general description. It is something that you would like to achieve that can be described “subjectively”. The big difference is that there is no pressure to be specific. And, it’s perfectly acceptable to use emotional language.

“My goal is to be very happy and financially independent,” is quite non-specific, but still qualifies as a goal.

To some this may be unacceptably loose. However, for many, it may be their first stepping-stone on a pathway to success.

To learn more about the difference between goals and objectives, read Andrew’s full article here…

Business Headlines

• Building a (Nearly) Million-Dollar Brand on a Startup Budget
• Startup Boot Camps Seek Army of Entrepreneurs – BusinessWeek
• Stop Waiting for Permission To Reinvent Yourself

Self-knowledge has always been the key to preparing for competition. Knowledge of your attributes, abilities, interests, strengths, weaknesses, and traits is essential to riding the front end of the wave of change into the new century. To fully assess your own talents, realize that studies confirm that what we love and do well as children continues as our latent or manifest talent as adults.

Examination of your weekend or evening interests might reveal a gem of potential you can apply to your vocation. I strongly suggest you don’t unthinkingly relegate what you love to do for yourself solely to hobbies. You might make it, or at least integrate it into your life’s work.

The acquisition of knowledge, which is the new global power, is a life-long experience, not a collection of facts or skills. Not long ago, what you learned in school was largely all you needed to learn to secure a career. With knowledge expanding exponentially, this is no longer true. Hundreds of scientific papers are published daily.

Every thirty seconds, some new technological company produces yet another innovation. Your formal education has a very short shelf life. Life-long learning, once a luxury for the few, has become absolutely vital to continued success. Continue gaining expertise and avoid thinking like an expert.

Action Idea

An excellent benchmarking exercise is to spend a weekend with key associates or family members and dust off your childhood memories. Remember what you really enjoyed and wanted to do most as a child. The next activity in assessing your interests is considering your current ones. What do you most enjoy after work? What do you most want to do on weekends and vacations? What are your hobbies? Can you bring more of what you enjoy into your business life?

Action Step

Increase Your Reading, Writing and Vocabulary Proficiency.
One of the most important qualities of successful leaders is an ability to express thoughts and knowledge. Research by management and human resource experts confirms that no matter what the field of employment, people with large vocabularies – those able to speak clearly and concisely, using simple as well as descriptive words – are best at accomplishing their goals. Well chosen, carefully considered words can close the sale, negotiate the raise, enhance relationships, and change destinies.

In a world of email, instant messaging, voice mail, sound bites, concise reports, business plans, and meeting briefs, the individuals who can articulate their goals, substantiate their claims, and support their visions, will own the future. In the 21st Century, literacy will be the major difference between the haves and have-nots.

Why do fewer than 10 percent of the public buy and read nonfiction books? One reason is that many would rather get home than get ahead. They are motivated to get by and get pulled along by the company, the economy, or the government.

Another reason is that many individuals believe that information found in books, computer programs, and training sessions has no value in the business world. How self-deluding!

As the new tools of digital productivity continues to expand exponentially, the people who know how to control the new technologies will acquire power, while those who thought that education ends with the diploma are destined for low-paying, low-satisfaction jobs. In almost the blink of an eye, our society has passed from the industrial age to the knowledge era.

Increase your reading by 100 percent. Decrease your television watching, and that of any children in your family by 50 percent. Surf the Internet and subscribe to book summaries, or download free chapters from different sources. By reading book summaries, you can gain the essence of all the top business books in a very brief period of time.

Action Idea

Read at least one book each month, and listen to at least one additional audio book or education series during commute or down time.

Knowledge is the new power. And literacy is the door to knowledge.

Reproduced with permission from Denis Waitley’s Weekly Ezine. To subscribe to Denis Waitley’s Weekly Ezine, go to www.deniswaitley.com.

Few of you have ever heard of Ron Wayne.

A lot of you have used the products that stem from his creation.

All of you need to know his story because it’s a warning to all of us.

Along with Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, Ron Wayne cofounded Apple Computer Inc. on April Fools Day, 1976. Yes, there was a third founder of Apple. But few people know that because just twelve days after he signed the agreement he himself drafted that would have given him 10% ownership of the company, he sold back his shares. For $800. If he had stuck it out, today he would be worth around $22 billion.

Instead he now sells stamps out of his home. And plays penny slot machines after midnight. A poster child for what could have been.

Ron bailed on Jobs and Wozniak because he wasn’t sure about the future. Jobs spent a lot of money that Ron was going to have to pay the tab for initially. Wozniak was non-committal. And the prospect of starting a computer company just seemed too difficult and taxing.

Basically, Ron was afraid. Afraid that the payoff wasn’t going to be worth the work. So he quit. And missed out on billions.

Most of us are never going to really experience Ron Wayne’s story on the level at which he experienced it. Most of us are not going to be able to say that we missed out on being responsible for the birth of cool.

But I am afraid that many of us are going to sell out and accept an $800 payoff when we could have made billions. Not literally obviously. But I worry that instead of putting in the hard work and pushing through periods of uncertainty and difficulty, you’re going to take the easy way out and walk away. From your marriage that is struggling. From the calling you know you have received but is tougher than you thought it should be. From the risk you’re supposed to take.

That’s not to say that some people aren’t sometimes called to sell back their shares. The wife that is getting beat by her husband should not wait for a payoff down the road. Sometimes God calls you to a different ministry or career. To move to a new city. To play conservatively.

But more often than not, we sell out before the big payoff because we’re scared. Or we don’t want to do the hard work. Then we use God to justify a decision we have already made out of fear or apathy. And we never know what could have been down the road if we had kept persevering.

But it doesn’t have to be that way. Your story is not destined to be a cautionary tale of what could have been. God would rather raise you up to be an example for others of what can be. Of the incredible marriage that is possible through God’s grace and power. Of what God can accomplish through people who stay true to their calling.

God has a much larger payoff for you than the one you’ll receive if you give up now. Persevere. Stick it out. Push through. When the payoff comes, it will be worth the work and the waiting.

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About The Author
Steven Furtick is the Lead Pastor of Elevation Church, an incredible move of God in Charlotte, NC. He is the author of the forthcoming book Sun Stand Still. He lives in Charlotte with his wife Holly and their two sons, Elijah and Graham.

How many times have you had an idea that you do nothing with, only to see it prominently displayed on the shelf at Wal-Mart?

Someone else is making money on the ingenious idea that once belonged to you. The difference is that you had a theory, while they put it to work.

Solomon noted, “He who works his land will have abundant food, but the one who chases fantasies will have his fill of poverty.”

A fantasy is expecting a future that you haven’t sown a seed for. An idea is a seed, but a seed is worthless until it is released to work.

Steps for Strategic Thinking:

1. Clearly write or draw the idea.

Put it down on paper. Process it through the filter of the vision. You must have a rendering, a picture that you can see.

2. Punch holes in it.

What is wrong with it? Address the issues of the idea. Is it workable? Are others already doing it? Why is your idea better?

3. Define the real value of what you are offering.

Does it solve a real problem? Does it serve others? Do people really need this? Will people exchange their money for your idea?

4. Create it.

Bring your idea to fruition, but don’t over invest in the development of the prototype. Some people have spent their life savings on an idea that wasn’t worth the pursuit.

5. Test it.

Ask people if your idea is worth pursuing. Determine if they are willing to pay for it. If they are not, it is not.

6. Capitalize it.

Do you need others to invest in it? If so, what is their return on investment (ROI)?

7. Market it.

How are people going to hear about what you have? Is it important enough to get the attention of people? Is it a niche item or idea?

8. Manage it.

Does the idea require your personal oversight? Can you release the idea to others, yet still make your money?

My wife, Kay, created a pillow called, Pillow of Promise. Her idea was birthed out of a burden to minister comfort and healing to people. She crafted a prototype with the embroidered word HEALTH on the front and a pocket on the back witch contained a booklet with scriptures of healing in it. She sold thousands of pillows. It was an interesting process as we manufactured them in Pakistan. After selling out of the Pillows of Promise, we put it on hold due to the political climate and trouble in Pakistan. We still receive testimonies on how a simple idea ministered to people.

An idea is worth a dollar, but a strategy is worth a million.

Emmitt Smith has run past legends, danced with stars and posed for the sculptor crafting his Hall of Fame bust. He’s built upon his athletic talents by working hard, seizing opportunities and reaching out to others for advice when he needed it.

“Football was something that was very natural for me,” the former Dallas Cowboy tells SUCCESS. “I knew that if I did the things that I needed to do, there was a good chance that I could have a long and hopefully prosperous career on the field. And, fortunately for me, it worked out that way. Still, from Day One in the NFL, I was always preparing for life after football. I understood that football was just a vehicle to take me to the next part of my life.”

During his 14 NFL seasons, as he was racing past Jim Brown and Walter Payton to become the league’s all-time leading rusher, Smith began looking for mentors, people who could help him direct his competitive spirit into the world of entrepreneurship.

“I didn’t have to look far,” he says “Right in my own backyard here in Dallas I could learn from people like [Cowboys owner] Jerry Jones or Roger Staubach. It is amazing when you look at what Roger has been able to do with the Staubach companies.”

Smith also visited Magic Johnson, whose Magic Johnson Enterprises focuses on providing quality entertainment, products and services to ethnically diverse urban communities. “I thought, ‘OK, I can duplicate what Magic did by taking my own brand and maximizing it,’ ” Smith says.

He originally built a partnership with Staubach’s very successful property management and real estate firm, but branched off several years ago to focus, like Johnson, on the urban community. Smith co-founded ESmith Legacy Inc., a Dallas-based commercial real estate company that targets opportunities in minority markets.

“I know about the things facing urban neighborhoods and what’s happening when businesses are walking away from them. That’s what makes what we’re doing—buying and renovating property in these neighborhoods—more than just business to me. I feel like it’s part of doing something bigger.”

Building for the Future

ESmith Legacy projects have included the Zenith, a 21-story luxury residential and retail project in Baltimore; a shopping center in Phoenix; and 414 Water Street, a 31-story luxury condominium building in Baltimore, according to the company’s Web site. Smith credits many mentors as positive influences on his life and career. “It’s funny, but one of the reasons I got into the real estate business is from lessons I learned from my youth football coach back when I was 11 or 12 years old. He taught me how to read floor plans and blueprints because he was involved in the business.”

Smith even pursued architecture studies at the University of Florida. His plans changed “when football went so well,” he says, “but I always had a real desire to be involved in this business.”

Later, “guys like Roger and Magic certainly were trailblazers for me. They showed what athletes are capable of doing after they transition from the game,” he says.

Grateful for the mentorship he’s had over the years, Smith is happy to do the same for other up-and-coming entrepreneurs. He’s working with organizers of next year’s North Texas Super Bowl to help female- and minority-owned businesses become eligible for contracts related to the Super Bowl.

Originally invited to serve in an honorary capacity, Smith said he preferred to roll up his sleeves and get more involved as co-chair of the Super Bowl Host Committee’s Emerging Business Action Team. “Putting your name to something is kind of passive work in a lot of ways,” he told reporters. “But when you start talking about emerging businesses, I have a small company myself that’s trying to emerge and break from the cluster. In that position, you understand some of the challenges. I bring a different perspective to the table, outside of just being an honorary chairperson.”

Read the full story at www.SuccessMagazine.com.

For some, Memorial Day is the unofficial start of summer, a long holiday weekend to head to the beach or fire up the grill. I sincerely hope that Americans attach a deeper meaning to this unique holiday.

Lee Greenwood wrote a popular patriotic song a number of years ago with lyrics that are perfect for Memorial Day:

“And I’m proud to be an American
where at least I know I’m free.

And I won’t forget the men who died
who gave that right to me.”

Whenever I hear that song, I am reminded how fortunate we are to live in a country where we can live pretty much as we please. We rarely stop to think about what we are allowed to say or do, or where we can go. We are free to make our own choices.

What does this have to do with a column about business? Plenty! Our whole democracy survives because we have brave men and women who fight to protect our way of life. What we have in America simply doesn’t exist anywhere else in the world.

We all have the chance to study what interests us, work where we choose to work, take risks and fail and try again. We sell our products on the free market, hire from a well-educated and motivated workforce, grow our businesses without limits if we are successful and make a fair profit. We go to sleep at night knowing the morning will bring another opportunity.

We owe our freedom to those who are willing to defend it.

As a businessman who has realized the American dream, I understand that the sacrifices of our valiant service people have enabled us to live free and pursue our opportunities. We take our liberty for granted but as the saying goes: “Freedom isn’t free.”

Memorial Day is celebrated on the last Monday in May. Touching and beautiful ceremonies are held at cemeteries across the country, and if you haven’t ever attended one, I encourage you to go this year.

Gen. George S. Patton offered his own perspective: “It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived.”

I drive past Fort Snelling National Cemetery in Minneapolis every time I go to the airport. The unending rows of white grave markers are a solemn reminder of the millions who have died for our country, from the Revolutionary War to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

We honor them for their commitment and service. We recognize their sacrifices and their families’ sacrifices, that allow us to go about our everyday activities.

Yes, I am an unashamed flag-waver. I like it here, and I am grateful to those who have made my freedoms possible.

Mackay’s Moral: Show your true colors — honor our veterans.

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About The Author
Harvey Mackay is the author of the New York Times #1 bestsellers Swim With The Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive and Beware the Naked Man Who Offers You His Shirt. Both books are among the top 15 inspirational business books of all time, according to the New York Times. Harvey is a nationally syndicated columnist for United Feature Syndicate, whose weekly articles appear in 52 newspapers around the country. Visit his website at www.harveymackay.com.

1. Look Professional

Your physical condition is important but dressing properly can be even more important. Recent trends have made work attire more casual, but that doesn’t mean it should be sloppy. Target your attire to be a notch above the norm. Don’t overdress, but certainly don’t allow yourself to be underdressed for the job. A gallant man is groomed, fit, and always appropriate for the occasion.

2. Be a Team Player

Let go of self and embrace the team. Companies exist to turn a profit. If its workers are not producing as a team, the company will cease to exist in the future. I was recently in a store where the workers had such a lousy and selfish attitude that I wanted to leave immediately to find another place to shop. Workers should not take a customer for granted, especially not in today’s economic climate.

3. Be a Solution Not a Problem

You are not hired to cause problems; you are hired to solve them. If you are not solving business problems for your employer, you will soon find yourself solving a personal problem – looking for a job. I always say, “When you see a piece of trash, you own it.” That means, you should take the initiative and pick it up. Take ownership. The small act of eliminating a piece of trash may seem meaningless, but it shows you are ready to act as if everything depends upon you.

4. Know Your Competitor Better Than They Know Themselves

I had a board member that was a renowned expert in his profession. He was the go-to-guy for advice in his field of expertise. He told me, “Pastor, when I enter a meeting, I’ve read everything I can find on their business. I know more about them than they know themselves. Therefore, I am always in control of the subject.”

5. Forecast Trends

You can be ahead of the curve if you study trends. Where is the market going in your business? What do your customers want you to provide for them? It’s amazing how obsolete a company can become simply by allowing the market to move away from them. Can you imagine being in the vinyl record industry today? Or trying to make it as a cassette tape supplier? Even compact discs are becoming obsolete. Take some time to forecast trends in your field.

6. Work While You Are Working

I am amazed at how little people actually work. Develop a work ethic. Don’t waste time on the casually browsing the web or fiddling with your cell phone when you are supposed to be working. Focused intensity can produce amazing results.

7. Speak Positively about Your Company

Even if your company is not doing well currently, start turning it around by speaking optimistically. It will not help you or your company by tearing it down.

8. Show Up on Time and Be Prepared

It’s ridiculous how people are constantly late for work or assignments. It is slothful and unethical. They are robbing the company of progress and will eventually cost the company everything. There is no excuse for it.

These eight simple, relatively easy steps can set you apart from the crowd. Mastery of these skills will most certainly bring you promotion.

Dear Dave,

My husband and I are on Baby Step 2 of your plan, and we’re working hard to pay off all of our debt. We’re Christians, but would it be a good idea to decrease our traditional 10 to 15 percent tithe while we work through the debt snowball?

Janelle

Dear Janelle,

I’ve studied Scripture on this subject for about 20 years and taught in Christian settings. But I don’t want you to take my word as the final authority. What we’re about to get into comes from God, not some guy with a radio show, okay?

When you look up the Hebrew word “tithe,” it literally means tenth. Not 10 to 15 percent – a tenth. The book of Deuteronomy says to give a tenth of your net increase. In Proverbs, it refers to the tithe as first fruits, off the top, before anything else. About 1,200 years of protestant Christian teaching has focused on the idea that the tithe goes to the local church, because it’s the New Testament representation of the Old Testament storehouse. The storehouse took care of the Levites, which were the priests—or pastors—and the widows and orphans. Today, the New Testament church in your community is supposed to use it for the same kinds of things: pastor’s salaries and helping people who are struggling.

Now, once we’ve said all that, the problem is that there’s enough toxicity in Christianity and twisted information that surrounds tithing to choke a horse! I want you to remember one thing, though. God doesn’t love you more just because you tithe more than the person sitting next to you. It’s not a salvation issue, either. We’re not going to get into performance-based legalism here. God thinks you’re cool! You’re his kid, and He’s going to love you even if you don’t tithe. But He knows what tithing does for us. It makes us focus on something other than ourselves. God doesn’t need your money, but He does want us to be loving and giving to the people around us.

I wouldn’t stop or reduce my tithe if I were in your situation. When I hit bottom 20 years ago, I tithed all the way into bankruptcy court and all the way out. Just please keep in mind that you shouldn’t do this because Dave Ramsey gave you a “rule.” It comes straight from God, and it’s a loving father’s instructions as to what’s best for his kids!

—Dave

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Switching to company debit cards.

Dear Dave,

I’m working toward eliminating the credit cards used by my company. How do you get debit cards for employees that won’t give them access to company bank accounts?

Anonymous

Dear Anonymous,

You don’t. The debit card is what gives them access to the company bank account.

At my company, we run an operating account that several of my team members can access with a debit card. I look at it this way: If you trust your employees enough to travel and do business in your name and on your behalf, then you’ve got to be able to trust them with money.

If you think you can’t trust someone, then don’t send them out to do business for you. Better yet, don’t hire them in the first place!

—Dave

* For more financial help, please visit daveramsey.com.