Mark Twain’s secret

Mark Twain was an amazingly prolific writer and speaker.
The ex-journalist did not have the aid of a laptop.
He didn’t have email and text message distractions.
People still wrote each other letters - with a pen.

Mark’s secret was to avoid busy work.
You know what that is. The stuff in your in box.
Mark swallowed the big frog first each morning.
That’s a figurative frog, not a literal one.
By that, Mark meant the #1 project on your list.
The biggie. The most important. The high payoff one.
Don’t scramble for the loose change.
Go after the million dollar stuff.
That’s how he wrote all those wonderful books.
Tom and Huck and Jim on the Mississippi.
That’s how he found time for lucrative lecture tours.

What if you dumped everything in your in box right now?
Just dump it all in your waste basket.
Horrors, you say. Well, what about it?
Most of it is busy work. It’s dictated by others.
Are you going to let them set your agenda?

Don’t be enslaved by your in box and email.
Ignore those text messages.
Let voicemail take care of incoming calls.
If it’s a genuine emergency, someone will yell at you.
If the building’s on fire, you’ll smell the smoke.
Otherwise, take care of that big frog.
Make it Numero Uno. Projecto #1.

Mark joked that we should swallow the big frog first.
Then we know that’s the worst that will happen all day.
Not all big frogs are fun to swallow. But they’re critical.
What Mark didn’t say: The frog won’t like it much either.

Ignore those calls, emails and text messages.
Get down to work right now. Yes. Right now.
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The Age of Innovation

Harvey Firestone knew what he talked about.
Firestone, you may recall, was a tire maker.
His enterprise endured long after him.
He knew money and experience are important.
But, he said, ideas are what is more important.
We might add: Taking action is most important.
There are lots of good ideas out there.
We live in the Age of Innovation.
To succeed, we must take action on our ideas.

Years ago I told a friend about one of my ideas.
It was on the back burner for me.
But it wasn't for him.
He saw the possibilities and acted on them.
He started the publication 20 years ago.
And it has endured long after him

Shame on me. I let that one get away.
It was an important life lesson: Act on your ideas.
That drives me daily to take immediate action.

I have a challenge for you this morning.
I invite you to share your innovations with us.
Here are three questions you should answer:
1. What is it and how does it work?
2. How does it benefit your clients and yourself?
3. What has it done for your bottom line?

Here’s what you get for doing this for the rest of us:
1. You get all the innovations everyone else sends in.
2. You may be named Innovator of the Year.
3. You could win $3,600 in business coaching.

The first three to respond get a free $90 creativity course.
It comes in three parts:
1. Kick Start Your Creativity.
2. Advanced Creative Thinking.
3. Master Your Unlimited Potential.

Your time to respond is limited.
Your deadline is 4:47 p.m. Monday, July 26, 2011.
Email your innovation to JerryBellune@yahoo.com
Don’t miss out on this great opportunity.
Others’ ideas will fuel your own success.

Are you coachable?

Can you execute what
your coach recommends?

Not everybody is coachable, you know.
I’ve worked with a lot of non-coachable people.
They’ve done it wrong so long they see no other way.
Their experience narrows their perspective.
They close their minds. That holds them back.

They strangle on their own limiting beliefs.

Then there’s the “smartest guy in the room”.
He’s seen it all. He’s tried it all. He knows it all.
You can’t show him anything new that he will accept.

There’s no point in trying to coach these people.
They will ignore and resist your best efforts.
Even worse, they will gossip behind your back.
They will belittle your sincere efforts to help them.

As a coach, I look for those who are curious.
They read. They listen. They soak up ideas.
More than that, they take action on new ideas.
They don’t just nod in agreement and do nothing.
They take notes, set priorities, tackle new projects.
They are restless to achieve more.

How curious are you? How open are you to new ideas?
Do you take notes? Set priorities? Tackle new projects?
If not, it’s time to re-examine your motivation.

Share with me how you motivate yourself.
I’ll share the best ideas in a future Success Strategies.
Leave your thinking at Post a Comment below.
I’m open to your best ideas.

We need Prosperity Thinking

Bake a bigger pie to give
everyone a bigger slice

The National Speakers Association has an informal motto.
“Bake a bigger pie so everyone can have a slice.”
It is the underlying principle of the organization.
It brings pro speakers together to help each other.
Rather than competing they complement each other.
That’s Prosperity Thinking - not Scarcity Thinking.
We use this profitably in the newspaper business.
We work with other small newspaper owners.
We share information and ideas to help each other.
We place legal advertising in two other newspapers.
We all profit from this cooperative venture.
I work with seven other newspaper consultants.
We help - not compete with - each other.
We refer business to each other and advise each other.
The same goes with our advertising clients.
We preach “investing in” not “spending on” ads.
Advertising should be an investment in future sales.
In whatever you do, talk investment with clients.
They are investing to fill a need or a want.
They’re investing in a solution or an opportunity.
They are investing to fulfill their hopes and dreams.
Never talk about “costs” or “buying”.
Always talk about “investing”.
Prosperity Thinking isn’t a linguistic subterfuge.
It is an attitude and a way of seeing transactions.
Share with me how you use Prosperity Thinking.
You can Post a Comment below.

3 leadership lessons

My year as our Rotary club president ends this week.
It has been a great year for our club.
Many leadership lessons were learned.
We raised a lot of money for community causes.
We increased membership almost 25%.
And most important, we had a lot of fun together.
Here are three leadership lessons from this.
1. Have fun in whatever you do.
When it’s fun, it never seems like work.
We worked hard and accomplished a lot.
But it never seemed like work - more like play.
2. Surround yourself with fun people.
Visitors always tell me what a good time they had.
“Do you have this much fun every Friday?” they ask.
Yes, we do. Every Friday. I wouldn’t miss a meeting.
3. Fun people are dependable people.
You can count on them. They never let you down.
Be dependable yourself. Don’t let them down.
Whatever they need of you, do it with joy.
Serving others is one of our greatest privileges.
It brings us that much closer to our Creator.
“Lead People, Manage Things” tells how to do this.
For more on the book, click here.