Make no little plans

Union Station in our nation’s capital
shows the magic of thinking big

The great architect Daniel Burnham knew the power of ideas.
“Make no little plans,” the designer of Union Station said.
“They have no magic to stir men’s blood.”
Those 12 words are a good theme for us in the coming year.
What are your big ideas for the coming 12 months?
Here are three suggestions to stir your blood:
1. What would you do first if you knew you could not fail?
Pick four big projects you want to achieve in 2011.
Write them down in your planner, one per quarter.
2. Plan step by step what you need to do to achieve each.
This is the most tedious part of the process.
Think of every step you will need to take.
Note who will do what you can’t do or don’t have time to do.
3. Share your plan with those who can help you with it.
This is important for two reasons.
• You must recruit them to join you in the mission.
• They will hold you accountable to complete the mission.
Here’s an example from my own plan in 2011.
I plan to finish four projects per quarter already in the works.
The first three are books, the fourth a management course.
• Trophy Wife Advertising: Creating emotion in your ads.
• Publishers Toolbox, based on my Publishers Auxiliary columns.
• Marketing Secrets of Maverick Entrepreneurs.
This is a joint co-author book publishing venture.
• Triple Your Bottom Line, a course of business owners.
Want a free copy of my Big Project Planning Guide?
It will help you build a plan step by step.
Email me at JerryBellune@yahoo.com.

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What do your snow tracks show?

In honor of the storm, here’s a snow story.
As a young man, I was inspired by “The Fountainhead”.
Ayn Rand created a super individualist in Howard Roark.
I saw myself as another Howard Roark. Uncompromising.
Maybe you saw yourself like that, too. It’s courageous.
That led to my interest in the ideas of Frank Lloyd Wright.
Wright, like Roark, was uncompromising.
It almost cost him his career as a struggling architect.
No one wanted to work with him. He was too obstinate.
But his concepts were unique. Original. Daring.
The quality of his ideas and his work saved his career.
Wright had a humorless uncle. A straight-arrow kind of guy.
Walking across a snowy field, he gave Wright a lesson.
“My tracks go straight across the field,” his uncle said.
“I know where I’m going and I get there.
“Your tracks wander all over the place,” he told Wright.
“You’re too easily distracted by everything you see.”
His uncle taught Wright a lesson in that snowy field.
But it wasn’t the lesson he thought he was teaching.
After that, Wright decided to wander all over the place.
For the rest of his life, the world was wide and strange.
Wright held fast to his sense of wonder and discovery.
He wanted to experience everything life would yield.
It was all fodder for his restless imagination.
No wonder he created such original architecture.

In this wintry weather, think what your tracks tell you.

Are you exploring all that life has to offer?
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A challenge for 2011

Earl and Diana Nightingale
knew the strangest secret

Earl Nightingale changed lives with six words.
“We become what we think about,” Earl said.
Pity those who have no great purpose in life.
Think about nothing, you become nothing.
You live with fear, anxiety and worry.
Why do we become what we think about?

This is Earl's answer:

He called it the "strangest secret".
Suppose a farmer has good, fertile land.
The land gives the farmer a choice.
He may plant what he chooses. The land doesn’t care.
Your mind, like land, doesn’t care what you plant.
It will return what you plant.
The farmer can plant corn or deadly nightshade.
The land will return what he planted.
The human mind is far more fertile.
Yet it works like the land.
It doesn’t care what we plant - success or failure.
What we plant is what we will reap.
The mind is the last unexplored continent on earth.
It contains riches beyond our wildest dreams.
It will return anything we want to plant.
Lets heed Earl Nightingale’s advice in 2011.
Plant corn - not nightshade.
Fill you mind with rich, positive seeds.
Read, think, listen to others, explore.
Unlock the great well of creativity inside yourself.
For more on achieving great purposes, click here.
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Building alliances

Women Marines reach out to Afghan women and their children

Did you see the story on the women Marines?
They reach out to the women of Afghanistan.
Women Marines do this more capably than men.

Congratulations to the Marines.

This is a stroke of genius.
Mark and I recently met with some extraordinary women.
These mothers lost sons in Iraq and Afghanistan.
They went over there to establish relations.
They communicated with mothers who lost children.
They helped, consoled and shared their grief.
War takes a terrible toll on the innocent.
This is an important way to win hearts and minds.

We need hearts and minds in this war.
In business, much like war, we need hearts and minds.
Building alliances is a big objective for me in 2011.
Put this on your own Master To Do List.

For instance, I plan a new marketing Mastermind group.

These will be clients I can help with their marketing.

And we can help each other grow our businesses.

If you're interested, please contact me.
Ask yourself these questions:
1. Who do I need to create alliances with and why?
2. What can I do for them before I ask them to do for me?
Put this on your Master List and devote time each week to it.
Invite your friends to lunch and tell them what you’re doing.
Ask them for their support and advice.
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Listen to your inner voice

Joseph of Nazareth was quite a guy.
There was nothing flashy about him.
He was a carpenter who worked with his hands.
God chose him and his young wife Mary.
They were to become the parents of the Messiah.
Joseph accepted why Mary was with child.
He didn’t try to complain or negotiate with God.
God sent a angel to warn them to flee to Egypt.
Herod sent his assassins to kill all young males.
The king wanted no contenders for his throne.
Joseph did what the angel told him to do.
When it was safe they returned from Egypt.
He taught his son the skills of carpentry.
He supported Mary and his son as best he could.
The Gospels don’t tell us a lot about Joseph.
I think of him as a man who took care of business.
Others might have questioned Mary’s credibility.
Or ignored the angel’s warning about Herod.

Joseph listened to these voices and responded.
There’s a lesson there for all of us.
Listen to those quiet small voices inside you.
You’re not crazy or just hearing things.
Someone powerful wants to guide you.
You may go places you never dreamed about.

Merry Christmas from our family to yours.
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