what makes you a success - how to start?

In the last few weeks, I have been amazed at the amount of traffic and emails, spam, sells, contact me's etc I have received and it suddenly struck me that it seems without doubt, everyone wants to be a success.

Do you?

Exactly - who ever answers that question with a ' well I’m not sure, if I want to be successful, provide for myself and family, have loads of great friends and a really good lifestyle...aherm ...let me think about that!!! And I’ll come back to you. It also seems to me that many people who are great at MLM and marketing and selling themselves also have some fantastic programmes to tap into this natural human desire to succeed and basically sell you 'how to' packages on how you can match their number of friends, make millions and sit on a yacht by a fantastic sunset sipping a cocktail while surrounded by loving admirers ....oh and by the way you can stay sat there by getting loads of other people to do the work for you and re-sell their amazing products and lifestyle while you endorse even more of their products...... and then give great testimonials as to why and how you did it and then everyone can copy your success.....BUT, and there is still truth in the adage that nothing is really for free, it's just a pull line to get you hooked, revved up, jealous ...whatever lights your fire and gets you motivated to buy in to them.

Now, I am not in any way decrying some of the really generous, genuine people out there who really do share their knowledge and success in a meaningful way but what I am saying is DO NOT go into anything blindly without really using and answering some basic questions about yourself and what you really want in your life. It used to be that success was measured by what you had (very firmly); even when people deny they are materialistic , it is human nature to want to be in a good place and have a good life - the key is how YOU measure success and what it means to you. You can feel hugely successful in your life because you have always paid the bills, you have a steady comfortable life and a loving long term partner and great kids who love you OR it might be that you are the CEO of a global company with a fantastic retirement plan and a holiday home in a beautiful place and are on your 3rd beautiful wife who is an ex-model!

The point I am making here is that success is also relative and although we can't help ourselves, affected by outside influences and opinions.

To really get back to basics I refer back to my earlier comment of why am I doing this? what do I really want and what am I going to do to get where I want to be....it's not about the what I haven't got, what everyone else has and what I think I should have....it's all about the basic understanding of who you are and what you can do. So without waffling on further - here are some really basic questions to ask yourself before you sign up to every fantastic offering out there and set yourself up for a fall.

1. What would make me really happy? - Security? Risk? Challenge? Teach? sell? Grow? Develop? Money?

2. What do I really know about myself? - Risk taker? Implementer? Planner? Introvert? Extrovert? Decisive? Team player? Solo? Tough? Emotional?

3. What do I want to achieve? In other words what does success look like to YOU!

4. What are the key drivers in my life? Family? Friend? Position? Title? Security? Money? Emotional satisfaction?

5. What do I really love doing or feel really passionate about? Selling? Talking? Gardening? Reading? Family?

6. What skills do I have that I can use? Admin? Language? Facts? Figures? People? Creativity?

7. What skills don't I have and how/where do I get them? - Knowledge base? Who I know and what do they know? Learn new skills? Copy and expert?

This is fairly basic thought provocation, but once you have answered these you will find that you have a lot of information and will ask yourself even more questions and automatically want to search for more answers BUT at least from a base of understanding yourself and your real desires and needs to be truly happy.

I have seen so many people measure their success on 'been rich' having a great title and good position, only for them to realise when they have all that, they really just wanted to be a gardener or a writer etc and now feel trapped by all their hard work and success.

What really makes you a success is to be passionate, because once you have that fire in your belly, nothing will stop you - no matter how many knocks you get and how many failures you learn from and how many people tell you that you're barking MAD, YOU will get through it with passion and belief and as you know yourself better than anyone else...YOU know what you want and where you are going with it and your intuition will grow and YOU will succeed!

So get out there and put some real thought into who you are and what you want, don't be afraid to be you, set yourself some short, medium and long term goals, don't be afraid to ask for help or learn new skills and JUST GO FOR IT!!!

ps - By all means ask me some questions!

Tracy Sheldon

Melanie Jordan

I met Melanie Jordan through a trusty (at least in my opinion) vehícle: internet.
It would be easier for me to write her link here and let the reader search for further information about the work of someone that really cares about us. Helping everyone to understand the principals of Infopreneurism.

I actually prefer to address these words in an attempt to drive you through this way of earning knowledge and in consequence Money.

What You Know Is Worth more Than You Know™ allows you to discover a new way of sharing expertise regarding each one's activity. It’s a powerful approach that excels your counciousness misspelings about the impact you might have on others (your followers). The ones that seek that specific information, on the Web or in real life.

Seth Godin is telling us that we are living in a tribus modus. I agree. We are organizing our lives and technology misspellings. Finding leaders and followers is becoming an everyday task. This is where the markets currently are: inside your network. This is the market that trusts you. Other martkets a re difficult to conquer and require financial and marketing efforts substancially more expensive.

Melanie main sources of knowledge:
The Podcast
What you Know is worth more

Melanie on Facebook
Melanie on Linkedin


Please feed us back about this article.
Best regards,
MBUintelligence

The Power of One

Dear readers,

I am now confident in addressing this article, talking about ILearning Global.TV.

I joined ILearning Global 8 months ago as a marketer and till today I was shy in my attempt of communicating the platform. I was afraid of being miss understood about the venue of the system and about the capabilities that we offer inside. This days are over and I would like to share my experience with you.

Before everything in my life, I consider myself a continuous student, and I deeply believe that just continuous learning can give you the preparation needed to compete in each market we are into. As I tried to prepare myself in the sports field, I believe that I need to do the same in my current professional life: MBUintelligence

The day I join ILG I didn't imagine what we were talking about. I joined because I research every material available over the web and I was very curious about it. I wanted to see the other side. I joined even before the access was available outside US. Today everyone around the world can join.

ILG is nowadays the web platform that incorporates more content on management education. The members of the faculty are people that worked or still work for one the best 500 companies in the world.

I am telling you this story because, when I started MBUintelligence I felt that I was missing my agenda on the time I had available for self-study. I need to study almost everyday.

Today ILearning Global allows me to have access to a knowledge that would be impossible for me to incorporate if I was doing my research by my own. So I strongly recommend that if you see continuous learning the way I see, please research over these links.

The tittle of this article is the power of one. Brian Tracy coached more than 2 million people over his life... Google was created by Page and Brin... Einstein was not an university. And I strongly believe that are people in today's world more brilliant than Einstein. Why? Because technology is allowing human brain to go faster. Do you agree?

Here you have some free resources to see how easy it is the interface usage:
Portal
To learn:
Platform
Global Presentation
To join:
MBUintelligence

I don’t want to be anything other than me…

Songs often capture the spirit of a generation. In his song Gavin DeGraw captures the concept of being genuine:

“…I’m surrounded by liars everywhere I turn
I’m surrounded by imposters everywhere I turn
I’m surrounded by identity crisis everywhere I turn
Am I the only one who noticed?
I can’t be the only one who’s learned
I don’t want to be
Anything other than what I’ve been trying to be lately
All I have to do
Is think of me and I have peace of mind
I’m tired of looking ’round rooms
Wondering what I’ve got to do
Or who I’m supposed to be
I don’t want to be anything other than me…”

1. Do you think the song is a good representation of the new generation entering the business world?

2. What do you think SHOULD change in order to maximize the intellectual and emotional potential of this generation in business?

3. Same as 2 except I’m wondering what you expect will actually change as a result of the entry of this generation into the workplace?

Thanks for your insights,

Reut

Learn more about the three pillars that make KindExcellence the best organizational platform: the KE organizational culture, the 8 emotional and thinking habits of effective management and the subconscious training process. I’m always happy to share how KE applies to the areas of employee engagement, retention and performances: reut@KindExcellence.com

Tell Me A Story......

For those of you that are on LinkedIn you know that I was working on a presentation for a group of executives on the topic of Web 2.0 or "social networking".

I had the opportunity to share my thoughts with the group yesterday, so now I am taking the opportunity to share my perspective with you and seek your perspective.

In short, social networking is about relationships and trust, not about technology!

I want to state for the record that I am certainly no tech whiz (I type with two fingers). I am no "hipster" as I am a 52 year old white guy.

The reason I say tell me a story is because I believe that social networking is going back to the future. Once upon a time there was no media, no newspapers, and very few books. In fact the vast part of the population was illiterate, and the controlling powers liked it that way.

We relied on an "oral" tradition. We passed along stories and legends from one person to another. We relied on relationships. I would submit that social networking is a return to that model, passing along information to each other.

As I have talked, written and blogged about the need for a new social contract I have consistently talked about three foundational concepts:

Engagement is a far superior environment to any other in a business or organizational setting.
The foundation of all meaningful organizational systems isrelationships between people.
Trust is the essential element of functional relationships and engagement.

The bottom line is you will never have engaged relationships with your employees, your customers, or your community without trust. Much of the "new" generations have lost trust in our current relationship infrastructure and models.

Management expert Gary Hamel indicates that among other things the "Facebook" generations embrace a number of new "principles" that you need to be aware of:

Contribution counts for more than "credentials"
Hierarchies are natural not prescribed.
Power comes from sharing information not hoarding it.
Opinions compound and are "peer" reviewed.
Users can veto most policy decisions.

If you take a look at these things they represent pretty profound differences from how management and leadership is taught and practiced. To quote popular songwriter John Mayer (for those of you unfamiliar with his music he was the guy that "dumped" both JenniferAnniston and Jessica Simpson, if neither of them is familiar to you then you live in a cave so it doesn't matter) "when they own the information they can twist it all they want".

And we do; the biggest concern about social networking I hear from members of the "greatest generation" and "boomers" is "how do I control what they say about me on blogs, etc?" the answer is you don't! You participate and contribute you don't control.

When I created my compliance to commitment model the third "pillar" is information. It is critical and the emerging generations haveunprecedented access to it. Social networking is also based on the most powerful force in the universe (in my opinion), the power ofrelationships.

When you have heard me talk about the "new" engagement model you have seen the five levels described by BlessingWhite:

Satisfaction
Loyalty
Recommendation
Best Product/Practices
Excitement and Pride

At the risk of being overly simplistic, I don't think you can create the higher levels without creating a relationship.

When you see how social networks describe those relationships they use words like "friend" and "connection". There is an implication of trust and shared experience.

For me when I write, blog, and speak it is always with that intent; to build and sustain relationships and trust. To inform, to share, and to solicit other viewpoints and perspectives.

So I will leave you with a couple of thoughts;

Engagement is the most powerful tool that organizations have to increase productivity, profitability, and sustainability.
Engagement is built on relationships and relationships are built on trust. Don't try to "sell" your idea, share a story and invite others to share theirs.

I am going to keep building "lighthouses" and telling "stories". I hope as I share them we will understand and join the "new" generations and build on trust and shared values. Commitment is better than compliance, period.

Mark Herbert

What are you excited about?

What are you excited about?

Me? Motorcycles for one. But lets talk about "smoke" and how to determine if someone is adding value to a given dialog, or, as we say, simply blowing smoke. My approach is very elementary.

First, how do I know the speaker?

Did I find them on twitter? Did everyone see Ashton Kutcher blast past 1,000,000 followers? Amazing. Or maybe on LinkedIn? I personally have over 1300 "followers" on twitter, but after a lot more years, only 300 direct "connections" on LinkedIn. Or perhaps, one of my friends brought them to my attention. It matters.

Second, trust

I was talking with Lean practitioner Harry Wood yesterday. We somehow jumped to Toyota's application of Lean and the fact that their secret weapon is the culture. And therefore, the trust factor that most American companies will never understand.

Third, the topic

Finally, the heart of the matter. The subject matter. I was reading (again) Seth Godin's Purple Cow this morning (and for the last few days), and the concept of "remarkable" was once again playing out in my mind's eye. And the realization of how little (dare I say, unremarkable?) most communiques really convey.

Fourth, passion

Give me someone passionate about life and their adventure, and I am all ears! My "BS detector" falls off into sleep mode, and my attention is focused like a laser. May I suggest that most of us share this approach? Guess I just did!

Conclusion

After the fact, I will explore the validity of any claims. Spend a few seconds (or minutes, or in the case of Lean, a life time) exploring the ramifications. Often along the lines of, "What if this person is correct?"

Ever wonder why so few of us take global warming seriously?

Consider poster boy Al Gore and his message
How do I know him?
Do I trust him?
What do I know about the topic from other sources?
Is he passionate?

See my problem with global warming? Only on the last item (one of out four) does Al Gore score a victory with most Americans.

Hard to take a message seriously when the spokesperson is such a clown. And no, the irony of sharing this message via the very internet that Al Gore invented is not wasted on me.


Jeff 'SKI' Kinsey

P.S. Also, lets not forget that a lot of folks up north shoveled a lot of "global warming" this past winter!

Dr. Eliyahu M. Goldratt on TV

http://www.toc-goldratt.com/TV/video.php?id=163&type=2

Thanks Dr. Eliyahu M. Goldratt
Thanks Jeff SKI Kinsey

Tony Robbins: Why we do what we do, and how we can do it better

Innocentive - Can you win the challenge?