WHEN LIFE GIVES YOU LEMONS – - -

September 11th, 2011

For years we’ve all heard the old saying, “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. Sure, why not? That suggestion, however, doesn’t begin address the possibilities. Why just make yourself a glass of lemonade when the potential exists to think really big and open a nationwide, multimillion dollar lemonade chain and sell franchises? Really, why not?

There are so many things that happen (actually we attract them but that’s a whole other conversation) that are huge possibilities for us, but we are unable or unwilling to see the possibilities and see only a problem.

Develop the habit of looking for and finding the best in everything and everyone. You may sometimes have to really look and perhaps rationalize a bit, but there is success and the possibility for growth in everything. Look for a step up life’s ladder in every situation… even the ones that most (those who don’t consider all the possibilities) would say have no positive side.

When you begin to see greatness and possibility in everything, you will find a veritable banquet of possibilities for the fulfillment of all your life’s dreams, aspirations and goals.

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WHY DO BUSINESSES FAIL?

September 7th, 2011

That’s a good question, isn’t it? Actually, the more I work with small businesses and corporations the more convinced I become that businesses don’t fail. Webster defines the word fail as: to fall short of success or attainment of achievement and while you may see the statement businesses don’t fail as a questionable one, if you really stop to think about it, saying that a business failed is rather like suggesting that the football lost the game. A less- than-well-made football or one that is damaged could cause problems, but hopefully you wouldn’t consider blaming the football. The responsibility for the inferior football would fall on, first of all, the shoulders of the people who manufactured it and then secondly on the individual that failing to notice the imperfections, allowed the football to be used in the game. The point is that a game lost is never the fault of the ball or of the game itself, just as a game won is never seen as a credit to the ball, but rather to the dedicated athletes who checked their equipment and worked tirelessly to hone not only the skills necessary to win a game, but to take them to the Super Bowl.

In business, as in sports, the failure is caused by the person running the business. While that may sound cruel, it’s true. Are we then to blame that person for the failure of the business? We could, but there are many factors involved and certainly many extenuating circumstances. One of the factors that can create failure is timing, or actually lack of timing. Next time I’ll address the issue of timing because TIMING IS EVERYTHING and we’ll deal with the issue of timing next time. It may be the singular most important component of running a successful business.

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An Exploration of Inner Self

July 25th, 2011

theacorn

“Just as the tiny acorn contains within it a mighty oak tree, you have within you greatness beyond your wildest imagination.”

J.Sewell Perkins

DISCOVER YOUR INNER SELF

An Exploration of Inner Self

By J.Sewell Perkins, SCI

An interesting thing, the human mind… men and women throughout the ages have gone to great lengths and devoted their lives to a variety of discoveries without ever exploring their inner selves. While we surely must pay homage to those who have discovered continents, life-saving vaccines, outer space, etc., isn’t it interesting that discoveries outside ourselves seem so much more interesting and important to us than the exploration of our inner selves?

Many famous people throughout history have contributed much to our world as we know it today and yet so many of them never took the time to get to know themselves. There were, of course, those who devoted their lives to discoveries outside themselves and still managed to explore their inner selves as well. Those were the magnificent ones and we should seek their written works and biographies and learn from them…and that brings to mind one of my favorite quotations, actually it’s an old Zen saying…

Do not follow in the footsteps of the masters. Seek what they sought.

That’s great advice but only if you’re sure that what they sought is what you seek. Hopefully the thing you seek first and foremost is to discover your inner self.

Once you really know your inner self everything else you do will be easier. Too many people live and die without ever really having engaged in that exploration. They lived off the cuff, so to speak. By that I mean that they were as straws in the wind. When the winds of fortune or failure blew one way that’s the way they went. When the winds shifted to another direction, so did they. Never really discovering your inner self relegates you to the life of someone to whom things just happen, things over which you have no control.

So, what does this discovering one’s inner self really mean? How does one even begin to do it? Well, it starts with understanding why you do what you do, why you react to certain things the way you do. It’s important to understand why you’ve never realized your dream…if you ever even had a dream. You need to know why things rarely seem to work out for you the way they seem to work out so well for others.

The answer lies in what you think about and the way you think about it. We need to delve into how success or failure; happiness or misery; loving or loveless lives are a direct results of the thoughts you have about them. Yes, your thoughts do actually determine your destiny.

Memorize the following words until they become so much a part of your life that you know them as well as you know your own name…then begin to live them daily.

Be aware of your thoughts; your thoughts become your words.

Be aware of your words; your words become your actions.

Be aware of your actions; your actions become your deeds.

Be aware of your deeds; your deeds become your habits.

Be aware of your habits; your habits become your character.

When we know ourselves, truly know ourselves, it is then that we will know success.

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