Many of the same character traits necessary for success are to be found in successful people in very different fields of endeavour; Leaders in business, sports, professions, health, politics, the miltary, religion and the arts all have some of the same characteristics.

For most of my adult life, it has fascinated me that people who started with similar backgrounds, education and resources could, years later, be at totally different levels of success. Frequently those who started at a disadvantage in one or more of these areas, were ultimately more successful than those who had a more advantageous start in life.

I remember wondering why some farmers who inherited debt free, operating farms from their parents were forced to sell up within a few years because they could not operate profitably, when other farmers who had not inherited land but taken out large loans to get started, became successful and wealthy. What motivated one to squander what he was handed on a plate and the other to take on debt and the vagaries of nature and succeed?

Continuing with this quest for success factors, I decided to interview successful people from different professions and types of business, to try and identify the common characteristics for success.

This week I had the opportunity to interview a very successful professional physiotherapist, she agreed to share her thoughts on what has made her successful.

Watch out for my next post, when I will be publishing her answer to my question “What is the single most important personal characteristic that has had the biggest contribution to your success?”

If you haven’t already taken advantage of Vic Johnson’s offer of a free copy of Napoleon Hill’s classic book “Think and Grow Rich” (There is a small shipping charge) Get your copy now, I do not know how long he will keep this offer open.

Wishing you success in all your endeavours.

Way back when I first got the entrepreneurial urge, I remember buying a copy of Napoleon Hill’s classic book, Think & Grow Rich. For the next 30 years the book travelled with me to new homes, new cities and new countries.

It sustained me through frustrating periods in my corporate career, motivated me to start businesses, start again after setbacks, and even helped me see a future after the devastating experience of losing everything in Zimbabwe and moving to Canada (see my “about me page” for the story).

The well read and somewhat dog-eared book was rescued from our farm house in Zimbabwe before the mob moved in and started stripping it, and moved to a safe place. Unfortunately, there was no space in the 2 suitcases Sue and I each brought to Canada for books, so my original copy is still being kept for me until the next visitor can bring it, I know that sooner or later I will again have it in my collection.

I did get another copy soon after arriving in my new country, I read it regularly and it still works it’s magic. I recommend this book to every one who is seeking to improve their situation in life, so I was enthusiastic when I had the opportunity to help more people get their own copy.

My friends Vic and Lisa Johnson are doing this crazy marketing
test where they’re giving away Napoleon Hill’s “Think & Grow Rich.”

I’m helping them with their big giveaway and wanted to make sure
you got your copy before they take this offer down.

Get the details here: FreeBook Think & Grow Rich

Feel free to pass this on to friends. They can get one too if they
act right away.

This is one of my favorite books. I know you’ll love it!

Wishing you success in all your endeavours

Last week the person I was coaching mentioned something about limiting beliefs that reminded me of a limiting belief that was holding my business back a few years ago.

Although when working for a large company, I was accustomed to, and comfortable with, negotiating sales of hundreds of thousands of dollars, this comfort zone contracted rapidly when I left the safety of the corporate world and struck out on my own as an independent export trader.

My own limited financial resources played a role, but the biggest limiting factor was my own nervousness of the big numbers. My small company’s turnover did increase, my individual sales did get larger but every time I got into negotiations for large shipments, the fears held me back. Moving from $50 000 shipments to $100 000 was a big leap, but once I had finalised the first $100 000 it became easier to look at even larger deals.

It’s worth noting that most of my sales were for low margin commodities, and I was frequently putting everything I owned on the block to finance my business, so the risk factor was high.

How did I get over my fears? Well, because of the low margins, exposure to currency fluctuations, uncertainty in some of the markets where I operated, the nervousness did not entirely disappear – and that’s a good thing, because it kept me focused.

What I did was to look at the numbers as just that, numbers. Some deals had more numbers than others, some had less. A $500 000 compared to a $100 000 deal just has a 5 instead of a 1 before the zeros. As long as all the other factors; financing, insurance, costing were in place, it was just a different number.

What has this got to do with Network or Internet Marketing?

Everything, I believe it is exactly the same fear that holds so many people in Network Marketing back from approaching prospects that they think are “too advanced” for us to talk to about our business. It is also what holds many of us back from taking the action we know we must take in our online and offline marketing.

Most people I know of all have similar characteristics, I have yet to come across someone who really does breathe fire. So the difference in that persons status is really only our perception. For all we know, that well dressed business man or woman having a coffee at the next table might just have been laid off from his or her high paying management position and be open to hearing about a business opportunity that can be started today.

Perhaps it’s another, may be a disguised, fear of success.

So do you have a limiting level? Either in the “level’ of people you are comfortable approaching or in the scale of marketing campaigns you are comfortable executing?

Wishing you success in all your endeavours.

I have been fortunate to have worked for large and small businesses, owned several businesses and been a farmer. I still have an involvement in a farming operation in addition to my network and internet marketing business.

While spending some time on the farm today, I reflected on the differences between farming and network marketing.

Farming in a cold climate like Canada, much of the USA and most of Europe brings challenges that I did not experience in Africa.
Particularly, the short growing season and the need to “winterise” equipment before it freezes.

For most farmers, the growing season has ended, so other than ensuring that the crops are harvested, stored and sold, there is nothing a farmer can do to increase his income until next spring. The die is cast.

Network marketers can increase their revenue for the year by taking action today, and can continue doing so right up to 31 December.

Calling new prospects, starting a new email campaign, following up with older contacts, on-line marketing or starting a blog, can all result in new people in your business or new product sales.

The cold weather makes no difference, in fact it’s an advantage, summer vacations are over, children back at school and for many people the worry of finding extra cash for the Christmas holiday period makes them more receptive to looking at new income generating opportunities.

So if you have not taken enough action in your business over the summer, it’s not too late, you still have 80 days left this year to take action every day to change your financial position.

Farmers cannot do anything to change their income this year, we can.

For ideas on how to take on-line action for your business subscribe to our free Wednesday night webinars presented by Internet Marketing experts.

Wishing you success in all your endeavours.

Always on the lookout for ways to stimulate my brain ( the experts say that keeping our brains active helps prevent dementia) I stumbled upon this website that has some great exercises for keeping mentally active.

Try the exercise that calculates your “Brain Age” it’s about halfway down the page.

Here’s the link The Worlds First Mental Gymnasium

Wishing you success in all your endeavours and have some fun with the mental gym.

Some interesting statistics about online advertising were published in an article by Matt Hartley in the National Post on Saturday 26 September.

It appears that Canada ranks highest in average monthly hours online at 45 hours per unique visitor, with the USA 4th at 30 hours.

This ranking is not reflected in the percentage of total media advertising spending allocated to online advertising.

By this measure, the USA is 8th and Canada 10th with 12.5% and 11% respectively allocated to online advertising.

Number 1 on this list is Denmark with 24.4% of media advertising spending allocated to online advertising.

Various reasons for this are discussed in the article, one being the availability of television channels in Europe and different viewing habits.

Here is the link to the article

This tells me that there are some great opportunities out there.

Do you want to get started as an internet marketer but don’t know where to begin?

Go here to get access to our series of articles and free weekly webinars. Internet Marketing ideas.

Wishing you success in all your endeavours

It seems that the longer I live, not only do more things change, but the rate of change keeps on increasing.

This is going to give away my age, when I started my first job after leaving the family farm, there were no computers, calculators, photo copiers or cell phones. Telephones in rural areas were still on party lines with a little handle on the side that had to be cranked to alert the operator.

Despite the lack of technology that we now consider essential, large corporations were built and operated efficiently.

Fast forward to the last 10 years and think of the changes to how we use the internet in our businesses and personal lives.

Now lets look forward and consider how the changes that are happening right now will affect our marketing efforts in the future.

I believe that we will have to adapt and improve our marketing efforts and do so quickly if we are going to survive. It is getting harder every day to stand out from the crowd and get noticed by our target audience.

Here is a link to a good article on the subject of change and how it applies to Internet Marketing by Michael Masterson of Early to Rise.
Constant Change

If you are feeling overwhelmed by all the marketing channels you think you need to master and use to become a successful Internet Marketer, then you need to subscribe to our free training articles and weekly webinar. These will help you get started on one activity at a time and learn how to do it effectively, how to get results before you move on to other marketing ideas and spread yourself so thinly that you end up with too much cost, too little sleep and a lack of results.

Go to Focused Prosperity today and get some direction for your business.

Wishing you success in all your endeavours