Earlier today, I was out in my front yard doing my best Johnny Bench imitation. It wasn’t a very good impersonation, but first my son and later my daughter needed someone to help practice pitching. I managed to keep the ball in front of me most of the time and give each pointers along the way. photo credit: Bee Skutch One thing I noticed is that my son’s baseball pitching and my daughter’s fastpitch softball pitching both got better when…
Whenever I’m at a wedding reception, someone always comes up to me with a video camera and says something like, “Don’t you want to say something to the bride and groom?” photo credit: neate photos I got tired of saying something lame like, “Congratulations! I know you’ll be very happy!” So I thought about what I wish someone would have said to me when I got married. Here’s what I say now: “There are two rules to a happy marriage….
Teamwork is one of the leading indicators of a strong network marketing system. photo credit: ArtemFinland I considered that recently while reading “The Five Dysfunctions of a Team,” by Patrick Lencioni. The book, which is described as a “leadership fable,” is a fictional story about how a newly hired CEO leads the executive staff of a troubled technology company. Lencioni then follows the narrative with an overview of the model it describes. As a strong proponent of using teamwork to…
I moved the blog to a new server today and learned a lesson along the way. The move was not as simple or as easy as I’d hoped. To be honest, it was kind of intimidating. Numerous times along the way, I’d read the instructions for what to do and say to myself, “Huh?” Several times, I wanted to just stop and forget it. Have you ever been trying to accomplish something and a little voice keeps telling you that…
While taking a walk along the beach the other day with my wife and son, we noticed a fellow surfing in the Atlantic Ocean. I spent the first few minutes watching the guy thinking about how cold he must have been. Water temperature in the area averages about 55 degrees in March. But the more I watched, I noticed the way the surfer would time his attempts to ride waves. As a suitable wave approached, he’d paddle with the wave…
A few minutes ago, I heard some noise coming from one of my daughter’s rooms upstairs. It’s late, so I hollered up to her that she needed to get to sleep. She said OK, but she was putting up some of her clothes. Not wanting to stop her from something that needed to be done, I let her go. A couple of minutes ago, she yelled down for me to come upstairs because she wanted me to see her room,…
Success in life comes easier when we decide to take our own path. Knowing that direction comes with knowing ourselves. Once we become familiar with our strengths, gifts and talents, we’ll more easily recognize the way we are meant to go. Another key factor in getting to know ourselves is understanding which of the four generally recognized personality types most closely characterizes us. Everyone is perfect just the way they are. Realize that you don’t have to change to be…
Have you ever thought about why you’re in network marketing? What is it that most keeps you going toward your goal? I’ve been giving that a lot of thought recently. I’ve been trying to strip away all the peripheral reasons to get to my core desires. All this has forced me to ask myself a lot of question. Some of them were tough questions. Some were downright scary. For example, I’ve thought about what I want to be said at…
Do you remember when you first saw the potential of network marketing, when you realized the possibilities of MLM? I can. I remember thinking to myself, “This really evens the playing field.” I could see that the old adage that “you have to have money to make money,” was no longer valid. You remember, too, don’t you? All of a sudden you thought about providing everything your family never had. You reclaimed those early dreams of spending more time with…
I just listened to a a great training call featuring one of my friends and mentors, Richard Dennis. He focused on the power of making decisions. Richard pointed out that the speed of your action determines your success. It’s not whether you’re right or wrong. It’s whether or not you act. The call reminded me of something Napoleon Hill said in his book, “Think and Grow Rich.” Hill analyzed several hundred millionaires. He found that everyone of them had the…