Habits

All of the great coaches I've read about or seen interviewed share a common belief...If you make good habits, good habit will make you. This wisdom has been around since ancient times. In fact, one of the best-known quotes from Aristotle is, 
"Excellence is not an act...it's a habit."

Food for Thought...

I am your constant companion.
I am your greatest asset or heaviest burden.
I will push you up to success or down to disappointment.
I am at your command.
Half the things you do might just as well be turned over to me.
For I can do them quickly, correctly, and profitably.
I am easily managed: just be firm with me.
Those who are great, I have made great.
Those who are failures, I have made failures.
I am not a machine, though I work with the precision of a machine and the intelligence of a person.
You can run me for profit, or you can run me for ruin.
Show me how you want it done. Educate me. Train me.
Lead me. Reward me.
And I will then...do it automatically.
I am your servant.
Who am I?
I am a habit.

Become a Good Observer

We must never allow a day to pass without finding the answers to a list of important questions such as: What is going on in our industry? What new challenges are currently facing our government? Our community? Our neighborhood? What are the new breakthroughs, the new opportunities, the new tools and techniques that have recently come to light? Who are the new personalities that are influencing world and local opinion?

We must become good observers and astute evaluators of all that is going on around us. All events affect us, and what affects us leaves an imprint on what we will one day be and how we will one day live.

One of the major reasons why people are not doing well is because they keep trying to get through the day. A more worthy challenge is to try to get from the day. We must become sensitive enough to observe and ponder what is happening around us. Be alert. Be awake. Let life and all of its subtle messages touch us. Often, the most extraordinary opportunities are hidden among the seemingly insignificant events of life. If we do not pay attention to these events, we can easily miss the opportunities.

So be a good observer of both life and the world around you. ~ by Jim Rohn

YES WE CAN!

Who is the most important person involved in staging a global economic comeback?

• The current President of the United States?
• Whoever the next President is?
• The Fed Chairman?
• The U.S. Treasury Secretary?

No.

The most important person for the future of the United States and global economy is YOU—the entrepreneur.

You have heard the statistics before, but they are worth repeating as it shows you the tremendous power and burden YOU have for making an economic recovery possible.

U.S. Small Business Administration reports that, small businesses are responsible for 58% of all jobs and half of the total GDP. 64% of all new jobs were created solely by small businesses over the past 19 years.

Small businesses:
• Represent 99.7% of all employer firms
• Employ more than 50% the private-sector employees
• Pay 44% of the total U.S. private payroll
• Have generated more than 64% of all new jobs during the past 15 years
• And create more than 50% the private gross domestic product
*statistics from U.S. Small Business Administration

Carl Schramm, president of the Kauffman Foundation says this, “Entrepreneurs, people who now create more than half the new jobs in America,are defining the new economy, not just here, but around the world. We could call the current era the age of entrepreneurial capitalism.”

This new era is changing the face of what we think of as the entrepreneur as well.

Entrepreneurs over the next decade will be far more diverse than their predecessors in age, origin and gender.

Traditionally entrepreneurs came predominantly out of the middle of the age spectrum, but now are now coming more extensively from the edges.

These are people nearing retirement… and their children just entering the job market.

A Kauffman report, “The Coming Entrepreneurship Boom,” said that the highest rate of entrepreneurial activity for the last 10 years has been among the 55 to 64 age group. The research states that the United States might be on the cusp of an entrepreneurship boom—not in spite of the aging population, but because of it.”

There are a number of factors triggering this. Certainly the current economy and the loss of retirement nest eggs are part of it. But also life expectancy has risen and people are staying healthier and living far longer.

In addition, long-term jobs with pensions are becoming a thing of the past. There has also been an increasing trend to force older workers out through layoffs, buy outs, outsourcing overseas, and early retirement so younger, less costly employees could be hired.

On the opposite side of the spectrum entrepreneurship professor Jeff Cornwall of Belmont University calls the current rise of Generation Y (ages 5 to 25) “the most entrepreneurial generation ever.”

The new face of entrepreneurship will also be more feminine. The glass ceiling that has limited women’s corporate career paths will send more women to the small business sector than ever before.

And the face will be multicultural. Immigrant entrepreneurs will help drive a new wave of globalization.

These are times of great opportunity if you pay attention to the way the waves are moving, grab your surfboard, jump in the water and start paddling like crazy.

No matter the campaign slogan or campaign promise of any Presidential candidate, none of them have the power to change your economic future—only YOU do.

GREAT QUOTES FROM GREAT LEADERS

1. "The best thing about the future is that it comes only one day at a time." ~ Abraham Lincoln

2. "Life is a series of experiences, each of which makes us bigger, even though it is hard to realize this. For the world was built to develop character, and we must learn that the setbacks and griefs which we endure help us in our marching onward." ~ Henry Ford

3. "Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless." ~ Mother Teresa

4. "Success is not final, failure is not fatal. It's the courage to continue that counts." ~ Winston Churchill

5. "A good head and good heart are always a formidable combination." ~ Nelson Mandela

6. "Leaders aren't born, they are made. They are made by hard effort, which is the price which all of us must pay to achieve any goal which is worthwhile." ~ Vince Lombardi

7. "Worry is the interest paid by those who borrow trouble." ~ Thomas Jefferson

8. "We gain strength, and courage, and confidence by each experience in which we really stop to look fear in the face...we must do that which we think we cannot." ~ Eleanor Roosevelt

9. "A man is but the product of his thoughts. What he thinks, he becomes." ~ Mahatma Gandhi

10. "The ideals which have lighted my way, and time after time have given me new courage to face life cheerfully, have been kindness, beauty, and truth." ~ Albert Einstein

11. "Happiness lies in the joy of achievement and the thrill of creative effort." ~ Franklin Roosevelt

12. "Constant kindness can accomplish much. As the sun makes ice melt, kindness causes misunderstanding, mistrust and hostility to evaporate." ~ Albert Schweitzer

13. "I believe the unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality." ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

14. "Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, vision cleared, ambition inspired and success achieved." ~ Helen Keller