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So much has happened over the past week and I have not had a chance to sit down in front of my computer and share everything but I just wanted to write this short post for now. The first and most important event this past week was the birth of my daughter on Thursday evening. She is healthy and beautiful and a ton of fun… by fun I mean a lot of hard work. My wife, myself and 2 other kids could not be happier.
I’ve got a lot to write about this week so when I have more than a few minutes to sit down and type, I’ll get started. In the meanwhile, I’m off to change my daughter’s diaper, again.
I used to find pennies on the floor all over the place and pick them. Lately, I’ve been finding nickels. Did the nickel replace the penny? It’s gotten to the point that stores aren’t even accepting pennies anymore. Office Max decided to take advantage of the situation by promoting their “penny sales” where you can buy some items for just one penny. Here is one video from Office Max claiming “we’ll take your pennies”:
To see more videos, visit Office Max’s Penny Site.
Besides being really funny and driving the point across at how devalued the penny has become, this viral penny campaign was a great way for Office Max to differentiate themselves from other stores. Between all of their videos, they got over a million views. Besides the videos, Office Max continued their campaign by trying to give out buckets full of pennies for free to people on the street and in malls. They found an opportunity that the rest of the world stopped accepting and started throwing away. There’s nothing like getting lucky by jumping on opportunity, especially the ones that most people don’t recognize.
Business Success Tips, in their August 14th podcast told a story that I thought was very appropriate to retell on this site:
There was a man who died and went to the afterlife where he could do no wrong.He always got what he wanted, people never said no to him and he would win every game he played.If he wanted a particular item, woman or anything else, he got it.After a while he got tired of everything and wanted a change.He went over to the angel at the gate and said that he was grateful that he was granted so much but he is tired of heaven and would like to try out hell.The angel responded to him, “Where do you think you are?”
Everybody thinks that they would be happy if they always got what they wanted but the truth is, if you are looking for constant material gratification, you will never be happy.True happiness comes from the entire process of getting what you want.It comes from successfully moving forward, working hard, getting past obstacles in your way and running through the finish line knowing that you got to where you are through your own efforts.
I was recently speaking to a father who was upset that kids these days are nothing like they were when he was growing up.He worked hard his whole life for everything he got and now he is very successful.His son on the other hand has always been given everything because he had a father who didn’t want his kids to suffer like he did.The father didn’t realize that by buying his son a car and the nicest clothes to give his son what he never had growing up, he took away any satisfaction that his son would have had in achieving everything on his own.The fact that his son is lazy is because he never had the chance or the drive to get a rush from doing something on his own.
Michael Phelps is the talk of the 2008 Summer Olympics.He won 8 Gold medals which is unheard of in the Olympics.Michael was not handed the Gold medals for showing up, he earned them by training for years to become the best swimmer in the world.When he won each event and then posed with his Gold medals, you could tell that his joy was not from the single events but from the years of practice finally paying off.
The bottom line is to remember that when you fail, hit a road block or feel like you’re not getting anywhere, continue to push through.If you push for long enough, you will be successful and the longer the journey, the better you feel as you cross the finish line.
Quotes can be very inspirational and motivational and to get lucky, sometimes you need a little burst or lift of each of them so I am going to start posting some quotes on Luck every once in a while to give you a little boost.
I never knew an early-rising, hard-working, prudent man, careful of his earnings, and strictly honest who complained of bad luck.
- Henry Ward Beecher
I’m a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more luck I have.
- Thomas Jefferson
Luck is a dividend of sweat. The more you sweat, the luckier you get.
- Ray Kroc
Learn to listen. Opportunity sometimes knocks very softly.
When you start doing something new such as playing a sport and you enjoy it, you try really hard to get good at it.You practice day and night and play against the best people out there just so that you can work on your skills and improve.
Once you get really good at the game or whatever it is you are doing, you start to get looked up to by people who also want to improve their game.The better you get, the more people want to be like you.It is common that people in this situation start to get cocky and that can really ruin it all for them.Either because they start trying all kinds of fancy moves that they can’t possibly do and it throws off their game or even worse, they want to keep people’s perceptions of them up high so they stop playing their game out of fear that they may mess up and lose the respect and admiration of their fans.
Messing up and working to get even better is the best thing that you can do in that situation.Michael Jordan is a great example of this.He is known for missing more game ending shots than anyone else in the NBA.He also took more game ending shots than anyone else because he was not afraid that people would think any less of him.And because of that, people respected him even more.If you ask him, he will tell you how many game winning shots he missed in his career but he doesn’t know how many games he won with that last shot.Michael Jordan concentrated on his faults and worked on them without caring what anyone would think of him and that is how he kept improving.You might remember when he retired for the first time and then came back, he sucked.He was missing shots back and forth but that didn’t stop him, he worked harder than ever to get back his game.Another example is Tiger Woods who broke down his swing and rebuilt it 3 times even when he was at the top of his game.That all takes a ton of guts.
Act like a beginner and you will always be improving your game.
Have you ever shied away from doing something because you were afraid that people would not look at you the same way?Let me know in the comments.
