The Big Break: It’s all a matter of perspective

Why do some people seem to "get all the breaks?" Why do some people simply appear to have their life path smoother than the rest? The fact is, this so- called "lucky" people, capitalize on moving through life with a different attitude than most.

They prepare for their "breaks," and develop habits that capitalize on good fortune. Adopting these habits can enhance your chance of success.

1. Risk Management
Managing your risks
"Lucky" people make a clear distinction between risky and rash, between an informed hunch and a vain hope. They know how to take calculated risk. They are constantly tucking away information, building upon a knowledge vault, to enhance their supposed intuition. They know how to leverage on the knowledge at the right time, cracking the code and executing when it is most profitable. "Lucky" people perform acts that seem daring, but they are playing out informed hunches, with a clear sense of the probability of success. These people are decisive risk- takers; upon maximizing their probability of success, they strike.

2. Perspective
Turning problems into opportunities
"Lucky" people take a second look at things others barely see the first time. An irate banker demanded that Alexander Graham Bell remove "that toy" from his office. "That toy" was the telephone. Sometimes, when life just does not appear the way it should be, learn to look at it a little more positively. In the bigger scheme of things, there is always a silver lining.

Managing a customer’s complain well is a perfect example. There was once a customer who confirmed with a waiter she could bring in a birthday cake into the hotel restaurant. However, she was halted at the door by another waiter, who adamantly pointed to a “no outside food is allowed” rule. That truly angered her and just as she was about to create a scene, the Captain came to the rescue. He quickly showed the lady and her friends to an exquisite spot with the best view in the restaurant (well, of course his charisma didn’t hurt) and served each of them a delicate artisan cake. The lady’s anger was appeased. More than appeased, she became so pleased that she typed a letter of appreciation and blogged about her fine dining experience in the restaurant. This brought throngs of crowd to the restaurant.

Only much later did the Captain realise, that this lady, was a respectable food blogger. His ability to turn a customer’s anger into an opportunity to show-case the restaurant’s finest delicacy provided an out- of- the world experience for his diners. Now, if anything, never underestimate the power of turning the fate around on a momentary appeared weakness.

3. Loss- Management
Cutting your losses
“Lucky” people know when to back off, while “unlucky” people are often stubborn. Perhaps, out of ego or ignorance, they don't know when to cut their losses and change course. One popular trick in investing,is to use the “stop loss” function, instead of bleeding to death. "Lucky" people have a knack for "getting out when the getting is good." They know how to manage their greed. The ability to gauge risk is crucial. Never take on things that you can't see the end to. This applies to all aspects of life: courtship, customer- management, investment etc.

4. Network
Reaching out to people
"Lucky" people are never too busy to meet new people and to keep up old acquaintances. They join clubs and professional organizations. They skilfully navigate around the awkward silence when strangers are made to sit around wedding banquets. Never to leave anyone out in the cold, you’ll see how instinctively they stretch out their hands and initiate a conversation. These people talk and are talked about. These people are the ones who make you feel important. Basically, they network and are mindful of other peoples’ feelings. The head of a New York executive search firm once declared, “Many of his prospects for top jobs, are simply people who have made themselves known to other people."


5. Innovate
Using persistence creatively
Let’s face it, “lucky” people have the determination to "butt their heads against the wall," but their winning edge, lies in using that resolve more efficiently by looking at undiscovered markets. In the current market condition, where companies are looking at cutting costs, think of what innovative sales solutions you can offer? Successful people go beyond being persistent. They persist, with a twist. They re-look at their failed results and reconsider their strategy. Successful people, use persistence, creatively. Successful people, offer out- of- the- box solutions.

6. Time It
Timing the right meeting, at the right time
“Lucky” people know sometimes, timing makes all the difference. Knowing when your client gets his or her budget approved can make or break. You don’t want to to wait for a month, or worse, a year, before your product gets discussed on an important budget meeting.
A regional manager once shared with me how his Indonesian client had to postpone their meeting. His inquisitive nature got him to probe a little further to understand the reason. Capitalizing on the fact that his client felt bad in postponing the meeting, his client explained that there was an important budget meeting he had to attend. Immediately, he requested for an earlier meeting and furnished his client with all the information. You want to be in the game and ensure your product gets a considerable budget. Make things easy for your client, do the homework for them. Furnish them with the details, brochures, anything which can help them to influence their decision makers. Now trust me, looking impressive in front of their bosses without having to lift their finger, they’ll be so thankful to you for it!

7. Intention
Intending to win
So you see, the secrets of success are neither dark nor deep. They do not exclude happy chance or unfortunate circumstance, but they do emphasise on intention. Being successful in life does not come by chance. Being successful in life, starts with an intent to succeed and win. To intent, is to will. To will, requires a considerable amount of effort, time and commitment. Perhaps, this is one of the hardest lessons to grasp because some people make it all look so easy. We see them enjoying the fruit and have no idea what it takes to plant and water the tree. Start sowing your seeds today, and see your plant bear fruits in future.

Overcoming the Stumbling Blocks of Success

‘I knew I had to succeed, because I ran out of things that didn’t work’. - Thomas Edison

Most people would like more out of life than they already have. Some of them can even define it. They have it all penned out on paper. Yet, most of them will never achieve it, and it's because they’re so easily stopped. We all know who invented the electrical lamp. Yet, how many of us remember the morale of the story behind one of the world’s greatest invention?
Thomas Edison, who decided to invent the electrical lamp, had an idea and he believed he could do it. He knew that every failure was bringing him closer to success. When something didn’t work he tried a different approach.

During an interview on the secret behind his success, he answered, “I knew I had to succeed, because I ran out of things that didn’t work. And when a journalist asked him what it was like to fail so many times, he answered ‘I didn’t fail the first 9,999 experiments. Inventing the electrical lamp was a process of 10,000 steps, I just had to take each one of them.’ Practical dreamers never quit. Tenacity is embedded in them.

Now take a moment to think of all the things you’ve ever wanted to accomplish in your life, and then think why you didn't accomplish them. You would probably say you didn’t try hard enough or you never planned it out properly. But perhaps, it is because you were stopped by these stumbling blocks. Blocks, that deterred you, from being successful.

1. Limiting Belief
This is a huge obstacle to success. Other people are always so ready, willing and able to tell us "It can’t be done," and stop us from doing all the things we want to do in our lives and careers. There are many people who want to stop you, drag you down, so that you don’t become more successful than they are. They feel it’s easier to keep you down with them, than to get up off their rear ends and join you in achieving success. The next time one of these "Other people," tells you it can’t be done, say to them, "You’re right, you can’t do it, but I can."
On the other hand, not all these people are with ill- intent. In fact some may be your loved ones who genuinely care for you. They probably think they’re acting in your best interest, but they’re not. In fact, all too often, we have the over protective parents who refuse to let their kids try new things, which in the end stifle their independence as they grow older.

2. Fear
Fear of failure is the single, biggest obstacle to our success. Fear is a double- edged sword. A certain amount of fear can create a positive motivator in us. Yet, if unbridled, it paralyzes us. Most people don’t succeed because they are too afraid to fail. They are so afraid to fail, they don’t even try. This of course creates a vicious cycle since the only time we really fail is when we stop trying! Imagine a salesperson who keeps getting rejected on the phone when he does his cold calls? Selling is, like it or not, often about rejection, handling rejection and rebounding again! Selling is character building. It teaches one to overcome his or her fear and try again, before fear overwhelms the person. It is only when we paralyze in fear, that we STOP, and end up taking away any opportunity we ever had to be great.

3. Bad Habits
We all know the adage, “Old habits die hard”. Well, you can imagine how tough it is to start a good habit as well. Just like how we learn our ABC’s or nursery rhyme, the key to nurturing a good habit is: repeat, repeat repeat. Truly, repetition is the key to any good or bad habit.
Bad habits constantly stop us. One of the worst habits of a salesperson is the habit of procrastination. Sure, there are days where we feel a little lazier than normal. Habits, unlike addictions like drinking, drugs, gambling, have to be stopped cold turkey, while habits can only be changed gradually. After all, you didn’t acquire that bad habit overnight. What makes you think you can change it overnight?

Bad habits must be changed a little bit at a time. Mark out one day a week that you won’t procrastinate; make one more sales call a week than you normally would, wake up five minutes earlier every day. Do it for a month, then next month do a little more. Well, you don’t necessarily need to try to break out of your comfort zone immediately, just expand it.

There are no overnight successes. Success is a long journey over a road that has many roadblocks, such as limiting beliefs, fear and bad habits. It’s the people that go over around and through those stumbling blocks who become successful.

A Written Goal Must Have Time Frames

We all need goals and know how important it is to be specific about those goals. HOwever, leveraging on this, we need a solid time-frame in order to gauge our progress along the road of life.

Do you know it is nearly impossible to achieve a goal without a time frame or deadline?

Time frames give you a frame of reference. They also allow you to know when you can stop? And, after all, if you don't know when you can stop, what's the motivation to start? Having a time frame makes it easier to formulate a plan for achieving the goal. For example, if my goal is to lose 20 pounds in 10 months, I can draw up a plan that has me losing 2 pounds a month or one pound every 2 weeks. If I leave it open ended, how soon will I get frustrated with the lack of results, because I have no way of measuring them, and just give up?Most people doom themselves to failure before they even start. They say things like, "Some day I'm going to quit this job and get a better one;" "I'm going to start my own business sometime in the next few years;" "Some day I'm going to lose this extra twenty pounds;" Whenever you hear somebody use one of the above phrases, rest assured none of those things will ever happen.

Let's examine one of the vague words people use to help sabotage themselves: let's look at the word "sometime."Sometime is an interesting word because it could mean anytime, but the way we use it, it usually means never. Have you ever asked one of your children to do something around the house and they reply, "Sure mom (dad), I'll get around to it sometime." What does their reply tell you? That it's probably never going to get done.What if you called me on the phone to set up a sales appointment with me and said, "Warren can I come over and see you sometime?" And I said, "Sure," then hung up. When would you come by? I'd say you better come over right away, because other than right now you'll never know when I'm going to be there.Has this ever happened to you: you're walking down the street and you run into someone you haven't seen in a while, and couldn't care less if you ever saw him or her again. You find yourself saying, "Hey, haven't seen you in ages. You look great! We should get together sometime. Give me a call sometime. Better yet, give me your number and I'll call you sometime." Why do you say that? Because you don't ever want to see that person again.As you see, we use the word "sometime," when we don't want to do something.

So, what are we saying when we take the word "sometime" and tack it onto the end of our goals and plans? Unfortunately, we're saying it's never going to happen.

When you write down your goal, please remember to write down the year or date you intend to achieve it by, because a goal is a dream with a deadline.

Writing Down Your Goals: Let Me Show You Why ... You Need One

The Three Components of an Effective Written Plan

Number One: Express Your Plan in Continuous Action

When developing a specific, written, action plan for your goals it is imperative that the plan be expressed in continuous action. This means that you know what you have to do every day, week, month or year in order to achieve your goals.The most successful salespeople understand this and that's how they go about planning each year and insuring their continued success.The successful salesperson decides before the year starts how much money they want to make in the upcoming year.

They do it not by pulling it out of a hat, but by deciding on how they want their life to look in that upcoming year and beyond, and what kind of lifestyle they want to live. This tells them how much money they need to make to support that lifestyle.

Let's say, hypothetically, the goal for the next year is $100,000 in commissions. The successful salesperson now devises a plan by first expressing it in continuous action. Being successful, this salesperson keeps records and knows how much the average sale puts in his or her pocket.If the average sales yields $1,000 in commissions that now means our salesperson would have to close 100 sales a year or, in continuous action, 2 per week (did you ever notice it's a lot easier to close 2 sales a week, than 100 in a year). Now the goal is no longer $100,000, it's just 2 sales per week.But it's not always within a salesperson's complete control to close a sale. Some people do say "no." Some people say "I have to think about it." But not everyone says that. Since top producers keep good records, this one knows that one of every 3 face to face sales presentations ends up a sale. So now you don't have to make $100,000. You don't even have to close 100 sales in a year or 2 a week. You just have to make 6 face to face sales presentations a week.

Taking this even further we find that his or her cancellation rate on appointments is 25%. Meaning this salesperson doesn't even have to see anyone, they just need to set up 8 appointments a week.But knowing that one of every 5 people you speak to gives you an appointment and every 3 dials of the phone puts you in touch with the person you're looking to reach now breaks it down even further. Now we know that if this salesperson dials the phone 120 times per week (or 24 per day) on average it will yield: 40 phone conversations; 8 appointments; 6 presentations and 2 sales for $1,000 commission each. This tells us that every day that salesperson goes to work and generates 24 prospecting telephone calls he or she is getting that much closer to their goal.

Now how motivated do you think that person is to make the calls? That's continuous action.

Are You an Enterprising Woman?

By Candace Bahr, CEA, CDFA

Do you dream of having your own business? More and more women each year discover the excitement of being self-employed.

If it sounds good to you, the prospects have never been better or the resources greater to help you get started. Enterprising women across America are building businesses that in 2005 employed 18.2 million people and generated $2.32 trillion in sales.

The first important step for a would-be entrepreneur is honest self-assessment:
Do you have the right stuff to be happy working for yourself?
Are you comfortable with risk, competition, and decision-making? Can you manage your time and money effectively? Can you solve problems, set goals, and hold yourself accountable for success and failure?

If you say “YES!” read on.

What makes a successful business idea? Experts agree that it starts with something you like to do and are good at. Success follows those who really enjoy what they are doing. A great example is popular TV chef Rachel Ray who in the past few years has achieved fame and fortune doing what she loves—cooking, traveling and sharing her ideas in books, a new magazine, and her own TV talk show. She always looks like she’s having fun!

Be sure your business idea calls forth your best talents. Your work should require you to use these things: the skills people compliment you or praise you about; the activities you like so well you would still do them even if you won the lottery; the ideas you have for making the world a better place; and the life experience, education, and training you have.

Once an enterprising woman has found a service or product to be the heart of her business, she can make use of the many resources available for help in getting started. These include the nonprofit SCORE counseling organization at www.score.org and the federal government’s Small Business Administration at http://women-21.gov. There’s plenty of peer support, too. The number of self-employed women grew 77 percent from 1983 to 2005—to a total of 4.7 million.
Today’s women have greater opportunities than ever before to find fulfillment and express themselves through their work. It’s also a chance to extend prosperity to others. According to the Department of Labor, "Women entrepreneurs are creating jobs, hope and opportunities in every community in America."

Navigating through the Storms

A Downturn is a Terrible Opportunity To Waste

Think a recession is a bad time to start a company or selling will be tough?

Sure, it will be, however there is always business to be done. It is a fact that people have made fortunes during the depression! Imagine if the founders of these major corporations had thought the same. There would not have been household names like Proctor & Gamble, IBM and Fedex to name a few. Though bracing for a rough year ahead in 2009, General Electric and General Motors are nonetheless, century- old brandnames! There are plenty of other things you can and should be doing during a downturn to make the best out it.

In 2008, we saw Lehman Brothers, a 158 year-old investment bank, go belly up in a matter of days. American International Group (AIG), the world’s largest insurance company, was tethering on the brink of bankruptcy. Like it or not, the global landscape has changed. Through it all, one of the things I've noticed about change is, whether you embrace it or run from it; go with it, lead into it, or get dragged into it kicking and screaming, it's going to happen anyhow, with you or without you. You see, what I've found out is: Change is the only constant. No matter how you react to it, and whether you like it or not, it doesn't matter: it's going to happen with you or without you.

Adaptability, in our new environment, is your key to success. To succeed in our ever- changing environment, you not only have to anticipate change, plan for change, but also plan for milking the most out of it. Have you start making plans in this changing environment where companies fold-up even faster than you can say its name? Do you have your personal plan for how you will succeed in this changing landscape and what you want to get out of it? Does your company have a plan for any changing environment and they know what they want to get out of it?

The other lesson I learned about change is: Leading through change. Don't be afraid to be the first one through. Too many people are only too happy to let others take them through change, or life, for that matter. But when you give up control like that, it's going to be hard to reap the benefits.

So plan for change with an eye towards what you want out of it and lead through change. Don't be afraid to meet it head on. Because whether you like it or not; whether you embrace it or run from it; whether you lead into it, get pushed, pulled or dragged into it kicking and screaming, it doesn't matter. It's going to happen anyhow; with you or without you. Nothing stays the same, change is the only constant.