All true winners in life have certain characteristics. If you want to be a winner, you have to develop the same characteristics. These characteristics are the keys to ultimate happiness and success. Here are the two most important keys.

I’ve been writing about how important it is to have high, unconditional self regard. Every winner in life has high self-esteem. High unconditional self regard creates high self-esteem.

In the 1950′s unconditional self regard was all the rage in the mental health field. Carl Rogers became famous for his form of therapy. The therapist treated a patient with unconditional high regard, hoping that the person would take on this attitude towards himself, and in most cases it worked.

You can give yourself unconditional high regard, accept yourself no matter what. Understand that you are doing the best that you can. Be gracious; understand that others are doing the best that they can. This is a simple yet extremely effective formula for having successful relationships with people.

Now some of you might think, “This is the ticket, I just get to accept everything I do, good and bad, and I get a free ride. I can do anything and it is okay.”

Ah, but that is not the way it works. In order to have true happiness, you have to have true self-esteem; you have to have true unconditional high self regard, which means you must do only things that you are proud of. How can you regard yourself highly if you are ashamed of yourself? You cannot go around doing things that you are ashamed of. It does not work, if you truly want to be a winner. This is the second secret – living with integrity.

The first secret, which I have discussed in earlier writings, is giving yourself unconditional high self regard, accepting and loving yourself. The second secret is do only things you are proud of. That maintains your integrity.

Maintaining your integrity:

Integrity means doing things that are ethical, doing the right thing. First and foremost, keep your word. How much do you admire a person whose word you can trust? Live in such a manner that people can say of you, “Her word is her bond.”

You do not go around making promises to people just because you think that is what they want to hear, and then not following through with it. If you are giving a party, you want a person to mean it if they say they are going to come, you do not want them saying that they are coming, expect them, and then be disappointed.

If you do this to people, they are going to catch on and start losing their faith and trust in you. They may say something like, “He seems like a pleasant fellow, but you know you can’t really count on him.” When it comes to doing business, they’ll find somebody else.

It’s obvious, if you don’t keep your word in business dealings, people won’t trust you and keep doing business with you. You may trick somebody into a one-time sale, but you will not get repeat business – and repeat business is the most lucrative business – and you can imagine what kind of word-of-mouth you get. Without integrity, your business and your life will be one long struggle.

You will wind up not only feeling bad about having a poor business; what is worse, you will feel bad about yourself.

Do you want to be a winner?

Then remember the second secret of being a winner is to be a person of high integrity.

Only do things which you can be proud of.

Keep your word.

© 2004/2006 Stan Mann

Stan Mann, C.P.C. supports business owners, top executives and commission salespeople to substantially grow their business and have a balanced life. He is a Certified Professional Coach. For additional articles and resources please visit his site here.

Article Source

Tags:applied, ethnics, multicultural, companion

I walked outside to my car and saw a disturbing sight. Someone had keyed the entire passenger side. It had to get fixed. Fortunately, I was covered.

Of course they always hit the best looking side. And they didn’t key my hood, which needed the most touch-up. Some of you are saying, “Hey stupid. Why don’t you claim the hood as part of the damage? Your insurance wouldn’t know the difference.”

Simple. That would be a lie…

It was just prior to Christmas when I ordered a $500 correspondence course with an expiring $50 coupon for a total of $450. It arrived, but on the final week of the year, it goes on sale for $250. I could have returned the course, reordered it under the sale price, and saved $200—but I didn’t.

Was it because I was doing well and didn’t face money challenges? NO. Just the opposite.

You’re thinking I must really be a sap. I got no money coming in on one end, and I’m throwing it away on the other. Just how gullible is your editor?

Hey I don’t like overpaying for anything, but if something was worth the price, then I’ll make an effort to get it. And in this case, the course was worth more than $500. The information alone was worth more than five thousand dollars.

(It’s funny, but when people buy a five thousand dollar item—they treat it like a five thousand dollar item. If they get the exact item for free, it usually collects dust.)

Which leads to the volatile topic of personal integrity…

Do you lie on your income taxes? Do you plagiarize? Do you cheat on your partner? Do you break your word? Do you falsify information? And even more acceptable—do you try to get even?

I’m sure none of you are of this caliber, but let’s assume the rest of the world made these common practices. They believe it’s no big deal to tell a lie because it’s really harmless and besides, everyone gets away with it. Or maybe they’ve been burned by someone who got away with it, so why not join them and do the same to others?

For one thing—this eviscerates the Golden Rule of doing unto others, as you’d have them do unto you:

You don’t want to be a victim of cheating, so why would you become a participant? You don’t want to be taken advantage of, so why join some plot to abuse your talents? You want to reap the good, so why sow to the bad?

And for another thing—what goes around, comes around:

Some call it karma. Others call it sin. Whatever it’s called in your circle—it seems to haunt you later in life. It bites you in the ass and leaves painful marks.

If you want to be treated right, you should treat others right first. If you gossip about others, others will gossip about you. If you profit from the expense of others, others are forming a line to take a shot at you.

But you reason, “You don’t understand. You haven’t been through what I’ve been through. I’ve kept my word – my end of the deal – and I got burned. I’ve got to teach them a lesson!”

Hey, save it. You’ll waste too much time trying to collect what you’re due. It’s usually more profitable to forgive and move on. You won’t become its slave and you’ll sleep better at night.

Here’s what I mean…

My mentor’s books are illegally published in different languages. When he appeared in one of those countries for a keynote, they treated him like a famous rock star. He got the royal treatment and spin-off deals because he didn’t waste time collecting what he was owed. He leveraged his loss of income to make even more money without lifting a finger.

That’s the same power we’ve been granted. We have the power to choose our actions. Do we pursue our wrongdoers, or forgive them?

Tough choices we must make…

Is your editor applying for sainthood? No, not even. This is the same stuff he struggles with.

I was in Chicago for a company launch. My group leader offered his group a discount to join him. I was at the lobby when I met up with him.

The lady from Atlanta was shocked she had to pay full price for her group. She whined to our leader about the discount. To avoid a scene, he joked about it and quickly gave in.

I was next in line. Would I pay full price or would he offer me the same discount? No dice: I paid full.

Now you’re probably surmising: “You’re not a Super Saint—but a Super Sap.”

I disagree. Because it goes far deeper than just dollars and cents. Allow me to explain…

I sought no favor with my leader. He’s well off and doesn’t need the money. He was probably testing me to see if I would whine also. If I got anything from the incident, I think I won his respect. And that can stretch a very long way.

How about you?

Have you won people’s respect? Do they see you as an Institute of Integrity? Do you have a reputation that’s beyond reproach?

Advertise your answers in your daily walk and until we meet again, you have my best wishes.

About the Author:

Tommy Yan helps business owners and entrepreneurs make more money through direct response marketing. He publishes Tommy’s Tease weekly e-zine to inspire people to succeed in business and personal growth. Get your free subscription today at this site.

If you’re a speaker, trainer, coach, or a consultant—the major challenge you face is connecting with your audience. You talk, shout, or recite your message while they are dreaming about dinner. Their eyes are glossy, their minds’ elsewhere, and their bodies ready to bolt. You don’t have a lot of time, so you’ve got to grab their attention fast. Or else, you’ll die wrestling against audience resistance. But it doesn’t have to be this way..

Article Source

Tags:ethnics, moral, essay, philosophical, political

Most reasonable people will a still that if a franchisor is selling franchised outlets to the public then they have a viable business concept that is profitable. However, this may not always be the case and to assume this is risky if you are a franchise buyer. I would agree that if you are a franchisor and you have perfected your business model then absolutely you have the right to sell it to others to help them achieve their American dream of owning their own company or franchised outlet.

Although as a retired Franchisor and now consultants I have in the past had new franchisor entrants want me to consult them and I ask them how long they have been in business and they have maybe 3-years total including the day they got their business license before opening? You think to yourself what? How can anybody and thickly with two sell franchises when they have not perfected their own business or prototype model?

But then comes the real kicker and one, which just makes me cringe as a franchisor consultant; then these would be Franchisors tell me when I ask how much capital they have they say that they have approximately $35,000 available.

This is a scary thought indeed; why you ask, well it takes a million really to franchise a concept and you burn thru it fairly quickly unless you do not mind eating Top Ramen, putting in lots of hours and treating the money like you earned it washing dishes at $5.15 per hour. If you are thinking about franchising your current business please consider all this in 2006.

“Lance Winslow” – Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; WorldThinkTank. Lance is an online writer in retirement.

Article Source

Tags:ethnics, training, class, good, programs

“Life Is a Scam
By Jose De La Serna

Article Word Count: 558 [View Summary] Comments (0).
What can you do? Most of life is really one form of scam or another. The biggest scams are being uncovered as scientists peel away the layers of reality to reveal that nothing is really as firm as we believe them to be. A piece of wood may look solid enough so that if one were to be hit in the head with it, some form of damage would be inflicted on skin of the head if not fracturing the skull itself. On the sub-atomic level, the atoms that comprise that piece of wood have another kind of reality. An atom is composed of a nucleus and orbiting electrons. The nucleus and the electrons never meet such that it might as well be infinite space that separates them This ghostlike quality of an atom is a far cry from the solid manifestation of a bunch of atoms that comprise a piece of wood that is capable of inflicting great damage to a head or a portion of the human body that comes in contact with it as when a wooden bat is swung to strike a man. A neutrino on the other hand, is a particle so tiny that it would pass through most anything as though nothing exists except itself

One of the biggest scams in human history is the belief that the world is flat. Sailors and mariners would be afraid to stray from charted waters for fear of falling off the edge of the world. Ancient maps would say, “”here be dragons”" to denote parts of the world which people know nothing about.

Christopher Columbus in his quest to find treasures for his king by charting a route to the fabled land of India mistakenly thought that the Indies was India hence the name and the indelible appellation of native Americans as Indians.The fiction of Heven and Hell is one of the biggest scams perpetrated on gullible Christians who swallow hook line and sinker anything professed by Church Fathers and Evangelists who know how to write and orate better than to use their reason.

Galileo Galilei was a genius who fell victim to the ignorance of the Church Fathers who found his notion of the Heliocentric System contrary to the Religious belief that the sun revolved around the earth. He spent his life in house arrest so to speak unable to share his wisdom and knowledge for the good of humanity simply because his theory challenged popular Christian belief.

Even today, the general population is held captive by the ignorance of so-called leaders who foist their own brand of authoritarianism in the name of Democracy and freedom and economic progress. Proponents of terrorism also promote the fiction of a holy war on clueless adolescents and young people who feel dispossessed and hopelesss enough to end their own lives along with their intended victims by a tragic act of self-annihilation.

Life is a scam and scams are not limited to economic scams perpetrated in the Internet by unscrupulous marketers who prey on the naive desire of people to make money online. Every day there is a new scam being concocted by people and every day there are people falling victim to these scams. The Romans in their legalistic wisdom knew that scams were difficult to prevent so they merely decreed: Caveat emptor. Let the buyer beware.

Retired software developer
Chings Empire of Valuable Information

Article source

Tags; ethical, ethnics, issue, training, work