Networking Nuances - Harvey Mackay Official Website | Bestselling ...

Networking isn’t just about handshakes. Ace networkers learn to master the navigation and the niceties that earn networkers acceptance, respect and authority.

Here are four road – tested tips:


Read more...Networking Nuances - Harvey Mackay Official Website | Bestselling ...

Work to punch your ticket to the teamwork hall of fame - Tulsa World: Columnist Harvey Mackay

Teamwork might seem like a complicated subject, but to some creatures, it comes naturally as a way to survive and expend the least energy.

According to a BBC News story, scientists taped heart monitors to great white pelicans. These birds had been trained to fly behind a light aircraft and a boat, and a team was able to observe them during their flight.

Pelicans fly in a "V" shape, and they flap their wings in time with their leader. Scientists, able to observe and gather data from the heart monitors, found that the birds' heartbeats were lower when they flew in formation than when they flew solo.

Read more...Work to punch your ticket to the teamwork hall of fame - Tulsa World: Columnist Harvey Mackay

Mackay: Advice for winning entrepreneurs | Star Tribune

Ever since I was a kid, I wanted to be an entrepreneur. I still have trouble spelling the word, but I didn’t let that stop me.

I’ve always believed that entrepreneurs are the unsung heroes of our economy. They’re the ones who start the companies that create the majority of new jobs.

Eric Sevareid, the legendary radio and TV commentator, wrote: “Entrepreneurs are the lead players in the drama [of business]. In at least four specific settings, their role is crucial. A new industry … a new product in an existing industry … the one who opens up new markets … when, so to speak, the economic ground shifts … The category of entrepreneur includes all the people who set out to change the corner of the business world in which they find themselves — all the people, in a word, who push the system along its restless path.”

Read more...Mackay: Advice for winning entrepreneurs | Star Tribune

Another 10 Living Paintings by Alexa Meade | Bored Panda

http://www.boredpanda.com/living-paintings-by-alexa-meade-part2/

Sharpen your sales techniques || Harvey Mackay's Columns

In the “Peanuts” comic strip drawn by Charles Schulz, the scene is a classroom on the first day of school. The students have been asked to write an essay about their feelings on returning to school.

In her essay, Lucy wrote, “Vacations are nice, but it’s good to get back to school. There is nothing more satisfying or challenging than education, and I look forward to a year of expanding knowledge.”

The teacher complimented Lucy on her fine essay.

Leaning over to Charlie Brown, Lucy whispers, “After a while, you learn what sells.”

Read more...Sharpen your sales techniques || Harvey Mackay's Columns

Communicate Your Ideas With IMPACT(c) :: Springboard Training

How many times have you had an idea or suggestion for a solution about something? About anything? Now, how many times have you acted, or convinced someone else to act, on your ideas? I’ll bet the ratio of acting on your ideas compared to having them is small. It is for most of us. There are lots of books, e-books, seminars and courses on creativity and how to get ideas. Yet once you have them, what do you do with them? How do you organize your thoughts and make sense of them? How do you sift through the “wild ideas” to determine which ones to pursue? How do you communicate your ideas to others and convince them to act? How do you determine your own actions? Do you ever have an idea and prejudge it out of existence with, “Oh, it’s too silly” or “off the wall”?

Read more...Communicate Your Ideas With IMPACT(c) :: Springboard Training

Attitude, emotions can have impact on negotiation | Expert Negotiator

I recently hired a new executive assistant and one thing came through loud and clear in her interviews – one of our most important mutual interests was our potential compatibility and our respective attitudes toward our responsibilities.

She also brought a very positive attitude and professionalism to the table, and I felt that she could be fulfilled in the position, all critical attributes.

Read more...Attitude, emotions can have impact on negotiation | Expert Negotiator

Harvey Mackay: Negative thinking can have power, too | Tulsa World

From the beginning, we are taught by our parents what NOT to do.

Don't cross the street without looking. Don't go to bed without brushing your teeth. Don't talk back. Don't get in trouble. And on and on.

Similarly, from an early age we are told by our parents, "Don't worry, honey. Everything will be all right." Or "Let me kiss it and make it well." From infancy up, we're inundated with platitudes that may provide short-term diversion but don't work in the long run.

Read more...Harvey Mackay: Negative thinking can have power, too | Tulsa World

It's about time to improve your time-wasting habits | Harvey's Columns

Many years ago, a management consultant named Ivy Lee was called in by Charles Schwab, chairman of Bethlehem Steel Company, to give him advice on how to better manage his time. After observing Schwab for several hours, Lee gave this advice: “Every evening write down the six most important things that must get done the next day, and list them in order of importance. Don’t begin item two until item one is complete.”



Schwab asked Lee how much he wanted for this advice. Lee replied, “Use the plan for six months and send me a check for how much you think it is worth.”



Schwab realized the value of this timely advice, as well as the importance of time. How you spend your time can be as important as how you spend your money.


Read more...It's about time to improve your time-wasting habits | Harvey's Columns

'Lego leg' video goes viral, helps woman connect with fellow amputees | Fox News

ST. LOUIS – As a child, Christina Stephens filled her parents' basement with Lego castles and pirate ships. When she put her Lego-building skills to work last month making a prosthetic leg out of the children's toy, she became an Internet sensation.

Stephens, 31, lost her left foot in an accident this winter and decided to combine her clinical expertise as an occupational therapist with her own experience of losing a limb to help others dealing with amputations.

Read more...'Lego leg' video goes viral, helps woman connect with fellow amputees | Fox News

10 Lessons I Learned from Sara Blakely That You Won't Hear in Business School - Forbes

I just love Sara Blakely's inspiring story and it's worth another read!


At last week’s inspiring National Association of Professional Women’s 2nd annual networking conference, I had the opportunity to attend the keynote presentation of Sara Blakely, Founder of Spanx. In her one-hour talk, Sara highlighted her fascinating journey from launching a start-up with $5000 in savings to becoming the youngest self-made female billionaire in history. Anyone who’s heard Sara’s story knows it’s exhilarating and motivating, but to see her live brings a new dimension to her story. She’s fresh, exuberant, funny and completely passionate about helping women feel and look their best, and about reforming all of the misguided trends that have kept in women in painful and ill-fitting undergarments over the last 50 years.

Read more...10 Lessons I Learned from Sara Blakely That You Won't Hear in Business School - Forbes

Lou Holtz coaches you all the way to #1 | Harvey Mackay's Columns

Do you have what it takes to be successful?

One of my closest friends, Lou Holtz, the Hall-of-Fame college football coach, believes there are four things any person or organization needs to be number one.



Few people know more about success than Lou, the only college football coach to lead six different programs to bowl games, and the only coach to take four different programs to the final top 20 rankings. Along the way he guided Notre Dame to the 1988 national championship.

Read more...Lou Holtz coaches you all the way to #1 | Harvey Mackay's Columns

Harvey Mackay: Here's more ways to improve your job performance | Tulsa World

A few weeks ago I wrote a column about what you can do to get better at your job. I have some additions to my original list, which included improving time management, getting organized, staying positive, writing goals, compromising, developing confidence, exercising mind and body, using mentors and coaches, practicing public speaking, improving your relationship with your boss and learning to love feedback.

Add these ideas to your list. Just remember, the biggest room in the world is the room for improvement.

Read more...Harvey Mackay: Here's more ways to improve your job performance | Tulsa World

Memorial at Cosanti in Paradise Valley to celebrate Paolo Soleri

Of Paolo Soleri’s 22 books, hundreds of sketches, his world-famous wind bells and Arizona structures, some say his most valuable contribution to art and architecture is Cosanti.

“It’s where mind and hand really came together,” said Jeff Stein, Cosanti Foundation president. “Cosanti was Paolo Soleri’s real master work.”

The 5-acre property in Paradise Valley will continue as it has the past 50 years.

“We’re not planning to make any major changes. We want to keep the place intact as a celebration of Soleri’s work,” Stein said. “We’ll move slowly into the future.”

Read more...Memorial at Cosanti in Paradise Valley to celebrate Paolo Soleri

How to ask for help - Harvey`s Columns

A little boy was spending his Saturday morning playing in his sandbox. He had cars and trucks, his plastic pail,and a shiny red shovel. In the process of creating roads and tunnels in the soft sand, he discovered a large rock in the middle of the sandbox.

The boy dug around the rock, managing to dislodge it from the dirt. With a little bit of struggle, he pushed and nudged the large rock across the sandbox by using his feet. When the boy got the rock to the edge of the sandbox, he found that he couldn’t roll it up and over the wall of the sandbox. Every time he made some progress, the rock tipped and then fell back into the sandbox.

Frustrated, he burst into tears. All this time the boy’s father watched from his living room window. As the tears fell, a large shadow fell across the boy and the sandbox. It was his father. Gently but firmly he said, “Son, why didn’t you use all the strength that you had available?”

Read more...How to ask for help - Harvey`s Columns

The Confidence Game

For about six weeks every year, beginning in late December and continuing through early February, football fans get the ultimate fix: the college bowl games, the NFL play-offs and, finally, the Super Bowl. It’s also an annual refresher course in winning and losing that separates the champs from the also-rans.

For a moment, consider the losers in these annual contests. The also-rans work mighty hard to get to those games in the first place. What causes these exceptional teams to be eliminated? Much of the reason can be traced to split-second breakdowns in what you might call the confidence game.

Legendary Alabama football coach Paul Bryant retired with 323 wins over 38 seasons.

“Bear” Bryant used to say that members of a winning team needed five things:

Read more...The Confidence Game

Bring change to your work life

Many times, in order to survive we have to start a change process. Change, for most people, is an unnerving experience. But as the old saying goes, change is inevitable. It’s one of the only constants in life.

I have said before, it is easy to change things. It is not so easy to change people. And therein lies the rub. As author Bruce Barton observed, “When you are through changing, you are through.”

Most organizations won’t survive if they don’t learn how to change as they grow and adapt to market conditions. But employees sometimes resist anything new – not because they’re stubborn or old-fashioned, but for these basic reasons:

Read more: Bring change to your work life

How to Leave Your Job And Keep Your Dignity - Jesse Lyn Stoner ~ Seapoint Center

If you want to quit your job, make sure you don't leave your dignity behind. It's a good idea not to burn your bridges. But more importantly, how you quit is about who you are and how you feel about yourself.

These 8 suggestions will help you leave on a good note. They won't guarantee it, because you can't control other people's reactions. But even if there is negativity, if you leave with what cultural anthropologist Angeles Arrien calls Honorable Closure, you will be able to feel good about yourself.  Read more...  http://seapointcenter.com/leave-job-keep-dignity/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=leave-job-keep-dignity&utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

Harvey Mackay: Getting better at your job

When I am hired to speak to a company or association, I typically talk ahead of time to six to eight people who will be in the audience to get a better sense of the group. I ask them a series of questions about creative selling, teamwork, negotiations, how they get close to their customers and so on. Then I surprise them and ask what they do to get better at their jobs.

Over the years, some of the typical answers I’ve received include: going back to school to learn new skills or get another degree, joining trade organizations and attending events, networking, listening to speakers, reading everything they can get their hands on, being more available, working harder and smarter, improving people skills and many more.

These are all great ideas, but I’d like to add to the list and share some of my ideas:

Improve your time management. Most people fail because they let time manage them. Time becomes a crook. Often it’s the people who make the worst use of their time who complain there is never enough of it.

Get organized. This will not only improve your productivity, but it will streamline your life, lower your stress and save you money. The Wall Street Journal reported that the average U.S. executive wastes six weeks per year retrieving misplaced information from messy desks and files. (I’m still working on this.)

Read more: Harvey Mackay: Getting better at your job

Commit yourself to success - Harvey`s Columns

Eugene Orowitz was a skinny, awkward kid from New Jersey. Painfully shy, very self-conscious, and lacking self-confidence, when a high school coach half-jokingly asked him to try out for the track team, Eugene took him up on it, according to author Glenn Van Ekeren.

“Ugy,” as his friends affectionately called him, discovered a talent for javelin throwing and committed himself to being the best that he could possibly be. What Ugy lacked in self-confidence, he made up for in commitment.

By graduation, Eugene had achieved a national high school record for throwing the javelin over 193 feet. His commitment also resulted in a college track scholarship at the University of Southern California.

Read more: Commit yourself to success - Harvey`s Columns

Five Things You Should Do Every Week to Build Momentum | Direct Selling Education Foundation

Your business should be in constant motion, moving forward all the time. If this does not happen, your business becomes static and can eventually fizzle. In order to build momentum consistently, you can do a few simple things that maintain your progress and renew your motivation. Start with this list to continue moving your business forward.  

Read more...  http://www.dsef.org/2013/03/26/five-things-you-should-do-every-week-to-build-momentum/

Everyone is a salesperson...whether they like it or not

Everyone is a salesperson all of their life. After all, whether you are a mechanic, teacher or a manager, you are selling ideas. You are negotiating. You are communicating … persuading … influencing.

If you don’t believe you are a salesperson, I encourage you to rethink your position because the probability that you will become successful is significantly diminished.

This is the lesson that I would give to people who might tell me that my most recent book is not for them. “The Mackay MBA of Selling in the Real World” is for everyone, especially now.

Read more: Everyone is a salesperson...whether they like it or not

SEBASTIAN COLLIER - Southbank Skatepark, London

SEBASTIAN COLLIER - Southbank Skatepark, London

Build your memory | Harvey Mackay

“Do you know what today is?” a wife asked her husband as he left for work.

“Of course I know what today is,” the husband grumped. “I can't believe you would think I would forget such an important day.” And with that the husband rushed to his car to conceal his panic and embarrassment. Had he forgotten their wedding anniversary again?

Read more:   http://www.aspentimes.com/article/20130421/COLUMN/130429997

Courage

Invaluable lessons on courage and vision - USATODAY.com

One day an entrepreneur took his young sales manager up to a magnificent estate overlooking a beautiful river.

He then took him up on the highest peak on the property, put his arm around him and pointed down and said: "Look at that stunning home and gorgeous swimming pool! How do you like those fabulous tennis courts? Take a look at those beautiful horses in the stable. Now all I want you to do is continue to meet the high standards and goals I've set for you and someday, son … someday all this will be mine."

Read more: Invaluable lessons on courage and vision - USATODAY.com

Flickriver: Most interesting photos tagged with scottsdaleairpark

Scottsdale Airpark Paper Plane Sculpture



Flickriver: Most interesting photos tagged with scottsdaleairpark

7 Traits of a Highly Effective Mindset

Once your mindset changes, everything on
the outside will change along with it.
―Steve Maraboli

Read more...  http://feedly.com/k/12GFE2R

30 Ways You Should Always BE

“Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is a gift,
which is why we call it the present.”
―Bil Keane

Read more...  http://feedly.com/k/14b2O0M

Mackay: The art of the apology

Have you heard the story of the colossal customer-service bungle over the “bedbug letter”?

A guest in a hotel finds himself attacked by bedbugs during his stay. He writes an angry letter to the president of the hotel company. Within days, the president sends the guest a heartfelt apology, which reads, in part: “I can assure you that such an event has never occurred before in our hotel. I promise you it will never happen again.”

Sounds good, except for one small detail: Included with the apology is the guest’s original letter. Scrawled across the top is the message: “Send this idiot the bedbug letter.”

So it begs the question, who is sorry now?

Read more: Mackay: The art of apology

ArtHouse: Abraham Cruzvillegas

ArtHouse: Abraham Cruzvillegas

Knowing Something About Your Customer Is Just As Important As Knowing Everything About Your Product

Knowing something about your customer is just as important as knowing everything about your product. Take politicians, for example. A politician will support your proposition only as long as it is politically popular or uncommonly rewarding.

That isn’t to say that pols are any less honest or reliable than the rest of us. It’s just that politicians must shift positions constantly to keep up with the people they are supposed to be leading. Legislators, particularly in faraway places such as Washington, tend to be a little less reliable than governors, who are under closer local scrutiny, but the same principle holds. It is the duty of someone who wants something from a politician either to (a) create the public climate that makes supporting that position attractive, or (b) do whatever is necessary so that a politico will return a favor from time to time—like fundraising or even organizational work.

Read more: Knowing Something About Your Customer is Just as Important as Knowing Everything about Your Product | Harvey Mackay

Glendale woman’s T’s and trinkets are star-studded

Cha-Cha the Chihuahua doesn’t know it, but somewhere out there, a celebrity might be sporting his mug on a T-shirt. Fashion hounds scattered around the continent don Glendale resident Cathy Garcia’s handiwork under her Cha-Cha Chic label, an accomplishment that draws both a broad grin and stray tears.

As a child, Garcia sold vegetables door to door to help her single mother raise her and her three siblings. As a 56-year-old woman, she sells clothes for as much as $69 for a long-sleeve shirt and sends her goods to the gift lounge at the Latin Grammy Awards each fall.

Her most recent break involved her shirts landing in gift bags at last month’s Grammy Awards in Los Angeles and this week’s Oscars. The swag — from a resort vacation in Australia to a $5,000 face-lift — carries a retail value of at least $45,000 at the Oscars and $60,000 at the Grammys. All free to nominees. ‘You’re creative. Create.’

Sitting in Garcia’s office in north Phoenix is like reclining in a giant jewelry box. One couldn’t begin to count the rhinestones twinkling from the shirts hanging on the walls or the calculator resting on her desk. She leans back and peers at a T-shirt featuring her Chihuahua, Cha-Cha. The pooch is wearing a headdress inspired by the late samba icon Carmen Miranda’s head wraps adorned with bananas or pineapples and flowers.

That T-shirt is one of eight she sells, with four more designs on paper awaiting production.

“I think I’m supposed to be out there making everybody pretty and colorful,” Garcia said. “As stressful as everything is, if you have a little bling, you’re ready to face any challenge. And if you can’t handle it, at least you look good.”

Behind the fabric, the glitter and the gems is a folder containing random designs and art elements that Garcia began collecting from magazines, newspapers, restaurant menus or posters years before she started Cha-Cha Chic.

“I was saving this folder for years with things I didn’t know what I was going to do with,” she said. “I just felt like I should save them.”

In 2009 she figured out why.

She had been out of work for a few years, spending time with her daughter, grandchildren and her husband when her granddaughter, Angelina, challenged her. She said: “You’re creative. Create something.”

Garcia started drawing designs rooted in her Mexican heritage. Some were inspired by the clippings in that folder: a guitar or a beach scene. Some developed in memory of family: her deceased uncle who played in a mariachi band. Her husband, Jimmy, lent her money to get started.

She picked up the phone and cold-called the Latin Grammys in Miami, which put her in touch with Distinctive Assets, a marketing firm that coordinates gift bags for such events. Would they use some of her shirts in the Latin Grammy Award gift bags? The firm said yes.

“The (celebrities) can afford anything and here they are looking at my stuff,” she said From that point, she has been a mainstay in that gift lounge. She got a contract with a clothing factory in California to produce her designs. She took online orders. She made more phone calls. While she pitched her merchandise to area boutiques, the Arizona Latino Arts and Cultural Center in downtown Phoenix called. Customers were asking for her. “She’s sort of a local celebrity,” said Marcelino Quiñonez, the center’s program director. “She’s a good role model for all other artists, that if you work hard and persevere, your talent will be recognized at a national level.” Quiñonez said Cha-Cha Chic products make up the top5 percent of merchandize sold at the center and Garcia’s recent publicity has boosted that interest.

That shop is the only bricks-and-mortar place where Garcia sells her products for now. She has about four prospective boutique buyers at the moment, she said.

Garcia doesn’t get reimbursed for the clothes she sends for celebrity swag — she sent 65 shirts to the Oscars and 170 to the Grammy Awards — but she does get exposure.

Exposure

The Los Angeles-based Distinctive Assets spends a whole year searching the world for products worthy of the celebrity gift bags.

The company looks for a wide range of products so there are gifts to suit anyone from the “20-somethings to the silver foxes,” founder Lash Fary said via e-mail.

“It’s the way a lot of celebrities are able to shop without paparazzi or fans,” he said.

And it’s the way designers who can’t afford to hire a celebrity spokesperson have found an in with Hollywood. Beyoncé once wore a T-shirt from her Grammy gift bag on a magazine cover.

As for the Oscars, only the nominees who did not win got Distinctive Assets gift bags.

Garcia imagines seeing her clothes in glossy print someday.

“Even if not a famous person ... didn’t get photographed in Cha-Cha Chic, that’s just more territory where people are wearing it, even if it’s just the housekeeper or the nanny,” she said. “I’m just adding a little more color to somebody’s day.”

A ‘flashy’ grandmother

“If you can’t see me coming, you can hear me coming,” Garcia says, tugging at one of her large hoop earrings. Her grandmother would be proud.

Garcia imagines what her “nana,” who died before Cha-Cha Chic opened, would think. “She’d try squeezing into one of these shirts,” Garcia says.

Garcia’s grandmother, Nacha Espinoza, moved to Arizona from Sonora, Mexico, and brought her lively style with her and always valued Garcia’s eye for bling.

The two were inseparable, bonded in a close relationship important to Garcia during tough times.

Garcia’s father sold insurance door to door and would disappear for weeks at a time. He owned a pool hall and a bar, which the family lost when he left for good. Her mother turned to beauty school and cut hair, often depending on her children to sell a relative’s vegetables door to door for extra cash.

Her mother always told her children that not having a father in their lives shouldn’t hold them back.

Garcia has worked different jobs, whether in department-store cosmetics or interior designing. Decades passed before she conceptualized opening her own business. Four years into the venture, she hopes to expand her line to include dresses. Customers have requested dog clothes and children clothes.

She attributes much of her success to the people around her who loved her, such as her grandmother.

She ponders what a shirt tailored to her grandmother’s taste would look like and tears immediately rush from her eyes. “I don’t know if you could see it, but it would be a lot of love,” she says.

Pausing, she smiles.

“And maybe a bottle of Kahlua.”

by Caitlin McGlade The Republic Mar 1, 2013



Glendale woman’s T’s and trinkets are star-studded

What they don't teach you in school - Harvey Mackay

As many college graduates are scrambling to find jobs, one of the most important things for graduates to understand is that you’re in school all your life. In fact, your real education is just beginning.

I’d like to pass on a few lessons, which weren’t necessarily covered in school. If you’ve been out of school for a few years—or a lot of years—this advice is still for you; consider it a refresher course.

Develop relationships and keep networking. If I had to name the single characteristic shared by all the truly successful people I’ve met over a lifetime, I’d say it is the ability to create and nurture a network of contacts. Start strengthening your relationships now, so they’ll be in place when you really need them later. In the classroom it was mostly about your individual performance. Success in real life will require relationships. Who you know determines how effectively you can apply what you know. So stay in touch.

Find advisors and mentors. Advisors will not be assigned to you, as in school. You should actively seek your own mentors. And remember, mentors change over a lifetime. Start connecting with people you respect who can help you get a leg up in each aspect of your life, personal and professional. Make it as easy and convenient as possible for them to talk with you, and always look for ways to contribute to their success, too.

Build your reputation. Nothing is more important than a good reputation in building a successful career or business. If you don’t have a positive reputation, it will be difficult to be successful. All it takes is one foolish act to destroy a reputation.

Set goals. Ask any winner what their keys to success are, and you will hear four consistent messages: vision, determination, persistence and setting goals. If you don’t set goals to determine where you’re going, how will you know when you get there? Goals give you more than a reason to get up in the morning; they are an incentive to keep you going all day. Most important, goals need to be measurable, identifiable, attainable, specific and in writing.

Get along with people. Ask recruiters from various companies to name the number one skill necessary for new hires, and many of them will say it’s the ability to get along with people. Co-workers share office space, facilities, break rooms, refrigerators and coffee pots. They arrive together, take breaks together, eat lunch together and meet to solve problems together. All this closeness and familiarity can wear thin at times. Everyone shares responsibility for making the company work, run smoothly and stay profitable.

Be happy. We are all responsible for our own happiness. Don’t waste time and energy being unhappy. When people aren’t happy doing what they do, they don’t do it as well. Life will always be filled with challenges and opportunities. Both are best faced with a positive attitude.

Smile. A smile should be standard equipment for all people. I learned years ago that one of the most powerful things you can do to have influence over others is to smile at them. Everything seems much easier with a smile.

Sense of humor. I’m a firm believer in using humor—not necessarily jokes. A good sense of humor helps to overlook the unbecoming, understand the unconventional, tolerate the unpleasant, overcome the unexpected and outlast the unbearable. There are plenty of times to be serious, but I believe that keeping things light and comfortable encourages better teamwork.

Be yourself. We all have areas that need a little work, but accepting who we are and making the most of our good points will take us much farther than trying to be someone we aren’t. Be content with your abilities and comfortable enough in your own skin to trust your gut.

Volunteer. It might be hard to do a lot of volunteer work at first, but people who help other people on a regular basis have a healthier outlook on life. They are more inclined to be go-getters and consistently report being happier. Volunteering is good for everyone.

by Harvey Mackay

What they don't teach you in school - Harvey Mackay

Know how to bargain confidently

I learned a long time ago that you can’t give anything away in negotiations without receiving something in return. I also know that the most important term in any contract isn’t the contract. It’s dealing with people who are honest.

Before you start any negotiation, look beyond the title and make sure that the person you’re dealing with is in a position of authority to sign off on the agreement.

Know what you want. Don’t go to the table without a clear, realistic idea of what you want to achieve.

Read more: Know how to bargain confidently

Mackay: Embrace mistakes as chances to grow

I’ve often said the greatest mistake a person can make is to be afraid to make one.
To be successful, you must come to terms with the notion that you will make mistakes. In fact, you often need to increase your failures to become more successful. Mistakes don’t make you a failure. I always say, if you want to triple your success ratio, you might have to triple your failure rate.
Read more: Mackay: Embrace mistakes as chances to grow

Shark Bites | SUCCESS Magazine | Seven Success Tips From Entrepreneur Sharks

The stars from ABC's Shark Tank give their best tips

On Selling Yourself

"It's all about sales. I've never seen an entrepreneur who wasn't a salesman. I always feel like, with an entrepreneur, it's not just about convincing someone to come in but it's really about getting them to see life the way you see it through your eyes." —Barbara Corcoran

"You've got to have that humble arrogance. Nobody wants to invest in someone so arrogant they piss you off and nobody wants to invest in a wallflower who is not going to stand up for themselves." —Robert Herjavec

On Hard Work

"We romanticize entrepreneurship so much that people don't do the work…. It's not just a dream, not just a goal; it's a lot of hard work. A lot of people are wantrepreneurs, not entrepreneurs. I use that line a lot." —Mark Cuban

On Money

"Make sure you're doing something that you love, that you're willing to do for the rest of your life. If you're doing it for money, that's the only thing you won't make." —Daymond John

"Money is not always a blessing. Sometimes it's a curse because it gives you the opportunity to try a multitude of things. Great businesses are built on a singular laser-like focus." —Robert Herjavic

"You've got to prove the concept, prove the price point. Proof. Proof. Proof…. If you can prove those things, the money will come. If you haven't proven those things, then you're going to have to grovel." —Robert Herjavec

On When to Give Up

"As soon as I figure out it's not working, I take it behind the barn and shoot it." —Kevin O'Leary

http://www.success.com/articles/1679-shark-bites

Business Insider: 9 Traits Of The Best Leaders

Good bosses look good on paper. Great bosses look great in person; their actions show their value.

Yet some bosses go even farther. They're remarkable—not because of what you see them do but what you don't see them do.  Read more... http://www.businessinsider.com/9-traits-of-the-best-leaders-2013-2

Turn your sphere of influence into your sales force | Inman News

If you want to double your sphere of influence, you should read this.

At Agent Reboot in New York City, The Corcoran Group's Matthew Shadbolt and Virtual Results' Jim Marks outlined the online and offline challenges real estate agents face today as they attempt to market their listings and their businesses.

Jim Marks opened his session at Agent Reboot with an interesting proposition: "Technology makes marketing more difficult." While it may be true that technology has made marketing less expensive, cutting through the noise on so many different advertising channels makes it increasingly more difficult to be heard above the ever-increasing clamor.

Read more: Turn your sphere of influence into your sales force | Inman News

Happy Chinese New Year Of The Snake 2013!!

happy chinese new year pictures

Gung Hay Fat Choy!!

The Lunar New Year dates from 2600 BC, when the Emperor Huang Ti introduced the first cycle of the Chinese zodiac. Because of cyclical lunar dating, the first day of the year can fall anywhere between late January and the mid-February. On the Western calendar, the start of Chinese New Year this year falls on Sunday, February 10, 2013 — The Year of the Water Snake.

San Francisco has the oldest and largest Chinatown in the United States and is home to the largest population of Chinese outside of China. The New Year’s celebration is a continuation of a tradition in Chinatown that had been part of the neighborhood since the 1860s, the Gold Rush days. (VIDEO: How to celebrate Chinese New Year)

If you were born in 1917, 1929, 1941, 1953, 1965, 1977, 1989, 2001, 2013, you were born under the sign of the Snake.

Like the houses of the zodiac in Western astrology, the animals of Chinese astrology are thought by many to dictate personality traits or even to impact world events in any year they rule.Snake and those born under compatible signs benefit from good fortune during a Snake year.

Chinese New Year, 10 February 2013: Year of the Water Snake

2013 Prediction for Snake

Snake can expect good fortune in relationships and look forward to a time when they personally or professionally shine. It will be a year when Snake can easily overcome recent setbacks or obstacles experienced in 2012. Even though Snake may not have the income desired in the first half year, financial fortune comes in the second half year.

Snake Characteristics

Self-reliant Snake's characteristics are complex. Snakes don't like to ask others for advice and some see them as cold and calculating – not so, they are just being careful.They need to plan every detail before embarking on an objective. Snake has excellent communications skills, but they are creatures of few words. Quiet and unassuming, they prefer to work alone and are more often in the spotlight for real and lasting accomplishments than for attempts at garnering attention. Actually, they can be a lot of fun when they want to be and they exude a charismatic confidence that is quite sexy.They have the ability to shed adversity like a second skin, and their recuperative powers are legendary.

The list of famous Snakes includes: Oprah Winfrey, John F. Kennedy, Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King, Jr., Pablo Picasso, Bob Dylan, James Joyce, Martha Stewart, Kanye West, Pierce Brosnan, Charlie Sheen, Courtney Love, Howard Stern, and Edgar Allan Poe.

The Chinese New Year Parade, held about two weeks following the first day of Chinese New Year, includes a display of colorful traditional Chinese costumes and floats, fireworks and firecrackers. In San Francisco, the parade takes place on Saturday, February 23, 2013, at 5:15 p.m. If you cannot make the parade, watch it on KTVU Fox 2 or KTSF Channel 26 starting at 6 p.m.

Gung Hay Fat Choy! "Best wishes and congratulations. Have a prosperous and good year."

Finishing the race is important

One of the best decisions I've ever made in my life was to start running. I remember this like it was yesterday.

I was attending an executive program at Stanford University's graduate school of business back in the 1960s. Several foreign businesspeople who were also attending went out for a run every day. They asked me if I would like to join them, and I thought it sounded like fun. From that simple invitation grew a habit that has lasted a lifetime.

Read more: Finishing the race is important

Be smart, create a network

Napoleon Hill, one of my favorite authors, devoted 20 years of his life to studying what made people successful. His mentor, steel magnate Andrew Carnegie, helped Hill by introducing him to some of the most successful people in business, including Henry Ford, Theodore Roosevelt, Charles Schwab, John D. Rockefeller, Thomas Edison, Clarence Darrow and many others.

Read more: Be smart, create a network

What Not to Say to a Working Mom - The Huffington Post

Recently, Amy Shearn shared a list of things not to say to stay-at-home moms. She could have just cited anything Elizabeth Wurtzel has written in the past year, but that would have been too easy. Instead, Shearn came up with a list that was funny and clever and pointed in all the right ways. Which got me thinking about questions or comments I've heard about being a working mom. I don't think anyone sets out to be rude or judgmental, but I've been surprised at what well-meaning and generally thoughtful people say to mothers who aren't staying home full-time with their children. There's a subtle hostility or judgment that comes through in some of these statements that makes me wish that everyone would, every so often, think before they speak.  Read more...  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mobileweb/devon-corneal/what-not-to-say-to-a-working-mom_b_2566952.html?utm_hp_ref=daily-brief?utm_source=DailyBrief&utm_campaign=012913&utm_medium=email&utm_content=BlogEntry&utm_term=Daily%20Brief

Attitude Is Everything

by Jim Rohn

The process of human change begins within us. We all have tremendous potential. We all desire good results from our efforts. Most of us are willing to work hard and to pay the price that success and happiness demand.

Each of us has the ability to put our unique human potential into action and to acquire a desired result. But the one thing that determines the level of our potential—that produces the intensity of our activity and predicts the quality of the result we receive—is our attitude.

Attitude determines how much of the future we are allowed to see. It decides the size of our dreams and influences our determination when we are faced with new challenges. No other person on earth has dominion over our attitude. People can affect our attitude by teaching us poor thinking habits or unintentionally misinforming us or providing us with negative sources of influence, but no one can control our attitude unless we voluntarily surrender that control.

ArtHouse: The Flaneur in London series 4 by Sebastian Collier

Continued.... http://seb098.blogspot.com/2013/01/the-flaneur-in-london-series-4-by.html?m=1