Passion and Enthusiasm

“Passion and Enthusiasm combined, energizes your God given Talents.” -John C. Maxwell

“Passion and Enthusiasm combined is the first step to the Achievement of your personal, career, business and life goals.” -Brian Tracy

“The secret to Willpower to achieve what you want in life,
is the burning desire of Wantpower.” -John C. Maxwell


“You must know what you sing about each day, what you cry about each day, and what you dream about each day, if you want to be successful in life.” -Author Unknown

“Passion produces Excellence and is the Foundation for Excellence. Death isn’t the greatest loss in life. The greatest loss in life is what dies in us while we are still alive.” -Norman Cousins

“Every great and commanding movement in the annals of the world
is the Triumph of Enthusiasm.” -Ralph Waldo Emerson

There is a story about the wise Socrates that has been handed down over the ages about Passion, Enthusiasm, Knowledge and Wisdom.

A proud and disdainful man who knew about Socrates, but did not have any respect
for him, came to him one day and said in a disdainful way… “Oh great Socrates, I come to you for Knowledge.” Socrates immediately saw the shallow young man for what he was and so he led this young man to the sea and took him out waist deep into the water.

“Tell me what you want again?” he said. “Knowledge.” …he responded with a smile. Socrates grabbed the young man by his shoulders from behind and forced him underwater for at least thirty seconds. He then let the young man up and asked him a second time… “What do you want?” At this point the young man sputtered slightly, but he still was not impressed… “Wisdom oh great Socrates.” At which point the philosopher pushed him under water again, but for a much longer time. As the young man began to struggle violently, Socrates let him up and asked him a third time… “What do you want?”

“By now the young man was gasping and coughing and he screamed out… “Air…I need Air!!!” Then Socrates looked at him and said… “When you want Knowledge and Wisdom,
as much as you just wanted air to breath, you will receive it.”

No wonder this has lasted down through the ages. It’s powerful indeed.

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Basic Time Management Rules

1. Always work with some kind of prioritized “to do” list system that is divided into an “A-1” list (the things I must get done this week). Put these off and it will hurt you in some way. An A list (the things that will become A-1’s soon and they are the next most important to do), a “B” list (the things that soon will become an “A” but not this week unless something changes) and a “C” list (wishes and things I can put off and it will not hurt me that much).


2. Keep your “to do” lists together and near you as often as possible.

3. Develop a Project “to do” list whose action steps get pulled into you’re A-B-C “to do” lists, as well as a Long Term “to do” list.

4. Have a fail safe method to record “to do” items if you cannot put them on your list at the time.
5. Have a normal, routine time each day to update your “to do” lists.

6. Computerize your “to do” lists so you do not have to keep rewriting them.

7. Have a proven system to efficiently handle the influx of day to day material and information.

8. Do not let e-mails eat up precious time. Devise a triage system and follow it systematically avoiding any time wasters.

9. Once every Saturday morning, Sunday night or early Monday morning go over your “to do” lists and update them for the coming week.

10. Make sure you build into your schedule family time and social time or it will be squeezed out.
11. Have a date night with your spouse (or at least one night where you spend real quality time together) and follow it religiously.

12. Schedule and devote time to a hobby and if you do not have one, develop one because it is a great battery re-charger for you.

13. Develop life goals that are short (immediate to six months), medium (sixth months to one year), then one to two years, two to five years and finally beyond that.

14. You must have a productive workplace that is conducive of a relaxed, uncluttered environment.

15. Schedule sharp start and stop times for meetings you control with prioritized agendas.

16. If you have people who waste your time, you must come up with an assertive action plan to keep them moving along so you can get work done.

17. Find out when your peak productive periods are in the day and utilize that time to the fullest.
18. Have little rewards built in for yourself when you accomplish great tasks and projects.

19. Focus on doing it right the first time (DIRTFT) but try to avoid being anal or a perfectionists because this will really drive you nuts.

20. Inspect what you expect when you delegate but don’t take the project back and take the time in the first place, painful as it might be, to properly train someone to do the task correctly.

21. Remember, get it done and tackle the biggest ones first early in the morning.


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The Good Wolf and the Bad Wolf

Many year ago an old Cherokee Indian grandfather,decided it was time to take his grandson for a serious talk. As they reached the crest of a hill and looked down upon the valley, the grandfather began to tell this story told to him by his grandfather. “Inside everyone of us is a Good Wolf and a Bad Wolf. We have no choice about it. Both are born within us at birth.

However, as we grow up and become adults in life,we will find that one of these wolves will eventually kill the other wolf and then dominate our lives and the way we treat others.”

The young Indian child looked at his grandfather and asked, “But grandfather, how will I know which wolf will win the fight?” The grandfather smiled and said… “That is quite simple to know. The wolf that will win the fight is the one you feed the most.”
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Tomorrow - by Anonymous

They had decided they would be, all that they wanted to be—Tomorrow.

None would be braver, kinder, or smarter than they would be—Tomorrow.

They would seek out their friend who was troubled and weary, to let them know they called to lift them up, and see what they could do for them—Tomorrow.

Each day they would neatly prepare lists and stack up the letters and notes they needed to write, the calls they should make and the important things they needed to do—Tomorrow.

They even made a list of the people they wanted to fill with delight—Tomorrow.

You see, the greatest of people, they might have been, and the world would have opened its heart to them, if only they had not relied on—Tomorrow.

But in fact, as they went through life and avoided all the things they could put off until—Tomorrow,—one day they realized their life had passed them by and they had not achieved what they wanted to be, because they had never done the mountain of worthy things they had planned to do—Tomorrow.

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“Procrastination happens when we believe we will experience some kind of pain, if we do the meaningful business and personal tasks we should be doing. Procrastination is one of the biggest killers of keeping a person from accomplishing their full potential in life. The first two letters in Goals is “Go”, so as Nike says… ‘Just Do It.’ Don’t put those important things off any longer. Overcome your fears.”

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The Power of 250 Versus 2500

Overview: When you have a sales and/or customer service problem, it is either a crisis where you and the company get hurt, or an opportunity to shine and show your class. Bottom line, word of mouth advertising can make you and it can break you. However, positive word of mouth advertising is no where near as powerful as negative word of mouth advertising. Therefore, you need to constantly be looking for ways to perform significant, positive, sales and customer service events/results, while eliminating negative situations as quickly as possible.

The first study on this phenomenon we are about to discuss was performed in the insurance industry in the late 1950’s. Later studies in the 60’s, 70’s and beyond continued to verify the original findings. Here are the facts:

1. If you perform a significant positive event for someone in a sales or customer service situation, they will directly and indirectly reach out to about an average of 250 people total, within one year, with this good news about you and your company. This is also known as the positive Word-of-Mount ripple effect. That of course is the wonderful power of positive Word-of-Mouth advertising, and it cost you nothing.

2. However, there is a dark side to this Word-of-Mouth advertising. If you perform a significant negative event for someone in a sales or customer service situation, and do not take care of it immediately, they will directly and indirectly reach out to about an average of 500 (or double) the number of people, within one year, with the bad news about you and your company.

3. However, it gets worse: These studies proved (as has my own personal consulting experience) that people will readily embellish on negative events and stories far more than on positive things. In fact, the power of 500 begins to expand about 20%, every time it is passed along. Your sins are therefore unfairly exaggerated with each passing, but you are not around to defend yourself. Because of the compounded effect, in many cases, the power of 500 ends up being about the negative effect of the power of 2500!!! Therefore, using those numbers, it would take ten Power of 250’s just break even with the one Power of 2500. That fact should get your attention big time.

4. The action plan to avoid the dark side of this negative power is simply this: Concentrate on under promising and over delivering significant, positive events every chance you get. Teach everyone in your company to be aware of negative situations that might come up, so that they can be isolated, jumped on quickly, and fixed permanently. Have those Power of 250’s building up daily with clients, in a Power of 250 bank, so that when a Power of 2500 somehow slips by you and festers for a year or so, you have such a wealth of significant positive events in your sales and customer service Word-of-Mouth messages, you will not only survive it, but thrive from it.


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