You Need to Stand for Something

Today, I read a story in the Washington Post about a girl who recently resigned from West Point and is going to Yale. She resigned from West Point because she is gay and the school will kick her out if it learns that she is gay. Tired of compromising between what she believed was right and wrong, she resigned to protest the policy and be consistent with her own internal compass. When I started reading the story, I immediately thought—she’s probably transferring to Harvard or Yale. Sure enough, I was not surprised when I learned later in the article that that was where she was going. Why wasn’t I surprised? Because a school like Yale probably receives a couple of hundred transfer applications for every spot it has open (very few people drop out of Yale). In order to get one of those spots you need to stand for something. How memorable is it to have a good grade point average? Lots of people have good grades. Very few people stand for something. The people [Read more]

The Graduate, Andrew Carnegie, and Finding Positive Economic Currents

In the 1967 movie The Graduate, Dustin Hoffman plays a young, recent college graduate, Ben. At a party, Ben is congratulated by his family and their friends:

Guests: We’re all so proud of you, proud, proud, proud, proud, proud, proud, proud. What are you going to do now? Ben: I was going to go upstairs for a minute. Guests: I meant with your future, your life. Ben: Well, that’s a little hard to say.

In one of the most memorable lines in movie history, Ben receives advice from Mr. McGuire (played by Walter Brooke), a family friend:

Mr. McGuire: I just want to say one word to you – just one word. Ben: Yes sir. Mr. McGuire: Are you listening? Ben: Yes I am. Mr. McGuire: ‘Plastics.’ Ben: Exactly how do you mean? Mr. McGuire: There’s a great future in plastics. Think about it. Will you think about it? Ben: Yes I will. Mr. McGuire: Shh! Enough said. That’s a deal.

In an interesting twist, in real life McGuire’s advice would prove to be [Read more]

Immanuel Kant and What Good Hiring Managers Should Look For

Many people who make hiring decisions really do not know what they are doing. In fact, they often make mistake after mistake when hiring.

• They put too much emphasis on skills and experience.
• They are overly impressed with interviewing skills.
• They think in terms of who is going to work the hardest.

Are these sorts of things important? Of course they are. But the single most important aspect of hiring is evaluating the person’s unique outlook on the world. If the person does not have a positive outlook on the world, the following are likely to happen:

• The person will bring down the morale of the people they work with.
• The person will harm the company through their negative outlook.
• The person will abandon the job for something that looks better.

When people go into interviews, they [Read more]

Induction, Deduction, and Your Career

When you look at the way something has been in the past to draw conclusions about the way something always will be, or always is, you are using inductive reasoning. A standard example of induction would be: All grass examined thus far is green. This leads us to conclude (using induction) that all future grass we see will be green and every piece of green grass we see in the future will strengthen this belief. For example, you likely believe that a flame will burn you if you touch it. Similarly, just about everyone believes that if [Read more]

Working on Sundays and Concentrating on Your Work

There is a secret to success, common among most successful people out there that I have seen time and time again: Working on Sundays. When I was practicing law, the best attorneys were always in on Sundays. When I was a student in college and law school, the best students always worked on Sundays. In my professional career, a good portion of the most accomplished executives and others I have known work on Sundays. When I say ”work on Sundays” I mean that they are working the entire [Read more]

Career Lessons from Mother Teresa

I have found that by examining the careers of the most successful people out there you can learn a ton of lessons. It does not matter if the person is a business person, a musician, or a religious figure: They all have lessons to teach. While I am not particularly religious one way or another, for the past several years I have been studying Mother Teresa in short on and off bursts. I purchased a video and a few books about her. The reason she is so interesting to me is that I never truly understood why she [Read more]

The Secret Career Tactic of “Lock In”

In my experience, some of the smartest and most dangerous people in the world are insurance salesmen, copier salespeople, and auto salespeople. They have a secret called “the lock in” that you can use to seriously enhance your career. Insurance Salespeople are Dangerous Several years ago I found myself sitting in the office of an insurance salesman. This was no ordinary insurance salesman. In fact, this guy sold so much insurance that he owned three jet airplanes and was worth a few hundred million dollars. It was about a four- hour drive for me to go [Read more]

Think and Grow Rich

Napolean Hill’s Think and Grow Rich is probably, in my opinion, the best career book ever written. While the subject of the book deals with earning money, the book itself is actually about much, much more. The book deals with how to use your mind to go after the results you are seeking in any area of your life. The area could be family, career, friends, political, or other. There is so much power to the book and its stories it is really pretty remarkable. For me, just thinking about the book gets me “jazzed” because the lessons in it are so profound.

I read this book the first time when I was 19 years old and it had a stunning impact on my life. Shortly after reading the book I started a business, became a straight A student and my life changed considerably. I realized after reading the book that anything I wanted out of life I could have and using the lessons in the book it generally became true. If I wanted to succeed at the highest levels of academia I realized I could and did. If I wanted to make money as an asphalt contractor I realized I could and did. If I wanted to be a fancy lawyer in highly prestigious law firms I realized I could and did. Literally, whatever I got interested in became easily within my reach.

Throughout the years I have seen one person who has risen to great success after another cite this book and this book alone as one of the major causes of their success. The book has incredible power and the lessons it contains are profound. Since reading this book I have always done well in most of my undertakings. When people ask me how I did it I usually give them a copy of the book. I am giving you a copy of the book now below. If you read and study this book whatever you want is going to shortly be within your reach.

If you read this book and take the time to study it I am confident you too will find the power within its pages to reach your highest potential. Many people have. In virtually every field, the most successful and fulfilled people I have met have read and studied this book. Many people read this book several times a year because they get something new out of it every time. Your life is like a river and each time you look for knowledge you are going to get something new– you are always at a different place in the river.

If you have ever read this book before I encourage you to read it again.

If you have never read it you must read it.

You are going to die one day and you need to make the most out of your life right now. Think and Grow Rich contains rules and lessons that can help you live a great life.

A few years ago I gave a copy of this book to every employee in our company. I believe that everyone out there can really benefit from careful study of this book. I have numerous copies of this book in my offices and throughout my home and refer to it often. This book will change your life.

I would encourage you to read this book and come back to it often. It is my distinct honor to share this book with you.

THINK AND GROW RICH

IN EVERY chapter of this book, mention has been made of the money-making secret which has made fortunes for more than five hundred exceedingly wealthy men whom I have carefully analyzed over a long period of years. The secret was brought to my attention by Andrew Carnegie, more than a quarter of a century ago. The canny, lovable old Scotsman carelessly tossed it into my mind, when I was but a boy. Then he sat back in his chair, with a merry twinkle in his eyes, and watched carefully to see if I had brains enough to understand the full significance of what he had said to me. When he saw that I had grasped the idea, he asked if I would be willing to spend twenty years or more, preparing myself to take it to the world, to men and women who, without the secret, might go through life as failures. I said I would, and with Mr. Carnegie’s cooperation, I have kept my promise. This book contains the secret, after having been put to a practical test by thousands of people, in almost every walk of life. It was Mr. Carnegie’s idea that the magic formula, which gave him a stupendous fortune, ought to be placed within reach of people who do not have time to investigate how men make money, and it was his hope that I might test and demonstrate the soundness of the formula through the experience of men and women in every calling. He believed the formula should be taught in all public schools and colleges, and expressed the opinion that if it were properly taught it would so revolutionize the entire educational system that the time spent in school could be reduced to less than half. [Read more]

The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin

One of the most inspiring people in American history is Benjamin Franklin.  Something that very few people realize is that Franklin also wrote what is arguably one of the best self-improvement books ever written, The Biography of Benjamin Franklin. Here, Franklin tells his story as the son of a Boston soap maker from humble origins, and how ultimately he became one of the most famous statesmen in the history of the United States. Among Franklin’s numerous accomplishments were that he was a very successful businessman, inventor, philosopher, politician and leader:

• He represented America in its fight for independence from the British,
• He helped America get arms from France to fight the British,
• He founded an insurance company,
• He founded the first police station, hospital and fire department in Philadelphia,

[Read more]

Upgrade Your Career and Life by Finding Work to Be Done

Several years ago I decided that I did not want to work in a law firm any more. The problem was that I did not know what else I could do besides practice law. Also, I did not have any money.  In order to continue to make a living, I needed to do something that is among the most important skills we can have: I needed to create work for myself.  I have written extensively about the importance of creating work before, because without the ability to create work for yourself you might as well settle for a life of mediocrity.  The more work you know how to create, the better off you are going to be. If you know how to create work for yourself, you will never be unemployed or without excitement in your life.  Everything that happens in this world comes about through the ability of us to use our minds to create work.  One of my favorite motivational writers is Wallace D. Wattles.  In The Science of Getting Rich Wattles writes:

No one is kept in poverty by shortness in the supply of riches; there is more than enough for all.  A palace as large as the capital in Washington might be built for every family on earth from the building material in the United States alone; and under intensive cultivation, this country would produce wool, cotton, linen, and silk enough to clothe each person in the world finer than Soloman was arrayed in all his glory; together with food enough to feed them all luxuriously. The visible supply is practically inexhaustible; and the invisible supply really IS inexhaustible.  Everything you need on earth really is made from one original substance, out of which all things proceed.  New forms are constantly being made, and older ones are dissolving; but all shapes are assumed by One Thing.  There is no limit to the supply of Formless Stuff, or Original Substance.  The universe is made out of it; but it was not all used in making the universe.  The spaces in, through, and between the forms of the visible universe are permeated and filled with the Original Substance; with the formless Stuff, with the raw material of all things.  Ten thousand times as much stuff as has been made might still be made, and even then we should not have exhausted the supply of universal raw material. No man, therefore, is poor because nature is poor, or because there is not enough to go around.  Nature is an inexhaustible storehouse of riches; the supply will never run short.  Original substance is alive with creative energy, and is constantly producing more forms.  When the supply of building material is exhausted, more will be produced; when the soil is exhausted so that foodstuffs and materials for Clothing will no longer grow upon it, it will be renewed or more soil will be made.  When all the gold and silver has been dug from the earth, if man is still in such a stage of development that he needs gold and silver, more will be produced from the Formless.  The Formless Stuff responds to the needs of man; it will not let him be without any good thing. This is true collectively; the race as a whole is always abundantly rich, and if individuals are poor, it is because they do not follow the Certain Way of doing things which makes the individual man rich.  The Formless Stuff is intelligent; it is stuff which thinks.  It is alive, and is always impelled towards life.

Wattles’ writings are somewhat abstract; however, the point is that there is unlimited wealth and unlimited opportunity out there for you.  People can create great wealth and opportunity for themselves from nothing.  You too need to do the same thing with your life and career. I am amazed when I look around me and see how incredible certain people are [Read more]

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