Failure

IF YOU NEVER FAILED - YOU NEVER LIVED

So much is true with the above statement. "If you never failed - then you never lived!" I wonder what Michael Jordan would be doing today if he would have never come out of his bedroom after being cut from the high school basketball team, crying himself to sleep, and took the challenge to be better. What if Walt Disney would have given up after he was fired for not having any original ideas and not having an imagination. Here is a better one that many of us already know. Heidi and Orville Thompson were at one point $700,000 in net debt with Event Sales. Orville says about that time in his life: "I was feeling just beaten down as an entrepreneur, a failure." When Orville mentioned to Heidi that they should just give in and file for bankruptcy she said "no, we are going to swing for the fences and swing hard." You see it doesn't matter how many times we fail, what matters is what you do with that failure.

Every single one of you reading this has failed  at something, many things actually. But how you rebounded from those failures is what made you who you are today. Remember, if you have never failed, you have never lived.

I tell our children all the time  that quiting is very easy and very addictive. Once you start to quit it is very hard to stop. Don't ever look for the easy way out, take that challenge and NEVER listen to the negativity that may be all around you. In our Scentsy business we hear many people talk about how sales are down, there are too many consultants in one area, I'm not really a sales person, and on and on. Do you think Heidi and Orville really needed to take on another business after being $700,000 in debt with children? Heck no! But the easy way out would be to file bankruptcy and walk away, something Heidi refused to do. I am sure Michael Jordan never wanted go through the pain and embarrassment of being cut from the team again. He could have never tried out again, which would have worked, or work harder to make the team the next season. Look where the hard work and determination got him.

Every morning you wake up you risk failure. You risk failure with your relationships with your partner, children, friends. You risk failure with your job or your own business. You risk failure with every single thing you do but you can't live in a bubble by yourself. You need those loved ones around you to give you words of encouragement, you need that inner voice telling you to never quit, never give up. You have to embrace failure, accept it as a part of life, a learning part. Learn from your mistakes and turn them into something great.

Look around you right now, look at the computer you are reading this on, look above you at that light and think of Mr. Edison who was told he was too stupid to learn anything. What if those people quit too? You are not a quitter so stop thinking like that. From this point forward, make everything you do a personal challenge to be be the very best you can. Even if you fail, falling flat on your face, get up, shake it off, and continue to go forward. Never accept failure! Only you can give yourself that internal motivation to keep driving. Don't give to the addiction of quiting and don't accept failure from yourself. 

What risk are you going to face today?

LIFE = RISK

Get your hands dirty

WE COULD LEARN A LOT FROM A CHILD

Yesterday was a first for me. One of our good friends Steve Fettes took me on my first duck hunt. We met up early in the morning and headed out to the pond. It wasn't long before the birds started to come in, and us to send the dog into the water to do her job. But as much fun as it was, and it was a blast, it was what happened later in the day that I learned something valuable. Something I felt I needed to share with all of you so we can stop being so scared to get our hands dirty. 

When I pulled into the driveway the kids came running to the truck asking if I got anything. I proudly climbed out of the truck feeling like a caveman who just brought home the days kill to feed his family, and answered with, "look in the back of the truck." It took about 5 seconds for Cadyn our youngest daughter (only 8 years old) to climb in there and grab a bird and say "cool". Since this was my first duck hunt I have never cleaned out a bird before, except Thanksgiving on the counter top, but this was going to be much different. I set up shop on the tailgate on my truck and Cadyn was right there holding the ducks, eager to jump right in. I made a small cut at the top of the breastbone and Cadyn grabbed the bird out of my hands and said "just like this daddy" as she exposed the breast meat. She pulled and plucked, laughing and smiling the whole time. (remember this was my first time so it is not like she EVER saw this before) Once I cut the breast away from the bird I handed it to her and she washed it off in a bowl of water and rinsed it off under the garden hose. 

I tell you this story because while I sat back and watched my baby girl clean a duck for the first time, without any hesitation, I noticed how pure and eager she was to learn something new. Experience something she has never done before. Cover herself with bird feathers and duck goo. I wondered at what age we lose that quality. At what point in life do we become so up-tight and prudish. Most of us are hesitant to just stick our hands into something unknown, we fear the worst in everything. We always make statements of what "could" happen if we do this or do that. But it is this attitude when we were kids that made us curious and want to dream big. We just ruin it ourselves as we mature. 

I think that if we can look at a child and bring those qualities back into our lives and businesses we will again dream big. Don't be so scared to touch something new. Don't be so skittish to get your hands dirty. Don't stop when your curiosity takes over and you want to know the unknown. Go for it! Jump right in! Grab that fear and expose it! Don't loose sight of who you once were and bring that inner child back into the picture and have fun. There is so much we can learn from the purity of a child, we just have to watch them and pay attention. If you do, you might just be taken back of how much you have changed and how different you have become. Be that adventurer again. Take this and apply it to your business and life. Don't just touch the feathers of your journey, get your hands dirty and dig right in. Just like Cadyn tore it apart, tear everything you do apart. Dig in, open it up, expose it, and STOP BEING SCARED OF WHAT YOU MIGHT TOUCH!

Where are you mining for gold?

YOU MAY BE LOOKING IN THE WRONG PLACES

I was watching Discovery Channels "Gold Rush" the other night and couldn't help my mind from wondering and thinking how great it would be to "fall into" a large fortune a lot like of our early settlers did when they found all of that gold. Anyone of you who know me well knows that I often tend to wonder into those "what if" scenarios and dream big. But this got me thinking about those early American settlers who ventured West with hopes of striking gold and great riches.  It is estimated that nearly 200,000 Americans traveled the grueling 2,000 plus miles from East of the Mississippi River along the California trail in their wagons to seek great riches. When word spread of the abundance of gold out West, families packed up, left everything behind, and headed out West not knowing that there was just as much, if not MORE gold right in their own backyards. Stretching from Georgia to west of Washington D.C. lies two of America's largest gold systems, The Carolina Slate Belt and The Virginia Gold Pyrite Belt. Just right up the road from me in Charleston SC is the Haile Mine, which as of today, is confirmed to contain 2 million ounces of gold, valuing at 1.3 billion dollars. If only those 200,000 travelers would have just stayed put and worked hard in their own backyards, then they too would have struck gold. They choose to risk it all looking for that "easy" payday and most of the time left with equal to, or less then what they stared with.

I look at where we are today and see too many people looking for that quick and easy payday, not wanting to put in the work in their own backyards.  A lot of times we hear new consultants talk about locations and how hard it is to become successful where they live. They often talk about how great it would be if they worked their business elsewhere and sometimes even give up on their business. If we stop looking for that quick and easy payday and focus that energy into our business, then we will indeed strike gold. Just imagine how those 200,000 people would feel today if we told them that they never had to travel all that way because there were riches in the same land that they left would feel. That same feeling of self disappointment that they would feel is going to be the same feeling that you will feel if you give up with your journey. Stop looking across borders, stop looking at someone else's success, stop looking for that quick and easy buck. Start digging in your own backyard and don't ever give up. You may not see it right away but it is there. Haile Mine has dug as deep as 900 feet in some places and are still striking gold daily. So grab your shovel, pick ax, or pan the waters, but don't ever stop trying until you strike your gold. I promise you that it is there, right in front of you, you just need to dig.

We mentioned crossing that line you drew in the sand, we talked about giving that extra degree in previous posts, now you just need to act.

THE NEW GOLD RUSH IS HERE


***Be sure to click "LIKE" at the top of the post to share with everyone***

Will you go the "Extra Degree"?

ARE YOU JUST HOT WATER, OR WILL YOU POWER A LOCOMOTIVE?

Do you have what it takes to give that extra degree? We talked about choosing to commit, working hard, focusing, and being resilient in our crossing the line blog. But now you need to determine if you are willing to give that extra degree. That one simple degree that will take you from hot water, to powering a locomotive. Every day we go through life accepting the average. Accepting the bare minimum that just gets us by. If you do this then you will simply reap the average benefits. You have a choice to make, and you can make it right here, right now. Promise yourself that from this point on you will never settle. Promise yourself that you will give just that one extra degree, that one extra degree that will take you from being nothing more than hot water, and make you boil, produce steam, and yes, power a locomotive! 
Now that you have watched the video, read this post, and even if you decide to read the short book, "212 The Extra Degree", you are now aware, and with awareness comes responsibility to act. Act on the notion that if you give that extra degree in all areas of your life, you will set your own bar and live a better life. Only you know if you are giving that extra degree, don't let yourself down.

Be 212 degrees:
AS A FRIEND- Choose to visit or talk with two extra friends each week and create more than 100 additional discussions among friends for the year.

AS A PARENT- Wake and act each day with the understanding that your actions will be absorbed by your children....and your children will grow to be contributing adults to the level of your influence. Add an extra 15 minutes each day to the time you invest with your children - an equivalent of more than two weeks each year at work. 

AS A SPOUSE- Allow your partner to have the last word in two "discussions" each week where you'd normally dig in your heels and add not only 100 events of kindness to your year, but probably an additional 10 years to both of your lives. If your spouse normally has charge of the children on a daily basis, take over the role one extra day each month and add almost two weeks each year to his/her personal time to recharge.

AT WORK- Make the extra contact each day, a sales call, a customer, an encouraging talk with a member of your team. With contact comes opportunity. At the end of the year you'll have opened more than 200 additional doors of possibility. 

IN GENERAL- Eliminate 30 minutes of television or web (facebook) each day and get back more than 180 hours each year for something more important and something more fun. 
Add 10 minutes to your day. When your alarm goes off and you press that snooze button thinking "just 10 more minutes". The night prior set your alarm 10 minutes earlier than normal. The next morning when the alarm goes off you now have 10 more minutes to your life. Push it to 20 minutes a day and you've just bought more time than most people get each year for vacation.
Give just 2 compliments a day and you have now just added over 700 positive vibes in a year. 
Step out of your comfort zone just 1 time each week and create over 50 additional opportunities for excitement, challenge and possibility each year. Isn't this what life is all about?

Take what you have just watched and read. Apply to everything in your life. Be a better you to make a better everything. If you do this than we promise you will not regret it. Start right now. Don't make anymore excuses for yourself and give just that one extra degree.

BE 212 DEGREES!

Don't turn your back on them

A mouse looked through the crack in the wall to see the farmer and his wife open a package. "What food might this contain" the mouse wondered. He was devastated to discover it was a mousetrap. 

Retreating to the farmyard, the mouse proclaimed the warning: "There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!"

The chicken clucked and scratched, raised her head and said "Mr. Mouse, I can tell this is a grave concern to you, but it is of no consequence to me. I cannot be bothered by it."

The mouse turned to the pig and told him, "There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!" The pig sympathized, but said "I am so very sorry, Mr. Mouse, but there is nothing I can do about it but pray. Be assured you are in my prayers."

The mouse turned to the cow and said "There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!" The cow said "Wow Mr. Mouse. I'm sorry for you, but it's no skin off my nose."

 The mouse returned to the house, head down and dejected, to face the farmer's mousetrap alone.

That very night a sound was heard throughout the house - like the sound of a mousetrap catching it's prey. The farmer's wife rushed to see what was caught. In the darkness, she did not see it was a venomous snake whose tail the trap had caught. The snake bit the farmer's wife. The farmer rushed her to the hospital and she returned home with a fever.

Everyone knows you treat a fever with fresh chicken soup, so the farmer took his hatchet to the farmyard for the soup's main ingredient. But his wife's sickness continued, so friends, family, and neighbors came to sit with her around the clock. To feed them, the farmer butchered the pig. 

The farmer's wife did not get well; she died. So many people came for her funeral, the farmer had the cow slaughtered to provide enough meat for all of them.

The mouse watched it all from his little crack in the wall with great sadness. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We have all heard someone around us vent about there problem and at one point or another, we have all turned our backs on them with the thought, that isn't my problem. As family members, friends, neighbors, yes even strangers that are bound together by community or country, we need to remember that when one of us is threatened, we are all at risk! Just like the mouse who had a problem and told the animals in the farmyard. They told the mouse that it wasn't there problem, that they didn't really care, and look what happened. Sometimes people just need kinds words to help them through their problems, something comforting. Give that person the words of encouragement they may need, there success or failure may just affect your success or failure. We need to pay it forward and continue to give more than we take. Make it your goal today, right now, to help the ones in need. Don't turn your back on them because what you may not realize is that you are just as much at risk!

Remember that everyone is different, be compassionate toward someones else's worries. Just because that issue would not fluster you in the least bit, be tender-hearted toward  them as it obviously effects them. Be the brother or sister that we were created to be.

"DON'T TURN YOUR BACK ON THEM"