“The difference between the impossible and the possible lies in a person’s determination.” Tommy Lasorda

How would your life be different if you strengthened self-discipline? For some people ‘discipline’ sparks negativity so I will use ‘self-determination’ instead. Strengthening self-determination is one of the best things you can do to make great advancements in life and work. You gain freedom, confidence, and success. Self-determination leads to accomplishing more, perseverance, healthier choices, financial stability, a positive career/ business outlook, confidence to handle and achieve whatever comes your way, better control of time, and perceiving obstacles as only bumps in the road. Below are 4 cornerstones to bolster self-determination.

“People of mediocre ability sometimes achieve outstanding success because they don’t know when to quit. Most men succeed because they are determined to.” George E. Allen

Determination- Determination is resolute. Firm decisions are made with the best possible outcome in mind. The objective is established often in contrast to emotions tied to instant gratification. There is no room for excuses. You are set in your purpose. This is where strategy becomes your structure to hold you accountable to a systematic plan to reach your end result. Whether you are deciding on stopping at the donut shop next to the gym, working an elaborate project, or growing a new business determination is the first step. Pause and make the best choice with firm resolve knowing your ultimate objective.

“The minute you settle for less than you deserve, you get even less than you settled for.” Maureen Dowd

Daily Discipline- This is the execution of your strategy. It is disciplining and training oneself to follow through on the best choice while refusing to give in to emotionally-based instant gratification. You carry out a regimen knowing the rewards are great. You strengthen your will to resist impulses that conflict with your best interests. When you fall down you get back up, learn from it, and continue. With free will we can alter our fate. Daily discipline provides the support system. Through this process positive transition occurs.

“Every worthwhile accomplishment, big or little, has its stages of drudgery and triumph; a beginning, a struggle and a victory.” Gandhi

Discomfort- A natural part of the growth process, discomfort permeates our being when resisting an impulse. It indicates growth and rewards are on their way. Similar to muscle soreness after a workout, discomfort signifies growing pains. As you continue saying ‘yes’ to building skills, developing knowledge, healthier food choices, taking time for your most meaningful relationships, handling details of a project, exercising, etc. you become comfortable with discomfort.

“Winners take time to relish their work, knowing that scaling the mountain is what makes the view from the top so exhilarating.” Denis Waitley

Desserts- The final course, the rewards, is sweet. When you become resolute in your determination, consistently continue daily discipline, and forge through discomfort you begin experiencing rewards. Some are slow to come but have long range, carrying you into the future with more stability. Others come while reflecting, acknowledging, and celebrating steps achieved and progress made. Do not skip these ‘feel good’ moments by looking at what is yet to be done. Set milestones to relish the journey along the way.

In The Mental ABCs of Pitching the author H.A. Dorfman shared, “Self-discipline is a form of freedom. Freedom from laziness and lethargy, freedom from the expectations and demands of others, freedom from weakness and fear-and doubt. Self-discipline allows a pitcher to feel his individuality, his inner strength, his talent. He is master of, rather than a slave to, his thoughts and emotions.” You do not have to be a pitcher to apply this wise piece of advice. Do you currently choose to be a master or slave to your thoughts and emotions? Use the 4 cornerstones above to tap into the massive amount of strength you hold within and bolster self-determination… Starting Now!

Be Unlimited Action Challenge

Choice A- Choose one specific area to build self-determination.

~ Begin with a smaller goal to build a record of accomplishment. Choose your objective and strategy with firm determination. No hoping. It is a decision, a commitment, with firm determination to succeed.

~ Execute your strategy with daily discipline. Record in a journal each time you succeed in overcoming emotionally-based impulses by making the best choice for you. If you give into an impulse learn from it. Jot down what was going on: were you tired, hungry, sad, stressed, etc. Excuses are not an option but we can learn from them in order to take better care of ourselves and strengthen.

~ Decide what you will tell yourself about discomfort so that you continue to make the best choices.

~ Acknowledge your progress and enjoy the rewards. Congratulations! Celebrate your achievement! Continue strengthening!

Choice B- Practice building self-determination for a full month.

~ Mark the last day of the month as a Celebration Day!

~ Make a note in your smart phone, a handy notebook, or whatever works best for you each time you encounter a moment of self-determination. Note the date, day, the situation, how you felt before and after, if you used self-determination or gave into impulses.

~ Build a record of strengthening. Learn from moments of weakness.

~ Each week acknowledge your progress, growth, and any rewards.

~ Do something special to enjoy your Celebration Day! Congratulations! Continue strengthening!

To begin with, the metaphor “discipline” herein defines one’s relationship to themselves, not to others. The Nazi’s, for instance, are said to have been very disciplined, when that’s precisely what they failed to be. They were regimented, and controlled everybody else they touched, totally externalizing their goals, achieving them only by what they did to and at the expense of others. Like all barbarians they perceived conquest to be heroic instead of a mass murder.

Discipline is about how one manages their own life. It means to do something daily, like for instance diet, exercise, meditation, writing, practicing the playing of an instrument, musical or otherwise, painting (art), etc. It doesn’t mean to think about it or talk about it, though these can be useful activities; it means to work it. As a famous artist once said, “waiting for inspiration is for amateurs; I just get busy”. Such repetitive dedication applied to the expression of self is what creates anything of value, like a fit body, wisdom, or much better paintings. This is how learning new things takes place, by daily disciplined dedication. There is no other way, no matter how much we may wish for life, or our loved ones, to make it easier for us.

Thus, new meaning, insightful awareness or painting originality, etc. occurs only through the disciplined repetition of useful doing. In effect discipline is the part of us creating new structure to the matrix of our character – otherwise known as new habits or skills. Discipline means to persist in an effort, no matter what the obstacles, including physical or emotional pain, as well as the needs of those we love. Love is a valuable entity in which to invest. Yet it’s not the only deeply important part of our life. What we do with ourselves is equally significant. Indeed obstacles, whether they are other people or our own fears and limitations, are perceived to be there precisely in order for us to work through them to a new level of fitness, skill or acumen, no matter how long it takes, no matter how frustrating it is or how disappointed in our self we become in the process of doing it.

Love should never be a reason not to learn, no matter what our lover insists. It’s too easily the excuse for doing nothing of significance in life. To a disciplined person negative feelings evoked in the process of learning is never a reason to stop doing it. Discipline means to dialogue with our feelings – to converse with them. They exist precisely to make us aware of the obstacles already put there – probably unconsciously – obstruction built into our habits, not on purpose, but in order to serve some other need, most often the needs of those holding their lives together only with love, without any investment in personal discipline and the evolution of individual talents that it facilitates.

That’s what God is, a creature who makes new things – like the universe. Yet we have always regarded our creations as so utterly inferior to God’s that we don’t speak about them in the same breath or mind-space. Yet why do we look with such disdain upon our own efforts? Human perversity is not the result of bad people – that ubiquitous expression of our species’ guilt; it’s the outcome of bad structure, whether that be personal, cultural or national. And that can be changed… if we have the courage, determination and discipline.

People who can self discipline themselves after achievement will have double winning results. ~by Tamude

Tamude has taught Jewish that never succumb to obstacles and never succumb to failure but keep doing what you think is right and keep improving yourself with great tolerance of discouragement from others.

This principle has been a tradition for Jewish. Many successful Jewish has achieved great success after come through a lot of obstacles. They never gave up and they contributed their life to what they did. They achieved their achievement with great determination.

Jewish can be recognized for their great extent of tolerance in the world. Even after so thousand years of hardship, they still can endure all the difficulties and survived till now.

In our life, we always get irritated easily because of a little trouble. A lot of good things can be done but turn into failure due to our lost of self discipline. Then, we always feel regret after thing has turned into negative results to us. Tamude tells us always to self discipline and self control ourselves to face anything calmly with smiles instead of anger. We must have this positive attitude to handle difficulties in any relationship including business, family, friends, etc.

Tolerance is painful, because it suppresses our cheerful nature. Learn to be tolerant and learn to endure hardships will make us not to do stupid things out of anger. We will not do something imprudently that will make us regret the whole life. We also can learn from other people of their tolerance.

3rd October 1991 was a common day for most of the people but not Gedimo. Gedimo is a Jewish female author. This was a day she was awarded Nobel Literature Award. She was the no 7 th female author awarded for this and was the first female author in 25 years after the last female author awarded Nobel Literature Award. This Nobel Award was the results of her 40 years efforts and contributions in her writing life.

She was born in 1923. Her mother was from England and her father was a Jewish jewelery businessman. In 6 years old, she wanted to bea ballet dancer. In a rainy Saturday, she registered to join ballet course.

However, she was too weak for this ballet dancing. Finally, she had to give up her pursue of ballet career due to health problem. However, she wanted to be successful in her life even in other field. Very unluckily, in her 8 years old, she had to leave the school due to health problem. She had to rest at home. She only had her book with her in her bed and she always cried from night till morning.

One day in summer, she was feeling too lonely and she decided to go out for a walk to gain a little happiness. Suddenly, she was attracted to a small building in her town. The building was a library of her town. She was so happy as she has already finished reading her book at home. She loved books so much. From the day onwards, she made herself whole day reading in this library. Many times, she hide herself under the table when the library rang for closing of the day. When every staff left the library. She only come out from the hiding place and continue reading books without feeling tiredness.

She had great passion over literature. After reading so many books, she had a lot of inspiration in her mind. Finally, she decided to start her writing career in her 9 years old. Her first novel was published in a local newspaper when she was 15 years old. But nobody knows this was written by a 15 years old girl. In 1953, her first long novel named “the lying days” had turned out to be a surprising bomb in worldwide literature. The whole world was so impressed with her words and her expressions of her feeling in this novel. Every author in the world threw their attention to this new author.

From the day onwards, she has written over 10 long and 200 short novels. Many novels were so high quality and made her awarded many times. 1961, her novel, The Friday foot print, was awarded England Smith Awards. 1974, she was awarded again by England Literacy Awards.

Many times, her novels like stranger world, the guest, etc were recommended by world renowned Sweden literacy authority to join Nobel awards. However, many times due to some other external reasons, her novels were not awarded. She has written “Nobel awards, failure” in her books many times. But she did not give up her passion of writing. Finally she has been finally successfully awarded Nobel literacy on 3rd October, 1991.

This is a great story to inspire us that we will always face a lot of hardships in our path to success. Hence, we have to always face them with smiles and patience.

Emotions are of two types; Positive and Negative emotions. Every negative incident has a positive intent, if complaint is a gift then negative emotion is also a gift and every gift doesn’t come wrapped in your way, it means there is something positive in every negative incident which you need to find it as only gifts are not beautifully wrapped for you but the negative emotions and incidents do also wrap in a gift box for you but what you need to do is to find the positive side of it.

Your performance is always based on the emotions you have, you will always deliver the same level of performance if you are operating in the average level of emotion, if you manage to shift from the negative emotion to positive one, you will get a raise in level too and also increase your potential to even work harder and achieve what you think was impossible for you before.

Your skill set will be perfect if your mindset is working perfect, it is a believe shifting exercise, taking an example of a tree, if the roots (mindset) will be strong then the tree blossom (skill set) to its greater extent and on the other hand if the roots are weak then you won’t get anything from the tree other than a withering look. It is really important to focus on the mindset to take advantage of the skill set. You need to redevelop and reorient your mindset, rethink your emotions, rebirth and reinvent are the most important aspect in the emotions if you are facing failure.

As mentioned before that every negative emotion has a positive intent likewise every emotion has a message but it is not openly available or easy to get it, you have to be enough capacity to get your message from your emotion. You can easily do it by thinking about your current emotion and write down on the paper the 3 most important messages you can conclude from your emotion, this is actually the best way to understand your emotion and get powerful ideas to discipline them in a better way. The faster you can find your message from within your emotion, the quicker you will cross the bridge of your obstacles which leads you to the ultimate success.

The last but not least, an action plan is mandatory for a success. How can you manage your action plan? The answer is very simple, you were working to control and discipline your emotions but now you need to work on the shifting of mind to actually implement the action plan and completely change the situation you were in. The situations could be anything such as tragedy, accidents, failure, defame etc. You need to work on the motions to control the emotions and once you are successful in that, you will feel a great change in your emotions and a great shift from negative to positive would there for you as a result of your hard work.

There are a number of disciplines in the equestrian world all very different from each other; this includes the clothes and accessories that the rider wears. This article provides a basic guide to what attire should be worn for each of the main equestrian disciplines; dressage, show jumping, cross country, showing in hand, hunting and polo.

Dressage

• Hats- a hunting cap, bowler or crash cap, advanced riders have the option to wear a top hat.

• Jackets- for advanced level a tail coat or short jacket, for preliminary to medium level- short show jacket or tweed jacket

• Stocks and ties- a white/cream stock or tie with show jacket, coloured stock or tie with tweed jacket.

• Jodhpurs or breeches- must be cream, white, beige, buff or fawn.

• Gloves- it is preferred that gloves are of the same colour as the jodhpurs, but can be any colour.

• Boots- Plain black or brown long boots or jodhpur boots with matching gaiters.

• Whip- a schooling whip can be used, no longer than 120cm in length

• Spurs- must be fitted and used correctly, smooth metal

• Long hair worn in a hairnet

Show Jumping

• Hats- Dark Blue or Black protective hat

• Jackets- Dark Blue or Black show jacket or tweed jacket

• Stocks and ties- White stock with show jacket or coloured stock or tie with tweed jacket.

• Jodhpurs or breeches- cream, beige, buff, fawn

• Gloves- any colour

• Boots- Plain black or brown long boots or jodhpur boots with matching gaiters

• Whip- no longer than 120cm in length

• Spurs- must be fitted and used correctly, smooth metal

Cross Country

• Hats- protective hat with a cover to match your cross country colours.

• A long sleeved rugby shirt or similar in your chosen cross country colours

• Jodhpurs or breeches- White, buff or fawn

• Boots- Plain black or brown long boots or jodhpur boots with matching gaiters

• Body protector

• Medical armband

• A eventing watch is optional

Showing (In-hand)

• Hat- Trilby, flat cap, beagler or riding hat

• Jacket- tweed jacket, green or brown based tweed.

• Stock and Ties- a tie in any colour, one to compliment the jacket

• Shirt- cream, yellow is popular.

• Trousers- preferably not jodhpurs, dark colour if the horse has light legs and vice versa.

• Boots- black or brown boots or shoes

• Hair worn in a bun and hairnet

Hunting (Separated into Autumn Hunting and Formal Hunting)

Autumn Hunting:

• Hats- Hard hat in either brown, blue or black

• Jacket- Tweed hacking jacket

• Stocks and ties- coloured hunting tie or stock

• Jodhpurs or breeches- buff or fawn

• Boots- Brown or Black long boots, or half chaps with brown or black jodhpur boots

• Whip- Hunting crop, thong is optional.

• Hair to be worn in a hairnet

Formal Hunting:

• Hat- Black or blue

• Jacket- black or blue jacket or hunt coat

• White hunting stock with a stock pin worn horizontally

• Gloves- white string is traditional

• Jodhpurs or breeches- white, buff or fawn

• Boots- black

• Spurs

• Whip- Hunting crop with thong

• Hair to be worn in a hairnet

Polo

• Hat- polo helmet

• Shirt- coloured polo shirt with players number

• Trousers- polo whites, generally white denim jeans are worn

• Gloves- one or two protective gloves

• Boots- polo boots

• Whip- polo whip with grip and loop

• Kneepads

• Safety goggles

• Facemask

• Spurs- polo spurs

The American Dream

More than 50% of all Americans dream of starting their own business some day, but only 3% ever do, in their entire lifetimes. In our free market economy, where it is extremely easy to start and build your own business, and where there have never been more opportunities in all of human history than exist today, why is it that so few people follow their dreams into entrepreneurship and business building?

I have studied the subject of entrepreneurship, business and management for many years. I have started and built several successful multi-million dollar companies from scratch. I have read literally hundreds of books and thousands of articles over the years, and taken a masters degree in business and administration on the subject. I have worked with many thousands of entrepreneurs and business people in large and small organizations all over the country and all over the world. I have trained many tens of thousands of entrepreneurs, managers and executives on subjects ranging from sales and marketing through to strategic planning and finance.

Even today, with all of this experience, I really don’t consider myself to be an expert. However, I am a little bit more knowledgeable than the average person and I have some very definite ideas on what you can do to start and build a successful business.

You May Not Get Rich

First of all, why would you want to start a business in the first place? Most people think that the reason for starting your own business is so that you can make a lot of money and retire rich. This is a great idea but it is not the real reason that people take the risks of entrepreneurship.

The number one reason, ahead of all the others, is for the personal freedom offered by owning your own business. There is a little joke that says that when you start your own business, you only have to work half days; and you get to decide whichever 12 hour period you prefer.

In my work with entrepreneurs over the years, I have found that, although they do not necessarily become rich, they do become happier, more self-confident and more self-reliant. Very few entrepreneurs would ever go back to a salaried job. Even though they don’t make an enormous amount of money, they love the freedom so much that they could not imagine turning their destiny over to anyone else.

You Can Do It Too

Someone once said that you can only be a successful author if you cannot not write. You can only be a successful entrepreneur under the same conditions. You can only be successful starting and building your own business if you cannot not do it. The starting point of success as an independent business person is a burning desire for independence, freedom and opportunity. It is the desire to be your own boss and not be controlled or dictated to by anyone else.

But let’s go back to the first question. Why is it that so few people actually start their own businesses? And the primary reasons are fear and ignorance. Fear and ignorance are and always have been the greatest enemies of human success.

Don’t Be Ignorant

Fear blows even the slightest risks out of proportion and paralyzes the person, holding him or her back from ever taking that giant leap of faith into the uncertainty of entrepreneurial business activity. And fear thrives on ignorance. The less you know about anything important or risky, the greater is your level of fear and the lower is your likelihood that you will ever take any action at all.

The good news is that when you begin to chip away at your ignorance, your levels of fear and hesitancy decline at the same rate. When you become thoroughly knowledgeable about what it is that you want to do, you will find yourself with far more confidence and courage than you have fear and doubt. And from that point on, you can begin to make some real progress.

Three Types of Businesses

More than one million men and women start their own businesses every year in America. More people are starting more businesses, selling more products and services today, than at any other time in human history. Remember, there are three types of businesses that you can form. They are corporations, a sole proprietorship and a partnership. Only corporations are registered and the registration is running at over 850,000 per year. The number of sole proprietorships are in the hundreds of thousands. Nobody really knows., You can start one by simply deciding to, this very minute as you listen to this tape, without even registering it, The number of partnerships is also in the hundreds of thousands, maybe even millions every year.

Because so many hundreds of thousands of men and women are starting various business organizations each year, this means that you can as well. Maybe one or two of these people are smarter or better than you, but you can be sure that hundreds of thousands of them have far more problems and obstacles in their lives than you could ever dream of. In other words, there is no reason whatsoever for you to be afraid of starting your own business.

The key is to make your business a low-risk operation at the beginning with a high possibility for success later on. And these are what you will learn here.

You are the President

By the way, you are already the president of your own company, whether you know it or not. You are the president of an entrepreneurial company with only one employee, yourself. Your company has only one product to sell on the marketplace, your personal services. So, you are the head of your own personal services corporation. And if you name your company after yourself, you don’t even have to register it to protect the name. You can go out and print business cards with your name, John Jones Enterprises or John Jones and Associates, and your title, “John Jones – President” with your home and address phone number. The next time you are out with someone and they ask you what you do, you can tell them that you are the president of your own company. When they say that they thought you worked for such and such a company, you can reply by saying that, “Yes, I do work there. They are my best clients right now.”

As the President of your own company, you decide how much you earn. Maybe not in the short term, but over the long term, by the things that you do, or fail to do, you determine your own income. If you want to earn more money, go to the nearest mirror and negotiate with your “boss.” Your raise will become effective when you do.

Two Categories of Business Owners

You have heard it said that most businesses fail in the first two years. But this is not entirely accurate. If you divide businesses into two categories, those started by people with extensive knowledge and experience and those started by people with no knowledge or experience at all, you get two totally different failure rates.

Businesses started by people who have done what I will tell you about in this session have a success rate in excess of 90%. Businesses started by inexperienced people who have not done their homework have a failure rate of more than 90%. And even if your business fails initially, it is only by failing in business that you eventually learn to succeed greatly. As Phil Knight of Nike once said, “You only have to succeed the last time.”

On the David Susskind show many years ago, they interviewed four young entrepreneurs, each of whom was a self-made millionaire by the age of 30. David asked them to calculate how many different business start-ups they had been involved in before they found the business that enabled them to make more than a million dollars. The average was 17 businesses per person! But they had not been failing while their businesses had been failing. They had been becoming smarter and smarter as time passed until finally they were so knowledgeable and experienced that the very next business opportunity put them over the top. And this can happen to you as well.

Special Disciplines

To start and build your own successful business you need special disciplines; disciplines that are practiced by all successful entrepreneurs and self-made business millionaires. You can either learn and practice these disciplines early in your entrepreneurial career or you can learn and practice them later. Sooner or later you must become knowledgeable and skilled in each of these seven areas if you are going to build a successful enterprise. And the longer it takes you to master these seven areas, the longer it will take and the more it will cost, before you eventually achieve your financial and business goals.

The first discipline is the discipline of market analysis. This is where most entrepreneurs fail. They start off with a great idea, and often don’t want to tell anybody about it; for fear that someone will steal their idea. So they go off half-cocked into the marketplace with a product or service that has not been thought through properly and they are amazed when it fails.

The fact is that people are far too busy to steal your idea. 99 out of 100 new business ideas fail anyway. People who are operating their own businesses are far, far too busy to have even a minute of time to “steal” your idea, whatever it is.

Ask People’s Opinion

In fact, if you have an idea for a product or service in a particular industry, you should go to someone who is already in that industry and ask for their opinion. If you are really smart, you will get in touch with as many people in that industry as possible and lay out your idea to them in full and ask for their candid comments.

What you are looking for is “negative thinking.” A negative thinker is someone who will point out the holes and flaws in your plan. If you cannot patch the holes or fix the flaws in your plan for a new business, that is probably a pretty good indicator that your business is not going to succeed.

Beware of “Positive Thinkers”

The most dangerous people you can talk to are “positive thinkers.” These are people who will tell you that your business idea is wonderful and that you should “go for it!” They will tell you that this is a great time to start a business and that you will be a great success. Often these are your friends and relatives. But don’t get carried away. The only advice that is of any value to you is advice from people who are thoroughly knowledgeable and experienced in the area that you wish to start a business. Anyone else may be well-meaning but their advice is not worth much.

If you had a sore stomach, you wouldn’t ask your coworker if you should have surgery or whether or not he thinks that you have cancer. This is not the right person to talk to. For something as important as this, you need a specialist.

The discipline of market analysis requires that you thoroughly examine every detail of your market segment before you commit your time and money to offering your product or service there.

The Law of Three

Every new business starts with an idea to serve customers with a product or service that is faster, newer or better in some way. In fact there is a Law of Three that applies to a new business start up. Whatever you are offering, it must be better by a factor of three than anything else currently being offered to the same customers.

It must be a little faster, a little cheaper and a little bit more effective. It must have at least three benefits that competing products do not offer. If it has only one or two, you will probably fail in the long run.

Market analysis means that you find out if there is a real market for your product or service. How big is the market? Where is the market concentrated? Is the market concentrated sufficiently so that you can reach it effectively with advertising and sales? Who are your competitors in the marketplace? Why are your prospective customers buying from your competitors today?

Give People a Reason to Buy

And here’s the most important question: “Why should someone switch from their existing supplier of a similar product or service and buy from you?” The failure to ask and accurately answer this question has been the downfall of many small businesses. You have no idea how hard it is to get a customer to switch from a known supplier to an unknown supplier.

When I started one of my businesses, I thought that people would buy from me because it was me! I thought that because I was so positive, enthusiastic and convinced in the value and quality of my product, that customers would find my enthusiasm contagious and would buy it and use it in high quantities. What I found was that customers were not interested in switching at all. I had to call on customers over and over again before I could even get them to test my new product.

Eventually, I had to give my product away free, and give guarantees before people would even test it. Once I had given away free products with absolute guarantees of satisfaction, and people tested and used my product, I finally began to sell it. And I began to sell it just in time to avoid going broke completely.

What inducements will you have to give to your prospective customers to get them to switch from what they are doing to buy from you? How will you be able to describe your product or service in such a way that customers will be willing to give up the “devil they know,” for the devil they don’t?

Plan, Plan, Plan

The second discipline that you must become very good at is the discipline of planning. What this means, at the bare minimum, is that you must take the time to prepare a complete business plan before you start operations. Most entrepreneurs fail to do this, for a variety of reasons. And this is the reason that most entrepreneurs go broke.

The purpose of a business plan is not to acts as a road map or as a precise guide to the future. The purpose of creating a business plan is that the preparation of the plan forces you to think through every single critical issue that you will deal with in the future.

The very best and smartest business people are those who have already given a lot of thought to the various things that could happen and to the various things they might have to do, should those things happen. The least successful business people are those who have given no thought at all.

When you prepare a business plan, you are forced to sit down and carefully analyze and justify every single penny in it, first of all to yourself and then second of all to anyone from whom you are trying to raise money.

Three Parts to a Business Plan

A business plan consists of three main parts. The first part is the top line. This is the quantity of your product that you intend to sell on a monthly basis, projected forward 12to 18 months. Your ability to accurately project your sales is a key measure of your intelligence and your business ability. Once you have conservatively estimated your likely sales, you should cut that number in half to get the number that will turn out to be closer to reality once you begin business activities.

Remember the great rule of entrepreneurship is that everything costs twice as much and takes three times as long. I have shared this idea with thousands of entrepreneurs who have then told me that they were going to violate this principle and prove that it was too conservative. They came back shattered, like survivors of a battle, with their tails between their legs, finally admitting that the two times, three times rule was extremely realistic.

The middle line of your business plan includes every single expense that you can possibly imagine incurring in order to achieve your top line. You must deduct the total costs of the goods or services you plan to sell. You must deduct expenses like rent, telephone, utilities, printing, stationery, stamps, photo copiers, fax and Federal Express, staff costs, furniture costs and every other single detailed cost that you can imagine. These are called the “Costs of doing business.”

Once you have added up all the costs, you then take the total and add another 20% as a fudge factor to get a more realistic estimate of your final costs. Your ability to budget and project your sales and your costs accurately is the true measure of your business acumen. Leave nothing to chance. Go over every detail again and again.

When I prepare business statements, I will go through and estimate every number. I will then do a complete assessment, with documents, research, estimates, and actual proposals to justify every number in the business plan.

For example, if a person says to you, how did you estimate these costs for postage? You should be able to say that you estimated a certain number of letters of a certain weight going out on a daily basis over a one month, two month, three month and 12 month period to come up with an average postage cost of the amount that is in your business plan. Don’t ever let yourself be caught flat footed.

The Bottom Line

The bottom line is the amount of profit or loss that you expect to experience on a monthly basis. You then accumulate this amount along the bottom of the page so that you know how far ahead or behind you are on a monthly basis according to your projections.

You should probably expect to lose money for the first three, six or nine months. The minimum rule is that you should have six months of operating expenses set aside before you launch your new enterprise. You should assume that you will not make a single sale for six months. This may be conservative, but it is much better than the alternative of finding yourself broke and wiped out because you did not plan well enough.

The Discipline of Money

The third discipline you need for starting your own business is that of money. As I just mentioned, you need six full months of operating costs, in the bank, before you go into business. If you are thinking of starting a second income business, you can usually start with a small capital investment and use “sweat equity” instead of actual financial capital. Many people have become extremely successful in life starting from a low base and growing based on cash flow and profits from selling a product or service.

There are an enormous number of successful multi-level marketing businesses nationwide and throughout the world. If you start a multilevel marketing business, your first consideration should be an extremely low up-front cash investment in inventory and sales materials. After that, all your expenditure should be for products that you have already sold at a mark-up from the price at which you are buying them.

Many multi-level marketing companies allow you to start up as an independent wholesale distributor for as little as sixty dollars. In a case like this, you invest your time and your energy rather than your cash, and you keep your full time job while you are getting your feet solidly under you.

If you need money to start your own business, you should be aware that 99% of all start-up money is called “love money.” This is money that people give you because they love you, or money that you provide yourself by taking out a second mortgage on your home, selling everything that you have that you don’t need, and even borrowing cash against your credit cards.

Don’t Count On Banks

Banks simply do not lend money to new business start-ups. The failure rate is too high. Banks are not in the business of taking risks. Banks are in the business of making good, solid loans that they know will be paid back on a timely basis. Banks then make the margin between what they can borrow the money for and what they can lend it to you at.

Banks typically require three times, four times or five times collateralization to lend you any money at all. This means that no matter who you are or what your background, a bank will want proof that you have five dollars in liquid assets that they can seize and sell for every dollar you want to borrow from them. They will look at your business plan and listen attentively to your business ideas. But they won’t lend you any money.

Be an Outstanding Salesperson

The fourth discipline you require is the discipline of selling. You must be an absolutely outstanding salesperson for your product or service before you open your doors or you should not bother opening your doors at all.

The fact is that all successful businesses are started and built by someone who has a remarkable capacity to sell the product in a competitive market. The biggest mistake you can ever make is to think that someone else is going to do your selling for you.

The second biggest mistake you can make is to think that advertising or direct mail is going to sell your product or service for you. The only way that you are going to sell your product or service is by going out and getting face-to-face with critical, skeptical, cautious customers who can buy it if you can convince them of its value. Don’t waste a cent on advertising when you start up. That is one of the fastest ways to go broke sooner rather than later.

Listen to every audio program on selling that you can get a hold of. Read the books on selling written by people in your same industry. Attend sales training seminars and courses and then see as many customers as you can, all day, every day until you begin to bring in sales in excess of your costs of operation. The discipline of selling is the heartbeat of your business and the way you deal with this discipline will determine your success or failure.

The discipline of managing is something that you learn as your business begins to grow. There are thousands of books and hundreds of university degrees on management, including entrepreneurial management. Your ability to plan, organize, staff, delegate, supervise, measure and report is absolutely essential to being a good manager. Fortunately, you can learn these skills by study and practice. And always remember, your weakest important skill in management will set the limit on your success in your business. Whenever you are having problems of any kind, resolve to learn what you need to learn to become very competent in that area.

e Secrets of Power Negotiating

The sixth discipline is the discipline of negotiating. There is perhaps no better program to teach you negotiating than Roger Dawson’s The Secrets of Power Negotiating.

You learn how to negotiate by first of all studying the process of negotiating, and then second, practicing negotiating at every opportunity. You negotiate for better prices for your products and services when you are buying. You negotiate for higher prices and earlier payments for your products and services when you are selling. You negotiate for extended payment terms from your suppliers. You negotiate for better loan terms and interest rates from your bankers.

With regard to money and negotiating, the rule is that you preserve cash at all costs. You never buy when you can lease and never lease when you can rent. You never rent when you can borrow and you never get anything new if you can get it second hand. Negotiating for and protecting your sources of cash flow is the most important thing that you can do for a small business. If you run out of cash, you’re dead. Cash is to a small business as blood and oxygen is to the brain. You must fight, scramble, negotiate and do everything possible to assure that you always have cash reserves.

It has been said that every new business start-up is a race against time. It is a race to find a way to generate cash in excess of your costs before your cash runs out altogether. You stay in business to the degree to which you bring in enough money to pay for your mistakes until you are finally generating excess cash.

Become Resilient

The final discipline is the discipline of resilience. It is the ability to bounce back from the inevitable setbacks and disappointments that you will experience virtually every single day in starting and building your own business.

One of the marks of the superior entrepreneur is that he or she is always looking into the future and considering the worst possible thing that could happen in every area of the business. This is the mark of the superior leader as well.

I call this “Crisis Anticipation.” There are many books and articles on it. What it means is that you are constantly scanning the horizon and asking yourself, “What is the worst possible thing that could happen?” In your sales; with your staff; with your cash; and with your business? And then you think through and decide what you would do if that were to occur.

And finally, once you have determined the worst possible outcome and decided what you would do, you focus all of your energies on making sure that the worst possible thing does not happen, under any circumstances. You become resilient to the degree to which you have thought through what might happen and prepared yourself against any eventuality

Sometimes, a small setback can seem almost overwhelming if you’ve allowed yourself to get tired and run down. You become resilient to the degree to which you get lots of rest when you are starting and building your own business. As Vince Lombardi once said, “Fatigue doth make cowards of us all.”

You develop resilience by resolving to persist in the face of any difficulties, no matter what happens. Be clear about your goals but be flexible about the means of attaining those goals. If one thing doesn’t work, try something else. Be willing to be flexible and adaptable in the face of a changing market.

Remember, as they say in the military, no plans survives first contact with the enemy. No business plan survives first contact with the marketplace. Be willing to chop, change and try something else. Just make a decision in advance, that no matter what happens, you will keep on keeping on.

You have within you, right now, the ability to start and build a successful business. Millions of people have done it in the past, and millions more people will do it in the future. These people are not smarter or better than you are. They have simply learned what they needed to learn and then practiced it, over and over until it became second nature. And so can you. And when you learn how to start and build a successful business within our economic system, your future will be unlimited.

Black Studies is a relatively new academic field. It spans across disciplines encompassing the social sciences such as history, sociology, psychology, and political science as well as the humanities, including music, art, literature, and religious studies. Different academic institutions may use different terms to describe it depending on their particular focus, but, whether it goes by the name Black Studies, African-American Studies, or Africana Studies, the discipline is generally rooted in a radical movement for fundamental education reform.

The discipline of Black Studies is a direct challenge to the European centered framework and its justification of the subjugation, enslavement, and colonization of African people and their descendants throughout the world. The comments of well-known 18th century philosopher David Hume are fairly typical as an example of how Africa and its people were framed in the eyes of the European colonizers. As a footnote in his Essay and Treatises written in 1768, he writes:

I am apt to suspect the negroes… to be naturally inferior to the white. There never was a civilized nation of any other complexion than white, nor even any individual eminent either in action or speculation. No ingenious manufacturers amongst them, no arts, no sciences. (Harris 1987, 19)

The need to reclaim one’s heritage in the face of such a disparaging mainstream narrative is at the very core of the development of black studies as an academic discipline. As such, self-definition becomes critical. The different departments that have of sprung up throughout the country do vary in the terms they use to describe themselves. Whether they go by the name Black Studies, Africana Studies, or African-American Studies, the process of naming is very deliberate and carries a particular meaning for the individuals who undertook to establish the various academic departments. The different focus that each of these departments may have makes naming a matter of political control, which is a critical principle of self-determination and self-definition.

“African American Studies” focuses on persons of African descent throughout the Americas, including North, Central, and South America, the Caribbean, as well as northern countries like New Newfoundland and Greenland. So, the term, “African American” makes “African American Studies” a more historically specific branch of the discipline that describes the experience of Africans in the western hemisphere with a relatively narrow lens. (Colon 2003) While there tends to be some focus on the continent of Africa there is no specific focus on persons of African descent in Europe or Asia.

The term, “Black Studies” represents a more politicized vision of the discipline. The institutionalization of Black Studies – that is, the formal establishment of Black Studies within academic settings – came about largely as a result of what was known in the 1960s as the “Black Power” movement. (Colon 2003) Malcolm X and The Nation of Islam, in an attempt to reclaim their sense of self-definition urged the “so called Negro” to become “Black.” Black became redefined as a popular, a positive affirmation of self.

“Black Studies” reflects the politicization of the discipline in that it is largely aimed at the discovery and dissemination of information pertaining to what Black people have undergone and achieved, and the use of education and knowledge to defend and vindicate the race against its detractors. This reframing was a symbolic victory for the masses of Black people, but it also carries with it certain problems and challenges.

Like Black Studies, Africana Studies is not limited to the experience of persons of African descent on the continent of Africa or the western hemisphere, but is much broader and focuses on the African Diaspora as a whole. (Colon 2003) The African Diaspora of refers to the disbursement of persons of African descent throughout the globe. It is well known that persons of African descent had a presence in ancient Greece and Rome as well as widespread contact between Africans and Asians via the Indian Ocean. There is some evidence to suggest that there was a pre-Columbian disbursement of Africans across the Atlantic well before 1492.

Systematic and widespread dispersal of Africans throughout the globe, however, took place on a far more massive scale in the past 400 years as a result of the Atlantic slave trade and the subsequent colonization of the continent of Africa. Africana studies focuses on the Pan-African links and experiences of persons of African descent not only on the continent of Africa and in the Americas, but in places like England, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, as well as Russia and various other parts of Europe and Asia. It does so, however, without the political context that you find in the “Black Power” movement.

Aside from the terminology, Black Studies, African American Studies, and Africana Studies are similar in that they came about largely in response to a systematic misrepresentation of the experience of persons of African descent in such a way as to popularize the notion that they are inferior. It is in response to miseducation, which, as Malcolm X explained, has redirected the world view of black people in such a way as to prevent them from identifying with their true history, culture self-awareness, and well-being; and diseducation, by which black people have been deprived of access to education altogether. (Colon 2003) As such, a core value in Black Studies is an underlying social mission that requires the application of theory to methodology and the combination of knowledge to activism toward the practical resolution of issues in the Black community. That is the reason why Black Studies always has historically been so closely aligned with activism and social justice.

Bibliography

Colon, Alan. “Black Studies: Historical Background, Modern Origins, and Development Priorities for the Early Twenty First Century.” The Western Journal of Black Studies, Vol. 27, 2003: 145-155.

Harris, Joseph E. Africans and their History. New York: Mentor Publications, 1987.

See African Elements (Episode 1: What is Black Studies?). 2011. www.africanelements.org.

This is a different iteration of the original book ‘The Fifth Discipline‘, (both are by Peter Senge) – itself a breakthrough book.

The work Senge created in the Fieldbook version is practical and do-able, with the focus on individual exercises in as wide a range of management applications as you could need. I think it’s a leap ahead of the original for that reason.

That being said, there are some more up to date areas that have evolved, such as, for example, Succession Planning, but with the vast array of components in this book, many of these will be covered off anyway.

For anyone who wants both a dip-in workbook as well as a groundbreaking comprehensive manual, this book must be in your library, it will serve you well for the whole of your management career.

By the way, if you buy it on Amazon, don’t be put off by the number of pages. If you buy it (after trying to pick it up!) in a bookshop, don’t be put off by it’s weight!

If you take it a ‘module’ at a time, you will find it remarkably readable and fun – but I wouldn’t attempt to read the whole thing in one go – just take your time.

Enjoy meandering around it, it’s a truly fascinating read!

Have you ever gotten all fired up about something that you wanted to accomplish – a new healthy way of eating, making exercise part of your healthy lifestyle, losing weight, or a new project? And then over time, you could feel your resolve dissolving? Action is the bridge between intention and manifestation. Without consistent action your positive intentions turn into wishful thinking. It's easy to start out energized because your enthusiasm gives you the momentum. Once the newness wears off and you start to encounter obstacles, that's the critical time that tests your will to succeed. This is when most people give up – why having discipline is essential.

But discipline gets a bad rap these days. Everyone wants ease and grace, and effortless flow. And they shun discipline as somehow being contrary to this flow. Too often discipline is equated with punishment. Why is this? It probably has to do with outmoded beliefs and negative emotions imprinted from earlier experiences when we saw the adults in our lives as harsh task-masters trying to deprive us little kids of having fun.

In reality, whether you are trying to lose weight, exercise more, or just plain take better care of yourself, discipline is essential to success. If you want to lose 10 pounds it's not going to drop off your body all at once. Likewise, if you want to eat more healthfully, you have to do it one meal at a time. And exercise, too, requires consistency week in and week out. All of this takes discipline.

Think of discipline as your key to increased lightness of being and total freedom. In the realm of health and well-being success is rarely the result of one big action; rather it is the accumulation of lots of little actions taken consistently over time. If you want to develop health-sustaining habits discipline is your best friend because experts say that it takes about 30 days of consistent, repetitive action to develop a new habit. Once you establish this new habit, you begin to free yourself of struggle, procrastination and resistance. You know what to do and you do it without having to think too much about it. Your new healthy habits become your new health routine and over time this evolves into your unshakeable healthy lifestyle.

In fact, when it comes to enhancing your ultimate health and well-being, discipline is truly a form of self-love. When you think of discipline as the ultimate expression of self-love this shift in perception creates the opening that makes you actually want to nurture yourself consistently. You don't have to be the hard disciplinarian; self-discipline does not mean self-denial or self-punishment. Self-discipline IS self-care! When done with kindness and compassion this new form of discipline keeps you moving toward your goals with love and total acceptance of yourself, where you are now, and the past that brought you to this present moment. Remote, distance healing proxy sessions are designed to clear your de-energizing patterns around unworthiness, inadequacy, indecision and procrastination. And uplift your state of being as you move into joyfully doing those things that support your ultimate health and well-being. Turn discipline into self-love so you can go the distance and succeed in making your intentions reality!

Individualpreneurship is not a new concept; it has its roots in agricultural societies where individuals and families worked the land and had other forms of income from crafts such as ironwork, needlework, and woodwork that became cottage industries in their own right. These individuals and families as individualpreneurs had multiple sources of income that provided hedges against poor harvests, and for the changing wants and needs associated with supply and demand of materials and supplies, labor, and products and/or services.

Entrepreneurs would “put out” work to individualpreneurs who were, in effect, independent contractors. In the shift from the agricultural age to the industrial age, operational work became centralized in factories and later, administrative work became centralized in offices. Practices were established over time, often with the involvement of unions, that have become regulated through labor and employment, health and welfare, immigration, and taxation laws and regulations at both the Federal and state levels. Such practices turned the notion job creation into a complex activity subject to a multitude of laws and regulations with risk of litigation and penalties for non-compliance.

In the peak of the industrial age, one could expect to be employed by a single employer for many years, if not for an entire career, and earn many benefits as a consequence thereof aimed at retaining quality and/or loyal people. The cost of benefits, employment and unemployment taxes, and workers compensation insurance have to be added to the direct labor rate to determine the fully loaded rate. The labor rate becomes fully burdened when overhead costs such as equipment, facilities, supervision, supplies and utilities are added to the fully loaded rate. Fully burdened costs can easily be twenty to thirty percent more than the direct labor rate.

Some work may be performed by independent contractors, who are usually responsible for paying their own benefits, taxes, and insurance. However, strict rules apply as to whom can be classified as such. In general, the hirer of an independent contractor can control only the result of what gets done, but not how, when, or where. Many industries such as insurance, mortgage origination, real estate, and travel use independent contractors as agents to generate sales.

In the shift from the industrial to the information age, the impact of information, process, telecommunications, and transportation technologies has had a profound effect on the workplace, and has enabled globalization. The impact is across the board in entrepreneurial, leadership, and management (enterpriship) disciplines, and administrative and operational activities such finance, human resources, marketing and sales, manufacturing and distribution, and merchandising. Globalization enables work to be strategically sourced to best-in-class or scale (low-cost) providers for each output and related activities in the value chain. Taken to an extreme, it is possible to outsource everything except strategy formulation and strategic marketing activities. Information technology reduces analytical activities, and process technology reduces operational activities. Naturally outsourcing becomes popular when fully burdened rates, including telecommunications and transportation costs, are lower from third-party providers than in-house, and/or when there is less risk, especially with respect to litigation. However, there are negative consequences to local economies when employers eliminate large numbers of jobs through outsourcing. Therefore, the community costs and benefits should be considered in an outsourcing decision.

The effect of technology, and the consequential globalization, is that the need for professional staff and vocational labor in domestic employers is reduced, and in some cases quite dramatically. The traditional assumptions regarding employment in fully vertically integrated enterprises that historically performed all activities “in-house” erode. Thus many individuals find it hard to enter or remain in the traditional workplace, especially when cost and quality gaps exist between employers and with third-party outsourced providers who perform work cheaper at the same standards.

In retailing, the large “big box” stores will continue to provide scale for commodity products and/or services at discount prices, thus placing pressure on their suppliers to keep costs low. Specialty stores and boutiques will continue to provide value-added and higher quality products and/or services at premium prices. Manufacturers of new specialized personal products and/services, such as nutraceuticals, are more likely to establish networks of independent marketing representatives and sales agents, leveraging the internet where possible, than employ traditional brick and mortar wholesale and retail facilities to keep distribution costs low.

As a consequence, a new kind of entrepreneur is emerging – the individualpreneur. The individualpreneur has multiple streams of income from employment and/or entrepreneurship/business ownership and investing activities. The individualpreneur has to take full responsibility for their livelihood through these activities. For example, an individualpreneur may be an employee on either a full-time or part-time basis for one or more enterprises, and/or be an entrepreneur in the emerging and growth stages of an upwardly mobile enterprise, and/or be a lifestyle business enterprise owner, and/or an independent contractor in such disciplines as affiliate marketing, consulting, freelancing, and network marketing. An individualpreneur may retain employees and independent contractors in their own right for upwardly entrepreneurial and lifestyle business ownership activities, while working alone as a solopreneur and/or a webpreneur on the internet.

The notion of individualpreneurship arises when traditional employment opportunities erode but there is an opportunity for an individual to provide value-added services, or because an individual wishes to pursue an entrepreneurial activity that may not be fully sustainable in its own right.

Examples of individualpreneurial activities include working part-time for an employer while operating a retail business or restaurant; working full-time for an employer while building a network marketing business; and providing freelance technology services while performing affiliate marketing activities and selling articles, books, and seminars on the internet.

Individualpreneurship is particularly relevant for young less experienced people who are entering the workplace for the first time, and for older people who are perceived as being inefficient, too expensive, and out-of-touch with their younger peers in the marketplace. However, older people may have years of functional knowledge and technical skills expertise that is of value to emerging, growth, and mature enterprises, and can be leveraged on a consulting basis without the burden of employment costs. Individualpreneurship is a discipline that anybody who is unemployed or under-employed can pursue if they have the passion or the need; usually opportunity is just beyond their comfort zone.

The notion of individualpreneurship changes assumptions regarding benefits, insurance, and taxes, especially when individualpreneurs become service providers to prior employers as independent contractors. Hence, governments are likely to increase their enforcement of labor and employment and taxation laws as individualpreneurship, and especially independent contracting, becomes more common. However, with technology rapidly changing the paradigms of products and/or services and infrastructures, the life expectancy for particular types of job can be relatively short compared to the past.

As the economy continues to globalize and technology becomes more ubiquitous, more individuals will be faced with the need to develop their individualpreneurship knowledge and skills in order to be able to promote themselves in competitive marketplaces for both employment and products and/or services. In effect, this means understanding enterpriship (entrepreneurship, leadership, and management) disciplines, understanding personal styles, and being able to balance both professional and personal activities.