Inspirations…Just thought it might help

Teenage Success Stories:

 Yours Could Start Today

by Kae Tattersall

Would you like to have more money in your pocket, face the future with more confidence and be able to set up a successful business for yourself? It is easier than you think. All it takes is a dream and a little thought and planning. Look at what these teenagers were able to accomplish:

Dorothy started her business at the age of 14, selling stick-insect eggs by mail order. Less than 20 years later, she is Great Britain’s biggest breeder of stick insects. Her company sells 50,000 a year.

Because she had experience with insects and knew she wanted to make a career in the insect business, Dorothy studied applied biology at a university, designing the right kind of insect houses and researching proper feeding facilities for her insects.

This greatly increased her ability to supply the whole package to her customers. She found that many people who worked all day wanted a pet but could not provide the attention needed by a dog or cat. Stick insects (called walkingsticks in some countries) were the ideal answer for some, and her beautifully designed cages are just as attractive in a room as any aquarium.

Naomi is a 13-year-old entrepreneur. “I was 11 when I started breeding guinea pigs for a bit of pocket money,” she said. “I bought a female guinea pig from a pet shop. The lady at the shop told me that the guinea pig was probably pregnant and she would buy the babies back from me when they were six to eight weeks old. My parents gave me some money to buy more hutches, and my brother, who was 10 at the time, went into business with me.”

Since first selling the animals, says Naomi, she has learned all about guinea pigs. She’s had to concern herself with cash flow, quality control and the responsibility of running a small business.

“Some of the money we make has to be saved to buy hay and more hutches and to pay for veterinary bills,” she says. “Having to look after so many animals takes a lot of time and work. I never realized making money was so much work. If the animals aren’t well looked after, they become dirty or even sick. So we have a responsibility to the pet shop to supply the very best product we can. If we don’t, we would no longer have a market, because the pet shop wants to keep their good reputation.”

Now that Naomi has run a guinea-pig business, she would like to work with bigger animals, perhaps horses. “Or working in a zoo would be fun!”

It sounds easy, doesn’t it? But how do you get started?

First, brainstorm. Divide a piece of paper into three columns. In column one, write what you want to accomplish in the next five years or so-a really good job, financing for college, more money or whatever you would like to do. In the middle column write down what it would take to accomplish this.

Consider, for example, financing four years of college. One young man did just that.

Ben’s family helped him turn an after-school job cleaning swimming pools and mowing lawns into a successful and valuable service. Because of the skills he developed through hard work, he landed a position with a large company, which paid his college fees, provided him training in a career and guaranteed him a job after graduation.

The company was not looking for a high-powered businessman; it wanted someone who had learned financial expertise and the value of customer satisfaction and perseverance-all vital entrepreneurial skills. Ben got the position because he had taught himself the one thing every company is looking for: self-motivation.

In the third column of your paper write down your interests along with any potential money-making ideas you can think of. Do you have any hobbies like Dorothy’s or Naomi’s? Can you provide a service like Ben’s? Do you have any special skill that could be developed to earn money?

Richard is an example of developing and using his skills to earn money. At the age of 15 he learned leather craft at a summer camp. He lived in a remote community in Wales, a place of few employment opportunities. However, Richard made small items he could sell at the only shop in his village.

Because he could provide a service and was determined to produce the highest-quality work, his reputation and his profit margin grew. Soon Richard could buy larger quantities of leather, which he made into beautifully tooled handbags and purses. These he sold in a larger shop in the neighboring village. Each item contained an offer to hand-tool initials on the item free of charge. This led to even more sales in the form of commissions for large items. Soon Richard had more orders than he could fill.

A secret to these teenage success stories is finding a niche in the market that no one else is filling. Research is vital before you start. If you hope to exploit a skill, make friends with local store and shop owners. Look for something they don’t sell or something you can produce better or less expensively. Show your samples.

If you hope to provide a service, make sure you can do it well enough and consistently enough to supply a number of clients. When advertising a service, offering a first-time free trial can win potential customers.

The often overlooked dimension to a long and successful career is reliance on God, and perseverance. As God said through King Solomon, “Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might” (Ecclesiastes 9:10), and he who heeds God’s Word “will find good, and whoever trusts in the LORD, happy is he” (Proverbs 16:20).

Don’t be afraid to dream. Talk to your parents, teachers and other adults about making your dreams a reality. It takes courage, confidence, ingenuity and hard thinking to come up with a money-making idea and plan. But if you do you will be well on your way to finding a good job or starting a career. The next teenage success story we read could be yours! GN

Be inspired by all these stories. We were all born to succeed, not fail. Be successful is not being mediocre but doing it better than standard. Read and ask yourself, “can I be like them?”

Certainly you can! If they could do it, so could you!

Going All Out!!!

Most of the problems in life stem from one cause: we can’t get ourselves to take action. It’s not that we don’t know what to do. The problem is getting ourselves to follow through and do it.

Success is not determined by genetics. It’s about persistent, consistent action.

Action is the key. You can be the most talented person in the world or have the best ideas, yet still if
you do not take action you will achieve nothing.

Having dreams and passion is not enough. If you wish to achieve something, don’t let life just “happen” to you. Set goals and take action.

Balancing Action and Reflection

Creating success involves creating and a delicate and ongoing balance between two somewhat opposing forces – reflection of where you are now and action of pushing toward where you need to go.

Entrepreneurial Creativity

Entrepreneurial creativity is about coming up with innovative ideas and turning them into value-creating profitable business activities.

Entrepreneurial creativity = creativity × entrepreneurial action…

Be the Best Possible

10 Tips by Ten3 NZ Ltd.

• Exceed expectations.  Go the extra mile, do things faster, do things with greater sincere friendliness, for your customers, employer, family and for yourself!...

The Foundation of Leadership: Achieving Extraordinary Results

By: Brian Tracy

Ask yourself every day, “What is the one thing that I and only I can do, that if done well, will make a real difference to my company?” Whatever your answer, go to work on that….

Put Your Business Plan Into Action

A business plan is an essential part of developing a successful business. However, it’s of no use if it just stays as a plan on paper. Your business plans need to be implemented and this requires you taking action. But not just any old actions where you fall in the trap of keeping yourself extremely busy. You need to consistently take the actions that are critical to the success of your business…

Fortune Favors the Brave

By: Brian Tracy

Boldness is a necessary part of courage but it must be a boldness based on an intelligent assessment of the potential risks and rewards. The wonderful nature of boldness is that, properly directed, it builds the habit of courage in the person who practices it.

Act Boldly in Every Situation

In my experience, any virtue translated into action leads almost invariably to positive results. This applies to integrity, persistence, courtesy, love and courage. I’ve always liked the advice of an old man to his grandson. “Act boldly and unseen forces will come to your aid.”

Take a Leap of Faith

Perhaps the most obviously important part of courage is the courage to step out in the face of uncertainty. Every great venture in the history of man has begun with faith and a giant leap into the unknown.

General Douglas MacArthur said, “There is no security in life, only opportunity.” The creed of Frederick The Great, one of history’s most successful leaders was, “Audacity, audacity-always audacity.”

Launch With No Guarantees

A 12-year study of successful entrepreneurs conducted by Babson College concluded that the only thing they had in common was the willingness to launch, to step out in faith. Once they had started, they learned the lessons they needed to succeed. Many of them ending up successful in completely different businesses from where they started.

Dare To Go Forward

Dare to go forward. Successful companies are invariably those that continue to research, develop, experiment and introduce new products and services – even during the deepest recessions. Successful executives are those who are continually stretching themselves to move out of the comfort zone, to face the twin fears of failure and rejection and to move forward in spite of them.

Action Exercises

Here are two ways to develop greater boldness in your work and personal life.

First, just do it! Step out in faith! If you think of some action you can take to improve your life, give it a try. You may be surprised.

Second, when in doubt, act with audacity. Audacity may get you into trouble but even more audacity will get you out. Go for it!

To put this into context, success means not looking at the negetive points of every venture you take. Daring to go forward when all the others are still laid back is good. Successful people take the initiative to start something. Entreprenuers are people that I respect. They make a difference to their lives instead of waiting for opportunities to pop put. Opportunities will come when we take the 1st step. Do not be changed by the environment, you change the environment. Dare yourself, give 110%. Thermometer or thermostat? You choose. 

Do Your Best!!!!

Do your best. Do your best at every job. No slacking! Success generates more success. So be hungry for it. People hire good people with passion for excellence…

NLP Solutions: Three Guiding Principles

Success depends on both what you do and how you do it.

Being creatures of pattern and habit, we unknowingly achieve success and construct our failures. Taken together, the three NLP guiding principles – (i) failure is not an accident; (ii) feedback is the foundation of success; and (iii) success has a structure – can help you change old habits of thinking and your success hit rate. Once you have taken these three guiding principles on board, you will have at hand a valuable source of information – an effective prescription for exactly the progress you desire. “These three principles make it possible to turn what we used to think of as setbacks into success, get the feedback we need in order to know what to do next, and figure out the key factors we need to get right if we are to succeed”.

The Trap of Fixation on Success

Success is nearly a magical idea for most people. In his Book The Active Life, Parker Palmer points out that in the West fixation of people on success discourages them from risk taking “because it values success over learning, and it abhors failure whether we learn from it or not. It always wants to win but win or lose, it inhibits our learning. If we win, we think we know it all and have nothing more to learn. If we lose, we feel so defeated that learning is a hollow consolation… It traps us in a system of praise or blame, credit or shame, a system that gives primacy to goals and external evaluations, devalues the gift of self-knowledge, and diminishes our capacity to take risks that may yield growth.”

Positive Emotions Are the Key To Life

Positive emotional energy is the key to health, happiness and wellbeing. The more positive you are, the better your life will be in every area…

The Low of Forced Efficiency

This law says that, “There is never enough time to do everything, but there is always enough time to do the most important thing.”

The key question you should ask is “What is the most valuable use of my time, right now?” This is the question that dominates time management. This is the key to overcoming procrastination and becoming a highly productive person…

Building Relationships

“No success in public life can compensate for failure in the home.” – Benjamin Disraeli

Successful people have the ability to develop relationships that last. Theodore Roosevelt said, “The most important single ingredient in the formula of success is knowing how to get along with people.”…

Persuade People – Earn the Support of Others

Persuasion power can help you get more of the things you want faster than anything else you do. It can mean the difference between success and failure. It can guarantee your progress and enable you to use all of your other skills and abilities at the very highest level. Your persuasion power will earn you the support of others…

How To Succeed in Business

“Every successful enterprise requires three men – a dreamer, a businessman, and a son-of-a-bitch.” - Peter McArthur

99 percent of businesses started by people lacking business experience fail within the first two or three years. However, 80 percent of businesses started by experienced businesspeople succeed. Why should this be so? The reason is because experienced businesspeople know what to do. They know how to purchase their products and their services. They know how to negotiate with their suppliers. They know how to raise money. They know how to negotiate leases. They know how to sell and to market. They know how to manage their finances. In other words, experience is the key. In order to start your own business and succeed, you have to learn how.

The Foundation of Leadership: Achieving Extraordinary Results

By: Brian Tracy

The most important quality of leadership, the one quality for which you want to be known, is extraordinary performance, with the goal of achieving extraordinary results. These results then serve as an inspiration to others to perform at equally exceptional levels. People ascribe leadership to those men and women who they feel can most enable them to achieve important goals or objectives…

A Leader’s Mood: The Dimmer Switch of Performance

How do you work on attaining the consistent, emotionally intelligent leadership behaviors that breed success in yourself and others? Here are a few other suggestions to consider that can improve your and your team’s performance…

 Case in Point  Getting the Best out of Students

Benjamin Zander, a celebrated music teacher, a conductor of the Boston Philharmonic, and the author of the book called The Art of Possibility, has an effective strategy for getting best out of his students. In NLP terms, this strategy is called ‘Creating Inevitable Success. On the first day of class, Zander tells his first year students that they all get an A. There is only one condition. Their first assignment is to write a letter to him – dated on the last day of class – explaining why they deserved the highest grade.

Zander believes there are several beneficial aspects of this dramatic role reversal:

1. It is a great confidence builder for his students.

2. It eliminates the often counterproductive sniping that people frequently engage in when they think only a few will win.

3. Students invariably knock themselves out for that A because they do more to earn their own personal A than they would ever do for the traditional A given by a teacher.

 Case in Point  Coco Chanel

Coco Chanel, a pioneering French couturier and the Founder of Chanel Inc., was willing to take the risks she needed to in order to reach the top. From day one, her career had been characterized by her willingness to defy convention time after time. “Success is often achieved by those who don’t know that failure is inevitable,” said Chanel….

Like the heading goes, “do your best!”.Giving all you have to make things work out for your successes is worthwhile but count the cost before you start paying it. There are people who have regretted after paying the price because they lose things and people closest to them. Families, friends and people who know you must not be neglected once you are focusing on your future. They are the people who are supporting you already. A successful person gives their best all the time, not only when required on a tougher project or someone asks you to. One habit of a highly effective teen is to begin with the end in mind. This means to know what you want and willing to give your best to get there. You know whether you are only giving only half of what you can offer or staying in your comfort zone. Anyone in the comfort zone means that person is not going to grow anymore. Strive to be better than others because you are not the only one that is trying to be successful. Above all this, remember to sharpen your saw. Take time-outs. Do not stress yourself up because you want to succeed. We are humans, not robots. We recharge ourselves by taking well-deserved breaks that can improve ourselves. Like in the example stated, Coco Chanel went all the way, GIVING HER BEST before Chanel became a brand to be reckoned with.

article taken from http://1000ventures.com/business_guide/crosscuttings/success_secrets.html on 30 jan 2008

and quotes from 7 habits of  highly effective teens.

Thinking Out Of The Box

Powerful Concept

The notion ‘thinking outside the box’ is far more than just another management cliché. It is a very powerful concept worthy of deeper consideration in today’s complex and rapidly changing world.

Leave Your Comfort Zone

Thinking outside the box is never easy, nor is it merely a reflection of mental brightness. To leave your psychological comfort zone and explore “solutions in the unknown world on the outside requires large measures of mental agility, boldness, and creativity – and/or a leader who makes life in the old box so uncomfortable that getting out is the only option. The future rests in those willing and able to do so.”

Challenge Assumptions

Challenging assumptions means questioning the everyday things you take for granted. “The best assumption to have is that any commonly held belief is wrong,” says Ken Olson, CEO of DEC.

The natural thing to do is the thing you have always done. Every time you approach a problem you bring your accumulated experience, knowledge and training to bear on it. But this includes you accumulated assumptions and biases – conscious and unconscious. The more experienced and expert you are, the more likely you are to assume outcomes by extrapolating from the known facts and experiences to predict a result. This mental baggage can prevent you from accepting innovative ideas.

Sometimes the way you frame a problem contains an assumption that prevents you from solving it. In Middle Ages the definition of astronomy was the ’study of how the heavenly bodies move around the Earth’, i.e. the Earth was considered to be the centre of universe which resulted in the chain of wrong explanations of various phenomena. “Similar ideas exist in most businesses – assumptions that underpin most strategies and decisions, and that are so fundamental that they are never challenged.”

Break Free of Routine

Falling into a routine can destroy your life.  Routine is so dangerous and so powerful that even the best of intentions can be knocked down for good because of it. Recognize if you are in a routine and break free. Sometimes it’s a matter of an attribute we all seek in life – confidence. If you wish to change yourself and achieve more, you need courage and a strong belief in your ability to succeed.

Being successful means being a leader of your life. A leader does things differently, a standard higher than normal individuals. And in this post, it clearly shows what thinking out of the box can do to a person who wants success in life. Like said earlier, thinking out of the box is thinking of what an ordinary person would think.  Even turning a problem in hand to a perfect opportunity for success. Now, thats a leader. Yes, you might ask “what if we fail?”

The only reason that we might fail is because we lost track of vision as we get too deep into problems, thinking of how to slove them instead of moving forward. Remember, a leader turns every problem into an opportunity for success. And to allow you to understand the last point of breaking free  of routines or cycles means, if you just keep on failing, unable to get up, get someone you trust that can help you. Its no fun running a race alone. Maybe your teachers, parents or seniors that have already succeeded in life. this is what I would have done. Every teenager can succeed.Its up to them, its a choice.

article from http://1000ventures.com/business_guide/crosscuttings/thinking_outside-the-box.html on 29/1/2008

Power Of Passion

The Power of Passion

Successful people win because they love what they do. All of them have a very strong desire to succeed. They have passion for their field, their business.

Passion is the single fastest way to spur yourself to massive success. It is something you love.  Something you’re excited about. Something you get up early to work on or to stay up late.

Turning a Passion Into a Business

Great business requires heart and dedication. If you think your passion or hobby has potential as a business, ask yourself, “Is this something I really enjoy doing and can sustain? What is it about my offerings that are unique or hard to find? Is this something people really want?  How could I find it out?”

The Value of Passion for Business

The value of passion for business has been widely recognized. Passion is key to you succeeding. Many innovation centers, companies large and small have started shifting their management practices to accommodate or support knowledge work and help their people express passion of their own.

 Success Story  Tiger Woods

Tiger Woods’ willingness to win is unparalleled in sports. His strong desire to win is a huge factor in what has propelled him to incredible success. Tiger Woods called his love for golf an ‘obsessions’, an ‘addiction’.

 Case in Point  Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs is one of the most successful entrepreneurs of our generation. His success story is legendary.

Put up for adoption at an early age, dropped out of college after 6 months, slept on friends’ floors, returned coke bottles for 5 cent deposits to buy food, then went on to start Apple Computers and Pixar Animation Studios.

On June 12th 2005, Steve Jobs gave the commencement address at Stanford University. Below are a few clips from his powerful speech.

Find your true passion and do what you love to do

“Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith. I’m convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You’ve got to find what you love

This is clearly show how much passion you have to have in order to succeed in what you are doing. Passion drives you even though you might be only person envisioning your success. But as people see you on the way to achieving your dreams, they will be interested in what you are doing and you get your chance to share with them. You get free publicity also!

If your passion for success in your life is strong, you will succeed. Even if its just saving half of your daily allowance to buy a PSP, if you are passionate about it, you will succeed. Remember this, NO SACRIFICE, NO VICTORY. To add on, passion will spread fast. People around you will catch it. “Set me on fire and the world will come see me burn”

daily inspiration-27/1/08

Don’t put off joy and happiness. To so many people, goal setting means that only someday, after they’ve achieved something great, will they be able to enjoy life. There’s a huge difference between achieving to be happy and happily achieving. Strive to live each day to its fullest, squeezing all the joy you can out of each moment. Instead of measuring your life’s value by your progress toward a single goal, remember that the direction you’re headed in is more important than temporary results. What is your current direction? Are you moving toward your goals or away from them? Do you need to make a course correction? Are you enjoying life to the fullest? If not, make a change in one of these areas now.

Anthony Robbins

This is clearly the main point of being successful even as a teenager. If we are giving our best and working hard to be successful but did not enjoy the process of it, all that you have achieved has been in vain. Even as young as 16, an age when most adults will underestimate how teenagers think and work, we should be making full use of each day, each hour and minute given to us. On a long bus ride, read up about what you want to do and be inspired. Not just that, read up and learn practical skills to get there. I am sure that there are more websites that you can visit and learn. Make every day count, you might be the next big thing your community. The main point of this post is to remind you that if you want to succeed, you want to succeed in things you like. Its the process that counts for yourself to happily achieve what you want. Yes, i agree that people just want to look at results to see if you are capable. Remember Instead of measuring your life’s value by your progress toward a single goal, remember that the direction you are headed in is more important than temporary results. Thanks for reading.

 Article taken from http://www.srpl.net/index3.php daily inspiration column on the 27th jan 2008.

This article is not written by me or persons involved in this website.

Daily inspiration – Thursday October 18, 2007

All of us need to expand our view of who we are and what we’re capable of. We need to make certain that the labels we put on ourselves are not limits but enhancements, that we add to all that’s already good within us. Be aware: whatever you consistently attach to the words “I am” you will become. For example, some people say, “I’m a lazy person.” They may not be lazy; they just have uninspiring goals. Are you defining yourself in ways that create limits? Are these limits becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy? If so, change them now

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This is definetely true. Always know that you can achieve success in life. The problem with teens nowadays is that they live without vision. Without vision, you won’t know where you are going towards. Change your perspective of your future now, if not you will just end up living day by day, LIFELESS. Share with me your thoughts also, so that we can help each other in succeeding in life.

Article from http://www.srpl.net/index3.php Daily inspiration column on the Thursday October 18, 2007.
This article is not writen by me or persons involved in this website. This article is taken from http://www.srpl.net/index3.php.