Why it Pays to be Disciplined

“You have a choice in life: You can either pay the price of discipline or regret.” –Tim Connor

Every aspect of our existence is governed by certain principles and laws. How we relate, conform and adhere to these laws is what determines how disciplined we are. An Army without discipline is a rabble that can never win a war. It takes discipline to maintain a work culture, dress culture, food and drink culture, sleep and leisure culture as well as goal-setting and achievement culture. Discipline is all about self-control and staying focused on set goals and objectives. Self-employment requires a lot of personal discipline to achieve any goals. Ralph Waldo Emerson posits that “a man is a hero not because he is braver than anyone else, but because he is brave for ten minutes longer.” Problems when placed in proper perspective are motivators. They should be viewed as temporary setbacks. Setbacks are not final-stoppers. They provide a temporary hold to enable you refocus and redesign your actions for better achievements. This is where iron-discipline comes handy.

 

You Need a Pleasing Personality to Sell

“Everybody lives by selling something.” --- Robert Louis Stevenson

A pleasing personality is such an all-embracing quality that it practically touches on all characteristics that make you a human being. Specifically:

You must be able to dress decently and turn-out appropriately to fit any occasion. This does not necessarily mean you have to dress in an expensive manner but if you can afford to, why not? Some employers, particularly Banks pay their employees “dressing allowance” to enable them turn-out very well at all times to fit the corporate image of the company. Good dressing works almost like magic in the business world. When you go looking for employment, your appearance alone can disqualify you even before anyone bothers to ask you a question to find out what you know. This further underscores the importance of good dressing.

Your posture and body-carriage say a lot about your personality. You must be able to carry yourself well, look and act smartly to improve on your pleasing personality.

As a Salesperson, you must have some measure of showmanship to impress customers.

You must be able to “pose” for effects but be sure that it is not over dramatized. Good Salespersons must be good Show-persons.

You must have some poise and some air of self-confidence. These qualities help to build trust and also add to your personality.

You must be tactful and courteous in dealing with people. Weigh what you want to say thoroughly before saying it. Avoid loose and discourteous statements when presenting a case.

You must be a good listener but should be able to display real personal magnetism.

You should never talk-down on Customers.

 

6 Probable Reasons Why You Are Always Broke

Worldwide, it now appears that many people are just scraping by financially. Even those not technically classified as poor are just managing to get by financially. The sad result is that many of us are always walking around broke even if we earn regular incomes. Somehow, for most people, that income just isn’t enough to allow them live the kind of life they will like to live. Here now are some of the probable reasons why.

01. Poverty comparisons. If you always think that your financial situation is better off than someone else who maybe starving, that does not make your own financial situation any better. What you are doing is simply trying to make sense and justify your financial situation by finding others that are worse off than you are. That in a way explains only your own situation and can leave you real broke while thinking that you are better off than some other persons.

02. Financial recklessness. The habit of spending money on things you don’t need and can’t even afford is one common form of financial recklessness that may leave you broke most of the time.

03. Economic illiteracy. If you are always broke, chances are, you are economically illiterate. It means you either spend money without giving a serious thought to the value of money and the wide range of uses it can be put or you are just taking money like any other commodity that is expendable. That is economic illiteracy and it can leave you real broke most of the time.

04. Over-dependence on paid employment. Most people who are on paid employment live from paycheck to paycheck and they are always broke. These are people who work 9-5 daily and they are always looking forward to the next paycheck. If you are unable or unwilling to engage in activities that will allow you earn additional income alongside your paycheck, you will always be broke.

05. Trying to live like the Joneses. This is one form of financial recklessness that can leave you broke all the time. Trying to live exactly the way your neighbor is living is reckless. Doing things with your money exactly the way you see your neighbor doing them is not on too. The earlier you come to the reality that you are not Mr. Jones, your neighbor, the better for your finances.

06. Financial apathy. If somehow you become apathetic about your finances, you will always be broke. There is no way you can have money if you don’t pay attention to it. It helps to admit to where you are financially and start paying attention to your money. Acting like there is no problem doesn’t make the problem go away, it makes it worse. Money issues are so very serious issues which no one who wants to avoid being broke most of the time can afford to ignore.

 

How to Work Your Way Out of Poverty

To get ahead in life and step out of poverty, there is no other way than to work. There is no substitute to work. The harder and smarter you work, the wealthier you become. You need to work if you want to earn money and live a good life. The commonest measure of wealth is money but wealth is not all about money. While wealth is abundance of valuable possessions including money, “money is a unit of value, a medium of exchange, a standard of deferred payment.” Payment for goods and services which result from efforts of people either individually or collectively in form of work is usually done with money. A large accumulation of money usually translates to wealth.

Obtaining money is done in one of or a combination of four ways namely:

1.    You can earn it.
2.    You can borrow it.
3.    You can beg for it or
4.    You can steal it.

The first three are legal while the fourth is illegal but they all involve some measure of work but in varying degrees of intensity. However, striving for and earning money legitimately in form of work is the most dignified way of obtaining money. The more productive work one does therefore, the more money he or she earns. “The amount of money you earn is in direct proportion to the demand for what you do your ability to do it and the difficulty of ignoring or replacing you.”



“Work is the foundation of business and the source of all prosperity.” Work is an “activity in which one exerts strength or faculties to do or perform something.” The direct result of work is a Product or Service which can be sold or exchanged to obtain money. That some strength or exertion (that is work), is required before money is made stands as the main reason why some people have money while others don’t. The ranks of the poor are populated by those who can not work for one reason or the other. Many will work and work hard if they find suitable engagements. Those who make and accumulate wealth do not necessarily do different things; they do things differently. This separates them from the poor. You must have the strength, ability and willingness to perform or do a duty or render a service before you can aspire to make money. Those who attempt to get something for nothing usually end up disappointed because the law of “Cause and Effect” is a natural law. You must put in something to get out something in compliance with this natural “Law of Reciprocity.” No human activity has ever succeeded to break this law without unpleasant consequences.

You can decide to work and earn a salary or you can decide to work for yourself. However, I must point out that the surest and fastest way to wealth and comfort is through self-employment. At some point in everyone’s life, it becomes inevitable that you will be self-employed. If you work for someone and you earn a salary, one of three things must happen to end that relationship. The first is you could resign, second is you could be retrenched and thirdly, you could retire. When any of these happens, self-employment and private entrepreneurship becomes imperative.

Research findings indicate that nearly 80% of workers are reluctant to work because many find themselves in jobs they do not like. Do we need to search too far why poverty is endemic in our world? Something needs to be done to check this reluctance. People must on their own find and do only those things they like to do. This is private entrepreneurship. To get ahead in life, you must know the work you are doing, believe in it and like it too so as to obtain maximum output and rewarding results. The only viable way out of our vicious cycle of poverty is through self-employment and not 9-5 jobs. Self-employment is all about going into business for yourself. Even if you now work for someone, you still need one or more additional-income enterprises on the side if you ever hope to escape poverty.