Why Taking Chances is Good for Business

“Life isn’t worth living unless you’re willing to take some big chances and go for broke.” ~ Eliot Wiggington

When opportunity knocks, always remember that it is knocking for mankind no for you alone. If you ignore it, somebody else won’t. Sometimes, the only thing that stands between a man and what he wants from life is often merely the will to try it and the faith to believe that it is possible. It may present as an opportunity waiting to be taken. If you don’t take it, you don’t make it. If you do, you get to make it. That is how some people succeed and some onlookers will say it is their luck that made it possible. Unknown to these onlookers, the people who strive, work harder and better somehow get luckier at the end of the day. Have you ever heard someone say “strike the hammer while the iron is hot?” Good if you have. Taking a chance and striking at an appropriate time with everything you’ve got most times guarantees some appreciable level of success no matter the venture.

If you want something bad enough and you are willing to go for broke to have it, somehow you’ll get it. Life may present itself a bore and drudgery unless you’re willing to take some big chances as they come along. That is one great way to discard mediocrity for purposeful achievements. Every successful business person is always looking for opportunities to get things done. Once any opportunity presents itself, they tend to go for it with everything they’ve got. That to me appears to be why they are succeeding. Anybody else can do same and succeed to too if they learn to seize opportunities as well. These opportunities are out there waiting for those with sufficient vision and zeal to grab them. These are the people who really succeed.

Get busy right now because…. “No pains, no gains. To get the prize, you must pay the price.”

10 Motivational Quotes to Get You Going Everyday

Well, I have heard it said by motivational speakers, that “Successful people don’t do different things. They do things differently.” That is what motivates me to get out of bed every morning to find ways to do very common things differently. When I remember these 10 motivational quotes, as soon as I get out of bed every morning, my bounce increases and the hunger in me to get things done is ignited. 

I sincerely believe that if I want to succeed each day, I must always see every day as an opportunity to improve, to be better, to get a little bit closer to my goals. That might sound like a lot of work but I know that so long as I have the hunger in me to succeed, I will always have the power within me to achieve it. Thanks to these here 10 motivational quotes!! Give them a chance to work for you as well if you want to see expected changes in your life and business.

01. Wake up with determination. Go to bed with satisfaction.

02. Don’t wait for opportunity. Create it.

03. Success doesn’t just find you. You have to go out and get it.

04. Don’t stop when you’re tired. Stop when you’re done.

05. It’s going to be hard, but hard does not mean impossible.

06. Dream it. Wish it. Do it.

07. Push yourself, because no one else is going to do it for you.

08. Sometimes later becomes never. Do it now.

09. Dream bigger. Do bigger.

10. Little things make big days.

What Many Affiliates Love About SFI Business

In fact, I get asked what I love about SFI business pretty often and here now are some of the answers I regularly give. I love SFI because:

01. It has given me the best ever opportunity to own my own business.
02. I get free training and mentoring from SFI to do my business.
03. SFI gives me my own free Website to do my business.
04. It allows me into a huge family of like-minded people to do business with.
04. SFI effortlessly allows me to do business 24/7 in over 200 countries of the world.
05. SFI provides all necessary tools free of charge for me to do my business.
06. SFI guarantees and protects my business from fraud and scams.
07. SFI practically leads me by the hand to run my business.
08. I get paid commissions from just being active in SFI.
09. SFI puts my business out there worldwide 24/7 saving me a lot of hassles.
10. And wait for it! The very best part, I can earn residual income for life from the little things I did in my SFI business in the past.

The foregoing are some of the most glaring things I love about SFI. I do hope you’ll love them too. Have a great day.

 

Why You’ve Got To Take More Chances

Let me begin this piece with this great quote from Brian Tracy.

“I've found that luck is quite predictable. If you want more luck, take more chances. Be more active. Show up more often.”- Brian Tracy

Oh yes! If you want more luck, you must take more chances. The more you get things done, the luckier you become. Which means luck is highly predictable. If you don’t manage to show up, you can never get things done. As such, your lucky days are always few and far between. Do not give up easily. Always endeavor to try one more time until you get what you want.

No doubt you’ve heard of carpe diem and carpe momentum. That is, seize the day and seize the moment. It is these initiatives of seizing every opportunity to get things done that real luck comes your way. The more the moments and daily chances you take therefore, the luckier you get. It pays to get busy by seizing any and every opportunity which comes your way. That paves the way for you to get lucky most of the time.

Get busy right now because……..!!!

“No pains, no gains. To get the prize, you must pay the price.”

“If we are born poor, it is not our fault, but if we die poor, it is!”…… Bill Gates

How to Secure the Physical Space of Your Small Business

Granted a lot of small businesses operate online these days, there are still many who traditionally operate in a physical space. Very sadly, thieves are on the prowl every hour of the day looking for businesses hit. As long as there are small businesses, there will always be people out there looking to rob, burglarize, and otherwise steal from them. It’s simply a risk that every business owner must take. The trick is to minimize risk and maximize awareness. Getting out ahead of potential thieves is the best remedy. We all know that robbery is a crime of opportunity. If somehow you are able to eliminate that opportunity, your business, your customers, and your peace of mind will be better off for it.

It does a lot of good if we take advice from people who are trained and empowered to deal with thieves. That is what the police do all around the world. The police know very well that if criminals are determined to steal from you, they’ll find a way to (try to) do it. To stop them, you can set up your business deliberately to discourage would-be thieves. That effort lies in the way you design the layout and equip the physical space where you do business. LAPD and many police departments, routinely advise every small business owner operating in a physical space to do the following among many other precautions they can also take.

ð    01. Provide security system information to employees only on a need-to-know basis. The sad truth is that employee theft and fraud is a major source of loss—amounting to tens of thousands of lost profits for businesses each year on average.

02. Keep minimal cash in the register at all times, and make bank deposits often and during business hours.

03. Most importantly: Cooperate with burglars if confronted. It’s not worth losing your life over.

04. Apply deadbolt locks or metal security crossbars to all outside entrances and inside security doors.

05. Install secure locks and burglar-resistant glass on windows.

06. Keep the cash register in plain view from the outside of your business, so it can be monitored by police as well as spotted by passersby and customers if a robbery occurs during business hours.

07. Install lighting on the inside and outside of your business, especially around doors, windows, and other entry points.

08. Install CCTVs correctly and be sure they are functional at all times.

09. Where practicable, you can link your small business premises with the local police department by way alarm system.

Rationalizing is a Loser’s Past Time

“Any fact facing us is not as important as our attitude towards it, for that determines our success or failure.”-- Norman Vincent Peale.

Rationalizing is a loser’s past time. The best way forward is never to rationalize, you should analyze. Rationalizing is a way of finding excuses while analyzing is a way of finding solutions. Henceforth, you will do yourself a world of good by banishing from your thinking excuses like:

I am too old.

I am too short.

I am too young.

I am not lucky.

I am not educated.

I am not beautiful.

I am handicapped.

My parents are not rich.

I have no connections.

I am not strong.

I have no opportunity.

I am not smart enough.

These excuses are endless and they can never get you anywhere. Anytime any of these excuses crops up in your mind, banish it immediately. None of these excuses or any like them is strong enough to stop you from realizing your dreams. None can stop you from becoming somebody. Only your actions and or inactions can. It is you and only you who can stop you from realizing your dreams.

Why It Pays to Shun Greed

“Make yourself an honest man and then you may be sure there is one rascal less in the world.” –Thomas Carlyle

People do unethical things more out of greed than anything else. It is because of greed that people cut corners, cheat and generally do things that demean their persons and put their businesses in jeopardy. Greed makes people shun ethics, bend the truth, take undue and unnecessary risks for instant gratification. It is greed that lures people into gambling and many other negative vices. Remember the parable of the straw that broke the camel’s back? That is what greed does to the greedy. The following story best illustrates the danger of excessive greed.

“A wealthy farmer was once offered all the land he could walk on in a day provided he returned by sundown to the point at which he started. To get a head start, early the next morning, the farmer started covering ground quickly because he wanted to get as much land as he could. Even though he was tired, he kept going all afternoon because he didn’t want to lose this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to gain more wealth. Late in the afternoon, he remembered that the condition he had to fulfill to get the land was to get back to the starting point by sundown. His greed had gotten him far from the starting point. He started his return journey, keeping an eye on how close he was to sundown. The closer it got to sundown, the faster he ran. He was exhausted and out of breath and he pushed himself beyond the point of endurance. He collapsed upon reaching the starting point and died. He did make it before sundown. He was buried and all the land he needed was a small plot.” Adapted from Shiv Khera, “You can Win”

Let me add that even though this farmer was already wealthy before this extremely greedy adventure, no portion of his wealth followed him into the grave.

 

How to Recognize and Seize Opportunity

“Opportunity is missed by most people because it comes dressed in overalls and looks like work.” -- Thomas Edison

Be prepared for and be ready to take any and every opportunity that comes your way. At times what may appear to you as big obstacles are actually opportunities in disguise. Mr. Lair Ribero in his book “Success is not Accident” tells the story of two Shoe-Salesmen who were sent overseas to search for new markets. Their first stop was a country where everyone was barefoot. The first Salesman sent back a telegram to the home office saying “leaving tomorrow, no one wears shoes.” The second Salesman’s telegram was different. He said, “Great potential market, no competition.” Visualize the success stories of these two Salesmen and you will get to appreciate how we differ from one another by the way we perceive every situation. When any situation is properly perceived, it becomes an opportunity. This is the reason why some people can make it in a particular business while some others fail abysmally in same business. They choose what they see and see what they choose. Where some see obstacles, others see opportunities. Where some see despair, others see hope. Where some see darkness, others see light. Where some see a cup half-empty, others see same cup half-full. When some see why it can’t be done, others see how it can be done. When some see the end, others see the beginning. When some perceive sadness, others perceive happiness. Where some expect poverty, others expect wealth. Somehow, life tends to give to us exactly what we expect from it in proportionate measures and nothing more. According to the late British Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill, “A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees an opportunity in every difficulty.”

Opportunities abound everywhere for those who take the pains to look. The story of two young men I ran into sometime in July 2002 can best illustrate this point. I ran into the two young men in a restaurant in Benin City and we got talking. I found out that the two of them, who turned out to be good friends, were about the same age and had similar academic qualifications. They had both just lost their banking jobs for no fault of theirs. We talked at length and we exchanged telephone numbers. Being Professionals like me, I was interested in their progress and I advised them from my own experience. As at November 2005 when I made detailed inquiries about their welfare, their progress in life became very interesting to me. One of them decided to work for himself while the other kept looking for a job. At the time I made contact, the one who decided to work for himself had bought an additional car, had married and was raising a family. The other one had sold his car and other valuable property. He was still single and searching for a job. His situation was quite pathetic. I was told that he was barely surviving on hand-outs from his friends. I also learned that he was “dreaming” of relocating abroad. I fervently hoped that it was not another pipe-dream. You may wish to recall that this story is about two close friends. They both had a near-similar background and were at a time faced with the same problem. One saw an opportunity, seized it and prospered while the other failed to and was paying the price. I sincerely hoped that the “failing-one” will make up his mind to do what is right. The moral of this story is that one took his destiny in his own hands; recognized and seized the opportunities that came his way. The other did not and he was paying the price of his failure to do so. Similar stories are everywhere in our society but with some variations. Remember, “Life is 10% what happens to us and 90% how we react to it.” The story of these two friends is a pointer to what can happen to us when we fail to recognize and seize opportunities.