Character Reigns Supreme

As many of you are aware, Brian Tracy and I have a long time friendship and I am honored to consider him a mentor. I thought this article on "Character Reigns Supreme" was an inspiration and am happy to share it with you.

Character Reigns Supreme
By:
Brian Tracy

The fundamental glue that holds our society together is the quality of character. It is the foundation of happy families, companies, and organizations. It assures survival, civility, and blessings of a peaceful cooperation. Your character is the crystallization of your true values and beliefs, your innermost convictions. As Ralph Waldo Emerson said with regard to character, "What you are shouts at me so loudly that I can't hear a word you
say."

Choices and Decisions
Everything you do in life involves a choice, a decision on your part. Because you have so many options, you are constantly choosing among alternatives, between what you value more and what you value less. Your choices and actions tell you and others what you truly value the most, or intend that reveals your character. It is only what you do at the moment of choosing, especially when you have to choose between what is right and what is expedient.

The Core Quality of Character
The core quality of character is integrity. This can be measured by how absolutely honest one is with himself and others. The depth of your integrity largely determines the strength of your commitment to each of your other values. A person of great character is one who would never compromise his or her "sacred honor" under any
circumstances.

The Measure of Character

Strength of character can be measured on a scale from one to ten, from lowest to highest. In addition, each separate quality or virtue can be organized on a scale of intensity from one to ten. How high a person ranks on the scale of one to ten in any particular virtue and in the measure of character overall is determined by the percentage of the time that individual practices that quality throughout his or her daily life.

Justification and Rationalization
Most people know there is something inherently wrong with taking free money, with living off the government, with being dependent and making no contribution to the society in which they live. To compensate for this deep inner feeling of unease, people who are getting something for nothing create elaborate justifications and rationales to explain to themselves, and to others, why they are entitled to this free money. Every rationale or excuse comes back to the same explanation, those people have low moral character.

The Need to Lead
The greatest need we have today, in every area, is for men and women to practice the values of integrity, discipline, responsibility, courage, and long-term perspective, both as individuals in the workplace and with their families. These are the key qualities of leadership. Our society needs leaders at all levels that have high
moral character, and know the difference between right and wrong.

Action Exercise
The true mark of the superior person is that he sets high standards for himself and refuses to compromise those standards for any reason. He sees himself as a role model for others. He behaves at all times as if everyone were watching, even when no one is watching. What high standards do you want to uphold in your life and business?

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The Heart of the Sale

The Heart of the Sale
By Brian Tracy

What is selling? In its simplest terms, selling is the process of persuading a person that your product or service is of greater value to him than the price you are asking for it. Our market society is based on the principles of freedom of choice and mutual benefit. Each party enters into a transaction when he feels that he will be better off as a result of the transaction than he would be without it.

Convince the Customer
For the customer to buy your particular product or service, he or she must be convinced, not only that is it the best choice of product or service available, but also that there is no better way for him to spend the equivalent sum of money that it costs. Your job as a salesperson is to convince the customer that these conditions exist and then to elicit a commitment from him to take action on your offer.

The Critical Factor: Risk
The critical factor in selling today is risk. Because of the continuous change, rapid obsolescence, and an uncertain economy, the risk of buying the wrong product or service has become greater than ever before. There are four main factors that contribute to the perception of risk in the mind and heart of the customer.



Size of the Sale
The first factor that contributes to risk is the size of the sale. The larger the scale, the more money involved, the greater the risk. If a person is buying a package of Lifesavers, the risk of satisfaction or dissatisfaction is insignificant. But if a person is buying a computer system for their company, the risk factor is magnified by hundreds of thousands of times. Whenever you are selling a product that has a high price on it, you must be aware that risk enters into the buyer's calculations immediately.

People Affected by the Decision
The second factor contributing to the perception of risk is the number of people who will be affected by the buying decision. Almost every complex buying decision involves several people. There are people who must use the product or service. There are people who must pay for the product or service. There are people who are dependent of the results expected from the product or service. If a person is extremely sensitive to the opinions of others, this factor alone can cause him or her to put off a buying decision.

Length of Life of the Product
The third factor contributing to the perception of risk is the length of life of the product. A product or service that, once installed, is meant to last for several years, generates the feeling of risk. The customer panics and thinks, "What if it doesn't work and I'm stuck with it."

Unfamiliarity
The fourth major risk factor is the customer's unfamiliarity with you, your company, and your product or service. A first-time buyer, one who has not bought the product or service before, or who has not bought it from you, is often nervous and requires a lot of hand-holding. Anything new or different makes the average customer tense and uneasy. This is why a new product or service, or a new business relationship with your company, has to be presented as a natural extension of what the customer is already doing.

Action Exercise
Identify the risks that a customer might find with your product or service. Once you had clearly defined those risks it will be easier to find solutions to them to ease nervous customers.

Make Continual Course Corrections

January 23, 2010

Make Continual Course Corrections
By Brian Tracy

Problems, difficulties, and setbacks are a normal, natural, and unavoidable part of life and business. When you set a new goal or launch toward a new destination, you will experience challenges and difficulties that you never expected or anticipated. By the true test of character is the inevitable and unavoidable crisis. Your ability to solve problems is important, but your ability to deal with a crisis largely determines your success or failure in life.

Leadership Abilities
In a multi-year study conducted at Stanford University, researchers examined the annual performance appraisals of hundreds of presidents and chief executive officers of Fortune 1000 companies, some of the most successful executives in every business or industry. This study revealed that top executives had two dominant qualities in common. The first was the ability to function well as a member of a team. When they were starting out, they were good team players, making valuable contributions to the teams they were on. As they were promoted to more senior positions, they demonstrated the ability to bring together winning teams of talented people and organize them to accomplish important goals and results for their companies.

The Most Important Leadership Quality
The second, and most important, quality that top leaders had in common was the ability to function well in a crisis. Top people in every field had demonstrated throughout their careers that they were able to deal effectively with the inevitable crisis when it came along. The ability to deal with a crisis could be learned and demonstrated only in a real crisis, an unpredictable and unexpected reversal or setback that had the potential to cause major damage of some kind. During such a crisis, the true leader would emerge to save the situation and resolve the problem.

How Leaders Perform in Crisis
Over the years, I have worked with the presidents and chief executive officers of many large companies. I have coached, counseled, and consulted with millionaires, multimillionaires, and even billionaires. I have been able to watch them up close and personal. One quality that they all seemed to demonstrate was their ability to remain calm and cool when faced with a major reversal or setback. When they were confronted with a problem or crisis, they seemed to be able to turn on a switch in their minds that enabled them to become calm and completely in control.

Harold Geneen, the past president of IT&T, a 150 company conglomerate, once said that the most important step in dealing with any business problem was to get the facts. He said, "Get the real facts. Not the assumed facts, the apparent facts, the obvious facts, or the hoped for facts. Keep digging until you get the real facts. Facts don't lie." The more information (the greater number of facts) he gathered about any problem or crisis, the more obvious the correct solution or course of action. The solution would seem to emerge as the result of delving deeper and deeper into the problem.

Action Exercise
The most valuable skill you bring to your life and your work is your ability to think calmly and clearly. This requires that you deliberately practice a form of detachment when you are dealing with unexpected reversal. Next time you need to solve a problem, imagine that you are a consultant who has been brought in to analyze this problem or crisis and make recommendations.

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Review Your Flight Plans

January 11, 2010

Review Your Flight Options

By Brian Tracy

Once you have become clear about who you are, what you want, and what your true goals are in each area of your life, you can begin to evaluate all the different routes by which you can
reach your destination. Now you can determine the strategies and tactics that you can use to achieve your goals and arrive at your destination on schedule.

Develop Options Continually
One of the most important rules that I have ever learned is this: You are only as free as your well-developed options. Before you can plan your time and your life, you must be absolutely clear about both the hourly rate that you are earning today and the hourly rate that you want to earn in the future. Every hour that you spend on a low-value or no-value activity is
costing you $25, $50, or more.

Determine the Highest and Best Use of Your Time
Whatever job you choose to take, company you choose to make with your money, or time you choose to spend on a particular activity, think it through carefully in advance and be certain that
you are making the highest and best use of your time and resources.

Refuse to Settle
Abraham Maslow once wrote, "The story of the human race is the story of men and women selling themselves short." Many people, because of fear and timidity, settle for far less than they are truly capable of achieving. They stay in jobs they don't like. They stay in relationships that don't make them happy. They invest their money in things they don't understand and leave

their money there long after they realize they've made a mistake. If you are not satisfied with any part of your life, with your current seat selection, remember that you can always pay a price to be free.

Ask for What You Want
In business and in your personal life, remember that every term or condition that you are ever offered has been decided by someone and can be changed by someone else. Whether this involves the pay and conditions of a job, the terms of a contract, the costs of products or services, rental or lease rates of offices or equipment, or bank terms for loans of credit, if you are not happy for any reason, don't be reluctant to ask for something different.

Cast a Wide Net
The rule with ideas is this: Quality is a function of quantity. This means that the more ways you achieve your goal that you consider before you embark on your journey, the better will be the quality of the choice you make. Cast a wide net. Don't fall in love with the first idea that occurs to
you. You must continually remind yourself that emotions distort evaluations. This means that the more emotional you become about a course of action at the beginning, the less able you will be to make the best decisions and determine the best way to reach your destination.

Action Exercise
Imagine that you are a consultant who has been brought into advise yourself on the very best course of action for you to take to achieve a goal or reach a destination. As your own consultant, force yourself to remain calm, cool, and objective about the advice that you give to yourself.

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The Need to Lead - by Brian Tracy

January 9, 2010

The Need to Lead
By Brian Tracy

The greatest need we have today, in every area, is for men and women to practice the values of integrity, discipline, responsibility, courage, and long time perspective, both as individuals and in their families. These are the key qualities of leadership.

Our society needs leaders at all levels who practice the principles that lead to long-term success. Especially, we need people in positions of authority and political power to support and encourage others, whose lives and work they influence, to develop character and resist the tendency to act expediently in ways that are harmful to themselves and others.

Everyone needs to take "The Values Pledge," to live by it, and then encourage others to live by it. It is only the solid bulwark of character, based on values, virtues, long-term thinking, and the accurate assessment of secondary consequences that can curb and mitigate the destructive influences and behavior of the Expediency Factor (the E-Factor)

Live In Truth
The philosopher Immanuel Kant postulated what he called "The Universal Maxim." He suggested that "you should live your life as though your every act were to become universal law for all people." The very best judge of truth for you is to ask, "Is it true for me?" If everyone was to be encouraged to live their life as though your every act were to become universal principle for all others, most government policies and programs would be abolished overnight. The fact is, that the only way that many "something for nothing" ideas in government and society can be put forward is with the hope that most people will not take advantage of them.

Think about it. What if everyone were to go on welfare? What if everyone were to apply for every government program that was available to them? What if everyone dedicated themselves to doing the very least amount of work that they could get away with? What if everyone began spending all their time trying to get free money from anywhere that it might be available?

"Leaders Are Made, Not Born"
Leaders have a sense of missions--vision--that uplifts, motivates and inspires men and women to heights to help them achieve that vision. Leaders make things happen.

Would you like to be able to motivate, inspire and uplift people to achieve your vision?

Four Questions to Stay on Track
There are four questions that you can ask and answer every day to keep yourself on track in each part of your life. First, ask yourself; "What kind of a world would this be if everyone in it was just like me?"

When you ask and answer this question honestly, you will admit that if everyone in the world was just like you, this would probably not be the best of all possible worlds. Look inside yourself and think about some of the things that you could change or do differently to become a better "citizen of the world."

The second question you can ask is, "What kind of a country would America be, if everyone in it was just like me?"

This is perhaps the most important question that we can ask and answer for ourselves. If everyone in America did the same thing that you did, every single day, would America be better, happier, healthier, and a more prosperous democracy? If not, what are some of the changes that you could make in your behaviors that would make America a better place?

The third question you can ask is, "What kind of a company would my company be if everyone in it was just like me?"

If you are honest with yourself, you will see different things that you could do to become a more valuable and important contributor to your company. Perhaps you should start a little earlier, work a little harder or stay a little later. Perhaps you could volunteer for more assignments, or upgrade your knowledge and skills as they relate to your job. How could you become the very best person you could possibly become at your work?
The final question, and perhaps the more important, is, "What kind of family would my family be if everyone in it was just like me?"

If everyone in your family behaved the way you do, and treated everyone else the way you treat them, would your family be a warmer, happier, and more loving group of people? What could you do, starting today, to be a better family member?

Take the High Road
The true mark of the superior person is that he sets high standards for himself, and refuses to compromise those standards for any reason. He sees himself as a role model for others. He behaves at all times as if everyone was watching, even when no one is watching.

The truly superior person does not give into forces of expediency. He does not seek something for nothing. He refuses to take anything to which he is not entitled. He insists upon earning everything he gets. He practices the Golden Rule and treats everyone the way he would like to be treated himself. He sets high standards for himself and continually strives to meet those standards. If everyone in America were to take the pledge below, this would be a better country in every way.

Action Exercise
Take the Values Pledge
"I hereby resolve to clarify my values and then to live by those values, to remain true to the very best I know, and to be the best person I can possibly be.
"I will not compromise what I know to be right for any reason. I will live my life as though my every act was to become a universal law for everyone else."

Get started making improvements in your life today. Take this free business assessment to learn what you can do to lead the way in your family, your business, your community and your country. Click on the picture of Brian Tracy and Ron Stebelton to start you free assessment today!

Ron Stebelton, CEO Eagle Leadership Consulting
&
Brian Tracy