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Success Begins Today

Inspiring & Motivating People To Success

How do you become the best in the world in your chosen field?

Malcolm Gladwell in his new book Outliers, makes the premise that to really master a field of endeavor it takes about 10,000 hours. This works out to 250, forty hour weeks, or about 5 years on a full time job.

Seth Godin, in a recent blog article, argued that for some new fields, the mastery time is much less. He says…

You win when you become the best in the world, however ‘best’ and ‘world’ are defined by your market. In many mature markets, it takes 10,000 hours of preparation to win because most people give up after 5,000 hours. That’s the only magic thing about 10k… it’s a hard number to reach, so most people bail.

But, ready for this? The Dip (time required) is much closer in niche areas, new areas, unexplored areas. You can get through the Dip in an online network or with a new kind of music because being seen as the

12 Changes For 2009January 3

Happy New Year everyone. 2008 is now a memory and for many of us a memory we would rather just forget. 2008 was a tough year for investments, real estate, job prospects, and business in general. Here in America, we are entering 2009 with high unemployment, a stock market that is at 10 year lows, record home foreclosures, with many businesses and our entire auto industry struggling for survival.

Yet in times of trouble there are almost always bright spots. I have found in my life that if I take the time to take a step back and inspect the situation there are always things to learn. Many times there are simple changes that can be made to turn things around and improve the situation.

Tough times often present unprecedented opportunities for people willing to take a risk or are prepared for change.

In the section below, I’ve taken 12 synonyms of the word change and listed something positive for each one that may help you improve your situation in 2009.

Convert: Television Time To Learning Time.

Here is a simple tip that can have a major impact on your attitude. If you currently watch the evening news on tel

What Would Dale Carnegie Do?December 11 2008

I always find it helpful to read Dale Carnegie’s timeless book, How To Win Friends And Influence People at least once a year. I think it is especially helpful this time of year as we celebrate the holidays with office parties and get togethers. Here are ten things that I’ve gleaned from this timeless tome.

When you meet someone, make eye contact and smile. A great way to do this is to make a mental note of their eye color.
Wherever you are, act like you are the host. Initiate the conversation. Be the first to say hello.
Use simple memorization techniques to remember people’s names or write them down on a small card. As Dale Carnegie says, “The sweetest sound to a person is their name.”
Make others feel important by giving them your full attention. Help them feel like they are the only person in the room and that you are enjoying your conversation with them. Refrain from yawning or looking at your watch.
Show curiosity and interest in others. Ask them open-ended questions and listen to their answers. You will become more likeable, and really start to understand the person’s wants, needs, and desires.
Be enthusiastic about your life. People gravitate to optimistic, positive and cheerful people.
Be able to speak on a variety of subjects. Keep abreast of current events and read timely books and magazines. Be

Blogging Forward To 2009December 2 2008

With the year winding down, and the holidays upon us, I thought I would put some thoughts together for this blog for next year. Here are three ideas that I hope to bring to fruition.

1. Development of Larger “Postcard” size templates for Microsoft Word

The most popular posts here at Success Begins Today have always been our downloadable free “business card” size templates for Word. The most popular are

Goal Setting Toolkit Five Minute Dieteer Five Minute Organizer Five Minute Flowchart Five Minute Outliner Five Minute Motivators Pocket Storyboarder Productivity Game Instant Garage Sale

I’ve been experimenting with the larger Avery printable post cards and this bigger format will offer some great new features. Look for new and useful templates over the next few months.

2. New Business Oriented Book Reviews.

There is a whole new rash of business oriented audio books that have hit the shelves over the past few months. We’ll put together some reviews and give you some practical applications that you can take with you. One of the best is the new book, “Outliers” by Malcolm Gladwell. His new insights may change the way you look at the path to success.

3. Personal Development Articles

For the last three months I’ve been working on my first book and my blogging time has been limited. The original draft is nearing completion and then comes the fun of revision and correction. This book deals with personal development

Pendulum ThinkingNovember 3 2008

This year has been the year of pendulums. We have had oil prices skyrocket and then fall precipitously. The housing market is on the downside of a huge multi-year pendulum having shot into the stratosphere and now coming back to find a bottom level. The stock market has had huge 900 point pendulum swings in a day.

Many of these pendulum swings are fed by the media. If bad news comes it is magnified many times over by the constant barrage of competing media outlets. If good new comes–any good news–we jump on that band wagon for a quick way out.

The election cycle has had a magnifying effect on this too. If the party out of power can make things look bad, it’s better for them. If the party in power can make things look rosy, chances are they will stay in power. So what happens… political ads get blown way out of proportion… this is the best/worst it has ever been is a common theme.

The good news is, the US election cycle will be over tomorrow. We will choose our leaders and our propositions and then be able to get back to business. The media will quiet down for a while and these crazy pendulums may start to find a center.

In the ensuing months it may be a good time to reflect and t