September 2022 - GUJRAT INDIA

Business Plan Mistakes To Avoid

Don’t Do The Following

Claim A Lack of Competition

Some entrepreneurs get carried away in their zeal to demonstrate barriers to entry that set their company apart from others. A “Barrier to Entry” is proprietary information or knowledge, or a set management team experience no one else can claim. Factors that make your company stand out are attractive, but the reality is that no business has no competition.

The Industry Analysis section of your Business Plan must show the size of the industry in which you compete. The Market Analysis will show the sub-set of that industry on which you will focus. The Competitive Analysis must show your competitors strengths-and how you will overcome them.

You can have your cake and eat it too, in other words. You must show there is enough competition to convince investors that the market is large enough to cash in big- time, but that your strategy is focused and unique enough to navigate an exclusive path through the waters of that competition.

Use First-Mover Advantage As Your Chief Exit Strategy

Companies who’s sole exit strategy, or investor payout point, is to flood the market with a new product or service, and then sell the company in a year, will not find worthy investors. Things move too quickly in the information age. Investors want a company that can grow quickly but steadily in phases. They look for Business Plans that show a sober, realistic lookout, and fiscally responsible exit strategies.

Target Just One Large Company To Eventually Buy Your Smaller Company

For example, if your company is developing new software, do not place all your eggs in the Google and Microsoft basket. If the exit strategy of your Business Plan depends on a larger company buying yours, provide parallel case studies. Show sufficient evidence that the conditions are the same for your company as they were for the successful sale of the case study companies.

Furthermore, show why a larger company would not want or be able to develop the same product in-house.

Let us be absolutely clear:

Don’t Claim a lack of competition

Don’t Use first-move advantage as your chief exit strategy.

Don’t Target just one large company to eventually buy your smaller company.

Avoid those Business Plan mistakes and your path to funding will be much clearer. Make sure to set your Business Plan aside once completed for a few days and review it again with fresh eyes.

An Insight Into the Emergence of Women-Owned Businesses As an Economic Force in India

1. Introduction

During the last two decades, Indian women have entered the field of entrepreneurship in greatly increasing numbers. With the emergence and growth of their businesses, they have contributed to the global economy and to their surrounding communities. The routes women have followed to take leadership roles in business are varied. Yet, most women business owners have overcome or worked to avoid obstacles and challenges in creating their businesses. The presence of women in the workplace driving small and entrepreneurial organizations creates a tremendous impact on employment and business environments.

Indian women business owners are changing the face of businesses of today, both literally and figuratively. The dynamic growth and expansion of women-owned businesses is one of the defining trends of the past decade, and all indications are that it will continue unabated. For more than a decade, the number of women-owned businesses have grown at one-and-a-half to two times the rate of all businesses. Even more important, the expansion in revenues and employment has far exceeded the growth in numbers.

The result of these trends is that women-owned businesses span the entire range of business life cycle and business success, whether the measuring stick is revenue, employment or longevity. This strengthens the view that all governmental programs and policies should target at strengthening women’s entrepreneurship in their native lands.

Although, many of the earlier obstacles to women’s business success have been removed, yet some still remain. This has initiated the scholars of entrepreneurship and small businesses to study the influences of and the impact on business ownership by women. The number of these research studies are growing steadily.

2. What Are The Characteristics Of Women Entrepreneurs In India?

Indian women of today have taken many strides towards business ownership. The broad classification of women business owners include women who establish, inherit, or acquire a business; women who start businesses with spouses or business partners but are either at the forefront or behind the scenes; and finally, women who start fast-growing or part-time or slow-growing firms. Although earlier researches on women entrepreneurs have suggested that significant differences existed between female and male entrepreneurs. However, more recent studies have shown that there are far more similarities than differences between women and men entrepreneurs in terms of psychological and demographic characteristics. The dominant predictors of success in case of women entrepreneurs are work experience and years of self-employment.

Generally, women view their businesses as a cooperative network of relationships rather than as a distinct profit-generating entity. This network extends beyond the business into the entrepreneur’s relationships with her family and the community. Certain cross-cultural studies on women entrepreneurs have reported that their management styles emphasizes open communication and participative decision-making, and their business goals reflect a concern for the community in which the business operates.

The majority of women business owners operate enterprises in the service sectors, whereas the majority of male business owners operate enterprises in non service sectors, particularly manufacturing. Women are not only achieving economic independence and wealth creation for themselves, but through job creation, they are also providing opportunities for others, particularly for other women.

A series of researches have shown that the workforce of women-owned businesses tend to be more gender balanced than the workforce of men-owned businesses, although women business owners are more likely to hire women. Put simply, an investment in women’s entrepreneurship is an investment in the economic independence and well-being of all women.

In comparison to their women counterparts who established their businesses two decades earlier, women who have started their businesses sometime during the past decade are more likely to have the following:

o a higher level of education, previous professional and managerial experience, as well as executive level experience

o a greater appetite for capital, both credit and equity

o a strong motivation for autonomy and achievement

o a dynamic personality

o a passion for what they do

o creativity to innovate and implement

o independence and self reliance

o high self confidence

o willingness & ability to take risks

o alertness to opportunities

o ability to marshal resources

o ability to respond to market & environment signals

Thus, from the above discussion, we can conclude the following traits of personality of women entrepreneurs:

Risk taker Proactive Opportunist Visionary Inventor Tolerance of ambiguity Commercialiser Desire for independence Trader High energy Innovator Ability to bounce back Flexible Results oriented Need for achievement All rounder Internal control Decisive Self confident Self Motivated Pragmatic Flair

3. Why Do Indian Women Undertake Entrepreneurship?

In spite of the growing number of female entrepreneurs, the share of female entrepreneurs is still significantly low when compared to their participation rate. However, there are several factors responsible for increasing the level of female entrepreneurship in India:

1. Nature of Entrepreneurship: Women enter into entrepreneurial activity because regular employment does not provide them with the flexibility, control or challenge offered by business ownership.

2. Motivation : Several evidences suggest that women do not lack the motivation to enter into business ownership. They are often highly motivated than their male counterparts to overcome the barriers to business start-up.

3. Empowerment : Indian women are becoming more empowered now-a-days. Legislation is being progressively drafted to offer them more opportunities at various levels.

4. Social Conditions : Population growth results in a strong positive relationship on entrepreneurial activity. Across genders, the increase in demand and competition for jobs pushes more people into necessary entrepreneurship. For women, in particular, the relatively high involvement in necessary entrepreneurship indicates that self-employment is used as a way to circumvent institutional and cultural constraints with respect to female employment, as well as a way to provide supplemental family income.

5. Economic Conditions : Auspicious economic conditions favour the participation of women in entrepreneurial activity. The smaller amount of financial capital requirement and higher proportion of available bank loans positively correlates the level of female entrepreneurship to economic conditions. In fact, in a country like India, the relationship between the size of unofficial economy and entrepreneurial activity is positive.

6. Literacy & Education: Increased levels of education has played a crucial role in initiating the process of entrepreneurship. It is not only the illiterate that are starting the businesses but those with education & skills are also exploiting profit opportunities.

4. What Are The Needs Of Women Entrepreneurs In India?

1) More and better access to finance/credit is mentioned very frequently. Give a woman 1000 rupees and she can start a business. Give her another 1000 rupees and she will be able to feed not only for her family, but for her employees as well.

2) Access to business support and information, including better integration of business services.

3) Training on business issues and related issues

4) Better access to local and foreign markets.

5) Day care centres & nurseries for children, and also for the elderly;

6) Positive image-building and change in mentality amongst women, whereby women see themselves as capable achievers and build up confidence.

7) Breaking through traditional patrons and structures that inhibit women’s advancement.

8) Role modelling of women in non-traditional business sectors to break through traditional views on men’s and women’s sectors.

9) More involvement and participation in legislation and decision-making processes.

10) Removing of any legislation which impedes women’s free engagement.

11) Awareness-raising at the governmental as well as private level to truly and really create entrepreneurial opportunities and not just programs that stay on paper.

5. Which Important Problems Are Faced By Women Entrepreneurs In India?

1. Women hardly interact with other women who are successful entrepreneurs. This results in a negative impact on their networking skills.

2. The areas, where one can see women acting as entrepreneurs, is in the very typical women’s sectors of 3Ps. This is also the area, where women are accepted in society to be experts in and thus have the capacity for entrepreneurial activities.

3. It is clear, that women have the responsibility of getting children and taking care of them. Very few societies accept fathers taking over the role of staying home and taking care of the children. Once these children are old enough to take care for themselves, they have to bear an additional responsibility of taking care of elder parents. If they want to become entrepreneurs, the society expects them to be able to do both: take care of family and home and do business.

4. Women are very critical when it comes to themselves – can I really do this, am I good enough, maybe I have to learn more, others can do it better. It is quite interesting that many successful women have been educated in only girls colleges and schools, which often deliver a safe environment to try out ones personal strengths, learn to overcome weaknesses and be proud of oneself.

5. Discrimination – it is hard to believe but women are still treated differently in our society. Women do get lower salaries compared to men doing the same job, women do not have access to men dominated networks who take their decisions about successors in the company during golf plays or sauna meetings….

6. Missing networks – through centuries business men have build up their networks but women still have to learn to catch up.

7. A lot of women tell stories about not being taken serious by bankers, when they wanted to get a loan for their business. Often enough, they have to bring their husbands or fathers to be able to be heard and receive financing. So, the domination of men in the banking world is a problem.

6. What Are The Challenges Faced By Women Entrepreneurs In India?

One of the major obstacles faced by women entrepreneurs has been that they are not taken seriously. Even though women have achieved credibility as competent entrepreneurs in areas such as retail, personal services and business services, perceptions that women-owned businesses are less successful, credit worthy & innovative continues to be a barrier.

Besides this, there are several other challenges being faced by Women Entrepreneurs:

1. Lack of Visibility as Strategic Leaders: Changing the perceptions about the likely success of women-owned businesses depends on increasing women’s visibility in leadership positions within the greater business community. In an assessment of women’s presence as CEOs or Directors of large business enterprises, it has been anticipated that the exodus of women to entrepreneurial growth firms might be because women believe that have greater representation in strategic leadership positions in privately-held or family-owned firms as they provide better opportunities for leadership than available to women in publicly-traded companies.

2. Differential Information and Assistance Needs: Another significant need of many women business owners is obtaining the appropriate assistance and information needed to take the business to the next level of growth. In a study conducted to gather information needs of women entrepreneurs, those who were just starting their ventures, requested assistance and training in implementing the business idea, identifying initial sources of financing, and advertising/promotion. The entrepreneurs who were already established, had a somewhat different set of needs including financing for expansion and increasing sales. Another conducted study had identified ten most desired needs of fast growth entrepreneurs:

(a) using cash flow to make operational decisions

(b) financing growth

(c) increasing the value of the business

(d) compensation for self and associates

(e) hiring, training and motivating for growth

(f) succeeding in a rapidly changing world

(g) successful selling

(h) sales force management

(i) management success

(j) problems and pitfalls of growth.

Unfortunately, this differences in information and assistance needs can be found across cultures as well.

3. Family Influences on Women Entrepreneurs : The overlapping of the family and the firm is not significant for women business owners. Unfortunately, little research has been conducted on the dynamics of family-owned firms headed by women. As the boundaries between the firm and the family tend to be indistinct, women operating family businesses face a unique set of issues related to personal identity, role conflict, loyalties, family relationships, and attitudes towards authority. Additionally, family businesses owned by women are at a disadvantage financially and are forced to rely on internal resources of funding rather than outside sources. The critical role of family in business, also emerges in cross-cultural studies which show a women relying heavily on the family for start-up capital.

7. What Steps Need To Be Initiated For Women Entrepreneurial Development In India?

A possible set of three inter-linked and inter-dependent clusters of recommendations can be aimed at “pushing” a larger number of women entrepreneurs towards growth opportunities, unlocking their potential as creators of wealth and jobs, and providing a more conducive legal and regulatory framework. These recommendations can also ensure the proper positioning of “pull mechanisms” to enable the growth-oriented women entrepreneurs to expand and grow in terms of investments, markets and profits.

1. Prioritizing and Pushing at the micro-level : There is a large and seemingly ever-increasing number of women entrepreneurs operating in micro-enterprises and in the informal economy. They can be facilitated to grow into sustainable, formally registered & large enterprises with the help of following actions:-

o Conducting gender analysis for all entrepreneurial support programmes

o Gathering data on women and men entrepreneurs

o Applying “target group segmentation” to women entrepreneurs

o Using targeted approaches for priority categories in order to provide additional “push” to women entrepreneurs to the next level of growth

o Promoting mobilization and organization of representative associations

o Examining differential impacts of governmental policies, programmes and actions

o Promoting development of demand-led supports for women entrepreneurs

o Promoting more flexible and innovative financial products by banks

2. Unlocking and Unfettering Institutional Framework: Policies, laws and overall regulatory environment are frequently seen as barriers and disincentives to expansion and growth. However, they need to be promoted in such a way that women entrepreneurs see the advantages of and benefits that come with compliance.

o Reviewing impact of existing and new instruments on women entrepreneurs

o Identifying those instruments that act as barriers to expansion and growth

o Modifying or dismantling these instruments

o Taking account of the social and cultural contexts affecting policy implementation and redress inequalities and abnormalities

o Making use of IT and associations so as to minimize the administrative burdens on women entrepreneurs

o Holding regular consultations with key factors like women entrepreneurs, women entrepreneurs’ associations, financial institutions, etc, to review progress and identify new bottlenecks.

3. Projecting and Pulling to Grow and Support the Winners : The first two sets of recommendations are aimed at trying to “push” more women entrepreneurs into growth situations as well as ensuring that laws & regulations do not stand in their way. The third possible recommendation relates to facilitating and “pulling” the women entrepreneurs into situations where they can actively pursue growth strategies.

o Providing incentives for expansion and growth after removing barriers and disincentives

o Encouraging and rewarding dynamic representative associations of women entrepreneurs

o Promoting strong links and synergies with existing major economic players

o Profiling the economic and social contributors among women entrepreneurs to the national economy

o Promoting and rewarding programmes that serve women entrepreneurs

o Making full use of data gathered to inform new policies, programmes and supportive actions

o Ensuring synergies between (a) women related ministry (b) economic ministry (c) welfare & social development ministry in the government.

8. Conclusion

With relevant education, work experience, improving economic conditions and financial opportunities, more women around the world are creating and sustaining successful business ventures. This will not only have an impact on the economies of the countries in which women own their businesses but also will change the status of women in those societies. It is likely that, as we begin this millennium, this will be the century of the entrepreneur in general and of the women entrepreneur in particular.

Why Are Indians Starting Their Business in Singapore?

India is a country full of promises, it is the world’s largest economy; but astonishingly, many start-ups are looking for a business setup in Singapore. Surprisingly, the earlier trend involved start-ups integrating their businesses in Silicon Valley or Hong Kong. What precisely caused this shift? Let’s explore the reasons as to why Singapore has suddenly become every Indian entrepreneur’s go-to destination?

• Infrastructure & Facilities: it has a well-connected route to India which makes it possible to reach this city-state in approximately 6 hours. Singapore is easier to get to than most places in India itself. Additionally, the infrastructure of our country acts as an obstacle in the way of good business. The world is getting digitalized by the second and the internet facilities available in India are less than satisfactory. On the other hand, Singapore boasts of the world fastest broadband services. Moreover, it has a sound logistic transport system, which is an added advantage to the import and export sector.

• Tax structure: Singapore also boasts of one of the most ideal tax regimes for businesses. Where the tax rate of profit is between 30 to 40% in India, in Singapore it makes for less than 20%. Moreover, Singapore does not charge tax on dividends and capital gains. It is also the 5th easiest place to pay taxes. Where India not only charges a high tax but also makes it difficult to pay it, Singapore seems like a lucrative opportunity then.

• FDI regulations and the finest IP regime: Singapore is known for its political stability, which means a business does not run on the whims and fancies of the controlling power. In a world where Intellectual Property is guided with utmost care, Singapore offers investors a sense of assuredness whereas the same cannot be said of India. This liberty accompanied by one of the finest Intellectual Property rights in the world creates a sense of trust and certainty among business owners who find it easier to invest their money in Singapore. Additionally, it is also one of the places with the least corrupt economy. They abide by GAAP, which is observed to be more user-friendly and transparent.

• Ease of doing business: It is no mystery that Singapore has consistently ranked in the number 1 spot as the easiest places to do business for over a decade now. It takes the least amount of time to set up a business in Singapore, which is further simplified by means of using online registration procedures, this means no years of endless paperwork. Another advantage is that along with the registration one can also take care of the tax work at the same time. Whereas, in India, the registration and tax procedure, are two separate procedures. Singapore offers ideal conditions where entrepreneurs can focus on growing their business rather that get tangled in a hazy registration system.

If this wasn’t reason enough, Singapore is influxed with talent which makes recruiting a skilled workforce an effortless experience. Additionally, there are many agencies that support the growth of businesses’ in Singapore; some of them include Economic Development Board, Standards, Productivity and Innovations Board, Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority and SMEPortal.

How To Start Export-Import Business In India

Export – Import is the trade which is happening for last thousands of years and will continue for next thousands of years or more. Due to Technology and Communication Transformation World is coming closer day by day and trade and activities are happening more frequently and more easily. In India DGFT is the Govt. Body under Ministry of Commerce and Industry which is responsible for Export and Import trades. For starting your Export-Import Business, Following steps need to be taken:-

1. CREATE AN ENTITY & COMPLETE DOCUMENTATION

You can make Proprietorship, Partnership, Pvt. Ltd.Co etc. and you can take a help of some CA for creation of entity.

2. CURRENT ACCOUNT IN ANY REPUTED BANK

You can apply with any Nationalise Bank and they will happily open your current account, which will be required for applying your IEC.

3. IMPORTER’S & EXPORTER’S CODE

You can apply IEC Code online and this can be done through DGFT website, for starting your own export-import business this is one of the main task which you need to fulfil.

4. FINALISE THE PRODUCT

You can go through data of products being exported or imported through online data on various websites which will help you find out lot of products you can go through and start your export-import.

5. FINALISE THE PRODUCT MARKET

You can check data online on various websites to find out top Importing and Exporting Countries.

6. SEARCH ON GENUINE BUYERS

You can start searching some buyers for your products and start communication with them and follow up, for that best way is to register online on various B2B websites like Alibaba, India-mart, Impexperts.com.

7. RECEIVE POSITIVE RESPONSE

Once you start getting inquiries, You may exchange samples and start process of shipping the products, Many shipping companies can help you in that

8. FINALIZE “CHA”

CHA (Custom House Agent) is the person who will help you in all the process once you get response for your products from buyers from abroad, so all the documentation part, shipping and logistic part, insurance etc. he may take care.

So, once you do your first trade you will get to know the entire process and next trades will be easier and more systematic and that way you can start your export-import business very easily step by step. Many Organisations are there which can help to understand entire process very quickly and easily.

What Are You Waiting For? Start Your Business Now!!

Setting Up a Rice Milling Business in India

In India, rice is cultivated on a mass scale. Rice is one of its most important dietary staples and more than 65% of its human population relies on rice for its daily food requirement. The rice crop occupies more than 37% of the total crop area in India and accounts for almost 44% of all the food grains produced in the country.

An integral process of rice production is rice milling. And just like in any nation where rice is produced on a large scale, rice milling has been around for a very long time in India. The need for milling arises because paddy cannot be consumed in its raw form and requires suitable processing.

Owing to this huge global demand for rice, rice milling, today, is a fast-growing agro-business which you can successfully leverage for financial benefits. However, being a commercially profitable business, setting up a rice mill requires extensive knowledge and capital.

If you can manage to arrange the capital requirement, you must read further to learn how to set up a rice milling industry in India:

1. Decide the rice milling type: One pass, two step or commercial: The one pass process is one where husk and bran layers are removed in a single pass. The two step process does it separately; it requires traditional machinery and equipment and is mostly done for consumption within the local community. Commercial milling is an extensive process which requires the use of modern milling machinery. It is done mainly with a view to export the produce. Unlike the two processes mentioned above, it involves a number of processes:

Pre-cleaning
De-stoning
Removing husk
Husk aspiration
Paddy removal
Polishing
Whitening
Grading and separating
Blending
Mist polishing
Weighing and Bagging
Storing

2. Gain knowledge: learn from the experts: Before you plunge into rice milling business, it’s important for you to take a look at the environment and understand the important facts about rice milling industry in your area. Learn the pitfalls and challenges involved, have a feel of the different processes involved. Basically, learn as much as you can in the shortest time span.

3. Devise a business plan: A lot of factors are into play and you cannot enter this competitive industry without a detailed strategy. Since you’ve already acquired the basic know how, now you need to put everything into a plan. Clearly mention your business’s aims and objectives, p&l analysis, projected earnings, target market, staff requirement, competition, etc. All in all, keep a tab on everything required to get you up and running.

4. Obtain permits and licenses: To actualize the rice milling venture, you need to obtain certain licenses from the Government of India. You need to:

Register your business with Registrar of Companies
Registration with Udyog Aadhaar MSME
Factory license
Obtain Consent to Establish and Operate from Pollution Control Board
Obtain license as per Rice Milling Industry Act, 1958
VAT Registration

One must also comply with ESIC and PFA registration for the employees

If you wish to export, you also need to obtain Import-Export Code

5. Acquire land: Get your hands on a suitable location which is easily accessible.

6. Buy and Install equipment: Some of the machines in use today are:

Rice cleaner
Rice de-stoner
Rice Husker
Colour sorter
Paddy separator
Rice polisher and whitener
Rice grader
Dryer, etc.

Since it solely depends on your requirements and business scale, it’s best to consult a rice milling expert. They will also help you set up the machinery.

The final step in starting a rice milling business is acquiring the raw materials and starting with the production. Since it’s important to maintain production all through the year, it’s important that you receive guaranteed supplies. You can:

Start with your own rice farming
Buy from suppliers, i.e. farmers or farmer markets

A Twenty First Century Christian Review of Napoleon Hill’s "Think & Grow Rich" Part One

Introduction:

In this article I will cover the biblical admonitions regarding the obtaining of wealth, a brief biological sketch of Napoleon Hill, followed by a survey of his ideas on business success. The reader will be amazed at some of Hill’s brilliant and at the same time common sense ideas of obtaining wealth. This section will focus on the positive contribution Hill made. Part two (separate article) I will cover the negative and out right dangers in Hill’s philosophy of success.

To begin this review, I would be negligent as a Christian not to mention the Biblical admonitions against the “deceitfulness of riches” Matt. 13:22 and our Lord’s warning that “you cannot serve God and Mammon” Luke 16:13. As Christians we are instructed to “seek first the Kingdom of God” Matt. 6:33. In case there is any confusion at this point I do not equate money as being evil. The distinction I see is stated by the apostle Paul when he tells us that “For the Love of Money is the root of all evil” 1st Tim 6:10.

If the reader is to take anything away from this review, it should be how to approach the topic of gaining wealth and success and excellence in business by being fully aware of the personal motives behind this desire. Have you been influenced by the ways of this world? Consider this: “For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world and lose his soul?” Mark 8:36.

As Christians we should desire success and excellence in our endeavors not only to be a witness for Christ but also to bring glory to God. The Bible gives us instructions on life if followed will not lead to poverty. Negatively, we are neither to be a “sluggard” Prov. 20:4 nor “to love sleep” Prov. 20:13. Positively: “…diligent hands bring wealth” Prov. 10:4 “The plans of the diligent lead to profit…” Prov. 21:5. And finally, from Prov. 31:10-31; is the praise given to the noble or virtuous woman.

To begin this review, let me state up front that I see some positive guidelines for achieving success and excellence in business in Napoleon Hill’s book. Conversely, there are sections and material in Hill’s book that are antithetical to Christian beliefs and practice that the reader should be aware of. First I will offer the briefest biographical sketch and then a survey of some of the positive material in the book. In the concluding section I will point out some of the Biblically speaking problematic areas of Hill’s theories. This review is limited to Hill’s book “Think & Grow Rich” and not to his work in future years, although I will comment on it.

Napoleon Hill was born on Oct. 26th, 1883 and died Nov. 8th 1970. Hill is best known as the author of one of the best selling books of all time called “Think & Grow Rich.” Napoleon Hill is the father of what can be described as personal success or motivational literature. Hill’s biographer, Michael J. Ritt, Jr., tells us that he was born in poverty in a one-room cabin in the town of Pound, Virginia, a rural area. At the age of 13, he began writing for small town newspapers. He used his earnings as a reporter to enter law school, but had to drop out for monetary reasons.

The turning point in his career happened with his assignment, to write a series of articles about famous men and to interview the wealthy industrialist Andrew Carnegie. Hill learned that Carnegie believed the process of success could be explained in a simple formula that could be learned and put into practice by the average person. Carnegie was impressed with Hill and subsequently commissioned him and provided him with letters of reference so that he could interview over 500 successful men and women to discover and publish this formula for success. This project went on for 20 years and culminated in Hill becoming an advisor to Carnegie and the publication of “Think & Grow Rich.” The knowledge obtained from the interviews with the leaders of industry is where you find the value of Hill’s book.

It is amazing on how many of Hill’s ideas are used as quotes for practical encouragement. Some of the more common quotations of Napoleon Hill are:

o Think and grow rich

o Desire is the starting point of all achievement, not a hope, not a wish, but a keen pulsating desire which transcends everything

o Your big opportunity may be right where you are now

o If you cannot do great things, do small things in a great way

o A goal is a dream with a deadline

o Lack of loyalty is one of the major causes of failure in every walk in life

o Perseverance: The majority of men meet with failure because of their lack of persistence in creating new plans to take the place of those that fail

o Every adversity carries with it the seed of an equivalent or greater benefit

o Thoughts mixed with definiteness of purpose, persistence, and burning desires are powerful things

o The majority of men meet with failure because of their lack of persistence in creating new plans to take the place of those which fail

o First comes thought; then organization of that thought, into ideas and plans; then transformation of those plans into reality. The beginning, as you will observe, is in your imagination

o If you’re not learning while you’re earning, you’re cheating yourself out of the better portion of your compensation

o It is literally true that you can succeed best and quickest by helping others to succeed

We find that much of Hill’s book is an analysis of the capitalist system in America and how it works. Hill believed that he had discovered a principle that allows the regular every day people to achieve success. Hill called his success teachings “The Philosophy of Achievement” and he considered freedom, democracy and capitalism, to be important causative factors in his discovery. Hill’s ideas would not work in a Marxist or a centralized planned economy because the tyrannical regulation and taxation would destroy anyone’s ability to strive for success since the fruits of success would be given to others who would squander it, since it had no intrinsic value to them. Hill believed in personal honesty and in not cheating your fellow man or employees. The cheat or dishonest person would eventually be seen for what he is. A leader has to be one of moral and ethical integrity.

Hill believed that you achieve success by doing superior quality work, treating your customers as number one at all times and how anyone can become successful if they overcome their personal shortcomings. Hill also incorporates a lot of good, practical business advice like finding new opportunities created by what we would call today as disruptive technologies. Also key according to Hill, is having a written business plan and not deviating from it, along with not being afraid to make mistakes as long as you grow and learn from the mistakes. If you find your strategy to be in error you must be able to reformulate your plans. Hill believed that most people never succeed simply because a lack of ambition or self discipline. Relating to discipline, Hill said: “If you do not conquer self, you will be conquered by self.” Today there is a course on business success called Personal Mastery which is influenced by Hill’s research.

The beginning of Hill’s philosophy began first with a thought, hence the title “Think & Grow Rich.” First you formulate a plan mentally. It involves desire, belief and passion, (absolutely essential for success) auto-suggestion (a controversial area of his research) obtaining specialized knowledge, (very helpful) using the imagination, (portions of this are very controversial) organized planning, (very helpful) decision making, persistence, the master mind group, (portions of this section is very helpful) the last three areas transmutation, the subconscious mind and finally the brain are also quite controversial and unproven. One thing is certain; ideas most certainly do have consequences. In this respect, business success beginning first with an idea cannot be questioned.

As said, there are many positive ideas in “Think & Grow Rich” such as organized planning, and finding a group of people who think like you, and then turning those plans into reality. Hill was a believer in the fact that all successful people were successful because they are able to find like minded people who think as they do and who could be recruited into a business venture with them. Then their abilities, talents and passion could be utilized for benefit of the business venture. Hill is basically saying: “don’t hang around with people who don’t think like you do.” Stay away from negative people since their negativity will affect you. Our parents were correct in warning us against hanging around with the wrong crowd.

Hill’s business success ideas focused on goal setting and making sure that decisions are carried through with consistency. In the area of responsibility, it means that you are responsible for your own outcomes, and it is important that failures are not something to fixate on. Everyone has failures, and we should learn from them, including figuring out what caused them to happen. Most failures involve a breakdown of vision, or a failure to plan to take advantage of a new situation that may have arisen. An individual that is focused on success should not fixate on failure. We can learn from mistakes and grow. Mistakes can be turned into successes.

Hill’s ideas on leadership are well thought out. His eleven points on the attributes of leadership are excellent and exactly the traits you would hope any business leader would have. Likewise, the ten major causes in failure of leadership are also very perceptive. His 31 major causes of failure are points that are surprisingly accurate reasons for every person who tries and fails in business. His 28 questions for self analysis are helpful to avoid self-deception. However his teaching on transmutation of sexual energy has probably offended or shocked many as sounding sexist. It is accurate according to Hill that sexual energy can be turned into creative energy and not simply wasted in vain physical affairs. It is also accurate to acknowledge that behind every great man one usually finds a great woman.

Some of the many positive things that can be learned from “Think & Grow Rich” can be summarized by citing several of his ideas relevant to business, such as “Failing to plan is planning to fail,” “Perseverance: The majority of men meet with failure because of their lack of persistence in creating new plans to take the place of those that fail,” “A quitter never wins, and a winner never quits,” “It is literally true that you can succeed best and quickest by helping others to succeed” and “The man who does more than he is paid for will soon be paid for more than he does.” Hill’s philosophy of success was grounded in the real world to a large extent as can be seen by his statement that: “Riches do not respond to wishes. They respond only to definite plans, backed by definite desires, through constant persistence,” and “Great achievement is usually born of great sacrifice, and is never the result of selfishness.”

As the reader works their way through the book, they will see that much of Hill’s work boils down to setting goals, and making sure that important decisions are acted upon thus insuring your success. Hill is saying that you must put your plans into action. Hill was a believer that a group of people on the same wave-length and positively focused is substantially greater than a group of disorganized individuals. Of all the successful leaders Hill interviewed, all of them attributed their success to being able to see opportunities, and most importantly, in finding people who can be delegated to help achieve success. It is not enough to work hard, one must also find like minded people, and inspire them to work hard as a team on getting things done.

This idea of recruiting and inspiring individuals so that they be delegated various responsibilities reminds me of what J. Paul Getty once wrote, “I would much rather receive 1% of the efforts of 100 men than 100% of my own.” Much of the material in Hill’s book has been tremendously helpful for those individuals involved with network marketing. To illustrate this Hill said: “It is literally true that you can succeed best and quickest by helping others to succeed.” Those involved in the Network Marketing industry will understand appreciate this concept.

Hill tried to systematize steps to become successful in this book and to a large degree he was successful if one confines his work to the real world or common sense ideas. In my next article I will look at some of the dangers in Hill’s work. Stay tuned!

10 Proven Actions to Overcome Self-Doubt and Achieve Success

“Believe it and you can achieve it”. We’ve all heard it, seen it in others, but why it is so hard to believe in ourselves.

I remember a scene from the film “Pretty Woman” when Julia Roberts replies to Richard Gere “The bad stuff is easier to believe. Have you ever noticed that?” Her answer struck a chord with me and I still struggle to find my self-worth to this day.

Why this is true and more importantly what can we do about it?

In her fascinating TED TALK, ” Getting stuck in the negatives”, Alison Ledgerwood demonstrates her results from a series of experiments that prove what we already instinctively knew. It’s easier to believe the negative stuff.

That’s not the end of the story. She explains further, it does take work to think more positively and it is possible to train yourself to be more positive and build your self-esteem.

Here are my top 10 proven actions that have helped me through some bad times into the more positive and productive periods in my life.

1. Every time you have a bad day. Ask yourself “What was good about today?” You always get out of life what you focus on most. If your focus is negative you’ll just get more of what you don’t want but if you break the pattern with a single question and make an effort to focus on what you do want, then you are more likely to achieve it.

2. Set small achievable goals for yourself but make sure you complete them! Inch by inch you will start to feel that you are more capable with each accomplishment.

3. Set out to improve every aspect of your life by just 1%. Think about it. 1 % improvement in each area of your life, each day, builds up your motivation, momentum and your achievements which automatically help you believe in yourself.

4. Take Time Out. When you get stuck. STOP! Break the routine! Walk the dog! Go dancing! Out with friends! Sailing. Whatever you enjoy doing the most, relaxes you and puts a smile on your face. For me it’s saddling up my horses and hitting the trail! I learnt a valuable lesson from a wonderful boss I had many years ago. He used to laugh at me when I would stubbornly stay all night trying to solve a problem at work. He always told me to stop, go home and get a good night’s sleep. Inevitably the next morning, I would find the solution within the first 5 minutes of starting work. Solving a problem quickly gives you more self-confidence and it sure beats struggling on when you’re tired and telling yourself what a “waste of space” you are.

5. Eat that Frog! Mark Twain once wrote “Eat a live frog first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you for the rest of the day” Brian Tracey used the quote as the title of his book for combatting procrastination. The idea is, when you look at your to do list, what is the one task that you least want to do. Do it first and get it out of the way, after, you will feel pumped up and more relaxed. Your productivity will sky rocket for the rest of the day as will your self-esteem.

6. Tell your inner self to “SHUT UP!” In his highly entertaining motivational talks Les Brown, hilariously explains that you would never treat others the way we treat ourselves. When that little voice starts nagging you about how useless you are. Tell it to shut up! It’s not what’s happening around you that prevent you achieving your goals. They are just hurdles you can go over, under or around. It’s our self-defeating inner voice playing on our emotions that holds us back. Give yourself a break.

7. Help other people. There are very few things in life that give you such an instant boost of self-worth than helping someone else. I thrive on helping others especially when I’m feeling depressed it’s an instant reversal to the slippery slope of depression.

8. Recognise your skills. List all the skills you are great at. Can’t think of anything. Ask your friends and family. What is it about you that everyone likes and admires? If your life is just an endless list of mistakes well maybe your worth is as the crash dummy of life. Half the battle in life is avoiding the pitfalls, and if you can help others in that respect then your contribution is invaluable.

9. Face your Fear. My favorite quote on this subject is from Oprah Winfrey “The thing you fear most has no power. Your fear of it is what has the power. Facing the truth really will set you free” In my opinion and through personal experience, facing your fear head on will only make you stronger. Last year was the hardest year of my life. My beautiful 4 yr. old son was diagnosed with a rare and very aggressive form of Leukemia. BUT despite the pain, despair, fears of losing him and loneliness at being separated from my other son and my family. I got up every morning to go and sit by his bedside from dawn to midnight. It was hard, very hard but he is on the road to recovery now and both of us have come out of the experience so much stronger and less fearful than before. Do not let fear hold you back. You have so much to offer the world.

10. Do something you believe in. A sense of purpose is one of the most powerful ways to feel fulfilled. When you know why you are doing something. The drive and motivation just flow without effort.

The most important message I want you to learn is keep moving forward. “When you rest you rust” No matter what happens to you in life don’t give up. Let go of the past, stop fighting it. It’s like hitting your head against a brick wall, only you get hurt. Learn from your mistakes and move on. Forgive those who have hurt you. May be you should thank them for they have made you more aware and stronger.

Get off the “Pity Potty”. Dust off your dreams and start living your life. Don’t let anything or anyone stop you. It will not be easy; if it was easy then everybody would be doing it. Success will be all the sweeter, having worked hard and overcome all the obstacles.

It took the horror of my son Leukemia to snap me out of my “I’m not worthy” mindset. Since then I have started a new online business, which allows me precious time to be with my children and animals, financial freedom to buy a new home and I can help other people realize their dreams.

What’s your dream?

How to Create Wealth: Formula for Generating $10,000 Monthly

I used to think that learning how to create wealth to the tune of $10,000 monthly was unheard of. And then I recently listened to a webinar that spells out a formula that actually makes sense…

How to Create Wealth Step One: Getting a Clear Intention…

You need to have a clear intention of how much you want to create. For the purpose of demonstrating this formula, I’m using the figure of $10,000 monthly. It’s important to use daily visualization by imagining yourself at a future date, but thinking of it as present, being sure to pay attention to the feeling you have when you actually see this much income flowing into your bank account on a consistent basis.

How to Create Wealth Step Two: Determine your Outcome…

If you have no idea how much your income goal is, there is no way of attaining it. You can’t just move blindly in your business and “hope for the best”. You have to have a plan – strategy that will take you closer to your goal as you progress. And remember, it’s not necessarily just the outcome that makes a difference… it’s the journey…

“The major reason for setting a goal is for what it makes of you to accomplish it. What it makes of you will always be the far greater value than what you get.”

– Jim Rohn: American entrepreneur, author and motivational speaker

How to Create Wealth Step Three: Determining the Number of Sales you Need…

Take the monthly figure you desire and divide by 31 to get your daily expectation of creating wealth. In this example, $10,000 divided by 31 = a goal of $322.58 daily (we can round this up to $325).

Take this figure and work backwards to determine how to create wealth in your own business. For example, in my business, I know that statistics reveal that one out of every 40 people who watch the sales video will decide to buy on the spot.

Now, I also need to do a little research in my own business to figure my own upselling statistics. Why? Because this will give me concrete figures to move forward with. While the average person who decides to buy will generate me a $25 commission, I know that one of every three of these people will upgrade to the $100 monthly program, giving me a commission of $125 monthly. One in five of those people will elect the $500 product, and one in ten will buy the $997 product.

So to figure out average commissions, let’s work backwards from a 30-sale point. Thirty sales = ($25 x 30) + ($100 x 10) + ($500 x 6) + ($997 x 3), or $750 + $1000 + $3000 + $2991, or $7741 for 30 sales, divided by 30 = $258.03 each. Let’s round that to an average value of $258 commission for each sale.

Judging from this scenario, I would need 38.76 sales a month (or 1.25 sales daily) to equal a monthly income of $10,000, or a daily income of $325.

How to Create Wealth Step Four: Determining How to Get the Sales…

Judging from my own statistics, I know that one in every forty people who watch my video will decide to buy on the spot. So, to get 40 sales a month, I would need to find a way for 1600 people monthly (52 people daily) to watch my sales video. And how to I do that? Well, this brings us to step five for creating wealth…

How to Create Wealth Step Five: Determining Prospects…

The easy way, of course, is to simply buy leads. However, this is not always very cost effective, especially starting out. Some people pay as much as $5 a lead, depending on their marketing strategy, and this would cost $260 daily to get 52 leads!

While many people choose paid marketing strategies, I elect to use free marketing – blogging, article marketing and videos – to bring in my leads. Assuming you want to go this route as well, let’s determine how to get those 520 people daily to reading your blog posts and articles, and watching your videos. (520 visitors is based on my own 10% opt in percentage for my content to produce 52 leads.)

How to Create Wealth Step Six: Determining Lead Flow…

This is where keyword research comes in. You don’t want to waste your time blogging about stuff that nobody wants to read! You can determine the potential visitors to your site by accessing the free External Google Keyword Tool at ‘Google.AdWords.com’ and click on the link “keyword research tool”.

Determine the number of people searching for your “keyword phrase” that you’ll be using throughout your content. For example, I know that the keyword phrase “how to create wealth” gets roughly 590 exact match searches monthly, or 19 searches a day. This knowledge tells me that if I can promote this content to rank on the first page of Google, I can expect about half of those people (10) to watch my video or reach my article or post, and 10% of those people (1) to become a prospect.

So in this scenario, this particular piece of content for the keyword phrase how to create wealth should yield me one lead daily. How do I get 52 leads daily? Simply put out more content for other keyword phrases – 52 pieces of content each yielding one lead a day will give me 52 leads, which generates 40 sales a month which equals an average of $10,000 monthly. Your future for creating wealth is now in your hands!

Jim Rohn Review – Scam or The Real Deal – Jim Rohn Success Review

Jim Rohn has a long trail of success and business philosophy that has helped motivate and inspires tens of thousands of people. Not too long ago someone said to me, Jim Rohn and those type of guys are scams, they just want your money and they are not the real deal. This Jim Rohn review will review a little about himself as well as some of his principles on success.

Jim Rohn is a renowned business philosopher, who has been sharing his success principles for more than 40 years, with more than 6,000 audiences and more than 4 million people worldwide. He is the author of 17 different works including The Five Major Pieces to the Life Puzzle and th Challenge to Succeed audio series.

By his own account, he was born to an Idaho farming family in the mid 1900s. Mr. Rohn began his early adulthood without acclaim, leaving college after his first year, starting a family, and trying to get by as best he could as a salaried worker. By age 25, according to his accounts, he was in a personal rut familiar to many middle class families – in debt, unable to see a way that would lead to his personal ambitions. Around this time, he was introduced to John Earl Shoaff, an entrepreneur who impressed Mr. Rohn with his wealth, business accomplishments, charisma, and life philosophy. Mr. Rohn joined Mr. Shoaff’s direct sales organization and began a process of personal development that allegedly culminated in his becoming a millionaire by age 31.

Jim Rohn has been said to have been very instrumental in launching the careers of other well known sales and motivational speakers such as Tony Robbins, Les Brown and Brian Tracy.

Some Jim Rohn’s success philosophies include:

Set Your Sail – or in other words the way we think. The greatest challenge of life is to control the process of our own thinking.
Learn from Success and Failure – Study those that do well do what they do and learn from the failures of other people.
Read all you can – Take head to those that have taken the time to write the principles of success that have guided them.
Keep a Journal – Jim Rohn states, “This is one of the best guides for making good decisions”
Observe and Listen – Pay attention and watch what is going on around you.
Be Disciplined – With careful mental preparation we can make wise choices.
Don’t Neglect – Neglect is the major reason why people don’t have what they want.

In conclusion, Jim Rohn is not a scam, rather a man of wisdom and experience in helping others and himself achieve the success they desire. He is full of great information and guidance as you journey towards a life full of abundance and personal satisfaction. I would highly recommend reading material published by Jim Rohn as well as those whom he has inspired such as Tony Robbins, Les Brown and Brian Tracy.

101 Ways To Mold Your Mind

If you’ve ever tried to break a bad habit, chances are you know that it can be frustrating and seem near impossible to change something about yourself. The problem typically resides within your mindset – your subconscious belief structure that automatically governs everything you think and do.

I have struggled with personal development for years, and have the benefit of hindsight when it comes to analyzing what has worked and what hasn’t. For those of you new to the idea of molding your mind, I sat down and hammered out this list of effective tactics to help create yourself in your own best image. Enjoy!

Conscious Change – For some people, the best way to initiate a major change is to start consciously – focusing on actively guiding your thoughts and controlling your beliefs until they become automatic.

When nobody is around – shout out what you want to change about yourself, as if you’ve already done it. Be forceful and emphatic and make yourself believe it. The more powerful you say something, the more you will believe it. In time, you’ll truly feel like you have the power to create anything you want in your life.
Do affirmations right before bed – your mind is receptive and sleeping will help you internalize the information you just fed yourself.
To-do list with a twist – keep a to-do checklist with important tasks you need to get done for the day, but add a twist to the list by including how you want to do them. Incorporate personality dimensions you wish to instill in yourself and emulate them until they become a part of you.
Do affirmations when you first wake up – again, be forceful and emphatic and soon enough you will want to hop out of bed to do them because you will feel great afterwards, and invigorated to start the day.
Tell others about your goals and aspirations. It helps to be accountable for your successes and failures.
Think of someone you care deeply about who you would like to improve for. A significant other or important family member who you feel deserves the best from you. Strive to be the best you can for yourself and for them.
Think of someone who you can’t stand… who is always outperforming you or rubbing their successes in your face. Strive to be better than them in every way you feel is important. Sometimes competition can be an incredibly potent driving factor..
Internalize your successes by focusing on completing small goals whenever possible. Giving yourself the occasional easy-to-do task and thinking about it like a real accomplishment can boost your perceived self efficacy and give you the added will power to tackle those hard to reach goals.
Reward all progress in some way – no matter how small. Be smart about it (don’t binge eat to reward a successful diet week) but indulge in something you otherwise wouldn’t take the time out for. Whatever suits you best – just to have something mentally to look forward to the next round.
Enter a competition when you’re clearly not ready. Train for something. Enter a marathon or triathlon, structure a competition with a friend or coworker – do whatever it takes to give yourself a concrete reason to succeed.
Learn something new every day or week. Pick a random book on a topic unrelated to your education experience or work background. Encouraging the development of new mental models will help diversify your knowledge and expand your capacity for thought all around.
Take a free online course in something you know nothing about. Expand your horizons. Check out MIT OpenCourseWare
Write your affirmations out before or after you do them. It helps internalize them!
Record your affirmations and play them back on your iPod whenever you can for background noise.
Keep a “scrapbook” of images and stories related to people you look up to, things you want to accomplish or traits you want to develop in yourself. The simple act of thumbing through it every day for a minute or two can work wonders for your motivation.
Read success stories. Learn what successful people go through to achieve their success. Internalize it. Look forward to writing your own success story (or if you’re really ambitious, look forward to having someone write it about you..!)
Make a “quote board” with motivational quotes. A big poster will do – read them in your downtime for inspiration.
Turn off the TV – do everything you can to phase out mind-numbing programming from your lifestyle.
Ask “Did I make the most of this day?” every night before you go to sleep. Strive to answer a resounding YES to that question – but always be honest, or it is meaningless.
Blog about your progress. Try to get a few readers – just having someone to be accountable to can help you keep your eye on the ball.
Give yourself a big reward at the end of the tunnel – something like a trip or vacation to really excite you and keep you on the path to success.
Try your best to stop yourself from using self defeating language or thoughts. Whenever something pops into mind, question it and extinguish it, and move onto something more positive.
Meditate. Even 15 minutes a day can work wonders for your mind, and prevent frustration with the minutia of everyday life.
Take periodic breaks from studying/working. Give yourself a five minute break every 18-20 minutes, and a 15 minute break every hour for longer sessions.
Remind yourself that only you are in control of your destiny in life. Nobody else. You are more than powerful enough to handle everything that comes your way. Believe it and success is yours for the taking.
Take action right now – stop yourself whenever you start using the “tomorrow” or “next week I will..” self-talk. Today is the deed.
Model your behavior after someone. I have written about this at length on my blog. It can be a powerful tool for instilling positive traits within.

Concentration – Learning to master your ability to concentrate and focus on the task at hand can provide wonderful benefits in all aspects of life. These tips should help you accomplish just that, and prevent you from feeling overwhelmed or frustrated with your daily tasks or larger goals.

The best time to concentrate is after reading something that is inspiring – as you’re filled with desire afterwards. Make this a habit before doing something you know needs to be done (but you don’t really want to do).
Watch yourself during the day and make sure your muscles don’t get overly relaxed or strained.
Get in the habit of taking deep, steady breaths instead of short, rapid ones. Think internally about how meaningful each breath is. Your steadier breathing will make for a more relaxing and productive disposition.
When you decide to do something, eliminate all other tasks from your mind while you’re working. Thinking about other things while you’re working on something will only lead to frustration and poor quality of work. And by thinking about other things you could be doing, you prevent yourself from ever having the chance at achieving “flow” state.
Turn off distractions when you work or study – no TV, cell phones, iPods, etc… The only truly effective distraction (don’t lie to yourself and tell yourself you need TV) is not really a distraction at all – classical music from the baroque period has been shown to facilitate concentration and learning, due to its 60 bpm tempo.
Research shows that concentration works best in spans of about 18 minutes. Every 18 minutes, make sure to give yourself a little break (4-5 minutes) and return fresh and ready to push on when the break has passed. You’ll notice the differences right away.
Exercising and eating right can work wonders for your ability to concentrate – more on this below…
Prime your mind with the help of subliminal messages
Get in the habit of “practicing concentration.” Like anything else, it is a skill which can be learned over time. Do a concentration exercise every day for five minutes or so and soon (be patient) you will see promising results. We’ve included some helpful exercises, courtesy of SuccessConsciousness.com below –
Ex1: Take a book and count the words in any one paragraph. Count them again to be sure that you have counted them correctly. Start with one paragraph and when it becomes easier, count the words in a whole page. Perform the counting mentally and only with your eyes, without pointing your finger at each word.
Ex2: Count backwards in your mind, from one hundred to one.
Ex3: Count in your mind from one hundred to one, skipping each three numbers, that is 100, 97, 94, etc.
Ex4: Choose an inspiring word, or just a simple sound, and repeat it silently in your mind for five minutes. When your mind can concentrate more easily, try to reach ten minutes of uninterrupted concentration.
Ex5: Take a fruit, an apple for example, and look at it from all sides. Concentrate your attention on it and examine it from all sides. Devote the whole session to concentrating on it. Do not be carried away by irrelevant thoughts that arise. Stay with the apple. It could be any other fruit. Look at it and do not think about the shop where you bought it, about the way it is grown, its nutritive value etc, only about the object in front of you. Just look at it, see it, smell it and touch it.
Ex6: This is the same as exercise number 5, only that this time you visualize the fruit with your eyes closed. Start by performing again exercise number 5 for five minutes, and then do this one. Try to see, feel, taste, smell the fruit in you imagination. Try to see a clear and well defined image. If difficulties arise open your eyes, look at the fruit, close them again and continue the exercise.
Ex7: Take a small simple object such as a spoon, a fork, or a glass. Concentrate on one of these objects. Watch the object from all sides without any verbalization, that is, with no words in your mind. Just watch the object without thinking with words about it.
Ex8: After becoming proficient in the above exercises, you can come to this exercise. Draw a small geometrical figure, about three inches in size, such as a triangle, a rectangular or a circle, paint it with any color you wish, and concentrate on it. You should see only the figure, nothing else. Only the figure exists for you now, with no unrelated thoughts or any distractions. Try not to think with words during the exercise. Watch the figure in front of you and that’s it. Try not to strain your eyes.
Ex9: The same as number 8, only this time visualize the figure with the eyes closed. As before, if you forget how the figure looks like, open your eyes for a few seconds and watch the figure and then close your eyes and continue with the exercise.
Ex10: The same as above in number 9 but the eyes open.
Ex11: Try for at least five minutes, to stay without thoughts. This exercise is to be attempted only after all the previous ones have been performed successfully. The previous exercises, if practiced correctly, will endow you with the ability to impose silence on your thoughts. In time it will become easier and easier.
Read “The Power of Concentration” by Theron Q. Dumont for inspiring prose and great additional exercises.

Subconscious Change – Sometimes accessing the power of your subconscious mind gives you the added boost you need to reach your goals and attain lasting personal change. These tips I have found most helpful and tend to make for interesting conversation as well!

Record affirmations on your iPod (as in the previous tip) but play them back very quietly as you drift off to sleep. Use headphones if you are comfortable enough to fall asleep with them on. Leave the affirmations on repeat for the duration of your sleep.
If you use your computer primarily for web browsing and don’t need to run memory intense programs, then subliminal messaging software might work for you. The programs flash your selected phrases on screen quickly to be absorbed by your subconscious but not your conscious mind.
Select three to four videos from the Intelligent Warrior subliminal video series and watch them each in sequence, twice daily, for thirty days. You can find these powerful subliminal message videos available for download on my blog.
Download free self-hypnosis software online and try it out until you find something that works for you.
Google & YouTube often have interesting Self-Hypnosis videos. Find one you like. Bookmark it, and watch it until you see results in yourself.
Select one video from the Intelligent Warrior series, and watch it 5 times daily for thirty days.
Watch all seven videos in the Intelligent Warrior series back to back, once through each day, for thirty days.
Use free audio editing software to insert your affirmations in the background of some of your favorite music. It works best with instrumentals, but can be applied elsewhere as well.

Environment – For some, it’s not so obvious that your environment can have profound effects on your mood and mentality. These quick tips can help you master your environment and master your mind in the process.

De-clutter. de-clutter, de-clutter. I can’t say this one enough. Clutter in your environment leads subconsciously, and sometimes consciously, to clutter in your mind. It ignites frustration and prevents you from feeling free enough to work effectively at accomplishing your tasks.
Use color in your workspace. Sure, lots of bright color may not always appear “professional,” but if you’re working at home, that’s no excuse. Use a variety of bright, bold colors to give your workspace a flare. Color is inspiring to the mind and will awaken your creative faculties without you even being aware of it. It works unexpected wonders – try it and see for yourself!
Curves and circles are more inspiring and are more effective at activating the mind than are straight lines and squares. Where possible, incorporate curvilinear lines and odd organic shapes in your workspace – whether it be in actual design, the layout of your things, or something as simple as your schedules and to-do lists. Oddly enough, you’ll find that by doing this, and incorporating color, you will begin to naturally remember more of what goes on when you’re working.
Leave yourself sticky-notes all over the place. Remind yourself not only of what you want to do, but how you want to do it. Remind yourself to be helpful and enthusiastic – sometimes just seeing the note will be all it takes to flip your bad mood on its side.
Use natural light as much as possible. If you don’t have windows in your workspace, buy light bulbs that mimic the daylight spectrum. It provides less strain on your eyes, so you’ll be able to focus better without the frustration.
Try out some feng shui.
Put plants in your home office or workspace. Including plants will increase the oxygen levels of the room naturally, and provide a calming, organic feel to aid in relaxation when frustration starts to bubble up.
Play background music – calming background music. Try classical music from the baroque period, that naturally facilitates learning and concentration.
Use mirrors liberally – constantly “look in” on yourself to make sure you’re doing what you truly want to be doing, to guide yourself towards your goals.
Include a LOT of motivational pictures or quotes around your workspace. Framed photos are not only a nice touch aesthetically, but they can be used to constantly remind yourself of what you’re working so hard to attain!
Give your room a light color – don’t paint it anything dark or imposing. Dark colors will make the room feel small and bounded, and you’ll find yourself often frustrated quickly and easily, or slipping often into bad moods.

Fitness & Nutrition – While many people understand that good health is important, sometimes the additional benefits are overlooked. Maintaining good habits here can have profound effects on your self esteem and your overall mindset. Don’t believe me? Give it a 40 day test run and you’ll never look back…

If you love something that’s bad for you – don’t eliminate it totally – just make sure to practice moderation. McDonald’s once or twice a month isn’t going to kill you. McDonald’s every day is.
Work out, work out, work out! No matter where you are in life – thin/fat, young/old, depressed/happy – working out will elevate you to the next level. It’s no mystery. Try it and see for yourself. Don’t start and overwhelm yourself, but rather introduce a level of fitness that’s appropriate for where you’re starting off from. Gradually build on this base, and enjoy as you become healthier and happier.
Eat chocolate! No, not Snickers bars or Reeses Pieces… but dark chocolate. Try Lindt’s 85% cocoa dark chocolate for a satisfying indulgence. Natural chocolate is actually good for you. It is filled with anandamides – chemical compounds found naturally in the body that elevate your mood. Great for a quick energy boost as well.
Drink plenty of water – make sure you’re getting MORE than 8 cups a day if you want to truly see some results. If you’re not drinking enough now, it may be hard to adjust at first. But within a few days to a week, you’ll feel more energetic, less bloated, and ready to take on the world.
Get your fruits and vegetables – MORE than five servings a day is optimal if you really want to see some effects. You’ll be loading up on good sugar (natural energy) and giving yourself the vitamins and nutrients you should have been getting all along. Remember – we didn’t get to where we are now by eating jelly donuts and breakfast-in-a-box. Eating natural is the right way to eat, and incorporating as much natural food into your diet as possible will provide enormous rewards in the short and long run.
Get up and go running in the morning. If you can’t run, walk. Do something that gets your heart pumping and the blood flowing early on. It will be great for your mood throughout the day (thanks to the natural release of endorphins), and chances are you’ll find yourself better able to concentrate and focus right from the start.
Take fish oil pills to provide your body with good fats. Take more than the recommended dosage to get the best effect. Remember – they’re just fatty oils, and good fats at that, so you can’t go wrong by loading up. Your heart, and your brain, will thank you day after day (by working better for you!).
Have sex. Lots of it. If you have no one to have sex with, practice the other 100 tips. You’ll likely then be irresistible to the opposite sex and have no problem with this one.
Take a Gingko Biloba supplement to boost your memory naturally and effectively.
Stretch in the morning – stretching will help you naturally feel good and feeling comfortable in your skin will work wonders for your mindset.
Eat lots of fish. Fish oil is great for your brain and your heart. You’ll feel better and be able to concentrate better in no time.
Work out by lifting weights. Give yourself at least 6 weeks to see any results at all – but once your body begins to take shape you’ll start to love the way you look and feel. Your confidence will shoot through the roof and before you know it you’ll be itching to head to the gym. It’s tough at first to overcome the soreness and “out of place” feeling, but it passes quickly – I promise!

Appearance – Not surprisingly, changing your appearance can work wonders on your mentality as well. If you aren’t 100% comfortable in your skin, ask yourself “why?” Be honest. Work through it – the rewards are invaluable… self esteem is priceless.

Get your hair done. Not just girls, but guys too. Make sure you’re well groomed and looking your best. Clean, well styled hair is one of the first things people notice about others.
Be nice to your skin – take care to eliminate cuts, bruises, acne, etc… The products that help for skin are countless, but the best start is proper nutrition.
Keep your body hair well groomed – shave and keep trimmed. Even if nobody else notices, you will – and you’ll feel better about yourself for it.
Maintain a healthy complexion – a nice, healthy tan. If you’re uncomfortable with tanning beds or being in the sun too long, try a Dove “Natural Glow” product. They work well and don’t give you the orange look, but rather the healthy, natural complexion you want. Proper nutrition will give you a natural glow over time, as well.
Dress to impress.
Pay attention to detail in your wardrobe and your grooming. Your attention will get noticed, people will be impressed.
Buy at least one REALLY nice suit or business outfit to wear when meeting potential clients or partners for the first time. You deserve to feel as good and as confident as you’ll look.
Get a manicure – yes, guys too. When your hands are well groomed you will feel more confident about yourself around others – guaranteed.
Work on your posture – stand up straight and tall (just like your mother told you). You’ll look more confident, and soon enough you’ll feel more confident too.
When in doubt, overdress. Dressing up helps you feel good, especially when you take the tips in the Fitness/Nutrition topic to heart and develop an attractive, physically fit body as well.
Practice projecting your voice. Whenever you find yourself home alone, read things aloud as if you were delivering a speech. Focus on annunciation and emphasis where appropriate. Soon you’ll be naturally more charismatic and attention-grabbing around others.

Record Keeping/Journals – While for some people this can be a nuisance, it really can lead to profound effects in your overall personal development, especially if you’re the type of person to have trouble “sticking” to something.

Keep a daily journal for everything – all of your random thoughts. Don’t spend all day writing – that defeats the purpose. Instead, sit down every once in a while for five minutes or so and jot down your thoughts. Don’t structure them or worry about appearance – just write.
If you want to develop a healthier mindset, keep a nutrition journal. Microsoft Excel can help with this one. Simply by paying attention to what goes in your body, you will be more inclined to control what you are eating. The result? A healthier, happier you (with the records to show others how you got there!).
If you’re trying to get in better shape, keep a photo journal. This can be as private as you want it to be. Stand in front of the mirror with your digital camera once a week. Take a head on, and a profile picture, both flexed and un-flexed. At first, it can be intimidating and embarrassing – but within a month or two, you will be looking forward to the next picture… and maybe even showing them off to your friends and family.
Keep a nightly journal where you answer the question “Did I make the most of this day?” If yes, why, if not, why not? Striving for more “yes” entries and understanding what went wrong in your “no” days will help you stay on the right track to achieving the mindset you want and attaining all of your goals.
Write down one thing you learned each day, and review it at the end of the week. Commit everything to long term memory by internalizing it with contemplative thought and repetition.
Write down one thing you want to learn, each morning. Learn it that day.
Keep a brief time-log. Seeing how much time you spend on different tasks throughout the day can help you understand where you’re going wrong (or right). Make sure you’re not wasting too much time on activities that have no return!
If you’re striving to attain any goal at all – find something in that goal that is measurable. Measure the hell out of it. Seek to improve… all the time.
If you’re trying to mold your mind, chances are you’re trying to overcome at least one or two bad habits. Every time you encounter one of those bad habits in your day, step aside and write it down. Do your best to steer yourself in the right direction, no matter what it takes. Reflect on this later, and pride yourself on overcoming your old, bad self!
If you’re close to someone, have them jot down thoughts about you during the day as well. Sometimes, seeing yourself through someone else’s point of view can help you figure out what you’re doing wrong, or right, or open your eyes to things you didn’t even know you should be working on improving. Make sure you choose someone who cares about you and who will not pass judgment, but rather give you an honest view of yourself when you ask for it.

Last but not least, read my Blog daily! This one speaks for itself 🙂