Business Intelligence

The Way to Personal Achievement

by Napoleon Hill (08400)

All achievement, including every fortune ever built, have their beginning in an idea. The wealth comes from turning the idea from something we can see in our mind’s eye alone into something that serves other people, and for which they are willing to pay. This is done through auto-suggestion, organized planning, mastermind association and an inner harmony between the thoughts of your mind and the actions and achievements of your life.

You literally become and achieve what you think about all day long. To control your life, control your thoughts.

“The ladder of success is never crowded at the top.”

“Success requires no explanations. Failure permits no alibis.”

“Happiness is found in doing, not merely in possessing.”

“Anybody can wish for riches, and most people do, but only a few know that a definite plan, plus a burning desire for wealth, are the one dependable means of accumulating wealth.”

Ten Things You Need to Do Now to Have Money and the Time to Enjoy It
Michael LeBoeuf (04700)

At the end of the twentieth century, one in every fourteen U.S. households had a net worth of $1 million or more. In practical terms, that means the opportunity to obtain the financial freedom to do whatever you want is statistically closer now than at any other time in history.

For most people, however, the goal is not simply to achieve millionaire status, but to have sufficient time and money to do whatever they feel passionate about. In other words, money alone, without the time to enjoy it, is not so great.

Put differently, true financial freedom means to have enough money and enough time to enjoy it. To achieve that in practice, you have to master four different skill sets:

1. You need to make enough money so you have discretionary funds to invest.
2. You have to learn how to save money rather than spending every dime you make (and borrowing still more).
3. You must master how to invest your money in such a way it will continue to appreciate in value regardless of the market cycles.
4. You need to know how to enjouy your money — something most people consider a no-brainer.

Relatively few people manage to master all four skills, but until you do, financial freedom will remain just like a mirage, which is consistently beyond your grasp. And yet, if you commit to learning and doing everything that’s requjired, you almost certainly will become a millionaire.

So how do you create the millionaire that already lies inside you?

1. See the possibilities, which lie in abundance everywhere around you every single day.
2. Do what it takes to create your fortune using your unique set of skills, talents and interests.
3. Know when to step back, celebrate your financial freedom and enjoy it.

The Millionnaire in You

12 Practical Steps to Taking Smarter Risks in Business

by Eileen Shapiro and Howard Stevenson (14300)

To make your own luck and thereby have better control of your destiny, focus on increasing your “predictive intelligence” — your ability to act in the face of uncertainty to create the future you desire. Predictive intelligence grows when the four-step process is followed:

Orient
Organize
Plan
Act!

Predictive intelligence is not something you’re either born with or you’re not. Rather, predictive intelligence is generated by a set of twelve orient-organize-plan-act! skills that can be improved and enhanced, just like any other business skills.

All our work is based on the premise that every purposive action is a bet; one acts now on the expectation or hope, but not the certainty, or the results that will be achieved in the future. Humans are gambling animals. We all gamble all the time. Every time we act, we invest time, or reputation, or effort, or money with no guarantee that the results we seek, no matter how likely they may seem, will occur as we have planned — or as we will desire when the results occur. Once we’ve placed any of our assets at risk, we’ve placed a bet. No matter what our preferences, none of us can avoid gambling as we live our lives. What we can do is use our Predictive Intelligence to up the odds that over time, the portfolio of bets we place will lead to the kind of future or futures we envision or desire. Then we can go from depending on dumb luck to making our own luck and taking more control over our destinies. The higher your Predictive Intelligence, the more agile and fast you will be at making your own luck by identifying the best bets and then taking action when and while opportunities are available. This is more than being lucky; people with high PI consistently make their own luck; they take whatever circumstances they are in and create bets with the best odds for getting them closer to the outcomes they seek. You can think of Predictive Intelligence as a kind of consistent street smarts applied to a series of goals

–Eileen Shapiro and Howard Stevenson

Make Your Own Luck

Work Less, Worry Less, Succeed More, Enjoy More

by Richard Koch (14100)

By doing less, you can actually end up achieving more.

The key is to make sure you’re doing less of what adds only marginal value (most likely 80 percent of your current tasks) and focus instead on doing better whatever generates the majority of the value you add (the other 20 percent). To find the time to do this, don’t even try doing your marginal value tasks. Instead, focus on your key tasks and completely drop everything else.

In practice, the best way to ahieve this is to work backwards from where you want to end up.

First, describe your destination — something personally motivating that cuts through all the irrelevancies and spells out where you want to end up in terms of personal development, career, money, relationships and quality of life. Define what you really want.

Next, figure out your 80/20 route possibilties. Usually there will be a number of options for reaching your specified destination. Your 80/20 route will be many times more productive than all the other options, and it will be easier for you to do.

Finally, get into action. Do the very few things that will hel pyou achieve more with less effort than you ever thought possible. It is only when you actually take action rather than merely knowing what you should be doing that changes will start to occur.

Living the 80/20 Way

(16407) Dave Lakhani says:

If you’re a recognized expert in your field, people will take more notice of your opinions. To become a guru:

Narrow your focus — define a clear area of expertise and know a lot about a little.

Study your subject matter intensively — because it takes about 1,000 hours of practice to become an expert at anything.

Develop some opinions and original ideas — and then start sharing your opinions with others. Just be sure you can back up whatever you say with facts.

Publish — write a book, a white paper or something similar. This provides instant credibility.

Get your own radio program or cable TV program.

Write a blog — a web-based log which tracks the development of your ideas. Do regular posts so people can develop a taste for your ideas and ongoing research.

Promote yourself — by developing your own press kit you can send out with your information products. Or send our copies of good articles about you to clients and associates. Spread the message that you’re an expert in your field, and before long gurudom will be yours for the taking.