#AndyAndrews #ChangeTheWorld #OnePersonCanChangeTheWorld
t’s hard to determine what thing, words etc. will motivate someone.
The words, “By your hand, the world will be fed, or live, or be free” motivated lots of well-known folks in Andy Andrews’ book, “The Lost Choice: A Legend of Personal Discovery.”
The book relates a story of pieces of a relic that travels through history and winds up in the hands of a young couple in Colorado.
The translated inscription offered motivation to various historical figures.
The point: you can make choices that can change the world.
That’s a particularly appropriate message for folks today.
We tend to let circumstances dictate our choices. Certainly, circumstances can affect some choices, but only we can dictate our choices.
It’s perhaps best to illustrate it this way: a lost job is a circumstance, usually beyond one’s control. Blaming people or institutions for our circumstance is not the best choice to expend our energy. Looking for a different way to earn money would be a much better choice.
Getting a different job may not “change the world,” but it could change YOUR world for the moment.
So the new job you got, if you were so fortunate, doesn’t pay as well as the one you lost. You could choose to blame the changing world, and long for the good old days that will never come back. That would not be the best choice.
Or, you could look for something completely different from what you are doing – or did – and really change your world, and perhaps many others’ worlds as well. That would be a better choice.
Where does one find such a world-changing vehicle? Actually, there are many such vehicles out there, for those willing to look for them. To check out one of the best, message me.
Andrews’ book illustrates in great detail how the actions of one person can change the world. Many of the individuals he features became well-known for their feats. Some were not so well-known, but no less extraordinary.
The young couple’s choice to research the origins of the relic they’d found in their yard, rather than, say, use it as a paper weight and forget about it, or, worse, throw it away as insignificant, was world-changing for them.
We can change the world in big ways, or little ways. We can start a business that ultimately employs hundreds, or even thousands, or we can pick up litter we see on the street and discard it properly.
So, pondering the choices you make, or have made, what choices would you make in the future to change the world. How would you help others more? If, indeed, you believe that what goes around comes around, you’ll believe that the more you concentrate on helping others, regardless of your circumstances, the more likely you will ultimately be rewarded handsomely.
We don’t always know when such rewards will come for us, so we bask in the reward of knowing that what we did made someone else’s life better, even for a moment.
So, make good choices. Don’t let circumstances force bad choices. And, be on the lookout for the person already in your life, or who will come into your life, that will present you with a world-changing choice.
Peter
Monthly Archives: September 2017
BE ADAPTABLE, LIKE SNOOPY
#BeAdaptable #Snoopy #CharlieBrown #Peanuts
Snoopy, Charlie Brown’s dog, had many alter egos.
He was, at times, the Easter Beagle, Joe Cool, World War I Flying Ace or Joe Grunge.
Being adaptable is just one of the leadership lessons in the book,”You’re A Leader, Charlie Brown,” which puts Charles Schulz’s words into lessons, with the help of Carla Curtsinger and Brian Tracy.
Other leadership qualities the book touts are perseverance, presence, communication, listening, inspiration, teamwork, loyalty, acceptance, and celebration.
All these attributes are important, and were displayed by the various characters in the Peanuts gang. Fans of the comic strip can undoubtedly match the trait with a character.
Adaptability is perhaps a key attribute in today’s world. Have you, or anyone you know, been hired for a specific job, and, sometime into the tenure, have seen that job change – perhaps multiple times?
Just when you get comfortable being pigeon-holed into a role, it changes. With companies, in today’s world, that undoubtedly happens often.
Sometimes, the result of rapid change means someone, perhaps you, loses a job.
When change comes, you have a choice. You can complain about what has happened to you, and long for the good old days (weren’t you just complaining about those days yesterday?). Or, you can adapt.
Adapting, mind you, is more than just living with what is. It is quickly buying in – even embracing – the new circumstance. Those that do can consider themselves leaders.
Those leaders find new ways to do things. They figure out not just how to make the best of – even thrive in – a situation different from what they were used to. They learn how to make themselves, and their company, successful.
Many of you are probably now, or have recently, undergone a change in your situation, be it professional or personal. How have you dealt with that? Does your adaptation make you proud of yourself? Did what you thought would be a bad outcome turn out well? Did you make it turn out well?
Adaptability is one thing that we all must learn, because, seemingly with each passing day, something is thrown at us that we didn’t expect. Consider residents of the Southeast U.S. and Texas, dealing with recent hurricanes, for the ultimate lessons in adaptability.
If you’ve gone through, or are going through, a situation that requires significant adjustment to your life or career, and are looking for a vehicle that could turn things to your favor, such vehicles are out there for those open to looking for them. To check out one of the best, message me.
You don’t have to have multiple personalities, or multiple identities, like Snoopy, to adapt to change.
But it is up to you to make the new situation the best it can be. It may not always be easy, and it may require different adjustments with each change, but you can’t expect others to make the adjustments for you.
With flexibility comes success. If your situation is good now, and you don’t believe it will ever change, presume that it will. You may not know when, or see the change coming, but today’s world demands change and flexibility.
We are all creative. When change comes, it will be up to us how we adjust, lest we be punished for not adjusting.
Peter
DO WHAT YOU LOVE; LOVE WHAT YOU DO
#DoWhatYouLove #LoveWhatYouDo #BuildALife
If it weren’t work, they wouldn’t pay you for it.
If you do what you love, you’ll never work again.
You work so you can have the things you want in life.
Instead of building a life around income-producing activities, build a life – then figure out how to make money.
All of these axioms are true. Depending on the type of person you are, some ring truer than the others. If you hate your job, the first and third ring especially true. If you love your job, the second one probably fits you. If you are among the few who’ve looked for, and found, ways to produce income WITHOUT having a traditional or typical “job,” the fourth statement can be your mantra.
As the job scene changes, we don’t have the luxury of reliving the past. We have to find a way to deal with what is today. The economic downturn of 2008 changed a lot of lives. Some people’s jobs were lost and will never return. Those who stayed employed may have found their jobs have changed – probably forever.
If the first axiom rings true for you, and you lost your job, you are probably out pounding the pavement looking for another one. If you’ve found another one, you are lucky. If you are still looking years later, perhaps a new strategy is needed. You may have to figure out what your skills are, and figure out how to parlay those skills into a business of your own. When you own your own business, no one can fire you, or lay you off. However, you can do it to yourself if you give up on it too soon. If you need an immediate income, you may have to resort to finding a different job, even if it pays less – and most do – than you had made previously.
START YOUR OWN BUSINESS
If you’ve saved well, invested well and were wise about how you’ve lived – and have lost your job — you may now have the luxury of starting a business and staying with it until it succeeds. If you do this successfully, the second axiom could ring true to you. If you have a business, you’d better love what you do, or learn to love it, because it will take the routine out of your previous life. It could consume you, especially if it is either wildly successful, or a real struggle to keep afloat. Remember that being in business for yourself involves more than just doing what you do. You have to market yourself, and find ways to let others know you are out there and available for them. That may not come easily to most, but it’s vital to your success.
If you are working, and don’t think your job will ever disappear, remember we are in an age in which companies reorganize often. You might want to take to heart the fourth axiom. Look around for any number of ways to produce income. To learn about one of the best vehicles for that, message me.
You can set up an income stream without it interfering with what you are doing now. Never believe that you’ll always be able to work at a job on YOUR terms. Try to make yourself “retirement ready,” even if you are young and believe you have a lot of good years left.
Who knows? You might be so successful at your part-time gig, you’ll have forgotten how much you loved your old job. Remember, too, that anything good requires some effort. Starting now to build a part-time income can reap big rewards later. You may even have fun doing it!
Work is changing. So are the ways people can make money. No matter your situation, look to leverage your time and income to build the life you’ve always wanted.
Peter
WAGE DISPARITY AND THE SHRINKING MIDDLE CLASS
#WageDisparity #MiddleClass #WageGapBetweenWealthiestAndRest #IncomeGrowth
A Pew Research study says middle-income Americans have fared worse in many ways than their counterparts in Western Europe in recent decades.
Meanwhile, business writer Rex Huppke of the Chicago Tribune says the wage gap between the richest and the poorest is jaw-dropping, and that CEOs are going to have to deal with the problem sooner or later.
Nelson D. Schwartz wrote about the Pew Research study on the middle class for The New York Times. His article was published May 29, 2017, in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Huppke’s article about wage disparity was published May 28, 2017, in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Schwartz’s article talks about a man in Gillespie, Ill., whom his neighbors consider lucky. After a year out of work, he found another job making cardboard boxes that pays him $19.60 an hour. The steel-mill job he lost paid $28 an hour.
“The middle class is struggling for sure, and almost anybody in my position will tell you that,” Schwartz quotes Gillespie.
The reporter points out that although the U.S. has a higher median income than Europe’s, the Europeans are catching up. Median incomes in the middle tier grew 9 percent between 1991 and 2010, compared with a 25 percent growth in Denmark and 35 percent in Great Britain, Schwartz writes.
That kind of U.S. growth only widens the wage gap between the wealthiest and the rest.
Data collected by the AFL-CIO show the average pay for an S&P 500 CEO last year was $13.1 million. That’s 347 times the average American worker’s pay, Huppke quotes the labor union’s study. Meanwhile, online jobs review site Glass-door says the CEOs only made 205 times more than average workers at their companies, Huppke writes.
In other words, pay for the honchos growing and pay for the working stiffs is shrinking.
Why should the CEOs care?
“Ignoring this disparity is as short-sighted as it is counterproductive for the future health of an organization,” Huppke writes. “They’ll (CEOs) will hear a lot less complaining about their giant paychecks if they find a way to grow everyone else’s as well,” Huppke writes.
Believe it or not, the news is not all bad for the working stiffs. There are plenty of ways for any person, from any background or education, to raise his income – perhaps not at the job he is working at now.
The key is to be open to looking at such ways openly, and be willing to do something you may not have ever done. As a bonus, you’ll have a way to help others prosper, too. To check out one of the best such vehicles, message me.
As another aside, many CEOs are going to scratch their heads in wonder why fewer folks are buying their products. Perhaps your customers have been forced to spend less because their pay keeps shrinking. People work for you, but can’t afford to buy what they help make. Certainly, some of that is inevitable, but if a company makes an affordable, everyday product, the folks that make it should be able to afford to buy it.
It will take work to fix the problems of income disparity and the shrinking middle class. Perhaps the powers that be will get the message and fix it, but it would be more prudent for each person to take matters into his own hands. It can be done, if you have the desire to change and better yourself.
Peter