01-JANUARY 22-2023

Just another great day in Newfoundland…

A small village just outside St. Johns where we passed some time!

January 22, 2022

Build On Your Strengths

Every one of us is born with our own unique talents and areas of potential excellence.  The best you’ll ever be at a weakness is mediocre.  Why waste your precious time to do what others are already far better at?  Instead, search out those areas where you have a natural proclivity, and then build on those.

• Find something you’re good at without trying hard – and then try hard.
• As a parent, your job is to be a student of your children and help them find that unique spark within them and fan it into full flame.  As a person, it’s your job to do that for yourself.
• Don’t let your job description define who you are and what you do.  Sometimes you have to be the one who speaks up and shows up.
• Being a real leader doesn’t mean you’re the one who knows how to do it all.  It means you’re the one who knows how to get it done, which always means working together with the talents and skills of others.

ACTION STEP
Give yourself a natural-strength inventory.  Write out a list of everything you can think of that you are naturally inclined to be good at.  Ask yourself, “Okay, what are my strengths, and what are my weaknesses?  What am I naturally inclined to be good at?”  Forget the “not very good ats” and focus exclusively on the “good ats.”

January 22, 2021

Good morning.
The trade war.  The pandemic.  The election.  All the big catalysts that can move markets up or down are now off the table.  So what’s next?  Until a new catalyst emerges, expect markets to drift.
With markets in a long-term uptrend, the drift will likely be higher.  Individual names can still have some big news on corporate announcements and earnings reports.  And look for potential catalysts that could provide the market’s next big move, whether higher (stimulus) or lower (war, pandemic, today’s high valuations).

Now here’s the rest of the news:

A “Cash Panic” Has Just Begun  
The Nasdaq hit 13,000 for the first time in history…
Bitcoin’s topped $40,000 – and even with the recent correction following negative remarks from Janet Yellen, is still up nearly 40% over the past month…
The words “mania,” “euphoria,” and “frenzy” are all over the financial press.
Even professional money managers are buying into a market that seems unflappable – even in the face of a global pandemic, historic unemployment, and civil unrest.
In fact, a recent Bank of America Merrill Lynch survey highlighted fund managers stampeding OUT of cash at record levels … And pumping billions of dollars into a specific corner of the financial markets.
What’s really going on?

January 22, 2020

“The superior man is modest in his speech, but exceeds in his actions.” –Confucius

As an entrepreneur, and in business for yourself, we are told to: Over-Deliver And Sell More.  The trick, if there is one, is to NOT GO BROKE in the process.

Once you’ve converted a prospect into a customer, strive to over-deliver.  After buying it, they’ll continue to believe (or find ways to convince themselves) that they’ve made the right choice, even if people around them realize that they may have made the wrong decision.  However, there are times when people around might be influential enough to make your customer doubt his/her own judgment, resulting in what we may call “buyer’s remorse.”

One thing you can do to assure their satisfaction and minimize refunds is to communicate with the buyer immediately after (s)he has purchased.  Say something like, “Thank you for investing in [your product].  You’ve made a great decision…”  Note the word “investing.”  It is much more powerful than “buying” or “purchasing” because it connotes that something of equal or greater value will come back in either tangible or intangible form, as opposed to “buying” which has the impression of spending money.  Then by saying that they made a great decision, you are confirming the belief of making the right move.  Think of a time when you know you did the right thing.  Having someone else tell you that you made a wise decision makes you more confident in what you’ve done, doesn’t it?

The same principle applies in sales.
Start building your relationship with your customer.  Give them a free item now and then.  Give free personal advice and let them know how to contact you anytime they need anything.  Then as the relation-ship gets better, take note of their birth-day, sons & daughters, recreation, sports or their job … anything relevant.  Give ’em greeting cards during their birthday and other special occasions.  [Be professional … just don’t be creepy.]

“The main difference was that I was willing to outwork and outdo every competitor
who walked in through that door.” —Ann Miura-Ko

January 22, 2019

A book review of sorts… Not really about Shakespeare and not of author John Keats, but of a real life explanation of the phrase “Negative Capability”, used in the book.  The most exciting thing about the new year is usually the chance to start over with a clean slate.

Some people will mark the transition with new resolutions and some will choose to carry on with the routines and systems they already established in the previous year.

As you continue to orchestrate your life story, read on below for the most important thing you can learn from one of the greatest story-tellers of all time!

                      “How Shakespeare Wrote The Greatest Stories? — Negative Capability”

Encyclopaedia Britannica defines negative capability as:

“… a writer’s ability, ‘which Shakespeare possessed so enormously,’ to accept uncertainties, mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact and reason.”

In 1817, John Keats used this phrase in a letter to his brothers, first!

Negative capability is the capacity to embrace mystery.  To be still and observe or reflect before we rush into fixing situations that we barely understand with our previously accumulated knowl-edge, which might be inadequate given the circumstances.  In essence, it is the courage to admit that we do not always know how things will pan out; and the self discipline to let new possibilities unfold without meddling.  This is the force that drives creativity and discovery, for one can not advance their knowledge by always falling back on predetermined conclusions.

Only by surrendering to life’s big questions can we arrive at new inventions and previously unimagined insights.

[Sorry… this is getting too lengthy… ’till tomorrow then… chow!]  🙂