The Primacy of Truth and Justice

 Truth is reality in itself, not any perception of or reasoning about it. Its existence begins in spiritual form before its manifestation in material form. Anything that is not predicated upon truth is unreality—a lie.

That is why telling the truth to yourself first and then to family, colleagues and business associates is imperative for the virtuous entrepreneur who is seeking true wealth. Building relationships of trust demands truth as the foundation of trustworthiness. The only way a person will come to trust you is if they find that you always tell the truth, even if it hurts you.

When it comes to making critical decisions that will impact profits over long periods, wise business leaders look for trustworthy associates whom they know will tell them the truth and stand by their commitments.

Many entrepreneurs cut corners, promise more than they can deliver, and function based on their perception of taking advantage of others. They may appear to succeed over the short term, but eventually, they are exposed as the untrustworthy, untruthful, and unreliable people they really are.

Truth is a rare commodity that is found only in virtuous entrepreneurs who love themselves to such an extent that they show love to others by fair dealing, win-win diplomacy, and honest truth-telling in business deals and personal relationships.

Justice is God’s definition of what is right. It is not based on any partisan view or political persuasion, but rather on the Golden Rule. It is important for entrepreneurs who want to function in a virtuous manner to practice justice in all their business and interpersonal dealings.

In the realm of business, justice means that you commit that you will not enter any deal that is disadvantageous to any person or entity involved in the venture and that no harm or disadvantage will come to the end users or consumers of the products or services that are produced by the deal. It means that all the details of the deal will be set forth fully in writing and that pains are taken to make sure that everyone involved is clear about what work, activity, product, or service is expected from each, and how, at what time and under what specific circumstances each will receive compensation for performance or no or limited compensation for non-performance.

The most direct way to ensure justice in a business deal is to create a Performance Contract that spells out clearly and succinctly what is to be done by whom, when, where, and how it is to be delivered, and the consequences for both performance and non-performance. A properly written Performance Agreement will minimize to zero litigation and the waste of time and money that occurs when business partners disagree over the terms and conditions of a given deal.

The virtuous entrepreneur who commits to the primacy of truth aligns with fair dealing, and functions with justice in all personal and business dealings will always gain true wealth and maintain financial security for a lifetime.

Preparation for Initiation: The Tenth Virtue of Maat

 The Tenth Virtue of the Ten Virtues of Maat is preparation for initiation. In essence, this Tenth Virtue is the launching pad from which you will make the decision to change your current paradigm of drifting through life, commit yourself to personal growth, and choose to do the hard work of identifying your definite purpose in life and giving your whole self to its pursuit.

Preparation for initiation is your decision to move away from talking about going into business for yourself and taking the necessary action to do so. It is moving away from simply thinking about going into business and actually doing it.  Preparation for initiation is moving away from merely asking the theoretical questions related to going into a particular business and embracing the practical reality of setting up a shop.

The first step of preparation for initiation is to secure the services of an experienced coach who will work with you over a reasonable amount of time and raise your awareness of the potential that is within you. A world-class coach will challenge and stretch you beyond your comfort zone, and support you as you take definite actions toward the goals you set for yourself.

Preparation for initiation includes doing the self-work necessary to rid yourself of self-limiting and self-sabotaging thinking and behaviors. In addition, it requires that you chart a specific direction for yourself, align your thoughts and actions to that self-decided direction, and then commit yourself to follow through in that direction starting right now. 

Confidence in Your Own Ability: The Ninth Virtue of Maat

 The ninth virtue of Maat is confidence in your own ability. Without confidence in your own ability, you can never achieve personal and business success. The power of who you are as a person created in the image and likeness of God cannot be unleashed until you believe in yourself. This belief in the self and the self’s ability to succeed is an acknowledgment of the power of God’s DNA at work within you.

 The true atheist is not the one who disclaims belief in the Deity who created the universe and humankind, but the one who refuses to believe in the Self that was created by God. To denigrate your own ability is to practice false humility—the attempt to appear humble, when in fact, you are insulting the God who created you.

 You are what and who you persistently think and believe you are. If you practice seeing yourself and feeling yourself to be successful, that is what you will ultimately become. Confidence in your own ability is the driver of your personal growth and expansion, just as belief that you will fail is the driver of your stagnation..

Confidence in the Power of the Master (Teacher): The Eighth Virtue of Maat

 The eighth virtue of Maat is confidence in the power of the master (teacher). This virtue is important because you do not know everything there is to know about the business you will choose to begin from scratch or purchase as a franchise or licensee. You must learn the ropes from somebody and you will not learn what you need to know if you have no confidence in the power of the person who is teaching you what you need to know about the business.

 The virtue that is hiding behind this eighth virtue is that of humility. A prideful person has difficulty acknowledging that anyone knows more than she or he about anything. Consequently, many entrepreneurs are struggling in business because they refuse to learn from those more experienced than they are or to take their advice.

 It’s not always pride that can make you leery about having confidence in the power of the master (teacher), sometimes it’s your bad past experience with a so-called teacher who turned out to be incompetent at best or a shyster at worst. That is why you must check out carefully the company or the business you choose to invest in to make sure that the people who will be teaching you the ropes know what they are doing. 

Freedom from Resentment: The Seventh Virtue of Maat

 The Seventh Virtue of the Ten Virtues of Maat is freedom from resentment. It’s amazing how many people are stuck in an undesirable space in life simply because of their resentment toward other people: a parent, a sibling, a former lover, a current colleague or fellow worker, to name just a few. In too many cases, resentment is the excuse unsuccessful people use to justify their failures in life.

They love to blame others for what is actually their own inadequacy. They will talk about the father who abandoned them, the mother who didn’t love them, the teacher who discouraged them, the close friend or lover who betrayed them, and on and on.

To have freedom from resentment is to be so self-directed that you will not allow any person or circumstance to keep you from attaining the goals you have set for yourself. Freedom from resentment provides you a platform from which you can create, innovate, and focus on your positive future, rather than to stay mired in your bothersome past or hurtful present. As a virtuous, highly successful entrepreneur, you will learn that the pure success you earn in your life is far sweeter than any bad feelings you could have harbored or any acts of revenge you could have carried out.

The way to gain freedom from resentment is to make yourself grow large enough internally to forgive the people who have wronged, betrayed or otherwise treated you unfairly. Forgiveness is not easy, but it is easier than holding on to resentment, because resentment traps and holds you, while forgiveness sets you free to become all you can be.

Along the road to economic prosperity, there will be potholes and other rough spots that are designed to discourage and waylay you as you seek after true wealth—wealth that includes financial success. Remember that the Law of Attraction will bring you whatever you focus on in your mind. Don’t waste time and energy on negative thoughts of resentment because they will attract more negative things and people to your life. Forgive those who have wronged you, and the Lord God whom you have wronged will forgive you.

Evidence of a Call to Spiritual Order: The Sixth Virtue of Maat

 The Sixth Virtue of the Ten Virtues of Maat is evidence of a call to spiritual order. Spiritual order is that state of being that is fully aware that one cannot live for oneself and family alone: one has a call to destiny that goes beyond one’s own private sphere of living. One has the obligation and responsibility to live a virtuous life that impacts, influences, and encourages others to follow suit.

The old adage, “To whom much is given, much is required,” is in play here. Every successful entrepreneur is a leader, whether she or he understands that or not. A leader is someone who is followed. People who wish to become successful follow the lead of those they believe to be successful. Because people will be watching you as you develop into a highly successful individual, you must be a good example for them to follow.

You cannot afford to be selfish or stingy or rude if you intend to obtain true wealth. You must show love, compassion, empathy, and personal discipline. You cannot live the kind of life that you’ve seen some rich people live. Your life must have meaning, purpose and spiritual order. True wealth and long-term profitability can never reside in a person who lives a dissolute life—a life wasted in self-indulgence and self-absorption.

I am looking for people who are striving to obtain true wealth, who want to positively impact the lives of other people, and who are willing to live a life that can be emulated. There are many entrepreneurial-minded people out there who will make lots of money, but who will never be able to produce evidence of a call to spiritual order. I am not against such people: but they’re not the kind and caliber of people I want on my team. If you’re ready to pay the price that it will cost to live for more than money, then you should be in touch with me.

Showing Evidence of a Mission: The Fifth Virtue of Maat

 The Fifth Virtue of the Ten Virtues of Maat is showing evidence of a mission. There is more to the Virtuous Entrepreneur than merely earning a living or creating wealth for the family. There must be a sense of mission that is evidenced in the passion one exhibits about what one does. Passion is feeling; it is emotional involvement in the work undertaken. It is not cold-blooded, but warm-blooded engagement in providing the goods and/or services that one provides.

In a court of law, every fact must be proved by evidence that goes well beyond the mere speaking or articulation of a particular fact. There must be something more than talk, more than promise, more than the usual hype that accompanies all good advertisement. So, too, the Virtuous Entrepreneur must demonstrate evidence of a mission that grounds, rationalizes and supports her or his business activities.

True wealth, in all its aspects, precedes and follows the Virtuous Entrepreneur. That is why the committed entrepreneur who is seeking more than mere financial wealth must develop her or his character to such an extent that the passion for excellence, dependability and service to others becomes the evidence of a mission that envelops and consumes her or his life.

We exist for much more than eating, sleeping, working, having fun, and then getting up and doing that all over again. Each of us is here for a purpose—a purpose that makes life worth living for not only ourselves, but also for everyone with whom we have the privilege to influence.

The secret to showing evidence of a mission is to find your purpose. When you have found your purpose, you will find your passion. And when you have found your passion, you will be the evidence that you have a mission.

My mission is to add value to everyone with whom I come in contact, and to serve my clients by maximizing my own personal development, my highest and best use, and that of the resources I receive and create. Accordingly, I am passionate about preparing my clients to succeed to the point of being able to create true wealth for themselves and their families. That is why my commitment to speaking, teaching, training, supporting and coaching clients—and adding value to them—is my evidence of a mission as a Virtuous Entrepreneur who continues to invest in true wealth for myself and each of my clients.

The Ability to Identify with Higher Ideals: The Fourth Virtue of Maat

 The fourth Virtue of the Ten Virtues of Maat is the ability to identify with higher ideals. This is an important virtue for aspiring entrepreneurs because it underscores the reality that true business success is geared to a higher standard than just making a profit. Although making a profit—and a substantial one—must be the financial goal of the entrepreneur, he or she must resonate with and have an affinity for identifying with higher ideals.

To provide people with goods and/or services that add value to their lives is a higher ideal than just making a profit. When an entrepreneur can serve people in a way that enriches their lives, then he or she can experience the satisfaction that comes with rendering such service. This behavior over a consistent period is the basis for referrals of business customers from already satisfied consumers. Advertising is necessary and good, but referrals are much better and their results last much longer.

When an entrepreneur chooses to run a business from the place of identifying with higher ideals, she or he is investing in people in a way that will come back in ways even more valuable than the money earned through the business transaction. A reputation for excellence, attention to detail, thoroughness or dependability reflects an entrepreneur’s functioning with the higher ideals of exceptional service and value to the customer regardless of compensation.

One’s ability to identify with higher ideals sets one apart as virtuous—a status that is in scarce supply in the marketplace. Consequently, such a virtuous business person has little, if any, competition because consumers care about price, but they care more about the business experience. A customer’s good business experience with you will speak more volumes than all the ads, commercials or digital marketing you will ever use.

My work with clients is motivated by the ability to identify with higher ideals. That’s why your success—both personal and business—drives my every interaction with you. I practice what I preach. If you can handle the virtuous manner in which I do business, then you’re probably a good prospective client.

Steadfastness: The Third Virtue of Maat

 The third virtue of Maat is steadfastness—sticking with someone or something until it’s completed. You can control your thoughts and your actions, but if you have no steadfastness—stick-to-it-iveness—you will never fulfill your destiny as a successful entrepreneur.

Steadfastness is the stuff of character that refuses to quit, become discouraged, or otherwise abandon the dream of succeeding in whatever business you have chosen. Life is hard and business is harder. There are no quick fixes or easy roads to the kind of success that lasts over a long time.

Just as studies have shown that people who win big lottery amounts are broke within a year after, in the same way, a quick business financial gain—with no more effort put into it than the “luck of the draw”—will always end in business failure. Any business you enter must be nurtured over the long haul by your attention to detail, excellent customer relations, and provision of superior goods and/or services.

Another element of steadfastness is planning beyond the moment to the future. While you are delivering excellence to your customers today, you must study today how you will exceed your customers’ expectations tomorrow. You must constantly improve your product or service and consider your customers’ needs past the particular product or service you are currently offering. Thus, steadfastness is not only “hanging in there” for today, but also planning improvements and upgrades for tomorrow.

The same steadfastness that keeps you from quitting when times are difficult must keep you motivated to never stop improving yourself and the goods or services that your business offers.

I’m looking for hard-working, forward-thinking people of character who dare to see their business goals through to the end. If you can control your thoughts, control your actions, and have a tenacity that won’t allow you to quit, then contact me: you’re the kind of person I’m looking to help! 

Control of Action: The Second Virtue of Maat

 The second Virtue of Maat is control of action. This is significant as a virtue because actions, once taken, cannot be untaken. In human relations, whether personal or business, the words you speak, the deeds you do, and the negative attitude that you display can never be reversed. The old adage, “You can’t un-ring the bell,” is absolutely true here.

This virtue brings into the foreground the issue of self-discipline. Discipline is enforced obedience. It is bringing your own behaviors under control, regardless of how you may wish to behave in any given stressful situation. Controlling your actions is a function of constant practice. If you are used to flying off the handle every time someone makes you angry, then you are out of control. If you want to be a successful entrepreneur and you have serious anger issues, then you are out of business. Your family may, out of love and commitment to you, put up with your bad behavior, but no customer or client will.

If you have trouble keeping your temper in check or cursing before you think, then get help. The art and science of successful entrepreneurs demands self-control in speech and behavior—even in body language!

People who are already well-off financially because they have inherited a family fortune can afford to be mean, surly, self-absorbed and rude. Keep in mind, however, that their wealth allows them to live the life they want without succeeding in starting a new business! They are not you, and you are not they!

You are attempting to build true wealth for yourself and your family. The only way you can succeed in doing this is to treat people with respect, be concerned about them, and serve them to the best of your ability—regardless of how you happen to feel about them personally on any particular day!

So, study to discipline yourself by controlling your actions—your speaking and behavior. Strive to become a virtuous successful entrepreneur who works on yourself to bring your thoughts and actions under control so that nothing you think, say, or do becomes a stumbling block to your continued success as a human being and an entrepreneur.

Ultimately, you are not what you merely intend: you are only what you think and what you do. When the good you intend to do aligns with your thoughts, then you become the wise master of yourself. Think well, do well and you will succeed in business and in life!

Control of Thought: The First Virtue of Maat

 Long years before the Torah was written, Maat was the moral and ethical system used in ancient Kemet (Egypt) more than 4,000 years ago. Maat has multiple meanings, but according to The Husia, its sacred text, it essentially means moral and spiritual rightness with the Divine, nature, and other humans. It is also an interrelated order of rightness that requires right relations with and right behaviors toward the Divine, nature, and other humans.

According to Maat, 10 Virtues define an ethical person, the first of which is control of thought. This ancient virtue is especially important for people today who seek to be entrepreneurs because how one thinks and what one thinks determines what one does. In accord with the ancient Kemetic understanding of the importance of controlling one’s thoughts, modern business leaders and coaches stress the importance of a successful person’s control of thought as the key to business and personal success. Modern business leaders are not alone in their urging the necessity of a person’s control of thought.

Quantum physicists have shown that thoughts are the creative force in the universe. In other words, all created things were once conceived in thought before their appearance in material form. So, if one’s thoughts are negative, the universal Law of Attraction will draw negatively created things, persons, and circumstances to that one. On the contrary, if one’s thoughts are positive, serving the needs of others and tend toward doing right, then that same universal Law of Attraction will draw positively created things, persons, and situations into that one’s orbit.

The first leadership lesson for the aspiring entrepreneur to learn here is that all thoughts of impossibility, doubt, and failure concerning starting a business—whether starting from scratch or buying a franchise or license—must be eliminated from your mind. You create your own success or failure by what thoughts you allow to stay in your head.

The second leadership lesson you must learn is that you must compete against yourself. Your true opponent does not exist outside yourself. You are the only one who can be your worst enemy by failing to believe in yourself and your capacity to succeed. Fight every thought that comes to you saying, “You can’t,” “You don’t have what it takes,” and “Don’t take the risk.”

Dare to control your thoughts and you will control your world!

The 12 Components of True Wealth

 True wealth is much more than financial wealth, although financial well-being is definitely a significant part of it. The first and most important component of true wealth is having a positive mental attitude. People who lack a positive mental attitude are miserable, despite whatever money they may have accumulated, while people who maintain a positive mental attitude attract wealth to themselves.

   The second and next most important component of true wealth is sound physical health. You can lose all your money and recover more than you lost, but if you lose your health you’ve lost something that may never be regained. Spend time on maintaining and sustaining your health by eating healthy food and exercising often.

   The third component of true wealth is harmony in human relations. Harmonious and peaceful relationships, both in the family and then with business associates, lead to good will, a good reputation, cooperation and peace of mind—a personal state of well-being.

   The fourth component of true wealth is freedom from fear. No fearful person can enjoy life or its perks. Fear robs you of the ability to enjoy life to your fullest capacity and imprisons you in a dark place where there is no peace of mind or joy in being alive.

   The fifth component of true wealth is the hope of future achievement. It is this component that gets you out of bed every morning to pursue your dream of success. Without hope for the future, you are poverty-stricken even if you are sitting on millions of dollars.

   The sixth component of true wealth is the capacity for applied faith. The capacity for applied faith is your ability to believe in the dream you have for success to such an extent that you actually do something to make it happen. Applied faith is acting to make your dream a reality, while unapplied faith is merely wishing for something to happen for or to you without doing anything to make it happen.

   The seventh component of true wealth is willingness to share your blessings. You cannot have true wealth if you’re stingy and completely self-absorbed. The truly wealthy person gives to and helps others achieve their goals.

   The eighth component of true wealth is to be engaged in a labor of love. True wealth is only experienced by those who are doing something good that they love. There is nothing in the world more satisfying than being able to do what you love and know that what you are doing is benefitting other people.

   The ninth component of true wealth is to have an open mind on all subjects and toward all people. The truly wealthy person does not think that the world is only as she believes it to be. She is open to learning from others, listening to their opinions, and not judging them for not seeing the world as she does or believing in the same things as she does. She accepts people for who they are, not for what she believes they ought to be, in her opinion.

   The tenth component of true wealth is complete self-discipline. The truly wealthy person is self-directed. He is not driven by the whims and demands of other people, but by the goals he has set out to achieve. That is why he has mastered complete self-discipline: he refuses to allow any outside influence to distract him from the task of achieving his goals.

   The eleventh component of true wealth is wisdom with which to understand people. Your life in the world, in your family and in your business consists of interacting with people. To gain true wealth, you must first study the people with whom you interact. But studying them will not give you the wisdom to understand them. The only way you can gain the wisdom to understand people is to put yourself in their place and deal with them from their—not your—point of view.

   The twelfth and final component of true wealth is financial security. It is not an accident or an oversight that financial security is the last component of true wealth. Every component that comes before it paves the way for financial security and guarantees that once you have the financial status you desire, you will be able to maintain it by treating everyone by the standard of the Golden Rule.

   True wealth begins on the inside spiritually before it manifests outside materially. Strive to accumulate spiritual wealth internally, and as you do, you will accumulate material wealth externally.

How to Get to Effective Communication

There are always two problems that threaten to derail effective communication. The first problem is Perception—how we perceive the world and what’s going on in it around us.

The ancient aphorism, “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he,” teaches us that we do not see the world as it really is, but as WE ARE! So, to communicate effectively with another person, we must strive to see the world as that other person IS! We must, at the very least, attempt to walk a mile in that other person’s shoes to see the world as that other person IS. We fail as leaders the moment we are deluded into thinking that what WE ARE is reality, and everyone else’s view of the world is twisted at best, and utterly warped at worst.

The second problem we must overcome to communicate effectively is the issue of Credibility. In a disagreement, each person believes that he or she is right and the other person is wrong. What makes things worse, each person knows that she or he is right and can’t trust the other person because of this false knowledge.

The first way to overcome both problems is to develop God-Attitudes about people by: 1) Assuming the other person’s good faith, sincerity and sanity; 2) Caring about the relationship with the other person; 3) Desiring to resolve the differences by seeking to see from the other person’s viewpoint; and 4) Being prepared to change!

The second way to overcome Perception and Credibility problems is to develop God-Behaviors toward people by 1) Listening to understand them from their point of view; 2) Speaking to be understood and not arguing or expressing disagreement with what the other says; 3) Starting the conversation from the common ground of agreement; and 4) Moving slowly to areas of disagreement. Don’t criticize, mock, or judge the other person—be as patient with the other person as God is with you!

Finally, you must understand that the way to become effective when you communicate is to increase your influence by mastering the process of leadership development and growth. To do this, you must discipline yourself to work with a leadership coach who will help you to master the art of communication—One Day at a Time!

 

The Threat and Promise of Change

 For many people, the most frightening and personally threatening thing, as well as the most exhilarating and personally satisfying thing they can experience in life, is change. Change is motion—another definition of what it means to be alive. And since change is the process of being alive, it is both a threat and a promise.

The threat of change is rooted in fear and uncertainty: uncertainty that disorients, causes acute anxiety and raises disturbing questions about who you are. Therefore, the very notion of change in any quarter threatens to destabilize you, the way you see the world, and how you see yourself in that world. When the threat of change comes toward you, your only question is, “What will become of me?” However, there’s another side to the threat of change—its promise. When the promise of change comes toward you, your only question is, “What will I become?”  

The promise of change is rooted in your unspoken desire to actually know, understand, and unabashedly celebrate who you are, your place and space in the world, and your mission and calling in life. Therefore, the promise of change is your opportunity to experience yourself, others and the world at large first-hand and unmediated by the artificial boundaries and limitations of your upbringing, education and training. The promise of change offers you a new lens through which you can perceive what is going on around you. It provides you with choices that you never imagined you had. It offers opportunities that have been hiding from you in plain sight and provides you with tools that can move you from where you are to where you’d really rather be.

The promise of change exploits your raw materials of fear and doubt, and from them manufactures products and services that provide you places of safety, areas of knowing, and vistas of clarity. The promise of change is the hope that propels you on the quest to live a full, meaningful, and productive life that you actually get a chance to enjoy.

Investing in your personal growth offers you the promise of positive change in your life, as well as the vehicle you can use to get to your destination of success. Don’t focus on the threat of change. Think about the promise of change that will come to your life as a result of seeing yourself as worthy of investment. Take the leap of faith and discover your own hidden potential.

The Universal Law of Leadership

 The Universal Law of Leadership teaches that your ability to develop leadership skills is crucial to becoming a person who maximizes the personal development and highest and best use of yourself, the resources you receive, and the resources you create for the benefit of yourself and your family.

Leadership has been defined by many people in many different ways. One definition of leadership is "communicating to people their inestimable worth and unlimited potential to such an extent that they actually see it in themselves." (This definition of leadership is perfect for creating a healthy home environment for the entire family, especially for raising self-confident children!) Many others have said that leadership is the function of those who guide, direct or otherwise control the activities of others.

At a fundamental level, however, leadership simply means having influence that affects the behavior and/or worldview of others within a particular sphere—whether that influence is negative or positive.

Negative leadership is coercive—i.e., it requires raw power (external force) to maintain and sustain itself. Examples of negative leadership include: 1) the power of the gun—“Do what I say or I’ll blow your brains out”; 2) the power of the law—“Do what I say or I’ll lock you up or shoot you down”; 3) the power of economic reprisal—“Do what I say or I’ll fire you—better yet, I won’t hire you in the first place”; and 4) the power of hate propaganda that exploits our fears—“Do what I say or illegal aliens, LGBTQ people, Muslims, and terrorists will take over ‘our’ country.”

Many people who follow negative leadership do so because they feel forced (threatened) to do so for personal survival, political, economic, social or religion-based reasons.

Conversely, positive leadership is inspirational—i.e., it requires soul power (internal values) to perpetuate itself. Examples of positive leadership include the power of being, the power of behaving, the power of belonging, and the power of believing.

The power of being is the God-given power that you have by your having been created in the very image and likeness of God—i.e., you have the capacity (power) to bring into being what does not presently exist in the material world. You have the power of imagination which leads to innovation that drives all creativity.

The power of behaving is your ability to decide how you will act on your own and in concert with others—it is freedom, the power to choose.

The power of belonging is the strength you feel when you work together with others to accomplish goals that you could not possibly accomplish by yourself. It is cooperation that produces the power of the Master Mind—collective thinking that adds the Universal Mind to the group and empowers the group to produce new ideas, products, services, and new approaches to problem-solving.

Finally, the power of believing is the catalyst that allows you to overcome every obstacle to achieve your goals—it is faith, the power to see and bring into being the invisible. People who follow positive leadership do so because it resonates with their own internal value system and because they choose—in freedom—to follow.

Which kind of power—negative or positive—has impacted your life more? Please write your comments below and share what you think and how you feel about negative and positive leadership. I’d really like to learn what your experience has been, so please share your thoughts with me below.

The Universal Law of Abundance

 The Universal Law of Abundance teaches us that we live in a world of abundance and not lack. All the water that has ever been on planet Earth is still here. Although it is constantly recycling itself and changing its form from liquid to solid to steam and gas, not one new drop of water is added to our water supply, nor is one old drop of water subtracted from our water supply. We are drinking the same water that our ancestors drank.

In the same way, all the gold that has ever been on this planet is still here. All the wealth that has ever been amassed on this planet is still here. So, in terms of resources, everything that has always been here is still here, either in original or transmuted form. Consequently, we lack nothing related to resources available to us.

Now, if you accept this universal foundational principle, then it will affect the way you think in two specific ways. First, you will tend to be upbeat, and grateful, and more likely than not, you will feel optimistic with hopeful expectancy about your future. Second, you will have a positive attitude that whatever your goals in life, you will succeed in achieving them.

Your mindset—the way you think, what you think most about, and how you think—determines what you believe, regardless of the facts. Even if there is no lack, but you believe in your mind that there is lack, then—despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary—you will continue to see every glass of water as half-empty and on its way to being emptied forever. Accordingly a mindset of lack produces the opposite of abundance for you, and supports your excuses for not developing yourself to your greatest potential, and keeps you from leveraging the resources that you already have in hand. In addition, a mindset of lack promotes the false belief that you are powerless to create your own resources.

People who believe in lack begin most of their conversations with “If I only had this or that,” or “if those people over there would only stop doing this and start doing that, I could do thus and so.”

If you decide not to accept the Universal Law of Abundance, then it will affect your mindset in two specific ways. First, you will tend to be downcast, ungrateful, and more likely than not, you will feel pessimistic with fearful dread about your future. Second, you will have a negative attitude that whatever your goals in life, you will not succeed in achieving them.

If you believe you can be, do and have more in life, then you can be, do and have more. If you believe that you can’t be, do and have more in life, then you can’t be, do or have more. The way you think—your mindset—determines your destiny.

The ancient aphorism is still true: “As a [woman] man thinks in [her] his heart, so is [she] he.”

The Law of Speech

One of the open “secrets” of success that can be of enormous help to entrepreneurs is the Law of Speech. The Law of Speech says that whatever you speak about yourself, your family, circumstances or situations will come to be because you have God’s DNA, His power of speech. Everything that was created by God, including humankind, was created by God’s word—His speech. Speech is more powerful than anything else because it creates out of nothing whatever is consistently spoken.

Speech does not follow religious guidelines or moral laws. It is a universal law that is morally neutral. It is available to you and everyone else. Those who use the law well, prosper. Those you don’t, fail. What this means is that whatever you speak continuously will come into existence, whether the spoken thing is good, bad, or indifferent. The Law of Speech is one of the central laws that drive systems, products, and service innovations. New systems, products, and services begin their existence as non-material ideas that people speak again and again. The speech of invention articulates the rearrangement of current things into new forms. It is the power source that God has placed in your hands that allows you to create your own future.

This understanding of the Law of Speech teaches you to promote your own health and welfare. Such positive speech sets the atmosphere in which all the powers in the universe are unleashed to create for you what it is you continue to speak. But there is more.

The Law of Speech requires that you not only speak wholeness but also commit your active intention—your focused life force—to the object of your speech. Your speech must be accompanied by specific actions that are aimed at realizing or manifesting what you have spoken. Speech without deeds is useless in the same way that faith without deeds has no value. It is positive speech that must overcome the inertia of the status quo to produce the desired new outcome. That is why focused attention (intention) is the catalyst that brings about the birth of the created thing that has been set in motion by positive speech followed by positive action.

   

You must understand that successful entrepreneurs do not have in their vocabulary such phrases as I can’t, it’s impossible, I don’t deserve and I don’t believe. These are the limiting negative words that people who refuse to take responsibility for their own lives and livelihoods use to justify their enslavement in a prison of self-loathing, self-doubt, and unbelief in their own unlimited possibility as creators, inventors, and innovators.

If you are looking for a way to free yourself from the economic and social limitations that are affecting your life, then use your positive speech and create the future you want for yourself. Speak your dream, write it down, and then work toward it!

What has been your experience with the power of speech? Does the concept make sense to you? Has it worked, or not worked for you? Leave a comment below and let’s have a conversation about it.

 

Face and Master the 7 Basic Fears

 If you’re honest with yourself, you must admit that there are fears that attempt to creep into your consciousness, particularly when you are considering doing something new. These fears have a dual purpose: 1) to keep you from enjoying life now to its fullest; and, 2) to lure you into placing them in your subconscious mind through inordinate worry about them so that they may contribute to your early demise. To achieve the greatest level of success possible, you must challenge these fears and conquer them completely. Otherwise, they will rob you of the personal joy and satisfaction of all that you have already accomplished and inhibit your belief that you can achieve an even greater level of personal success in the future. The 7 Basic Fears include criticism, ostracism, being alone, losing everything, aging, debilitating sickness, and death.

No one enjoys being criticized, particularly when it is not constructive—and most of the criticism people will give you tends to be less than helpful and more an opportunity for them to share their negative thoughts about you.  But you must decide that you cannot let your fear of criticism keep you from your destiny. The lesson you must learn is that people will criticize you regardless of what you choose to do or not do. If you make or refuse to make decisions based on whether or not you will be criticized, then you will forever have to change whatever course you take whenever the criticism gets too harsh. The antidote to this fear of criticism is to realize that since you’re subject to criticism no matter what you do, you need to do whatever you believe will get you to the personal success you seek. You do have a choice:  you can be criticized for succeeding or failing. Choose the former!

If you’re not careful, your fear of ostracism—being put out, separated from the company of those you admire—can work to thwart your goal of becoming successful. If your sense of who you are requires the approval of others to validate you, then you will make decisions not based on what you believe to be the right or best choices, but on the responses of your social validators. In that case, you’re not functioning as a self-determining subject, but rather, as an other-directed object, devoid of the capacity of agency that defines your humanity in a state of freedom.

The fear of being alone is so common in our society that people rush into meaningless and unfulfilling relationships to avoid it. In fact, countless people stay in unrewarding and lifeless relationships just so they won’t experience being alone. Somewhere deep in the recesses of our brains is this fear of abandonment, of being left alone forever. As with any fear you may experience, the first step is to acknowledge it and seek to discover what in your past caused this fear. Discovering the root cause of this fear is important for gaining the confidence you need to master it.

You cannot get to personal success without taking risks—large, life-changing risks. The risks related to moving forward, however, are not as scary or difficult to face and overcome as the risks associated with leaving the comfort zone of your present experience. If you’re not careful, the fear of leaving and losing everything you have will keep you from moving into the future where your success lies. In order to take any journey, you must leave where you are to get where you’re going.

Your fear of losing everything you know, understand and with which you’re familiar rears its ugly head whenever you’re required to move away from your past in order to embrace your future. Countless people let this fear of losing everything inhibit them from risking the loss of their current life to gain the benefit of a better, more fulfilling life. Success cannot be achieved without taking significant personal risks—not once, but over and over again.

Fear of aging is not something that crosses the minds of young people: they presume that they will be young forever. But for people over the age of 35, there just may be some momentary, fleeting thoughts about what life will be like when they’re older.

Modern medicine has actually heightened the fear of aging for many people. Because medical science has found ways to treat chronic illness and prolong life, many people are worried about outliving their resources. So the thought of aging brings with it the fear of ending up in poverty, regardless of the financial success that may have been part of life when they were younger. You must decide not to worry or fret about what might happen to you when you’re 95. You must believe that you will never get old until you decide to be old—which may be when you’re 137!

The fear of contracting or inheriting a debilitating sickness is more on the minds of aging people and younger persons who are aware of their family medical history than on people in the population generally. This fear has the ability to limit people’s choices for themselves today because they feel tethered to inevitable time-lines in which they see themselves crippled physically, mentally and/or emotionally tomorrow. Consequently, they make what they believe to be “safe” choices—not the choices they would even consider for themselves if the fear of a debilitating sickness were not hanging over their heads.

Like every other fear that stands in the way of your success, this fear must be faced squarely and conquered. You must decide and focus your thoughts on the fact of your long-term health and well-being. You must live your life believing that nothing can keep you from achieving your destiny. Such an attitude will allow you—in the worst-case scenario—to adjust to whatever happens to you and keep moving forward into the future, undeterred. Your Faith and Iron Will are sufficient to get you where you desire to be in life.

Death is probably the biggest fear that most people have. It can come at any moment and it is usually unexpected. There is a real sense in which each of the six fears mentioned before this one has direct, though long, tendrils that connect to your fear of death—the final frontier. For example, your fears of criticism and ostracism are related to your not wanting to experience social death. Your fears of being alone and losing everything mirror your views about the isolation and the “You can’t take it with you when you go” reality of physical death. Finally, your fears of aging and debilitating sickness are metaphors for the emotional and psychological death that you view as an inevitable precursor to death itself.

Although a discussion about the fear of death is a difficult one to hold, you must pursue and master it if you seek to be personally successful. Even when you tell yourself that death is a natural part of living it doesn’t get at the heart of your fear of death. Fear of death is linked to a deeper fear that you will not be able to accomplish all the things you have planned to do in your life. Therefore, your fear of death is less about the process of dying, and much more about not having enough time to finish what you’ve started.

When you examine this root cause fear carefully, you will discover that the “dis-ease” the fear causes you is illusory. When you really think about it, you have to admit that you don’t really care, deep down, whether you finish or not. If you finish, you’ll be looking for your next big project. If you don’t finish, you’ll have the satisfaction of knowing that death came to you while you were working on the project at hand. In either case, life is the process of living, learning and loving and not necessarily finishing a particular task or project. In this context, finishing is of no importance whatsoever.

Concentrate on a Worthy Dream

 One of the signal endowments of human beings is our ability to imagine a situation, circumstance or reality that we have never experienced in the past. It is the gift of seeing the future, as well as the capacity to create what we have seen internally into a visible manifestation that we and others can see externally. Our endowments of imagination and creativity are proof that we all have God’s DNA within us. It is also evidence that the Law of Concentration is immutable.

  The Law of Concentration teaches that it is the focused attention of your imagination that creates the future. It is your disciplined thought life that is the major determinant of your destiny. In his classic work, The Law of Success in Sixteen Lessons, Napoleon Hill defined concentration as follows:

Concentration is the act of focusing the mind upon a given desire until ways and means for its realization have been worked out and successfully put into operation. (p. 404)

 Hill argued that auto-suggestion—i.e., embedding the desires of your imagination into your subconscious mind—and habit are the two pillars upon which concentration, as he defined it, takes root.

   Whatever you think and practice repeatedly is stored in your subconscious and acts silently and relentlessly to bring about the realization, in concrete form, of the object of your imagination. Thus, concentration is the habit of fixing in your mind the thoughts, desires and creations of your imagination and insisting on their reality. You can do this because of the DNA of God that is within you and because of the unchanging nature of the universal Law of Concentration.

   The Apostle Paul made this same point in an even larger context:

As it is written: “I have made you a father of many nations.” He [Abraham] is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed—the God who gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were. Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” (Romans 4: 17, 18 NIV)

    In this passage, Paul speaks of God’s having told Abraham that he was already a father of many nations at a time when Abraham had no children. Just as God spoke to Abraham’s future as if it were in present existence, and Abraham believed in and relied on God’s pronouncement, so too, can you imagine and speak to your future state as if it were already in existence and believe in and rely on what you have spoken to be actualized in your future.

   However, as the biblical passage maintains, to concentrate on your desires in a way that will bring results, you must believe that what you desire or what you are creating in your imagination will come to fruition. This principle of calling things not yet in being as though they already exist is content-neutral. In other words, it doesn’t matter what the object of the calling is. For example, if you keep calling yourself sick, or inept or clumsy, you will eventually get sick, be inept, and become clumsy. If you call yourself a failure at something, you will most assuredly fail at that thing. On the contrary, if you call yourself well, you will indeed be well, even if you’re sick right now.

   What you believe and what you speak about what you believe will determine the content of your future. So the issue of concentration is a double-edged sword. If you concentrate on the bad and the destructive dream, you will have it. If you concentrate on the good and the constructive dream, you will have it. The Law of Concentration teaches that you have unfettered freedom and enormous power—the freedom to choose what your life will be and the power to create your own future as you decide it will be. The real crossroads issue that emerges is whether you wish to take full responsibility for your own life or whether you will choose to behave as if you were powerless. If you choose the former road, the sky is the limit for the dream you create and on which you concentrate. If you choose the latter, you will become the victim you have chosen to be and suffer the consequences of remaining in a state of self-induced powerlessness. Thus, the Law of Concentration admonishes you to choose the dream upon which you concentrate, because you will create for yourself and inherit whatever dream you make a habit of meditating on and placing into your subconscious mind.

   I have three worthy dreams on which I am concentrating. My first dream is to be the catalyst that positively impacts the lives of others by offering them world-class speaking, teaching, training, and coaching services. My second worthy dream is to model what I speak, teach, train, and coach. My third worthy dream is to gain your respect, confidence, and trust by keeping my promise to be transparent and honest with you throughout our relationship and to focus my energies on helping you to be all that you can be.

Develop Self-Mastery, Interdependence, and Reflection

 Successful entrepreneurs develop Self-Mastery. Self-Mastery is the first and deepest layer foundational building block for your business success. It is taking complete responsibility for your own behavior and deciding to control your own reactions to outside pressures. This means that you will not blame others for your past mistakes and your present circumstances. You will use your own self-awareness, self-knowledge, imagination, conscience, and will-power to be self-determining and proactive. Self-Mastery says, “My success depends on me.”

   Successful entrepreneurs seek Interdependence. Interdependence is the second layer of foundational building block after obtaining Self-Mastery. Interdependence teaches you to develop strategic relationships with key people and to understand that you need them to help you create successful business outcomes. Once you have achieved Self-Mastery, you will realize that you cannot attain maximum effectiveness by your own thinking and behaving alone. You learn that by working in concert with others while being personally responsible for your own actions, a team mentality develops. The team mentality allows you and every member of the team to contribute to the effort at maximum levels and to experience maximum satisfaction from the process of working together.

   Successful entrepreneurs use Reflection to improve business outcomes. Reflection is the “beyond myself, my family, my community and my organization” third course of foundational building block that requires interdependent organizational strategic partners to function as a “think-tank.” The goal of this Reflection is to think and plan together in new ways, using new approaches to create new products, services and solutions that meet needs and effectively address common problems. At this foundational level, there is a collective focus on working together to leverage the strengths of each group involved to maximize their collective profitability in their particular sphere of influence.