Creating Opportunities

“A pessimist is one who makes difficulties of his opportunities and an optimist is one who makes opportunities of his difficulties.”

~Harry S. Truman

An opportunity is often hidden in difficulty and disappointment. If a person had a chance to have a glimpse of their past, and view the results of certain opportunities they chose to pass up, they would probably be surprised at the millions of dollars they threw away. I am sure you can think of many decisions you should have made that could have reaped dividends in your favor, but you chose otherwise.

There is an indelible mark in my psyche about an opportunity I passed up to purchase some land. I could not see the potential in the acres of land that were seemingly unproductive. In 1977, I knew a man who became a wealthy landowner in the city where I now reside. He suggested to me that I consider taking advantage of an opportunity to purchase as many acres as possible while I was young. He said, “Son, one day this land is going to be worth a lot of money.” My reply was immature and naïve to the opportunities that exist for someone young and unmarried, with no bills to be concerned about. I replied, “I have no intention of staying in this city.” However, my reply had nothing to do with taking advantage of this wonderful opportunity to become rich. Twenty-four years later, I am still living in the same city, and that wealthy landowner is richer because he sold acres of land for millions of dollars. He purchased those same acres for less than twenty thousand dollars.

It always costs more later in life, when a person passes up great opportunities, than it does to take advantage of something less expensive at the onset. There are three ways to view an opportunity:

1. No opportunity
2. Possible opportunity
3. Undeniable opportunity

The best solution for viewing situations as present opportunities is to see circumstances as undeniable opportunities. Do not wait for extraordinary opportunities. Seize common occasions and turn them into uncommon opportunities. A person is unique and rare when they can turn obstacles into opportunities.

A head football coach said to his team who was losing a game by fourteen points in the fourth quarter, “At least we know that we are not going to win by a shut out!” This was a brilliant opportunity to change the mentality of a losing team into a mean fighting machine.

If opportunities do not present themselves, create them!

Recommended Reading:

I frequently say, “Readers are leaders and leaders are readers.” I strongly believe this statement; therefore, I have taken the time to recommend reading material that I believe will greatly benefit your life and business endeavors. Click the images to see more information or to order the books from Amazon.com.

The materials are provided for your convenience and Dr. Brown will earn a small commission from Amazon when you purchase through the links provided above.

Developing Vision

A vision for a business can never be fully realized independent of goals. A person cannot afford to be timid when making goals because they become the screws and bolts to putting it all together. There are a great number of people in our society who will avoid ever making goals, thinking that they are playing it safe. To have no goals established is an extremely comfortable situation, since without goals most people think that it is impossible to fail.

Let’s face it; people who convince themselves that failure can be avoided by never attempting or aiming at anything are simply cowardly. It rarely occurs to these fearful individuals that while their system disallows failure, it also prevents success.

There are also people who want to have a résumé of success, but who fear risk. They have developed a very useful alternative technique of talking about their goals. Their goals are whatever they happen to be engaged in at the time. This method is fail-safe. This is similar to shooting an arrow into a tree and then drawing the target around it. If you are interested in fulfilling your business dream, you must develop your goals and achieve them at all cost.

In order for any business to have a chance at success, you must have a vision for your dream business…how it will look and what it will accomplish once it is consummated. Vision is necessary; however, goals come as a result of vision being established. Let me tell you what vision is not.

1. Vision is not built on false hopes.
2. Vision is not dreaming the impossible dream.
3. Vision does not concentrate on the past.
4. Vision will not make you the Lone Ranger, as if you need nothing or no one.
5. Vision is not void of foresight and insight.

These are some of the things that you will never find associated with vision. My aim is to enlighten you as to how you can empower yourself and increase your chance of success. Your vision should stretch your abilities and your potential to dream the possible dream.

“Vision is an intrinsic, undeniable, irrefutable, image produced by an individual who is persuaded that the possibility of a favorable future does exist.”
~Dr. Mikel Brown

Unless you have a clear understanding of where you are headed, the probability of a successful journey is severely limited. The Wright Brothers had a vision that man could one day fly. They did not wait for someone to come along with new technology or for others to agree in order to realize their vision. Their ‘vision’ stretched them to create the technology necessary to execute it. The vision was for man to fly, but the goals were to produce the machinery to achieve their vision.

“Vision concentrates on thinking forward rather than chasing a concept to reproduce the past.”
~Dr. Mikel Brown

Recommended Reading:

I frequently say, “Readers are leaders and leaders are readers.” I strongly believe this statement; therefore, I have taken the time to recommend reading material that I believe will greatly benefit your life and business endeavors. Click the images to see more information or to order the books from Amazon.com.

The materials are provided for your convenience and Dr. Brown will earn a small commission from Amazon when you purchase through the links provided above.

Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan

People generally have no idea that they are capable of running a successful small business with little or no experience. However, it is a necessity that a business mentor can have your attention to during the process because starting a business is not as laborious as running it. A small business may be writing and publishing your own book, running a weekend garage sale, making gift baskets, or enjoying your favorite hobby for money. You may not make millions but you can make the kind of money necessary to help pay off existing loans or to take a vacation. Just the thought of the thousands of dollars you can produce while living in a not-so-good economy should get you pumped! Remember starting a business is as easy as learning your alphabets.

Every successful business starts with a great idea or at least an idea. If you are not sure how to come up with ideas that allow you to make a profit and live the life you dream of living, you are reading from the right source. Professionally speaking, businesses of your dreams are special ventures because in addition to the possibility of being successful, they allow their owners to live the life they really desire. Therefore, you need a business idea that can not only earn you a good profit, but is also one that fits you and loads your life with meaning.

“Our truest life is when we are in dreams awake.”
~Henry David Thoreau

Do you get excited thinking about starting your own dream business? Do you have an existing business that you would like to turbo-charge and make profitable? Are you ready to change your life? Would you give me your undivided attention if I could show you how to reach your financial goals? You may be motivated; but you lack the right tools. Just as a screwdriver is not for hammering, a psychiatrist is not a surgeon. I have owned and operated my own businesses since 1982. From operating my own insurance agency at twenty-four to owning several restaurants to authoring books, I not only have the experience but also the ability to transfer my experience through prolific teachings.

My knowledge of business comes from an unlikely source. The truth of the matter is that starting your own business requires a significant, long-term investment of time, energy, money and a drawing from some of your life experiences. Business mentorship helps take the friction out of starting a business. You want to make sure you are going to be thrilled with starting and running the business through all of its difficulties. Therefore, it is important to put a lot of thought, care and planning into creating and choosing the idea you will use.

So, how can my favorite hobby help me to effectively run my dream business? That is a very good question, and I will expound on it in the second part in my next post. So Stay Tuned!

Recommended Reading:

I frequently say, “Readers are leaders and leaders are readers.” I strongly believe this statement; therefore, I have taken the time to recommend reading material that I believe will greatly benefit your life and business endeavors. Click the images to see more information or to order the books from Amazon.com.

The materials are provided for your convenience and Dr. Brown will earn a small commission from Amazon when you purchase through the links provided above.

Working 9 to 5

I am all too familiar with deadlines and time crunches that have a tendency to raise your blood pressure and keep you feeling like you are under the gun. And, by the close of the day, you are too tired to want to do anything but rest your brain and your feet.

Starting again is not always easy, especially when you have lost the motivation and desire to pursue or to finish what you started. Oftentimes, in order to get going again, consideration needs to be given to what may be draining you of your drive. Imagine how nice it would be that when you are at a standstill, all you have to do is push a reset button. If it were that easy, everyone would do it. When you are at the point of inactivity because you lack the motivation or inspiration to muster the kind of drive and/or creativity to push yourself beyond the mundane, what is actually needed is not something from without, but rather something from within.

Athletes often run into challenges when it comes to starting again after playing back-to-back games or losing a playoff or championship game. People who fail to achieve their ideal weight loss goal after dieting feel defeated. A smoker who’s seemingly tried everything to kick the habit of nicotine addiction feels that trying to stop smoking is like fighting a losing battle with no hope of kicking their habit. However, how do business people find the motivation to get back up or reconvene business after a major upset?

Regardless of your struggle, the principle is the same for getting up and getting back in the game. How you came to stop in your pursuit of developing your dream business is not as important as what you do to reconvene. To discover the secret to remedy this lackadaisical melancholy, one must search deep within the crevasses of their heart and rediscover the ‘why’ to the reason for starting in the first place. Three things must be given careful consideration:

1. What is the single most important thing for you?
2. What is the prize possession you hope to receive once your task is completed?
3. Is it worth all to achieve your goal?

The answer to these questions must come from a deep place in your heart. And, after the careful consideration and understanding of the ‘why’, your heart will burst into a thousand suns and nothing will keep you from achieving peak performance. You will want nothing more than to accomplish your goal because the reason is more valuable than the goal itself. A man that has nothing to fight for will have no reason to fight.

Recommended Reading:

I frequently say, “Readers are leaders and leaders are readers.” I strongly believe this statement; therefore, I have taken the time to recommend reading material that I believe will greatly benefit your life and business endeavors. Click the images to see more information or to order the books from Amazon.com.

The materials are provided for your convenience and Dr. Brown will earn a small commission from Amazon when you purchase through the links provided above.

Making Business Cents

I have had the dubious honor of speaking to many business owners about the durability of their companies during today’s critical financial times. And, it is unanimous! Eighty-seven percent of them believe that despite government attempts to pull the American economy out of the dumps, they can read the handwriting on the wall, and it’s not good.

It is absolutely vital for owners of companies to make as much sense as possible, as to what will and will not work during these dreadful economic conditions, or else their companies will make no cents at all. On the other hand, families all over this globe are struggling to make ends meet. New research indicates that nearly a quarter of a million people in Ireland have nothing left to live on after they have paid their bills each month.

The latest national snapshot of the social sector shows the number of Australians being turned away from emergency relief, disability, homeless and youth welfare services is dramatically on the rise. Figures from the Australian Council of Social Service show that demand for emergency relief, including food and shelter, almost doubled in 2009-10 from the previous financial year said, Erin Long of the Sunshine Daily Coast, 20th April 2011.

More people and businesses are struggling to make ends meet and the demand for support services is growing as the cost of living grows. While businesses are trying to remain or become solvent, banks are not helping the crisis by not lending. The simple answer to why banks aren’t lending is because they don’t have to. Banks, like all other businesses, are required to make profits. In order to answer to their regulators and their shareholders, banks must be profitable or they cease to exist. That’s exactly what is happening today.

The American public was told that the bulk of the stimulus money will not be spent until the end of 2010, at which point it will probably not be needed. This did not happen and unemployment is increasing at an alarming rate. In order to increase employment, you must stimulate small businesses and encourage banks to lend. The U.S. Government today does not seem to have this as a priority.

What must be done today is that business owners and heads of families should pay close attention to markets and strongly consider how they manage and spend their money. Businesses should be especially sensitive to the consumer’s new spending trends and be on the cutting edge of how to sell more products without increasing their prices. Customers will become loyal when they think that businesses are considerate of their needs as well.

Five things that constitute good business sense:

1. Character: Character is something you either have or are. People of preference try to make something for themselves, while a person of character works to make something of themselves and their business.
2. Forget the Past. The past is always going to be the way it was. Stop trying to change the past. Stop looking at where you have been and start looking at where you can be. Plan for future profits instead of going over past losses.
3. Don’t Procrastinate. A procrastinator is always paying more for something they could have paid less for if they would have made a decision yesterday. Ask yourself, “If I don’t take action now, what will it cost me tomorrow?”
4. Know Your Business. There is something you may have started that you promised to finish. Too many people know what they are running from, but not many know what they are running to. Concentrate on finding your business purpose, then concentrate on fulfilling it.
5. Know your customers’ needs. When you have what others need, you have customers. Needs are not hard to discover. The solution to finding what your customers are looking for is in the ton of questions you need to ask.

If you want to get help to increase your profit margin, ask questions to potential customers. You will be surprised how they will provide you with answers on how to make them buy from you.

Recommended Reading:

I frequently say, “Readers are leaders and leaders are readers.” I strongly believe this statement; therefore, I have taken the time to recommend reading material that I believe will greatly benefit your life and business endeavors. Click the images to see more information or to order the books from Amazon.com.

The materials are provided for your convenience and Dr. Brown will earn a small commission from Amazon when you purchase through the links provided above.