Always Stay Humble

Photo by Tom Woodward

Achieving success is one thing. Maintaining that success is another.

Achieving success is not an easy thing to do, just ask successful people. They'll tell you the hardships and failures that they have to experience and endure first before getting to where they are now. The countless sacrifice that they have to make just so they could succeed is enough to scare most people from achieving their own success.

Maintaining that success though is even harder. Just ask champion athletes or teams how hard it is to repeat winning the championship. Every opponent you face will give you their very best because you are the defending champ. Overcoming and beating you or your team is one of the most important goal for most of the opponents you'll face.

One thing that can help you maintain your success is to always remain humble.

It's important that you never lose your humility, especially after you have achieved success. Why? It's because when you lose your humility and become proud, you tend to be more daring. You feel as if you'll succeed at anything that you do because of the confidence you gained through succeeding. You lose the ability to be critical and logical because of your pride.

Once pride takes over, greed and danger immediately follows. And once the three-headed monster appears, our ability to discern and be critical when it comes to investing, taking on a new project or starting a business becomes cloudy. 

We are successful so whatever we do we will succeed because we now know everything. 

This is a wrong assumption. On the contrary, we are more likely to fail if we think like this. That's there are those who we call "one-hit wonders." They are successful but they have a hard time duplicating that success because they let it get to their heads.

Friends, remember to always be humble. Don't let your success get to your head. Remember that the success you achieve is because of God's grace and blessing, because of your hard work, determination and commitment and because of the help and support of the people around you.

If you do this, you will not only remain successful, but also increase it.

Pain Comes From Real Success

Photo by Gareth Williams

Have you ever experienced pain in life?

I have, countless times already. Yes it hurts, it's depressing, I felt awful and so on. But what can I do, it already happened. The best thing I can do is to learn from it and move forward. Of course that's easier said than done, but it is what it is.

But you know what that pain does? Pain is actually what will drive you to succeed.

Friends real success needs to have a reason, and more often than not pain is what drives people to succeed in life. Most people are driven to succeed so that they won't have to experience again the grief that the pain has brought them.

Not all pain though is a good driver for success. Others experience what we call the pain of greed. People who experience this pain work hard so that they can satisfy their own selfish desire. The problem with this kind of pain is that people who achieve success through this pain are usually unhappy.

So what kind of pain that can drive you to succeed and still provide happiness? The pain of giving

Giving is one of the most important lesson that Jesus taught us (He gave His life to save us from sin). Giving though is not something that is easy to do for most people, that's why it's also considered a pain. When you give, you sacrifice yourself so that others may benefit and it's not that easy to do. Unconditional love is required for you to really give without expecting anything in return.

The good thing about the pain of giving is that it will really drive you to succeed so that you can give more. You'll experience real success because it has a reason and that reason is love. You want to succeed in order to give because you love.

Remember that real success comes from experiencing pain. And the best pain to experience for you to succeed is the pain of giving.

Operating System Of The Universe

Photo by Bashar Al Ba'noon

Do you know that the universe has its own operating system (OS)?

For those who don't know, an OS is the most basic system found in your computer or laptop. It's the system that allows you to control softwares such as Microsoft Office, Adobe, etc. Windows is an example of an OS.

Going back, yes the universe has an OS that can allow you to program your life in the way that you want it. Oh and it's accessible to anyone. Only a few though access it and take advantage of it's function.

Another name you can call it is the "Law of the Harvest." The one that governs the world and our lives. The law states that "whatever you plant, you harvest. What you don't plant, you don't harvest. The more you plant, the more you harvest. The less you plant, the less you harvest."

What it basically means is that what you give is what you receive. If you plant apples, you'll get apples. Likewise, if you give a smile, you will also receive a smile. If you give a frown, you will also receive a frown. 

I remember when I was still in grade school and high school I'm not usually fond of gatherings, especially if I don't know or not familiar with most of the people attending it. I usually keep a straight face and just stay in a place where I won't be noticed or bothered so much.

Since I wasn't smiling, I also wasn't receiving a lot of smiles. That changed as I grew older though. I'm still quiet mostly, keeping to myself. But this time I'm now smiling and people are usually smiling back.

So if you want to receive good things in life, then you should also plant good things. To increase it, just plant more.

Take control of your own life and use the OS of the universe.

Do You Believe In Luck?

Photo by Dan Queiroz

Do you believe in luck?

Do you believe that you are lucky or not?

I never believed in luck. I always think that you create your own results in life. You can't just rely in luck when it comes to business, project, exams. etc. That's why I'm always irritated whenever my mom does all of her so called "lucky rituals" during New Years Eve and Chinese New Year's Eve.

She says that there's nothing wrong with following it, who knows we might get lucky. Yeah I agree there's nothing wrong with it, I just feel it's a waste of time and energy. 

Apparently I was right about luck. Luck, as I have learned in one of Robert Kiyosaki's books, is just the offspring of preparedness and opportunity. It means that, people who you see as lucky for having a great opportunity come to them are not really lucky, they are just prepared to take advantage of it.

A person who is prepared he/she is just ready for the opportunity. By being ready he/she already has the knowledge and/or experience to see and take advantage of the opportunity that he/she sees. Being lucky just means that you're knowledgeable and experienced enough to spot an opportunity and know what to do with it.

I remember being presented with an opportunity for a business that I wasn't prepared enough to take advantage of. When my girlfriend was still working in a call center company, she saw an opportunity to open a food stand in the building she was working in.

She said that they have limited choices when it comes to food, especially at night. And some of the choice they have doesn't offer good tasting food. So she said that it's a good opportunity to put up a food stand and offer good tasting food.

I immediately saw the opportunity, I just lacked the knowledge and experience to take advantage of it. I was taking forever trying to come up with business to put up, until someone already took advantage of the opportunity. Now the building is bustling with small restaurants for people working their to choose from. Every time I pass by that building, I'm always reminded of the opportunity that I let get away because of my lack of preparedness.

So if you want to be lucky, just keep on learning. Especially in the business or career that you're into or planning to get into. So that you'll be able to spot and take advantage of any opportunity that comes your way.

Always Have Faith In God

Photo by Andrew Shenouda

I'd like to share a story about my experience regarding my faith in God.

It happened at the first week of March 2014. The first week of the month is my most challenging week, because this is the week when most of my obligations are knocking on my door (loans, bills, debts, etc.)

That usually wasn't a problem because I always make sure that I have enough money to cover for all of the expenses and obligations. But that was half a year a go, when I had a job and a steady paycheck. But with my business barely a month old then and my other sources not yet producing (plus the fact that I just came from a late February vacation in Hong Kong), you can imagine what was going through my mind in trying to come up with the money to pay for my obligations.

I was always checking my bank account, hoping money will magically be deposited in my account. Then I remembered one message read in the gospel during Sunday Mass (the date was March 2, 2014). "Believe and trust that God will provide everything we need." Upon remembering that I calmed down and started praying and believing. After that I suddenly remembered the money I accumulated from investing in the stock market using the system that Bro. Bo was teaching to his Truly Rich Club members.

I wasn't really sure how much money was in their since I wasn't able to monitor its progress after resigning from my job. Since I followed the system that Bro. Bo taught, my account had enough money to pay for all my obligations and still have some money left to continue my investments. I was so relieved and thankful to God after that.

My faith and belief in God became even stronger after that. Sometimes in our worry and panic, we tend to forget that our problems nothing compared to the Lord our God. We just have to offer to Him our problems and have faith and believe that He will provide for us the solution that we need when we need it.

It's a lesson that I'll never forget for the rest of my life.

The Power Of Tithing

Photo by Tim Green

Are you familiar with tithing?

No? Well tithing is an Old Testament term that means giving a portion (usually 10%) of your income to God. In the New Testament tithing is not mentioned anymore. Giving and being generous is what's mentioned a lot instead.

Now let me ask you another question, do you tithe?

Yes? No?

Anyway, do you understand why we need to tithe? Or is it just because it was taught that whenever you go to church you're just supposed to give money you can spare as an offering?

In my previous posts, I mentioned the importance of being thankful for what you requested, even if it's not granted yet. This shows that you believe that what you requested will be granted that's why you're being genuinely thankful for it. Well tithing is a way for you to show your gratitude.

Friends, tithing is a actually a way for us to say thank you or to show gratitude to God for all the blessings He has given us. Whenever we tithe, it's like we are saying thank you to God. This is what we call grateful giving, you're giving because you're grateful for receiving.

Just like in life; it's not enough that we just keep on receiving, we should also give. Yes it feels good to receive, but the feeling is only short-lived. Pretty soon you'd feel miserable, worthless and lonely. Why? Because human beings are naturally generous. We always want to give, especially to our loved ones.

Why do you think a lot of Filipinos are willing to sacrifice being with their families just so they can go abroad and earn big money? It's because they wanted to give the best that they can to their families and loved ones. They feel bad when we can't give them what they want, that's why they are willing to make the sacrifice just so they can give.

Besides, the more generous you are, the more you will be blessed. God gives more blessing to people who are generous. Because He knows that the blessings He gives them, will be used to bless a lot of people as well.

So if you want to be receive more blessing from God, then you tithe. Show how grateful you are for all the blessings and God will give you more.

Be The Best In Your Field

Photo by Jason Stang

Do you strive to be the best or are you content on being just average? Or even above average?

Friends, most of the successful people are successful because they are considered as one of the best (if not the best) in their respective fields. They are the superstars, the best at what they do or what they offer and generally a cut above the rest.

It's important that you become the best in your chosen career or business if you want to be successful.

Why?

It's because people gravitate towards the best. They are the ones that people usually remembers and hears about. They are also the one that people usually searches for or asks about when they are looking for something reliable and trustworthy.

Being the best will also give you the luxury of having people come to you instead of you coming to or looking for them. 

When I was about to graduate from high school, I was only looking at getting into two schools Ateneo or UP. I choose these schools because they are considered the top 2 schools in the country. I believed that by getting into one of them, I'm already setting myself up for success. I'll be getting top quality education and guidance from one of the top schools so you can see why I'm confident about my success.

I was fortunate to pass and be accepted to enroll in Ateneo. It was unfortunate though that I didn't strive to be the best as well once I'm inside and just settled to be above average. That's even after graduating in one of the best schools, getting a job didn't come easy.

So if you want to be successful in your chosen path, always strive to be the best and don't settle for anything less. After all, if you're just going to be average, why bother doing it at all?

One way to become the best is to be good at solving problems. Every time you solve a problem, people notice you. So the more you solve problems, the more people will notice you. Pretty soon you will be considered as the superstar in your field.

How To Increase Your Value

3 Ways on How to Increase Your Value

Increase Your Self Worth

Photo by Celestine Chua

Do you want to know the secret on how you can increase your income?

You just need to increase your self worth or your value. That is the surest way you can increase your income.

This is also the reason why some people earn more than others, even if they hold the same rank and position. They give their respective companies more value than others.

I remember when I started working, I always believed  that I should be paid a high salary just because I graduated from one of the top universities in the country. I feel I have more value because of this. I was wrong though.

I may have graduated from one of the top universities, but that doesn't necessarily mean that I am more valuable than the other applicants. It's what I bring to the table that will make me more valuable than others. Since I wasn't very active during my college years, I only had the courses that I took and my grades to rely on to show my value. The name of my school may add some value, but its not enough for me to get a job with good high pay at the start.

I did hear some of my batch mates were able to land good paying job after graduating. But most these batch mates were already achievers in college, while others are very active in their organizations and hold high positions. With the credentials and experience they have, they offer more value thus they are able to command high paying jobs.

This goes the same for self-employed and business owners.

Some businesses and self-employed are able to charge higher amount for the products or services that they offer because they provide more value.

So if you want to earn more, you have to increase your value or self worth.

You Should Play With Real Life Games Instead

Photo by Ben Salter

Do you like to play video games?

What games do you usually play?

Do you enjoy playing them? Especially after completing a level and receiving a reward?

What if you could play real life games and earn real awards and achievements?

Yes you could do that. How?

You could treat your real life activities, projects like video games. Instead of thinking how hard and daunting it is to do it, think of it as a game that you need to finish.

This idea came from Bro. Bo in one of his newsletters that I read. He shared that he was one of the many who became addicted to Plants Vs Zombies when it first came out. He would spend literally hours just playing the video game.

Until one day he realized that he wasting too much time playing video games so he stopped playing. Being his typical Bro. Bo self, he was able to see something positive in playing video games. Bro, Bo saw how much he enjoyed paying video games, especially in completing a stage and getting rewards and achievements. He then looked at how he starts a business and saw similarities.

So he saw that he was actually playing real life games. He considers starting a business as his real life game. The step by step process needed to start and run a business is like the different levels he needs to accomplish. 

Some are easy but some are hard. And like in any video game, he can't move on to the next level until he finishes his current level. So he just keeps on trying until he accomplishes it. Unlike in video games though, the rewards are real. Whenever he accomplishes a step, he gets real rewards instead of fake money or fake achievements that games reward you with.

Playing video games is fun and entertaining, even if sometimes it can be frustrating and depressing. But once you've overcome the hard part and accomplished your objective, you feel happy and a sense of accomplishment.

Isn't real life the same? We experience hardships, we fail, we fall down. But it's not the end of the world, we can always continue, start over, or get back up. The good thing though is, real life games offer us real life rewards.

Learn to control and enjoy playing the game of life.

The Power Of Prayer

Photo by John Steven Fernandez

Do you regularly pray?

What do you pray for?

Friends, I believe prayer is a way for us to personally communicate to the Lord our God. It's like our own personal hotline that will connect us to God so we can talk to him in private about anything at all.

I use prayer as a way to personally communicate with God. I talk to Him about my dreams, problems, worries, goals, etc. I also ask for forgiveness from my sins, shortcomings, etc. I also ask Him for guidance and blessing, especially if I'm about to start an important journey, or project.

But what else can prayer do?

Well according to Bro. Bo, in one of his old newsletters that is accessible to Truly Rich Club members, prayer is his magic sauce to becoming truly rich. Prayer has been an important and powerful ingredient in his journey to wealth. He shared 4 steps to praying for prosperity.

Desire in Faith - is praying to God what you want. As is stated in Matthew 7:7 "Ask and you shall receive, seek and you shall find, knock and the door shall be opened unto you." So we pray to God for whatever it is that we want. Even if you feel He doesn't hear you, just continue praying to Him what you want. This prayer is for us, because as we pray repeatedly what we want, we become more open to God's blessing and direction. It makes us more focused.

Feel in Faith - is imagining that what you asked for is already given to you. As stated in Mark 11:23 "I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, 'Go throw yourself into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him." Don't doubt that what you asked will be given to you. Believe that God will provide for you and guide you to achieve what you want and just continue working.

Thank in Faith - is praying to God to thank Him for giving you what you want. Thank God for giving you what you want, even if it isn't with you yet. Believe that He will give it to you and thank Him. Be thankful for all the abundance that He will bestow on you.

Act in Faith - is acting as if what you asked for is already given to you. If you asked for an increase in your salary, then give 10% of the amount that you asked for as tithe to God (more on this in the next post). Giving is a way of declaring that abundance and prosperity will be coming your way.

Always Be Thankful

Photo by Woodleywonderworks

Do you have a lot to be thankful for in your life?

No? Maybe you're not looking hard enough. Try again.

Still no? Well how about being thankful for something that has not happened yet but you want it to happen?

In my last post I mentioned the importance of believing that what you want to happen will already happen. If you want to succeed in the business that you plan to establish, then believe and act as if you're successful already.

The best way to show your belief is by being thankful for what you asked for. Saying thank you as if what you asked for was already delivered to you. By being grateful, you add emotion to your belief that what you want will happen.

Showing genuine gratitude enforces your belief because by being thankful you are already believing that what you asked for will happen. It's like you're expecting it already so you are saying thanks in advance. To genuinely feel gratitude for something that isn't there or hasn't happened yet, you have to reenact the feeling of receiving it or getting what you want.

Every time I pray to God, I'm always asking for a successful day in terms of sale for the business that I just started. Recently, instead of asking, I now say thank you for the successful day my business will experience tomorrow. And so far, my business has experiencing success in its daily operation.

To achieve what you want, remember to always be grateful. Even if what you asked for is not there yet, still say thank you. Because by showing gratitude, you are believing that what you want will happen. You're believing that you are now working your way towards achieving it.

Just Believe

By Karrie Nodalo

Have you already finished writing down your dreams or goals?

If you have good, you can continue reading. If you haven't yet, then I suggest you do it first before you continue reading.

For those who are finished, I'll now be discussing the most important ingredient to really achieving your dreams in life. If you follow this, every goal you set out will most likely be achieved. The topic is belief.

Before you start a project or a business, do you believe that you'd be successful or do you worry about the things that might go wrong?

If you worry about the things that can go wrong, chances are what you're worrying about might happen.

As I mentioned in my last post, our mind is very powerful when it comes to influencing what happens in our life. The more we think or imagine about that we'd fail, we'd experience problems, etc. the more it will likely happen.

Why? Because our subconscious doesn't know what's real or imagined.

Whatever we think about or imagine, our subconscious mind believes it to be real. So every time we imagine that we'd fail on a project or business, we're unconsciously telling our subconscious mind to believe that we'd fail. Our bodies will then act in a way that will make what we imagine a reality.

As a kid, I used to always think about what will go wrong on something (whether it's a project, an outing, etc.) And more often than not, I was right. My mom used to always tell me that I was too pessimistic and that I should try to look at the positive instead of the negative.

Finally following her advice, I started thinking of the positive that will happen. Instead of thinking about what might go wrong on an activity, I just thought about what fun and enjoyment I'd experience. And true enough, that's what I'd get most of the time.

Thinking or imagining the good that will happen is a trait that most successful people have. They visualize themselves saying the right things in a presentation, or making an impact to their audience in their talks. For athletes they imagine making the right play to win the game.

They do this over and over in their head, rehearsing how they would do it so that when the actual performance, presentation or game happens, their subconscious mind has already believed that they will succeed and their bodies will act accordingly.

So if you want to really be successful in your life, imagine with great detail that it is already happening to make your mind and body believe that it will happen.

How To Write Your Own Script

How to Write Your Own Script

Be The Scriptwriter Of Your Life

Photo taken from Flickr

In my last post, I talked about the power that your thoughts and words have.

Now in connection to that, I'd like to share a lesson that Bro. Bo shared in one of his talks. The lesson is about being the scriptwriter of your life. It's part of a series of the things that you need to do to be truly rich.

Bro. Bo said that one secret to being truly rich is to be committed to your dreams. To be committed, you have to be specific to what you want in life. And the best way to do that is to be the scriptwriter of your own life.

A scriptwriter is someone who creates the script for a movie, tv show or play. So you being the scriptwriter simply means, that you put in writing everything that you want to happen in your life. There's no limit to it, just put everything in there and be very specific.

Bro. Bo used 15 pages to write the script of his life. He was very specific with most of the details that he wants to happen. I didn't need that much paper though, I only needed 4 sheets of a regular sized notebook to write down my script.

Why do you need a script? As I mentioned in my last post, our words are very powerful when it comes to influencing ourselves and others, that's why we need to always be wary of what we say to ourselves and to others.

In the same way, a script are written words, words that have the power to influence us. So if you were to write something down that you know has the power to influence you, wouldn't you write down the things that you want?

Writing them down is just the first part. After writing your script, it's important that you read it everyday. Read it day and night, after you wake up and before you go to sleep. Reading what you wrote down is the secret to making sure it happens in your life.

Why? Because as you read your script regularly and hear it, you're subconsciously influencing yourself to act in a way that will help you achieve that dream. It's as if you're always reminding yourself of the dreams and goals that you want to achieve in life.

Bro. Bo was able to already able to achieve most of the things that he wrote down in his 15 page script. I'm still on the journey of achieving most of mine (a few have already happened though).

So first take a moment of your time and write down what you want to happen in your life. Write down, specifically, everything that you want to happen. Write the kind of future that you would want for your life. Be the scriptwriter.

Then read what you wrote down regularly. Read it to remind yourself of it. 

The Power Your Thoughts And Words Have

By Hobvias Sudoneighm and Pedro Ribeiro Simoes

Do you have any idea how powerful your thoughts and words are?

If you're able to think about it, it has the possibility to be a reality.

Would you believe that the businesses, new inventions, amazing man-made wonders and so on are once upon a time just thoughts by people?

That's right, all of the man-made things we see today are something that people just imagined in their thoughts

How come we see them today? It's because someone acted upon these thoughts and turned them into reality.

As Henry Ford put it, "Whether you think you can, or you think you can't--you're right." So if you think that you'd be successful, you're right. But if you think you won't be successful, then you're also right. So might as well think that you'd succeed, because either way, you'll be right with what you think.

Our words, on the other hand, have more power than our thoughts.

Why? It's because words are thoughts that are expressed.

What we think about becomes more powerful when we put them into words. Because we don't only think about them, but we also hear them or see them (if you write it down). So every time we say we can, than we can. But every time we say we can't, than we can't. Either way we are also right.

The power of our words goes beyond ourselves. Our words also has the power to influence other people, especially those who are emotionally attached to us. Like our families and friends.

I remember a scene in a Filipino movie, In My Life, starring Vilma Santos. In that scene Vilma, was in the dining area with her two daughter and her husband. The mood was sad and full of grief as they just buried the only son of the family who died in an accident. To lighten the mood, Dimples Romano (playing the role of one of Vilma's daughters) started reminiscing their childhood. When everybody got into the discussion, Dimples then remembered how her mother (Vilma) always tells her that she doesn't need to study medicine, because she'll get pregnant and marry early anyway. She acknowledged that her mom was right, as that's what happened to her.

So the next time you have something to say, think carefully about it first. You might be saying something negative that would influence the person into acting that negative word.

Find A Mentor

Photo by Chris Hunkeler

A few days ago I was watching The Karate Kid (2010) on TV. This movie was starring Jackie Chan and Jaden Smith and it was a remake of the 1984 The Karate Kid. Anyway I was watching the scene where Mr. Han (Jackie Chan) was telling Dre Parker (Jaden Smith) the importance of the taking off the jacket and putting on the jacket exercise. I find that scene interesting because it shows the importance of having a mentor. 

Dre Parker was feeling already feeling impatient and frustrated about doing nothing but to put on and put off the jacket. He didn't understand why he was doing it in the first place and felt that what they are doing is useless. But when Mr. Han showed him how that exercise can help in his training he realized that what they are doing is an important part of his training to learn Kung Fu. Without Mr. Han to explain and show him the importance of it, Dre Parker wouldn't be able to understand what he is doing.

Heck without Mr. Han, Dre Parker probably wouldn't know where to begin to learn Kung Fu.

Friends, another element that successful people have that helped them become successful is the presence of a mentor who can give you feedback. Mentor's are basically people who have already achieved what you want to achieve and are willing to teach and guide you to be the same as them, or to even be better than them.

A mentor will make the learning process easier for you because they'll be able to tell you what to do and what not to do. They will also be able to tell you if you've already progressed or not, thus letting you know if what you're doing is right or wrong. In the movie, Mr. Han was Dre Parker's mentor in Kung Fu. He was teaching Dre Parker what he learned about Kung Fu and how best to apply them. 

A mentor is not the same as a teacher who teaches a class. A mentor is someone who will allot a time to guide and teach you one-on-one. Dre Parker was able to win the Kung Fu tournament and defeat the other kids who started training Kung Fu earlier because of Mr. Han's personal guidance. The personal attention helped Dre Parker to learn and develop his skills at a rapid pace.

So if you want to quickly reach your goal, then find a mentor who has already achieved what you want to achieve and ask them if they can be a mentor to you. Then learn eagerly what they have to teach you and apply it to what you do. If you do this, you'll be able to reach your goals much faster.

Don't Do Everything Yourself, Focus On Your Talents Then Delegate The Rest

By Andres Rodriguez

Successful people are successful because they focus on their talents. They identify what they are good at and then they develop that talent, improving and growing it. They don't bother on identifying what they are weak at and trying to develop that and turn it into a strength. The result? They become masters at what they do.

On the other hand, most people do the exact opposite. They look at their weakness and spend most of their time in trying to develop that so it would someday turn into a strength. The result? They become skilled in a lot of things but masters of none.

Friends, there's a reason why God gave each and every one of us unique talents. Our talents is what we will be using to bless the people and the world. In order to do that, we must first become an expert or a master. And to do that, we must continuously grow and develop our talents.

But what about our weaknesses? Surely they'll be a hindrance in what we want to accomplish in our life.

Yes our weaknesses might become a problem in our journey. But that's part of it. You see, our weaknesses are not meant to be developed and turned into strengths. Our weaknesses are God's way of telling us that we should work with others. To overcome our weakness, we must work with people who are talented in that area and let them cover for us.

Why do you think a lot of successful entrepreneurs always say to hire people who are smarter than you? It's because they know that they can never be good at everything, they can only understand how it works, but not necessarily be good at it. So the solution? Surround yourself with smart people who knows what you don't know and just learn to manage them.

I'd like to leave you a quote by Steven Spielberg on working with a team "When I was a kid, there was no collaboration; it's you with a camera bossing your friends around. But as an adult, film-making is all about appreciating the talents of the people you surround yourself with and knowing you could never have made any of these films by yourself."

How To Know Your Purpose In Life

How to Know Your Purpose in Life

What Career To Choose

By Steve Nelson

Are you having a hard time choosing what career you should get into?

Or do you feel that the career you're in right now is not the one for you?

Friends, choosing a career is really a tough decision to make for most people. More often, people end up trying out a lot of careers before finally finding the one for them. Others are not as lucky to find the career that they want, while others still end up in career they didn't like at first but then realized that it's really the one that suit them the most. 

But there are some who already knows what they want to do in their life, do it, then end up being fulfilled and happy. Unfortunately I wasn't one of those lucky few.

My career choice began when I was about to graduate from high school. A lot of my relatives was telling me to get into a Nursing course as that is the best course to take if I want to earn a lot of money and work abroad. I didn't listen to them though because I have my own criteria for choosing what course to take. Yes money is an important consideration on choosing what career to take. After all why choose a course where you'd have a hard time in starting your career? But it's not my only consideration. I also considered the potential for growth, both personal and career wise, as a consideration. 

But my biggest consideration in choosing what career to take was if I would enjoy what I would be doing. I always believed that if you do what you love to do, then the money will follow. So I instead chose a course in AB Communications. I always wanted to be a news anchor and I believed that I would enjoy doing that. As soon as college began and I started taking classes about journalism, I started to realize that journalism is something that I wouldn't enjoy doing on a regular basis. I would enjoy it once in a while, but not to the extent where I could make a career out of it. So I had to change my direction.

Good thing AB Communication is a broad course so I had other options to consider. One option that caught my eye was to have a career in sports and feature writing, public relations and marketing communications. So I started attending classes in those areas. After graduating, I really considered going into sports journalism as I was a big fan of sports, so it's a career path that I would definitely enjoy. The only thing that held me back was because the pay was really small (Yes I know I said that enjoying what I do would be my biggest consideration, but you just can't ignore the money, especially if you realize you'd start paying for most of what you'll be spending).

I ended up choosing a career in public relations and marketing communications as the pay in those careers are higher. But it didn't pan out for me as well, as I again ended up changing careers. This time from being an employee to being an entrepreneur. I'm just beginning in my journey and so far I'm enjoying every moment of it. It may not be earning me much right now, but I believe if I just continue to build on this path and enjoy it along the way, money will soon follow.

Friends, there's really no easy way to choose what career you're going to take. Right now you might be inclined to a certain career, but you'll never know if in the future you'll still be in that career path as a lot of things can happen along the way. 

One advice I can give you is to just do what you love to do. Follow your heart and your intuition. Remember that if you do what you love to do, money and success will soon follow.

As Steve Jobs said "Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it."

How To Set Your Goals

How to Set Your Goals

What Is Your Goal In Life?

Image by G. Baden

What is your goal in life?

What do you want to achieve, say 5 years from now? 10 years from now?

You don't know yet? How about in the next year?

Still don't know yet?

Friends, it's important that you have a goal in life. A goal is your guide or direction on where you want your to go with your life. It's like giving purpose to your life. Without it, it's like you are just coasting along, waiting for things to just happen in your life.

But if you have a goal, you'll be putting direction in your life. You'll be aiming for something and your actions will then be directed towards achieving that goal.

It doesn't mean though that you have to achieve every goal you set. As I mentioned above, goals are like your guide. If you find yourself lost or without direction, just look at the goal you set then you'll know where you need to go or what you need to do.

So if you don't have a goal yet, it's time that you make one.

Are You Committed?

By G. Baden

What do you think separates the good athletes from the great ones? The good athletes are dedicated to their sport, constantly improving their game and themselves for them or their team to stay competitive.

The great players are committed to their sport. They don't just improve their game and themselves to stay competitive, they constantly improve to win. They are not satisfied with just being competitive or just being in the discussion of contenders. They want to be the best and they want to win.

The good and dedicated athletes do their best, maximizing what their bodies and talents allow them to do. The great and committed athletes do whatever it takes for them to win, even going beyond their limit just to achieve their victory.

Being dedicated alone to what you want to accomplish is not enough, you need to be committed to accomplishing it. Let me share a story I read recently that explains well dedication and commitment.

Jason Parker, a silver medalist speed skater in the 2006 Winter Olympics, shared how we was a very dedicated athlete since he was 11 years old. He was self motivated and started to train himself with the goal of competing in the Olympics one day.

He never missed a workout, never slept late, never drank and even just partied a little during his college year, It was always about training for him and training very hard at that. But despite his dedication and continuous training, it was only in the last year of his career before he finally competed in the Olympics.

He said it was because he wasn't committed to it. He was dedicated, but being dedicated only means that he was doing all the right things; working hard, not partying, taking care of his body, etc. He wasn't 100% invested in his own goal. He was just going through the motions because he always knew that he had the next season to try and achieve his goal. He didn't put a deadline on when he wanted his goal to be achieved.

Upon realizing that he now committed himself to competing in the Olympics in his last season as a speed skater. He committed himself in his workouts, thinking that there's no tomorrow already. He did whatever it took and he was finally able to compete in the Olympics. He even won the silver medal. Click here to read his blog.

Friends dedication alone won't bring us to where we want to go. We need to be committed, to be 100% invested in our goal. And once we do that, we are most likely to achieve the goal that we have set out for us.

So I ask you, are you committed to your goal? Or are you just dedicated to it?

What Motivates You?

By G. Baden

After graduating from college, I told myself that I would by the age of 25 I would be working in a good and stable company with good pay and good benefits. I also told myself that I would be driving my own car. I was 21 at that time. 

I thought it would be easy for me to achieve that since I graduated from one of the top universities in the Philippines. But I was wrong as I had a hard time finding a job with good pay. My first job paid me P15,000 but I only stayed a couple of months because I didn't like what I was doing. My next job paid me at just over P11,000 but it was increased to P14,000 after a year, I stayed there for more than a year and a half.

Despite all the setbacks I didn't abandon my dream, in fact it became stronger. I became even more motivated to achieve it, I don't know how but I always believed that I can achieve it. My next job offered some promise as I got a sales job that ha a commission scheme. But due to several problems within the company, the commission scheme experienced a lot of delays.

With barely 6 months left before my 25th birthday, I'm still far off my goal of a working in a good company with good pay and a car of my own. Achieving my dream now seems impossible, but I didn't let it get to me. I was still looking for a job in a good company with good pay.

Finally my perseverance paid off as I found a job in a good company with good pay and benefits 2 months after my 25th birthday. Then after 1 month, I was able to purchase my own car. After driving my car off the dealer, I suddenly realized that the goal that I set for myself after graduating from college was achieved.

Achieving my goal wasn't easy, especially with the challenges and setbacks that I faced. But because I was motivated to achieve it, I pressed on and didn't let the setbacks get to me.

Friends your motivation is what will drive you to achieve our goal regardless of the challenges and setbacks. Your motivation is your answer to why do you do what you do. But not all your answer to your whys can be considered your motivation.

A strong emotion needs to be attached to your why answer for it to become a motivation. Why? Because were human beings, our emotions are what fuels us. The emotion that fueled me to achieve my goal was anger. I was angry of not being able to buy what I want or do what I want because of the lack of money. So I was always aiming for a job that pays more for me to be able to do and buy what I want.

The goal of owning a car was also fueled by anger. I was sick and tired of always having long walks, waiting in long lines and experiencing smog every time I commute. I'm also sick and tired of always being at the mercy of public transportation drivers, consuming a lot of time by waiting for their vehicles to be filled up in terminal stations.

That anger is what fueled me to persevere and not give up on my goal.

If you want to achieve something ask yourself what's your motivation for achieving that goal, if you can't find any, search for one, so that achieving that goal will be easier for you to do.

The Start of the Truly Rich Journey

Corbis Image

I'd like to share one of the most important lesson that I learned from Bro. Bo Sanchez, how to be truly rich.

The  idea of becoming rich first came to me when I read Robert Kiyosaki's book, Cashflow Quadrant. The book basically described the four (4) quadrants in which people get their income from: employment, self-employed, business and investing. All quadrants can make people rich, but it is the business and investing quadrant that offers the fastest way for people to become rich. It requires people though to have financial education to be successful in these two quadrants.

After reading the book, I wanted to become a businessman and an investor so I became obsessed about increasing my financial education, constantly reading and researching about the subject. In my quest to increase my financial knowledge, I came across Bro. Bo Sanchez and the Truly Rich Club. Becoming a member was an easy decision for me to make, because I consider anything that can help increase my financial education is considered a good investment. 

After becoming a member, one of the first thing I learned is how to properly invest in the stock market (Bro. Bo provides a free copy of his book "My Maid Invests In The Stock Market"). But one lesson that I learned from Bro. Bo that really stuck to me is also the title of his club, Truly Rich. 

Becoming truly rich is a lesson that really hits me, because as a devout Catholic, becoming rich is something that is looked upon negatively by most Catholics. Wanting to be rich is seen as being greedy, evil, bad, unholy, and so on. In fact, in our society, most of the rich people are generally considered as greedy and selfish. So If I wanted to be a businessman and an investor means that I have to be bad, greedy and selfish.

But wanting to be rich or wanting to have a lot of money is not really evil or bad. Because money in itself is neutral, what makes it good or bad is how you created that wealth and what you intend to do with it. As Bro. Bo mentions in his talks, God gave us the ability to create wealth (Deuteronomy 8:18) so it means that God provided us with talents that we can use that will enable us to create wealth. 

So what will we do with that wealth?

Bro. Bo also shares in his talks that God gave us the ability to create wealth so that the wealth we created will be used to serve Him and His people; which means that, instead of becoming rich for our own selfish desires, we become rich to serve God and help His people (people who are poor and in need).

After learning that, I looked at becoming rich on a completely different level. Instead of wanting to be rich for my own benefit and comfort, I now wanted to be rich to help my family and other people who may require it. This somehow puts more meaning in my reasons for wanting to be rich.