Posts by Mark Morgan Ford
How to Get Motivated and Get Started This Year
“Life takes on meaning when you become motivated, set goals, and charge after them in an unstoppable manner.” – Les Brown Larry Clockedile writes to say that although he regularly finds “excellent” ideas in ETR that could improve his life, he has yet to get an answer to a question that’s been troubling him: How…
Read MoreResolve to Make This Your Best Year Ever
“A person should set his goals as early as he can and devote all his energy and talent to getting there. With enough effort, he may achieve it. Or he may find something that is even more rewarding. But in the end, no matter what the outcome, he will know he has been alive.” –…
Read MoreBig Writing Year for Michael in 2008!
“It takes a lot of courage to release the familiar and seemingly secure, to embrace the new. But there is no real security in what is no longer meaningful. There is more security in the adventurous and exciting, for in movement there is life, and in change there is power.” – Alan Cohen When I…
Read MoreThe Power of a Simple Question
“It is not the answer that enlightens, but the question.” – Decouvertes After hearing a news report about the Beatles phenomenon in England, 15-year-old Marsha Albert wrote to her local Washington, D.C. radio station and asked, “Why can’t we have music like that here in America?” Inspired by Marsha’s question, disk jockey Carroll James managed…
Read MoreMerry Christmas From ETR
“A merry Christmas to everybody! A happy New Year to all the world!” – Charles Dickens In the spirit of the season, I made you a big promise yesterday. Every day for 12 days (starting yesterday), ETR is going to give you a fun, useful gift. When I told MaryEllen and the ETR crew about…
Read MoreA Christmas Present…Make That 12 of Them
“We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.” – Winston Churchill Are you ready for Christmas? I’m almost ready. I have one more thing to do. Write two Christmas messages for you – this one for today, and one for tomorrow. I wanted this year’s Christmas…
Read MoreWhat’s So Good About Christmas?
“There is suffering in life, and there are defeats. No one can avoid them. But it’s better to lose some of the battles in the struggles for your dreams than to be defeated without ever knowing what you’re fighting for.” – Paul Coelho We meet at the Green Owl for breakfast twice a month. He…
Read MoreThe Way You Work Could Be Working Against You
“Having kids has been a fantastic thing for me. It’s meant that I’m a little more balanced. In my twenties I worked massively, hardly took vacation at all. Now, with the help of my wife, I’m always making sure I’ve got a good balance of how I spend my time.” – Bill Gates “If I…
Read MoreA Quick-Start Guide to Publishing Books
“Outside of a dog, a book is man’s best friend. Inside of a dog it’s too dark to read.” – Groucho Marx Longtime ETR reader Tim C., of Raleigh, NC, e-mailed to say that ETR is sorely in need of a new type of product. Tim writes, “While your newsletter presents timely, unique, and bankable…
Read MoreThe Underrated Connection Between Service and Sales
“I have never worked a day in my life without selling. If I believe in something, I sell it, and I sell it hard.” – Estee Lauder Last week, I met with a travel agency. The owners have been struggling to bring their fledgling business into profitability. In the period of time I’ve worked with…
Read MoreWhy Investors Fail to Beat Market Returns
“Investors have very short memories.” – Roman Abramovich My friend Marty is a typical investor. He got into stocks in 1986, and sold out after the market crashed in 1987. He stayed out for several years, and then got in for a big ride as the tech boom accelerated. When stocks were trading at more…
Read MoreAre You a Leader or a Team Player?
“There’s a time for us to let go / There’s a time for holding on / A time to speak, a time to listen / There’s a time for us to grow.” – Paul van Dyck “Time of Our Lives” As TH began explaining the rules, I felt the clutch of anxiety. His brainstorming technique,…
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