Posts by Early To Rise
How to Impress Your Boss at Meetings
“The first secret of success? Self trust.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson It doesn’t take much to impress your boss when you are lucky enough to have his attention (more or less) for an entire meeting. Here are seven things you can do — seven things that would work on me — that will leave…
Read MoreSome Things Will Never Change – No Matter What Some Experts Say
“Yesterday is not ours to recover, but tomorrow is ours to win or to lose.” – Lyndon B. Johnson (address to the nation, Nov. 28, 1963) In “As the Future Catches You” — a book that talks about how genomics and other things are changing the world — Juan Enriquez, director of the Life…
Read Moreis It Really Possible to Have It All?
There is no doubt in my mind — if you want the best chance of achieving a specific goal in your life, what you need to do is make that goal the sole purpose of your living. By making everything else secondary and focusing almost exclusively on your top goal, you give yourself a 99.9%…
Read MoreHow to Start a Multi-Million-Dollar Catalog Business, Part 2
“Watch the turtle. He only moves forward by sticking his neck out.” – Louis Gerstner, Chairman and CEO of IBM I asked SL, “Is it still possible to start a successful business like yours working from home?” His quick, sure response was, “Yes — even in today’s tough business climate.” Some of SL’s secrets…
Read MorePresentations: Why Settle for Good When You Can Do Better?
“Could everything be done twice, everything would be done better.” – German proverb You can’t escape it. If you want to put in a good performance, you must practice — and then you must prepare. I had practiced my new system for critiquing advertising copy at least a dozen times and felt confident I…
Read MoreHow Do You Measure Up in the Wealth Contest?
“All wealth is relative; and so is its absence.” – Sybille Bedford (The Sudden View, 1953) How does your financial situation compare to that of a typical wealthy American? Following are some numbers to work with (provided by Dr. Steve Sjuggerud). The average wealthy American (based on numbers Steve crunched from the Federal Reserve’s…
Read MoreWhy Writers Don’t Make As Much Money As They Think They Should
“We can always make ourselves liked provided we act likable, but we cannot always make ourselves esteemed, no matter what our merits are.” – Nicolas Malebranche (Traité de la Morale, 1867) Why don’t writers get any respect? Screenwriters. Novelists. Short-story writers. Magazine writers. Journalists. You ask them, they’ll tell you. I had a conversation…
Read MoreThose Early Morning Runners
“If we did the things we are capable of, we would astound ourselves.” – Thomas Edison As I pulled out of my driveway onto Ocean Boulevard at 5:45 a.m. this morning, the street was dark and deserted — except for one lone runner huffing and puffing his way along the beach side of the…
Read MoreNever Stop Learning
“Learn as though you would never be able to master it; hold it as though you would be in fear of losing it.” – Confucius (Analects, sixth century B.C.) The most successful businesspeople I know never tire of learning new things. Even in the sunsets of their careers, they are trying to “figure things…
Read MoreObjective: You Want to Retire in 10 or 15 Years
“Cessation of work is not accompanied by cessation of expenses.” – Cato the Elder (De Agri Cultura, second century B.C.) In the most recent issue of Strategic Investment, Bill Bonner says, “The average American is 44 years old, has $40,000 in his 401(k), and has more debt than at any time in history. He has…
Read MoreOne Year Later
“The guns and the bombs, the rockets and the warships, are all symbols of human failure. They are necessary symbols. They protect what we cherish. But they are witness to human folly.” – Lyndon B. Johnson (address, Johns Hopkins University, April 7, 1965) Today, the “anniversary” of the destruction of the World Trade Center…
Read MoreVisualizing Your Intended Outcome
“He who bears in his heart a cathedral to be built is already victorious. He who seeks to become sexton of a finished cathedral is already defeated.” – Saint-Exupéry (Flight to Arras, 1942) Some goals — business and financial mostly — can be categorized in numeric terms. * “Bring sales up to $80 million.” *…
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