Coaching great John Wooden passed away on Friday. In addition to his legendary success in teaching students how to win basketball games, he left a greater legacy in the lessons he taught his students about the importance of good character.
On the radio this weekend, I heard an audio clip of Coach Wooden describing the difference between "reputation" and "character". Your reputation, he said, is what others think of you; your character is what you really are.
Malcolm Forbes, Sr., publisher of Forbes Magazine and father of the current publisher, Malcolm "Steve" Forbes, Jr., once shared a story that helps us understand the importance of character. This remarkable true story, entitled, "The Gingham dress," also proves that the old adage is true, we never should judge a book by its cover.
A lady in a faded gingham dress and her husband, dressed in a homespun threadbare suit, stepped off the train in Boston, and walked timidly without an appointment in to the Harvard University President's outer office.
The secretary could tell in a moment that such backwoods, country hicks had no business at Harvard and probably didn't even deserve to be in Cambridge.
'We'd like to see the president,' the man said softly. 'He'll be busy all day,' the secretary snapped. 'We'll wait,' the lady replied.
For hours the secretary ignored them, hoping that the couple would finally become discouraged and go away. They didn't, and the secretary grew frustrated and finally decided to disturb the president, even though it was a chore she always regretted.
'Maybe if you see them for a few minutes, they'll leave,' she said to him!
He sighed in exasperation and nodded. Someone of his importance obviously didn't have the time to spend with them, and he detested gingham dresses and homespun suits cluttering up his outer office.
The president, stern faced and with dignity, strutted toward the couple. The lady told him, 'We had a son who attended Harvard for one year. He loved Harvard. He was happy here. But about a year ago, he was accidentally killed. My husband and I would like to erect a memorial to him, somewhere on campus.'
The president wasn't touched. He was shocked. 'Madam,' he said, gruffly, 'we can't put up a statue for every person who attended Harvard and died. If we did, this place would look like a cemetery.'
'Oh, no,' the lady explained quickly. 'We don't want to erect a statue. We thought we would like to give a building to Harvard.'
The president rolled his eyes. He glanced at the gingham dress and homespun suit, then exclaimed, 'A building! Do you have any earthly idea how much a building costs? We have over seven and a half million dollars in the physical buildings here at Harvard.'
For a moment the lady was silent. The president was pleased. Maybe he could get rid of them now.
The lady turned to her husband and said quietly, 'Is that all it costs to start a university? Why don't we just start our own?' Her husband nodded. The president's face wilted in confusion and bewilderment. Mr. and Mrs. Leland Stanford got up and walked away, traveling to Palo Alto , California where they established the university that bears their name, Stanford University, a memorial to a son that Harvard no longer cared about.
You can easily judge the character of others by how they treat those who they think can do nothing for them.
Categories Personal Development by 
I'd heard a lot of good things about "Crush It!" and finally downloaded it (kindle for PC, in case you're curious). I'm fairly new to the world of social media marketing so I was surprised at how much I already knew and how much I was already doing.
After reading Crush It!, I now know (a) social media marketing is not a passing fad, (b) properly implemented, it's an incredibly powerful way to build almost any kind of business, and (c) it's not that complicated. In other words, if you market something on the Internet, or you want to, you need to add social media marketing to your marketing mix and it's a lot easier than you may have thought.
Now, if you're looking for a detailed manifesto on social media marketing, this isn't it. It's a great story and a compelling look at the power of social media marketing and worth it for that alone. Where it really shines, however, is in driving home the importance of finding your passion, your DNA as Vaynerchuk calls it, and building your brand, and your business, around that.
Vaynerchuk makes you think about who you are and what drives you. If you're going to "crush" anything, it's going to have to be something you are passionate about, or you won't do it enough, or well enough, to cut through the noise and clutter that competes for the eyes and ears of your target market. If you don't enjoy what you're doing, you aren't going to make it; if you do, the journey will be as rewarding as the destination.
A friend of mine often says, "if you do what you love and you love what you do, you'll never work another day in your life." No doubt Gary Vaynerchuk would agree.
Categories Book Reviews, Internet marketing, Social media marketing by
Network marketing prospects are famous for declaring they don't have the time to start a business. They tell you they are interested and maybe at some point in the future they'll get started, but they can't do anything right now. But is that the truth? Are they truly interested and truly unable to get started because they "don't have the time"?
No.
Not having time is not the real reason.
The truth is they probably aren't interested but are afraid to tell you. (It doesn't matter why.)
Look, we're all busy today. Our lives are crammed with responsibilities. And yet we manage to find time to do things that are important to us, the things we need to do and also the things we want to do.
Yes, there may be other reasons they tell you they don't have the time. They may be interested but have doubts about their ability to build a successful business. Or, they may be interested but believe they have to put in twenty, thirty, or forty hours a week into building a business. Even ten hours a week may be too much to handle.
We need to educate people about what "part time" really means.
You can start a network marketing business in just an hour a day. People need to know that and they need to believe it. They need to hear how you (or others) are building your business in only an hour a day. Tell stories about how other (busy) people are building their futures in just one hour a day.
Look, if someone really wants to build a business, they can get started with just ten minutes a day.
Ten minutes a day!
Anyone can make a few calls every day and ask their prospects to "check out" their web site or dial into a recorded message. And, if that's all they can do, that's all they can do, but (as Art Williams says), all they can do is ENOUGH.
(Well, it's enough to get started, anyway.)
Categories Network marketing/MLM, Prospecting & Recruiting by
