Do You Grab Life by the Horns or Sit on the Sidelines?

The only things in this life you may regret are the chances you didn't take. When you see a chance to be happy, you grab it with both hands and focus on success not consequences.

Financial Freedom is just Around the Corner

The road to success or failure is up to you. If you choose success than fasten your seat belt and drive towards the goal until the destination has been reached.

Live life with no Boundaries

Don't settle for less or else your life will be filled with boundaries. Dream Big and make it come to pass!

Dream Vacation

Everyone deserves the opportunity to experience their dream vacation whenever they please. Don't let a job decide when and where you can vacation. Be your own BOSS!

Dream Home

Anyone can own a luxury home or mansion by working smarter not harder. Make money work for you so you wont have to work hard for money.

Do You Have Gratitude Or Attitude?



Life is comprised of many different emotions, factors and elements. Everything about it has a crucial role played to make a life worth living and worth fighting for. Attitude and gratitude are two words that can give a colorful to the way people deal with their personal lives, with things and with other people around them. And most importantly, your gratitude and attitude towards certain things can be the key for people to achieve success.
When talking about success and how you work for it, you need these things as you face the daily encounters in life.
Each day is an opportunity for you to be thankful. There are many things and happenings around that everybody should be grateful. Life is the most essential gift given so you have to live it at the fullest. There can be many different unpleasant experiences that cause you and other people to change their perceptions about it. Learning to forget and forgive may not be that easy to do. However, when you learned the attitude of gratitude, you can take things slowly and focus on what is right and important one.
When a person has gratitude they soon discovers that they are attracting better things and people in their life. This attracts positive vibes for you to be able to perform with energy, happiness and enthusiasm. Try to find blessings in each situation. After that, you will learn to develop this great attitude for various emotional, physical, and even spiritual blessings given to you. It is always great to show how grateful you are in every simple thing.
The Power of Gratitude
Many people do not realize the real essence of positive attitude such as gratitude. There are many times when they tend to look and ask for more even if they had enough. This makes them ungrateful. Cultivating gratefulness means that you can enhance your life and can receive longer term emotional rewards.
Your success reflects how you grateful you are in all things. From the moment you wake up in the morning until you sleep at night, there must always be reasons to be thankful. There is a great impact on people around you once you showed true gratefulness. You can be the person whom they aspire want to be. As you become older, you tend to get more thankful for your family, good food, friends, health, and at times, for a beautiful day. This magnifies positive emotions within you.
How to Develop an Atmosphere of Gratefulness
• Be appreciative and tell other people how much you appreciate them. 
• Learn to give praise. 
• Always remember saying "Thank You" makes a person learn to be grateful also. 
• Focus on solutions than the problems 
• Make a journal. Write all small things that made you smile.
Gratitude is more on appreciation and recognition of even the smallest special details around you. You start appreciating things. Living a life that is full of gratitude only means that in small ways, each day is a always a great experience.


7 Steps to Stop the Worry



One thing I've come to realize is that entrepreneurs worry a lot. Worrying about making your business a success, worrying about how you're going to pay the bills, and worrying about what other people think of you.
I promise you - this can stop. I know because I used to be a chronic worrier and now it's almost non-existent! This might seem unbelievable, but it's true.
Here's what I've come to realize about worry. That it does not help anyone, including yourself. It does not change the outcome. If anything, it makes things worse because when we worry we just bring more to worry about to ourselves.
Here are 5 ways that you can stop the worry head-on, and start living a life of peace, joy and happiness - which also leads to faster results!
Step 1: Realize that you weren't born with knowing how to worry. You were a tiny, perfect little being filled with love. Worrying was taught to you, likely by an influential person in your world, such as a parent or caregiver. So when you are in worry mode, and you hear all of those thoughts running through your mind, ask yourself whose voice is that? Immediately follow it with; "it's not mine". This is simple, but powerful. Tell yourself this over and over when worry peaks its ugly head. It helped me immensely!
Step 2: Think about what happens when you start to worry. Do you shift into this mode during the day or does it start when you wake-up? How does the world look and feel when you worry? Contrast this to when you feel great. Do you shift into this state during the day or does it start when you wake-up? How does the world look and feel when you feel good? Notice the differences.
Step 3: Realize that sometimes worry will move you into action. It might actually help you move away from something you no longer want to something you really do want. It may start that initial process of you doing something different. See if there is a time where it actually moved you into action. Also know there is a positive intention behind worry. What is the positive purpose behind worrying? What is it trying to protect you from or even move you away from as stated above? Gaining awareness around this will help you to move through it when it does occur.
Step 4: Know that not everyone is going to like you. That's just the way it is. Ask yourself if you can help more people by hiding and worrying what others think of you, or by being your true self and shining your light? Not everyone needs or will appreciate your gifts, and that's okay. Think about the people who really do need your help. They are worth stepping into the light.
Step 5: Realize how powerful you are. I once learned that one human being has enough energy to light up an entire city. Pretty amazing right? We're just not utilizing our full potential and energy in a productive way. We're using it, but to worry!
Step 6: Start creating results. You are powerful. You are worthy. Use that fantastic ability you have inside yourself to create the results you want. Part of this process involves faith. Faith in the universe having your back. Go after what you want and let go of controlling how it will come in. Be open to receiving it. Believe in this process until you start seeing the results you want. Once you more and more results, it will be a lot harder to slip back into worry because you will have so much evidence of it working. Trust me, it works.
Step 7: Get lots of sleep! Worry creeps in the most when we're tired. Set boundaries around your sleep. Turn the computer off at a certain time, and allow yourself to relax and go to sleep at a decent time. You know how much sleep you need in order to thrive. Everyone is different.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Chris_Atley

The One World Trade Center



If there are two things the people of New York work well with, those things are creativity and hope. Now those two things are being brought into line to create the New World Trade Center - a cultural and economic hub that's not just the world's most famous venue, but a sign of defiance, strength and freedom.
The New World Trade Center is an architectural icon, set on the original World Trade Center site. Its main feature is the One World Trade Center tower, designed by renowned architect David Childs - the tallest skyscraper in the city. September 11 facts and opinions are full of conspiracy theories, but the facts about the new building are simple, plain and easy to understand. They show that the American people are re-building their lives, and the One World Trade Center tower, formerly known as the Freedom Tower, stands at 1,776 feet, representing the date the Declaration of Independence was signed, to get this message across.
Twin Towers pictures can be found all over the internet. The towers were impressive structures unfortunately destined for destruction, but now Ground Zero, New York, is being repaired and improved to face a new future. The original World Trade Center site will become the ultimate in modern design as new high-rise buildings dominate the landscape. The new tower features state-of-the-art safety and security systems, and it's green and eco-friendly, too.
Relatives of those who lost their lives in the 9/11 attacks have signed and left messages on the girders creating the main framework and the Freedom Tower's structure, whilst the Ground Zero Museum houses those original World Trade Center photos and remnants that make the whole message of this new beginning so important. New York City pictures, old and new, show a changing landscape at the site. The message is important, but in Lower Manhattan the functions of these new towers and buildings are just as important. The new area projects include a public park, high-tech offices with secure features and climate control, and world-class restaurants and shops making the center an economic hub for tourists and residents alike.
Public transportation will be powerful in their own right, too. They'll serve 200,000 commuters per day, as well as catering to tourists and visitors with state-of-the-art signaling and fare collection systems. Meanwhile, at the heart of it all will stand the World Trade Center Memorial and Museum, offering people from all over the world a place to reflect, remember, and find out more.
The 9/11 memorial will offer future generations the chance to learn about the events of the day, and to visit the survivor tree and memorial exhibition. The names of all who lost their lives are inscribed within the memorial, and all are strategically placed. The New World Trade Center is a celebration of recovery, it's a sign that the people of America have not been broken, but importantly it's built with the memories of those lost in mind.
To learn more about the One World Trade Center please visit onewtc.com for updates and news.

How to Pull Online Traffic



Definitely, you want to have an edge over your rivals.
No matter your market or niche; you can take on the established household top brands, which have big budget allocations for advertisement. You should not feel intimidated. If you arm yourself with the appropriate weapons, you can compete with them and win.
Every day, a limitless traffic supply runs under your fingertips. It is important for you to find out how you can tap it into your business. Once you realise this, you will be able control more traffic at will. This will definitely change many things for you in terms of business.
Anyone desiring to catapult his or her business to the next level faces one hurdle - pulling real, targeted and potential traffic.
The web is very dynamic and progresses at a tremendous speed, with traffic generation methods changing at every click. Many businesses, irrespective of their size, find themselves in a dilemma not knowing what next. Some of them end up in the online graveyard of failed businesses, where others are buried.
But does your business need to end that way? Of course not! But how do you ensure success?
It is not that you lack what it takes to make a killing on the internet, but it is your approach that isn't right. How you leverage and make use of the online tools is what makes the difference.
Traffic generation is the heartbeat of any thriving online business and it is no wonder that major successful brands keep their tactics and strategies deliberately under the wraps. At times they hire gurus to figure out things for them.
Big brands do not use the same outdated approaches and techniques seen on marketing forums or amateur SEO blogs or else they could not occupy the top places in Google. They engage experts who offer them "insider" information to ensure that they maintain their top position.
PR and marketing are so crucial that they can make or mess your business. The more you receive calls, the more your business becomes popular.
How to get affordable and sustainable high page ranking for your business
The following are some important steps you should know to get bloggers, journalists and influential people to write about your company:
Genuinely tell a story! - What is it that makes you who you are? In normal circumstances, powerful people prefer dealing with unpretentious people. Thus, you will lose your chance of ever developing relationship with an influential person if you talk boastfully and try to sound big. The same is applicable to journalists; provide them with content written by a third party. Plan and host events, invite and request them to speak to your panel. Ensure to send them thank-you notes for a great job done, and things like that.
Let a person know why you are in this particular business; how you dealt with your initial challenges and additional stuff that makes you real and unique. They actually want to know your story. Just be natural and give your
Be the first to give; receive later. Don't expect to receive anything if you have a "take" mentality. In the law of reciprocity you give first to make the other party feel obligated to give something in return. This is an indication that you trust the person and have rapport. This forms the foundation for "freebie" marketing.

Lori Greiner's Advice on How to Get Your Invention on Store Shelves

 

 

Q: How do I push my invention from idea to store shelves?

A: There may be no more authoritative source on this topic than Lori Greiner, housewares inventor extraordinaire. Since introducing an earring organizer in 1996, Greiner has invented, by her count, 400 products that have earned an impressive $500 million-plus in retail sales. Many of those are sold on the QVC network, where she has been a regular for 15 years; she's also one of the stars of ABC's entrepreneurship program Shark Tank.
Greiner's first rule: Do your homework. Research the appropriate market to appraise your competition and assess where your product stands. Market research will tell you whether your new creation is really that new and whether its potential merits your time, money and loss of sleep.
"There are a lot of people with things on the market that they thought were completely original," Greiner says. "They were shocked when I told them it was already out there."
Once you're convinced that your invention is unique, consider filing for a patent. Speak with an attorney and decide whether the need for patent protection justifies the expense (utility patents typically run $5,000 to $10,000).
"If something is really going to be a big hit on the market, it's smart to get protection," Greiner says. "There are a lot of copycats that happen when something's great."
Now is the time to make the nitty-gritty decisions about how much you are willing to spend to get your product created. Foremost is determining how, where and by whom it can be manufactured. Also of concern: Will it be made of cheap plastic or rare metal? Where will it be sold? How much will you charge?
"You might have a great idea, but if it's going to cost $500,000 to make it, you might not make it," Greiner says. "Or if it's going to cost consumers a lot to buy it, they might not buy it. Those sorts of things, it's smart to find out first."
Perhaps the most important point of all: You need to arrange for the sale of your product before you arrange for 10,000 of them to be manufactured. "That's where entrepreneurs hurt themselves," Greiner says. "They put out thousands and thousands in inventory, which they haven't sold."
It's crucial to create a prototype you can take with you when making the rounds of potential buyers. Greiner says she spent $10,000 to make a polystyrene model of her earring organizer (which retailed for $21.85). "I was able to take that prototype to stores across the country and to shopping networks, because it looked exactly like my finished product," Greiner says. "That's how I got all my sales--by being able to show that model, that prototype, to buyers and retailers."
Because when it comes to marketing your invention, it's much more show than tell.

Bright New Things

Some of the top inventions of 2012, according to inventors' platform IdeaBuyer.com
Enable Talk Gloves
Enable Talk Gloves. Four Ukrainian students designed these $75 gloves, which allow the deaf to communicate with those who don't understand sign language. The gloves send a signal to a smartphone as text, which is converted to spoken words.
Self-Inflating Tires
Self-Inflating Tires. These Goodyear tires are equipped with a sensor that opens a regulator to pump air when pressure is low and closes it when optimal pressure is reached. The driver never knows anything was wrong.
HeatSeeker
HeatSeeker. A powerful, affordable misting device for overheated firefighters that attaches to the fire truck's hose port.
puzzlecast
puzzlecast. Designed by biomedical engineering students, PuzzleCast is a modular cast for bone fractures. Sections can be removed one at a time, allowing for specific movement that aids healing and reduces time needed for physical therapy.
Google Glass
Google Glass. Google's computer-enabled spectacles, now in prototype, are expected to hit the market next year.


Article Source: www.entrepreneur.com

Barbara Corcoran's Leadership Style: Rainbows and Steel-Toe Boots



In more than two decades spent building the largest residential brokerage firm in New York, Barbara Corcoran all but commanded her more than 1,000 employees and salespeople to have fun on the job.

The founder and former CEO of The Corcoran Group, which she sold in 2001 for $66 million, Corcoran considers her ability to create an enjoyable workplace a keystone of her leadership style. "It's the most underutilized tool in the tool belt," she says.
Corcoran never relied on a business mentor to shape her notion of leadership. Instead, she took lessons learned from her mother, Florence, who ran a working-class household in Edgewater, N.J., across the Hudson River from Manhattan. Years later, Corcoran, the second of 10 kids, memorialized her mother's homespun wisdom in a bestselling book, If You Don't Have Big Breasts, Put Ribbons on Your Pigtails & Other Lessons I Learned From My Mom.

"I never thought of it as leadership, but I knew I wanted to be loved by the people who worked for me," Corcoran says. "I built the business exactly the way my mother built and ran her family. I wanted a replication of the big, happy family I grew up in. I wanted happy people having fun."
Barbara CorcoranFor the most part, she got it. Corcoran's company parties are the stuff of legend in New York real estate circles. Her winter bashes had a dress theme--Broadway, 1940s, pajamas--and summer picnics featured circus animals, hot-air balloons and, once, an all-female motorcycle gang ripping up the lawn while Corcoran, feigning outrage, threatened to call the cops.

Recounting the story from inside her Park Avenue office, Corcoran lets go with a big laugh. "I found the more fun I created in the company, the more creative and innovative it became," she says. "That was the big kahuna--the fun piece. That's what built that culture upside down and inside out. You got innovation. You got loyalty. You got people who would recruit for you."
Which is not to suggest that every day was a walk in the park. Corcoran concedes that she ran a tight ship. She had zero tolerance for whiners ("I could sniff 'em a mile away," she claims) and would routinely jettison her lowest-performing brokers under a system she describes as "shoot the dogs early." She would inform new hires they had three months to make their first sale.
"It's a bullet to the head," Corcoran says. "That salesman was running out of the gate. Honestly, within three months, three-quarters of the company never made a sale. But what did I have? A license to kill."
For those who performed well enough to stick around--and legions did, for 10, 15, 20 years or more--The Corcoran Group became more than just a workplace, and Corcoran more than just a boss. She arranged for shoe shiners to come to her offices each Monday and massage therapists every Thursday. She was The Corcoran Group's head cheerleader, rewarding top performers with colored ribbons, as if she were the Westminster Kennel Club and they were best in breed. Corny, sure, but it worked.
Barbara Corcoran
"I found the more fun I created in the company, the more creative and innovative it became."--Barbara Corcoran
"People said, ‘This is really silly.' But they loved to have those ribbons hanging on their desk," says Edith Salton, a senior vice president at the firm and the godmother of Corcoran's 6-year-old daughter.
"You didn't work for Barbara; you worked with Barbara," says Tresa Hall, an executive vice president and director of sales. "She was such a motivator. Her positive management style made you want to do anything you could to help build the company."
Of course Corcoran had more than just fun on her side. She was hyperorganized and fiercely competitive. She was a champion promoter who became a veritable quote machine for the New York press. And she had a work ethic straight from Edgewater. "She just does not stand still," Salton says. "That's very inspiring, if you work for somebody like that. You say, ‘I should try a little harder, too.'"
These days, as president of Barbara Corcoran Inc., Corcoran is the real estate expert for NBC's Today and a regular on ABC's Shark Tank, in which would-be entrepreneurs pitch their business ideas to potential investors. With the Shark Tank gig--she has invested in 11 startups so far--Corcoran has a chance to share her brand of leadership with a new generation of business owners.
"Being able to tell parallel stories with these entrepreneurs wins me incredible credibility," she says. "Because they know I'm not lecturing. If you can get someone to hear your story--‘I had the exact same thing happen to me'--now you're equals."


Article Source: www.entrepreneur.com

Q&A with Kevin O'Leary






The set looked a lot more welcoming in the third episode of "Shark Tank," Mark Burnett's latest reality TV show featuring entrepreneurs pitching ideas to tough venture capitalists. The five "sharks" are now convening in a room with couches and earthy tones--but it's probably just to lull victims into a false sense of security.

This week, Entrepreneur.com shares an interview with Kevin O'Leary, who, like Robert Herjavec, was a judge on "Dragon's Den," the Canadian version of the show (based on the original Japanese program by that name). He's also the chairman of O'Leary Funds, and the founding investor and director of Stream Global Services.

O'Leary's "Shark Tank" bio describes him as "cutting," "ruthless," and "opinionated," and he's doing his best to prove it on the show. But even though he has little sympathy for entrepreneurs who waste his (and, he thinks, their own) time, O'Leary made his initial fortune in educational software, and is a self-proclaimed "eco-preneur." So don't worry, future "Shark Tank" participants: He does have a heart. 

You're clearly not afraid to say when you don't like something on the show. Is this a role you're playing, or how you always act in business situations?
I've found that you have to be brutally honest when it comes to making these kinds of investments. Some candidates haven't tested the market or come before a real investor; friends and families have funded their dream or idea. 

Often you find yourself wanting to be emotionally encouraging when you know, factually, it's an idea with no merit. And sometimes tough love is what it takes to drive home the truth, because they're spending their own families' assets in a way that will never come to fruition. I think that is in itself a crime, so over time, I've sort of become the "Merchant of Truth."

I know you're also a judge in "Dragons Den." What about this concept is so fascinating that you keep wanting to get your own money involved? 

I keep anywhere between 5-10 percent of my net worth in venture ideas. I enjoy the process; I enjoy working with those kinds of people because it keeps you young at heart as an investor. 

The challenge is always finding the deals. But here I am in a situation where a large organization scours the country for deals for me, puts them in front of me, and I get to pick and choose what I want to do. I couldn't imagine a better scenario than that. 

Do you feel a connection with the candidates on the show? 
Definitely. I started out like many of these people. This show teaches lessons, too. I teach MBA classes now, and I take these tapes to show the difference between success and failure. Within seconds, I can identify potential winners, and it's a piece of magic watching it happen.

Is that why you think the show works? 
Yes. There's something very visceral about watching people beg for money. It's powerful. Only a small percentage is going to get it, but this is the ultimate dream for any entrepreneur: The chance to be free and to be wealthy some day through hard work and building a business.

In the end, this thing is a launching pad for entrepreneurs, and I support any effort that supports that.

After seeing so many hopeful entrepreneurs, what quality sticks out as being the most important? 

Leadership is about communication, so the ability to communicate your vision in 90 seconds is so much of what's important, whether you're a politician or a social worker. They need the ability to explain how I, as an investor, am going to make money.

Because that's what matters. This is about my own money, and I want it to come back.

What's the best investment you ever made? 
Investing in myself. And you have to take chances, because the one thing you can control in life is what you do. 

And how do you avoid bad investments? 
When you're an investor, you can look at the quantitative and qualitative elements of an investment, but there's a third aspect: What you feel in your gut. It's that instinct you have, the alchemy of your experience. All my disastrous investment decisions have been when I have ignored that feeling. I will never, ever do that again. 

I do it all, and then I do the gut check.



Article Source: www.entrepreneur.com



Kevin Harrington Opens Up About His Biggest Flops



Part of being an investor and an entrepreneur is losing money. No matter how good you are.
Case in point: Kevin Harrington, one of the original "shark" investors on the ABC hit reality television show Shark Tank, has invested in 500 inventions. Some partnerships, like with fitness enthusiast Tony Little, have been massively successful. Harrington has worked with Little on more than a dozen products, including the popular Gazelle fitness machine, and the two have done over a billion dollars in sales together, says Harrington.
Other ventures have been, well, less successful for Harrington.
"As an inventor, the only one [product] that I invented cost me a half a million dollars. I lost it, you know, and it was a bad deal," says Harrington. As a former cigar aficionado, Harrington invented a lighter in the shape of a cigar. "I thought it was really cool and I put all this money and time and advertising, and because I was so passionate about it, I just kept going and going and going."

Harrington says that because he was so enthusiastic about his own product, he was not as discerning about the product as he should have been. "If someone walked in with that, I would have never put the money into it that I did," he says. "At a point, if it is not working, you cut it and you move on. And that’s what I do as an investor. Being an inventor has not been good for me," he says.
Meanwhile, Harrington has a much more impressive batting average as an investor than he does as an inventor. Even still, he has funded some real doozies.
Harrington says he should have known better when entertainer Chubby Checker came to him with a fitness product called the Twistisizer. Harrington was hesitant but agreed to invest money into the gadget provided that Chubby Checker would tone up his midsection before the infomercial was to be shot. "By the time the shoot came along, he was still just a little chubby in the belly there. I should have known to invest a half a million dollars into a fitness product with a man named Chubby was probably not a good idea. So, that bombed," says Harrington.
The wins and the losses are part of the game. Taken together, being both an investor and an entrepreneur gives Harrington a leg up on both sides of the fence. He understands the passion and excitement that comes along with being an inventor. And he also understands that investors need reassurance as to how and when they are going to get their money back.

Article Source: www.entrepreneur.com

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