It’s funny how life takes us down paths that seem like the right ones… but can lead to bad situations w/ the wrong people.  We can be so sure of ourselves and our decisions and still end up on a mountain that we literally can’t get down from anymore.  You can give and give and give and give and guess what?  People are going to take and take and take and take and literally TAKE until you have nothing left but bad feelings and resentment.

Here’s the thing… it’s your decision where your life takes you.  That’s RIGHT – it’s your decision.  You are the CAUSE and the CURE to all your problems.

People are people and the ONE thing I know in life is – people are always going to let you down.  People will disappoint you and it doesn’t matter if that person is the best person on the planet… it’s gonna happen. You have to forgive and forget it and LOVE them through it.

I am a giver.  I give knowledge, support, help to those that need it and are hungry for it.  I am an open book in most cases until I feel the pages being ripped out.    Life is like that sometimes… we have to find our boundaries and help others do the same.

The most important thing in life and business is your relationships with the people around you.  IF people around you start to go down the wrong path… you have to have the discussions to correct them… It’s something you HAVE to do.  You have to try to save them… You don’t want to watch them to fall into a hole. HOWEVER, that being said…. you can’t save them all.

I have recently found myself in one of these situations and have counseled with very skilled business owners, successful friends, and spiritual friends in several industries.  Yes… I am not perfect and need help and need guidance from coaches around me just like a PRO GOLFER gets lessons every day to be his/her best.

In life and business – You must always be on your toes and you must keep your plans in tact.  Things are not always as they appear and watch the path you are heading down this week / month.  Make sure it’s you leading you and not someone else leading you into a mess you can’t get out of later.

You can’t soar w/ Eagles running around with Pigeons! ~ Les Brown

Got an email today from a reader, Ken asking about how to deal with unhappy customers. His question: “I have a customer that I am constantly doing so much for, but they don’t see it. I give them extensions on payments, I add incentives, I give away free services, but still they are unhappy. I’m at a loss. What can I do to please them?” Ken, most likely you never will. I know the quickest way to failure is trying to make everyone happy… Some people will never be happy with the work you do. The meal is too hot or cold, the design isn’t right, what they were happy with before, they aren’t happy with now. In business, it’s going to happen, no matter how good you are. There isn’t a lot you can do about it because they just can’t be satisfied.  MOST of the time it’s because they don’t see or know the real value of what you are doing.

When dealing with customers, I try to go above and beyond as much as I can. When by contract I’m required to spend 2 hours a month on something, I’ll spend a day or more. Sometimes a few days. When I’m required to build a 10 page website, I’ll build 20. When it would cost a client thousands to hire someone to shoot and edit a video, I’ll snap it and deliver it for free. Why do I do this? Because I care and try to over-deliver. I will often throw in extras at no charge just to do something more to show value for being my customer. This is often to my own detriment because many take advantage of the generosity. I believe those unadvertised bonuses make a huge difference, but you have to also be careful to not train them to expect free stuff and extensions all the time. Make sure they see the value behind the extras. Show them how long it takes, how much value you are giving them. Show them what you normally charge for the extras.

No matter how great a job you do, there are some folks that just won’t see the value though. Those types you need to get rid of. When you focus your attention on the people that do not appreciate what you do for them, you can’t focus on the ones that do. The extra 20 hours you spent trying to please that one person who will never be happy with you or doesn’t value what you do, could be spent going after a new client that will. How many phone calls to prospective clients could you make in 20 hours? Fire your bad customers. I have personally fired at least 10 my lifetime. It just wasn’t worth keeping them around. You shouldn’t waste time trying to validate them being a customer with you. If you did quality work for them, and they don’t see it, let them go hang themselves with a different business that won’t offer as much value. Let them see just how great they had it. Focus on getting customers that love your work. Ditch the ones that don’t. There is too much money to be made with people that will value what you do. Up front, you may lose a little bit of money from that customer, but in the long run you will be happier, have much less stress and be more profitable.

A lot of people can’t stand waiting to fulfill their desires. They want it now, and they want it delivered. We have groomed ourselves to be this way. We live in fast food nation, where you place a call and get a hot pizza in 20 minutes delivered right to your door. The problem is that instant gratification rarely ever leads to outstanding results. You are never going to get 5 star steak delivered to your door in twenty minutes and it taste like it does at the restaurant.

There are no overnight successes in the real world. It takes years of work to truly get where you want to go. Most people can’t stand waiting or putting in the work to get there. It’s probably why most people don’t realize their dreams. They trade security and instant results with these things called jobs, rather than working hard and waiting for potential big wins by following their dreams. I love this video. It’s a study that was done about gratification. Kids were given a choice, they could eat one marshmallow now, or if they waited until the lady returned they could get two. Just by waiting only a few minutes, they could double their rewards! Watch how hard it is for these kids to wait.

Is it really that bad to work hard for a few years so that you can be permanently lazy if you choose to be? If you dedicated just 3-5 years of your life towards your dreams and realized them, would it worth it to you? Personally, I’d trade 5 years in order to get everything I want, rather than get mediocre results now for the rest of my life.

I know this is going to come as a shock to most of you…. but some people simply don’t want to be saved by you.  In the beginning, they may act like they want your help to change, find more freedom, get more time but the truth is that they have to figure it out and do it on their own. You simply can’t do it for them. As an entrepreneur – when I see a friend that wants more with their life, I instinctively want to do whatever I can to help them. I will encourage them and let them know they can achieve whatever they want to in life. I remember the days when I had no support and what it was like to battle great odds alone. It’s a hard road to go down without the positive support that you need. I wish I had found some massive support much earlier. Probably would have made things a lot easier and you would be attending a seminar I was speaking at right now.  (soon)

I will tell these people to go out and create their own life. That they can do anything they set their minds on. I am such a firm believer in the power of human potential that I know anyone despite where they are in life, can become a success if they simply have the passion and determination to do it. But I have also found that they have to do it for themselves. It doesn’t matter how hard you try, you can’t do it for them. No power on earth can help the person that has no belief in themselves or the true desire for change. They have to reach their own personal boiling point that says, “Ok, I’m not going to live like this anymore. Time to change things up.”

“You can give them the hammer, but they are going to have to swing at the nails.” It has to be their decision to change and no one elses. Otherwise they will stay the same regardless of how much help or support you give them. There is something deep inside that keeps them from advancing. Until they discover it and fight like hell to defeat it, they will not change. The only thing you can do for them is to encourage and be there for them and hope that they will find it in themselves. They have to truly want it inside. I have the tendency to want to jump up and try to be the hero for them. I have learned that no matter what you do or say you can’t save them. They have to save themselves.

“I have come to understand that success and prosperity had almost nothing to do with opportunities, chance, luck – or even training, education, or skill. It had everything to do with your personal consciousness, beliefs, and even subconscious programming that you aren’t aware of.” – Randy Gage.

“If you want to be more, you have to become more.” Jim Rohn

It seems a lot of people are looking for the easy button in their lives. They want to hit a button and have their lives instantly fulfilled overnight. I hate to break it to you but there is no easy button to achieve greatness in anything. To get where you want to go it’s going to take work. Serious hard work. I think Americans see musicians and actors all of the sudden pop up out of nowhere and become famous and wealthy. They think that it can be done instantly. What we don’t see is the years of hard work that got them to that tipping point.  There is no magical chant or potion that made them that way, they simply put in the time to get where they wanted to go.

Dan Kennedy has a great quote: “I’m an overnight success after 20 years.”

If it took you 5 years to achieve all of your dreams— would it be worth it to dedicate the time it would take to get what you want? Of course! There is another saying I live by: “I will be temporarily slammed busy in order to be permanently lazy IF I choose to be.” However – if you know me… you know that ain’t gonna happen… hahahaha… If you want to be successful in anything, YOU have to put in the time. Make the decision. As with most things in life, you get what you put in. Put in the work and time, you’ll get there.

Blake Mallen discussing our belief systems and 2,000,000 bits of information boiled down to 134 bits of processed information.  What do you believe?  Join us in our quest of the 90 day challenge – help people and help feed kids – www.90daystoWOW.com

1) If you had all the time, money and freedom in the world— what would you be doing right now?
2) Do you really know what freedom is anymore?  What it entails?  What it’s worth?
3) Do you thank others for your freedoms or do you take them for granted everyday?
4) What would you do with your time if you were financially free?
5) Would you speak your mind to your boss if you knew you could be free from the tyranny of corporate America?
6) How many people could you help if you were out of debt?  time debt and money debt?
7) Are you willing to just give up on your dreams and allow freedom to be a lost art in this country of the American Dream – the good old USA?

I wrote this entry off the top of my head and want to thank everyone out there that contributes to my freedom in this great country we live in.  I hope we all go out there and remember what that means today and why we should stand up and go after what we really want to in this life.  I hope you all find the courage to DREAM BUILD again and remember that being free isn’t free.  Be courageous – Go after your dreams again and be grateful for all that you have.

Your results are your own and determined by what you put in. How do you know that they even took the product out of the shrink wrap? Do you know if they properly trained themselves? Do you know if they treated it like a real business, or just simply “this thing they are doing.”Don’t inhale the smoke others blow. Their failure could have happened for all sorts of reasons.

Their failure has nothing to do with you.  ONLY YOU can determine your success or failure.  Don’t let others decide it before you even get started!?!

The other day, I attended a seminar where the speaker, multimillionaire Blake Mallen, said:

“You are either politicking or producing, but you can’t be doing both.”

Gossip or politics doesn’t get you any closer to your goals. Most of the time it keeps you from taking action and doing any real work. If you look at most true producers and achievers, they simply don’t have time, nor the desire to be a part of it. They are too busy creating value and taking steps towards advancement to care about whose dating who, or “showing” everyone how successful they are.

There are a lot of organizations where people get so caught up in the water-cooler gossip that they never produce any results in the process. They may be “in the know” or part of the “in” crowd, but usually no real production occurs from it. If you want to go after your goals, you must produce and leave the gossiping to the others that don’t really want success. What kind of a return does the drama between Sue and Charles produce?

You can either be politicking or producing, but you can’t be doing both.  Me… I’d rather have the results and the freedom those results produce.

J.K. Rowling Speaks at Harvard Commencement from Harvard Magazine on Vimeo.