Do you want to start an online business?

June 29, 2010 by JD · 6 Comments
Filed under: Business, Musings, Personal, Site Build It, Success and Failure 

I haven’t been posting to this blog nearly as much as I would like, and you may already know the reason. If you don’t, the short story is that I’m battling cancer and lots of days I don’t feel like doing much of anything. However, the good news is that I’m stronger than I was for the last six months and I believe I’m making progress every day. Hopefully, in the near future, I’ll be able to resume blogging on a regular basis.

I was thinking about the topic of having an online business earlier this morning.

For the last year, I haven’t really been able to do much work, but I continue to get enough income through past efforts to keep my various websites and communities moving along while I concentrate mostly on kicking this cancer’s butt. It really is true that I earn money in my sleep and on days when all I feel like doing is sitting on the porch and listening to the birds and watching the wind rustle the leaves on all the trees that surround my home.

Over the last ten years, I’ve earned a living through my marketing business, even though there have been lots of ups and downs.

It allowed me to work from home and care for my elderly mother for about seven years, and it has kept me afloat for the last couple of years as my health problems took over the majority of my attention.

On Thursday, July 1, I’ll turn 58 years old and I always contemplate what I want to do differently during the next year of my life as my birthday approaches.

Interestingly enough, I find that there isn’t much I want to change other than getting healthy, again. As soon as I’m strong enough and able to think straight, again, I want to resume my marketing business, doing pretty much what I’ve done for the last decade.

That’s pretty remarkable for me. I rarely go that long without becoming disinterested in what I’ve been doing and wanting to try something new.

I love living here in the mountains and working from home. I love it that hundreds of people view my websites every day and enough of them purchase from my recommendations that I still generate some income, even when I’m unable to work.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not generating a lot of income and the last few months I’ve been mostly breaking even, but that still keeps all my websites alive and prevents the loss of all the hard work I put in the last few years.

If I were able to really work on the sites as I did a few years ago, my income would be rising every month and I look forward to doing that again within the next year or so.

If I had been working on a job the last few years and got this sick, I think I would be quite a bit worse off than I am now.

I love being self-employed and I love earning revenue for work I did months or years ago.

What about you?

If something unexpected happened in your life, would you have anything helping you economically? Even if things are going great (and I hope they continue that way!), do you ever wonder what it would be like to work from home and do something you love every day?

I know hundreds of people who are doing just that. Most of them are doing a few similar things in terms of promoting their businesses, but almost all of them are doing something that is interesting to each of them. In other words, they’re not a bunch of lemmings trying to follow the herd and eek out a few dollars here and there. They’ve identified something about which they’re very interested, even passionate, and they’re working to build an online business around that topic (or those topics).

Some are approaching their online business from one direction and others are coming from a different direction, but they all share some common traits: intelligence, a vision of where they want to go, a plan on how to get there, motivation to accomplish what is important to them, the willingness to study and learn what they need to know, and an unflagging belief that they will succeed in reaching their goal, eventually.

That belief is very important.

Life almost never goes in straight lines. We have a series of highs and lows and often have to retrace our steps to find a new path to take us where we want to go when we encounter the detours that life throws at us.

Many years ago, Napoleon Hill, author of Think and Grow Rich said, “Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve.”

That has been my motto for almost 40 years, since I first read that book in my late teens.

I’ve proven to myself over and over that I can achieve what I want as long as I can clearly see it in my imagination, can develop a plan to achieve it, and then take action to accomplish each step in that plan.

In fact, I’m dealing with my cancer in the same way. I intend to kick this cancer’s butt and regain my health within the next year. I intend to resume working in my marketing business and doing the things I love.

What do you want to accomplish during the next year of your life?

Another of my mottoes is, “A year from now, I will be better than I am today.”

Sometimes I don’t achieve that goal, but, so far, I’ve always bounced back when life knocks me down a peg or two.

You can do the same thing.

I hear many of my friends and people with whom I come into contact say that they want their own business so they don’t have to commute to work and be subject to someone else’s dictates.

Yet, over and over, year in and year out, relatively few of them ever take the steps to achieve that goal. They don’t analyze what they want to do or make a plan on how to get there. They don’t identify the milestones and take the steps every day to reach those goals.

The next year, they are no closer to their goal than they were the last.

Does that describe you?

What steps have you taken in the last year to get you closer to what you want out of life?

Have you done all that you could to get there?

Why not?

What is stopping you from making your dream a reality?

Is it lack of money? That’s just an excuse. Lots of people with no money have worked hard and made their dreams real.

Is it lack of knowledge? That’s also an excuse. The entire world’s knowledge is available to you through your computer.

The same is true for just about any excuse you can throw up to explain why you are no closer to your goal than you were a year ago.

Do you really want to do what you think you do?

It’s a hard question to face. Perhaps you’re more interested in the fantasy than the reality.

Maybe you think that owning your own business and working from home is like living in paradise.

Sometimes it is. Sometimes it isn’t.

When you own your own business, you, alone, are responsible for everything that gets done and everything that doesn’t. The hours can be longer than working a job, especially in the first few years of starting it. The pay can be less than working a job, but sometimes the lack of commuting, buying business clothing, eating lunch in a restaurant, and all the other expenses related to working for someone else can be reduced when you work at home so the resulting net loss may not be as much as you might think.

I’ve worked many long hours planning and building my online business and I’ve had successes and failures along the way.

Most of my income came through affiliate marketing and that was drastically reduced when North Carolina’s legislature passed new tax laws and some of the major businesses with which I was affiliated canceled my relationship to them. For example, for years I received income from Amazon.com for recommending products that I knew to be useful and a good value. When people would click on the link to the product and purchase it, I would earn a small commission.

When the tax law was passed, Amazon and others canceled these affiliate relations with me (and all their other affiliates in NC) and *poof* there went one of my major sources of income.

Did I quit?

No.

Did I wallow in self-pity?

Yes, I did, but only for a few days.

Then I turned my attention to developing a new plan for earning an income and it was working well until I became too sick to continue with it. But, I haven’t thrown out this plan, it’s still in place and I’ll pick it back up as soon as I can.

That’s one of the major reasons that I need to keep my existing websites online until the day I can resume marketing them.

I know people who are blind or deaf or handicapped in other ways who are still able to build a business and work at home. Some are making ends meet, others are supplementing their other incomes, and a few are doing very well and earning more than they ever earned working for someone else.

On the other hand, some people I know learned that being self-employed really wasn’t what they wanted to do. They found that they liked working at a job, despite some of the things they didn’t like about it. This helped them to understand what they really wanted from their lives and now they don’t waste as much time daydreaming about the “grass is greener” aspects of being self-employed.

Before I ramble on much longer, I want to come to the point of all this.

Having your own online business may be a very good thing for you, or it may be a disaster in the making. It all depends upon you. Can you identify what you want to do? Can you develop a plan to achieve it? Can you learn all the technical things you need to know to make it work? Can you avoid the distractions that abound when you look for ways to make money online? Are you self-directed and motivated to achieve something, even if the rewards may follow only after two or three years of hard work?

Can you work to build something for the future, or do you want your rewards right now?

It all depends upon you, and I can’t offer you any advice if you really don’t want to do what’s necessary to build your business. I don’t know any shortcuts that work, and the whole idea that it’s easy to make a fortune on the Internet is just a big lie some people tell you to get your money.

Ten years ago, I didn’t know who to listen to and who to avoid. I didn’t know what advice was sound and what was just thrown out there to separate me from my hard-earned money. I didn’t know who genuinely cared whether I did well and how to tell them apart from the sharks that are always circling the online marketing newbie.

So, I tested the teachings of lots of people. I spent money and time learning their techniques and following their advice. Most of those experiments were big fat flops. Only a few really proved to be worthwhile and one stood out head and shoulders above all the rest.

You’ve heard me say this many times before, but I’m going to say it again, Ken Evoy, founder of Sitesell, is the real deal. He cares for his customers and works very hard to help each of us build our individual businesses online.

He wrote best selling ebooks to help us build our online businesses and now he gives them away for free. For example, here’s where you can get a free copy of his best-selling ebook, Make Your Site Sell!

(If you collect ebooks and never read them or put into practice what you learn, then don’t bother downloading Make Your Site Sell!, because having it on your harddrive and not doing anything with it is a waste of your time.)

For the last few years, he’s concentrated on making Site Build It! the best system for building online businesses and tens of thousands of real people are following his guidelines and most of them are building successful businesses in niches they love.

Does everyone succeed with SBI? No. I don’t believe everyone succeeds using any set of tools, but more people do well when they follow his advice than they do following anyone else I know and I’ve been researching this topic for over ten years.

Of course, I don’t know everything, so there may be others out there, too, but I don’t know who they are.

So, as my next birthday quickly approaches, I’m happy to see that I don’t intend to do much differently in my business other than dropping a number of experiments that did not succeed (and which were not recommended by Ken Evoy, by the way).

I’m going to concentrate more on my SBI sites and much less on the others, including my blogs, like this one.

What am I going to do for my birthday?

I’m going to stay home and celebrate it in peace and quiet, and then the next day, I’m going 100 miles to have a liver biopsy and radio frequency ablation performed on the spot in my liver that may be a result of my colon cancer, and may not be.

I’m taking the next step in the process to regain my health, and that’s at the top of my to-do list this year. I intend to get healthier and stronger so I can continue to work from home.

What am I going to do for YOU for my birthday?

I’m going to tell you how you can download Ken’s ebooks for free (you don’t even have to give your email address). Yes, those books are a few years old, but the information and advice in them is still valuable.

Even better, I’m going to give you access to the SBI Action Guide.

This is the same guide we follow when we subscribe to SBI 2.0, and you can learn the same things we do. However, unless you subscribe to SBI 2.0, you don’t get all the tools, support, articles, tips, and help from the members-only forum.

You do get a step-by-step guide in what to do to identify your niche, compare it to others, choose the one that’s right for you, and information on how to research and build your business.

You don’t get access to the keyword brainstorming tool, the keyword database functions, nor the sitebuilding tools.

For one or two percent of the people reading this, the information you’ll get from reading the Action Guide and watching the video version of it will be enough for you to use any tools you want to build a successful business.

For a few more percent, you’ll be able to adapt what you learn and use something like WordPress to build a site. Before you invest the time and effort in doing this, have you read Sitesell’s page comparing blogging versus building a hierarchically-organized website?

The rest of you would be better off, deciding if this is something you really want to do, and if it is, then purchase an annual subscription to SBI and give yourself one year to start building the online business you dream of owning. Work on it some every day and you may be amazed at what you can accomplish in as little as a year from now.

Is it free?

Of course not.

Is it affordable?

Absolutely. An annual subscription to SBI costs $300 and that’s less than a dollar a day. Most of you waste more than that and don’t get any nearer your dream.

Is it the only way to succeed.

Of course, it is not.

Is it the way for you?

I don’t know. You’ll have to decide that for yourself.

I know that I’m a satisfied customer and host two sites using SBI. In a few minutes, after I publish this post, I’m going to renew my annual subscription to Murphy Gold so it will be ready for me to continue promoting select small businesses in Murphy, NC, a place I love living, as soon as I’m strong enough to do it.

I started Murphy Gold last year on my birthday after identifying a new direction I wanted to take following being canceled as an affiliate for Amazon and others.

If this cancer hadn’t interfered, I be much further along with the site, but I’ll get back to it as soon as we finish kicking this cancer’s butt to the curb.

It was my birthday gift to myself last year and will be my birthday gift to myself, again, this year.

As I said before, my birthday gift to you is access to the SBI Action Guide.

If you really want to do it yourself, and not make use of the tools that SBI offers, at least give yourself the advantage of the free Sitesell ebook downloads. Learn what you need to do, before you go searching for the tools to do it yourself.

I know I’d like to have back all those months I wasted trying other ways to build successful websites. My SBI sites may not be the prettiest, nor the flashiest, nor have the latest three-column designs, but they work. They attract thousands of visitors and they are easy to navigate. The only thing they lack is all the extra pages I have in my head and don’t have the energy to create right now, but that will be coming in the next few months as I continue to get stronger.

Now, it’s up to you.

Do you want to start an online business?

Tags: , , , , , ,

Think and Grow Rich test: How do you determine who is helpful and who is harmful?

January 18, 2010 by JD · 2 Comments
Filed under: Books, Self-Improvement, Success and Failure 

My answers to the Think and Grow Rich Self-Assessment Test

Recently, I was reminded of the self-assessment test in Napoleon Hill’s best-selling book, Think and Grow Rich.

There are fifty-four questions in that test, and I’m going to be giving my answers and thoughts on one or two of them as close to daily as I can manage. I may miss a day here or there, but I’m going to follow through until I reach the end of the test.

I’ve started the series of posts with:

Think and Grow Rich self-assessment test

Question Number 41. What criteria do you use to determine who is helpful to you and who is harmful?

I’m not exactly sure where to begin to answer this question.

On a basic level, harmful people are non-supportive, negative, usually destructive, non-tolerant, and block your efforts at improving your life. Much of the time, they tend to view the world in terms of black and white, right and wrong, or other binary systems that don’t let them enjoy a larger view of life. Either you agree with their world view (you’re with them) or you don’t (in which case you’re against them).

Other harmful people may actually want to damage you, your reputation, your safety, and your finances.

There is a huge range of people who may be harmful. I think most of us has a basic understanding of this, but I suspect that few have actually stopped to think about the question and to determine criteria to help you decide who they are.

There are some people, and I’ve had to deal with a few of these in the past, who are bright, cheerful and supportive on the surface, but have a much more negative attitude and agenda underneath that only comes out over time. I’m still not good at spotting these people, but I’m better than I used to be at doing it.

Then there is the “two faced” crowd. These people are friendly and supportive to your face, but they’ll stab you in the back and cause chaos for you when you’re not around. As soon as I identify one of these people, I prune them from my life.

I’m sure there are other harmful people that I haven’t identified. Do you have any thoughts on this?

As far as determining who is helpful to me, that’s a different question and — at least for me — is more difficult to answer.

Someone once told me that I was doing okay if a third of the people who knew me liked me, a third disliked me, and the final third didn’t really care much one way or the other.

I’m not sure if those percentages are accurate and I think they vary for different people.

In my case, I think I’m doing pretty well if 25% like me, 25% dislike me, and the other half don’t really care.

I’d worry and make changes if the number who disliked me was larger than either of the other two groups.

Now, as far as determining who is helpful, let’s think for a moment.

hmmmm.

Obviously, friends who are supportive and care for you are helpful. Customers who buy from you are helpful (but I don’t think of them as the same as supportive friends, although they can be in both categories). People who tell others about you and why they like you are helpful.

I don’t really have a set of criteria for helpful people that matches my harmful people criteria. I wonder why.

I expect helpful people to be honest, supportive, friendly, tolerant, positive, and to have other similar character attributes.

Other than these thoughts, I don’t really have a fixed criteria for determining who is helpful or harmful to me.

One thing I have come to rely upon, however, is a basic gut feeling when I’m around someone for any length of time. If my gut starts churning or feeling bad, then it makes my brain take notice in a way that it never did when I was younger.

What about you?

What criteria do you use to determine who is helpful to you and who is harmful?

Act on your dream!

JD

Tags: , , ,

Think and Grow Rich test: Is it possible that someone has a negative influence on your mind?

January 18, 2010 by JD · 4 Comments
Filed under: Books, Self-Improvement, Success and Failure 

My answers to the Think and Grow Rich Self-Assessment Test

Recently, I was reminded of the self-assessment test in Napoleon Hill’s best-selling book, Think and Grow Rich.

There are fifty-four questions in that test, and I’m going to be giving my answers and thoughts on one or two of them as close to daily as I can manage. I may miss a day here or there, but I’m going to follow through until I reach the end of the test.

I’ve started the series of posts with:

Think and Grow Rich self-assessment test

Question Number 40. Is it possible that some close friend or associate has a negative influence on your mind?

I’ve been thinking about this question for a few days before attempting an answer.

Currently, I don’t think that it is possible that any friends or associates can have a negative influence on my mind.

Just about all of the people I know are either neutral or positive influences, and I like it that way.

In the past, when I was much younger and much less selective in the people with whom I chose to associate, the answer would have been yes.

Over the decades, however, I’ve learned how to be more selective and I’m happy to say that I’m pleased with my friends and associates. They’re a great bunch of people and are supportive of each other, even when we have differing beliefs and opinions regarding things like politics, religion, and other issues that can be hot buttons for some people.

I’m happy to be part of such a tolerant and supportive group.

What about you?

Is it possible that some close friend or associate has a negative influence on your mind?

Act on your dream!

JD

Tags: , , ,

Think and Grow Rich test: Do you see any connection between your friends and some unhappiness in your life?

December 21, 2009 by JD · 2 Comments
Filed under: Books, Self-Improvement, Success and Failure 

My answers to the Think and Grow Rich Self-Assessment Test

Recently, I was reminded of the self-assessment test in Napoleon Hill’s best-selling book, Think and Grow Rich.

There are fifty-four questions in that test, and I’m going to be giving my answers and thoughts on one or two of them as close to daily as I can manage. I may miss a day here or there, but I’m going to follow through until I reach the end of the test.

I’ve started the series of posts with:

Think and Grow Rich self-assessment test

Question Number 39. Do you see any connection between your friends and some unhappiness in your life?

Finally, an easy question to answer succinctly.

No, I don’t.

In the past, I may have been able to say yes, but not now. I’m proud of my friends and happy with them.

What about you?

Do you see any connection between your friends and some unhappiness in your life?

All the best,

JD

Tags: , , ,

Think and Grow Rich test: What do you know about your friends?

December 21, 2009 by JD · 1 Comment
Filed under: Books, Self-Improvement, Success and Failure 

My answers to the Think and Grow Rich Self-Assessment Test

Recently, I was reminded of the self-assessment test in Napoleon Hill’s best-selling book, Think and Grow Rich.

There are fifty-four questions in that test, and I’m going to be giving my answers and thoughts on one or two of them as close to daily as I can manage. I may miss a day here or there, but I’m going to follow through until I reach the end of the test.

I’ve started the series of posts with:

Think and Grow Rich self-assessment test

Question Number 38. If you believe that “birds of a feather flock together,” what do you know about your friends?

I don’t know if it’s a matter of belief or just simple observation, but I’m sure that birds of a feather tend to flock together and this applies to most people I know.

Not only do we do that, we want to flock together, so we look for more who are like us so we can associate with them.

Some of my best friends had feathers of a different kind than I. We had different backgrounds, different wealth levels, different cultures. I could learn from them and they from me.

When we tend to stick only with our own flock, about all we can do is nod our heads in agreement most of the time and that leads to stagnation.

That said, I do think that most of my friends are pretty similar to me.

In general, it means that 2009 has been a rough year and we’re hoping that 2010 will bring an upswing in the cycle. More than that, though, we’re not just hoping, we’re looking for ways to help that happen. We’re being innovative and trying things we might not be doing if circumstances were better.

I believe that we grow more during hard times than we can during easy times. We have an incentive to do so.

When I think about my friends, I see an optimistic bunch of creative people who are doing what they can to improve their lives and cope with the difficulties. I think there are a lot of people like that out there and not all of them are in our flock.

On the other hand, some of my friends and I have very different viewpoints when it comes to religion, politics, and other “hot-button” issues.

What do we do about that? Mostly we recognize the fact, accept it, and respect the others’ rights to hold different thoughts, opinions, and beliefs than we do. We’re a tolerant flock. We look for the things that make us stronger and better friends and not for something to divide us. I like that about my friends.

So, that’s all I have to say on this subject, for whatever it is worth.

What about you?

If you believe that “birds of a feather flock together,” what do you know about your friends?

All the best,

JD

Tags: , , ,

Think and Grow Rich test: Do you have spiritual forces to protect you from fear?

December 21, 2009 by JD · 3 Comments
Filed under: Books, Self-Improvement, Success and Failure 

My answers to the Think and Grow Rich Self-Assessment Test

Recently, I was reminded of the self-assessment test in Napoleon Hill’s best-selling book, Think and Grow Rich.

There are fifty-four questions in that test, and I’m going to be giving my answers and thoughts on one or two of them as close to daily as I can manage. I may miss a day here or there, but I’m going to follow through until I reach the end of the test.

I’ve started the series of posts with:

Think and Grow Rich self-assessment test

Question Number 37. Do you have spiritual forces powerful enough to keep you free from fear?

Now, this is one that I really have trouble answering.

I just don’t ever feel much fear and I can count on the fingers of one hand all the times (as an adult) that I’ve actually been afraid.

In none of those instances did I feel that I needed spiritual forces to protect me.

So, I guess the simple answer to this question is no.

What about you?

Do you have spiritual forces powerful enough to keep you free from fear?

All the best,

JD

Tags: , , ,

Think and Grow Rich test: Does your job inspire you?

December 8, 2009 by JD · 6 Comments
Filed under: Books, Self-Improvement, Success and Failure 

My answers to the Think and Grow Rich Self-Assessment Test

Recently, I was reminded of the self-assessment test in Napoleon Hill’s best-selling book, Think and Grow Rich.

There are fifty-four questions in that test, and I’m going to be giving my answers and thoughts on one or two of them as close to daily as I can manage. I may miss a day here or there, but I’m going to follow through until I reach the end of the test.

I’ve started the series of posts with:

Think and Grow Rich self-assessment test

Question Number 36. Does your job inspire you?

This is hard to answer, because I don’t have a job.

I have a lifestyle.

So, indulge me for a moment as I rephrase the question to, “Does my lifestyle inspire me?”

Most of the time, it does.

I enjoy what I do. I enjoy marketing and promoting things for other people. I enjoy promoting other people.

Sometimes, I even enjoy looking into myself and writing about it, as I have in this series of questions.

A long time ago, I had jobs I did not particularly like. Some were hard, others involved having to work with unlikable and unreliable people. I took steps to leave those jobs and find others that were better fitted to me and the lifestyle I wanted.

Some of the most inspiring jobs were the hardest, so I wasn’t just trying to find an easy way to live. I wanted to do something that mattered and helped others, and not just find an easy way to a big paycheck.

Now that I’m self-employed and haven’t had a job for awhile, I still try to find things that help others achieve what they want and I find that to be much more inspiring than most jobs I’ve ever had.

From a practical viewpoint, I have to increase the amount of income over what it has been this year, but I believe that the money follows when you’re doing something worthwhile. It may take some time and it may be a challenge – especially at first – but I believe the money will come.

If I had to make a decision between a big paycheck for doing something I disliked versus less income for doing something I love, I’d pick the latter one every time.

It’s been nearly 20 years since I had a job that did not inspire me, and I like it that way.

What about you?

Does your job inspire you?

All the best,

JD

Tags: , , ,

Think and Grow Rich test: Do you form your own opinions?

December 8, 2009 by JD · 7 Comments
Filed under: Books, Self-Improvement, Success and Failure 

My answers to the Think and Grow Rich Self-Assessment Test

Recently, I was reminded of the self-assessment test in Napoleon Hill’s best-selling book, Think and Grow Rich.

There are fifty-four questions in that test, and I’m going to be giving my answers and thoughts on one or two of them as close to daily as I can manage. I may miss a day here or there, but I’m going to follow through until I reach the end of the test.

I’ve started the series of posts with:

Think and Grow Rich self-assessment test

Question Number 35. Do you form your own opinions or do you let yourself be influenced by others?

I definitely form my own opinions.

While I try to learn from others and value a range of different opinions from a variety of people, I form my own opinions and make my own decisions.

This annoys some people who know me. Some of them would rather that I’d just “join the crowd.” I’m just not like that.

When I was growing up, one of the anthems was “question authority,” and I’ve always done that.

I took it a step further and entered the realm of the philosophers when I decided to “question reality.”

I don’t take anything on its face value, no matter what authority it calls upon.

Sometimes it makes life more difficult, but it also means that I’m carving out my own slice of the pie and living my life on my own terms – for good or bad.

I will listen to others’ opinions and respect them for what they are – their opinions.

Whether I agree with them or not, is an entirely different matter.

When I was younger, I would stay up late at night and debate issues that nobody has ever solved or agreed upon. It was a valuable exercise in debate and logic – and, now and then, tempers would flare for awhile.

These days, I tend to debate with myself rather than others, but I still look at many sides of the issues I consider before making a decision.

Even when I do decide upon an opinion, it is still open for debate and reconsideration at a later date, if I get more facts to consider or encounter differing opinions of which I was previously unaware. It can make life interesting and dynamic, instead of being stuck in the ruts that others have carved and want us to travel within.

I’m not conceited enough to think that I’m always right, but I try to do the best I can.

What about you?

Do you form your own opinions or do you let yourself be influenced by others?

All the best,

JD

Tags: , , ,

Think and Grow Rich test: What habits in others annoy you the most?

November 28, 2009 by JD · 4 Comments
Filed under: Books, Self-Improvement, Success and Failure 

My answers to the Think and Grow Rich Self-Assessment Test

Recently, I was reminded of the self-assessment test in Napoleon Hill’s best-selling book, Think and Grow Rich.

There are fifty-four questions in that test, and I’m going to be giving my answers and thoughts on one or two of them as close to daily as I can manage. I may miss a day here or there, but I’m going to follow through until I reach the end of the test.

I’ve started the series of posts with:

Think and Grow Rich self-assessment test

Question Number 34. What habits in others annoy you the most?

I think the habit that annoys me most is when someone says that they’ll do something and then they never follow-up and do it.

I’d much rather someone told me no and stuck to it rather than telling me yes or maybe and then never doing whatever it is.

That really gets under my skin.

Another thing that bothers me is when people have an opinion about something, even though they have no experience with it.

Where does this come from?

What may bother me the most, however, may be people who are “smart asses” and cynics. Yes, I know these are two different things, but they’re related.

No matter how serious the conversation or circumstance, the smart ass has a way of deflecting everything without resolving anything. It’s easy, but what does it accomplish?

Sometimes it can lighten the mood if it’s humorous, but frequently, probably most of the time, it’s not funny, it’s just distracting and bothersome.

Cynics have convinced themselves that everything is a lie and nothing works as described – among other traits that they develop.

Frequently, a cynic will believe that he is a skeptic. There is a big difference.

Someone who is skeptical will generally not believe what they read or hear, but they usually have enough of an open mind to look into it a bit more before making their final decision.

Cynics, however, make their final decision based on something other than facts and experience and that bothers me.

I can deal with a skeptic, but I do my best to avoid cynics.

The final habit that really annoys me is the habit of lying.

This is related to the first one I mentioned, but I don’t think the people in that first group are actually meaning to lie. They just don’t follow-up. They get busy and distracted and go in another direction.

Liars, however, are never to be trusted. When I realize that someone is an habitual liar, I move them out of my life as quickly as possible. Who needs that?

What about you?

What habits in others annoy you the most?

All the best,

JD

Tags: , , ,

Think and Grow Rich test: Does your presence have a negative influence on others?

November 28, 2009 by JD · 5 Comments
Filed under: Books, Self-Improvement, Success and Failure 

My answers to the Think and Grow Rich Self-Assessment Test

Recently, I was reminded of the self-assessment test in Napoleon Hill’s best-selling book, Think and Grow Rich.

There are fifty-four questions in that test, and I’m going to be giving my answers and thoughts on one or two of them as close to daily as I can manage. I may miss a day here or there, but I’m going to follow through until I reach the end of the test.

I’ve started the series of posts with:

Think and Grow Rich self-assessment test

Question Number 33. Does your presence have a negative influence on others?

I was tempted to just say “No” and move on to the next question.

I try not to be a negative influence on others, but this may not be true for part of this year.

When I was very sick earlier this year, I’m sure it worried my family and friends, but I don’t think that qualifies as being a negative influence. Do you?

When my affiliate marketing business took a dive this year, I lost my direction for that part of my business and I’m still looking for a viable new approach that will rebuild it to where it was previously – and grow much higher in the future.

During the last few months, I was rather negative about some things related to my business, but I still don’t think that makes me a negative influence. Perhaps it does for people reading my affiliate marketing blog. I don’t know.

Do you think I’ve been a negative influence?

I try to be a positive influence and do my best to help others achieve their dreams. In fact, that’s the entire focus of my Act On Your Dream! website, which gets many more viewers and page views every month than my blogs do.

What about you?

Does your presence have a negative influence on others?

All the best,

JD

Tags: , , ,

Next Page »