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We bought a washer/dryer at Sears. The salesman came round to my house in his own time to disconnect the water pipes at no charge, the night before delivery of the new appliances. He had a great, friendly, helpful attitude. He recommended I buy longer pipes and a longer drainage pipe so that it would fit better, which I did. When the machines were installed, the installers forgot to remove the supports, so when we turned the appliances on, they leapt around like kangaroos. The salesman came over, fixed everything, and arranged a $100 discount.

This salesman used his own, private time, got his clothes dirty, never complained, went the extra mile, and made sure we were happy customers. Amazing service. Would I want to help him, send him business, and support him in any way I could? You bet I would. Did he have to sell me anything, pitch anything, or ask for anything? No. My daughter is about to buy a new fridge. I called her and suggested she give this salesman her business.

I have an amazing insurance / financial planning guy who has been a great benefit to me and to strong businesspeople for who I have lots of respect. I refer him to people and he gives them a complimentary consultation. He saves me thousands in tax – why would I not refer him? He didn’t have to ask me to do so, because he went the extra mile. He’s reliable, honest. Astute, professional, always on time, and responds fast. You will probably e-mail me and ask for his telephone number. I’ll be glad to pass it on (if you’re in Canada.)

When you take the time to go into the forest to chop the wood, meticulously prepare the fire, get your hands dirty, and make sure the thing blazes away, you deserve to enjoy the heat, but not before. Entitlement, arrogance, socialism, shoddy service, and impatience robs many people of excellent referrals in business. It’s not about the money, honey. I don’t even know what I paid for the washer/dryer stuff – I just chose the most expensive and bought it. It’s all about the service.

“If you want a friend, BE a friend” – good advice. If you want benefits, you have to contribute. When the contribution stops, losers don’t understand why they’re not still enjoying the benefits. Create massive, unexpected, glittering value, and you can rest assured smart people will reciprocate. We bought expensive hardwood flooring from Home Depot and had it delivered and unpacked. Then we sent it all back again three days later since the floor was too uneven. They collected it and didn’t charge us a blue cent. They even paid the delivery and the installers. They didn’t have to. Now we’re loyal customers, and this article will be read by thousands of people.

Yes, what goes around comes around. Keep your promises, deliver on time, be friendly and helpful, and you will have little competition. Give additional service and go the extra mile, and your success is all but guaranteed if you’re serving good people. If not, you’ll wake up one morning to find you have been replaced by someone who understands this. We help those who help us. The good news is that you can use Joint Ventures to create MASSIVE additional value that your competition can never equal, at no cost to you.

Robin J., Elliott
 www.JVWisdom.com

Many years ago in South Africa, we imported the Anthony Robbins Personal Power Program from America. Because of the exchange rate and import duties, it was very expensive, and it took a long time to receive it. We were very excited and listened to it over and over again. It changed our lives dramatically and resulted in personal understanding and choices and a video program that made us tens of thousands of dollars. We still live by the principles we learned from that wonderful program.

On a beautiful spring day, we decided to go for a walk. Along the way, we see… A GARAGE SALE! Rika loves garage sales. Suddenly, as we meander along past the tables laden with other people’s trash, we both notice that something on one of the tables that once changed our lives.

And there it was, in all its glory!

The Anthony Robbins Personal Power program, in pristine condition, with the little workbook and everything, at a garage sale! That’s like putting your most precious, inherited, priceless, irreplaceable family jewels in a garage sale. I was stunned. Rika and I both reached forward simultaneously to grab the program. I looked at the character behind the table, early fifties, torn T shirt, and asked him. “Why are you selling this fantastic program?” His reply should have been expected, but I was still shocked. “I didn’t even finish listening to it - I don’t believe that stuff - that a 20-something could make all that money - it’s rubbish.” When I recovered I asked, “So how much do you want for it?” “I paid $139″, he scowled,”But you can have it for eight - say five dollars.”  On the way out of the garage sale, clutching my treasure, I noticed that the event was held at a Co-op housing place.

Naturally, I am re-listening to the entire program and loving every minute of it, and on the first tape Tony Robbins mentions that only 10% of the people who invest in the program will finish listening to it. There’s a reason why that loser lives in government subsidized co-op housing. He was handed the keys to a magnificent mansion in the form of the Tony Robbins program, and he discarded it, probably in favor of a joint and a hockey game on TV. It was “too good to be true”. Guess when he started scowling? When he saw my DollarMakers ball cap. Bitter and twisted, trapped in his cynicism, and poor.

Although I was disgusted at this specimen that devalued something as life-changing as that Tony Robbins program, I really do pity him, and deep down inside I know that it’s not too late for him to break free of his present situation, if, indeed, he wants to break free. Many people have missed the boat, and yet they could still escape their compromised lives if they had the tools, given that they want their freedom from serfdom, mediocrity, and lives of quiet desperation. As I type this, I have just finished writing my latest book, “Break Free!” and it will soon be available. Perhaps it should be very expensive, instead of the usual $20, since $139 didn’t get the attention of a young man who held his future in his hands all those years ago.

The truth will set you free, and the source is unimportant. When the student is ready, the teacher will appear - even in the form of an old audio tape program at a garage sale. It’s never too late to start living and to break free.

“The greatest wealth is health.” ~Virgil

Money and time, happy relationships, confidence, the achievement of our goals, and peace of mind are not quite as valuable when you have no health. While the former will certainly allow you to “suffer in comfort”,
bad health adversely affects every area of your life, and every area of your life affects your health.

However I believe that drug companies, many doctors, and the snake oil salesmen who are essentially the purveyors of lotions, potions, farcical diets, absurd juices, organic junk and magic spells to relive desperate,
vulnerable, suffering people and hypochondriacs of their hard-earned money, carefully complicate the concept of health in their own selfish interests.

“The best six doctors anywhere
And no one can deny it
Are sunshine, water, rest, and air
Exercise and diet.
These six will gladly you attend
If only you are willing
Your mind they’ll ease
Your will they’ll mend
And charge you not a shilling.”
~Nursery rhyme quoted by Wayne Fields, What the River Knows, 1990

Here are the facts as I see them regarding health. Use more calories up through exercise than the calories you consume. Let’s apply the following to FAT:

“Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pound ought and six, result misery.”
~ Charles Dickens

To me, that means that if I eat more calories than I use up, I get fat. It’s not water retention – it’s disgusting fat. If you smoke, not only do you offend the people around you who wisely choose not to smoke with your
filthy, stinking addiction, not only do you blatantly demonstrate the fact that you do not care about those you offend and that you are incapable of the self-discipline to quit smoking, but you also make it clear that your real self-esteem is pretty low. Smoking will not make you healthy. Heavy drinking will not improve your health. Eating bad food will have a negative effect on you. Smoking weed will damage what brain cells you have left.

It’s that simple: disciple yourself to eat right, don’t smoke, get exercise, get some sunlight, and get over your weak excuses. AS you discipline yourself, your self-esteem will increase, and this will affect every other area of your life in a very positive manner.

“Joy and Temperance and Repose Slam the door on the doctor’s nose.”
~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

It’s basic, common sense. I don’t need to buy your overpriced vitamins on auto ship. I don’t need health club membership. I can drink more water, eat more fruit, and climb the stairs or walk around the lake.

“To feel keenly the poetry of a morning’s roses, one has to have just escaped from the claws of this vulture which we call sickness.”
~ Henri Frederic Amiel

Good relationships, peace of mind, sufficient money, and good friends will increase your health. Keep it simple and stop wasting your time and money on ridiculous schemes and dreams and quick fix silver bullets that will inevitable prove to b duds.

“A good laugh and a long sleep are the best cures in the doctor’s book.”
~Irish Proverb

Stop making excuses, start making changes, and get healthy. You deserve it!

“I see rejection in my skin, worry in my cancers, bitterness and hate in my aching joints. I failed to take care of my mind, and so my body now goes to hospital.”
~Astrid Alauda

1. TAKE ACTION!!
2. Read “Atlas Shrugged” by Ayn Rand
3. Get Out There and Meet New People
4. Make a List of Goals
5. Forget About The Opinions Of Others
6. Compliment Those That Deserve It
7. Learn to Listen
8. Break Away from Fear
9. Stop Worrying and Start Doing
10. Listen To Your Inner Voice
11. Stop Watching TV
12. Delegate your C items, only do the A and B items.
13. Eat Healthy
14. Be True To Yourself
15. Drop Your Bad Habits and Enhance Your Good Habits
16. Get Up a Half Hour Earlier
17. Implement Daily Affirmations - Repeat Your Affirmations Any Chance You Get
18. Be Your Biggest Fan
19. Remember Good is the Enemy of Great
20. Always Keep Learning
21. Focus Your Energy - Be a High Powered Laser
22. Don’t Be Cheap - Invest in the Tools You’ll Need to Succeed
23. Have Integrity.  REALLY.  People Catch On Fast.
24. Keep a Journal - Carry It With You Everywhere
25. Follow Great People - read their blogs, biographies and anything else.
26. Never Give Up. Never Surrender.
27. Trust In God, and Tie Up Your Camels.
28. Subscribe to a “Word Of The Day” Email.
29. You Can’t Do It All Yourself - Find Great Partners
30. Watch What People Do, Not What They Say They Do
31. Give Referrals, Ask for Referrals
32. Sleep When You’re Dead
33. Send Thank You Cards

Entrepreneurs often spend too much time worrying. Statistically, 85% of the things we worry about will never happen. Those things include worries over our past that can never be changed, worries over which we have no control, irrational concerns or fears, and worries about the future. Worrying about something never solved the problem or affects the final outcome in any way.

Worrying Makes Your Face Ugly

Excessive worries cause negative emotions that release chemicals into our bodies which wreak physical havoc - high blood pressure, headaches, heart conditions, and more. I loved Dale Carnegie’s book, “How to Stop Worrying and Start Living”. Worry can ruin relationships, make your face drawn and ugly, and affect every aspect of your life negatively. Leo Buscaglia said, “Worry never robs tomorrow of its sorrow, it only saps today of its joy.”  The more attention you pay to worries, like plants, they grow bigger and stronger, until they control you. Someone once said, “People gather bundles of sticks to build bridge they will never cross.”

How do we deal effectively with worry? Action. Pat Schroeder said, “You can’t wring your hands and roll up your sleeves at the same time.” Face you fears. Shine the light of intelligent, rational, and balanced evaluation on them, and the shadows of fear and emotionalism will retreat. Here’s my personal recipe for handling worry. I have a very vivid imagination, so you should know that I have to carefully manage my tendency to make mountains out of molehills and elaborate expansively on the smallest concerns.

Take Control Of Yourself - Worrying is NOT You

I was walking from a business meeting to my car in a parking lot when I realized that I was in a constant state of worry. I knew I had to take control of things right away, so I took advantage of the fact that there were no people anywhere close and I could have a good, long talk with myself. I have found this to be very therapeutic, talking out loud to myself. I would literally ask myself, “OK, Robin, what is your biggest worry?” I would answer myself. Then I would ask, “Why do you worry about that? What’s the worst that can happen? What if it does happen? What would you, or could you do? What do you fear losing?” and answer all these questions. I would then mentally put each of these worries in a tin can on a big shelf. I would name my five biggest worries (or more, if necessary), put them all in cans on the shelf, then one by one, in my mind, as I walked around that parking lot, I would take the can off the shelf, open it up, examine it in detail, and create an action plan.

For example, if I needed to write a letter, make a call, set up a meeting, or whatever action was necessary, I would resolve to do that, put it on a mental “Action List”, and take the can off the shelf. If there was absolutely nothing I could do to alleviate that worry, remove it, or prevent that which I feared, I would realize that there was nothing I could do, and I would take it off the shelf, too. I waddle around that parking lot for about an hour, until I had mentally and emotionally dealt with all my worries in this way. I talked myself through everything. I had an action plan, I was relieved, I had perspective, I was calm, and I was ready to attack again. I thanked myself, got in my car, drove home, and diligently went to work on my Action Plan. When you confront yur fears and take action to diminish your worries, remove them, or set up contingency plans, you take control of your mind, and therefore your emotions and your life.

Nelson DeMille said, “Somehow our devils are never quite what we expect when we meet them face to face.” You are bigger than your worries. You have a lot more strength that you think you have. You can choose how to deal with your worries - fight, or flight. You can let your worries dominate you, or you can decide to b the boss. Change your self talk, change your attitude, take action, and win.

Would you like to know the most valuable lesson I learned from Mr. Arthur Honey? Mr. Honey, who was an ex boxing champion and one of the seconds for Roger Bannister, when he ran the first four-minute mile, owned the Continental Hotel. I was his hotel manager. Mr. Honey was a wonderful hotelier, trained in the old school, and a real gentleman. After I completed my Hotel School Training (city and Guilds directed), I managed a German restaurant for a year and was then employed by Mr. Honey. It was the best management training I ever got.

One morning, he asked me why I had not arranged to have the one kitchen’s extract screens cleaned. I had simply forgotten. Here is the gist of what he taught me:

“Robin, any manager who forgets things is not a manager, but a DAMAGER. You may be wearing your morning suit, but when you forget, you are not managing. You will not build trust, respect, and a good reputation if you don’t deliver on your promises. When you forget, you insult the other person and yourself. When you’re late to do what you promised, you further damage your reputation and the business. Forgetting costs money and loses hotel guests. I carry a paper in my inside jacket pocket, and I write down EVERYTHING I need to remember. Anything you ask me, anything the accountant tells me, anything I notice (he used to use a white glove to search for dust), is written on this list. When I return to my office, I transpose the list onto my desk list. I never forget and I always do what I said I would do. That has made me successful. Do the same, Robin, and you will be successful. In my hotel, you will not forget anything, because you represent me. Understood?”

Mr. Honey taught me many valuable lessons (including how to knot my tie correctly!) but this was the one lesson that has helped me more than most of the things he taught me. I worked for nine straight months without a day off for that man - he was the best manager I ever had the privilege of working for. He was absolutely reliable, never compromised, and always delivered. I modeled him and even joined Rotary when I became successful because Arthur Honey was a Rotarian. In South Africa, you had to be wealthy to become a Rotarian. You had to own a business, as well, in order to even be considered as a Rotarian. My entire business and life revolves around lists, and it works very well.

The DollarMakers Credited Business Mentor Training Program

• Become a Certified Business Mentor (CBM)
• Learn how to Double the Profits in virtually Any Business
• Earn real money getting real results for business owners

As a Protégé of Robin J. Elliott and Patrick Giesbrecht, get five days of personal, hands-on coaching in beautiful Vancouver, British Columbia

For 18 years, I consulted with the owners of small and medium sized businesses to dramatically increase their profits. As I got more involved with the DollarMakers Membership and traveled around the world more frequently, I stopped the consulting. My fees ran from $500 per hour to $1200 per hour and my monthly retainers were $5,000 plus profit sharing, but my heart was in the Bootcamps and my Joint Ventures.

I continually get requests from business owners to help them grow their businesses through my business mentoring, and there is nobody I would recommend to do that. After seeing how many “Coaches” and “Consultants” out there cost a small fortune and do more damage than good, I don’t know one person who can do what we do. OK, I know one person who can do it: Patrick Giesbrecht, the fellow who retired within seven months of attending my Bootcamp, but he doesn’t do mentoring either.

And so we came up with a solution: We would offer personal, intense, hands-on training to a few, carefully selected, qualified Protégés so that we can turn them into Business Mentors who are equipped to go into virtually any business and double or quadruple its profits, and get very well paid to do so. We created a five day, focused program, during which Patrick and I will personally coach and train these few, selected people and duplicate our skills in them. They will learn directly from my 21 years of experience and Patrick Giesbrecht’s business genius.

We will accept only a limited amount of Protégé’s per group, and we will include their accommodation, meals, and a professional city tour of our home, Vancouver, the most beautiful city in the world. Spouses and life partners can attend the training as well, at no cost, and their accommodation and tour will also be included (with the exception of their meals).

If you are interested in applying to be a Protégé, you can complete an application form on this site. We reserve the right to accept or reject applicants without an explanation, and since we will only accommodate a few people over five days, there will be very few slots to fill and we are already inundated with applications. If you’re interested in applying to be personally trained to be a Business Mentor, click here.

Read what you get and what investment is required before completing this Application.

Everything that impacts your mind, perception, choices, or awareness, has only one of two effects: Good or bad. The lukewarm amongst us will jeer at that declaration and allege that there is a “gray area” - losers LOVE that idea. Remember that our limitations are Self-Imposed, and so are our successes.

The fact is that if you are seriously committed to success, everything that you are exposed to will either help or hurt your progress en route to your objective. Winners cannot afford any dilution or distraction. Cyclists shave their bodies. Champions measure their speed in thousandths of seconds. EVERYTHING counts: diet, environment, input, association.

Contrasting Experiences To Learn From

I received an unsolicited phone call today from a fellow who wants me to participate in a public conference call. He asked me what my criteria were to participate or not. My answer was, “When I know whom the other participants in this project are, I will make my decision.” I will judge him by the company he keeps.

I once unexpectedly had to impose on someone with whom I had a business meeting to give me a lift home in his car. Before and during the meeting, he had impressed me with his stories of success and achievement. Until I got into his filthy van, that was. Cigarette butts clogged the ashtrays, papers were spread all over - dirty disarray, a reflection of his real nature - no congruency. End of relationship.

Nourish your success by elevating your standards, expectations, systems, and consciousness through the carefully selected association with people, ideas, input and environment. Exorcise the mundane, the tepid, the feeble, and the inconsistent.

Find mentors and heroes, both dead and alive, who will inspire, uplift, and challenge you.

Adhere to and create environments that are aligned with and congruent with your values, beliefs, aspirations, and expectations. Everything you read and watch, see, hear and perceive, has a consequence. The people in your life either take you towards your goals or away from them.

Nourish your success by paying whatever price is required. Invest in your goals and future. Discover the Real You and regain your old belief and excitement. Read only that which will fuel your ambition and inspire you on your journey. Churchill will trump Stephen King. Associate with those whom you wish to emulate. Practice that which you wish to perfect.

Read the thoughts of the great ones, if you wish to think the thoughts of the great ones, for their words ARE their thoughts. Align your philosophy with that of your heroes. Carefully and diligently remove all obstacles, detractors, and distractions from your path. Fuel your enthusiasm with stories about the accomplishments of winners. Everything counts, and everything matters. Contamination is real. Replace poison with power. You don’t eat donuts if you want to win the marathon.