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.

“No passion so effectually robs the mind of all its powers of acting and reasoning as fear.” ~ Edmund Burke (1729 - 1797)

One thing that stops most people from achieving their goals is the fear of failure, embarrassment, loss, or anything that they currently have and don’t want to lose. This fear will prevent them from moving forward - the perceived threat and pain - until the pain of their present condition or their approaching condition exceeds the potential danger that they fear.

Those who mind don’t matter, and those who matter don’t mind.

By examining the things you fear, you might get perspective and change your mind about whether or not that fear has the power you currently bestow upon it. What do you fear? How can you diminish that fear? For example, if you fear failure, think about this: If there was nobody else in the world but you, no other people - would you fear failure? No, you wouldn’t. Because you don’t fear failure per se - you fear the opinions and ridicule of other people. And anybody who likes you and cares about you would not ridicule you if you failed - they would help an support you, so why worry about the opinions of people who don’t like you or care about you?

If you fear loss, what do you have to lose? What is the risk factor? Specifically, what would happen if you incurred that loss? Could you cope with that loss? Is the reward of facing your fear worth the risk? Think objectively, not emotionally. Write down the pros and cons. Be rational. How can you reduce or prevent the risk? How can you change the situation, protect your assets, or shift the risk? Fear is usually illogical and based on our conditioning and self-esteem, instead of hard facts. We assume a whole lot of things that are generally not true.

Analyze You Fear - Find Out How Bad It Really Isn’t

Imagine an engineer, and architect, or a scientist evaluating a risk. Would they cry, wring their hands, get angry, shout, hide, or rant? Probably not - they would get out their calculators and have meetings with other analytical people, draw diagrams, make plans, discuss the situation, and find a solution. The architect doesn’t start whining, “But what if the bridge falls down? What if the floor collapses? I’ll be so embarrassed!” Analyze your fear, get the input of experts, talk with people who have been that route before and succeeded, and then make a logical, adult decision.

Play the “What if?” game. It works well if you write things down. “What if that person dies? What if this project fails? Exactly what would I do? What steps would I take? What would happen? Whose advice I need? What would I do? What could I do? Why would I make that choice? What would my alternatives be? Exactly what would this cost? How do I arrive at that number?”

When you view life like a monopoly game or a chess game, you can override your conditioning, bias, self-talk, beliefs, and fears. When you align yourself with successful, mature people who have experience in the field, it gets even better, hence the Mastermind effect of the DollarMakers Joint Venture Club and the DollarMakers Women’s Club - create a support system that will help you avoid the pitfalls of emotionalism, mysticism, and negative conditioning. Together, we can do amazing things.

All You Have To Fear Is…

The things you fear are not always all they’re cracked up to be. Several recent studies indicate that over 85% of all that we worry about never happens. Our minds tend to make mountains out of molehills. Fear is not bad - it’s a warning light that we should consider, and when the warning light goes on in your car you don’t start crying, get paralyzed with fear, or sell your car; you take it to the shop and get an expert mechanic to check it out, or you take the time to read the manual. Sometimes,  an inexpensive item or a small adjustment is all that i required. Sometimes, it’s more expensive, but less expensive than a seized engine. Consider the situation calmly and you will find that all you have to fear, as a smart man once said, is fear itself.

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.

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.

Remember when you were five years old and you felt like you owned the world? You liked yourself, you were proud of your accomplishments, you were strong and courageous, and you loved people. You believed everyone loved you, too. You could dress up like a cowboy and you believed you were one.

When people asked you what you were going to be when you grew up, you answered without any doubt that you would be an astronaut or a beauty queen or a doctor. The world was at your fingertips. You believed in miracles and dreams and you had no limitations.

When You Grow Older, You Let The World Show You Limitations

As you grew older, the world got in the way and disappointments, failures, and painful experiences started to corrode your optimism, discount your self-esteem, and wear down your expectations. You started to become cynical, skepticism crept into your heart and you began compromising.

You found that being politically correct and turning the other cheek made your life easier, and you could avoid confrontation by backing down.

Previously exciting dreams and goals got shelved in favor of mediocrity and concession. Your attempts at improvement became lackluster and half-hearted. You liked yourself less. You put yourself down and lowered your standards. You stated focusing on survival instead of great success.

The Real You is still there, deep down inside. You are a winner who has behaved like a loser. You are an eagle that is living in a chicken run. You are a king or queen, clothed as a beggar, a champion with a loser’s name. You are still that five-year-old hero, and it’s not too late to return to your real self.

You can regain your belief and excitement. You can make all your dreams come true. You are the shiny sports car that simply needs the grime washed off, gas in the tank and a tune up – a “Check-up from the neck up.” The future is not equal to the past. A hundred dollar note may be crumpled, dirty and torn, but it’s still worth a hundred dollars.

You have unlimited potential. You can accomplish anything you set your mind to. You are ready. Today is the first day of the rest of your life. You are powerful, smart, and wonderfully made. You have the opportunity to start over, today, by choice, regardless of your circumstances, IF you believe that. You’re not a has-been; you’re a Gonna-be! All you need is to make the decision that you’re sick and tired of being sick and tired. Nothing can stop you from recreating yourself and your life, starting right now, and repeating it every single day.

You might be down, but you’re not out. You can get back up off the canvas, my friend, and become the champion you were always meant to be. It all starts with the realization of who you really are. The real you wants out – do yourself a favor and be free. Throw the shackles of self-limitation off. Walk out of the prison of doubt and fear. Fearlessly create the life you want and deserve.

It is said that duplication and leverage are the two most powerful forces in the world. Think of a virus or compound interest, and you will understand how a mail carrier can earn a million dollars a year through Network Marketing and how a simple Joint Venture that took an hour to set up can turn into tens of thousands of dollars in pure profit. There is a hard way and an easy way to make money, and I think it’s better to go the easy way.

I am thoroughly enjoying Ray Kroc’s book, “Grinding it Out” – written in 1977 about how he built McDonald’s. It’s an inspiring read of courage, vision, risk, sacrifice, and success, as well as a revelation of how dishonest some people are and how Mr. Kroc survived them. It’s very gratifying to me that I can show people a better way to wealth, a path that is not inundated with risk, sacrifice, fear, and chance. This route is the means I have chosen to build wealth – it requires no selling, risk, sacrifice, or sleepless nights.

Mr. Kroc succeeded against all odds, but he chose a business model that is extremely difficult. Joint Venture Brokering allows me the freedom of time and money, and I can operate in many areas, in many industries, and at many levels simultaneously. While franchising is definitely leverage, I choose to leverage multiple resources in many different ways, all at the same time, with no risk, overhead, leases, royalties, inventory, capital investment, or employees, and little time. I can be a creative and as adventurous as I like, without investing a blue cent.

Am I as wealthy as Mr. Kroc was? Of course not, but it is definitely as possible to attain the same level of wealth, faster, with none of the risk or costs involved, using Joint Ventures. Most entrepreneurs work too hard and earn too little. The average business, in my estimation, can easily double and quadruple their profits with no cost or risk using Joint Ventures. One JV that I got into took a profit center in my business from $4,000 per month to $20,000 per month in four days. Leverage: it’s an amazing force that is available to all of us, whether we have a business or not, and regardless of our circumstances or background. Life can be a grind, but I prefer the beach. You don’t have to sacrifice, sweat, and grovel anymore, once you discover the magic of Joint Ventures. Replace fear with fun, sweat with skiing, and risk with reward.

Over at the website ‘Shape Up America‘, they compiled a list of 198!! Self-Improvement articles found around the internet.

Now, I don’t know about you, but 198 articles is ALOT to wade through.  But if you think about it - finding the good articles yourself is even MORE work.  I’d be willing to wager they read 5 to 10 times that amount on the topics they list, that just didn’t cut it as far as their requirements went.

Here is the general categories they have sorted them into:

• Self Improvement
• Productivity
• Health & Fitness
• Food & Diet
• Brain Power & Memory
• Sleep

And inside those topics is SCADS of valuable tips, tricks and advice in regards to genuinely improving yourself in so many areas of your life.

The Most Incredible Ways To Improve Thyself

I’d recommend you bookmark that page and whenever you’re bored and about to browse YouTube or waste time on FaceBook - you instead go read 1 or 2 of those articles and improve yourself immensely!

When entrepreneurs get emotionally involved in their businesses, they start seeing their business as an extension of their ego, and that’s when pride clashes with profitability. Remember the 3 Steps to Achieving Success as an Entrepreneur? None of them include ensuring that everyone knows it’s YOU doing it.

Men, especially, sabotage their own success when they become territorial, competitive, and pig-headed. My good friend and mentor, Marnus Roothman, the new DollarMakers Director for South Africa, used to ask me, “Do you want to be right, or do you want to be rich?” I’m not talking in the context of values - I’m talking about egotistical stubbornness. We’re in business to make a profit, and as long as you don’t step on your values, you can benefit a lot from being somewhat flexible and overlooking certain things in the interest of the big picture; losing a battle to win the war.

As a “black or white”, right or wrong, politically incorrect, A-Type personality myself, I know whereof I speak. There is a time to compromise and a time to insist, and there is also a time to understand
and forgive. Again, as long as your values remain intact, you will find yourself skirting detours and getting to your destination, while your old self is still attacking the detour with a battering ram and a small
canon.

There’s a difference between being smart and being soft.

If someone gets it right 98% of the time and messes up 2% of the time, perhaps it’s wise to focus on the 98% and reward good choices, instead of hammering on the bad ones. Maturity doesn’t have to mean passivity.  You don’t have to compromise your own standards. You do have to give in order to get, and when you are prepared to overlook a flaw in your business partner’s performance, the reciprocal favor can mean a lot to your bottom line. And it’s all about the bottom line, not your bottom lip.

You’re in business to make a profit, not to look good at your local Chamber of Commerce meeting.

Seasoned entrepreneurs understand that they should keep their egos on a tight leash, spend good time on objective, strategic planning, and maintain an eye on the big picture. They know How to Manage their time and also whom they spend it with. They also know the value of giving people enough rope to hang themselves - that’s the chess player at work. Hissy fits, tantrums, and throwing babies out with bathwater has it’s place - Indian organ grinders are said to discipline their pet monkeys by periodically killing a chicken in front of the monkey - but they should be the exception rather than the rule, and used only when entirely appropriate for the optimal results.

You’re in business to make a profit, not to make a statement - remember that.