Can You Afford Not To Quit Your Job? -Part 1

By: Jordan Cheng




A couple of years ago, I quitted my corporate job to venture into business. The response from friends and colleagues were anything but encouraging. A few of them had sincerely and sympathetically wish me well.

During that time, the responses from friends had indeed affected my enthusiam for the business venture, and put me in the mode of constant self-doubt about whether I had made the right decision.

Over the years, having weathered through a series of ups and downs in my life and business, I am now convinced that it was one of the best decision I had grown made in my life.

In fact, right now on hind sight I even feel strongly that staking the entire career in a corporate job is much riskier than most would think. The reasons are as follows:

1. When Work stop, Income stop

The single most dangerous thing about a full-time job is that you are trading your time for money. If for whatever reason you lost your job, your source of income stopped. Fair and square. Is that what you think? This time-honored way of making a living may look perfectly reasonable and intelligent, and has been deeply rooted into the mind of many people, especially the more highly educated ones who seemingly have a higher chance of a good corporate career. The cruel fact is, it is actually a lousy idea for people who is smart and resourceful enough to think of other alternative - multiple stream of income.

Let me share a parable I read years ago, the concept of which has create life-changing impact in my life:

Two young monks from two neighboring monasteries go up to the mountain everyday with two buckets to fetch water from the well and bring back to the monasteries. As they always bump into each other on the way, they soon become good friends. They would labor the whole day, making trips after trips to the mountain to bring back enough water for everyone in the monastery. Everyday they would retire at the end of the day with aching body all over. Life is indeed hard. They do complain about the hard work, but both seems to have resorted to the reality as this is the only well they know to get water.

One fine day, monk A do not see Monk B like he always do on the way up to the mountain. He though he might have fell sick. In the following days, Monk A again do not see Monk B. For the next one month, Monk B seemed to have been missing. One fine morning after the long disappearing act, Monk A see Monk B again on the usual path. He was curious and asked Monk B what had happened to him. Monk B told Monk A exactly what he has been doing in the past one month. He has come out with a plan to build water pipe using bamboo stem, so that water could flow through the pipe from the well in the mountain all the way to the monasteries. He had spent the entire month conceptualizing, planning and designing the piping system. The pipes are ready, and he is about to implement the pipe connection from the mountain to the monastery. With detailed and thorough planning, the implementation was extremely successful. The brilliant young monk had created a system such that he does not need to work anymore.

In fact, his enterprising drive did not stop at the pipe system. He started thinking what if the well runs out of water one day, which is highly possible. He started looking for people in the village who is knowledgeable about how to find the right location to dig a well. Before long, he dug another well near the monasteries that could supply more than enough water to the monastery. With the excess water, the monk started constructing piping system to supply water to the villagers.

If the young monk had resorted to the fate of carrying water from the mountain everyday, and not dare making any attempt to improve the situation, he would still be laboring everyday like the other monk.

The moment I read this story, it felt like a powerful shift in my mind. I looked at my lackluster corporate career then, and started asking what am I going to do with my life. One thing I knew for sure, I will find my own well one day!

2. Limited Experience

In a corporate job, the only possible chance to acquire significant experience is at entry level position. (Hence, I would strongly recommend that fresh graduate go find a corporate job to gain some "experience", and confirm whether what I said here about corporate job is consistent with your experience.). You probably will learn a lot in the beginning (since you started with zero base), but will get stagnate very soon. However, there may also be exception, where job at the entry level are nothing more high-class data entry clerks. Beyond certain number of working years, you no longer have the privilege of the freshies. You are expected to "contribute to the bottom line" of the company's performance. Whether you know or not how you can contribute to the "bottom line" is a separate issue altogether. Thanks to the management guru who postulated the theory that job specialization create efficiency (which make perfect sense!), most corporate slaves are given tasks to be specialized, and are expected to perform with accuracy and efficiency of a machine. That will be the contribution of each corporate slave in the corporate factory.

At this point, you start rationalizing whether it is time to make a move elsewhere, even though it may be a fairly short stay in the company. Looking out for new job is a fashionable trend among the young working class. It is a constant and perpetual exercise. People make no bone about it, with proud justification: " I am always open to better opportunity". However, this privilege does not last long. When you cross the thirty-five years old mark, you find your market value being downgraded significantly.

With the exception of the lucky few who still managed to find a new job, most who stayed on find themselves doing the same old thing day in and out. They will find themselves get stuck in the old job, watching their market value depreciate as their new skill sets acquired could not catch up with the relentless time they had spent in the company. "What are the skill sets you have acquired in the last one year?" You know you have to face the music meeting the human resource people who are trained to assess your qualifications.

So much about gaining experience in the corporate job. You will be lucky if you don’t find yourself rotting there mentally and even physically.



About The Author

Jordan Cheng is the author of http://www.jordancheng.net/ - a resource site dedicated to development of Mind, Body & Soul for Wealth, Success & Happiness.

Feel Good

Procrastination Help - Being Truthful to Yourself

Being truthful to oneself is probably the hardest thing a procrastinator can do.

Think about it. Procrastinators are always waiting for the "right" or "best" moment to do the things they have been putting off, refusing to acknowledge the fact the only "correct" time is NOW!

Also, they often deluge themselves from the reality that they will have sufficient time to complete the task at hand and keep putting it off until a later date which ends up in creating unnecessary stress and anxiety in them.

The end result? Nothing done! Deadlines coming and stress accumulates. This is how a typical procrastinator lives his life.

Do you happen to fall into the same category?

Well, if so, then it's time to be truthful to yourself.

It does not take you any extra effort or time to be true to yourself then to lie to yourself.

In fact, lying to yourself proves to be more tedious and time consuming for you'll have to constantly churn out new and creative ideas on what new lies are you going to tell yourself today.

If so, won't it be better to use of your creativity in more productive ways? Like finding ways on how you can kill procrastination?

First things first. The first truth you must acknowledge and accept is that you are a procrastinator. Until you are willingly to accept the fact that you have been procrastinating, no courses or advice will be able to help you.

Next, you'll have to be as truthful as you can in your estimation of how much time will it take you to do the things you don't like.

As you start looking into your life, you will see that most of the tasks that you put off are really simple tasks that can be done pretty quickly. However, if they were to be left unattended and undone till the last minute, they could cause a considerable amount of stress.

Are you able to recall a time when you actually took much lesser time than you have expected to finish an unappealing task?

So what can you learn from that experience?

In actuality, research has shown that most employees waste as much as 1/3 of their workday doing unproductive things. And usually these are the very same workers that habitually complain about chronic stress caused by not having sufficient time and notice to complete the tasks given to them.

Are you now able to see the connection?

The chronic suffering from the sensation of stress and anxiety is in fact closely related to the amount of work you are able to accomplish on time.

Therefore, one of the fastest ways to get to the root of the problem is to be aware of how you are spending your time.

Learn to keep track of how much time you have spent on doing things that do not contribute to your success.

Try to be vigilant for one whole day. At the end of the day, take out your list and analyze it.

Trust me. You will be surprised at how much time you have allowed to seep through your hands by doing things that do not contribute to your success at all.

Be vigilant in catching yourself doing those unnecessary tasks. It is true that you may not be able to control all the causes of such activities. However, there are certainly some activities that you can control. Just reduce your time spent in doing those things and you will see that you will have more time at hand.

In addition, remember to replace that time slot by doing tasks that you have identified to be able to aid you in your success and not replacing it with other unproductive activities.

"If you knew time as well as I do, you wouldn't talk about wasting it."

~~ Mad Hatter to Alice ~~

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Zach Kong is a web entrepreneur, a self mastery trainer and adviser. He has written several articles on self improvement his websites has provided people with valuable tools and advice on topic like on self mastery and self development.
Visit his website @ www.CashFormer.com to claim your free ebook now.
For more information and advice, visit his community @ www.ZachKong.com

Choosing Your Career Isn't A Life Sentence

Choosing a career is one of the most important things that you can do. You are going to spend a large portion of your waking hours engaged in the pursuit of an income, so you may as well choose a career that you love.

I learned a lot about life and work from my father, from whom I inherited my work-a-holic tendencies. He was a great man who was devoted to his work and to his family, and had very solid beliefs about the role that career plays in life. Among the many wise bits of advice he gave me in during his life is the following: “there is nothing worse than being in a job that you hate or being married to someone you can’t stand”. He managed to avoid both, and so far so have I.

While I have had jobs that I couldn’t stand, his words gave me the strength to walk away from them when the time was right. I’ve been lucky in the spouse category, though. Haven’t had to change my mind about that one. Too many people stay in jobs that are wrong for them instead of choosing careers that will become a natural part of their lives. Don’t take the first job that comes along and then try to make it into something other than what it is. If you end up in a job or a career that isn’t right for you, just keep looking until you find one that is.

Remember that choosing a career isn’t a life sentence. If you aren’t happy where you land in the beginning, you can always start over!

Mary Gormandy White specializes in customer serThe Nature of SpiritsThe Nature of SpiritsA Better World is PossibleA Better World is Possiblevice, management, and career development training at Mobile Technical Institute http://www.mobiletechwebsite.com She also works with MTI Business Solutions, providing marketing, writing, and SEO consulting services to a wide variety of clients. Stop by http://www.dailycareerconnection.com regularly to read more tips for improving your professional skills and career prospects.

Science of Visualizing

How To Maximize The Power of Attraction Accelerator

Attraction Accelerator background music was developed by a group of scientist. The purpose of this audio is to maximize the ability of our brain. The beats in the music is design to put our brain into a very positive or ideal state.

This article is not about the audio but on how we can use the audio in the process of attraction. If you want to learn more about Attraction Accelerator, you can click on the link below.

I personally use this tool during my visualization process. As a writer, ideas are very important to me. I will usually play the Attraction Activator and visualize the ideas pouring in to my brain. I picture my brain sending out waves to find some great ideas like a wireless card sending out waves to find the connection signal.

From my experience, I attract more and better idea as I visualize with the Attraction Activator than without it. Attraction Activator will not only put my brain into a great visualization state but also put myself into the right emotions.

I can not describe exactly how it feels but it can change my emotion from low and down state to high, cheerful and resourceful. It works like magic. I was doubt when I was first told about it.

However, when I am trying to visualize my goals in front of my vision board, I prefer to play Attraction Accelerator because the music is softer and more appropriate for me.

I can think of what I want when I try to visualize my goals in front of my vision board but I can not feel that I live in it. Since I started to use the Attraction Accelerator background music, everything changed. I can feel exactly that I already have what I want and I can live in the life of my dreams.

Until today, I can not figure out how and why. It just works like that.

Raymond Chua is a Law of Attraction expert who works extremely hard to help people to attract their dreams and goals. He shares his real-life experience, little known tips and practical ways on applying the Law of Attraction in his blog at http://attractingyourgoals.com/. He is giving away Attraction Accelerator report to his subscribers at no cost. Go to http://attractingyourgoals.com/ to grab your own copy now!

Best Way to Start an Internet Business

The Best Way To Start Up In The Internet Marketing Business

THE “KICK” OF STARTING UP A NEW PROJECT

We all know the feeling about starting up a new project or idea, where you have this feeling of this great “KICK”, you just have so much motivation and the adrenalin in running around in your body.

You have a feeling you can fly, you feel invincible, your body and mind is filled up with this magic feeling and:

• You are full of plans.
• You are full of energy.
• You can hardly sleep at night.
• You can work 20 hours a day with the project.
• You make plans for the future, when this project has become a big success.

WHEN THINGS GO WRONG

But all that comes to an end all too soon, and after this first big “Kick” has disappeared, and when the project/work begin to be a daily routine, where only hard persistent work counts, we all know this feeling of:

• Things are not going as we hoped/planed.
• Feeling of isolation with your project.
• Lack of motivation.
• Lack of new ideas for the project.
• Depression by not being able to move the project to the next step.

And soon there is a big risk, that the project will be another failure of projects…

We all know that feeling, we have all had this awful feeling at some time.

That Feeling of Being Alone on the Planet.

How can we avoid finding ourselves in a situation like this again ?

The answer is Simple “BEING PART OF A TEAM OR A NETWORK”.

Successful business people are team players. They do not work alone.

You just have to look at successful marketers, they have all seen the big advantages of being part of a group/network. team. When they have an idea, or need inspiration or sparring, they have a network to get feedback from, and that help them to form and marketing the idea in the right way. You should do the same – build up a network or join a group, which can help you to build up this network.

MOTIVATION, DISCIPLINE AND ACCOUNTABILITY

Lets admit it - 95% of all Human beings are lazy!

We all fall into the habit of procrastination. So do the successful people.

But do they let procrastination stop them from stepping onto the fast track to success ?

Definitely not!

While with great discipline it is possible to keep procrastination at bay, successful people use a two-pronged attack.

Prong 1. Discipline and accountability through TEAMS/Network Groups.

A public commitment to your team keeps you accountable for your words and actions.

Prong 2. Support and Encouragement from Your Team/network mates.

Teams are capable of bringing an arsenal of thinking hats to your life and your business.

Brainstorming sessions lead to new ideas and breakthroughs.

DON'T WORK ALONE!

If you have been working alone all the time, its time for you to step out of your comfort zone! Teams and communities are a powerful concept.

Your next windfall may lie in the next team meeting or the next blog you see or get involved with.

Just make your own observations of all the successful Internet People. They all engage in Mastermind group meetings.

Andy Jenkins, Brad Fallon, John Reese, Frank Kern are all successful internet Marketers and great Networkers, and they have accumulated great internet success through their Network groups.

MAGIC KEY TO SUCCESS

When you work on the internet, it is hard not to feel isolated.

Joining an Internet Community means that you have available all the advantages of joining a Network group. But you can only make full use of that opportunity if you join a Network.

Additional Benefits of Being involved in a Wider Internet Community

The benefits of playing an active part in a Network are not limited to individual benefit.

There are big advantages for the whole network too, joining forces to synergistically escalate the networks Marketing Potential, both as individuals and as Groups.

A big advantage of being in a network and in a wider community is that helping others is a big motivational factor, and by helping others there is a big chance that you will also receive a lot of input and help for yourself.

It has been truly said, that the best way to learn something well, is to teach someone else who knows less about that subject than you do.

Helping others is a Win – Win situation for everyone.

THE INTERNET - A GIGANTIC MARKETPLACE

Remember the internet is so big, that there is plenty of room for all of us to be successful with our internet marketing, and indeed, within reasonable limits Competition is very good for us.

1. It fires motivation.
2. It engages the interest of the Potential Customer Group to whom you Market.
3. It provides a standard to excel over. If you are better than your Competition, people will buy.
4. You can measure whether you are better than your Competition more easily than in the absence of Competition you can create a standard which will be perceived as high value by your Potential Customer.

So therefore I urge you to join a Network/community, get involved in the community/Network, be active with the community/Network, and hereby everybody inside this community/network will help each other to become part of the exclusive group of successful internet marketers.

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It is important that you begin NOW! And find the right Network/Community to be a part of.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Morten Hansen has been working with the internet business for several years and is mainly writing about subjects, that make it easier for Internet users to learn about Internet Business. By the way, if you want to Get a 100% FREE newsletter with hundreds of Internet home business tips and tricks or want to read about some of the most profitable affiliate products on the internet visit my website www.OnlineMoneyTips4you.com

Learning to Be Great at Your Office

Socialize Successfully With Your Boss and Employees

During the twenty-three years I spent in management, there were many occasions when I participated in social events with my employees. Likewise, I attended parties where my supervisors were present.

By participating in hundreds of receptions, dinners, celebrations, award ceremonies, fund raising campaign kickoffs and other out of the office happenings, I have learned which communication behaviors work and which ones backfire.

You will agree that, handled wisely, social time with employees can boost morale. Employees welcome chances to get to know the boss as a person, not just a manager. During the frenetic work week, they encounter the boss as the source of discipline, assignments, occasional reprimands and, typically, very little personal chit chat. So it's refreshing to be around the supervisor when she showcases her humor, asks about your family and hobbies, and gives an unrestrained laugh.

However, both employees and bosses should be aware that the social scene does not erase the workplace lines of authority. Example: Because the boss likes your personality at a party does not mean you will get the next promotion, which depends instead on your professional skills.

Here are seven guidelines that every employer and employee should keep in mind for after-hours mingling:

ONE: Avoid off color humor. The jokes you would tell your golf buddies could jeopardize your professional reputation if you share them with workplace colleagues, no matter how informal the setting. True, they might laugh out of courtesy, or maybe from discomfort. Yet you risk losing their respect. Play safe. Don't tell any joke that you wouldn't tell at an office staff meeting.

TWO: Refrain from touching, other than a handshake greeting, unless you happen to go dancing with the group. Draping an arm around a colleague might prompt an eventual lawsuit, especially when you don't give that person an expected raise. And the employee who caresses the boss can create an image of fakery and pandering.

THREE: Drink moderately. Every year, holiday parties, company picnics and similar outings become career graveyards for bosses and employees who want to become "the life of the party."

Sometimes we assume that two more drinks will help us talk more easily. That's a mistake. Two more drinks will encourage you to talk more--period. The impaired speaking and unsteady walk that follow those extra cocktails could brand you: "lush," "a drunk," "undisciplined," or something similar.

Along those lines, never mention that drinking is important to you. Stay away from "Nothing like a stiff drink at the end of the day to help a guy unwind." Whimsically, we slip into comments like that, such as "Thought that bartender would never bring our order." Although you are trying to inject a bit of levity into the conversation, the quips could backfire, categorizing you as a problem drinker.

FOUR: Make sure you circulate among everyone present, not just the managerial group you feel most comfortable with. The person who talks with his or her clique and avoids everyone else nullifies the inclusive good will the event is intended to foster. Spend time with line employees as well as "the suits."

FIVE: Avoid shop talk. Demonstrate that you have an interesting, meaningful life away from the corporation. Nobody wants to hear your opinions about a five year plan, a drop in sales or the employee you had to fire. As an old song advises, "talk happy talk, things that people like to hear."

Stay well informed about major sporting events, releases of new movies, great places to vacation, new restaurants your friends have recommended, bestselling books and national events. Definitely, party goers want to talk about them, not corporate problems and plans.

SIX: Listen attentively. Good listeners become our favorite people. We move away from motormouths who dominate conversations. Encourage others to talk, with comments like "very interesting," "tell me more," and "What happened next?" When Stephen Covey wrote 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, he titled chapter five, "Seek first to understand, and then to be understood." Follow that advice, and you'll become the hit of the company's social outing.

SEVEN: Mind your manners. If the occasion includes a meal, pay special attention to your table etiquette. You want to look like you belong at top-tier banquets. Illustrate that you have acquired polish and grace.

Bill Lampton, Ph.D., helps organizations “Finish in First Place” by strengthening their communication, motivation, sales, and customer service. His speeches, seminars, and communication coaching have benefited numerous clients, including the Ritz-Carlton Cancun, Gillette, Duracell, Procter & Gamble, Missouri Bar, and the Environmental Protection Agency. Visit his Web site to sign up for his complimentary monthly E-mail newsletter: http://www.championshipcommunication.com/ Call Dr. Lampton to discuss how his services will benefit your organization: 770-534-3425.

Goal Setting Secrets of the Real Life Indiana Jones

Remember when you were 15? Can you recall some of the dreams you had then? How many have you accomplished?

My reflection on that is what attracted me so strongly to the story of John Goddard, of whom the LA Times called, "The real life Indiana Jones," and one of his expeditions, "the most amazing adventure of this generation."

When he was 15, Goddard was inspired to create a list of 127 “life goals” (he called it “My Life List”). By his last count, the young seventy-something has accomplished 111 of these PLUS 400 others he set along the way!!

Here’s just a few of the ones he’s reached:

He’s climbed many of the world’s major peaks including the Matterhorn, Ararat, Kilimanjaro, Fiji, Rainier and the Grand Tetons.

He followed Marco Polo’s route through all of the Middle East, Asia and China.

He’s run a mile in five minutes, broad jumped 15 feet, high jumped five feet and performed 200 sit-ups and 20 pull-ups.

He was the first person to explore the 4200-mile length of the world's longest river, the Nile. (It was the number one goal of the 15-year-old Goddard and the one the Times called “the most amazing adventure of this generation.”). He has also been down the Amazon, Congo and others.

John has been to 122 countries, lived with 260 different tribal groups, explored the underwater reefs of Florida, the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, the Red Sea, and more.

He has flown 40 different types of aircraft and still holds civilian air records; has read the Bible cover to cover and learned to speak French, Spanish and Arabic.

The last two on his original list included marrying and having children (he has six) and living to see the 21st Century, which he has done in style.

And I’m just getting started. But I think you get the point.

More than just one of the greatest adventurers the world has ever known, Goddard is an incredibly wise person, as this quote of his demonstrates: "If you really know what you want out of life, it's amazing how opportunities will come to enable you to carry them out."

How did John Goddard manage to live such an incredible life of achievement? Two simple, easily duplicatable “secrets:” He chose BIG dreams and he WROTE THEM DOWN.

There’s no power at all in small dreams. When the dream isn’t big enough, it’s too easy to give in to the obstacles that appear in our life. It’s very difficult to maintain the persistence that all great achievement requires when the dream is small or ordinary.

Harland Sanders was 65-years-old, with little more than a $105 Social Security payment in his pocket, when he started Kentucky Fried Chicken. He is said to have been rejected by over 1,000 banks before he became successful. If he hadn’t had a big dream his self-esteem could never have withstood such rejection.

One of the biggest dreamers in the world is Mark Victor Hansen. Working with his partner, Jack Canfield, their idea was rejected by 140 book publishers as “unsellable.” Today, their Chicken Soup series includes more than 70 titles that have sold more than 90 million copies in 39 languages. Mark says, “The more goals you set - the more goals you get. Think big, act big and set out to accomplish big results. ”

Not only must your dreaming and goal setting be big, but it must be in writing. Brian Tracy says that this act alone increases your odds of success by 1000%! Like many people, I’d heard that I should write my goals down, but like most people, I rarely did. Looking at Brian’s formula another way, the failure to write your goals and dreams down means that you’ve got less than a 1-in-10 chance of succeeding. Can it be any wonder then that most people don’t live their dreams?

Who knows where your life can go after it is driven by life goals. You may find yourself landing on the moon someday, which happens to be one of the few original dreams that John Goddard hasn’t realized.

Whatever you dreams may be, when you're doing your goal setting, make them BIG and WRITE THEM DOWN! Don’t be like the chap in this poem that Napoleon Hill included in the original edition of Think and Grow Rich:

"I bargained with Life for a penny,
And Life would pay no more,
However I begged at evening
When I counted my scanty store.
For Life is a just employer,
He gives you what you ask,
But once you have set the wages,
Why, you must bear the task.
I worked for a menial’s hire,
Only to learn, dismayed,
That any wage I had asked of Life,
Life would have willingly paid."

Copyright © 2004 Vic Johnson

Vic Johnson is a popular motivational speaker, author and Internet Infopreneur who has created some of the most visited personal development sites on the Web. His flagship site AsAManThinketh.net has given away over 200,000 eBook copies of James Allen’s classic. He is co-author of "Goals 2004," and "Goals 2005" which are found at http://www.Goals2005.com