Author: MarleneMB

Finding the Courage of Columbus

Posted on by MarleneMB
Christopher Columbus…picture from Wikimedia.org

There are some controversies around Christopher Columbus Day in the USA, today. Many people dispute the idea that Christopher Columbus “discovered” America. Some say that it was not lost in the first place and in fact he was lost. Whether you are agree are not, is not my purpose here in this article. I want to examine the fact that Columbus chose to make the journey in the first place.

Imagine that he had to convince a foreign monarch, in today’s term: a venture capitalist, to fund his trip around the world based upon a hunch that he could reach the East Indies by going the opposite route from the way others had taken in the past. Not only did he convince this monarch, he convinced others to get on ships and leave their families to make this voyage with him. I am sure leading up to the very day that he set sail; Christopher Columbus faced a lot of naysayers who told him that he would fail. They probably told him he was an idiot and would probably die out at sea.

Although, Columbus’ theory was flawed and his voyage took him to the Americas instead of the East Indies, his courage to take a different route and try something new is to be admired. His miscalculated trip brought new opportunities for him, his crew and his sponsor. How many of us allow others to kill our dreams or our desire to start a new business venture? How many are too afraid of failure and never take the first step to attempt living for your purpose?

The next time someone tells you that you can’t make it happen, you will fail, or your idea is convoluted, take a look at those people in history that dared to go against the masses and achieved great things. Find the courage of Columbus, block out the negativity and focus on accomplishing your dreams.

Keep Living A Diamond Life! A Life of Purpose!

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I Choose Never to Forget

Posted on by MarleneMB
Forever in Our Hearts (Giggle Palooza)

September 11, 2001, I was packing for another trip, to go on yet another plane. I was wishing that I didn’t have to go because I had just gotten off a plane a couple of days ago. As I stood in the living room packing the bags, I was watching Good Morning America, when I saw a small plane hit the first World Trade Center Tower. I thought those poor people; the pilot must have made a mistake. Then a few minutes later, the announcer said that it was passenger airline.

My eyes were riveted to the television as I stopped packing. When they announced that it was a hijacked plane, my heart sank. The horror of this flooded in and tears started to stream down my face. I couldn’t believe it. Then I saw the picture of another plane hitting another tower; another surreal and painful hit and instant loss of lives. I started calling everyone I could to find out if any of my friends or associates where in the buildings or in the area.

I used to work in the area for a few years with MCI. The World Trade Center was in my territory. Some of my clients were in those Towers. I remember the first time I visited a client on the 103rd floor; I was amazed by the speed of the elevator and the little flutter I got when it stopped. I stood in awe of the view outside her window and thought: “what man can build from his imagination.” September 11, 2001 demonstrated what man could destroy because of hatred of another.

I finally was able to reach one of my friends, Bebe. She told me she had to walk for miles from the WTC site to her home in Harlem. She was covered with soot and very tired. She told me about people jumping out of windows to their deaths. Her building was near the towers and she felt the building shaking as they towers crumbled. Her building was in darkness. Bebe told me that we lost a friend, Clyde Frazier in one of the towers.

We went to school with Clyde at SUNY, Albany. Clyde always had a smile on his face and pleasant personality. Clyde died helping others get off the floor where they worked. His co-workers who survived this awful event said that he refused to leave because he wanted to make sure everyone got out. That is just the way he was, always considerate of others.

I still cannot watch the replays of the videos or movies about 9-11. It is too painful to feel the scar, which covers the wound of that day, being stripped away again… Instead I choose to remember the Clyde Fraziers who sacrifice their lives so others may live. I choose to live and give tribute to the people that are in the armed forces and the first responders who defend our freedom, this country and its citizens. I choose Never To Forget!

 

A Night with John C. Maxwell – Part 2 of A Successful You

Posted on by MarleneMB
John C. Maxwell

The amazing thing about being in the audience when John C. Maxwell speaks is the feeling you get that he is speaking directly to you! His second point hits home with me. According to Mr. Maxwell, “The secret of your success is what you do everyday.” He emphasized that the second point to success is growing to our maximum potential. We must spend time building upon our strength by growing in that area, daily.

This reminds me of my time as a Weight Watchers member (to be honest I think I will be a lifetime participant of this program even though I don’t actively attend a meeting)! Weight Watchers teaches you to record everything you eat. It is amazing when you track what you put in your mouth, how many calories you can toss down your gut without realizing it!

The same concept applies to Mr. Maxwell’s insistence that you must pay attention to what you do everyday to ensure your success. As I reflected on my day-to-day activities, I can honestly say there are times when I waste the opportunity to work on my success. John C. Maxwell’s statement encouraged me to reassess what I will do going forward to maximize my potential by doing the things that will be a benefit to my success.

Mr. Maxwell also said in order maximize our potential, we must be able to get along with people. We cannot become successful alone; and we cannot reach our full potential if we don’t like people. Successful people are people persons. They exhibit charm and charisma and people are drawn to them.

The final part of maximizing our potential involves managing our decisions. Maxwell told us that decision-making is overrated. Many people make decisions, but they delay in acting on them or they never implement them. This makes the decisions become bad decisions or no decision. We must manage our decisions by acting on them. Mr. Maxwell gave us a call to action: “Stop talking and start doing!” “Today matters!” Now instead of watching another episode of NCIS or Criminal Minds, I update my business plan, I write another article, I call another client, I book another appointment or I call someone to encourage them.

Carpe Diem, my friends! Here’s to our success!!!!

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A Night with John C. Maxwell – Part 1 of “A Successful You”

Posted on by MarleneMB
John C. Maxwell

I don’t know about you, but I read quite a few books on being successful by folks such as Zig Ziglar, Brian Tracy, Dr. Wayne Dyer and  John C. Maxwell, to name a few. Imagine my excitement when I found out that John C. Maxwell would be awarded the Toastmasters International Golden Gavel award at the 2012 International Convention! Per Toastmasters International: “The prestigious Golden Gavel award is given annually during the Toastmasters International Convention to an individual distinguished in the fields of communication and leadership.”

Having purchased a few of Mr. Maxwell’s books, I booked my reservation for the convention to ensure that I would hear this man speak. I was not disappointed. He took the stage and immediately commanded the audience’s attention by opening up with humor and humility. He informed us that he gratefully accepted the award and decided to speak at the convention because he recognized that Toastmasters was in the same business as he is: to enrich others’ lives by helping them improve themselves. Talk about knowing how to win your audience over! He certainly did that.

Mr. Maxwell then told us how we could become successful. He shared three points with us. I will share the first one with you today: Knowing your purpose in life is the first step toward being successful. He said the most important day of our lives is when we are born; the second most important is the day we understand why we were born.  He continued that to discover our purpose, we should discover what we are passionate about, what we really care about. He believes that passion brings energy and that energy can propel us toward success.

Maxwell cautions that our passion is not always our purpose. If we cannot make a career out of our passion, we may not be successful at that career. He gave the example of people who are passionate about singing but are not good singers. He noted that we should not confuse our career with something that may be a hobby. Mr. Maxwell argued that our purpose is often found in our area of strength, which he called our giftedness. He avowed that we are created to be successful, and knowing what we do well will help us recognize our purpose.

Mr. Maxwell also said that too often, people spend their time trying to strengthen the areas that they are most weak in. He said that is a mistake.  He affirmed: “Don’t work on your weakness! You are weak in your weakness!” Studies have shown that people improve their performance by only a couple of points on a scale of 1 to 10. So, if you are operating at a level of 3, you will likely improve only to a level of 5, which is average. Maxwell declared that people frequently do not pay for average. They want above average. If we spend more time building on our strengths rather than our weaknesses, we are more likely to achieve success.

As you can see, this was a start to a great night. Stay tuned for the next two points!

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Steven Covey Still Speaks

Posted on by MarleneMB

 

At the age of 24, I was working for MCI as a customer support representative in New York City. This was an exciting time for me. I was assigned the garment district. Imagine having Donna Karan, Nautica, Jordache and other high-end designers as your clients…at least their businesses. I reveled in the ability to buy designer clothes at 33 percent off the retail price, or getting them for free at Christmas time. I wasn’t thinking about time management, understanding my core values or what my inner circle of influence is! I was thinking about how to convince my brother to build me a bigger walk-in closet.

One day my manager told me that she signed some of us up for a workshop called “Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.” She said it will help you determine your priorities, your schedule and what tasks are most important, I thought I was doing a great job of that already, i.e. shopping! Reluctantly, I went to the workshop. I can tell you today that was one of the best workshops I have ever participated in. It is still impacting me today. The instructor did a wonderful job of explaining Steven Covey’s principles to the participants in the course. He also played the video of Mr. Covey explaining his rules of Seven Habits.

When I walked out that three-day workshop: I learned about setting priorities; understanding my core values; and working within my inner circles,–the places where I could have the most positive impact. I learned from Steven Covey’s course that your core values are things you will absolutely not comprise. This past week, I had to exercise one of my core values, integrity. My business partner and I had to walk away from a deal that would have resulted in our earning quite a bit money for our business. Our client was not being above board with us, or with our Alliance partner. This caused us to question his honesty.

He wanted us to compromise our integrity and also our pricing. Thanks to the fact that we know the value of our products, service and most importantly working with integrity, we let the deal go. Now I know how attorneys feel when they know their clients are guilty as sin! You do your best, but you hope they are found guilty! We are comfortable knowing that we did not compromise our beliefs for money and we gained more respect for our Alliance partner and ourselves. Thank you, Steven Covey for leaving us a legacy that lives beyond your life here on earth!

Live a Diamond Life, A Life of Purpose.

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