Young Millionaire Group

There is an old joke that as far as breakfast goes the pig is committed and the chicken is just involved.

Are you just involved in life or are you committed? During the Chinese crackdown on democracy at Tianemen Square there were many demonstrations about commitment. However, none seemed to capture the world so much as “Tank Man”.

Talk about commitment!  He was willing to stand in front of oncoming ROLLING tanks.  He realized that he was as committed as he could be to the ideals he stands for.  John F. Kennedy has a favorite poem.  It is Ulysses by Alfred Tennyson.  You can read the whole poem at:

In the poem an old King looks back on younger days.  However, in the last stanza he states:

We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are,–
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.

Not to yield?  Never give up!  Keep going!  Keep striving to reach all those things that you have committed to.  There are pledges and promises that you make constantly.  You make these oaths to your friends, family, co-workers and to those who look up to you, whom you do not yet realize.  They are your true audience.  Challenge yourself to do the best you can at all things so that those who are watching, and oh so many are watching, can benefit from seeing true commitment.  Edward Hale may have said it best:
I am only one,
But still I am one.
I cannot do everything,
But still I can do something.
And because I cannot do everything
I will not refuse to do
The something that I can do.

I don’t care if you are one and ONLY one.  You can make a difference.  You can change the world!

Princess Diana talked about doing what you really believe you should do.  That will help you to ensure that there is a deep commitment to complete all the tasks because You want to.  She said:

“Only do what your heart tells you to.”

She saved hundreds, if not thousands with her efforts to remove landmines.  Look at the first word she chose.  ONLY!!!!  Only do what will ensure that you keep your promises.  Then you don’t have to worry about motivation as much.

Thomas Jefferson as he wrote the Declaration of Independence included these words.  What a commitment they were.  Would you sacrifice as much if needed?:

“We mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honour.”

Would you give up your life, fortune and even your honor to keep those commitments that you promise to deliver on.  The founding fathers did!

What are your willing to give up to achieve that which means so much to you?  What can you leave behind, so that you can move ahead.  Your reputation, your “status”.  Who cares what other people think.  If you knew how little they think about you, you would not worry so much about what they think.

Spanish Conquistador Hernando Cortez upon reaching the Mexican continent had his 11 ships burned.  Whether his men were committed or not, Cortez was.  He was going to conquer the new world at any cost up to and including his own very life.  No retreat, conquer or be conquered.

David McNally said, “Commitment is the enemy of resistance, for it is the serious promise to press on, to get up, no matter how many times you are knocked down.”

My father, Thomas L. Wheeler said once, “Rob its not how far you fall, but rather how high you bounce.”

We are going to get knocked down, bullied, told no, rejected, unrequited…etc.  No matter how many times it hurts, we HAVE to get up.  What number of times will it take you being knocked down to stay down.  I say, I DON’T know yet and I ain’t gonna find out, ’cause I WILL get back up!

Vince Lombardi the great coach of the Green Bay Packers, talks about commitment from a team standpoint:

Individual commitment to a group effort — that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work.

So, the individual has to commit to the team, company, society, work, civilization as a whole or whatever he or she is involved in for the whole to work as a team.  So, there is an “I” in TEAM.  The “I” is “I commit to the team!!”

Even the english language places importance on it.  According to the dictionary, commitment is a noun.  A noun is a person, place or thing.  They are all concrete, physical, defineable stuff.

Here are some solid steps to handling commitments:

#1.  Define the commitments you have made.  Write them down.

#2.  Define who they were made to.  Again, write them down.

#3.  Determine those you can keep -vs- those you will not.

#4.  Go talk to the people whom you made the commitments you are NOT going to keep and apologize.

#5.  Redouble your efforts to keep those which you will keep.

#6.  Carefully consider all future commitments and don’t commit to those you can’t keep.

These steps may seem simple.  However, they take time, emotion and effort.  One of the biggest problems many of us experience is over-commitment.  Your time is your most valuable asset protect it for you, your family and career to ensure that you can keep your promises.

Like the pig, Tank Man and Cortez, if you are going to commit.  Doit!  Go the whole way!  If you are not, then don’t.

Rob Wheeler.

Holding back a tremendous force can be a daunting task.  In 1931 construction began on the Hoover Dam.

This barrier holds back the Colorado River and all of its force.  When it was completed in 1935 it was the largest concrete structure in the entire world.  It holds back 28,537,000 acre feet of water at full pool.  It is 726.4 feet tall and the parapets rise another 40 feet beyond that.  The water pressure is 45,000 pounds per square foot.

The Colorado river with all its force and desire to get around it, can’t!

Webster’s defines desire as:

1.	to wish or long for; crave; want.

2.	to express a wish to obtain; ask for; request: The mayor desires your presence at the next meeting.

3.	a longing or craving, as for something that brings satisfaction or enjoyment: a desire for fame.

4.	an expressed wish; request.

5.	something desired.

6.	sexual appetite or a sexual urge.

For our purposes we will defer to 1 or 3.  You have to want success badly.  You have to have a “white hot burning desire” to create the kind of success you want to create.  It has to “transcend” everything.  Researchers have found that the desire to succeed is critically tied to success.  Moreover, it actually has the capability to reduce the stresses surrounding you along the way to success.

A young man went in search of a grand old Sherpa philosopher to ask him the meaning of desire.  He found the master and asked him, “What does desire really mean?”.

The old prophet said, “Follow me!”.  They hiked up a mountain.  The youth was exhausted.  They hiked around a mountain.  Now the youth was even more tired, sore and mentally done.  Finally, they reached a crystal clear blue/green lake in the mountain pass.  The Sherpa master waded out into the lake and stuck his head in the water.  He asked the youth to come to him and look at what desire is.  The youth, tired and sore, waded into the sharply cool water to where the old man was standing and reluctantly plunged his head in.  The master reached out his hand and held the young man, underwater, until the youth fought away from him.

He lunged out of the water to gasp the precious air that was so needed.  “Why did you do that?” the young man said exasperatedly.

The old master smiled.  Looking into the eyes and soul of the youth, he said, “My child, when you want something as bad as you want to fill your lungs after a period of no air, you will master desire.”

Think of that!  How many times in your life has desire been so keen that you will fight for it with that type of intensity and desperation?  How often have you been truly under water?  I would venture to say very few if none.  Our society is breeding an entitled youth.  For you to change the tide, you personally must sacrifice all to obtain what you desire.

The great Chinese philosopher Confuscious states:

“The will to win, the desire to succeed, the urge to reach your full potential… these are the keys that will unlock the door to personal excellence.”

Napoleon Hill in his book Think and Grow Rich said it this way:

“Desire is the starting point of all achievement, not a hope, not a wish, but a keen pulsating desire that transcends everything”

Do you have a keen “pulsating” desire.  Pulsating implies that the desire is consistent and in your face until you address it.  Does your desire transcend everything?  What are you leaving in the way of your success?  What are you not sacrificing to achieve what you must achieve?  This desire has to be intense and overwhelming.

Napoleon Hill also states:

“There is one quality which one must possess to win, and that is definiteness of purpose, the knowledge of what one wants, and a burning desire to possess it.”

If this is the case philosophically and factually, we must develop that desire.  The key word in that sentence is “develop”.  Most desire is not white hot burning desire initially.  It is a mind taught function.  Contrary to popular belief, your mind completely controls this process.

Most of that control starts with self-suggestion.  You can self-suggest your way to almost any outcome you wish to program.  I have heard many times from different people how they have lost their desire with regard to something.  It may be a spouse losing desire for their loved one physically.  It may be the desire to get healthy or stay healthy.  It may be desire to continue working in their chosen field or company.  It may be to continue down a spiritual path you have been on for a while.

I can state emphatically, whatever you truly choose that you want to do, you can develop a strong desire to comlpete the tasks or project with a newly developed desire.

8 Steps to Creating Desire (a white hot burning desire):

1.  Determine the values that you want to be a part of your Personal Philosophy.

2.  Determine the path/person/object/project or goal that you want to obtain.

3.  Define that path clearly with stated goals both short, medium and long term.

4.  Share that path with at least 5 people close to you.

5.  Create a delayed gratification plan.  Delayed gratification is where you put off some reward or item until you reach a predetermined result.

6.  Create an affirmation that clearly states what you want to desire.

7.  At least 4 times a day, state your affirmation out loud.  This engages more of your senses than just reading it.  Self affirmation is critical to success and the road to success.  What a man/woman thinks about constantly fervently, he or she will become.

8.  Create a system to measure your results.

Some will say this is hype and bologna.  However, research shows that 95% of all our decisions are made in the subconscious mind.  The subconscious mind is also highly emotional.  Emotions can be controlled by thoughts.  We can program our emotions and thus desire.  It is of the utmost importance for you to be the entity controlling what is entering your thoughts the most.  If you don’t control that input, the culture we live in will.  What do you want entering your mind?

Take the time to “control” what you put into your mind and your mind will control the output to a large extent.

Rob Wheeler

I read an article today on Fox News (I read both Fox and CNN so I can get both sides) that floored me.  A little boy (Jericho Scott) was disqualified from a Connecticut baseball league because he was too good.  Are you kidding me?

It seems his pitching is a little too accurate and fast.

I bet if he won the spelling bee too fast or the science club project too easily noone would have a word to say other than ‘way to go Jericho’!!!

I am sure this is going to work itself out just fine.  However, this is an example of a serious underlying problem in our society.  We are all working toward the weakest link so that nobody gets offended.  People are saying that this is a developmental league or some other excuse.  Well, its time to develop some skills to hit and its time to develop a sense that you need to work HARD to become good.  So, get to work.  Stop Whining!  Start winning because you strive to meet or exceed excellence.

If we continue to teach the upcoming generations that we are going to coddle you, we are going to place you where it is easy for you to succeed, we are going to build for ourselves a generation of entitled, lazy, “I give up” because it is just too hard young men and women.  Maybe the developmental part of this should be for the parents to realize it is time to teach our youngsters how to handle disappointment, discouragement and fortitude.

Where did our sense of excellence go?  Make sure when you come up against excellence that you strive to meet or exceed the level of excellence that is being “shown” to you as a gift.

By the way, “Kick butt Jericho!”

You are excellent!

Rob Wheeler

The Great Wall of China is 25 feet high, 4,160 miles (7,600km).  It is one of the greatest barriers to mankind.  However, it is external.  Most of the barriers we will be discussing during The Barriers to Success series will be internal.  They stem from personal issues and they start with personal philosophy.

Have you ever received a phone call when you were completely free to do anything you wanted and the person on the other end of the line is a drainer?  He or she is not someone you really want to do something with.  Have you ever told that person you weren’t free when you really were?  How did that make you feel?  Did you get that little feeling churning in your gut?  Did that create some chaos within you?

That chaos or dissonance as Kurt Mortenson calls it, is a form of personal incongruence.  It can start out psychological.  However, if you do not resolve it, it has the potential of some physiological manifestations.  This is a result of you not aligning with your personal value set or your fundamental Personal Philosophy.

To ensure that you are NOT feeling that feeling, you have to align your actions and re-actions with your underlying personal philosophy.  Many people wonder why they are not having success in their lives.  It may be a lot of things.  However, personal incongruence, chaos, dissonance or whatever you want to call it is a barrier that a large percentage of the population struggles with.

When we started getting into incongruences in math (at a younger age) it was simple, exact, well defined.

5 ≠ 6

a(a * 13) ≠ a(a + 13)

The answer either is congruent or not.

If you are not congruent with your personal philosophy you will struggle to succeed.  I have heard many times, but what about the porn industry, what about the tobacco industry or what about the alcohol industry?  Surely those people are constantly incongruent.  No!  The reason for this is their underlying personal philosophy or value set.  If their value set places high value on what they are doing and their moral set does not disagree, they can maintain personal congruence.  I am not saying whether someone is right or wrong here.  Their personal philosophy guides them and as long as they are congruent, they will be able to succeed much more likely than someone who is trying to be or act completely different than “who” they really are.

The reason for this is that they are not struggling with inner feelings or incongruences.

A major Barrier to Success is not being personally congruent.  Find who you really are and BE YOU!  Define your personal philosophy and don’t try to please others.

Rob Wheeler

No, I didn’t get on a plane.  But with John, Jacob and Linda coming home from Florida, the airport and the “big” plane ride was on Jacob’s mind.  So, we spent today creating two totally different designs on a Park -n- Ride and the logistics for the buses to pick up the people.

Both Dad and Jacob had fun while we were doing it.  As I am creating materials for the upcoming Barriers to Success series, this little activity made me think, “Are there Barriers to Success as far as being a good parent?”

I went, “WHOOOOAAA!”

When I worked at IBM I traveled quite a bit and there were times when I was three weeks out and two days back, three weeks out and two days back.  Talk about a barrier.

Chris, Jordan and John were never afforded the time, my time, with a father that they should have.  Jacob sees me almost every night.  I very rarely travel now.

Barriers to being a good parent can be just as devastating or more than those you struggle with in your career path.  When we talk about life balance during Barriers to Success, I will go through a heart wrenching story in detail about that very struggle.

When I was going through it, it brought me to tears and I have to choke them down even now as I think about it.

I will remember building this Park -n- Ride for a long time to come.  I hope you have many Park -n- Rides in your life.

Rob Wheeler

Well,  We are officially announcing the series “The Barriers to Success.”

Over the coming months we will be going over those things that hold us back, keep us from breaking out and stop us from accomplishing great things.

There are many barriers in our life and we need to look inside ourselves as we approach any of them to ascertain how we will get around, go over, go under or blast through those barriers.

The key to success is navigating those barriers that we encounter.

With each post we will be highlighting a barrier you are familiar with that is physical in nature and then sharing the mental, social or philosophical barriers along with.

I know this is a short post.  But, Monday starts a new dawn in learning The Barriers to Success.

Make sure you are ready and have a pencil and paper as you read the posts.  There will be plenty O’ good stuff.

Rob Wheeler

What is it that you spend most of your time doing?  If you look deep inside you, is THAT what you value the

most?

Many guys spend time working on their car.  Some spend time on their boat.  Some women spend time on their children, Some women spend time shopping.

Is that what you value the most?  If it is, great!  If not, maybe you want to figure out what truly is valuable to you.  With that in mind I have included a couple of resources here for you to use to DEFINE what you value most.

First is a Value List that you can begin to drill down on your “core” values and ancillary values.  With this tool (which you can download), you can begin to define your values and sub-values.

Print this PDF out and go through the values and circle all of the things you want to be.  Then go back to the circled ones and place a rectangle around them.  Finally go through the circled and rectangled ones and star the top 10 Values.

Second, take the top ten values and write them down on the Mission Statement and Values.  This will help you understand where you want to be as far as an individual or company.

Figuring out what you value most is critical to ensuring that good goals and dreams can be developed from your list of values.

You are a valued person.  Make sure you become a person of values.

Rob Wheeler

We have been hearing about Intention, Attraction and The Secret over the past couple of years.  They are all great concepts.  However, there is something missing in most of the education, e-books and seminars that are going around.

What’s missing?

What’s missing is that attraction, intention and The Secret focus on the “Marketing” side.  There is no focus on the sale, influence or persuasion side.  Nothing gets done until the sale is made.  That isn’t attraction.  That’s Influence and Persuasion.

You can attract all you want, but if you don’t sell them when you attract them you haven’t accomplished anything with the attraction, intention and all the secrets you may know.

There has to be execution on top of any attraction.  The law of attraction is just that, attraction.  OK, you’ve done your marketing.  Now you need to sell or execute on your plan.

Don’t get me wrong, attraction and intention are very important.  However, if they lack execution they are just buzz words.

Michael Phelps displayed great intention in his amazing accomplishments in the Olympics.  However, he worked his butt off and he sold with results, not marketing.  If you want to reach amazing success, you too must sell with results.

Rob.

Today the boys started shopping for school.

I could smell the crayons way before I got to the isle.  I smelled them in my mind.  I saw the box.  I knew exactly what it was we were getting.

They were given a list of things they needed from the school.  As we have spent the last couple of weeks shopping for their clothes, I have thought about how prepared each of us is for our particular career choice.

Are you prepared to succeed?

How do you know if you are prepared to succeed?

In one of my previous blogs we talked about the 4 Types of Learning. In that blog we talk about Reproductive Knowledge.  That knowledge is the ability to reproduce the steps that you view someone doing and create your own success.

Watch how people in your field prepare.  Look at how they get ready mentally, physically and materially.  Find out who they hang around.  What do they eat, watch, read and listen to?  Where do they go?

Study those who have been successful in the field you want to be successful in and model them.

Preparedness first starts with knowing how to prepare.  If you don’t know how to prepare, you can’t be successful.

Rob Wheeler

Today I was doing the math on my improvement with regard to my Alexa rating.  It was fascinating to look at that improvement and what it would mean to my business.

It made me think of the dollars that would be coming from that improvement.  While at this point they will not be significant, there will be incremental improvement.  As my sites move up through the ranks there will be improvements that translate into dollars along the way.

What that made me think of is how small improvements make major dollar differences when you get to the stage of excellence and beyond.  A 1% increase in excellence when you have achieved excellence translates into millions of dollars.  Where as a 1% increase in excellence (while still good) produces very little in monetary gains when you are at or close to incompetence.

I have created a visual for this.  The principle is called the “Excellence Principle“.  I conceived this graphic and named it while I was at IBM.  I watched good, bad and great sales men/women and their achievements or lack thereof.  It inspired me to study why some made extraordinary income and others struggled.  Using the lines first, it shows how much initial effort is necessary to gain financial rewards.  Then it shows how little effort is necessary to do it when you are at the excellence stage.

Here’s the goods.  Last week I had an Alexa rating of 2,493,100.  I have made a concerted effort to move traffic to the site as well as create compelling content.  Whether I have done that or not, well, you be the judge.  However, this week when I checked the numbers, I had achieved an Alexa rank of 1,101,201.

That is a 59% improvement over the last week.

Now, I get to create real improvement to achieve each percentage point from here on out.  The key is to promote your blog consistently and to continue to create serious content.

The critical thing to remember is to continue to improve and create consistent quality content.  My commitment to you is to continue creating content that I consider valuable.

Keep watching for the beginning of the “Barriers to Success” series we will be walking through in the coming days.

Rob Wheeler.