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One Book You Must Read Before Starting A Business

One of my greatest joys is giving to others and seeing their success.

When I started out, working as a homebuilder superintendent, I had one boss. When self-employed I had many bosses: clients, banks, tradespeople, suppliers. To take back control and grow my business I needed systems and procedures for everyone to follow.

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We all dream of being our own boss … but it’s not that easy. Learning from others’ successes, and failures can save you a lot of headache!  Become and avid reader of resources that can help.  When we learn from others, and we can grow faster and move farther.

Having grown my business to great success, I want to inspire and motivate others to do the same. One key principle used in life and business is to treat others the way you want to be treated.

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Achieve Your Goals

How can I encourage and motivate others to achieve what they set out to do? These are questions I’ve been asking myself.

How can I be engaging, inspiring and helpful in motivating others to achieve their success?

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I’ve made a habit of writing out my life goals .. checking and updating them regularly. Looking back it is amazing to see, by God’s grace, how many have been achieved. Apparently, only 3% of people have written goals. If you don’t write your plan down … you are less likely to achieve it.

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7 Secret Habits To Win Back Time

Think of something that is valuable. Something that is infinite, yet finite for each of us. Something that you use every day. It is loathsome when waiting but fleeting and precious when enjoyed. No one in our culture has enough of it!

If you are thinking of time you’re right! What’s the best use of my time? It seems I have countless people – organizations, friends and family, who want a piece of my time so they’re really taking a piece of ME!. Often, I don’t know where to start. Yet time is my most valuable resource how do I decide where to use it?

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Life is short. There never seems to be enough extra margin of time to do all that we desire. There are always things left undone. Culture entices us into wasting our time yet time is our most valuable asset. How do we know if we are investing it wisely?

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6 Keys to Becoming a Generous Giving Person

Have you ever received a spontaneous gift, something truly unexpected? A small gift made a big impression on me. A few years ago a friend gave me a Santana CD. He just knew I liked the music and gave me the CD. Suddenly I became aware of the tension between my own selfishness, with my time and money, and generosity.

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Here’s the struggle, we have limited time and money to give. Most of us might feel we don’t have margin in our lives. If we don’t make changes and become more open-handed, it’ll cost us in terms of how we’re perceived and how we’ll be remembered.

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Looking For A Job?

Few of us always knew what we wanted to do. Those rare people are the lucky ones in a sense, because they find that direction early in their journey. What about the rest of us?

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Today the average person will find a job 11 different times, with the average lasting just 4 years.  How do I find the job I love? What field of work do I pursue? These were the questions I faced as a young person. As my life progressed I starting building homes then later building people through blogging.  Part of this path was planned, part of it was organic, and it just evolved. There is nothing wrong with doing whatever you fall into. But, when you find the meeting point between natural talents and personal passion it changes everything.

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Secrets To Leading Others

I passed up a great opportunity in high school, when selected to participate in summer leadership camp, I said no. Teenage wisdom….after all a summer job in construction paid a lot of money! I had no idea the path ahead would be filled with leadership opportunities. Changing my thinking – changed my life.

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Most people do not view themselves as leaders. If that’s you – then you should read The Traveler’s Gift. If you’re an employee, business owner, parent, teacher, or a stay-at-home Mom, you are leading others. Leadership is having influence on others. No matter what you do or who you are, you are a leader; a person of influence. Some say, we’ll influence over 10,000 people in our lifetime! To be a truly effective leader, you must first be able to lead yourself. Leadership develops from the inside out.

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Balance Work and Life

There is a lot written about gaining balance in your life. Everyone has their story and I’m happy to share mine.

In the early years of starting our home building business, 60 hour weeks were the norm! When we hired staff 10 years later, long workweeks were STILL the norm. There was never enough time to get everything done at work. Work was cheating my family time. It was nearly impossible to achieve the elusive work life balance.

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Picture the work life balance like a scale…one side wins and the other side loses. We need to learn to “cheat” at work and stop cheating at home. We often cheat our family by spending too much time at work, or on fitness, or a hobby. Cut back on being so “busy” and be balanced!

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How To Become An Entrepreneur?

As a child, I dreamed of being an entrepreneur, of starting a business. At age 25, I began Land Ark Homes. It was a modest home building business that grew in 20 years to build over 350 luxury estate homes. I became a legitimate entrepreneur.

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This is a shared dream, many of us want to be an entrepreneur and run our own businesses.

Throughout those 20 years I began focusing more on my strengths and passions and delegating responsibility to others with skills that complemented mine. Later, I was free to focus on what I did best and eventually find the work I love. With that came the responsibility of partners and employees. Ultimately, my job became serving people: the staff and our customers. This is one of the secrets to winning in business – being eager to serve.

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How To Handle Change

Do any of us like change?  For the most part, we are set in our ways. We have our favorite shirts, our usual cereal, familiar routines, and consistent habits.

I never welcomed change. Though, I can still hear my father’s words, “The only constant in life, is change.” It wasn’t easy embracing this truth, but I don’t think I’d be where I am today, unless I did.

God knew we would struggle with this. That is why he gave us his Word.

Proverbs 3:5-6 “Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, And He will make your paths straight.”    When faced with the prospect of change, I remember this verse.

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A great resource that has helped me with this Biblical truth, Who Moved My Cheese? has sold over 26 million copies and is one of the best selling business books of all time. It helped me realize that I should CHANGE. Get out of building the same homes I had been building for 10 years, and get into a niche market with less competition and greater profit.  A worthwhile CHANGE! All too often, it’s easier to keep doing the same thing, heading farther down the same path rather than changing direction.

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How To Find Purpose In Life

At 6 years old, I asked my dad, “What happens when I die?” Later in life, I began wrestling with the questions that linger, like “Who am I?” “Why am I here?” and “What is my purpose in life?” But, it’s hard to make sense of this life if you don’t have an answer to that six year old’s question. I’ve since realized that my purpose is based on the belief that my life has everlasting implications.

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What’s your purpose in life? The Purpose Driven Life has sold over 30 million copies because so many of us want to know why we’re here and what we’re supposed to do with this life. Where are we headed? It’s a question mankind has been grappling with since the beginning of time.