Ten Thought Provoking Quotes from Think and Grow Rich

August 26, 2012 By Paul Guyon

I am always on the lookout for cool quotes that I can use when writing or teaching, especially when coaching my kids. I recently read, in Mind Capture News, this little collection of quotes from the Master of Personal Achievement, Napoleon Hill, author of Think and Grow Rich.
My favorite quotes usually are related to having a positive mindset with a twist. Things never are what they seem and I like my quotes that way too. Why not?

For instance, how can great success be born of great sacrifice? One wonders but I believe Napoleon Hill when he says with every adversity there is the seed of opportunity.

That may be true but few often see the opportunity in losing their job. I lost my job once. It was the best thing that ever happened to me!

When you ask anyone closely linked to the success and personal development industry which book influenced them most you’ll often hear one book’s title come up over and over again. The book is Napoleon Hill’s 1937 ground-breaking release titled, Think and Grow Rich.

Here are Ten Thought-Provoking Quotes from this timeless classic that has sold over 75 million copies:

“Patience, persistence and perspiration make an unbeatable combination for success.”

“Great achievement is usually born of great sacrifice, and is never the result of selfishness.”

“Most great people have attained their greatest success just one step beyond their greatest failure.”

“If you do not see great riches in your imagination, you will never see them in your bank balance.”

“Education comes from within; you get it by struggle and effort and thought.”

“The ladder of success is never crowded at the top.”

“Action is the real measure of intelligence.”

“What the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve.”

“A genius is simply one who has taken full possession of his own mind and directed it toward objectives of his own choosing, without permitting outside influences to discourage or mislead him.”

“Do not wait: the time will never be ‘just right’. Start where you stand, and work whatever tools you may have at your command and better tools will be found as you go along.”

I am attending the Think and Grow Rich Summit 2013 this April 25-27 and am looking forward to celebrating Napoleon Hill’s legacy with like minded people from around the globe.

I would love to hear your favorite quotes from Napoleon Hill and other authors too!

Problogger.net Contest! Win a Trip to the Great Barrier Reef as a Queensland Blogger Correspondent!

April 5, 2012 By Paul Guyon

Tourism Australia — The Great Barrier Reef

Yesterday I caught wind of a contest over at Progblogger.net. Ten lucky bloggers will win a five-day, all-expenses paid trip to Queensland, Australia to promote tourism in Australia and to take in the sights and learn from awesome Aussie blogger, Darren Rowse. I entered the contest immediately because I have always wanted to visit there!

UPDATE! Problogger.net chose some outstanding bloggers to come to Queensland. Here is their story over at Problogger.net. Even though I did not get to go on the trip I am grateful to Darren Rowse for holding the contest. Entering made me realize I have a long way to go as a blogger, but I’ll keep plugging away.

The trip, compliments of Tourism Australia, will bring in ten winners to experience the Great Barrier Reef as Queensland Correspondents. Each of us will document our experience from a different perspective according to our interests.

Since I have a passion for marketing and customer service, my mission is to catch people in the act of exemplary customer service and marketing that captures “mind share”, I will write, video and take photos as I “catch people in the act” of building mind capture and authenticity. I will write a daily journal especially for the trip and will post to the blog daily. I will also document local food and my “over 50” fitness challenges I encounter during the trip as I adapt my routine to stay fit and still enjoy my vacation.

Australia has been on the “bucket list” ever since I read the book, On the Beach, by Neville Shute in high school, and have always wanted to dive the Great Barrier Reef. I edit a weekly eletter, Mind Capture News which has a current readership of 2532. Its focus is sales, marketing and implementation of business building strategies. I have also arranged to publish a feature as well as a piece in our print newsletter, A Captured Mind.

I have already applied for my updated US Passport and Australia travel visa so I am ready to go when I receive word of my spot in the top ten.

My bucket list also includes trips with my family to the Walt Disney World, the Grand Canyon, the Great Wall of China and The Great Pyramids and the Superbowl.

I am looking forward to experiencing Queensland, Australia first to get the bucket list ball rolling.

Of course, I am very optimistic about winning and meeting Darren Rowse and would be very grateful if I am chosen. If for some reason I don’t make it to Australia this time, I will be definitely be coming there in the future!

On Innovation: How Do You Bring On Innovation?

February 24, 2012 By Paul Guyon

Your Innovation Mindset – Is there really anything new these days?

Your mindset is your most important asset when seeking innovation. Self-limiting beliefs is the enemy of progress. If you think innovation is impossible, you’re right, it is impossible, at least for you it is.

Take a leap of faith! You might have to change the rules, but that is the fun part of innovation, challenge the status quo! Instead of focusing on limitations, turn your attention to what is working elsewhere and consider how it might be applied to your business.

Examine what is working OUTSIDE of your industry or niche. Don’t copy what your competitors are doing, in fact, some agents of positive change say do the exact opposite of what everyone else is doing! Be creative and offer something totally unique in your niche.

Your Innovation Dream Team: Two Heads ARE Better Than One

There is truth to the saying “two heads are better than one.” It’s a proven fact that working in teams brings about solutions that would not exist otherwise. There is something magical about two or more minds working together towards a common goal. In fact it is one Napoleon Hill’s 17 Principles of Success and Achievement, which states:

Success and achievement comes with the collective collaboration of two or more minds working together in perfect harmony towards the attainment of a common goal.
-Napoleon Hill

Assemble a team of your most critical thinkers and challenge them to come up with ideas, solutions and case studies. Create a mastermind group that meets regularly to focus on specific challenges.

Using mind mapping to explore ideas, document ideas to bring about clear understanding
Use Mind Storming to generate solutions to ideas/problems

Make the encouragement of new ideas part of your overall business strategy. Most importantly create an incentive program for your employees to reward ideas.

Discover Success in Failure: Persistent Testing Leads to Innovation, Eventually

Test, fail, test, fail, test, fail AND WIN! – Keep testing! Many of your tests will fail but some produce the results that make the failures unimportant. You have to take some risk of failure when seeking innovation to discover what succeeds. In many cases, especially when testing your marketing process, the only way to test effectively is to put your test in front of real people. Their response to your test is your result. Testing live like this takes courage and commitment. This is why most businesses are not innovators in their field and are instead copy-cats

How to Improve Business Processes: 4 Simple Steps to Operational Excellence

Many years ago I discovered a powerful method of applying technology that resulted in multi-million dollar business improvements as well as an entire business line generating over $40 million in annual revenue delivering lost baggage for the airlines. This simple four-step process can be applied to any business, no matter how big or small.

Standardize – standardize language and terms, prices, processes and performance metrics
Simplify – once you standardize, examine your processes and look for areas to improve
Automate – take the areas you identified in the simplification step and look to technology to automate and streamline processes
Measure – measure the before and after to be sure you are making progress towards improved efficiency

Finally, rinse and repeat! Innovation is an iterative process, it never ends! Here are five areas on which to focus your attention.

5 Critical Innovation Focus Areas

Some of the most dramatic improvements in business come from the innovative delivery of service. Wikipedia reports, the first recorded use of a bank using a drive up window teller was the Grand National Bank of St. Louis, Missouri in 1930. The drive up teller only allowed deposits at that time period. The drive-thru was adopted by the fast-food industry and changed the face, and belt-lines, of the American public!

Ask your mastermind group to focus on these areas to identify opportunities for improvement.

Customer service – start winning with excellent customer support and delivery of service
Operations – manage by exception. Many waste time micro-managing instead of solving problems that arise from exceptions (TIP: Exceptions are opportunities for innovation!)
Marketing – Target a specific customer group and create a product or service built for them only
Sales – Personalized and persistent follow-up
Finance – streamline invoice, audit, payment and collection processes, eliminate waste and leverage the resources of others (especially other peoples’ money!)

Ask for Feedback: A Never Ending Source of Innovation

If you really want to challenge the status quo, ask your customers what they want then give it to them! Most business owners are afraid to ask, and completely miss this golden opportunity. Don’t be that business owner. Encourage customer, employees, contractors and vendors to provide input. Ask and you shall receive!

In conclusion, there are endless possible sources of innovation. You can innovate in even the most mundane or (seemingly) commodity business but you must; adopt a mindset of ‘anything is possible,’ create an innovation dream team, look outside your industry and model what is working there, examine your delivery of service and business processes, be willing to fail and test relentlessly. Then standardize, simplify, automate and measure your way to innovation!

How do you bring about innovation in your business? I like to hear about it. Go ahead and leave a comment below.

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Rewarding Excellent Performance: What’s Your Incentive Plan?

February 18, 2012 By Paul Guyon

Many companies reward performance, but use ill-concieved directives, often leading to and encourging shameful customer service. Customers need to feel appreciated and that is why you need to carefully consider that when you create employee incentive plans.

Customer service is lacking in most companies these days, especially the big ones. Big companies may have a (temporary) market dominant position, but eventually they will disappear into oblivion because they are missing the one crucial element that consumers won’t tolerate forever and that is poor customer service. I posted my Top 10 List of Worst and Best Customer Service Companies earlier.

A business colleague, who calls me the “customer service police,” asked me for some advice on setting up an incentive program for her small 9 person marketing company. She wants to inspire superior performance and excellence, and at the same time, wants her company to be a fun place to work, and I don’t blame her.

The first thing you should consider is getting very specific about what you are trying to accomplish with your incentive program. If you are familiar with the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey, the computer, HAL 9000, was given a directive to complete the mission at all costs and the crew was expendable. The outcome was not very good; the crew was killed by a paranoid computer.

How many times have you had a bad customer experience with, say, your wireless carrier or cable company? Their employees don’t really hate you but they are given directives that are not customer satisfaction focused and they make you feel like they would rather not talk to you.

Their quota, measurements, policies and procedures are designed for shareholder value and are not consistent with good excellent customer service practices (if the company founders only knew.) It was the same with the HAL 9000 computer who was built to serve man.

Have you ever been to a Disney theme park? The parks and people are engineered for outstanding customer experiences! Their systems are designed to make sure you are happy, and you spend a lot of money. Should your business be any different?

When setting up an incentive plan you have to prioritize the must have behaviors to zero in on the absolutely critical ones that support the overall objectives of your business (just like Disney does.)

Treat Your Employees Right: Your Customers Will Love You for It

The one thing growing companies face, and they usually screw up is, they forget that the better they treat employees (and vendors and contractors), the better customer service they give, the more pride they take in their jobs. Involving them in your decision making process can be a good thing.

In fact, you may want them to come up with behaviors, measures and rewards.

Your desired behaviors are a mix of both team and individual and can be measured, in most cases. You may have to put in place, systems or processes you currently don’t have to measure them. Additionally, the measurement may hinder productivity.

Let the Games Begin: Make Excellence a Competitive Sport

The subjective performance objectives, like fun positive attitude, are very difficult to measure; you have to assess them yourself and such assessment may be viewed as unfair. This is sacred ground you may want to avoid. Instead, make those behaviors into a game employees can play, better still let them define the game.

Such a game could be the number of compliments (testimonials) they get. For excellence you could have your own Academy Awards where their peers vote for the best of the best.

Have your employees vote on the President’s Award of Excellence, the Contagious Attitude Award of the Month, or the Acme Award for Awesomeness, etc.

Things like attendance are easy to measure but you may not really want to enforce strict hours because you may negatively impact moral and have a worse outcome than if you never measured it in the first place. Below is a chart my colleague gave me with the behaviors she would like to inspire. I organized the data into; team, individual behaviors and possible measurements.

WARNING: Never Reward People for Doing Their Job

“Your success in life will be in direct proportion to what you do after you do what you are expected to do”

-Brian Tracy

I repeat: Never reward people for doing what is expected of them. Instead, reward them for going the extra mile. There is little traffic on the extra mile.

You could even have an award called “The Brian Tracy Extra Mile Award!”

Tips for Performance Rewards

Make it Meaningful and Make A Big Deal

Feature this week’s/month’s/quarter’s/year’s winner in your WEEKLY newsletter!
Use pomp and circumstance! Make the person being honored feel like their performance is a big deal because it IS a big deal!
Make your program mean something, do it to help your employees grow.
Make sure you really care about your employees. They know instantly if you are sincere.

Place Emphasis on Training in Your Strategic Plan

How can you expect employees to improve without the right training?
Your training programs should be designed to help them learn the skills they need to succeed and grow
In fact, your training programs should include personal development material like goal setting, team work, sales and personal achievement

Keep it Simple

Need I say more?
Make your program fun and easy for everyone! Otherwise, it may lose its luster.

Reward and Record Streaks

Keep records to track performance over time and report on trends.
The person who shows up on time the most days, weeks, months etc.
The person or team with the most jobs on time.

Publicly Recognize Individual Achievement

Recognition of self-worth of and contribution are usually more important than money EVER is!
Some people may be embarrassed, but deep down they appreciate it!

Use Stories

Tell before and after stories.
Explain how a complaint was handled.
Give examples of how an obstacle was overcome.
Read comments from peers during peer awards.
Read and share customer comments.

Get Personal

Write thank you notes
Name an award after a peak performer; make sure it is meaningful!

Make it Fun

This should be the first bullet
Give your award fun names
Make your milestones fun
Celebrate often

Again, the important thing to remember in rewarding peformance is to make it fun and meaningful and BEWARE of programming your business for failure by ignoring the reason you are in business in the first place, and that is to be of unmatched service to your customers.

How do you do to reward performance in your business? I’d love to hear from you. And, if you enjoyed reading this article please click the buttons below and share with you friends!

Top 10 List of Worst and Best Customer Service Companies

January 31, 2012 By Paul Guyon

One of my pet peeves is bad customer service; there is no excuse for it! On the other hand, when I get great service I love it; I can’t show you the bad without showing the good! Here is my Top 10 List of Worst and Best Customer Service Companies!

Top 10 Worst Customer Service

Adobe – I had to wait 1 hour to BUY their product! I ended up buying from Dell. I can’t even get support without paying for a year at time I paid $1500 for their product, and I have 5 copies! Too bad I need to use their product because of business requirements; otherwise I would quit them in a heartbeat!
Symantec Business Technical Support – It once took 7 days to solve a simple problem that could have been corrected on the first call. They installed a new instance of SQL server and now I am using more server resources than I need. Had to call in my tech guy and have him undo it. Paid him $300!
Microsoft – it took them 30 days to get me a quote, they then quoted me the wrong thing, then promised a 64 bit version of their Forefront Management Console. I stopped looking for it a year after the purchase. I had to hire my tech guys to setup a dedicated 32 bit server just to run the console, plus it is difficult to use, very disappointed.
Charter Communications –Charter is the only game in town. If there were a viable alternative I would choose them even if they cost more. Charter is taking advantage of its customers by continued increases in the price service without comparable value. Their tech support is pretty good though. They just cost too much!
Consumers Energy – I have had the misfortune (self-inflicted) to have experienced disconnect on at least one occasion. They charged me an outrageous reconnection fee, and I believe they did not adequately warn me of their stealth disconnects!
Verizon Wireless – Shame on you Verizon Wireless – Your despicable practice of charging extra for services I don’t need, allowing third party charges to appear on bills, charging extra to monitor something that should be built into the plan in the first place. This is a matter of bad profits. Companies need to have profits but not dirty ones.
Netflix – They suck for pulling the DVD part of a great deal, I now rent my DVDs locally and only use their service because the kids use in on their Playstation, enough said?
Waste Management – They study the same playbook as Consumers Energy! In fact they’ll come up to your house and take your tote right out of your garage without telling you. Another case of leaders of the company making their employees give bad service because of policy!
McDonald’s Traverse City- They have made my list many times over the past 20 years! It’s usually their slow service that gets me mad, and then they fail to include all of the food I ordered in the first place. Of course, you never discover it until you are down the road. I don’t eat there at all anymore but my kids do. I have called to complain to the local franchise operator and they don’t want to hear it.
SAGE Software – We’ve been using their accounting and CRM software since 2000. They promised integration between the two via am optional piece of software I’ll call “The Link.” We’ve had problems the link since day one but we kept working with our local SAGE rep to make it work. SAGE even dropped support for it twice but offered new solutions along the way. We finally moved to their latest CRM product with is twice as expensive with their promise the integration would meet our needs. It is better, but they still don’t have it quite right. When we ask for changes they tell us it is working as designed. Too bad their accounting software is working so well because I would consider changing if there were something that worked as promised. Clearly SAGE software is more interested in shareholder value than they are about satisfying customers.

Top 10 Best Customer Service

United Parcel Service – The UPS Preferred Customer Service call center is provides the best service in the world! I am not kidding! They know my name when they answer the phone, they apologize for any problems I am having. They follow up after the fact to ensure that I AM SATISFIED! What a concept! Outstanding!
Dell Technical Support for Business – This group is very effective at handling my needs when I have to call them, which is not very often. They too know who I am and are familiar with my equipment. They send parts overnight and even send a technician to install it if necessary!
Dell Customer Service – I love Keith McGee at Dell Customer Service! He is responsive, returns calls and even helps me navigate the Dell customer service system. Even though he is not assigned as my account rep, he coordinates everything with the rest of his group! Great job Keith!
Sharefile – I asked Sharefile for some help with my new account with routing emails to the correct salesperson. I needed them to include the folder name when they sent notifications. I called for support, the rep told me that was not supported but would talk to the development group. The next day I received a call to let me know they were working on a solution. Turns out other customers had also asked for this feature. The following week I got another call saying the feature was now available and could I test it please! That really surprised me; I did not expect any help at all.
iStockphoto – In the 7 years I’ve been using iStockphoto I have only had to contact them once. It was because I downloaded the wrong file and I wanted to give it back and get a credit. They answered via email, within a few hours and promptly gave a credit. The beauty of iStockphoto is I never have to call, it runs very smoothly and when I needed them, they were there with the right answer!
Zappos – another very efficient, smoothly run company. Same thing as iStockphoto. I did call them once to return a pair of shoes; they took care of it promptly and apologized for any inconvenience.
Amazon – I love buying stuff from Amazon! I got a Kindle for my birthday last year and I have been buying books like mad! They know what I like and suggest it to me. I can buy a book with 1 click and get it as fast as I need it. I buy more than books there; I have also purchased drawing tablets, scanners, batteries, cables.
PayPal – They make my life easier. I can accept payments on my website, pay for daycare, I even sold tickets for my High School class reunion! Although I am wary of their policies, I have heard about frozen accounts and money tied up for months, but I have not experienced that. Having a PayPal balance is like FREE MONEY!
Staples.com – I can order online at Staples.com and have my stuff the very next day with no shipping charges!
Symantec Consumer Technical Support – Yes, I know I have Symantec in the Bad list, but let the truth be told, their consumer division provide outstanding technical support! I have called them several times, usually with account renewal or activation and they solve my problem immediately! Their business division needs to use their play book!

There you have it. My Top 10 List of Worst and Best Customer Service Companies! Have you had similar experiences with these companies? I’d love to hear your best and worst and why? Drop a comment and let me know!

Ten Thought Provoking Quotes from Think and Grow Rich

On Innovation: How Do You Bring On Innovation?

Your Innovation Mindset – Is there really anything new these days?

Your Innovation Dream Team: Two Heads ARE Better Than One

Discover Success in Failure: Persistent Testing Leads to Innovation, Eventually

How to Improve Business Processes: 4 Simple Steps to Operational Excellence

5 Critical Innovation Focus Areas

Ask for Feedback: A Never Ending Source of Innovation

Rewarding Excellent Performance: What’s Your Incentive Plan?

Treat Your Employees Right: Your Customers Will Love You for It

Let the Games Begin: Make Excellence a Competitive Sport

WARNING: Never Reward People for Doing Their Job

Tips for Performance Rewards

Make it Meaningful and Make A Big Deal

Place Emphasis on Training in Your Strategic Plan

Keep it Simple

Reward and Record Streaks

Publicly Recognize Individual Achievement

Use Stories

Get Personal

Make it Fun

Top 10 List of Worst and Best Customer Service Companies

Suggested reading from the 30 Day Blogging Challenge

Recent Posts

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Your Innovation Mindset – Is there really anything new these days?

Your Innovation Dream Team: Two Heads ARE Better Than One

Discover Success in Failure: Persistent Testing Leads to Innovation, Eventually

How to Improve Business Processes: 4 Simple Steps to Operational Excellence

5 Critical Innovation Focus Areas

Ask for Feedback: A Never Ending Source of Innovation

Treat Your Employees Right: Your Customers Will Love You for It

Let the Games Begin: Make Excellence a Competitive Sport

WARNING: Never Reward People for Doing Their Job

Tips for Performance Rewards

Make it Meaningful and Make A Big Deal

Place Emphasis on Training in Your Strategic Plan

Keep it Simple

Reward and Record Streaks

Publicly Recognize Individual Achievement

Use Stories

Get Personal

Make it Fun

Suggested reading from the 30 Day Blogging Challenge

Recent Posts

About

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