This week I had the pleasure of being involved with the signing of our first Indian retail real estate business which will be located in Delhi, India.  The signing ceremony was attended by the Chairman of our company together with our Financial Controller and the two parties from India.  As we sat down and talked about the final stages of the Agreement, we were about to sign and the Indian parties said “we just need to hold for a moment”.  They went to the corner of the room and had a short discussion then they came back and we all proceeded to sign the documents. 

We then exchanged the documents, and I then went to shake hands but immediately the senior person from the Indian delegation got up, came around to my side of the table and gave me a hug but held on for longer than I expected.  He then went around the table and did this with each person in attendance from our side.  I suddenly learnt that expressions of gratitude are very much part of a cultural understanding and while the agreement will remain as part of confirmation that we have a relationship, the gesture to bring his culture to ours seemed to give the agreement and the relationship so much more.   The way we do things is to shake hands – I wonder what that would have meant to them?

I ask him later why did he have a short discussion before he signed – he said to ensure the order of gratitude.

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Credited to Phil NuYu Total Health Newsletter November 2009

The Determinant of Your Success

Perhaps the most powerful single factor in your personal success is your belief about yourself. We call this the Law of Belief. It says simply this: Whatever you believe, with feeling, becomes your reality.

Successful People Believe

We have a tendency to block out any information coming in to us that is inconsistent with our reality. What we’ve discovered is that successful people absolutely believe that they have the ability to succeed and they will not entertain, think about, or talk about the possibilities that they’ll fail. They do not even consider the possibility of failure

Positive Thinking Versus Positive Knowing

You always act in a matter consistent with your beliefs. The most important belief system you can build is a prosperity consciousness where you absolutely believe that you are going achieve your goals. We call this positive knowing versus positive thinking. Positive thinking can sometimes be seen as wishing or hoping when not fully understood. But positive knowing is when you absolutely know that no matter what, you will be successful.

The Foundation of Willpower

Another principle related to your beliefs is willpower. We know that willpower is essential to any success. Willpower is based on confidence. It’s based on conviction. It’s based on faith. It’s based on your belief in your ability to triumph over all obstacles. And you can develop willpower by persistence, by working on your goals, by reading the biographies of successful people, by listening to audio programs, by reading books about people who’ve achieved success.

The more information you take into your mind consistent with success, the more likely it is that you will develop the will power to push you through the obstacles and difficulties you will experience.

Beat The Odds on Success

Remember that success is rare. Only one person in one hundred becomes truly successful in all aspects of their lives. Only five percent achieve financial independence. That means that the odds against you are 19-to-1. The only way that you’re going to achieve your goals is if you get really serious about them. To succeed, you must get serious. You must get busy. You must get active. You must get going. Every little step you do counts.

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What is the ideal balance between Speed and Perfection? The pressure is on more and more in regards to the need for speed.  In the day and age of transportable information the use of speed should be something that benefits us all.  Has it increased or decreased our productivity? 

Currently I am working on implementing changes to our business because of new legislation that is coming into place over the next 4 weeks.  One of the documents is an Independent Contractors Agreement which will be used across our company for our sales team.  I am working with a legal person who I expect to ensure that this document is perfect (in the sense of the word being able to protect us), but I am also working to a timeline, and it brings forward the question of the need for speed but also for perfection. 

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I am about to board a plane to Queenstown and although I do not think about it much I am going to be putting my life in the hands of one company, one plane, and hopefully two pilots.  The reason why I don’t think about much is because 99.99% of flights land safely in a track record that is unrivaled by any other industry.

On a daily basis worldwide there are 68,000 flights through different companies, flying different planes with different pilots and different passengers but with Read the rest of this entry »

Questions.

Where do you draw the line between possible and impossible?

How old would you be if you didn’t know how old you were?

Do you let yesterday use up too much of today?