The Champion Within Article

Two of life’s greatest tragedies are: Never to have had a great mission in life and to have fully reached it so there is no challenge remaining.

Are you going where you want to go, doing what you want to do, and becoming who you want to become? These are the questions we must ask ourselves. Set some quiet time aside after you have finished this program and see the two you’s in the mirror of your mind:

1. There is the reflection of the person you are today.

2. There is the image of who you will be in the future.

Looking at my own life, I am incredibly different in many respects from the person I was 10 years ago.

As you reflect on your past and anticipate the future, understand that virtually nothing you have experienced has been wasted. It all blends together into wisdom and knowledge, and creates your own unique brand of cultural diversity.

Action Idea: In your professional life, what is most important for you to achieve in the remainder of your career? In your personal life, what is most important for you to achieve in the remainder of your life? Find a close friend or associate you trust and network with often, and challenge each other to continuously strive to reach these objectives.

Passion in your purpose will help you take control of your life, and also give you one other advantage that is not widely recognized: About 10 more years of life, on average. Pursuit of a goal wears out very few people. But they rust out by the hundreds of thousands when their pursuit of happiness turns into a geriatric park. A job is something you do for money. A career is something you do because you have an inner calling to do it. You want to do it. You love doing it. You’re excited when you do it. And you’d do it even if you were paid nothing beyond food and the basics. You’d do it because it’s your life.

Be inspired to learn as much as you can, gain skills as much as you can, to find a cause that benefits humankind and you’ll be sought after for your quality of service and dedication to excellence. My nephew and niece, David and Heidi, at the ages of 30, had three little girls, ages 7, 5 and 2. On an anniversary some years ago, they went out dancing and the margarita she had must have been one powerful fertility drug. She became pregnant that night, and with no incidence of multiple births in our family, eight months later, she delivered quadruplet girls, prematurely. I hurried down to the Children’s Hospital in San Diego to get a photo opportunity and possible media coverage as “Uncle Denis of the Waitley Quads.” They told me to stand in the corner, saying I hadn’t contributed anything. The TV anchorwoman asked my niece Heidi how she felt. She said, “I feel a little tired. We’re going to need a new car.” They turned to my nephew David, whose eyes looked like burnt corks. “David, as the father, how does it feel to have seven little girls under the age of 7?” David replied, “We’re not going to need a new car, we’re never going anywhere again.” But that’s not the point of the story. In addition to seeing them as wonderful parents devoted to their seven little girls, my attention was focused on the neo-natal nurses caring for the newborn quadruplets, weighing between a pound and a half to two and a half pounds. Caring passionately for them like little birds in nests. Oblivious of quitting time. Not hearing the lunch bell at noon. Doing what they loved. Involved in helping improve the quality of life. We all can’t be Barbra Streisand or Jonas Salk. But we can chase our passion, not our pension. You’ll always do well, what you love most.

Action Idea: If you had the time and circumstances allowed, what is one of your most passionate desires in life you would like to pursue? It could be a new business idea, music, action, sports, or community service. Starting tomorrow, chase that passion a little bit at a time

Problems Can Be Opportunities in Disguise

One of the most desirable attitudes of a leader is an ability to view problems as opportunities and setbacks as temporary inconveniences. This positive attitude also welcomes change as friendly and is not upset by surprises, even negative ones. How we approach challenges and problems is a crucial aspect of our decision-making process, whether in business or in our personal lives. In companies and environments in which criticism, pessimism, cynicism, and motivation by fear prevail, an attitude develops that leads to avoiding failure at all costs. The trouble with failure avoidance is that it's simultaneously avoidance of success, which depends on big risks.

Innovation and creativity are impossible when people are in fear of being penalized for failure.

Early experience often teaches that failure is to be avoided at all costs. This begins in childhood, when we encounter the first "No!!" It grows like a weed when we are criticized by our parents, other family members, our teachers, and our peers. It leads to associating ourselves with our mistakes, and to a self-image of clumsiness and awkwardness. Not wanting to be criticized or rejected, many adults also seek security rather than risk looking foolish or appearing awkward. They quietly ride with the system, not rocking the boat.

All lasting success in life is laced with problems and misfortunes which require creativity and innovation. Winners turn stumbling blocks into stepping stones.

In the 1920s, when Ernest Hemingway was working hard to perfect his craft, he lost a suitcase containing all his manuscripts. The devastated Hemingway couldn't conceive of re-doing his work. He could think only of the months he'd devoted to his arduous writing—and for nothing, he was now convinced.

But when he lamented his loss to poet Ezra Pound, Pound called it a stroke of luck. Pound assured Hemingway that when he rewrote the stories, he would forget the weak parts and only the best material would reappear. Instead of framing the event in disappointment, Pound cast it in the light of opportunity. Hemingway did rewrite the stories, and the rest, as they say, is history.

This week, concentrate on framing your challenges as "opportunities to grow" rather than "disappointments and problems."

—Denis Waitley

Reasons Why People in Business are Successful by Nick Ikonomou

1. They are willing to learn. The greatest learners become the best teachers. Never ending improvement, as the Kaizen principle insists, should be an individual’s primary goal in life. The only failure in life is the failure to participate. There are no right or wrong ways of doing things, each providing a result that can be assessed and worked on from the learning that the outcome provides. This perfectly fits in with the following success factor.

2. They take action. I have never seen anyone being successful by doing nothing. By default, doing something has to be a move forward. Doing a lot means that the law of averages will ensure that success falls your way. 95% of the population “can’t be bothered”. To jump into the 5% of the population who are successful isn’t hard. It’s just a genuine decision to do something and persevere. Successful people work on improving their time management by learning how time works and what it means to you.

3. They mix with the right people. You can mix with the right people and you can mix with wrong people. The choice is yours. You either fall into those groups or you seek them. Because successful people don’t gloat because of the Australian tall poppy syndrome, you need to do your homework and ask people about their success. They are more than willing to tell you because if they initiated the conversation, that might have been construed as gloating. Look for a business coach and/or a mentor. Surround yourself with the best accountants and lawyers.

4. They are great networkers. Successful people go out of their way and meet as many people as they can because they know that the more people they know, the more opportunities come their way. Staying in your business or at home most of the time produces little results.

5. They have a dream. These people are the greatest dreamers. They have strong beliefs that one day they will achieve what seems impossible to most. The law of attraction means that you shall receive what you crave for if the craving feeds itself with all the other attributes of success.

6. They don’t allow dream takers interfere with their dreams. The most dangerous people in your life can also be the people you hold most dear to yourself. These can be some family members, friends, neighbours and business colleagues. Respect the opinions of those who are successful in their own right. Otherwise, you will receive pretty much the same as what those dream takers are experiencing. Most of all, respect your own intuition. Most of the time it’s the right decision for you anyway. Remember, why engage in other people’s situations when yours is different. You have different expectations, experiences, financial and personal needs. Why live it through other people’s lives? It’s one thing to have a dream, but to stick to it is the most important part of achieving the dream. It is said that the journey is far more exciting than the final achievement, so, choose to have an exciting life.

7. They have integrity. Have you seen people having a go and temporarily have a hiccup? Well, you can lose everything and rebound twice as fast if you maintain your integrity. Once you lose your integrity, it’s over. Practice the integrity that you wish other people to treat you with. Set an example rather than stoop to the behaviour and reactions that you are not impressed with.

8. They are great communicators. The best tool to master is to have great communication skills. Honest, straight forward communication totally outweighs fancy use of the language which also can have another name for it. Study personality profiles and the way people process information and the results of improved communication will reap you many rewards over and over with a win/win outcome in most cases.

9. They are willing to share their knowledge. The best way to remember the best parts of your success are to verbalise them or write them down. Share it with those who ask.

10. They have a balanced life. Working too hard in any one area creates imbalance. Work out what you like the most and bring them into your life as you go. There are many tools available to assess the “perfect you”

Warren Buffett Quotes to Inspire Your Investing

Warren Buffett may be among the world's richest men, but you wouldn't know it if you met him. He wants to be liked far more than he wants to be famous, and his sense of humor is far more indicative of his personality than his ego.

And they don't call him the “Oracle of Omaha” for nothing. By the age of 14, Buffett had purchased a small farm in his hometown of Omaha, Nebraska, using the profits from his paper route. By the time he graduated college, he had $90,000 in savings.

 

In 1962, Buffett became a millionaire with his Omaha-based investment partnership, Buffett Partnership, Ltd. He began buying shares of a textile manufacturing company, Berkshire Hathaway, and eventually took control of the company. By 1990, he was a billionaire.

Today, he’s the second-richest man in America -- just beneath Bill Gates -- with a net worth of $45 billion. But dinner isn't at expensive restaurants. Instead, he dines at Gorat's -- a local steakhouse in Omaha, and it's always the same: a rare T-bone with a double order of hash browns and a Cherry Coke. Buffett drives himself to work each day in a gold Cadillac. He's known for being humble, courteous and personable, and it’s not uncommon for him to take a visitor to McDonald's on the way to the airport.

It's undeniable that Warren Buffett is smart. He absorbs reams of information and has an encyclopedic recall that amazes attendees at Berkshire's annual shareholder meeting -- where he takes questions without notes for several hours each year. But remarkably, his investing style is simple: buy great companies at a good price.

Part of Buffett's appeal is the charm and charisma he brings to the normally pretentious world of finance. All the while, though, he's articulating some of the most practical investing advice available to individual investors like us. There’s a lot to be learned, so to get started, here are 50 classic quotes from one of the greatest investing minds of our time:

1. "Rule No. 1: Never lose money. Rule No. 2: Never forget Rule No. 1."

2. "A very rich person should leave his kids enough to do anything, but not enough to do nothing."

3. "It’s class warfare; my class is winning, but they shouldn’t be."

4. "If you’re in the luckiest 1% of humanity, you owe it to the rest of humanity to think about the other 99%."

5. "It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently."

6. "Of the billionaires I have known, money just brings out the basic traits in them. If they were jerks before they had money, they are simply jerks with a billion dollars."

7. "The business schools reward difficult complex behavior more than simple behavior, but simple behavior is more effective."

8. "You do things when the opportunities come along. I’ve had periods in my life when I’ve had a bundle of ideas come along, and I’ve had long dry spells. If I get an idea next week, I’ll do something. If not, I won’t do a damn thing."

9. "Can you really explain to a fish what it’s like to walk on land? One day on land is worth a thousand years of talking about it, and one day running a business has exactly the same kind of value."

10. "You only have to do a very few things right in your life so long as you don’t do too many things wrong."

11. "It’s far better to buy a wonderful company at a fair price than a fair company at a wonderful price."

12. "Only buy something that you’d be perfectly happy to hold if the market shut down for 10 years."

13. "We simply attempt to be fearful when others are greedy and to be greedy only when others are fearful."

14. "Risk is a part of God’s game, alike for men and nations."

15. "Should you find yourself in a chronically leaking boat, energy devoted to changing vessels is likely to be more productive than energy devoted to patching leaks."

16. "We believe that according the name 'investors' to institutions that trade actively is like calling someone who repeatedly engages in one-night stands a 'romantic.'"

17. "Chains of habit are too light to be felt until they are too heavy to be broken."

18. "It’s better to hang out with people better than you. Pick out associates whose behavior is better than yours and you’ll drift in that direction."

19. "Let blockheads read what blockheads wrote."

20. "Our favorite holding period is forever."21. "I don't look to jump over seven-foot bars; I look around for one-foot bars that I can step over."

22. "If a business does well, the stock eventually follows."

23. "Why not invest your assets in the companies you really like? As Mae West said, 'Too much of a good thing can be wonderful.'"

24. "Price is what you pay. Value is what you get."

25. "Wide diversification is only required when investors do not understand what they are doing."

26. "Time is the friend of the wonderful company, the enemy of the mediocre."

27. "Only when the tide goes out do you discover who's been swimming naked."

28. "In the business world, the rearview mirror is always clearer than the windshield."

29. "Risk comes from not knowing what you're doing."

30. "Look at market fluctuations as your friend rather than your enemy; profit from folly rather than participate in it."

31. "There seems to be some perverse human characteristic that likes to make easy things difficult."

32. "If you are in a poker game and after 20 minutes you don't know who the patsy is, then you’re the patsy."

 

33. "Wall Street is the only place that people ride to in a Rolls Royce to get advice from those who take the subway."

34. "The rich invest in time, the poor invest in money."

35. "Beware of geeks bearing formulas."

36. "Without passion, you don't have energy. Without energy, you have nothing."

37. "I get to do what I like to do every single day of the year."

38. "I never attempt to make money on the stock market. I buy on assumption they could close the market the next day and not re-open it for five years."

39. "If past history was all that is needed to play the game of money, the richest people would be librarians."

40. "The investor of today does not profit from yesterday’s growth."

41. "The smarter the journalists are, the better off the society is to a degree. People read the press to inform themselves; and the better the teacher, the better the student body."

42. "We enjoy the process far more than the proceeds."

43. "Focus on your customers and lead your people as though their lives depend on your success."

44. "I have no idea on timing. It’s easier to tell what will happen than when it will happen. I would say that what is going on in terms of trade policy is going to have very important consequences."

45. "Cash never makes us happy. It’s better to have the money burning a hole in Berkshire’s pocket than resting comfortably in someone else’s."

46. "Never invest in a business you can’t understand."

47. "Derivatives are financial weapons of mass destruction."

48. "We've used derivatives for many, many years. I don't think derivatives are evil, per se, I think they are dangerous. ...So we use lots of things daily that are dangerous, but we generally pay some attention to how they're used.  We tell the cars how fast they can go."

49. "Only when you combine sound intellect with emotional discipline do you get rational behavior."

50. "I buy expensive suits. They just look cheap on me."

How To Do Wonders With A Little Salary

It’s no longer hidden knowledge that a vast majority of the employees in Kenya today actually get a paycheck that they can barely survive on till the next paycheck. However, irrespective of how much you earn, you can still do wonders with that little salary of yours.

These are ways thst can help you make something out of that little salary you call nothing
1. Assess the Situation- First off; you’ve got to access your current financial situation. Assessing your financial situation lets you gain insight into where exactly you stand with respect to your finances. And unless you know exactly what money you have coming in and what you have going out, you can’t know for sure where you stand and how to make plans towards making it better.
Here are some things to do to accurately assess your financial situation
1.Sit down with your spouse (if you’re married) or alone and get a pen and paper (don’t underestimate the power of this) and write down all the money that you have coming in on a weekly, bi-monthly or monthly basis.
2. After you’ve done that, write down all your compulsory expenditures on a weekly, bi-monthly or monthly basis. The expenditure on this list should include expenses such as rent, feeding, Phone bills, debts, fueling for car (if you have one) and generator, transportation costs etc.
3. Then, write down all other expenses which are not easy to define. These may include stuff such as clothing, travel costs, medical bills. This should basically include expenses that happen occasionally or does not have a fixed amount of money.
Be sure to try as much as you can to be accurate with your assessment, a reason why you should get a pen and paper in order to properly balance your household expenses.

2. Re – adjust your Budget- Now that you know what exactly comes in and what goes out. It’s time to re-adjust your budget (so as to reduce your monthly expenditure) based on your assessments above or create a budget plan (if you don’t have one) based on your current realities. When there’s not much coming in, it’s a very smart move to be completely aware about what you do have. Budgeting will show you exactly what you earn and how you’re spending it. The main objective in re-adjusting your budget is to create a spending plan and be able to look around to see where you can cut down on unnecessary expenditure.

By re-adjusting and sticking to a new budget plan, you would be amazed at how much you were spending on small, unnecessary items that quickly add up. By restricting your budget and cutting back on unnecessary expenditure, you’d manage to build up some savings. It may be hard but the pain you have to bear to put some money aside would be well worth it in the future.
In re-adjusting your budget (so as to reduce your monthly expenditure), the following tips would be of great help.

The tips may not make you rich by themselves alone but they are sure to help you survive until better days arrive.
1. Look at your grocery shopping and access if you’re wasting money. Buy bulk as much as possible as it works out cheaper.
2. Take a good value packed lunch to work. This helps you cut down on expenses incurred by eating out and buying expensive readymade meals. Also avoid throwing food away unless you have to.
3. Cut down on expensive mobile phone calls. You’d be amazed at how much you can put aside by just reducing the amount of recharge cards you purchase weekly.
4. Change your shopping habits and look for good value rather than trying to impress people by going after brand names.
5. Spend consciously. Many people just keep spending, spending and spending with little thought. Don’t be one of them.
6. Avoid unnecessary debts at all cost.

However, it must be admitted that sticking to a budget plan may be a struggle, especially when you have to give into pressures of giving your family a treat or in situations such as
•A family member coming in for a week.
•When you least expect it, your best friend announces he or she is getting married and you have to find a way of paying money for dresses that they decide to use.
•Or you find that your kid (if you have one) is failing math and the only way to come to his rescue is to get him a tutor that would set you back a few bucks. etc

The best way to deal with this kind of situation is to come to terms with the fact that life is not perfect. And as a result, you should create a little room in your budget for the unplanned. You should also ensure that while struggling to keep to your budget, you should still have some fun occasionally. This occasional treat however should be included in your budget and this can be made possible by practicing the next step which is….

3. Create and Maintain a Contingency Fund- Life is not perfect and there is need to always have a back-up plan. It’s called a contingency plan or plan B because you do not have control over everything. As a result, you need to create and maintain a contingency fund where you save a specific amount from your income weekly, bi-monthly or monthly. It may seem an impossible task to put something aside considering the fact that you earn so little. But be rest assured that this can be made possible if you re-adjust your budget as advised above.

By readjusting your budget and cutting down on your expenditure using a combination of the tips offered above, you would be left with some lose funds. These lose funds can be saved in your contingency fund. Keep the money in a savings account. You would be amazed at just how such small change adds up over time. And after you’ve done this, don’t just sit and relax, you must do something to get out of the rat-race and move towards your dream of financial freedom and you can do this by doing the next thing which is

4. Create another Stream of Income- Practicing the above tips alone would not make you rich but like I stated earlier, but they would sure help you until the better days arrive. The essential component of getting rich is not just saving money; it’s knowing what to do with the money you have saved. And this where creating another stream of income comes in. However, I would be the first to admit that creating another stream of income while still holding a day job is not a stroll in the park because there are so many salient questions that bug the minds of employees trying to create another source of income.

And these include questions like;
1. How do I create time to run my business such that it does not affect my current job?
2. How do I raise money to fund my business project?
3. How do I get to be involved in a business that’s guaranteed to succeed?
4. Which business is out there that has a high likelihood of success considering the funds available at my disposal

But with advancement in technology and the turning of the world into a global market place where you do not have to be physically present all the time to make a business transaction, It’s now been made very easy. Now it’s possible to get involved in a highly profitable business that you can start with virtually no money in addition to the fact that;
You don’t need to invest in merchandise
You don’t have to rent a store/office
You don’t have to hire employees
You don’t need to quit your present job (@least not yet)
You may try this business model before you’ll have to make a final decision to quit your job
And this incredible money making business offers fantastic profit potential

There you have them, 4 ways to do wonders with your little salary. Go ahead and act on them and see your life change for good.

This is to your success!!!

Mental illness...Know the Unknown

By Carolyne Oyugi
What started as the pain of the loss of a loved one ended up being the beginning of endless mental problems for Michael Njenga including attempted suicide. Michael lost his father to a road accident in 1991. The experience was very painful to him and he was in denial for a very long time.

“My father and I were very close, we were best of friends and so when he passed on I did not accept the fact that he had gone for good,” he said adding that he always told himself that his father would one day be back and life would be normal.
“I kept telling myself that maybe he would come through our door in a week’s time, or even a month’s time but I was wrong,” Michael narrates. As time went by he realized that that was impossible, he had just sat for his KCPE exams
and was to join Secondary School. His mother, being a house wife had a challenge raising his fees and other expenses in the house for him and his younger sister.“Finally I joined secondary school and everything was just fine. I was a bright student and performed well academically,” said Michael.
Problems however started in form two when his grades started going down. He also had strained relationship with other students and the teachers.
Impact
“One day we were having a Continuous Assessment Test (CAT) and a teacher places a paper on my desk and I snapped. I tore the paper into pieces,” he narrates. As expected he was sent home for being rude and disobedient. At home people did not understand him they all thought that he just did not want to go to school and wanted
to lazy at home. Michael did not understand what was happening to him.After some time he sought medical attention, he underwent many comprehensive tests including head scan to find out what was with him.
“I even thought that I had a heart disease, people started talking about me as we expect and other talked to me. Eventually I went back to school,” he said. The situation however got worse, the society had their own expectations and in form two things got worse.
That is when he went suicidal. “I went to a petrol station, lied to the attendant that my mum’s car had stalled somewhere and I bought 100 shillings worth of fuel. I drank it and lost conscious. Fortunately it was not far from the petrol station and so the attendant saw me and gave me some first aid,” he said.
Arrested
He was then taken to a police station in Thika town since attempted suicide is a crime. His mother was then called from Nairobi and three hours later she picked him. The police rebuked me ,they also did not understand what I was going through.He stayed home for a whole term then went back to school. He struggled through secondary education again and joined a college to pursue CPA.
At first it was simple but as time went by he started hanging out with the wrong company drinking frequently and partying. “That’s when I started feeling physical pains, chest tightness, head ache, joint ache, and insomnia. I went to the hospital and the diagnosis was malaria. I took the medication and I was fine for a few weeks and I would go back to the
same cycle. This went on for two years without finding out what my problem was,”he said. Michael went to public hospitals for a long time and became dependant on alcohol. He would drink all kind of alcohol his friends bought him because he was unemployed.
That was the only way he knew to calm his nerves, he was uncomfortable in his body.He then started hallucinating, he could see faces of people suspended in the air and laughing or crying at him. At times he heard voices inside his head.
“At this point I thought I was bewitched, I did not have any information about mental health and so I did not understand what was happening to me,” he said.
Diagnosis
His chest then continued being tight and his mother decided to take him to a chest specialist after talking to her friend who also had chest problems.The doctor then asked him questions about his sleep and physical feelings. He then referred
him to a psychiatrist for a mental check up. “Like other patients of clinical depression, I started having physical manifestation of mental illness in 1999. I had anxiety issues, I feared talking in front of people, I could not look at people straight in the eyes, I also had self esteem issues, I thought I was ugly and could not look into a mirror. My worst fear was escalators, I could not use it. My heart would beat hard, I would tremble and feel like things are moving inside my skin and I am being pricked,” Michael narrated.
Michaels fear for elevators was as a projection of his past experience, he once almost fell trying to use it. So he hated it and thought he would fall again. These fears interfered with his normal life. He was on anti-depressants and anxiety medications for some time. After six months of medication he started feeling well and stopped using them. He was
fine for three to four months but slowly he started slipping back into to depression. That was his cycle for many years and it was inhibiting his recovery.“I was mixing the drugs with alcohol and some of them are sensitive, the doctor also
did not tell me of their side effects (some of them have physical side effects like stiff neck), some also makes it hard for you to wake up in the morning. As a result I ended up being on medication for a very long time,” he narrates.
Michael then came across Users and Survivors of Psychiatry Kenya- USP Kenya in 2007. He met and interacted with them.
There is where he got his psycho-social support interventions, coping mechanisms and for him that was a very huge turning point.“People do not address issues that come with mental illness; they take their medications and sleep. The group accelerated my healing process because I was able to overcome many issues. My mother was supportive of me; she gave me the best medication she could afford. She even helped me change my career choice. All my life I wanted to be a lawyer but the illness came and so I had to do a reality check.” he said.

Fear
I had to let myself mourn my father’s death, which was one of the causes of my poor mental state. I was not being true to myself I am however still struggling with the fear of cars and driving. My father died in a car accident and so
that is the reason for my fear of cars he literally tremble when inside a car. I have worked for a car hire company but whenever I had an opportunity to drive I would turn down the offer. I am very lucky that I did not undergo
stigma from people close to me. They somehow understood me and they made my recovery easy.