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Sometimes I Get So Discouraged ... Not Just About Money Take Ownership of Your Future I Don't Live in the U.S. Will this Work Where I Live? WHAT ARE SOME EXAMPLES OF MENTORING PROGRAMS? What is Mentoring (some definitions)? Never underestimate the power of your actions
I get so many messages from people who believe they are struggling, especially in the beginning when they are working through the assignments: "I just can't seem to come up with an idea." "I'm stuck."
"I always think my ideas sound like everyone else's." "I don't know any successful people … " Oh, go ahead, check the ones you've used over and over. In fact, as far as I'm concerned, if you've never been discouraged, you've never tried! One of my favorite analogies concerns baseball players. A great player is one who has a batting average of .300 or higher. For all those of you who know nothing about baseball, this simply means a great player hits safely 3 times or more out of every 10 times at bat. That means every great player makes an out 7 out of every 10 times he tries! Wow, how discouraging is that? In order to succeed in baseball, a player has to be willing to fail 7 times out of every 10 tries. How on earth does anyone wake up every morning looking forward to failing 7 out of 10 tries at anything? Maybe it's the incredible thrill that comes from those 3 successes. Or maybe it's the ultimate thrill of hitting a home run. Or maybe it's knowing that one of those hits might win a game? Or maybe it's the … HUGE amount of $$$ a player can make … … just getting a hit 3 times out of 10. Top athletes today are paid millions of dollars a year for a little bit of success. Or let me put it another way: WOULD YOU WORK A FEW MINUTES A DAY IF YOU KNEW YOU ONLY HAD TO DO SO FOR A FEW DAYS BUT WOULD GET PAID FOR YEARS TO COME? WOULD YOU CONTINUE TRYING EVEN IF YOU WOKE UP TWO DAYS IN A ROW WITHOUT A SINGLE GOOD IDEA? Oh, now it's not quite so discouraging, is it? And that's the point I'm trying to drive home. You see, that baseball player began as a small child, usually playing with and against older kids. And that player struck out time after time after time before ever safely getting a hit. And that player was the last one chosen when the kids on the street got together. And that player struck out to end the most important game of the Little League season. He was so discouraged! But that player learned a little from each mistake, got better little by little, and one day became a star. There isn't much new in business; basically, most people make something or create something and then try to sell it. General Motors does it. McDonald's does it. Hallmark Cards does it. Each of them began with a dream and a plan. But GM didn't invent the automobile, McDonald's did not invent the hamburger, and Hallmark did not invent nice words to put on a card. Each made mistakes and moved forward. And each one faced discouraging times along the way. I don't care whose success system you work with, you still have to be prepared to go through the tough times. Unfortunately, many of the systems are so poorly written and impossible to succeed with that many of you come to my program already discouraged. You don't have a lot of money but you want and/or need a lot of money. The monthly bills just keep growing and growing, the birthdays continue coming, the car gets a little older, and you find it so hard to continue. I'm not going to sit here and tell you this is how you build character, that's the last thing you need to hear. Some very wise person once said that Experience is what you get when you are looking for something else. You have experience! You know frustration! You understand what it's like to feel like you wasted your money. And then, when you run in to those block walls like those in the beginning of this article, your frustration gets bigger and bigger and pretty soon you are convinced you will never make it. And then you lash out. You write hate letters or emails to the person or company you sent your money to. You use very creative language to admonish your computer. You grump around so much nobody wants to be around you. And you begin to believe you can't make it. You tell everyone it's someone else's fault, but down deep you know it's you. And that is how we define the word discourage! So how do you get past it? First, look inward. You may have received poor information in the past, maybe even had some bad breaks, but the reasons you are not now successful are usually identifiable. For example, you may now have the right, or enough, education. Maybe you grew up in a family, as I did, in which nobody had ever been in business. Maybe you ran up credit card debt when you were young and are still trying to pay it down. Maybe your car keeps breaking down. Maybe, maybe, maybe. Sometimes it's not your fault, sometimes it is. You get over discouragement by doing what successful people do:
1. Set realistic goals and realistic times to achieve them. Now go back and think about the way you've done things in the past. Most people start and stop, get discouraged, quit for awhile, and then start again. And most people act this way because they don't start out with a realistic idea of what they will do to get what they need. They say, "I want to be rich." And that's the only plan they have. The baseball player begins every season with Spring Training. The player already knows how to play the game, so what's the point? The player reviews where he is, sets goals for the new season, and then follows a plan to get ready. Just like you. Discouragement is normal. Don't let it stop you. Keep the 10-point plan with you at all times and then, every time you wonder if you can take the next step, take a look at where you are and what part of the plan you need to follow to get ahead. We followed that path here at THE MENTORS™ when we began. Your success can be easier to achieve than your failure, but you have to be willing to change. Begin today! If you choose us we will provide you the information, the step-by-step plan and the personal assistance along the way. Join THE MENTORS™ students whose lives changed when they made the decision to purchase our simple book. Click here to get started NOW! Sometimes you read an ad in a magazine, or receive a sales letter, and all it talks about is how much money someone has, or will have, or wants to have. And you have to wonder exactly what does someone who has that much money do all day. Oh, sure, it's nice to think about walking along the beach -but life is a whole lot more than just getting up, making a buck, going to the bank, going to the beach, and going to sleep. If it's not, your life can be miserably empty. Dowit Wright believes every day should be enthusiastically received. It's just too easy today, with all the negative television and newspaper information, all the troubles in the world, and even your friends who are convinced life is for losers, to expect the worst. And to act like it! Many of my customers and friends begin their early correspondence with me by saying, "I know this won't work, but ..." or "I've tried every method and system there is …" or "I'll bet you are lying and …" Wow! No wonder life seems like such a chore to many people. On the other hand, I'll bet you know someone (of whom you are probably a little suspicious) who always seems confident, always looks forward to a new challenge, always expects the best. What's the difference? Luck? No! Money? No! The difference is an understanding that each day is going to pass with or without you accomplishing anything, it's up to you. Successful people face challenges just like you do. Nobody ever said life would be easy, but that doesn't mean it can't be fun, too. You cannot convince Dowit Write that you can't do better than he is doing. After all, you've had a bunch of birthdays so far and, if luck holds out, you'll have many more. Each birthday can be just like the most recent one, a lament because you are not doing better, or a celebration of what you have accomplished so far and a look forward to even better days. I know it sounds trite to say it but it is up to you! What are you interested in? Flying? Fishing? Yoga? Scuba Diving? Bicycling? Gardening? Cooking? Body Building? Whatever your interest is, the opportunity is there for you to take.
When speaking to audiences around the world, I always remind them that the only way they will ever feel truly confident is when and if they finally take ownership of their future. It is amazing how often they have never been told this before. I always use the example of a legal document. How many of you have read every word of your home insurance policy? Or, your car insurance policy? Or the credit contract for your credit card? Or any legal document. Have you ever read the conditions of sale for the new software you are installing? Very few hands ever go up when I ask this question. That's what I thought. We don't read legal documents; we wait until we have a problem and then hope we have a chance. But those legal documents were created by others for their benefit, not yours. So why don't you read every word before you sign? Why don't you make sure you understand every single sentence before you commit yourself? When we think of attorneys and legal stuff, most of us think of too much money and documents that are too complicated. After all, we are not attorneys so we are not supposed to understand those documents, are we? The attorneys certainly hope so; otherwise they could never charge the outrageous fees they get! Especially when they know you don't need an attorney for most of your legal work. You could use standard forms that have been around a long time, fill in the blanks, and you are set. What is the point of this? We don't take ownership of our personal life any more than we do of our legal life. Why aren't you more successful than you are now? I know, I know, because you have to work to support your family, because the company won't pay you more, because taxes are too high, because school is too expensive, because it's too hard, too this, too that! Too everything! Every one of these points might be true, but the reason you are not further ahead than you are is because you have not taken ownership of your future. Nobody in the world cares about your future more than you do, and nobody is more equipped to help you get there than you are. So why aren't you already successful? In fact, it is because of conditioning, of what you have been told all your life. This means it is not your fault that you are not further ahead, but you won't get ahead if you don't change some things. You've got friends, family, and co-workers who are always willing to remind you life is hard, you can't get ahead, that successful people are just lucky. School isn't the answer. If it was, all high school and college graduates would be successful. Working hard isn't the answer: if you've ever watched a crew work on resurfacing a highway you have seen really hard work that won't make them rich. And winning the lottery is not really an option. So what will work? A simple, three-step plan that incorporates each of the elements necessary for success: Information, Step-by-Step instructions, and Mentoring. It is this approach that THE MENTORS™ built into our system, and we did it out of frustration. Here is what usually happens, and this is why most of us have not yet succeeded: You look at an opportunity magazine filled with ads promising lots of money with absolutely no work. You don't really believe it but you really want it so you send some of your hard-earned money off out of curiosity. In your heart of hearts you know you won't succeed. The book or the pamphlet or whatever it is arrives, you tear the cover off, read through a few pages of sloppy writing to find the "secret," get mad, and ask for a refund. If you actually read every word of the book or pamphlet, you realize the information is so vague you could never use it to succeed. Maybe you decide you want to write the author and challenge him or her (if he or she even exists) but you discover you have nothing more than a street address or P.O. Box and your correspondence never gets returned (unless you are working with us here at THE MENTORS™ where all correspondence is answered!). Instead of concentrating on building your personal fortune, you are mired in anger and frustration. But you are still going through the magazine hoping another opportunity will work out. You are like the rat on the carousel going round and round and round with no goal in sight. I have often said I am a big believer in multi-level marketing, or network marketing as they prefer to call it today, but I also understand more than 90% of MLM hopefuls fail. Why is that? Because it is very difficult to stay motivated long enough to succeed. Your typical MLM program - regardless of what they advertise - requires meetings, telephone calls, conference calls, internet monitoring, letters, conventions, and lots and lots of time. Usually, you must be available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. If you have the stamina and can remain motivated you might eventually make a ton of money. What's wrong with this picture? Motivation cannot come from outside of you, it must come from within. That's why you aren't motivated the day after you return from walking over coals with Tony Robbins, or the day after you give yourself that "check up from the neck up" that Zig Ziglar advises. Motivation doesn't rain from the sky, there is no expert out there who can give you a motivation transplant. The good news is that motivating yourself is a simple, ongoing process that you can do anytime you want, as often as you want, and let your motivation sort of sneak up on you. What do I mean by sneak up on you? Your situation in life today, good or bad, sort of snuck up on you, didn't it? You didn't wake up one day asking to be relatively broke, or desperate to lose weight, or wanting a better car, or hoping to quit that disgusting job. Chances are your situation today is the culmination of many years of processes that became habits. You got where you are today by motivating yourself, rightly or wrongly, a little each day to be exactly what you are right now. You maintain your current lifestyle because you haven't figured out how to get somewhere better. But you are reading this because you really want something more in your life. And you will get more if you have a good plan and the proper motivation. The trick is to make the motivation stick! And take ownership of your future. Here at THE MENTORS™ we have a good plan through our Guide, PICKING UP MENTORS ON THE ROAD TO SUCCESS, our series of email assignments and the free email mentoring we provide along the way. You succeed by following a very specific set of steps that helps you believe in yourself, moves you towards success, and helps you expect (see our article on Expectations) success. I believe it is difficult to convince yourself to succeed or, to put it even more appropriately, to give yourself permission to succeed. Permission? I need permission to get rich? Yeah, you do. You've already given yourself permission to struggle, to be broke, to hate your job, to wonder if you will ever get rich, to be poor. Nothing will change until you also give yourself permission to succeed. And take ownership of your success. If you already own my book and have started your assignments, you know that I begin with something very easy and very quick, then gradually progress to more demanding assignments. Why do I do it that way? Because once you experience success with your first assignment, you can't wait for the second, and then you really can't wait for the third, and so on. I am "tricking" you into giving yourself permission to succeed. And helping you take ownership of the process along the way. Each time you have success you want more. I often use baseball analogies to demonstrate a point: The player who just hit a home run can't wait to come to bat again and try for another, but the player who just struck out wonders whether he will ever get another hit. Each has given himself permission to succeed, or to fail. And each owns his next at bat. Here at THE MENTORS™ we succeed one simple step at a time, one eBook book at a time, one email at a time, one satisfied customer at a time, one more great day at the beach at a time. Our ads succeed one word at a time. As my information letter explained to you, success has not always come easy, but it will always come if you make the effort.
Like the baseball player, I stepped up to the plate wanting to hit a homerun but not knowing if it would be possible. Every one of us has to step up to the plate for the first time. Ownership of your future, confidence in your abilities, and your success will always be the result of a clearly developed, logical, and easy-to-follow, three-step plan: 1. THE book: Your roadmap, the basic information on how to succeed. The THE MENTORS™ book, PICKING UP MENTORS ON THE ROAD TO SUCCESS was developed following a proven method. But I knew when I wrote the book that it wouldn't be enough by itself. It gives the elements, offers a plan, but people just don't succeed from a book. So I developed a series of … 2. ASSIGNMENTS: I broke the process into 10 steps from acquiring basic information, even including inside tips. The Assignments instill confidence in you, help you succeed one easy step at a time, and help you take ownership of the process. But, even with this excellent assistance, we realized something else was needed, so we added … 3. PERSONAL MENTORING: When you receive my book you also receive my private email address. You are allowed to write to me as often as possible, ask me to review your work, ask for suggestions, make comments, or just simply ask me to say something to make you feel good. Both of us benefit: You get information that I use everyday and I learn your true needs. So there you have it, you will take ownership of your future when you have a plan you believe will work, when you have easy to follow steps to get there, and when you can get the personal mentoring so necessary. THE MENTORS™ is a success because we lead you through all three steps of the process, and we let you ask any question you want. (One student recently asked me about that little ™ mark with our name. How did we get it? What does it cost? How could he get it? He could have paid an attorney several thousand dollars to get this information but he got it from us for free.) Before you spend a penny of your hard-earned money for anyone's information make sure all three steps are available. Write to them. If you don't get a personal response you will never succeed with their information. But, if they are as thorough as we are here at THE MENTORS™ you will get a personal response, you will get the right information, and you will be Guided through the process. And you will take OWNERSHIP of your future. (If you don't have your copy of my Guide, PICKING UP MENTORS ON THE ROAD TO SUCCESS you can order it here.)
This question originally came to us from a student in Russia. The answer, in very simple words, is YES! YES! YES! You can follow THE MENTORS™ success strategy from anywhere in the world, anytime you want. When I looked for the perfect way to create real mentoring, I had to come up with something that could work from anywhere, anytime. PICKING UP MENTORS ON THE ROAD TO SUCCESS was not written in one day. The method was developed, tested, retested, expanded, tested again, retested again, tightened up, tested and retested again, carefully taken to market, and now, finally, rolled out. Now THE MENTORS™ method is proven, no more guesswork. You can sit on the beach in Tahiti, in the middle of the Himalaya Mountains, in the frozen tundra of Alaska, under a cooling tree in the Sahara, on the rooftop of a Manhattan co-op, in the catacombs of ancient Rome, alone in the Canadian wilderness, or right where you are now! This is a business of friendship and rewards. Whether you become a student through the mail or through the internet, you will follow an easy step-by-step method that eliminates the guesswork, keeps you focused, and gives you personal feedback along the way. You would have to pay thousands to a franchise, or attend college for four years, or hire a personal mentor for thousands and thousands of dollars to get what THE MENTORS™ gives you for a few dollars. And that's another advantage of following the THE MENTORS™ success strategy: You get to decide exactly how you want your personal success happen. You can begin with very little, as I did, or a bunch. You can work alone or let your family prosper, as I do. You can stay very small, making a little extra each month, or you can become a big-time company. And you do it all at your pace, within your budget, knowing all the time you made a smart choice. So wherever you are in the world, welcome! We look forward to helping you achieve your dreams. Get your copy of the spectacular PICKING UP MENTORS ON THE ROAD TO SUCCESS now!
There are many mentoring programs that we have known about since we were children, but never think of in the context of mentoring. Traditional programs such as Big Brothers/Big Sisters have been joined by school-based programs, independent living skills programs, court-mandated programs, and recreational "buddy" programs. Religious institutions continue to play a leadership role in the development of mentoring programs, and increasingly corporations and social organizations promote employee and member involvement in programs. Now, older youth are encouraged to volunteer as part of their educational requirements. The word Mentoring has only become trendy in the past couple of years. You may have participated in the activities of one of these organizations - if so you have participated in a mentoring program in the past. It was surely a good experience. This list contains some of the best known mentoring organizations in the business:
There are probably as many definitions of mentoring as there are people who work in the field. Basically a mentor is a person who knows a great deal about a particular subject and is willing to share his or her knowledge with another person who knows less about the same subject. Some other definitions are as follows: "a one-to-one, non-judgmental relationship in which an individual voluntarily gives time to support and encourage another. This is typically developed at a time of transition in the protégé's life, and lasts for a significant and sustained period of time." (Active Community Unit, Home Office); "support, assistance, advocacy or guidance given by one person to another in order to achieve an objective or several objectives over a period of time" (SOVA); "an adult who can provide a pupil with the benefit of their life, school or work experience with a view to encouraging them to move confidently through a range of new experiences" (Salford Business Education Partnership); "off-line help by one person to another in making significant transitions in knowledge, work or thinking." (Megginson and Clutterbuck); "the support of one individual by another within a personal relationship developed through regular contact over a period of time" (Pan London Standard); "a process by which an older and more experienced person takes a younger person under his/her wing, freely offering advice, support and encouragement. The older person (the mentor) becomes among other things, a role model who inspires the younger person (the mentee)" (North London College). "Mentors are people who through their actions and work, help others to achieve their potential" (Shea, GF); "A mentor is someone who helps another person on a one to one basis, usually younger, through an important transition" (The DIVERT Trust); "A mentor is many things - a positive role model, an adviser, an experienced friend. Somebody from outside a person's immediate circle taking a special interest can make an enormous difference."(Excellence in Schools, 1997).
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