This landed in my mailbox this morning. A chapter out of “Think and Grow Rich.” Can you relate? I can…Not very proud of it, but, yes…I can.

“FIFTY-FIVE” FAMOUS ALIBIS

By Old Man IF

People who do not succeed have one distinguishing trait in common. They know all the reasons for failure, and have what they believe to be air-tight alibis to explain away their own lack of achievement.

Some of these alibis are clever, and a few of them are justifiable by the facts. But alibis cannot be used for money. The world wants to know only one thing-HAVE YOU ACHIEVED SUCCESS?

A character analyst compiled a list of the most commonly used alibis. As you read the list, examine yourself carefully, and determine how many of these alibis, if any, are your own property. Remember, too, the philosophy presented in this book makes every one of these alibis obsolete.

IF I didn’t have a wife and family . . .

IF I had enough “pull” . . .

IF I had money . . .

IF I had a good education . . .

IF I could get a job . . .

IF I had good health . . .

IF I only had time . . .

IF times were better . . .

IF other people understood me . . .

IF conditions around me were only different . . .

IF I could live my life over again . . .

IF I did not fear what “THEY” would say . . .

IF I had been given a chance . . .

IF I now had a chance . . .

IF other people didn’t “have it in for me” . . .

IF nothing happens to stop me . . .

IF I were only younger . . .

IF I could only do what I want . . .

IF I had been born rich . . .

IF I could meet “the right people” . . .

IF I had the talent that some people have . . .

IF I dared assert myself . . .

IF I only had embraced past opportunities . . .

IF people didn’t get on my nerves . . .

IF I didn’t have to keep house and look after the children. . .

IF I could save some money . . .

IF the boss only appreciated me . . .

IF I only had somebody to help me . . .

IF my family understood me . . .

IF I lived in a big city . . .

IF I could just get started . . .

IF I were only FREE . . .

IF I had the personality of some people . . .

IF I were not so fat . . .

IF my talents were known . . .

IF I could just get a “break” . . .

IF I could only get out of debt . . .

IF I hadn’t failed  . . .

IF I only knew how . . .

IF everybody didn’t oppose me . . .

IF I didn’t have so many worries . . .

IF I could marry the right person . . .

IF people weren’t so dumb . . .

IF my family were not so extravagant . . .

IF I were sure of myself . . .

IF luck were not against me . . .

IF I had not been born under the wrong star . . .

IF it were not true that “what is to be will be” . . .

IF I did not have to work so hard . . .

IF I hadn’t lost my money . . .

IF I lived in a different neighborhood . . .

IF I didn’t have a “past” . . .

IF I only had a business of my own . . .

IF other people would only listen to me . . .

IF  * * * and this is the greatest of them all * * * I had the courage to see myself as I really am, I would find out what is wrong with me, and correct it, then I might have a chance to profit by my mistakes and learn something from the experience of others, for I know that there is something WRONG with me, or I would now be where I WOULD HAVE BEEN IF I had spent more time analyzing my weaknesses, and less time building alibis to cover them.

Building alibis with which to explain away failure is a national pastime. The habit is as old as the human race, and is fatal to success!  Why do people cling to their pet alibis? The answer is obvious. They defend their alibis because THEY CREATE them! A man’s alibi is the child of his own imagination. It is human nature to defend one’s own brain-child.

Building alibis is a deeply rooted habit. Habits are difficult to break, especially when they provide justification for something we do. Plato had this truth in mind when he said, “The first and best victory is to conquer self. To be conquered by self is, of all things, the most shameful and vile.”

Another philosopher had the same thought in mind when he said, “It was a great surprise to me when I discovered that most of the ugliness I saw in others, was but a reflection of my own nature.”

“It has always been a mystery to me,” said Elbert Hubbard, “why people spend so much time deliberately fooling themselves by creating alibis to cover their weaknesses. If used differently, this same time would be sufficient to cure the weakness, then no alibis would be needed.”

In parting, I would remind you that “Life is a checkerboard, and the player opposite you is TIME. If you hesitate before moving, or neglect to move promptly, your men will be wiped off the board by TIME. You are playing against a partner who will not tolerate INDECISION!”

If I Had to Start All Over Again I’d Use Robots…

Click on the image below and listen to Mike Dillard giving very valuable advise. Mike is expanding on this question from yesterday.

Don’t miss this! These two videos are the best I’ve ever seen from Mike…and I’ve seen quite a few.

Jerry Chen (BuildAMagneticNetwork.com) flew to Austin last week to do an interview with Mike Dillard of Magnetic Sponsoring. He asked Mike the question, “What would you do if you had to start over from scratch?” Watch the video below to find out Mike’s answers.

This is a high-value video. The information it contains is absolutle priceless. No matter wether you are a newbie to the network marketing industry or a seasoned networker you need to watch this. Have a pen and paper handy and take notes. I know you’ll come away with some great gold nuggets like I did.

I think the two biggest things you’ll take away from it, are…

1: What Mike Dillard would do if he had to start all over again from scratch.

2: The 3 steps that have allowed him to go from waiting tables, to building an 8-figure business, while most of the competition failed or quit.

Mike Dillard is a person who does whatever it takes to succeed. He knew his weaknesses in the early days of his career and he took the necessary measures to correct them. Not everyone would go to the extreme like he did, but  the experiences he gained through it made him the successful entrepreneur he is today.

Click the screenshot to watch the video and find out some of his secrets to success. (Please be patient while it loads. It’s a big file.)

If you are new to network marketing or internet marketing, Magnetic Sponsoring is where you should start. 7 FREE videos  give you a taste of what the MagneticSponsoring Course is all about.

If you can’t keep your tweets to the 140 character maximum like me sometimes, then there’s help. Twerbose is a neat little twitter plugin that lets you post longer tweets (up to 500 characters) and also allows you to add pictures or youtube videos.

Sometimes 140 characters just aren’t enough for what you want to say. With Twerbose that’s no problem. You can even choose to set your tweets as public or private (friends only.)

So, here you have it:

• Post massive tweets easily
• Share photos and videos on Twitter
• Comment on other people’s massive tweets
• Optional advanced wysiwig editing
• Add YouTube videos to your tweets
• Control tweet privacy
• iPhone friendly!

Pretty cools stuff, huh?

Here’s a screenshot.

Happy Tweeting!

My post from yesterday talked about the “WHY.” Here’s another one. I hope it inspires you…

Who said the road to the top was going to be easy? Heck no, it’s definitely not. Au contraire mon ami. It’s actually pretty tough and only the strong will get there. Only the strong, the dedicated, the ones who know their real WHY will reach the top because those are the ones that will not quit until they get there.

Success doesn’t come without hard work. It doesn’t come without commitment either. Nor does it come without drive and determination. You have to overcome incredible obsticals sometimes and you may even have to give up things that are very precious to you in order to reach your final goal and get what you really want.

There will be many heartaches and many rough spots. You will feel like quitting many times, but it will be your WHY that will keep you  going.

If you have dream, if you know exactly what you want out of life, don’t let go of it until you achieve it. Don’t let anyone cloud your vision, don’t let anyone talk you out of it or steer you into another direction. Hang on tightly. Keep your dream alive and don’t quit until you are there. You may have to swim through a sea of no’s. You may have to overcome many obstacles. But you will get there at the end if you don’t give up.

Rocky is one of my favorite movies, but I didn’t know the story behind it until just now. I didn’t know about the unbelievable obstacles Sly, Sylvester Stallone had to overcome until the movie was made. Listen to Tony Robbins tell the story about “Rocky.” It will truly inspire you.

Click here to watch and listen to the story of “Rocky.”

If you are in the network marketing or direct sales industry you’ve probably been told by your sponsor to establish your WHY, the reason you are doing whatever it is you are doing. You’ve got to have the desire. You’ve got to have passion. You’ve got to dream and you’ve got to believe you can do it. It is very important to find out what your WHY is, because there will be times when things get tough, when you get frustrated and discouraged. And if your WHY isn’t strong enough you might not have the drive to go through when things get rough.

A little while ago a heard the story about that dog sitting on the porch howling.

There was a salesman going door to door in that neighborhood and there were dogs on just about every front porch. They would all bark as the man walked by, but this one particular dog would just sit there whimpering and whining and howling like he was in some kind of pain. Everytime the man walked by that dog would be whining and howling. He couldn’t figure out why he wasn’t barking like all the othere dogs. So after a week or so he just couldn’t stand it any longer and he walked up to the porch and knocked on the door. An older gentleman came out and asked if he could help him. The man said, “Sir, there’s something wrong with your dog? Every time I come by he’s just moaning and groaning, whimpering and whining for an entire week. He should be barking like all the other dogs on the street, but all he does is just moaning and groaning. What’s wrong with him?” The owner said, “Well, he’s actually sitting on a nail. “  The man said, “Why is he sitting on a nail and why doesn’t he just get off?”  The owner replied, “Well, it just doesn’t hurt him bad enough.”

A lot of us get caught up in that situation. We’re sitting on a nail, but it doesn’t hurt bad enough. Our situation doesn’t make us uncomfortable enough to do something about it. To change things. But if our WHY is strong enough, if we really want it with every fiber of our being, it will move us off of that nail. Think about YOUR WHY. Better yet, write it down. Studies show that if we are just thinking about something, we have a 50/50 chance of accomplishing whatever we think about. However if we think about it and then write it down it jumps up to 75%. If we think about it, write it down and then tell somebody else that jumps up to 85%. Pretty powerful, huh? So make sure you write it down.

Why are you doing the business that you are doing?

_ Is it to pay off a car?
_ Pay off credit cards?
_ Buy a house?
_ Send your kids to college?
_ Bring your wife home to be with your children?
_ Quit your job?

If your reason is big enough, powerful enough it will move you off of that nail.

If you want something bad enough … go get it!

When I was in grade school in Germany I wanted to take an English language class that was offered as an extra curriculum class. (Back then English and French weren’t part of the curriculum like they are now.) The Beatles just started to get real popular and I wanted to understand what they were singing. Since I had to have the permission of my teacher to take that class I went to ask her if she would allow me to go. Here’s what she told me, “Ilka,” she said, “I’m sorry but I can’t give you permission to take that class. Your grades in German are so bad you will never make it. You’ll never learn English. You can’t even speak German properly.” (Well, who at the age of 10 really does?)

I was crushed. Twice a week my friends would take “Walter & Connie” classes and I couldn’t go with them. So I saved up the money for the audio lessons – they came in the old 45 records back then – and taught myself. After I had the basics down I started translating Beatles songs with the help of a dictionary. And after that, I bought every English language book I could find in the bookstores of my hometown. I looked up the words I didn’t know in my dictionary and just kept going.  With each and every book I got better. That teacher couldn’t stop me. I was bound and determined to learn English … and I did! What’s funny is, that years later when I met my husband (he was stationed in my hometown), he had me spell-check his letters to his mom before he mailed them home.

Here’s a video of a few people you might know that didn’t take ‘no’ for an answer either. They tackled that thing that couldn’t be done and they did it!

“If you never failed you never lived”

P.S. Also see my post below … “It couldn’t be done”

A Poem by Edgar A. Guest

Somebody said that it couldn’t be done,
But he with a chuckle replied
That “maybe it couldn’t,” but he would be one
Who wouldn’t say so till he’d tried.
So he buckled right in with the trace of a grin
On his face. If he worried he hid it.
He started to sing as he tackled the thing
That couldn’t be done, and he did it.

Somebody scoffed: “Oh, you’ll never do that;
At least no one ever has done it”;
But he took off his coat and he took off his hat,
And the first thing we knew he’d begun it.
With a lift of his chin and a bit of a grin,
Without any doubting or quiddit,
He started to sing as he tackled the thing
That couldn’t be done, and he did it.

There are thousands to tell you it cannot be done,
There are thousands to prophesy failure;
There are thousands to point out to you, one by one,
The dangers that wait to assail you.
But just buckle in with a bit of a grin,
Just take off your coat and go to it;
Just start to sing as you tackle the thing
That “cannot be done,” and you’ll do it.