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Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich is full of timeless lessons.

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“Thoughts are things” is the title and the first words of the first chapter of the book.

When I first read those words, I didn’t really understand what they meant – even when I read the first chapter and the examples offered in Napoleon Hill’s classic Think and Grow Rich. It didn’t resonate until I got to the end of the chapter and read, “Whatever the mind of man can conceive, and believe, it can achieve.” Then I started to get it. That was 1972.

By coincidence, it was only a few days later that I heard the late, great Earl Nightingale say, “You become what you think about.” At that moment, I got it. It clicked. And it has clicked ever since then.

More reading and studying about thinking and the thought process revealed that neither Hill nor Nightingale had the original thought.

From Socrates to Samuel Smiles, to Orison Swett Marden, to Elbert Hubbard, to Dale Carnegie, to Napoleon Hill, to Earl Nightingale, to Jim Rohn – they all had their own way of saying THE SAME thing.

Your thinking becomes your actions. And it’s those dedicated, well-planned, and directed actions that lead to your outcomes. Your reality. Better stated, your success.

All of these legendary scholars can’t be wrong.

All of them told me in their writings – the same way I’m telling you – that positive thought leads to positive actions and positive results, if the aim and the purpose are passionately believed.

Orison Swett Marden’s book, He Who Thinks He Can, written in 1908, says it in the title. It’s plain as day right on the cover of his book. It was Marden, by the way, that FOUNDED Success Magazine in 1888.

Hill’s title THINK and GROW RICH tells you first you gotta THINK! Your thinking will affect your BELIEF, your belief will help you create your MAJOR PURPOSE, your major purpose will clarify your DIRECTED ACTIONS, and your actions, combined with your DESIRE, your DEDICATION, and your DETERMINATION will determine your WEALTH.
First THINK, then GROW RICH.

Got it? Sure you do. Getting it, that’s the easy part. First you get it, you understand it THEN you agree with it. Easy so far. THEN the harder part, you have to believe you can do it. You have to THINK YOU CAN. Finally, the HARDEST part is you have to be willing to TAKE ACTION! Do it! That’s chapter one. Read it lately?

The rest of Think and Grow Rich contains the ideas, the definitions, and the clarifications that provide the ANSWERS. Hill describes it as the roadmap to riches. I’m telling you, it’s the most important success thinking you’ll ever be exposed to – as long as you repeat it until it becomes your reality.

But I have to stop here and clarify the book. Think and Grow Rich, and Hill’s writing, is not written in today’s language. There are no references to computers, email, the web, Facebook, social media, credit cards, or even television. Because none of those things existed when Hill penned this classic self-help book. Yet somehow the book has managed to sell more than 100 MILLION copies over the past seven decades.

To receive all the wealth in the book, you have to get over the fact Think and Grow Rich was written 70 years ago. As a country, we were fresh out of the Depression and the stock market crash of 1929. World War II was in full swing, the mood of the country was nervous, and Napoleon Hill – and his colleague Dale Carnegie – were screaming, “Make friends, be positive, believe in yourself, be influential, develop a goal and a plan, articulate yourself clearly, dedicate yourself to excellence, take directed action, and encourage others to do the same.” Pretty cool, eh?

These books aren’t 70 years old, rather they were 70 years ahead of their time. Maybe that’s why Hill’s Think and Grow Rich and Carnegie’s How to Win Friends & Influence People have been on bestseller lists for 70 years.

The first chapter ends the same way it began. With one sentence of immortal wisdom. “Whatever the mind of man can conceive, and believe, it can achieve.”

I’m sharing this information today in the hopes you will read or re-read this timeless classic. Rededicate yourself to YOUR best thinking (first), so you can do your best for others (second).

That’s the secret! Please tell everyone.

Reprinted with permission from Jeffrey H. Gitomer and Buy Gitomer.

About the Author

Jeffrey GitomerJeffrey Gitomer is the author of The Sales Bible, Customer Satisfaction is Worthless Customer Loyalty is Priceless, The Little Red Book of Selling, The Little Red Book of Sales Answers, The Little Black Book of Connections, The Little Gold Book of YES! Attitude, The Little Green Book of Getting Your Way, The Little Platinum Book of Cha-Ching, The Little Teal Book of Trust, The Little Book of Leadership, and Social BOOM! His website, www.gitomer.com, will lead you to more information about training and seminars, or email him personally at [email protected].

The Advisor’s Corner – How do I ask for a raise or promotion?

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How do I ask for a raise or promotion?Question:

How do I ask for a raise or promotion?

StrategyDriven Response: (by Roxi Hewertson, StrategyDriven Principal Contributor)

Think about it this way – you lose nothing by advocating for the pay and position you deserve. If the answer you receive is ‘no,’ then you’ll be right where you are now except you will know a lot more about whether or not you should stay.

Reframe your thinking. While you certainly have everything to do with the way the job is being done, there is more. When you take the emotion out of it, you will be talking to your boss about the business value of the job you are doing. This can help the conversation to be data driven vs. personal.

5 TIPS to Help You Self-advocate

1. Know yourself. Make sure you are 100% sure the job you are doing IS actually a great job. Ask for feedback about what you are doing well and what you can do better from your boss, peers, customers, and if you have them, direct reports. Write down what they say and keep a log. Another part of knowing yourself is knowing what you are and are not willing to do for that promotion. Are the hours longer, is there travel, do you have to manage others? All of these factors will impact your life. So consider what matters most to you.

2. Know your stuff. Make sure your work is truly adding value to your company/organization and be prepared to prove it. Speak to your results – behavioral and business. Your behaviors are critical to your success. Do you ‘play well with others?’ What about your business results? Answering the questions about your behavior and business results will help you think clearly about what data you need to collect.

3. Know your people. Make sure you know how your boss needs to hear and see things. Does he/she like just the facts, conceptual framework, objectivity, ideas? If you don’t know, you’re missing the train. HOW you ask is as important as WHAT you ask. This includes timing. Don’t have this conversation in the midst of a crisis, on Friday afternoon, or just before you or your boss go on vacation. Have it when you are prepared, he/she has a heads up (bosses don’t like surprises) that you’d like to discuss changes/new expectations/results in your role.

4. Know your system. Make sure you know how and when your organization allows for raises. Is there a new job description needed? Is there a pay scale system that can back you up? Are raises only given once a year or are there bonuses, etcetera? Talk to your HR people to learn what is possible in your system.

5. Know your options. Make sure you are aware of your and your job’s value in the market place. Search Salary.com, Glassdoor.com and job sites like Monster.com, Snagajob.com for a similar job to yours or the job you want to be doing. Identify the education/experience/competencies needed to be qualified, and then do some ‘mining’ of the data that’s out there on the internet. You now have even more objective data to include if it supports your request.

Finally, if you feeling undervalued, ask yourself why you feel this way. Is it your relationship with your boss or is it the job or is it the pay or some combination? Sometimes we confuse these. Getting objective will help. When you know the answers and have collected your data, you are ready to change what needs to change – your pay, your title, your boss, your job, your company, or… yourself.

About the Author

Leadership authority Roxana (Roxi) Hewertson is a no-nonsense business veteran revered for her nuts-and-bolts, tell-it-like-it-is approach and practical, out-of-the-box insights that help both emerging and expert managers, executives and owners boost quantifiable job performance in various mission critical facets of business. Through AskRoxi.com, Roxi — “the Dear Abby of Leadership” — imparts invaluable free advice to managers and leaders at all levels, from the bullpen to the boardroom, to help them solve problems, become more effective and realize a higher measure of business and career success.

The StrategyDriven website was created to provide members of our community with insights to the actions that help create the shared vision, focus, and commitment needed to improve organizational alignment and accountability for the achievement of superior results. We look forward to answering your strategic planning and tactical business execution questions. Please email your questions to [email protected].

The Big Picture of Business – Communications Reflect Your Strategy

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The biggest problem with our business in our society, in a capsule sentence: People with one set of experiences, values, wants and perceptions make mis-targeted attempts to communicate with others in trying to get what they want and need.

Success is just in front of our faces. Yet, we often fail to see it coming. Too many companies live with their heads in the sand. Many go down into defeat because it was never on their radar to change.

One of the biggest cop-outs that businesses in denial use is the term Messaging. They say, “We’re in the right business. We only need to improve our messaging.” That’s a rationalization to avoid confronting key strategic issues.

7 Biggest Communication Obstacles:

  1. Lack of people skills, manners
  2. Wrong facts
  3. Denial-avoidance of the real issues
  4. Non-communication
  5. Saying the wrong things at the wrong times, for the wrong reasons
  6. Failure to pick up subtle clues
  7. Failure to master communication as an art

7 Levels of Communicating:

  1. Sending out messages we wish-need to communicate.
  2. Sending messages which are intended for the listener.
  3. Communicating with many people at the same time.
  4. Eliciting feedback from audiences.
  5. Two-way communication process.
  6. Adapting and improving communications with experience.
  7. Developing communications as a vital tool of business and life.

Lack of communication is symptomatic of fear, which is the biggest handicap for any company. Because of fear, productivity suffers, turnover increases and profitability drops. There are four main fears in the business environment:

  • Reprisal. This includes disciplining, termination, transfer to an undesirable position. When employees fear reprisal, more effort is spent on affixing blame to others than achieving pro-active progress.
  • Communication. Rather than risk going out on a limb, employees either don’t learn or use their communication skills. This stymies employees’ professional development and hampers company productivity.
  • Not knowing. Rather than admit areas where information is lacking, employees often cover up, disseminating erroneous data, which comes back to hurt others. The wise employee has the building of knowledge a part of their career path… sharing with others what we most recently and most effectively learn.
  • Change. Managers and employees with the most to lose are most fearful of change. Their biggest fear is the unknown. Research shows that 90% of change is good. If people knew how beneficial that change is, they would not fight it so much.

Each member of the organization should understand and covet the position they play. It is just as important how, when and why we communicate with each other:

  • Shows that the company is a seamless concept… an integrated team working for the good of customers.
  • Indicates sophistication by each representative… that every team player knows how to utilize each other for mutual benefit.
  • Reminds customers that the company is detail-focused and quality-oriented… with an eye toward continually improving.
  • Underscores how internal communications are comparable to the way we will interface with customers.

Pictures Convey Impressions, Symbolic of Corporate Culture.

One of the hottest and most accessible vehicles is the photograph. With cameras now on phones, people are snapping more pictures than ever before. Some get distributed on the internet, through social media and in direct transfer to friends.

This resurgence in photography comes after a conversion of the industry from film to digital. Photography is presently at an all-time high in terms of societal impact. The irony is that its principal corporate contributor (Eastman Kodak) fell by the wayside, a victim of changing technologies. The same fate had fallen the electronics industry, whose innovator (the Thomas Edison Electric Company) fell behind others in leading the trends and usage.

Photographs convey thoughts, ideas and experiences. Hopefully, their usages represent thoughtful communications. Organizations can see photography as a boon to their business, if utilized properly.

Every business person and company needs a website and social media presence. Photographs convey what you’re doing new. They’re indicative of the scope of your business activity.

Use photography to personify the company. Pictures draw relationships to the customers. Think of creative ways to show employees doing great work. Show customers as benefiting from the services that you offer.

Most companies would do well to devote a portion of its homepage to its charitable involvements. Show employees as being engaged in community activities. Promote and graphically portray your company’s designated cause-related marketing activities. Interface with outside communities tends to grow your stakeholder base.

Don’t just view photography as something that everyone does. Establish company ground rules for the usage of pictures. Tie activities to customer outcomes (the tenet of Customer Focused Management).

Nourish Communications Skills

It is important to generate ideas and suggestions via writing memos, E-mail messages and internal documents. Their succinctness and regularity of issue have a direct relationship to your compensation and the company’s bottom line.

Before presenting ideas to a customer or prospect, consider organizing your approach:

  • Predict reasons why someone might oppose your suggestions.
  • Seek out supporters, early-on.
  • Determine goals. Is the objective to get the idea accepted or get credit for it?
  • Understand your audience. Understand differing personality types of your audiences.
  • Think of yourselves as leaders, who are good communicators.
  • Listen as others amplify upon the idea, which shows their buy-in potential.
  • Determine as much accuracy in others’ perceptions to your ideas. Don’t fool yourself or be blind-sighted to opposition.
  • Throw out decoy ideas for others to shoot down, so they don’t attack your core message.
  • Use language that is easily understood by all. Avoid technical terms, unless you include brief definitions.
  • Don’t over-exaggerate in promises and predictions.

Other pointers in effectively communicating include:

  • Speak with authority.
  • Make the most of face-to-face meetings, rather than through artificial barriers.
  • Remember that voice inflection, eye contact and body language are more important than the words you use.
  • Charts, graphs and illustrative materials make more impact for your points.
  • Don’t assume anything. If in doubt about their understanding, ask qualifying questions. Become a better listener.
  • Sound the best on the phone that you can.
  • Use humor successfully.
  • Get feedback. Validate that audiences have heard your intended messages.
  • Attitude is everything in effective communications.

About the Author

Power Stars to Light the Business Flame, by Hank Moore, encompasses a full-scope business perspective, invaluable for the corporate and small business markets. It is a compendium book, containing quotes and extrapolations into business culture, arranged in 76 business categories.

Hank’s latest book functions as a ‘PDR of business,’ a view of Big Picture strategies, methodologies and recommendations. This is a creative way of re-treading old knowledge to enable executives to master change rather than feel as they’re victims of it.

Power Stars to Light the Business Flameis now out in all three e-book formats: iTunes, Kindle, and Nook.

Three Ways to Overcome Your Fear of Making Prospecting Calls

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Feeling happy and fulfilled at work is essential to our overall success. Many sales people are required to make proactive prospecting calls, and it can be one of the most intimidating aspects of their job. However, having the fear of making the call is nothing to be embarrassed about. In fact, Shannon Goodson and George Dudley reported in their book Psychology of Sales Call Reluctance that 80 percent of new salespeople fail because of call reluctance, while 40 percent of veteran sales people stop prospecting because of it.

If you experience Sales Call Reluctance, you know that it can ruin how you feel about your job and it fills you with an instant sense of dread every time you go to pick up the phone. If you feel like this, you are experiencing one of the 12 types of Sales Call Reluctance. Not only can this affect your ability to succeed at your job, but it can also affect your overall sense of career satisfaction and fulfillment.

Unfortunately, our culture tends to stereotype salespeople in a negative way. Some people think of the sleazy over the top salesperson and this could not be further from the truth. The truth is that sales is a very noble profession and requires a specific set of skills. A good sales force is often the most important factor behind a company’s growth and success.

A surprising fact is that the number one carriers of Sales Call Reluctance are sales managers, sales trainers, and motivational speakers. This is not to say that everyone in this group carries sale call reluctance but you would surprised how easily this group can negatively influence those they are meant to inspire. For example, in a training a sales manager says, “We all know people hate talking to sales people” or “Get out and sell, but don’t be a salesperson!” They are instilling Role Rejection Sales Call Reluctance from the very beginning and fostering a sense of shame about selling. Role Rejection is highly contagious and the managers can be contaminating the very people they intend to inspire. We see this consistently within companies.

Here are three basic tips to overcoming your fear of making prospecting calls:

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About the Author

Connie KadanskyConnie Kadansky is a professional certified Sales Call Reluctance coach and President of Exceptional Sales Performance. She offers speaking, training, coaching and performance improvement services specifically addressing Sales Call Reluctance. She has a proven track record with diverse businesses, from entrepreneurs to Fortune 50 companies, both nationally and internationally. She credits her current status as a speaker to her longtime involvement with Toastmasters International and the National Speakers Association. Connie is a graduate of one of the most respected and accredited coaching schools, Adler School of Professional Coaching. She served as Vice President of Programs for the Phoenix Chapter of International Coaching Federation in 2011. For more information, please visit www.exceptionalsales.com.

6 Proven Tactics to Design an Effective Executive Healthcare Resume

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Crafting and writing a branded healthcare executive resume, that differs from the traditional medical resume, can make a significant difference in your executive job search results and improve the opportunities to land that next-level position in pharmaceutical, biotech and medical device industries.

The best Healthcare Executive Resumes outline human capital management, profitability successes, market share increases in addition to their impressive academic and association credentials that will generate the most calls for interviews. Successful leaders in Medical Affairs, Clinical Operations and Medical Scientific Liaison positions will use their resumes to market themselves as cross-functional leaders that have made an impact across many aspects of the business—not just the scientific areas. A successful healthcare executive resume will utilize visual impact, robust scientific content and measurable operational achievements to tell an impressive story.

The following six healthcare resume and job search tactics will help you obtain the results you seek:

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About the Author

Lisa Rangel is the Managing Director of Chameleon Resumes (www.chameleonresumes.com), an Executive Resume Writing and Job Search Service. She has been featured on BBC, Investor’s Business Daily, Forbes.com, Fox News, Yahoo Finance, US News, Good Morning America, and is a moderator for LinkedIn’s Job Seeker Premium Group. Follow her on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/ChameleonResumes