Daily Inspiration 10-21-11

"You can start right where you stand and apply

the habit of going the extra mile by rendering more

service and better service than you are now being paid for."

-- Napoleon Hill

In my early 20's as I began my career, I had the distinct privilege to study some of the greatest words written for business and success. Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill, How To Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie, How I Raised Myself From Failure To Success In Selling by Frank Bettger, The Greatest Miracle in the World by Og Mandino, The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, The Magic of Thinking Big by David J Schwartz, The Magic of Believing by Claude M Bristol and many more.

All of these and others were about being of service, doing more than you get paid to do, looking out for the best interests of the customer, believing in yourself. As I eagerly embraced these concepts, the reality of the places that I worked made what I learned ideals though they were never meant to be such. They were all giving practical advise learned from personal and tried experience and experimentation.

As I tried to live my life according to many of these things, there were so many distractions that I began to lose sight of what I believed to be true and these ideals became harder to reconcile.

Not one company that I worked for adopted these basic truths about going the extra mile and giving more than paid for and so on. Oh, there were bits here and there, but the philosophy was changing with the wind so much of the time.

All of this is an advantage to me now in business for myself. I now get to see if I can live my now business life as I wanted to in my 20's. It's been almost four years now and I feel like I would have to say that, yes, we are living it. Does that mean we don't make mistakes? Absolutely not. But, I don't look at them as mistakes, but an opportunity to learn, grow and improve.

I gave up on trying to change all those companies I worked for and let them that are still in business do as they may, and I am very pleased that I've taken the challenge to fulfill these so called ideals as a leader in my business.

I love all of my clients, even those that have been challenging. They cause us to rise above and expand and develop and become more, and to provide even better service or communication. We try very hard to develop great relationships with all of our clients, including those that have left us for one reason or another. That's the way love is, and love is very much a part of what we do.

To be able to do these things makes me feel wonderful.

Pause On Your Ideals If You Must, But Don't Give Up.

Spread Some Joy Today--Fundamentals don't change. Take joy in that.