RISK AND COMMITMENT

Do affirmations and visualization work. Yes, if you are already successful in that affirmation. No, if you are not. You can not lie to yourself over and over and think you are fooling your mind into believing it. Your mind knows what you are doing and why. What does work is asking yourself the right questions. Answer with truthful answers. Better questions equal better results. Practice.

Everyone has worries unless they are a psychopath. We can never get rid of worry, but we can learn to manage and control its effects on us. This is how I learned the most effective techniques to manage worry. It's from the most beneficial course I have ever taken.

Many people will make promises and false claims just to make you feel happy. This makes you admire them and builds their egos at a dangerous cost to you. If you rely on this Happy Talk you could make very costly decisions that fall flat. Do your research and always get any promises in writing.

Usually the problem people have is a lack of total commitment to their goals or the RISK they have chosen but sometimes we can over commit to a plan of action that is not at all justified by the level of risk involved.

The greatest power in the universe is that of compounding. It works for good just as it does for evil. The problem is that the forces of evil are easy to allow to compound whereas to compound good requires consistent effort. Listen to the story of the tortoise and the Hare. Slow and Steady wins the race.

Once again I learn the importance of treating everyone with respect as if they were the most important person you know. You NEVER know what impact that may have in the future. You can not treat others with respect without having respect for yourself at the same time. A gift that keeps giving back to you.

Many times companies are too quick to tell customers what they will not do instead of trying to see if they can accommodate the request and keep the customer happy. Of course this is very important for larger repeat customers but the principle also applies to small retail sales and services. So don't be so quick to tell people, "we don't do that here." Stanley Diaz

The fool drives like a maniac cutting people off and constantly tailgating the car in front of them. People think that by driving up close to the bumper of the car in front of them they will somehow get where they are going sooner. Precision driving means looking beyond the cars in front of you and picking the best overall lane to be in. Driving in the city you can not go faster than the speed of the traffic lights. If you are very aggressive and manage to make one light or two before it turns red you are not going to get anywhere faster than a minute sooner most of the time. Take it easy and drive smart not like a neurotic.

Happiness is not pleasure. I only comes when you work at it and sacrifice now for a better future. There is more to happiness than what most people think. It is never easy, because it can not be. Years ago I would never have understood how to become happy. Instead it came on its own.

This episode is about the importance of improving yourself and less on expecting the government to solve our personal or even national problems. Improve yourself and the world will improve with you.

Sometimes the best way to advance above the competition is to Leapfrog over them to a hire level. But only if you are prepared and able to offer full Commitment to your business. Unless you are able to take on every major problem as if it is a life or death situation, your mind wont be able to find an answer. Focus only on what you can do and not on what others claim to have done better.

Confrontation. Its something we all want to avoid whenever possible but many times it is just what we need in our lives. We almost always find out that we are stronger than we think we are when faced with a challenge. But avoiding a nagging situation or personal confrontation it continues to eat away at us inside. You may think that eventually the issue will pass as the years go by but the loss in productivity you suffer each day until then diminishes your performance each and every day in between. Its hard but we can do it. Sometimes a little at a time if possible. Stanley Diaz Riskandcommitment@gmail.com

Not geting enough sleep will retard your mind's abillity to think. What does it mean to "Think", in the first place? I learned a graphic example of the effects of lack of sleep on the abillity to think at a late night job for two weeeks.

So often people think that they can instantly change complex parts of society with laws governing race, climate, equality of outcomes, and so many social causes without being appreciative of what those same institutions have provided based on many years of very complex evolution. If you want to improve society start with the individual. Start with you and then it will be so much easier for the world to improve with you.

Every obstacle can be a great opportunity in life but only if we take ACTION. The problem is that even though we know what action we need to take or what action we need to avoid, our minds will talk us out of it within the first few seconds of thinking aboout it. One way to overcome this weakness of will is to count down within the first 5 seconds and burst into action. Once you have started moving it is much easier to continue. Stanley Diaz

This true story tells the importance of being honest in all your dealings. It is impossible to cheat someone without cheating yourself at the same time. This will hold you back. Allways get your monkey with a chain. Stanley Diaz

This is a short introduction in how I got into the rental real estate business. Most great fortunes involve real estate but it can be a hard business as well. The advantage to it is that almost anyone can get real estate and eventually grow wealthy. I did. I could have done it a whole lot better but atleast i persevered and succeeded. Its something to think about.

Setting goals is very important IF they are aligned with your purpose in life. The key is to constantly ask yourself better and better questions. Asking better questions is more important than the answers you may have at the time. Eventually the right questions will get you the answers you need. Stanley Diaz

Taking well thought out risks is essential to success in life. Taking foolish risks with a tremendous potential for harm and only marginal benefits can be a disaster. My father would always say "never take an avoidable risk". This is an example of when I failed to heed that advice and literally ended up in hot water. Stanley Diaz

How do you handle the competition? It is only human nature to want to condemn the other guys as a warning to your potential customer. This is not a good idea. Don't ever do it. Instead point out with specific examples why you are the best choice. Even if the competition may do the same thing, stress the fact that you offer this or that as if you are the only one. Be a professional. Stanley Diaz

When I was a young teenager I was self-conscious about my height and as most people do, I tried to compensate for it by making fun of someone who was shorter than myself. That plan backfired one day when I tried to use it on the wrong person. We all increase our stature in life by the Commitments we have made and the Risks taken to build a better world, inch by inch. Stanley Diaz

It is a common weakness among people to assume after some early success that they are indeed experts at the art of business. This leads them to take excessively large Risks that endanger the whole operation and sometimes their own health and wellbeing. Slow and Steady wins the race. When you decide to take a Risk ask yourself how much Commitment are you able to put behind it safely and consistently. Stanley Diaz

There are many times in life when the thought of trying to achieve against insurmountable odds keeps us from trying at all. We are intimidated by the thought of trying to win at a quest that is way out of our league. So we don't enter the competition. We don't ask for the promotion or start our own business. We are intimidated by the prospects of failure and don't even try. But when there is much to be be gained by trying and only some hurt pride if you fail, Never give in to INTIMIDATION. Stanley Diaz

The old saying "never judge a book by it's cover" is especially true with people. I have learned many times that you never can truly tell what value someone may provide to you now or in the future. You must ALWAYS treat everyone you meet as the most important person you know. Even if it seems obvious that they are not of any great value to you. Paying them respect is like planting seeds. You never know what fruits they may produce many years from now. Stanley Diaz

All people are in business for themselves. No matter who you are you still have a product or service that you want to sell to someone else. If you are an artist then your product is competing against all other forms of art that consume the public attention. Even if you are giving away money to charity there is still a need to seek out the best cause to support and convince that cause that accepting your money is in line with their values. Education is the key to accomplishing your objectives most effectively with the fewest setbacks or "hard Knocks". So when education is pouring down from the sky like soup, be sure you are ready to get some for yourself.

Acquiring a lot of money or fame is not success. These are only tools you can use to build a successful life. Having more tools without the skill or vision of how to use them will not make you a better craftsman. The tools will come naturally to the person who is best able to use them. I give examples of people I have known and try to judge how successful they seem to be to me.

This is a podcast for Entrepreneurs and all persons just wanting to be the best they can in life.  Instead of generic admonitions such as, be honest, have goals, be responsible, etc. This podcast is based on true life stories of small successes and failures and how I learned from them over many years.  It is based on my career in the security alarm business, but don't think it only applies to that field.  I have owned many businesses in my life and what I learned has been used in all of them.  Four security companies, wholesale distribution, a carwash, many years of real-estate investing , and more have proven to me the value of each lesson I have learned.  I hope you will too.  Stanley Diaz