Podcast appearances and mentions of carter ferguson

Welcome to EP82 of Choose Film. It's time to grab you bob sleigh, learn to ride and protect that luck egg. We're joined by filmmaker, fight choreographer and fellow podcaster Carter Ferguson to discuss Cool Runnings. SynopsisFour Jamaican bobsleighers dream of competing in the Winter Olympics, despite never having seen snow. With the help of a disgraced former champion desperate to redeem himself, the Jamaicans set out to become worthy of Olympic selection, and go all out for gloryLinks in ConversationTwitter: @fight_director / @FilmProProdPodPodcast: https://www.filmproproductivity.com/podcastappsWebsite: fightdirector.com Creative RecommendationsThe Banshees of Inisherin | Comedy/Drama ‧ 1h 54m | Disney +Scottish tv show  - Dirty Waterhttps://www.imdb.com/title/tt15805766/March 1st 

In this episode teacher candidate Carter Ferguson interviews Kankakee school district teacher Vicki Anderson. Vicki shares how she came into the world of teaching and education and discusses her students resilience through the COVID-19 pandemic changes. Music by PrimiciaRD from Pixabay

As we approach All Saints Day, we want to pause to remember the Saints we’ve lost this year in our churches, in our communities and in our world.  The pandemic has impacted every aspect of our lives including death, dying and how we celebrate life and find ways grieve together. How do we balance sacred and safety in our rites surrounding death? Melissa McGill talks with Kay Morrison-Sanders, a cemetery bereavement counselor and lay member of St. Mark’s United Methodist in Charlotte and the Rev. Carter Ferguson, who pastors Prospect UMC in Archdale and Pleasant Hill UMC in Thomasville. Visit our website for Phase 3 Guidelines and other COVID-19 related resources. Find the Prayer Meditation for All Saints Day in Discipleship Ministries liturgical resources.

Graeme Gherashe and Diana McLaren host this week's episode as we chat to three more locals and hear more of our hilarious local Kids' Jokes!Diana opens the episode chatting to local musician LEO about life during the lockdown, living a minimal life on the road and making new music. LEO is an acoustic folk singer-songwriter who has performed at countless venues and events including the iconic Heritage Hotel Bulli and Falls Festival Byron Bay. She is now working on her first EP.Cameron McDonald is a lawyer at one of our founding Community Partner's, Carter Ferguson. He is also chair of Kiama Business Chamber, a member of the Destination Kiama board and a passionate supporter of local initiatives such as the Man Walk and the Fathering Project. He talks to presenter Perrie Croshaw about leaving Kiama to travel the world, returning home and supporting local business through the challenges of COVID-19.Kate Mather from South Coast Experiences wraps up the episode. South Coast Experiences offers curated experiences for people looking to discover the best of the area from unique activities to boutique accommodation, events and workshops. She talks to presenter Gabi Cabral about pivoting the business online and supporting small local businesses.

Hello and welcome back to another episode of Just like the Moon, the podcast that explores the different ways in which people overcome obstacles, find contentment and achieve overall wellbeing. Today we meet Mike Webster, a brilliantly talented film maker, amazing dad and honestly just one of the nicest guys I know. In this episode Mike talks about all sorts of thing, from his experience as a Dad, about his recent career choice to go freelance, how he's living through this lockdown and on how ultimately his wellbeing and self-care boil down to the ability to talk, to be honest and being aware that even making the smallest changes can truly help us feel better.To find out more about Mike's project you can visit his website Spiral Out Pictures: https://www.spiraloutpictures.com/In this Episode Mike also talks about a podcast by Carter Ferguson 'FILM PRO PRODUCTIVITY & SUCCESS' and in particular EPISODE 11 – Committing to a Twelve Week Year. You can listen to this podcast here : https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/achieving-your-goals-with-a-12-week-year-episode-11/id1434999938?i=1000423626799

Comments on Film Pro Productivity & Success? 888-563-3228 Description A solo productivity podcast presented by veteran professional fight director & filmmaker Carter Ferguson. If you are a creative person and would like to become more efficient and effective in your life and work, and ultimately more happy, then this is the show for you. Website https://www.filmproproductivity.com/ Opinion The intro was good and let me know what to expect, then you went into an admitted sidestep that was very long. I liked that you plugged the last episode, but you went into the weeds. When you say to yourself, "Let me get back to the episode" whatever you just said either needs to be deleted or moved towards the end of the show for the "super fans." I love the topic and vulnerability of your topic and it really pulled me. It lets me understand why you're doing the podcast. It wasn't horrible content, I would've just moved it to the end of the episode. Get A Full Review If you’d like a full review of your podcast, check out Podcast Review Show or if you need Podcast Consulting, Book an Appointment Today Get Your Podcast Reviewed Sign up at Fiverr. comGet a full review on the Podcast Review Show. Free Subscription to the Podcast Rodeo Show Subscribe to the show and never miss another episode on Google Podcasts and Apple Podcasts. For more options see www.podcastrodeoshow.com/subscribe Work With Me Start your podcast with a membership to the School of Podcasting, or let me be your podcast mentor and guide and work side by side.Find out more at https://podcast-rodeo.pinecast.co

This episode is sponsored by George Wensley   Hello and welcome to Film Pro Productivity, the podcast that helps film professionals and other creatives to live a more focused, effective and HAPPY life. My name is Carter Ferguson and this is EPISODE 45 – THE LAW OF SUCCESS IN 16 LESSONS: PART 6   This is the final episode of this special interconnected series within the series focusing on Napoleon Hill’s powerful book THE LAW OF SUCCESS IN 16 LESSONS. In whatever walk of life you are in, WANTING TO BE SUCCESSFUL is a universal theme that I felt vital to explore here on the show and this book based on Napoleon Hills own lecture tour I felt was the key to it’s delivery.   Now if you’ve not yet heard the previous shows on this topic then I’d strongly advise you to go back and listen to episodes 40 through 44 before listening to this one. Seriously, go back now and get listening, or you will not get the best out of this series.   The content in these shows has been my interpretation or direct quotation of NAPOLEON HILL’s words from the book with here and there a sprinkling of information gleaned from Hill’s later life. The main change I make in all of this is in neutralising the gender every now and again simply because I want to make the lessons as accessible for today’s audience as Hill intended it to be in 1928. As proven by Lesson 15, Hill was all about tolerance, equality and inclusion and he wouldn’t want his words of 1928 to be misinterpreted as something intolerant to the ear of a 21st century audience.   Before I proceed to THE GOLDEN RULE let me once again start with this.   WHATEVER THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE AND BELIEVE THE MIND CAN ACHIEVE. Now I’ve used this phrase to precede every lesson so far, but every chapter except LESSON 4 actually begins with these words "You Can Do It if You Believe You Can!" - I deliberately changed it to Hill’s later phrasing WHATEVER THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE AND BELIEVE THE MIND CAN ACHIEVE as I believe he would have wished it to be so. Bearing that in mind let me proceed to the 16th and final lesson in Napoleon Hill’s LAWS OF SUCCESS book. That which you do not wish for yourself, DO NOT IMPOSE ON OTHERS. Umar UNQUOTE   LESSON 16 - THE GOLDEN RULE: This lesson is the Guiding Star that will enable you to profitably and constructively use the KNOWLEDGE assembled in the preceding lessons.     This philosophy of THE GOLDEN RULE is simply this "DO UNTO OTHERS AS YOU WISH THEM TO DO UNTO YOU." Put another way DO UNTO OTHERS AS YOU WOULD WISH THEM TO DO UNTO YOU IF YOUR POSITIONS WERE REVERSED. Hill wants us to understand one thing very clearly here: That there is more power wrapped up in the previous lessons of this course than most could trust themselves with; therefore, this lesson is what Hill refers to as the - GOVERNOR – or LIMITER - that will enable YOU TO STEER YOURSELF SAFELY DOWN THE PATHWAY OF ALL THOSE WHO COME SUDDENLY INTO POSSESSION OF POWER. The rule is as old as time itself. It’s how we regulate our behaviour in civilised society and it’s the rock on which we build strength of character, as YOUR CHARACTER is but the sum total of your thoughts and deeds! Socrates said it this way DO NOT DO TO OTHERS what angers you IF DONE TO YOU BY OTHERS. Hill asks a question of this which you may have already been thinking and which those of us who just blindly accept such statements would not. He asks it as he has honed the art of accurate thinking within himself… The question he asks is why. WHY? What is the real reason for this kindly consideration of others?   His conclusion after years of study is this – That there is an eternal law which simply says WE REAP THAT WHICH WE SOW, also expressed as: AS YOU SOW, SO SHALL YOU REAP. In more modern speak we may say, WHAT GOES AROUND COMES AROUND or in simpler terms once again, THAT YOU MUST EVENTUALLY FACE THE CONSEQUENCES OF YOUR ACTIONS.     Hill states that not only is it advisable to “do unto others as you wish them to do unto you,” but to avail yourself fully of the benefits of this great Universal Law you must also “think of others as you wish them to think of you.” as the law upon which the Golden Rule is based begins affecting you, either for good or evil, the moment you release a thought. As usual here Hill gives many examples of this law in action but he also warns us that a passive attitude toward it will you bring no results; IT IS NOT ENOUGH, he says, merely to believe in this philosophy, while, at the same time, FAILING TO APPLY IT IN YOUR RELATIONSHIPS WITH OTHERS.   If you want results you must take an active attitude toward the Golden Rule. A mere passive attitude, represented by belief in its soundness, will simply do you no good. Richard Branson believes in this principle. He says “Play fair, be prepared for others to play dirty, and don't let them drag you into the mud.” Which is a pretty awesome line in the modern tongue. What Hill is doing in this lesson though is ensuring that our character remains sound. Perhaps you have wondered, he says, why the subject of honesty has not been mentioned in this course, as a prerequisite to success, and, if so, the answer will be found here in this lesson. The Golden Rule philosophy, when rightly understood and applied, makes dishonesty IMPOSSIBLE. It does more than this – it makes impossible all the other destructive qualities such as selfishness, greed, envy, bigotry, hatred and malice.   When you apply the Golden Rule, you become, at one and the same time, both the judge and the judged - the accused and the accuser. This places one in a position in which honesty begins in one’s own heart, toward one’s self, and extends to all others with equal effect.   He presents in this lesson A CODE OF ETHICS to allow us to more concretely embody the law on which the golden rule is based.   In full this reads as follows:   1. I believe in the Golden Rule as the basis of all human conduct; therefore, I will never do to another person that which I would not be willing for that person to do to me if our positions were reversed. 2. I will be honest, even to the slightest detail, in all my transactions with others, not alone because of my desire to be fair with them, but because of my desire to impress the idea of honesty on my own subconscious mind, thereby weaving this essential quality into my own character. 3. I will forgive those who are unjust toward me, with no thought as to whether they deserve it or not, because I understand the law through which forgiveness of others strengthens my own character and wipes out the effects of my own transgressions, in my subconscious mind. 4. I will be just, generous and fair with others always, even though I know that these acts will go unnoticed and unrecorded, in the ordinary terms of reward, because I understand and intend to apply the law through the aid of which one’s own character is but the sum total of one’s own acts and deeds. 5. Whatever time I may have to devote to the discovery and exposure of the weaknesses and faults of others I will devote, more profitably, to the discovery and correction of my own. 6. I will slander no person, no matter how much I may believe another person may deserve it, because I wish to plant no destructive suggestions in my own subconscious mind. 7. I recognize the power of Thought as being an inlet leading into my brain from the universal ocean of life; therefore, I will set no destructive thoughts afloat upon that ocean lest they pollute the minds of others. 8. I will conquer the common human tendency toward hatred, and envy, and selfishness, and jealousy, and malice, and pessimism, and doubt, and fear; for I believe these to be the seed from which the world harvests most of its troubles. 9. When my mind is not occupied with thoughts that tend toward the attainment of my definite chief aim in life, I will voluntarily keep it filled with thoughts of courage, and self-confidence, and goodwill toward others, and faith, and kindness, and loyalty, and love for truth, and justice, for I believe these to be the seed from which the world reaps its harvest of progressive growth. 10. I understand that a mere passive belief in the soundness of the Golden Rule philosophy is of no value whatsoever, either to myself or to others; therefore, I will actively put into operation this universal rule for good in all my transactions with others. 11. I understand the law through the operation of which my own character is developed from my own acts and thoughts; therefore, I will guard with care all that goes into its development. 12. Realizing that enduring happiness comes only through helping others find it; that no act of kindness is without its reward, even though it may never be directly repaid, I will do my best to assist others when and where the opportunity appears.   As Hill nears the end of this lesson and the book itself he raises the point that “There are people who believe that the Golden Rule philosophy is nothing more than a theory and that it is in no way connected with an immutable law.” Mike Michalowicz of ENTREPRENEURSHIP MADE SIMPLE, explains that IMMUTABLE LAWS are the rules of our lives. They define you. They define your business. They are a blend of ethics, core values and self-assigned law, all wrapped up into one. They are the rules we have defined for ourselves, almost subconsciously, on what is RIGHT and what is WRONG.   Here he touches upon something which I raised just a few weeks ago in my episode DON’T DO ME A FAVOUR - They have arrived at this conclusion, he says, because of personal experience wherein they rendered service to others without enjoying the benefits of direct reciprocation.   When I created that episode and DISCUSSED THE LAW OF RECIPROCITY, I didn’t know at the time that Napoleon Hill had ventured into the same territory so I’m going to give it a little time here. Hill says: How many are there who have rendered service to others that were neither reciprocated nor appreciated? I am sure that I have had such an experience, not once, but many times, and I am equally sure that I will have similar experiences in the future. I, however, will not discontinue rendering service to others merely because they neither reciprocate nor appreciate my efforts. This is quite interesting to me as I did at one point discontinue a service to someone to whom I passed work that I couldn’t do myself. I woke up one day though as I had received a complaint about them, following my recommendation, and I realised in that instant that my goodwill had never been reciprocated during that whole time. Whether I stopped my recommendations because it was never reciprocated or whether I stopped it because a complaint came back to me is not something I’ve considered but it was probably a bit of both. Napolean Hill’s reasoning is as follows: When I render service to another, or indulge in an act of kindness, I store away in my sub-conscious mind the effect of my efforts, which may be likened to the “charging” of an electric battery. By and by, if I indulge in a sufficient number of such acts I will have developed a positive, dynamic character that will attract to me people who harmonize with or resemble my own character.   Those whom I attract will reciprocate the acts of kindness and the service that I have rendered others, thus the LAW OF COMPENSATION will have balanced the scales of justice for me, bringing back through one source the results of service which I rendered to an entirely different one.   The LAW OF COMPENSATION incidentally was proposed by Ralph Waldo Emerson, in his essay, "Compensation," – He wrote that EACH PERSON IS COMPENSATED IN LIKE MANNER FOR THAT WHICH HE OR SHE HAS CONTRIBUTED. The Law of Compensation is another restatement of the Law of Sowing and Reaping. The Golder Rule. Nothing in the Golden Rule says that others will treat us as we have treated them. It only says that we must treat others in a way that we would want to be treated. Rosa Parks UNQUOTE Hill asks If someone should fail to reciprocate your kindness - what then? He answers that We have profited, nonetheless, because of the effect of our act on our own subconscious mind! This is, of course, an extension of Hill’s belief in the habit of AUTO SUGGESTION and it’s exactly what I was talking about in my episode on favours. DON’T DO A FAVOUR IN EXPECTATION OF RETURN OF THAT FAVOUR. Give it freely and in time your kindness will be repaid.   If you need further proof that the GOLDEN RULE is worth your time and effort, consider how your hostile or unkind acts toward others bring back the effects of retaliation which is usually definite and immediate. THE LAW OF RETALIATION is more widely known as "An eye for an eye" This habit is a form of POSITIVE THOUGHT which develops in you a DYNAMIC PERSONALITY and feeds your SELF CONFIDENCE. It will help you to ATTRACT the forces you require to reach your DEFINITE CHIEF AIM.   Summing Up   It will hardly come as surprise to you that have stayed the course of all 6 episodes in which I delve into Napoleon Hill’s LAW OF SUCCESS that I am now about to recap on all of the lessons that have been presented. I’ll let the words of Mr Hill take you forward into this.   You have now arrived at the point at which you should take inventory of yourself for the purpose of ascertaining what qualities you need - to give you a well-balanced and rounded out personality. Fifteen major factors entered into the building of this course. I ask you to ANALYZE YOURSELF CAREFULLY, with the assistance of one or more others if you feel that you need it, for the purpose of ascertaining in which of the fifteen factors of this course you are the weakest, and then CONCENTRATE YOUR EFFORTS UPON THOSE PARTICULAR LESSONS until you HAVE FULLY DEVELOPED THAT WHICH THEY REPRESENT.     In the introduction Hill thanks ANDREW CARNEGIE, who suggested the writing of the course, and HENRY FORD, whose astounding achievements form the foundation for practically all of the Sixteen Lessons contained within. Finally he singles out EDWIN C. BARNES, a business associate of THOMAS EDISON, whose close personal friendship over a period of more than fifteen years served to help the author “carry on” in the face of a great variety of adversities and much temporary defeat which he had met with. In summary then, THE LAW OF SUCCESS is as follows.   LESSON 1 – The "MASTER MIND": is an invisible stronger third mind, developed through friendly alliance, in a spirit of harmony of purpose, between two or more minds. No two or more minds ever met without creating, out of the contact, another mind. This invisible creation is not always a "Master Mind." Though - That ONLY forms when two or more people work together in harmony of purpose and effort.   LESSON 2 – A DEFINITE CHIEF AIM: You must do away forever with aimlessness and fix your heart and hand upon some definite, well-conceived purpose. In your struggle for success, you should keep constantly in mind the necessity of knowing what it is that you want - Know precisely what your definite purpose is - utilise the principle of organized effort in the attainment of that DEFINITE PURPOSE. If you don’t know where you are going, then you’re never going to get there.   LESSON 3 - SELF CONFIDENCE: Believe that you are worthy of success and that you can attain it. Without truly understanding this - you will probably get nowhere with most of your goals. If you are not confident, then you cannot sell yourself in life.   LESSON 4 - THE HABIT OF SAVING: Formation of the Habit of Saving not only conserves that which you earn, in a systematic manner, but it also places you in the way of greater opportunity and gives you the vision, the self-confidence, the imagination, the enthusiasm, the initiative and leadership to actually increase your earning capacity. Amongst other things if you are trying to develop a HABIT OF SAVING then you must learn to kill the habit of unnecessary spending.   LESSON 5: INITIATIVE AND LEADERSHIP – Initiative is DOING THE RIGHT THING WITHOUT BEING TOLD. Leadership is essential for the attainment of Success, but Initiative is the very foundation upon which this necessary quality is built.   LESSON 6 - IMAGINATION: You will never have a definite purpose in life, you will never have self-confidence, and you will never have initiative and leadership unless you first create these qualities in your imagination and see yourself in possession of them.   LESSON 7 - ENTHUSIASM: A state of mind that inspires and arouses one to put action into the task at hand - it is contagious, and vitally affects not only the enthusiast, but all with whom he comes in contact.   LESSON 8 – SELF CONTROL: When you take control over the thoughts you are thinking, then you can take control of your success. SELF-DISCIPLINE IS THE MOST ESSENTIAL FACTOR IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF PERSONAL POWER, because LACK OF IT works hardships on those who become its victims, and THOSE WHO DO NOT EXERCISE IT suffer the loss of a great power which they could use in the achievement of their DEFINITE CHIEF AIM.   LESSON 9 – THE HABIT OF DOING MORE THAN PAID FOR: If you are going to whine about your work, then you are not going anywhere. Do the work you have in front of you, then ask what else you may do. By doing this, you make yourself valuable, and you will surely reach a point where you are being paid handsomely. Valuable employees are... valuable. This is also and especially true when you are working for yourself.   LESSON 10 - PLEASING PERSONALITY: His advice is have one, and if you don’t have one, cultivate one. Mediocrity does not care if you are pleasant or not. Success DOES.   LESSON 11 - ACCURATE THOUGHT: Separate facts from mere information. Then separate facts into two classes; the IMPORTANT and the UNIMPORTANT, or, the RELEVANT and the IRRELEVANT. All facts which will aid you to any extent whatsoever in the attainment of your definite chief aim are important and relevant; All that you cannot use are unimportant and irrelevant.   LESSON 12 - CONCENTRATION: "Concentration is the act of focusing the mind upon a given desire until the ways and means for its realization have been worked out and successfully put into operation"   LESSON 13 –COOPERATION: The implementation of cooperation between yourself and others who are going to help you get to your goal. Cooperation must also exist between your conscious and subconscious mind so that they may work harmoniously in your favour.   LESSON 14 – FAILURE: Yes! Fail, and be happy that it is bringing you one step closer to success. Failure is inevitable, and it is a great step towards the right direction. Replace "failure" with "temporary defeat".   LESSON 15 –TOLERANCE: Don't practice prejudice or racism. It is IGNORANCE, and it is a barrier to success. Just see the best in people and situations, and focus only on your goal and the good for all.   And finally LESSON 16 – THE GOLDEN RULE: “Do unto others as you wish them to do unto you,” and to avail yourself fully of the benefits of this great Universal Law you must also “think of others as you wish them to think of you.” As the law upon which the Golden Rule is based begins affecting you, either for good or evil, the moment you release a thought.   Call To Action   Your call to action today is not only CONSIDER THE GOLDEN RULE but to take up this challenge which Hill lays out: Analyze yourself carefully, with the assistance of one or more other persons if you feel that you need it, for the purpose of ascertaining in which of the fifteen factors detailed in this course you are the weakest, and then concentrate your efforts upon those particular lessons until you have fully developed that which they represent.   I will make my breakdown of the 16 lessons I just went through available through the official website as a PDF download, so go there as a starting point. Also on today’s show notes, I’ll be giving the download links to all of the versions of the text that are available in the public domain, plus an audio download of his 1954 film which encapsulates this and YouTube links to boot.   PDF KINDLE OTHER READERS AUDIO VIEW 1954 FILM   Ending   So that is the end of this 6 episode mini-series. I hope that you have found it beneficial and I hope too that it leads you towards the success which you seek in life.   This has been a helluva undertaking for me which has shoved me beyond a few of my own deadlines, but I realised once I have started that to not properly cover it all would have been a disservice to you.   Thanks too to all of you that have sponsored these episodes and to all of the international listeners in Australia, Hong Kong, the US, Canada and Germany as I get a helluva a lot of downloads in those places. Wherever you are in the world I hope that these lessons have been useful and lead you towards success.   Next week, I will be responding to listeners questions, in a special MAILBAG episode, but for now, bearing in mind all that we have learned from Napoleon Hill over the last six episodes let me end with a quote from Thomas Sowell who said – “It takes considerable knowledge just to realize the extent of your own ignorance.” Now - take control of your own destiny, keep on shootin’, join me next time on Film Pro Productivity.   Insert of Napoleon Hill's voice.   • The music you can hear right now is Adventures by A Himitsu • You can view the show notes for this episode on the official website filmproproductivity.com • You can follow my personal account on Twitter and Instagram @fight_director or follow the show on Twitter @filmproprodpod or on Facebook @Filmproproductivity • Please support the show by subscribing, spreading the word and leaving an AWESOME review.   References: https://owlcation.com/humanities/The-Law-of-Success-by-Napoleon-Hill-A-Quick-Overview   Thanks: A Himitsu Music: Adventures by A Himitsu https://www.soundcloud.com/a-himitsu   Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported— CC BY 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/b... Music released by Argofox https://www.youtu.be/8BXNwnxaVQE Music provided by Audio Library https://www.youtu.be/MkNeIUgNPQ8 ––– • Contact the artist: x.jonaz@gmail.com https://www.facebook.com/ahimitsuhttps://www.twitter.com/ahimitsu1 https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgFwu-j5-xNJml2FtTrrB3A When people get used to preferential treatment, equal treatment seems like discrimination. Thomas Sowell UNQUOTE

  This episode is sponsored by U.S. repeat supporter Connie   Hello and welcome to Film Pro Productivity, the podcast that helps film professionals and other creatives to live a more focused, effective and HAPPY life. My name is Carter Ferguson and this is EPISODE 44 – THE LAW OF SUCCESS IN 16 LESSONS: PART 5   In whatever walk of life you are in, SUCCESS is a universal theme that will be of interest. This is the fifth of six interconnected episodes about Napoleon Hill’s powerful book and if you’ve not yet heard the previous shows then I’d strongly advise you to go back and check out episodes 40 through 44 FIRST before listening to this one. My aim is simply to give you a glimpse of the power that lies within its pages, but there is an order to the lessons that he presents and starting here may cause you some confusion.   For streamlining purposes I don’t always identify sections of quoted text but, for the record, much of the content is either my interpretation or direct quotation of NAPOLEON HILL’s words. The main change I make is in neutralising the gender every now and again because I want to make the lessons as accessible for today’s audience as Hill intended it to be in 1928. As we will discover a little later on, Hill was all about equality and inclusion. WHATEVER THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE AND BELIEVE THE MIND CAN ACHIEVE It is through cooperation, rather than conflict, that your greatest successes will be derived Ralph Charell UNQUOTE LESSON 13 - COOPERATION: Hill concluded after his 25 years of research that it is literally true that you can succeed best and quickest by helping others to succeed and that the top of the LADDER OF SUCCESS will never be lonely as you can't help but bring others with you.   He first explains in this chapter that COOPERATION must exist between your conscious and subconscious mind so that they may work harmoniously in your favour through the use of AUTO SUGGESTION: As we have heard before, this is a form of self-hypnosis or self-induced psychological suggestion which individuals use to guide their thoughts, feelings, or behaviour.   We often hear talk of people using affirmations in this way as part of a morning ritual perhaps and I’ll be looking at AFFIRMATIONS in an upcoming episode later this season so I won’t spend too much time on this here today. In effect what Hill wants us to understand is that it’s a proven fact that the subconscious or what he calls subjective mind can be affected by the conscious mind.   When you impress any idea on your sub-conscious mind you do so WITH THE AID OF THIS SYSTEM: and when your subconscious mind works out a definite plan to achieve any desire with which you impress it, THAT PLAN IS DELIVERED BACK TO YOUR CONSCIOUS MIND THROUGH THIS SAME SYSTEM. This is the first essential part of this lesson in co-operation and a new angle on an old idea which we have previously discussed in the earlier lesson on IMAGINATION.   The second essential element of Co-operation IS THE MORE OBVIOUS ONE - that those who unite or group themselves together for the purpose of attaining a given end do so in the spirit of cooperation. In the first lesson this was discussed in terms of THE MASTER MIND principle and in the second we referred to this sort of cooperation as ORGANIZED EFFORT.   As we learned there, POWER is the ORGANIZED EFFORT with which we will gain success. We will hear more about the power of CO-OPERATIVE EFFORT and see the important part that it plays in the development of power in the final lesson. For now, I will say that the four most important factors that enter into the process of organizing effort are: · Concentration, · Co-operation, · Co-ordination and · ENERGY. PERSONAL POWER is achieved by developing, organizing and coordinating the faculties of the mind and it is the first step to be taken in the development of the potential power that is available through the medium of what we know as ALLIED EFFORT, CO-OPERATION, or GROUP POWER. True success in life, hill says, cannot be attained except through peaceful, harmonious, co-operative effort. Success cannot easily be attained single-handed or independently. If you analyse POWER, he continues, no matter where, or in what form it may be found, you will find organization and co-operation at the back of it. We are living in a world in which the law of the survival of the fittest is everywhere in evidence. Those who are “fit” are those who have power, and their power is ORGANIZED EFFORT. Even if it doesn't work, there is something healthy and invigorating about direct action. Henry Miller UNQUOTE Hill gives time in this lesson to make absolutely clear too, that we must become people of action if we are to achieve our DEFINITE CHIEF AIM. Action, in the sense that the term is used in this lesson, comes in two forms. One is physical and the other is mental. You can be very active with your mind while your body is entirely inactive, or you can be very active with both body AND mind. Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe. Abraham Lincoln UNQUOTE Hill wants us to know too that there can be as much ACTION in PREPARATION, as in EXECUTION. As the one putting together this podcast I can vouch for that. These six episodes have taken an age to prepare. But without my research, my re-writing and my intelligently concentrated accurate thinking on these topics, it would be a very thin and fragile series indeed.   Hill warns that we cannot become people of action if we are not fit, if we are addicted to substances or if we do not eat properly. I’m skimming over a lot of this here but there is one thing he highlights which again I will be tackling quite soon in another episode. WORRY.   “There is another enemy which you must conquer before you can become a person of action, and that is the WORRY habit. Worry, envy, jealousy, hatred, doubt, and fear are all states of mind which are fatal to ACTION.” He raised these points earlier in the 16 LAWS series when he was discussing SELF CONFIDENCE. Remember folks that Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow. It empties today of its strength. Corrie Ten Boom UNQUOTE I really have to drive this episode on but as a final word on COOPERATION he points out that “the world pays you for WHAT YOU DO and NOT FOR WHAT YOU KNOW.” And he takes this further, saying “What the world really pays you for is what you do or what you can get others to do.”   SOMEONE WHO CAN INDUCE OTHERS TO CO-OPERATE AND DO EFFECTIVE TEAM-WORK, OR INSPIRE OTHERS SO THAT THEY BECOME MORE ACTIVE, IS NO LESS A PERSON OF ACTION THAN THE ONE WHO RENDERS EFFECTIVE SERVICE IN A MORE DIRECT MANNER.   He also talks of motivating forces and killing procrastination and a hundred other things, again and again returning to the earlier advice which he has given on achieving your DEFINITE CHIEF AIM in life.   “If you plan to attain the object of your chief aim through the co-operative efforts of others, you must set up in the minds of those whose cooperation you seek A MOTIVE STRONG ENOUGH TO ENSURE THEIR FULL, UNDIVIDED, UNSELFISH CO-OPERATION.”   This will be made far more achievable when you have developed your pleasing personality and enthusiasm skills which were discussed in earlier lessons. Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success. Henry Ford Unquote WHATEVER THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE AND BELIEVE THE MIND CAN ACHIEVE   LESSON 14 - FAILURE: Failure is a detour, not a dead-end street. Zig Ziglar UNQUOTE Failure is inevitable, and it is a great step towards the right direction so Hill suggests we embrace it and replace "failure" in our minds with the term "temporary defeat".   Moreover, he says, let us see if this temporary defeat is not usually a blessing in disguise, for the reason that it brings us up with a jerk and redirects our energies along different and more desirable lines.   I looked at this in my inbetweenisode WHY IT’S OK TO GIVE UP and again in my 1st show of this season BEST LAID PLANS and Hill here validates much of what I say there. I won’t spend too much time on his words here today but let’s have a brief look at his angle on it as how we deal with failure is an important lesson in the LAW OF SUCCESS.   STRENGTH GROWS OUT OF RESISTANCE; Hill reminds us, and we shall learn, in this lesson, that SOUND CHARACTER is usually the handiwork of set-backs, and temporary defeats, which the uninformed part of the world calls “FAILURE.” When one door closes, another opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us. Alexander Graham Bell UNQUOTE Hill starts this chapter with a list of seven personal anecdotes that demonstrate defeat and recovery, of newly opened doors and opportunities and in the end, he admits that “I am glad to have experienced so much defeat! It has had the effect of tempering me with the courage to undertake tasks that I would never have begun had I been surrounded by protecting influences. Defeat is a destructive force only when it is accepted as failure! When accepted as teaching some needed lesson it is always a blessing.   He continues - In view of what I have learned of the value of enemies, if I had none I would feel it my duty to create a few. They would discover my defects and point them out to me, whereas my friends if they saw my weaknesses at all, would say nothing about them.   Oh how telling that is. Have you ever considered it? An awful lot of us are stuck in a dead-end of work or life problems due to our inability to recognise or accept our flaws and it’s our friends' politeness, or fear of upsetting us, which is stopping them from helping. Again and again here, Hill points out that which I have not spoken aloud myself but which I have give some consideration over the years. Zig Ziglar says If you learn from defeat, you haven't really lost. Hill’s embrace of the phrase “temporary defeat” is so overwhelmingly complete that he craves it but warns that we must have considerable courage too, to look upon it as a blessing in disguise.   Defeat talks to us in a language all its own, he says, a language to which we must listen, whether we want to or not. He points to the great men of his day who have battled their way to the top despite their failures, or temporary setbacks, and we could level comparisons of our own here too.   My favourite example is that of JK ROWLING: In 1995 all 12 major publishers rejected Harry Potter. A year later a small publishing house, Bloomsbury, accepted it and extended a very small £1500 advance. In 1997, the book was published with only 1000 copies. In 1997 and 1998, the book won awards from Nestle Smarties Book Prize and the British Book Award for Children’s Book of the Year. Today, Rowling has sold more than 400 million copies of her books and is considered to be the most successful woman author in the United Kingdom.   I could cite many others. Bill Gates, Stephen King, Henry Ford, or Thomas Edison. It’s hard I know whilst you are in it, as life just wears you down, but we can take heart in seeing that others have made it ahead of us. As I said right at the start of this 6 part mini-series, “Success is a very profound and interesting thing because the line of demarcation between success and failure is so slight that it is often hard to see where one ends and the other begins.”   Be thankful for the defeat which many call failure, because if you can survive it and keep on trying, it gives you a chance to prove your ability and to rise to the heights of achievement in your chosen field of endeavour.   WHATEVER THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE AND BELIEVE THE MIND CAN ACHIEVE   LESSON 15 - TOLERANCE: Hill makes two significant statements about intolerance at the beginning of this lesson.   First: INTOLERANCE IS A FORM OF IGNORANCE which must be mastered before any form of enduring success may be attained. It is the chief cause of all wars. It makes enemies in business and in the professions. It disintegrates the organized forces of society in a thousand forms, and stands, like a mighty giant, as a barrier to the abolition of war. It dethrones reason and substitutes mob psychology in its place. Second: Intolerance is the chief disintegrating force in the organized religions of the world, where it plays havoc with the greatest power for good there is on this earth; by breaking up that power into small sects and denominations which spend as much effort opposing each other as they do in destroying the evils of the world. I thought I’d quote that opening directly as Hill is very specific and likely at the time was incredibly forward-thinking about all of this – He is saying don't practice prejudice or racism. IT IS IGNORANCE, AND IT IS A BARRIER TO SUCCESS. Just see the best in people and situations. Focus only on your goal and the good for all. We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools. Martin Luther King, Jr. UNQUOTE It is obvious that anything which impedes the progress of civilization, such as intolerance, stands as a barrier for the individual; and anything that clouds the mind of the individual and stops his mental, moral and spiritual development, impedes, also, the progress of civilization. We become not a melting pot but a beautiful mosaic. Different people, different beliefs, different yearnings, different hopes, different dreams. Jimmy Carter UNQUOTE So this whole lesson details a significant number of examples and studies of how INTOLERANCES in religion, in politics, in race relations and in differing cultural or family backgrounds are the direct cause of wars and disruptions and Hill’s point in all this is I think that INTOLERANCE is AN UNFORGIVABLE ELEMENT THAT DISRUPTS ONE OF THE CORNERSTONES OF HIS 16 LESSONS.   Without TOLERANCE our ORGANIZED EFFORTS will fail because the HARMONY that is required will be disrupted beyond repair by INTOLERANCE. ORGANIZED EFFORT and the actions of COOPERATION between us as we work towards our SINGLE CHIEF AIMs will be destroyed by INTOLERANCE and ACCURATE THOUGHT cannot be relied upon if INTOLERANCE is present within it.   Intolerance betrays want of faith in one's cause. Mahatma Gandhi UNQUOTE Hill ends this lesson with an essay on intolerance. These are the final words of that essay.   I am hoping I will find only human Souls, Brothers and Sisters all, unmarked by race, creed or colour, when I have crossed the Bar to the Other Side. For I shall want to be done with Intolerance so I may lie down and rest an æon or two, undisturbed by the strife, ignorance, superstition and petty misunderstandings which mark with chaos and grief this earthly existence.   Here endeth lesson 15 of the law of success in 16 lessons.   Summing Up   So, to sum up on this episode, let me go over the basics of today’s lessons.   LESSON 13 –COOPERATION: The implementation of cooperation between yourself and others who are going to help you get to your goal. Cooperation must also exist between your conscious and subconscious mind so that they may work harmoniously in your favour. LESSON 14 – FAILURE: Fail, and be happy that it is bringing you one step closer to success. Failure is inevitable, and it is a great step in the right direction. Don’t let it bring you down. Simply replace "failure" with the words "temporary defeat". And LESSON 15 –TOLERANCE: Don't practice prejudice or racism. It is IGNORANCE, and it is a barrier to success. Just see the best in people and situations, and focus only on your goal and the good of all.   Call To Action   Your call to action this week is to embrace your failures, and consider how they have brought you closer to success, taught you invaluable lessons and made you a person of character. Gather from them the strength to continue on, and re-write your negative feelings about your experiences, renaming them TEMPORARY SETBACKS instead of failures. “Success is a very profound and interesting thing because the line of demarcation between success and failure is so slight that it is often hard to see where one ends and the other begins.” Remember: No one has the right to brand you as a failure except yourself.   Ending Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude. Thomas Jefferson UNQUOTE The next episode will be the final show in this 6 part series within the series documenting the law of success in 16 lessons. After that, we will be back to the usual style of shows. Next time I will be recapping on all that has come before and introducing LESSON 16. THE GOLDEN RULE.   VIEW 1954 FILM I’ll end today though with a very famous quote of Mr Hill’s which I riff upon quite often here “You are the master of your destiny. You can influence, direct and control your own environment. You can make your life what you want it to be.” Now - take control of your own destiny, keep on shootin’, join me next time on Film Pro Productivity. • The music you can hear right now is Adventures by A Himitsu • You can view the show notes for this episode on the official website filmproproductivity.com • You can follow my personal account on Twitter and Instagram @fight_director or follow the show on Twitter @filmproprodpod or on Facebook @Filmproproductivity • Please support the show by subscribing, spreading the word and leaving an AWESOME review.   References: https://owlcation.com/humanities/The-Law-of-Success-by-Napoleon-Hill-A-Quick-Overview   Thanks: A Himitsu Music: Adventures by A Himitsu https://www.soundcloud.com/a-himitsuCreative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported— CC BY 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/b... 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  This episode is sponsored by SHUG THE DUG PRODUCTIONS   Hello and welcome to Film Pro Productivity, the podcast that helps film professionals and other creatives to live a more focused, effective and HAPPY life. My name is Carter Ferguson and this is EPISODE 43 – THE LAW OF SUCCESS IN 16 LESSONS: PART 4   So yes, this is the fourth part of my series on Napoleon Hill’s powerful book and if you’ve not yet heard the previous parts then I’d strongly advise you to go back and check out episodes 40 through 42 first before listening to this one. My aim is to give you a fleeting glimpse of the power that lies within the book ad to open your mind to the possibilities that lie within its pages.   Now I won’t always identify sections of quoted text within this episode purely for streamlining purposes, but much of the content is my interpretation or direct quotation of NAPOLEON HILL. The main change I make is in neutralising the gender every now and again because I want to make the lessons as accessible and relevant for today’s audience as Hill intended it to be in 1928. Clothes and manners do not make the man; but when he is made, they greatly improve his appearance. Arthur Ashe UNQUOTE WHATEVER THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE AND BELIEVE THE MIND CAN ACHIEVE   This is a very big episode with a veritable Aladdin’s cave of new ideas, observations and advice. I would give this next lesson an episode of its own if I could but instead what I’d advise you to do is pause between the lessons or listen again to take it all in. I have augmented it with additional information from Hill’s 1954 film as it adds a lot to the equation which the original book leaves out. Hang on to your breeks and stand by. This is…   LESSON 10 – A PLEASING PERSONALITY: Here, Hill encourages us to arrange the outward appearance through which the nature of our personality is expressed, SO THAT IT WILL ATTRACT AND NOT REPEL. He wants us to realise that our personalities can become what he calls master salesmen working on our behalf. If we look at successful people and wonder how they managed it, but overlook the importance of analyzing their methods and the price they had to pay in careful, well-organized preparation and presentation - then we are NOT seeing the full picture.   Hill kicks all this off by describing PERSONALITY as the sum of our characteristics and appearances which distinguish us from all others. The clothes we wear, the lines on our face, the tone of our voice and the thoughts we think ALL CONSTITUTE PARTS OF OUR PERSONALITY and by far the most important part of our personality - is the part that is not visible - OUR CHARACTER.   Whether your personality is attractive or not, of course, is another matter. Italian designer Alessandro Michele says “The way you dress is an expression of your personality.” And that’s yet another point that Hill makes in this chapter. He says the same thing my mum did when I was going for a job interview or meeting someone for the first time, that people form first impressions of you from your outward appearance. I highlight this here as a reminder to us all, that things like this matter, maybe not TO YOU, but to the people you meet and work with. Whether you like it or not, if you want to increase your chances of being successful you can start by dressing in a way that attracts and doesn’t repel success. This doesn’t have to be a suit and tie of course, just appropriately for the world in which you live and work, and thinking about what would be most likely to bring you success in that environment.   Hill touches on this topic in his lesson on enthusiasm, where he talks about being able to wear WEAR NICE CLOTHES and how it will make you feel better and be more enthusiastic. There he explains that IF YOU LOOK LIKE A MILLION BUCKS, YOU'LL FEEL LIKE A MILLION BUCKS, and you will quite likely FIND YOURSELF AROUND A MILLION BUCKS. The opposite is also true, of course, and this is to be avoided. I love these little, but incredibly telling, observations and this book is full of them.   He takes the time to talk about elements of success that no one would tell you to your face and so next he goes into personal hygene. YOU SIMPLY WON’T BE SUCCESSFUL IF YOU SMELL LIKE A RATS BACKSIDE. Wash yourself, wear deodorant, brush your teeth, use mouthwash and if you know you have a problem with sweat or bad breath or whatever - carry the things you need to stay clean and smell good with you. Whether you like it or not, and none of us particularly like it, you also need to regularly attend the dentist. Knowing your teeth are cared for and that problems with them are fixed, gives you much increased confidence. That confidence will be the key for you to open more doors to success. Ya know what I do almost every day? I wash. Personal hygiene is part of the package with me. Jim Carrey UNQUOTE Hill devotes a considerable amount of page space to something I’ve only vaguely ever thought about - the art of SHAKING HANDS. He believed that it forms an important part of our personality and points out that, like so many other things outlined here, it is an art which can be cultivated. Every trait which goes into your personality, he explains, is under your control and you can improve it so it will be whatever you want it to be.   Helen Keller was the first deaf-blind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree. Touch to her was a truly vital sense. She said – “The hands of those I meet are dumbly eloquent to me. The touch of some hands is an impertinence. I have met people so empty of joy, that when I clasped their frosty finger-tips, it seemed as if I were shaking hands with a northeast storm. Others there are whose hands have sunbeams in them, so that their grasp warms my heart. It may be only the clinging touch of a child's hand; but there is as much potential sunshine in it for me as there is in a loving glance for others. A hearty handshake or a friendly letter gives me genuine pleasure.” I have occasionally shaken someone’s hand only to feel it collapse under my light but firm grip. I describe such handshakes as fish-fingers which amuses me greatly but I admit it leaves me with a feeling of discomfort with the person who’s squishy fish finger hand I have just shaken. Hill explains his feelings on this one as follows, “ If there is anything which leaves me flat and unfavourably impressed when I'm introduced it's an extended hand which feels like a piece of cold ham”. There’s also the hand crusher, the person that catches you unexpectedly in an iron like grip that breaks bones. I looked this up on google. Littlethings.com says The Crusher is a handshake that is all about power and aggression.   Shaking hands is a lost art of prosperity which is surely worth a little of our twenty-first-century consideration. Napoleon Hill says, in general, that you should make your handshake firm and vibrant and that if you merely permit the other person to shake your limp, cold, lifeless hand, you are displaying what constitutes a negative personality. And I’m very well aware that today’s society would encourage us to dismiss all this other stuff because it’s what’s inside that counts, OUR CHARACTER, but we would be remiss to not consider the outer elements through which others will perceive and judge us as this is, after all, a series of lectures about SUCCESS. What’s inside is not the only thing that counts. It just counts more than anything else…   And so again Hill gives examples in this chapter of how external appearances, manners, a firm handshake or a gentle and mesmerizing voice when presented by salespeople have won him over and how if these salespeople with pleasing personalities were to visit him again he would happily sit down and listen for three-quarters of an hour enjoying their company. I’ve certainly experienced this myself. He gives examples so that we can learn from them and cultivate our own personality traits. This is something which he covers too in Lesson 7 Enthusiasm. We continue to shape our personality all our life. If we knew ourselves to be perfect, we should die. Albert Camus UNQUOTE I’ll post a youtube link in the show notes to show a great example of personality in sales so go check it out. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6EuA6hvDjg0&t=44s   Hill warns that cheap flattery has just the opposite effect. It repels instead of attracting. Analyze anone, he says, WHO DOES NOT HAVE A PLEASING PERSONALITY and you will find lacking in the faculties of Imagination and co-operation.   This lesson emphasizes at length the importance of making it your business to take a keen interest in other people and their work, to cultivate and work on your personality, and to be aware of your outward appearance. This is simply not something that is discussed these days, other than perhaps a mother nagging a child about looking smart, but I find it all quite intriguing as if we can consider it when others do not, it will give us the edge we may need to achieve success.   This year, for the first time ever, I had shirts and hoodies made up with fightdirector.com and Get Carter on them. I used to joke about having to prove myself on film sets on which I don’t know many people, that I should maybe have my CV printed on my T Shirt or a picture of me holding our Cineworld Audience Award at the BAFTAS, as some people try to sideline you as soon as meet you as they go through life offering up little or no respect to others. I’ve noticed now that things have changed. People ask me for my number far more often and proving myself to be competent when meeting new crews seems no longer to be a problem. It’s a fascinating subject this, and that’s why I’m giving it a bit more time.   Hill, himself, commits considerable time to character building through rigid self-discipline, self-control and autosuggestion. He provides a formula for character building and lists the factors that make a good personality. Here are just a few. · Your mental attitude is the most important trait of your personality. This is a trait with which you attract people to you and cause them to like you or repel them and cause them to dislike you. This is something Hill went into earlier on in the Enthusiasm lesson and which permeates the whole book. · The next most important trait of your personality consists of your flexibility of your mental attitude or your lack of it. If you have flexibility you adjust yourself to all the circumstances without losing your composure or allowing yourself to become irritable or angry. This is one I find easier to adopt the older I get. It’s a difficult skill to master though and I am still a novice. Hill explains here that you cannot control the actions of other people which might justify you becoming irritated by them but YOU CAN CONTROL YOUR REACTION to all such circumstances by exercising your trait of flexibility. · The third most important trait of a pleasing personality is the ability to control and direct your enthusiasm. Enthusiasm is one of the means by which you can give force to your words but you must be able to turn it on or off at will as definitely as you can turn on and off the water at the tap. Uncontrolled enthusiasm often makes people boresome. It also allows others to enter and influence you in ways you do not wish to be influenced. That’s an interesting observation – tagged in almost as a throwaway. Don’t get carried away by your enthusiasm and find yourself committed to another’s purpose. Stay on Target. Remember your DEFINITE CHIEF AIM. · The fourth most important trait of a pleasing personality is SINCERITY OF PURPOSE. The person who is not sincere with others is soon detected and rejected because no one is attracted to the person who deceives others. Possibly my favourite quote of Hill’s is this “Sincerity is one quality of character which cannot be successfully faked: Not even by the most astute rascal or the most efficient actor.”   I’ll end with a list of DESTRUCTIVE HABITS which Hill explains will limit our success. · One of the most destructive habits which make one's personality objectionable is that of BREAKING IN AND RUNNING AWAY WITH THE CONVERSATION when others are speaking. · Next, SARCASM expressed by insinuations and wisecracks which are not so wise is near the head of the list of habits which you give you a negative personality · and third VANITY expressed by either words or actions is sure to make one unpopular. · Fourth, INDIFFERENCE in listening while others are speaking is sure to be noticed and resented. It is more profitable to be a good listener than it is to be a good talker because you are always apt to learn something while listening to others but never will learn anything from hearing yourself. · Five. The attempt to FLATTER WHERE FLATTERY IS OBVIOUSLY NOT DESERVED will bring quick resentment from others and if they are wise that the flatterer wants something they will ensure perhaps you should not get it. · Six. The habit of FINDING FAULT WITH THE WORLD AT LARGE AND PEOPLE IN GENERAL is never very popular habit and it is no part of a pleasing personality. It is far better to direct conversation to the circumstances and things which are right than to complain of those which one believes to be wrong. · Seven. One of the very worst habits is that of OPENLY AND DIRECTLY CHALLENGING THOSE WITH WHOM ONE MAY NOT AGREE, where there is no obvious reason for doing so, except the desire to be on the opposite side. Oh I know a few people that just can’t resist an argument and it’s something on which today’s internet fed populace just thrives. For me it just feels like a waste of mental energy. Energy that can be placed elsewhere - into more positive action. · …and Eight. The habit of VOLUNTEERING UNSOLICITED ADVICE to others who have not requested it can make one an intolerable bore. Free advice usually is considered to be worth just what it costs - which is nothing but the patience with which to listen to it · …and Nine THE HABIT OF SPEAKING OF ONE'S PHYSICAL AILMENTS and personal problems may be tolerated by others but this habit will never make one welcome or pleasing. · Ten. The habit of ENDEAVORING TO CONVEY AN IMPRESSION OF SUPERIORITY through the use of words and topics unfamiliar to others is a sure fire destroyer of popularity. · 11 ENVY OF THOSE WHO ARE SUCCESSFUL is a trait which destroys a pleasing personality. The truly great men and women have all been known to be generous, sympathetic and joyous in connection with the good fortunes of others. · Twelve. SLOVENLINESS - in body posture and in clothing never attract but always repels others. Carelessness in body courage and posture is immediately traceable to a negative mental attitude. OK, I must move on, but I’ll end with this. Hill says that before you can make full use of the MASTER KEY TO SUCCESS you will need to make your personality pleasing. This will require courage on your part and honesty with yourself. A PLEASING PERSONALITY STANDS NEAR THE HEAD OF THE LIST OF ASSETS WHICH WILL MAKE ONE TRULY RICH. WHATEVER THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE AND BELIEVE THE MIND CAN ACHIEVE. Accuracy builds credibility. Jim Rohn UNQUOTE LESSON 11 - ACCURATE THOUGHT: In this lesson we learn to sort "facts" from "information", and use AUTO-SUGGESTION in conjunction with FOCUSED THOUGHT. In a gun fight... Fast is fine, but accuracy is everything. You need to take your time in a hurry. Wyatt Earp UNQUOTE Hill straight off the bat warns us that unless you study this lesson with an open mind, you will miss the very key-stone to the arch of this course, and without this stone, you can never complete your Temple of Success. I’d add too that without accurate thought you’re going nowhere.   This is not WOOLY THOUGHT or BELIEF IN YOUR OWN HYPE or GULLIBLE THOUGHT. It’s ACCURATE THOUGHT and it involves two fundamentals which all who indulge in it must observe. · First, to think accurately you must separate facts from mere information. There is much "information" available to you that is not based upon facts. Don’t believe everything you hear on the internet, ABRAHAM LINCOLN, UNQUOTE · Second, you must separate facts into two classes; the IMPORTANT and the UNIMPORTANT, or, the RELEVANT and the IRRELEVANT. Only by so doing can you think clearly. So… · All facts which will aid you to any extent whatsoever in the attainment of your definite chief aim are important and relevant; · All that you cannot use are unimportant and irrelevant. I’ve covered PRIORITISING before many times with things like the focus funnel and the Eisenhower matrix so this shouldn’t be anything new to the regular listener. Focusing on the stuff that really matters is encapsulated very well in that quote of Peter Drucker who says “It is fundamentally the confusion between effectiveness and efficiency that stands between doing the right things and doing things right. There is surely nothing quite so useless as doing with great efficiency that which should not be done at all.” I have given this quote before as it’s a terrific pointer in the world of productivity.   The phrase WORK SMARTER NOT HARDER possibly originates here in The Law Of Success where Hill writes in regard to successful people that “Far from working harder than you, they are perhaps working less and with greater ease by virtue of their having learned the secret of separating the important facts from the unimportant”   Hill goes on to talk about other factors in ACCURATE THINKING as he talks about idle gossip and believing what one reads in the papers. This is so true about today’s world of FAKE NEWS and INTERNET FACTS that it could have been written this morning. He warns us too to accept that loose unsound opinions van be mistaken for accurate thinking but that most opinions are without value because they are based on bias, prejudice, intolerance, guesswork, hearsay evidence and out-and-out ignorance.   He goes on “the ACCURATE THINKER will not accept as such all that he sees and hears for the reason that it constitutes the rocks and reefs on which so many people flounder and go down to defeat in a bottomless ocean of false conclusions.”   Hill who trained as a lawyer talks of A principle called “the law of evidence; the object of this law is to get at the facts. Any judge can proceed with justice to all concerned if they have the facts upon which to base their judgment, but they may play havoc with innocent people if they circumvent the law of evidence and reach a conclusion or judgment that is based upon hearsay information.”   Hill points out that “The more successful a person is the less they are inclined to express wild unjustified opinions about anything – He warns us that often people he refers to as DRIFTERS or FAILURES have an assortment of opinions on about everything you can imagine”   In Hill’s 1954 address he gives us a simple rule to help us avoid being misled by unsound opinions expressed by other people. When you hear someone make a statement which your reason cannot accept or which you question or should for safety sake question for any reason whatsoever, ask this simple forward question. HOW DO YOU KNOW? Stand firm on that question and either force the speaker to identify the source from which he got the information he is endeavouring to pass on as facts or reject the statement entirely as if it had not been made. Do this no matter who is speaking or what may be his reputation for truth and veracity. Accuracy is twin brother to honesty, and inaccuracy to dishonesty. Nathaniel Hawthorne UNQUOTE Hill warns us too that “…it is true that most thinking of today, far from being accurate, is based upon the sole foundation of expediency. It is amazing how many people there are who are "honest" when it is profitable to them, but find myriads of facts to justify themselves in following a dishonest course when that course seems to be more profitable or advantageous.” An example of this may be the directors of companies that give themselves massive bonuses just before their companies collapse, leaving their former employees crying in the streets. Some, usually fair people, will simply lie through their teeth if it is advantageous to them to do so. Thomas Jefferson reminds us all “Whenever you do a thing, act as if all the world were watching.” So remember that the accurate thinker deals with facts, regardless of how they affect his own interests, for he knows that ultimately this policy will bring him out on top, in full possession of the object of his definite chief aim in life.   Other points of interest within this lesson include: · If one man slanders another, his remarks should be accepted, if of any weight at all, with at least a grain of the proverbial salt of caution; for it is a common human tendency for men to find nothing but evil in those whom they do not like. · The moment a man or a woman begins to assume leadership in any walk of life, the slanderers begin to circulate "rumors" and subtle whisperings reflecting upon his or her character. The slanderers killed both Harding and Wilson, he says - murdered them with vicious lies. They did the same to Lincoln, only in a somewhat more spectacular manner, by inciting a fanatic to hasten his death with a bullet. This was written 90 odd years ago remember… Could have been written yesterday. · Here again and throughout the book, Hill goes into a long section about auto suggestion, which I briefly touched upon before. It’s a valuable thing. It uses what we know perhaps as VISUALISATION and AFFIRMATIONS to move us towards our DEFINITE CHIEF AIM. As a reminder - Write out a clear, concise statement of that which you intend to accomplish, as your definite chief aim, covering a period of, let us say, the next five years. Make at least two copies of your statement, one to be placed where you can read it several times a day, while you are at work, and the other to be placed in the room where you sleep, where it can be read several times each evening before you go to sleep and just after you arise in the morning. This is how Hill introduced us to the power of auto-suggestion on our own minds at the start of the book. · As an accurate thinker, it is both your privilege and your duty to avail yourself of facts, even though you must go out of your way to get them. If you permit yourself to be swayed to and fro by all manner of information that comes to your attention, you will never become an accurate thinker; AND IF YOU DO NOT THINK ACCURATELY, YOU CANNOT be sure of attaining your DEFINITE CHIEF AIM in life. Finally, I believe that this quote sums up much of the lesson in one sentence – let it guide you "I do not believe I can afford to deceive others - I know I cannot afford to deceive myself!" This must be the motto of the accurate thinker. Don't believe the hype. Wyclef Jean UNQUOTE WHATEVER THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE AND BELIEVE THE MIND CAN ACHIEVE “One reason so few of us achieve what we truly want is that we never direct our focus; we never concentrate our power. Most people dabble their way through life, never deciding to master anything in particular.” Tony Robbins UNQUOTE LESSON 12 - CONCENTRATION: Learn to fix your attention on a given subject, at will, for whatever length of time you choose, and you will have learned the secret passage-way to power and plenty! THIS IS CONCENTRATION!   The dictionary defines concentration as “the action or power of focusing all one's attention.” but Hill takes this much further and attributes CONCENTRATION to be what he calls THE MAGIC KEY OF SUCCESS. “Concentration, in the sense in which it is used here, means the ability, through fixed habit and practice, to keep your mind on one subject until you have thoroughly familiarized yourself with and mastered it. It means the ability to control your attention and focus it on a given problem until you have solved it.”   Hill devotes a considerable amount of time in this lesson to environment, to habits, and to memory. I won’t go into all of this but it’s an interesting reading nonetheless. I’d just say on the topic of environment though that when my office or home is untidy, it is usually representative of the state of my mind. Getting on top of housework or office tasks, in the sense of cleaning up your environment, will, in the end, make you more productive. You can't break a bad habit by throwing it out the window. You've got to walk it slowly down the stairs. Mark Twain UNQUOTE Defined another way, Hill’s CONCENTRATION is the ability to THROW OFF THE EFFECTS OF BAD HABITS, and the POWER TO BUILD NEW HABITS THAT ARE MORE TO YOUR LIKING. It means COMPLETE SELF-MASTERY. · The ability to think as you wish to think; · The ability to control your thoughts and direct them to a definite end; · And the ability to organize your knowledge into a plan of action that is sound and workable. As a productivity podcaster this is a virtual snapshot of probably about 40 or 50% of all of the advice that’s out there about getting things done.   For Napoleon Hill “DESIRE” is the starting point of all achievement and he states that AMBITION and DESIRE are the chief factors which enter into the act of successful concentration. Without them, he says, the Magic Key, or CONCENTRATION, is useless.   And he says we must not underestimate the power of CONCENTRATION just because it did not come clothed in mysticism or because it is described in simple language. All great truths are simple in final analysis, and easily understood; if they are not they are not great truths.   Use this Magic Key with intelligence, and only for the attainment of worthy ends, and it will bring you enduring happiness and success. Forget the mistakes you have made and the failures you have experienced. Quit living in the past, for do you not know that your yesterdays never return? Start all over again, if your previous efforts have not turned out well, and make your next five or ten years tell a story of success that will satisfy your most lofty ambitions. Make a name for yourself and render the world a great service, through AMBITION, DESIRE and CONCENTRATED EFFORT!   You can do it if you BELIEVE you can!   Most people lack ambition, and desire nothing in particular, but if your DESIRE is strong and YOUR AMBITION within reason the MAGIC KEY OF CONCENTRATION will help you attain it.   No unbeliever, Hill warns us though, ever enjoyed the benefits of the Magic Key.   Summing Up   So I’ve covered a lot of ground today and it’s but a drop in the ocean of the content of the book. Let me recap though.   · LESSON 10 – A PLEASING PERSONALITY: His advice is have one, and if you don’t have one, cultivate one. Mediocrity does not care if you are pleasant or not. Success does. · LESSON 11 - ACCURATE THOUGHT: Separate facts from mere information. There is much "information" available to you that is not based upon facts. Then separate facts into two classes; the IMPORTANT and the UNIMPORTANT, or, the RELEVANT and the IRRELEVANT. All facts which will aid you to any extent whatsoever in the attainment of your definite chief aim are important and relevant; All that you cannot use are unimportant and irrelevant. · LESSON 12 - CONCENTRATION: "Concentration is the act of focusing the mind upon a given desire until the ways and means for its realization have been worked out and successfully put into operation"   Call To Action   The easiest person to deceive is one's self. Edward Bulwer-Lytton UNQUOTE One of the many important points I covered today was about accurate thought - Don’t get bogged down in your own hype and don’t deceive yourself. If you have been failing to achieve success in something, I want you to answer this question. Why? Once you know this, you have a chance at solving the problem. That’s today’s call to action.   Ending   The next episode will be the penultimate in this series within series 3 about the LAW OF SUCCESS. I hope you’ll join me for more mind expanding lessons from Napoleon Hill’s incredible book. In the show notes this week I’m going to make available for download the audio from a film that Mr Hill made in 1954 – I’m not sure how though, but it will be there. If I can figure out the legalities of it I’ll make it available as part of the podcast too. By 1954 Hill had refined his laws of success quite considerably and it’s an interesting listen.   Lastly I’d like to thank James at Shug The Dug Productions for sponsoring the last two shows. It is very much appreciated.   It’s been another long one so let’s end now with a final thought from the late Stephen Keshi: People don't have to believe in you for you to succeed. Just work hard, and when you succeed, THEY WILL BELIEVE. Now - take control of your own destiny, keep on shootin’, join me next time on Film Pro Productivity.   • The music you can hear right now is Adventures by A Himitsu • You can view the show notes for this episode on the official website filmproproductivity.com • You can follow my personal account on Twitter and Instagram @fight_director or follow the show on Twitter @filmproprodpod or on Facebook @Filmproproductivity • Please support the show by subscribing, spreading the word and leaving an AWESOME review.   References: https://owlcation.com/humanities/The-Law-of-Success-by-Napoleon-Hill-A-Quick-Overview   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6EuA6hvDjg0&t=44s https://www.littlethings.com/what-your-handshake-says-about-you/4 https://genius.com/Wyclef-jean-killer-mc-interlude-lyrics Thanks: A Himitsu Music: Adventures by A Himitsu https://www.soundcloud.com/a-himitsuCreative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported— CC BY 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/b... Music released by Argofox https://www.youtu.be/8BXNwnxaVQE Music provided by Audio Library https://www.youtu.be/MkNeIUgNPQ8 ––– • Contact the artist: x.jonaz@gmail.com https://www.facebook.com/ahimitsuhttps://www.twitter.com/ahimitsu1 https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgFwu-j5-xNJml2FtTrrB3A

  This episode is sponsored by Shug The Dug Productions   Hello and welcome to Film Pro Productivity, the podcast that helps film professionals and other creatives to live a more focused, effective and HAPPY life. My name is Carter Ferguson and this is EPISODE 42 – THE LAW OF SUCCESS IN 16 LESSONS: PART 3   This is the third part of my breakdown of Napoleon Hill’s powerful book THE LAW OF SUCCESS IN 16 LESSONS but if you’ve not yet heard the previous episodes in this particular series then I’d strongly advise you to go back and check out episodes 40 and 41 before listening to this one.   My aim here is to give you a fleeting glimpse of the power that lies within the pages of the book. In the show notes for this episode I will give a link to A FREE DOWNLOAD OF A PUBLIC DOMAIN .MOBI VERSION OF THE COMPLETE TEXT which will play in many free e-readers. In the show notes of the last episode I gave a similar link to a KINDLE VERSION and in episode 39 a PDF VERSION. These can all be accessed via the official website filmproproductivity.com   TEXT DOWNLOAD LINK .EPUB   Now I quote with such regularity from the book that I won’t always identify sections of the text purely for streamlining purposes. Suffice to say that much of the content is my interpretation or direct quotation of NAPOLEON HILL. The only regular change I make is in making it gender-neutral every now and again, not for reasons of political correctness, but because I want to make what he says as accessible and relevant for today’s audience as he intended it to be in 1928. Imagination is more important that knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world. – Albert Einstein UNQUOTE WHATEVER THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE AND BELIEVE THE MIND CAN ACHIEVE   LESSON 6 IMAGINATION: Hill explains that there are two forms of imagination: · First there is what he refers to as SYNTHETIC IMAGINATION which consists of organizing and putting together of RECOGNIZED IDEAS, CONCEPTS AND FACTS arranged in a new combination. Very seldom, he explains, does anyone create an idea or anything else absolutely new. Nearly everything known to civilization is but a combination of something that is old. · Secondly there is what he refers to as CREATIVE IMAGINATION which operates through a kind of sixth sense and has its base in the SUBCONSCIOUS. It serves as the exclusive medium through which basically new ideas or facts are revealed. That’s kinda his take on it and it’s an interesting angle which I admit I had never before considered, but absolutely recognise. He goes on to say that “If you have mastered and thoroughly understood the preceding lessons you know that the materials out of which we have built our DEFINITE CHIEF AIM were assembled and combined in your imagination. You also know that SELF-CONFIDENCE, INITIATIVE and LEADERSHIP must be created in your imagination before they can become a reality, for it is in the workshop of your imagination that you will put the principle of AUTO-SUGGESTION into operation in creating these necessary qualities.”   Before I go any further I must give you the definition of autosuggestion: It is the hypnotic or subconscious adoption of an idea which one has originated oneself. It is like REPROGRAMMING YOUR SUBCONSCIOUS MIND to believe what you want it to believe – Hill uses it to replace your old beliefs with new ones that will serve you better.   He describes IMAGINATION, in fact, as the hub of this course as ”You will never have a definite purpose in life, you will never have self-confidence, you will never have initiative and leadership unless you first create these qualities in your imagination and see yourself in possession of them.”   He states too that the “imagination can receive impressions or ideas and out of these it can form new combinations.” And he gives a multitude of real-life examples of how this manifests.   In one example Hill drives home that his friend and employer ANDREW CARNEGIE was a man of great IMAGINATION as he first created a definite purpose and then surrounded himself with men who had the training and the vision and the capacity necessary for the transformation of that purpose into reality. He did not always create his own plans for the attainment of his definite purpose. He just made it his business to know what he wanted, then he found men who could create the plans to get it.   Hill believed that this was not only imagination but genius of the highest order.   In this lesson Hill also leans heavily on TRAINING the IMAGINATION to weave new combinations out of old ideas. This is kinda interesting to me as many current authors of new productivity books are simply weaving the old ideas and research of Hill and those who came before him into new works. I’m doing that here in fact, now that I think on it. Al too often do I buy a new productivity book, only to discover that it’s a rehashing of ideas and principles which I am already aware of.   Hill takes the time too, to list in his examples, several great failures that came about as their instigators had NO IMAGINATION. Hill adds an interesting point too - THAT THE POWER OF DECISION GROWS WITH USE. If you’ve been suffering at all from Choice Paralysis that may give you a bit of hope for the future.   He gives more examples in this lesson than in any other chapter of the book but his point is far easier for us to understand these days than it was for the populace in 1928 – He is effectively saying DREAM, AND USE YOUR IMAGINATION TO HELP LEAD YOU TO THE ATTAINMENT OF YOUR GOALS and that DREAMS and ACTIONS, he states time and again, are closely related.   If you feel that all the new ideas have been used up, you are incorrect. The best ideas, he predicts, are yet to be revealed and put into the service of mankind. No, he won’t let a negative thought pass on this subject, and he was right. Can you imagine someone from 1928 seeing all that has been achieved in the years that have followed? Listen to Napoleon Hill folks, for the best is yet to come. “A man can succeed at almost anything for which he has unlimited enthusiasm.” Charles Schwab UNQUOTE WHATEVER THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE AND BELIEVE THE MIND CAN ACHIEVE   LESSON 7: ENTHUSIASM: Hill describes enthusiasm as A STATE OF MIND THAT INSPIRES AND AROUSES US TO PUT ACTION INTO THE TASK AT HAND and that it does more than this - it is CONTAGIOUS, and VITALLY AFFECTS not only THE ENTHUSIAST, but ALL WITH WHOM THEY COMES INTO CONTACT.   That latter part is especially relevant when thinking back to the lesson on INITIATIVE AND LEADERSHIP as spoken words and instructions without enthusiasm are often ineffective. “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” – Maya Angelou UNQUOTE Enthusiasm bears the same relationship to a human being that steam does to the locomotive - it is the vital moving force that impels action. Simply mix enthusiasm with your work and it will not seem hard or monotonous.   Enthusiasm is one of the more powerful means by which we may put into action our education, experience and knowledge. Hill points out that the, idiom, KNOWLEDGE IS POWER is only a half-truth - for KNOWLEDGE BECOMES POWER ONLY WHEN IT IS PUT INTO ACTION FOR THE ATTAINMENT OF A DEFINITE OBJECTIVE.   Yes – I think that we all recognise these days that being enthusiastic about what you are doing makes it all more engaging and interesting and Hill explains that Enthusiasm is a vital force that you can harness and use with profit. Without it we would resemble an electric battery without electricity, he says, and he’s not alone in being enthusiastic about us harnessing enthusiasm. Aldous Huxley said “The secret of genius is to carry the spirit of the child into old age, which means never losing your enthusiasm.” And Dale Carnegie said “Flaming enthusiasm, backed up by horse sense and persistence, is the quality that most frequently makes for success.” Throughout Lesson 7 Hill gives immense detail and multiple examples of how enthusiasm compels us to act, and how it is contagious to those you act with. Mix enthusiasm with your work - do something you are enthusiastic about- and you will not get tired nearly as quickly.   Hill has a simple mechanical explanation of how enthusiasm spreads. He sees our brains as both an BROADCASTING STATION and a RECEIVING STATION for enthusiasm. It both sends out and picks up vibrations.   Just one example of this is taken from Andrew Carnegie. He believed that, if you were to turn loose someone with intense enthusiasm in an industrial plant employing thousands of people, this person's enthusiasm would very quickly reach and influence every person in the plant. What’s even more fascinating to me is that this is also true in reverse. Carnegie had realised that it makes not the slightest difference whether the enthusiasm was NEGATIVE or POSITIVE, CONSTRUCTIVE or DESTRUCTIVE. I’ve certainly felt ill will spread around a production like a cold wind as well as been on shows, Guilt for example, which I was on earlier in the year, where there was a general air of goodwill and enthusiasm for the work.   Carnegie said too that IN HIS SELECTION OF EMPLOYEES FOR PROMOTION the first thing he looked for was a person’s capacity to express themselves in terms of intense enthusiasm. To Carnegie ENTHUSIASM was one of the most important traits necessary for leadership.   Hills pragmatic approach in these lessons raises yet another point that some would be careful to avoid. That enthusiasm does not come naturally to some people. I’ll attest to that one too, as I’ve met some terrific bores in my lifetime. But all is not lost if you feel that he is perhaps talking about you. He suggests that “You adopt the HABIT of PRACTICING ENTHUSIASM in your conversations with your family and your business associates and he also points out that this habit will make you more popular with those who are close to you. He suggests when practising that you read for 10 minutes daily on subjects of your choosing as the means of acquiring the habit of enthusiasm. Soon you will have no difficulty in reading in a tone of enthusiasm in connection with the things that you like best and that will transfer into your day to day voice.   I need to move on but yes – Lesson 7: ENTHUSIASM is yet another powerful ally on your path towards success.   WHATEVER THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE AND BELIEVE THE MIND CAN ACHIEVE   LESSON 8: SELF CONTROL: Aristotle wrote, “What lies in our power to do, it lies in our power not to do.” On this subject Hill begins “Enthusiasm is the vital quality that arouses you to action, while SELF-CONTROL is the balance wheel that directs your action.” So to be a person who is well "balanced," you must be a person in whom enthusiasm and self-control are equalized.   Hill examines in this lesson the scope and meaning of the term self-control saying that a person with well-developed self-control does not indulge in hatred, envy, jealousy, fear, revenge, or any similar destructive emotions. A person with well-developed self-control does not go into ecstasies or become ungovernably enthusiastic over anything or anybody.   SELF-CONFIDENCE is one of the important essentials of success, but when this faculty is developed BEYOND THE POINT OF REASON it becomes very dangerous. I think we’ve probably all met at least one self-important egotistic nut job in our lives. I think that you will agree that they are quite unpleasant to be around.   In exploring this further he identifies a few traits of a person with great self-control.   · They will not permit themselves to be influenced by the cynic or the pessimist; nor will they permit another person to do their thinking for them. They will have taken possession of their own mind and directed it to whatever ends they may desire – specifically in achieving their DEFINITE CHIEF AIM in life. · They will stimulate their imagination and enthusiasm until they have produced action, but will then control that action and not permit it to control them. · They will not hate those who do not agree with him; instead, they will endeavour to understand the reason for their disagreement, and profit by it. · They will maintain their health through exercise and diet. In Hill’s 1954 film on the Laws of success he goes a little further. He says as a person with great self control: · You will have to gain mastery over your tongue by acquiring the habit of thinking first and then speaking after you are sure that what you save will benefit you and not injure others. A loose tongue often is one's greatest liability. · You will have to exercise self-discipline and master the common tendency to strike back at those at whom you have a cause REAL OR IMAGINARY for a grievance because your every thought and every act which benefits or injures another person comes back to you in kind GREATLY MULTIPLIED. If you feel that you must slander another person do not speak it but write it write it in the stands near the water's edge then move away from it until the tides have flown. · You will have to exercise self-discipline over all of your emotions particularly your emotions of love, hate, fear and sex. These are the BIG FOUR of your emotions and they can make you or break you according to the extent of discipline you exercise over them. Someone with poor self-control may have these traits. · They will have a habit of forming opinions before studying the facts. · They will have the habit of spending beyond their needs and he adds too that this habit will be passed on to their children. Finally your MENTAL ATTITUDE needs discipline and control at all times. Lacking in this particular discipline will drive away friends, destroy opportunities to get ahead, bring on physical and mental illness and make peace of mind impossible.   I could go on. Hill has a terrific rant about people with no self control MORTGAGING THEIR FUTURE LIVES TO BUY AUTOMOBILES which is still fairly relevant today I must add. “He who reigns within himself, and rules passions, desires, and fears, is more than a king.” John Milton UNQUOTE This is a TRULY VAST CHAPTER in which Hill again gives multitudes of real-life examples, but let me move to the end this sampler that I’m building for you. Hill puts forward that SELF-DISCIPLINE IS THE MOST ESSENTIAL FACTOR IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF PERSONAL POWER, because LACK OF IT works hardships on those who become its victims, and THOSE WHO DO NOT EXERCISE IT suffer the loss of a great power which they could use in the achievement of their DEFINITE CHIEF AIM.   WHATEVER THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE AND BELIEVE THE MIND CAN ACHIEVE   LESSON 9 – THE HABIT OF DOING MORE THAN PAID FOR. This entire lesson is devoted to the offering of evidence that it really pays to render more and better service than one is paid to render. Later in life Hill was still pushing this particular lesson and so it pays to listen up and see how you can utilise it. The habit of going the extra mile is the habit of rendering more service and better service than one is expected to render and doing it with a positive mental attitude. He refers to it to as THE MAGIC PRINCIPLE OF SELF ADVANCEMENT, and I just love that. “When You Do More Than You're Paid to Do, You Will Eventually Be Paid More For What You Do.” Zig Ziglar UNQUOTE There are many sound reasons why you should develop the habit of performing more and better service than that for which you are paid, despite the fact that a large majority of the people are not rendering such service.   By performing more and better service than that for which you are paid, you not only exercise your service-rendering qualities, and thereby develop skill and ability of an extraordinary sort, but you build a reputation that is valuable.   If you form the habit of rendering such service you will become so adept in your work that you can command greater remuneration than those who do not perform such service. You will eventually develop sufficient strength to enable you to remove yourself from any undesirable station in life, and no one can or will desire to stop you.   This, some of you may notice, is Hill invoking LAW OF INCREASING RETURNS and he helps us to understand it with this analogy - The farmer carefully prepares the ground, then sows his wheat and waits while the LAW OF INCREASING RETURNS brings back the seed he has sown, plus a many-fold increase.   He goes on to give examples of how it has worked well for so many and proves how it is applicable to our life and work… Henry Ford, he says, received more and better service than the average by paying more wages than the average.   At a single stroke, through the inauguration of that minimum wage policy, Ford attracted the best labour on the market and placed a premium upon the privilege of working in his plant and he gives further examples in plenty - stores taking back returns without argument, in order to keep their customer for the long term would be a good example. He goes on to say that you owe it to yourself to find out just how you can apply this law to best advantage.   To help you apply this rule to your life and work, Hill developed what he called the “QQ & A” formula which is a short form way of remembering, that the QUALITY of service render. plus the QUANTITY of service you render, plus the mental attitude in which you render service, determine the space you occupy in your chosen calling and the compensation you get from your services. That’s QQ&A.   Hill lists these specific benefits to help to convince you that this is not some hocus pocus but a powerful tactic which will benefit you greatly.   1. This habit will bring you to the favourable attention of those who can and will provide you with opportunities to promote yourself into a better circumstance. 2. This the great natural law of increasing returns will bring back greater than average compensation. 3. Following this habit will make you indispensable in your chosen occupation or calling therefore it will place you in a position to write your own ticket. 4. This habit will help you to excel in your line of work because each time you render service you endeavour to do a better job than you did previously. 5. If you work for a salary or wages this habit will give you preference when work is slack and others are laid off. 6. It will help you to benefit by the law of contrast because the others around you will not be going the first mile let alone the second mile. 7. Following this habit of doing your very best in all of your efforts and doing it in a pleasing mental attitude will improve your personality and make you liked by others/ 8. It will also help you to develop a keen and alert imagination because you will be continuously seeking new and better ways of rendering useful service. 9. It will inspire you to move on your own personal initiative instead of waiting to be told what to do a habit which is the first step in leadership. 10. Develop greater self-reliance and more courage to move ahead without the fear of criticism from others. 11. The one thing it does which if it benefited you in no other way would justify you in adopting it. It helps you to master the one habit which heads the list of causes of failure THE DESTRUCTIVE HABIT OF PROCRASTINATION. 12. Going the extra mile influences other people to respect your integrity and inspires them to go out of their way to cooperate with you in a friendly spirit. 13. This habit helps you to develop definiteness of purpose which is the starting point of all personal success and it stops you from drifting through life without knowing what you want or where you are going. 14. And here is the grand payoff which this habit gives you it provides you with the one and only excuse for asking for a promotion to a better station in life or a higher pay obviously if you are doing no more than you are being paid for then you are receiving payment for all to which you are entitled and you have not a single excuse for asking for more pay or a better position. If you understand this point and appreciate its significance to you… and 15. Last but not least the habit of going the extra mile conditions your mind to maintain a mastermind alliance with others. This is important, remember, as ORGANIZED EFFORT IS THE SOURCE OF ALL POWER. “Render more service than that which you are paid and you will soon be paid for more than you render. The law of increasing returns takes care of this.” – Napoleon Hill UNQUOTE Summing Up   So to recap on today’s lessons…   LESSON 6 - IMAGINATION: You will never have a definite purpose in life, you will never have self-confidence, you will never have initiative and leadership - unless you first create these qualities in your imagination and see yourself in possession of them. LESSON 7 - ENTHUSIASM: A state of mind that inspires and arouses one to put action into the task at hand - it is contagious, and vitally affects not only the enthusiast, but all with whom they come into contact. LESSON 8 – SELF CONTROL: When you take control over the thoughts you are thinking, then you can take control of your success. SELF-DISCIPLINE IS THE MOST ESSENTIAL FACTOR IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF PERSONAL POWER because LACK OF IT works hardships on those who become its victims, and THOSE WHO DO NOT EXERCISE IT suffer the loss of a great power which they could use in the achievement of their DEFINITE CHIEF AIM. LESSON 9 – THE HABIT OF DOING MORE THAN PAID FOR: If you are going to whine about your work, then you are not going anywhere. Do the work you have in front of you, then ask what else you may do. By doing this, you make yourself valuable, and you will surely reach a point where you are being paid handsomely. Valuable employees are... valuable. This is also and especially true when you are working for yourself. The Law of Increasing Returns states that by doing more or giving more service than you are paid to do, the universe will reward you with greater compensation than the money you gave up doing the extra work.   Call To Action   I am committed to delivering you this 6 part series within the series and I hope that you are finding it as enlightening as I did. I realise very much that there’s some big ideas being introduced here in rapid succession but to quote Napoleon Hill on this “Don’t be afraid of a little opposition. Remember that the kite of success generally rises against the wind of adversity – not with it.”   Your call to action today is to take a few minutes to simply consider all that has been said. If you have to then go back and listen again with a notepad and pen then do so, and I’ve got links to various downloads of the full text on the official website so go there and grab one if this series on the Law of Success is hitting the mark with you.   Ending Confucius says The man who moves a mountain begins by carrying away small stones. We’ve got three more shows to go in this book series so I want you to stay with me. This is valuable stuff I hope you’ll agree – and with it you can change your life. I’ll end with the words of self-help author Karen Salmansohn who said - What if I told you that 10 years from now, your life would be exactly the same? I doubt you'd be happy. So, why are you so afraid of change?   Now - take control of your own destiny, keep on shootin’, join me next time on Film Pro Productivity. • The music you can hear right now is Adventures by A Himitsu • You can view the show notes for this episode on the official website filmproproductivity.com • You can follow my personal account on Twitter and Instagram @fight_director or follow the show on Twitter @filmproprodpod or on Facebook @Filmproproductivity • Please support the show by subscribing, spreading the word and leaving an AWESOME review.     References: https://owlcation.com/humanities/The-Law-of-Success-by-Napoleon-Hill-A-Quick-Overview   https://www.yourfriend4life.com/law-of-increasing-returns/ Thanks: A Himitsu Music: Adventures by A Himitsu https://www.soundcloud.com/a-himitsuCreative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported— CC BY 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/b... Music released by Argofox https://www.youtu.be/8BXNwnxaVQE Music provided by Audio Library https://www.youtu.be/MkNeIUgNPQ8 ––– • Contact the artist: x.jonaz@gmail.com https://www.facebook.com/ahimitsuhttps://www.twitter.com/ahimitsu1 https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgFwu-j5-xNJml2FtTrrB3A

  This episode is sponsored by Encaptivate Films, the award-winning Edinburgh based producers of the feature film DARK SENSE   Hello and welcome to Film Pro Productivity, the podcast that helps film professionals and other creatives to live a more focused, effective and HAPPY life. My name is Carter Ferguson and this is EPISODE 41 – THE LAW OF SUCCESS IN 16 LESSONS: PART 2   Here we are now with part 2 of Napoleon Hill’s powerful book THE LAW OF SUCCESS IN 16 LESSONS, and before I get into it, IF YOU’VE NOT YET HEARD THE PREVIOUS EPISODE, which covers the introduction and the first two lessons in this series then you should really go back and check it out.   My aim with this 6 part series within the series is to give you a fleeting glimpse of the power that lies within it’s pages as I believe that this will OPEN YOUR MIND to the concepts and theories presented within. In order that you can delve deeper however, I will give a link to A FREE KINDLE VERSION DOWNLOAD OF THE COMPLETE TEXT AS ITS NOW IN THE PUBLIC DOMAIN. In the show notes of the LAST EPISODE, I GAVE A SIMILAR LINK TO A PDF VERSION. These can be accessed via the SHOWNOTES on official website filmproproductivity.com With realization of one’s own POTENTIAL and SELF-CONFIDENCE IN ONE’S ABILITY, one can build a better world. – The Dalai Lama UNQUOTE So today I’m tackling 3 more of NAPOLEON HILL’S 16 lessons and I’ll be quoting with such regularity that I won’t always identify sections of his text purely for streamlining purposes. Suffice to say that much of the content is my interpretation or direct quotation of NAPOLEON HILL’s words. The only regular change is making his words gender-neutral every now and again. This is not for political correctness, but because I want to make what he says as accessible and relevant for today’s audience as he intended it to be in 1928.   WHATEVER THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE AND BELIEVE THE MIND CAN ACHIEVE   LESSON 3: SELF CONFIDENCE - If you can believe that you are worthy of success - you can attain it. Without this simple understanding, you will probably get nowhere with most of your goals. IF YOU ARE NOT CONFIDENT THEN YOU CANNOT SELL YOURSELF IN LIFE. As detailed in the MASTER MIND principle you will need the co-operation of others if you aim to attain success of a far-reaching nature, but you will never get that cooperation unless you vitalize your mind with the positive attitude of SELF-CONFIDENCE. “The development of self-confidence starts with the elimination of a demon called FEAR, which sits upon your shoulder and whispers into your ear, ‘You can't do it - you are afraid to try - you are afraid of public opinion - you are afraid that you will fail – you are afraid you have not the ability.’" UNQUOTE Regular listeners will recognise this demon from my episode the inner critic … but let’s hear what Hill has to say about it... A good chunk of this chapter is dedicated to recognising what he calls the SIX BASIC FEARS - fears which keep us from advancing to success. These are:   · The FEAR OF POVERTY is a terrible thing as the age in which we live seems to be the age of money worship. I think that could still prove true today for many. · The FEAR OF OLD AGE is connected to a fear of poverty – It grows out of distrust of our fellow man seizing whatever worldly goods we may possess. That seems a fairly realistic fear these days as the British government continues to go about extending the age of retirement and removing services whilst charging us the same or greater taxes. But I digress. · The FEAR OF CRITICISM is third up and takes on many different forms, the majority of which are petty and trivial in nature but Hill warns too, that Powerful and Mighty is the fear of CRITICISM! · FEAR OF ILL HEALTH must be closely associated with the fear of Poverty and Old Age, and Hill strongly suspects, and I can’t disagree with him here nearly 100 years on, that those engaged in the business of selling good health products have had considerable to do with keeping THE FEAR OF ILL HEALTH alive in the human mind. · The FEAR OF THE LOSS OF LOVE OF SOMEONE is fairly self-explanatory. · And the author ends this list with THE FEAR OF DEATH with the caveat that although it is the greatest fear “In truth no man knows, and no man has ever known, what heaven or hell is like, or if such places exist.” UNQUOTE His aim in identifying these fears is that if we can intellectually examine their source in ourselves, that that will take the first step towards eliminating them.   Hill gives numerous examples and explores how FEAR INHIBITS AMBITION.   It is a well-established fact, he says, that the faculties of the mind, like the limbs of the body, wither away if not used. SELF-CONFIDENCE IS NO EXCEPTION. It DEVELOPS when used BUT DISAPPEARS IF NOT. “If you hear a voice within you say ‘you cannot paint,’ then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced.” Vincent Van Gogh UNQUOTE He offers up a self-confidence formula which starts with the aggressive continuous action towards the DEFINITE PURPOSE as I detailed in the last show, then DEDICATING 30 MINUTES A DAY TO BECOMING THE SORT OF PERSON YOU INTEND TO BE. This means that you must devote ten minutes daily to demanding of yourself the development of the factors named in these sixteen lessons. To have a clearly mapped out and written down a description of your definite purpose in life, EFFECTIVELY WHAT WE NOW CALL A FIVE YEAR PLAN. Finally, he evokes THE LAW OF ATTRACTION by stating to ourselves that we will engage in no transaction which does not benefit all whom it affects. You will succeed by attracting the forces you wish to use, and the co-operation of other people. The Law of Attraction states that whatever you focus on, think about, read about, and talk about intensely, you’re going to attract more of into your life. – Jack Canfield UNQUOTE In Hill’s 1954 film he describes a conversation which he once had with Andrew Carnegie, that I think is worth recounting here as I think it’s relevant. Bear with me while I repeat it: Carnegie said EVERYONE COMES TO THIS EARTH BLESSED WITH THE PRIVILEGE OF CONTROLLING HIS MIND POWER AND DIRECTING IT TO WHATEVER ENDS HE MAY CHOOSES At birth we arrive with the equivalent of two sealed envelopes One is clearly labeled THE RICHES YOU MAY ENJOY IF YOU TAKE POSSESSION OF YOUR OWN MIND AND DIRECT IT TO ENDS OF YOUR OWN CHOICE ...and the other is labeled THE PENALTIES YOU MUST PAY IF YOU NEGLECT TO TAKE POSSESSION OF YOUR MIND AND DIRECT IT In the one labelled RICHES is this list of blessings:   1. Sound health. 2. Peace of mind. 3. A labor of love of your own choice. 4. Freedom from fear and worry. 5. A positive mental attitude. 6. Material riches of your own choice and quantity.   In the sealed envelope labelled PENALTIES Carnegie continues is this list of the prices one must pay for NEGLECTING TO TAKE POSSESSION OF HIS OWN MIND   1. Ill-health 2. Fear and worry 3. Indecision and doubt 4. Frustration and discouragement throughout life 5. Poverty and want 6. And a whole flock of evils consisting of in the greed, jealousy, anger, hatred and superstition   My mission in life, Hill tells us, is to help you to open up and use the contents of the sealed envelope labelled riches. These lessons are the starting point in opening up those riches.   WHATEVER THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE AND BELIEVE THE MIND CAN ACHIEVE   Lesson 4: THE HABIT OF SAVING: It is obvious to all that the saving of money is one of the essentials for success, but the big question in the minds of those WHO DO NOT SAVE is: "How can I do it?" Hill goes into this though and explains that the saving of money is SOLELY A MATTER OF HABIT.   Formation of the Habit of Saving not only conserves that which you earn, in a systematic manner, but it also places you in the way of greater opportunity and gives you the vision, the self-confidence, the imagination, the enthusiasm, the initiative and leadership to actually increase your earning capacity.   Now I went into habits again just a few weeks ago and it was for very good reason. Habit Forming is an extremely powerful skill to master. Hill’s angle on this is that through REPETITION, any act indulged in a few times becomes a habit and today that few times is regarded as about 30 days or so.   For me habits are vital to form as they take the place of will power, which day by day we only have a limited supply of. If you are directing your will power every day towards your goals, you can begin to save its limited daily allocation by building habits and place it elsewhere. As the habit forms, it replaces the need for you to commit will power towards it. That, if I’ve explained it correctly, is the POWER OF HABIT.   In this chapter Hill brings us back to the DEFINITE CHIEF AIM lesson - you set up, in your mind, an accurate, definite description of that which you want, including the amount of money you intend to earn and or save. This is again something which I find many creatives avoid as some of us seem to have an inbuilt revulsion to making money from our work, or we have some sort of imposter syndrome incursion about charging too much.   If that sounds like you, you need to get over, around or go through that self-applied limitation and do what HILL suggests here. Let’s get passed your distaste and set a target figure to aim for. As with all our goals, if we don’t know where we are going, how can we navigate towards it?   This chapter is about saving money, let’s not forget it. What Hill is setting up here is a route to killing the FEAR OF POVERTY he mentioned in the previous lesson. “By urging on and demanding of your self-increased earning power on the one hand, and by systematically laying aside a definite amount of all your earnings, on the other, you will soon reach the point at which you have removed all imaginary limitations from your own mind and you will be well started on the road toward financial independence.” “Never spend your money before you have earned it.” Thomas Jefferson UNQUOTE Hill dedicates a subchapter here to what he calls THE SLAVERY OF DEBT. Debt, he points out, and don’t we know it, is a merciless master - THE FATAL ENEMY OF THE SAVINGS HABIT. Poverty, alone, is sufficient to kill off ambition, destroy self-confidence and destroy hope, but add to it the burden of debt and all who are victims of these two cruel task-masters are practically doomed to failure.   If you’ve ever had any doubt that this near 100-year-old book is as wise today as it was back then consider that sentence.   “Poverty, alone, is sufficient to kill off ambition, destroy self-confidence and destroy hope, but add to it THE BURDEN OF DEBT and all who are victims of these two cruel task-masters are practically doomed to failure.” He goes on – “None can do their best work, or express themselves in terms that command respect, or can either create or carry out a definite purpose in life, with heavy debt hanging over their head. Those bound in the slavery of debt are just as helpless as the slave who is bound by ignorance, or by actual chains.”   Hill doesn’t leave us hanging though; this is a book about success. He says “To whip the Fear of Poverty one must take two very definite steps, providing one is in debt.   First, QUIT THE HABIT OF BUYING ON CREDIT, and follow this by GRADUALLY PAYING OFF THE DEBTS THAT YOU HAVE ALREADY INCURRED.   Being free from the worry of debt means you are ready to revamp the habits of your mind and redirect your course toward PROSPERITY. Adopt, as a part of your DEFINITE CHIEF AIM, the habit of saving a regular proportion of your income, even if this be no more than a penny a day. Very soon this habit will begin to lay hold of your mind and you will actually get joy out of saving.”   I’d add to that there is a definite difference between being a skinflint and being frugal. Don’t let pride interfere with your financial situation. You can still be generous and kind, but be frugal also.   Now I can’t condense all of his advice on this but here are a few more bits of gold from this chapter. · Reserve Funds are essential in the successful operation of business! As a freelancer, I can’t agree more. I am currently owed literally thousands of pounds from work completed and without a reserve fund, I’d be fucked. · Next, Savings Accounts are essential to success on the part of individuals. It can’t be denied that the rates we are offered by banks at the moment are utter garbage. I got a letter from my bank a few years back explaining that I’d get 0.01% interest. Thinking it a misprint I went in, queued for 15 minutes, and was told it was true. Even knowing that though I recently started a savings plan which automatically takes £50 off me a week. I don’t need to have a habit of saving it as it’s taken via a standing order from one account to another and before I get my grubby little spending paws on it. When I need it though, it will be there. · The final snippet I will offer up from this chapter is this: The nickels, dimes and pennies which the average person allows to slip through their fingers would, if systematically saved and properly put to work, eventually bring financial independence. My mum used to say this. Count the pennies and the pounds will take care of themselves. These days the pennies are not just foaling out pockets, they are forgotten payment plans and automated payments to gyms we never attend. Get saving your pennies by looking at where your money is actually going. Lastly, if you are trying to develop a HABIT OF SAVING then you must learn to kill the habit of unnecessary spending. As I said before, you don’t have to be a skinflint to do this, you just need to learn to control your spending and to be somewhat frugal. Frugal just means being careful with your money or food or other resources. Hill’s book gives multiple examples of FORMER MILLIONAIRES who now have NOTHING to their name as they were either born into money and didn’t value it or as they couldn’t control their spending habits. “A leader takes people where they want to go. A great leader takes people where they don’t necessarily want to go, but ought to be.” Rosalynn Carter UNQUOTE WHATEVER THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE AND BELIEVE THE MIND CAN ACHIEVE   LESSON 5: INITIATIVE AND LEADERSHIP: Elbert Hubbard said: "The world bestows its big prizes, both in money and honours, for one thing, and that is Initiative.” And it is essential that I highlight that INITIATIVE IS THE VITAL QUALITY here, as when researching this episode I noted that many seem to refer to this as the Leadership lesson. INITIATIVE is associated with Leadership for the reason that Hill believes Leadership is essential for the attainment of success, but he also says that Initiative is the very foundation upon which this necessary quality, LEADERSHIP, is built.   So what is INITIATIVE? It is DOING THE RIGHT THING WITHOUT BEING TOLD and one of the peculiarities of LEADERSHIP is the fact that it is never found in those who have not acquired the habit of taking the initiative and referring back to lesson 3 it also does not flourish in those who have no SELF CONFIDENCE. "A good plan implemented today is better than a perfect plan implemented tomorrow." General George Patton UNQUOTE If you are to become a person of INITIATIVE AND LEADERSHIP Hill says that you must first master the habit of procrastination and eliminate it from your make-up? How many of our problems today come from procrastination? It’s one of those ninja-like enemies of productivity that I often harp on about and I’ve offered solutions to in the past. Hill too, has a formula for throwing this off which goes right back to our DEFINITE CHIEF AIM   He says You must form the HABIT of taking some definite action each day that will carry you one step nearer the attainment of your definite chief aim by having the initiative to: a) Do one DEFINITE thing each day, that ought to be done, without anyone telling you to do it. b) Look around until you find at least one thing that you can do each day, that you have not been in the habit of doing, and that will be of value to others, without expectation of pay. That’s likely my work on this podcast here… c) And 3) Telling at least one other person, each day, of the value of practising this habit of doing something that ought to be done without being told to do it.   This is an interesting one because most people are not in the habit of talking about productivity. I know. I ask people to listen to the show every day, people I meet, people I work with and the likelihood of them listening in is absolutely rock bottom. I do try though, I do try. Please do tell people about this show yourself too btw it’s essential that I get more listeners – but I digress.   The habit of initiative becomes fixed in proportion to the extent that it is practised. Hill writes these formulas in the format of a contract with one’s self. He doesn’t want us to keep these agreements in our heads, he wants a physical signed contract which we will adhere to – this is an interesting act as it kinda seals the deal and makes us consider, for a time at least, the advice he gives us on this.   The second thing Hill advises if you are to become a person of initiative and leadership is understanding that THE ONLY WAY TO GET HAPPINESS IS BY GIVING IT AWAY TO OTHERS. I can speak for this. Through this podcast, I gain a level of happiness myself by driving myself and giving up vast amounts of my time to creating and marketing these shows in the hope that they will help others. This gives me not a financial return, but one of satisfaction.   What’s interesting here is that Hill believes that “You cannot talk initiative to others without developing a desire to practice it yourself. Through the operation of the principle of Auto-suggestion, every statement that you make to others leaves its imprint on your own subconscious mind.” So talk about initiative to others, the same could be true of anything on this show that hits the mark with you. The more you talk about it, the more these positive and productive ideas take route in your own psyche.   The third point which Hill wants us to understand is that there are TWO BRANDS OF LEADERSHIP. One of them is as DEADLY AND DESTRUCTIVE as the other is HELPFUL AND CONSTRUCTIVE. The deadly brand, which leads not to success, but to absolute failure, is the brand adopted by pseudo-leaders who force their leadership on unwilling followers… and I’ve met a few of those bullish charlatans in my lifetime I’ll tell you. “The challenge of leadership is to be strong, but not rude; be kind, but not weak; be bold, but not a BULLY; be thoughtful, but not lazy; be humble, but not timid; be proud, but not arrogant; have humour, but without folly.” – Jim Rohn UNQUOTE Hill acknowledges the PENALTIES OF LEADERSHIP and that LEADERS ARE NOT ALWAYS SPOKEN OF SWEETLY but he says that this should not deter you from becoming a leader. It is only "genius" that attracts the attention of critics. Nobody bothers slandering a person who isn't somewhere near the upper rungs of the ladder of success. I love this point as we see it every day in the media and in politics. It’s like it was written last week.   This chapter is overflowing with wisdom; it’s full of real-life examples and truths that even now are like a free buffet to a productivity fiend. Even if you don’t think yourself a leader or perhaps particularly if you don’t: Then you have to give this chapter real consideration.   He lists the qualities of a great leader including Moral Ascendency, Paternalism, Fairness, Initiative, Decision, Dignity and Courage and explains that you must give, give, give all the time as SELF-SACRIFICE IS ESSENTIAL TO LEADERSHIP. He talks of punishment and the essential fairness in also giving credit and finally he talks about intolerance “If you must give expression to prejudice and hatred and intolerance, do not speak it, but write it; write it in the sands, near the water's edge.”   Summing Up   I’ll end it there, but to recap, today we have covered:   LESSON 3: SELF CONFIDENCE - Believe that you are worthy of success and that you can attain it. Without truly understanding this - you will probably get nowhere with most of your goals. If you are not confident, then you cannot sell yourself in life. LESSON 4: THE HABIT OF SAVING - Saving of money is solely a matter of habit. Take his advice and make it happen. LESSON 5: INITIATIVE AND LEADERSHIP - Leadership is essential for the attainment of Success, but Initiative is the very foundation upon which this necessary quality is built.   Call To Action I’m cautious about giving you a call to action in all this as we are covering some very large topics here. If you can find a moment to simply discuss the topic of Initiative, as Hill suggests, this week then that is enough. Through the power of auto-suggestion this will start to instil action and initiative in your life to perhaps revisit this episode and put more of the advice here to good use.   Ending   These lessons are not intended as a short-cut to success, nor as a mechanical formula that you may use without effort. Their real value lies in the use that you will make of them, and not in the lessons themselves. The chief purpose of this is to help you develop in yourself the qualities covered by THE LAW OF SUCCESS. I will end today’s show with the words of Mark Twain "Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." Now - take control of your own destiny, keep on shootin’, join me next time on Film Pro Productivity.   • The music you can hear right now is Adventures by A Himitsu • You can view the show notes for this episode on the official website filmproproductivity.com • You can follow my personal account on Twitter and Instagram @fight_director or follow the show on Twitter @filmproprodpod or on Facebook @Filmproproductivity • Please support the show by subscribing, spreading the word and leaving an AWESOME review.   References: https://owlcation.com/humanities/The-Law-of-Success-by-Napoleon-Hill-A-Quick-Overview   Thanks: A Himitsu Music: Adventures by A Himitsu https://www.soundcloud.com/a-himitsuCreative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported— CC BY 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/b... Music released by Argofox https://www.youtu.be/8BXNwnxaVQE Music provided by Audio Library https://www.youtu.be/MkNeIUgNPQ8 ––– • Contact the artist: x.jonaz@gmail.com https://www.facebook.com/ahimitsuhttps://www.twitter.com/ahimitsu1 https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgFwu-j5-xNJml2FtTrrB3A

  Hello and welcome to Film Pro Productivity, the podcast that helps film professionals and other creatives to live a more focused, effective and HAPPY life. My name is Carter Ferguson and this is EPISODE 40 – THE LAW OF SUCCESS IN 16 LESSONS: PART 1   That was Napoleon Hill speaking there in 1954 and during the next six episodes I will be introducing you to the concepts and principles which he first presented in his very powerful book THE LAW OF SUCCESS IN 16 LESSONS – It’s the book that his more well-known work Think and Grow Rich was based on as well as many many other self-help books and concepts which we find discussed in productivity circles today - And if you think you’ve got nothing to learn from something written nearly a hundred years ago, then think again. This is potent stuff.   Whilst still a young man Napoleon Hill met Andrew Carnegie a Scottish-American industrialist, business magnate, and philanthropist. Carnegie led the expansion of the American steel industry in the late 19th century and became one of the richest Americans in history. Andrew Carnegie is the third-wealthiest figure of the modern period (net worth of $310 billion). and came to understand that a formula for success could be outlined in simple lessons which anyone could understand.   He was commissioned by Carnegie to prove this statement and went on to spend twenty plus years of his life studying Carnegie and his associates to find this elusive formula.   During this time he was granted access to America's ELITE including the likes of Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell, Theodore Roosevelt, John D Rockefeller and Henry Ford. At first, he compiled his notes into a series of lectures which were personally delivered across the USA over a period of about seven years. These were then compiled into booklets and finally the manuscripts became published as a single volume known as “THE LAW OF SUCCESS” in 1928 – That book was only distributed to 118 of the very wealthy and successful men who had contributed to its content and one of these original copies was used to create a reprinted version of The Law of Success in 2010. One thing I’d like to say though about WHEN this was written - and I mention this as I find it a little hard on the ear myself - is that in 1928 it was commonplace to use the term “men” or “man” when speaking generally about HUMANKIND where today more gender-neutral words or phrasings such “they” or “those” would work instead. I will often, but NOT ALWAYS NEUTRALISE THE GENDER put forth in the text, however - I DON’T DO THIS when QUOTING DIRECTLY from someone, which I do often, or where it isn’t factually accurate for me to neutralise gender. For example, when I said there that the book was “distributed to 118 of the very wealthy and successful MEN who had contributed to its content” it’s because it’s factually accurate. As far as I am aware, he neither interviewed not distributed this to women, but that doesn’t mean that there is nothing for all of us to learn from it. Hill was all about inclusion and I’m certain that if he wrote this book today he would have made this adaptation. He would have been horrified that his positive words somehow made any section of his readership uncomfortable or feel isolated. I say this as a kinda fair warning that on occasion you will hear these gender-specific words and they may jar a little, but bear with me if you are easily “triggered”, as these lessons in SUCCESS are accessible and relevant to all, and the BENEFITS you will gain from them will MORE THAN makeup FOR A FEW ANACHRONISTIC and GENDER SPECIFIC QUOTATIONS. With that point made, let’s move on. The Law of Success was effectively condensed version into THINK AND GROW RICH, which wasn’t released until 1937. Rumour has it that this 9-year hiatus came about because the "authorities" felt that SUCH AN EXACT GUIDE TO SUCCESS, AS SEEN IN THE ORIGINAL, could be a threat to their roles in government and society. In THINK AND GROW RICH the concepts and ideas are diluted to make it shorter but it’s generally considered now that the real gold can be found in this -THE LAW OF SUCCESS IN 16 LESSONS.   Hill warns against PASSING JUDGMENT before having read the entire sixteen lessons. THOSE WHO TAKE UP THE COURSE WITH AN OPEN MIND, he tells us, WILL BE RICHLY REWARDED – so bear with ME over the next 6 episodes, KEEP AN OPEN MIND AS I PROCEED, and you will get a glimpse of the vision which Napoleon Hill set forth in the 1100 or so pages that make up the LAW OF SUCCESS IN 16 LESSONS.   You cannot push any one up a ladder unless he is willing to climb a little by himself. Andrew Carnegie UNQUOTE   These shows are a kinda six-part “series within the series” – and organised so as to introduce you to the concepts within the book - ON THAT NOTE MANY YOU WILL LIKELY RECOGNISE TOPICS WHICH I’VE TACKLED IN EARLIER EPISODES as the rules and theories which Napoleon Hill introduces here are intrinsically part of what productivity has become.   It’s worth mentioning too, that throughout his lessons, Hill doesn’t hold back on giving examples and if anything, it is this that truly separates it in content from THINK AND GROW RICH.   In the 1950s Hill filmed a series of lectures based on this work. He’d had a few years to develop his ideas and there are a few nuggets of wisdom from that, which I will use here. The first of these was this:   He said that “Success is a very profound and interesting thing because the line of demarcation between success and failure is so slight that it is often hard to see where one ends and the other begins.”   For those of us struggling with the many failures and disappointments that come along in life and work, it’s worth noting that Hill’s words predict for us SUCCESS with a slight shifting of our outlook and our actions. I hope that this short series of episodes brings you the key to that success.   On a final note, I’m switching around lesson 2 and lesson 1 from the book because Napoleon Hill did so later in life himself and because to me it makes far more sense this way around.   In this chapter though, Hill first suggests we read with a pencil and pad to hand as the lessons will “superinduce a flow of thoughts covering a wide range of subjects”. I realise that many who listen to podcasts are doing other things as they do so, driving, walking the dog or whatever, but if you can, I’d try and take a bit of a breather between the lessons in case I too, accidentally superinduce your FLOW OF THOUGHTS too much and you have a meltdown.   Without further ado, hang onto your seats and let’s look at THE LAW OF SUCCESS IN 16 LESSONS.   WHATEVER THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE AND BELIEVE THE MIND CAN ACHIEVE Definiteness of purpose is the starting point of all achievement. Without a purpose and a plan, people drift aimlessly through life. Napoleon Hill Unquote LESSON 2 in The LAW OF SUCCESS is titled A DEFINITE CHIEF AIM: and here Hill states that “This lesson will show you how to do away forever - with aimlessness - and fix your heart and hand upon some definite, well-conceived purpose.” It is important that you recognize that all success begins with definiteness of purpose - with a clear picture in your mind of precisely what you want from life. Hill warns us NOT UNDERESTIMATE THE VALUE OF THIS IDEA DUE TO ITS SIMPLICITY. There is no greatness where there is no simplicity, goodness and truth. Leo Tolstoy unquote It’ll come as no surprise to listeners to this show that what we need to do is to set an objective and a time frame before we can achieve it, and that’s as true for a small task as it is for a life goal. I talk about this often as WITHOUT HAVING A SOLID AIM TO FOCUS ON YOU CANNOT EFFECTIVELY, EFFICIENTLY, AND AS DIRECTLY AS POSSIBLE, ACHIEVE IT. Hill’s specific instruction in regard to this lesson 2 - A DEFINITE CHIEF AIM is to “procure a neat pocket size a notebook” · and on page 1 write down a clear description of your major aim in life - the one circumstance or position or thing which you will be willing to accept as your idea of success - and remember before you begin writing that your only limitations are those which you set up in your own mind or which others to set up for you. Please be the master of your own destiny, and try not to allow yourself to be side lined into achieving someone else’s desires in place of your own. · On page 2 Hill asks us to write down a clear statement of precisely what you intend to GIVE IN RETURN for that which you desire from life. Hill firmly believes that there is NO SUCH THING AS SOMETHING FOR NOTHING. · Thirdly he asks you to memorize both of your statements WHAT YOU DESIRE AND WHAT YOU INTEND TO GIVE IN RETURN FOR IT and to repeat them at least a dozen times daily.” Humility leads to strength and not to weakness. It is the highest form of self-respect to admit mistakes and to make amends for them. John J. McCloy UNQUOTE Lesson 2 covers a lot of ground, not least of which is the time he spends on the importance of HUMILITY, which he describes as the FORERUNNER TO SUCCESS – but what Hill also gets into in this lesson is POWER. “Success is the development of the POWER with which to get whatever one wants in life without interfering with the rights of others.” To Hill, POWER is ORGANIZED ENERGY or EFFORT and his book is called the Law of Success as it teaches how we may organize facts and knowledge and the faculties of our mind, into a unit of power. THIS POWER, HE SAYS, BRINGS YOU A DEFINITE PROMISE: That through its mastery and application you can get whatever you want, with but two qualifying words - "WITHIN REASON."   This is a point on which I’ve hung my hat in the past, In episode 28 - YOU HAVE THE POWER I say BE CONFIDENT BUT NOT DELUSIONAL and when Hill says "You Can Do It if You Believe You Can!" he doesn’t mean you can become Harry Potter or ride a unicorn. It’s the sort of thing that you’d think doesn’t need to be voiced, but in my experience there are those out there that keep themselves back from success because they cannot recognise that they are in some way the problem, and it is they that keep themselves in check. No man has a chance to enjoy permanent success until he begins to look in a mirror for the real cause of all his mistakes. Napoleon Hill Unquote In the next lesson, we will look at how you can organize the faculties of your mind and the faculties of others, to co-ordinate and focus on your DEFINITE CHIEF AIM. The key-note of this entire lesson may be found in the word "definite." That any DEFINITE CHIEF AIM that is deliberately fixed in the mind and held there, with the determination to realize it, finally saturates the entire subconscious mind until it automatically influences your physical action toward the achievement of that purpose.   Your DEFINITE CHIEF AIM in life should be selected with deliberate care, and after it has been selected it should be written out as outlined before and placed where you will see it AT LEAST ONCE A DAY - I HAVE MY AIMS WRITTEN ON MY OFFICE WALL for example and ON THE WHITEBOARDS which I use every day. The psychological effect of this is to impress this purpose upon your SUBCONSCIOUS mind so strongly that IT ACCEPTS THAT PURPOSE AS A PATTERN OR BLUEPRINT that will eventually DOMINATE YOUR ACTIVITIES IN LIFE and lead you, step by step, TOWARD THE ATTAINMENT OF THAT THAT AIM. Hill says “Suppose your definite chief aim is far above your present station in life. What of it? It is your privilege - nay, your DUTY, to aim high in life.” It’s now that I get to the start of 16 lessons, but before I do, I want you to really consider what has been proposed here in this one. Don’t just let it pass and move on, pause the show if you have to and really consider what has been said. IF YOU HAVE TO SPEND A FEW DAYS OR WEEKS CONSIDERING HOW SETTING YOURSELF A CONTRACT TO ACHIEVE A DEFINITE CHIEF AIM, COULD CHANGE YOUR LIFE THEN DO IT. Thomas Jefferson SAID Nothing can stop the someone with the RIGHT MENTAL ATTITUDE from achieving his goal; and NOTHING ON EARTH CAN HELP THE MAN (or woman) with the WRONG MENTAL ATTITUDE.   WHATEVER THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE AND BELIEVE THE MIND CAN ACHIEVE   LESSON 1 - THE MASTER MIND: Hill discusses many things in this first lesson as he prepares and primes the reader for what is to come. He talks about how to STIMULATE YOUR IMAGINATION so that it will create PRACTICAL PLANS and NEW IDEAS, and how ORGANIZED EFFORT, IS THE SOURCE OF ALL POWER! Don’t skip passed this statement either – TAKE HEED AND CONSIDER THE WORDS - ORGANISED EFFORT IS THE SOURCE OF ALL POWER. If we set our minds to it, and can intelligently coordinate the efforts of the many, WORKING IN HARMONY, we can achieve truly great things. This isn’t a throwaway statement either. He really means it.   This is the principle through which you may borrow and use the education, the experience, the influence and perhaps the capital of other people in CARRYING OUT YOUR OWN PLANS IN LIFE.   It is the principle through which you can accomplish in one year more than you could accomplish without it in a lifetime if you depended entirely upon your own efforts for success. Hill explains that the MASTERMIND PRINCIPLE can also give you absolute protection against failure provided that your purpose is in using this principle is BENEFICIAL TO ALL WHOM YOU INFLUENCE.   Hill explains that the "Master Mind" is an invisible STRONGER third mind which is developed by a friendly alliance, in a spirit of harmony of purpose, between two or more minds.   I’ll say it again - AN INVISIBLE STRONGER THIRD MIND WHICH IS DEVELOPED BY A FRIENDLY ALLIANCE, IN A SPIRIT OF HARMONY OF PURPOSE, BETWEEN TWO OR MORE MINDS.   He clarifies too that NO TWO OR MORE MINDS EVER MET WITHOUT CREATING, out of the contact, ANOTHER MIND but warns us that this INVISIBLE creation is not always a "Master Mind.” as a MASTER MIND ONLY forms when those TWO OR MORE PEOPLE WORK TOGETHER IN HARMONY of purpose and effort.   I’ve seen many of the theories behind THE MASTER MIND discussed in productivity circles over the years and it’s one that is of great interest to me. It is based on the idiom that SUCCESS DOES NOT COME WITHOUT THE COOPERATION OF OTHERS - I haven’t thought about that particular concept very often but I’ve unconsciously been part of MASTER MIND groups at various points in my life and I’m very open to embracing it. I’ve had an awareness of it I think though, as I often think of Jim Rohn who famously said that “we become the average of the five people we spend the most time with.” In other words, if you spend a lot of time with a bunch of wasters, then you’re not going to be getting out of your rut anytime soon, and it’s highly likely you will become a bit of a waster yourself. If however you spend your time with high flyers you will follow most likely along that path too.   When discussing of THE MASTER MIND Hill says something similar to Rohn – He says “It has been found that a group of six or seven sales people may use the law so effectively that their sales may be increased to unbelievable proportions.” He adds the caveat though that “It is strictly for minds who trust each other and are interested in the good success of all parties involved.” In my experience, it is with those final words that I have seen many a MASTER MIND destroyed by selfishness and EGO.   On that note Hill advises that you “Control your mental attitude and make yourself friendly and agreeable with everyone with whom you are closely associated if you expect friendly cooperation in return. Indifference cannot create a mastermind alliance, and a negative mental attitude can bring you nothing but failure. Your mental attitude is the one and the only thing over which you have complete control.   Whilst researching this book, he reminds us, I had the collaboration of practically every outstanding successful man this country has produced during the past 50 years and I can tell you DEFINITELY that their success was due in main to their knowledge and application of the MASTERMIND principle.   Henry Ford's gigantic success may be traced to the successful application of this MASTER MIND principle, he says “With all the self-reliance a man could have, Ford, did not depend upon himself for the knowledge necessary in the successful development of his industries. He surrounded himself with men who supplied the knowledge which he, himself, DID NOT and COULD NOT possess. Moreover, Ford picked men who COULD AND DID HARMONIZE IN GROUP EFFORT.” – Hill talks elsewhere of how FORD’s true mastermind alliance was with HIS WIFE who supported and encouraged him.   In this chapter Hill also looks at WHY PEOPLE FAIL and WHY SOME PEOPLE ANTAGONIZE OTHERS WITHOUT KNOWING IT, and how SUCCESS is often a matter of TACTFUL NEGOTIATION. He also explains that EVERY HUMAN BEING possesses at least two distinct personalities; one destructive and one constructive. My default is self-destruction, and anything on top of that is a bloody lot of work. Gillian Anderson UNQUOTE Summing Up   The master mind is a simple enough thing to understand, although like many other concepts it is harder to put into practice. I’m going to end this episode here but over the next five episodes I will dip into each of the remaining lessons. These lessons are constantly relating to one another and I’ll refer back to these first two many times. In summary today though:   Lesson 2 states that you must do away forever with aimlessness and fix your heart and hand upon some definite, well-conceived purpose. In your struggle for SUCCESS you should keep constantly in mind the necessity of knowing what it is that you want - Know precisely what your definite purpose is – and utilise the principle of organized effort in the attainment of that DEFINITE PURPOSE.   …and Lesson 1 encourages to form A "Master Mind" - an invisible stronger third mind, developed through friendly alliance, in a spirit of harmony of purpose, between two or more minds. No two or more minds ever met without creating, out of the contact, another mind, but that this invisible creation is not always a "Master Mind." That ONLY forms when those two or more people work together in harmony of purpose and effort. Please consider the theory of THE MASTER MIND ALLIANCE. How can you create a harmonious master mind group that will further your purpose. I’m pretty sure I’ll be looking into this further in a future episode.   Call To Action If you haven’t done so already, then you need to start putting serious time into rediscovering your one chief aim. Consider it, focus on it, and move on with purpose.   Hill actually gives a CALL TO ACTION WITHIN THESE CHAPTERS. He reminds us that there is no such thing as something for nothing. Everything including your personal success has a price that must be paid and the only price you are requested to pay for the present is the effort necessary to do three simple things:   1. Decide definitely where you wish to be in what you wish to be doing during the next three years. 2. Decide how much money you desire to be making and what you are going to do to earn it. 3. Form a mastermind alliance with at least one person (he suggests in your immediate family although these days I’d advise caution on that front) and at least one other person among those to whom you are selling your services.   Gary Keller said “Success demands singleness of purpose. You need to be doing fewer things for more effect instead of doing more things with side effects. It is those who concentrate on but one thing at a time who advance in this world.” In the next episode I’ll be firing straight into several more of Napoleon Hill’s Law Of Success lessons. If you are listening to these back to back though, I’d suggest giving yourself a bit of a breather between them as there’s some big topics here. In the show notes for today’s episode I’ll be including a link to a free pdf of the full THE LAW OF SUCCESS IN 16 LESSONS BOOK as it’s now in the public domain. You can access it via the official website @ filmproproductivity.com   PDF DOWNLOAD ON THIS LINK - CLICK ME   Now - take control of your own destiny, keep on shootin’, join me next time on Film Pro Productivity.   • The music you can hear right now is Adventures by A Himitsu • You can view the show notes for this episode on the official website filmproproductivity.com • You can follow my personal account on Twitter and Instagram @fight_director or follow the show on Twitter @filmproprodpod or on Facebook @Filmproproductivity • Please support the show by subscribing, spreading the word and leaving an AWESOME review.   References: https://owlcation.com/humanities/The-Law-of-Success-by-Napoleon-Hill-A-Quick-Overview   https://youtubemp3.today/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D8EQWhQt9OQo# Thanks: A Himitsu Music: Adventures by A Himitsu https://www.soundcloud.com/a-himitsuCreative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported— CC BY 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/b... Music released by Argofox https://www.youtu.be/8BXNwnxaVQE Music provided by Audio Library https://www.youtu.be/MkNeIUgNPQ8 ––– • Contact the artist: x.jonaz@gmail.com https://www.facebook.com/ahimitsuhttps://www.twitter.com/ahimitsu1 https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgFwu-j5-xNJml2FtTrrB3A

 This episode is sponsored by Magic Monkey Films   Hello and welcome to Film Pro Productivity, the podcast which helps film professionals and other creatives to live a more focused, effective and HAPPY life. My name is Carter Ferguson and this is EPISODE 39 – DON’T… DO ME A FAVOUR   PLEASE NOTE THAT THROUGHOUT THIS TRANSCRIPT I AM USING THE UK SPELLING OF THE WORD. THIS IS EXACTLY THE SAME MEANING AS THE US SPELLING "FAVOR".   Today I’m going into another in my TELL IT LIKE IT IS series of shows which have proven to be very successful in the past – These are episodes where I talk about a problem which it’s likely we may all have come up against but which out of politeness or awkwardness or some other reason we just don’t discuss. This is one which has bit me in the ass a good few times over the years. Before I get into it though, I am increasingly conscious that I may come across as a moany old git, but I do draw upon my own experiences for these shows, and offer them up in good spirit not in the name of negativity but as signposts of danger, and with the hope that through my failures you will prosper. Benjamin Franklin said · Most people RETURN small favours, · ACKNOWLEDGE medium ones · and REPAY greater ones · with INGRATITUDE. - UNQUOTE For me, this has proven to be one of the greatest TRUTHS of life. Oh yes - today we are talking about FAVOURS.   We all know this of course: a favour is a common thing - the dictionary describes it as: an act of kindness beyond what is due or usual. Synonyms include a good turn, service, kind act, good deed, act of kindness, kindness, courtesy, indulgence. And let me add that it something that is given with no expectation of return. Today though, I need to dig deeper than that.   The first thing I want to say is that there’s a MARKETING RULE called the RULE OF RECIPROCITY – which says, “we should try to repay, in kind, what another person has provided for us.” If someone buys you a birthday gift therefor or invites you to a party, you’d do well to remember to invite them or buy them one in return. This isn’t necessarily because we are inherently good humans, but “by virtue of the reciprocity rule…we feel obligated to the future repayment of favours, gifts, invitations, and the like.” In other words, reciprocity is a deeply-ingrained human behaviour. It would appear in fact, that all people, from all societies, practice this rule.   So with a favour these days comes an unspoken, inference for some people of a return of that favour. In fact, we often hear a response of I owe you one when a favour is received. I just want to raise this here, as this is in fact where some of the muddiness in regard to favours is rooted. That muddiness of favours goes both ways btw. William Hazlitt said “Our friends are generally ready to do everything for us, except the very thing we wish them to do.” unquote I first realise that I had a problem with people “doing me a favour” when I was directing my first short film, a 3 part mini-series we called The Rage based on the 28 days later films – The film currently has millions of hits on Youtube incidentally, and voted 5th best fan film in the world by dreadcentral.com a few years back – so check it out. That all sounds great I know, but it was just a low budget film we did for fun, which people gave their time for free to complete and which we took very seriously.   One day, as a first time director, I was trying to deal with a problem of rain hitting the lens and a moving camera, which looks really bad btw, when an actor friend of mine who was part of a group in front of the camera got rather upset with me – probably for not explaining what the issue was. He pulled me aside and announced to me that he was doing me a FAVOUR in being in the film and he threatened to leave. In order to keep things moving, I apologised but I have been kinda reeling from it ever since.   You see that “friend” was doing me NO FAVOURS AT ALL by threatening to abandon the project if I didn’t, in effect, obey him. The whole thing was difficult and even now, 12 years on, I never forgot it.   This wasn’t the last time that someone let me down very badly as they were “doing me a favour” though. Another actor on another job didn’t realise, somehow, that he was being paid to act in one of my films. He turned up 2 hours late and put the whole days shooting in jeopardy. In his mind, it just wasn’t important and he was just “helping me out”. It was a big disappointment which nearly resulted in me playing his part as we got that close to the edge there something had to be done.   I’ve realised through happenings like this that I needed to introduce rules to protect myself in future. I’m going to share these rules with you today. Do with them as you will. The FIRST OF THESE RULES was based on the experiences I just described – It is …NEVER LET ANYONE ON BOARD WHO THINKS THAT THEY ARE JUST DOING YOU A FAVOUR, as in my experience they will let you down, and when that happens - they will be doing you no favour at all.   Regular listeners will know that as a result of many very disappointing experiences in film making such as this, I have currently given up on making films, but for arguments sake: If someone wanted to come on to one of my projects, whether a low to no budget or a commercial endeavour with fees attached, they have to do so because they genuinely want to be involved, because it interests them or because it benefits them in some way. I no longer let anyone on board if they are “doing me a favour”. If you do this, you are introducing a chaotic uncontrollable element to the production which could cause you an immense amount of trouble in the long run.   Things like this - as I never did have much of a budget - just made the whole thing even more difficult. Incidentally, I never use the FOR EXPOSURE argument when making films and I always played fair on low budget films. I poured my money, time and energy into them, ensured that cast and crew were treated well and I never walked away with anything more than those that took part. I also assumed the position of the rule of reciprocity and time and time and time again in return, I helped those that had helped me.   As an aside, I recently had to drop out of a low to no budget endeavour in which I had committed my time, energy and resources, including significant finance before discovering that the project leader was receiving fees when no one else was. I got absolutely scammed beyond belief on that one and I will be talking about scams in a future show, but please please please be careful out there and never assume that you are being treated fairly. This was yet another boot in the balls which led to my getting out of filmmaking. I honestly tell these stores on the show here and think, people must think me a total idiot, well, maybe I am, but this world that we live in is a damned dangerous place, even for the wary.   On the flip side btw I have also learned that when I am “doing someone a favour” a real favour not a fake favour, is not a contract for future return of favour. As I said before a favour is “something that is given with no expectation of return.“ If I ever do a favour for someone, I’ll first ensure that I can actually deliver it, and if not I’ll utilise that powerful productivity technique I detailed in episode 2 - by saying NO - and I’ll suggest alternatives. If, however, I do help someone out I’ll do so without expectation of any favour in return. I suppose I learned this one the hard way too – I noticed that it’s particularly prevalent if I do a film or TV production a FAVOUR by reducing my rates. I can’t recall a time where reducing my rates, or lending equipment or props has ever led to a proper wage somewhere down the line, or a return of that favour later. It’s in this form of kindness that I’ve been kinda burned many times in the past.   I once lent swords to the Brunton Theatre for their Christmas pantomime. When the show ended its run though, they didn’t return them to me. I chased them down and they eventually did drop them back, about 6 weeks later - with one of them broken beyond repair. That’s how my favour of lending swords rather than renting them was replaced. A feature film I was second unit director on in Glasgow did something similar. I lent their art department a cracking blunted butchers knife prop, and a US ARMY ID pass straight from the set of the 28 weeks later feature film with a value of over £200. I never saw them again. That’s how that favour was returned.   I lent a prop pistol to the ORAN MOR, a theatre in Glasgow for a show. That was about 6 years ago. They repaid that favour by losing it and never paying me for its loss. I chased down the director and they said I’m sorry it’s gone. Not even an offer of repayment. Like so many losses over the years, usually in padding that I have bought for actors in productions, I wrote the loss off. I in effect bankrolled their unprofessional-ism and they likely went off to fuck up someone else’s good will.   If I list any more examples or list the number of freebies I’ve done for companies that later turned out to have budgets etc you will think me an even bigger idiot than before - a kind idiot, but an idiot nonetheless – and you would be 100% correct. For years I was that idiot, but not so now.   So to reiterate THE SECOND RULE I now have about all this is an important one that DOING SOMEONE A FAVOUR IS NOT A CONTRACT FOR FUTURE RETURN ON FAVOUR. It’s also not a guarantee of any kind of future re-employment if you give someone a special deal on a freelancer daily rate etc or of return of respect. If you get your head into this space – you are setting yourself up for future disappointment.   My THIRD AND FINAL RULE is that if I ever lend someone something, for example, a film production, that an INDIVIDUAL – an actual responsible human being - MUST SIGN FOR IT, ACKNOWLEDGE ITS VALUE AND GUARANTEE TO TAKE CARE OF IT OR PAY FOR IT IF IT GETS BROKEN. More ideally they should RENT IT FROM ME WITH A DAILY OR WEEKLY RATE and an ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF IT’S VALUE THAT THEY WILL REPAY IF THEY LOSE OR BREAK IT, OR PAY EXTRA RENT IF THEY RETURN IT LATE.   I think sometimes we can get a little confused in the creative industries and lose sight of the fact that show business is still a business. There are just too many unscrupulous people out there that will take advantage of us if we do not.   To sum all this up, you must never do anyone a favour with the expectation of gaining something in return or doing the favour without your true commitment to it in the first place.   A favour is just a favour– it does not legally create a debt of anything owed back to you in some way in return – or that you can later call upon to redeem. It’s just not a contract for future return of favour so don’t put any of your heart into it either as you will all too often be disappointed and that is bad for the soul. Bryant McGill says that “Giving is the master key to success, in all applications of human life.” So keep on giving back and helping others. This is not an order to deny kindness, or dismiss compassion, or even to avoid risk - far from it. “Kindness is a passport that opens doors and fashions friends. It softens hearts and molds relationships that can last lifetimes.” – Joseph B. Wirthlin unquote With that said though, I hope that my 3 rules will be helpful to you as you navigate your life and work. These are just my rules, but you may find them helpful. Never let anyone on board who thinks that they are just doing you a favour. Doing someone a favour is not a contract for future return on favour. If I ever lend something, that an individual – an actual responsible human being - must sign for it, acknowledge its value and guarantee to take care of it or pay for it if it gets broken. Call To Action Your call to action today is simply to consider what I’ve been talking about and take it forward into your life. Can you remember a time when one or all of these things have happened to you? Make a deal with yourself not to let it happen again. ________   I think as freelancers, creatives or just as human beings we often you do favours for people out of desperation – perhaps to be liked more or to be part of “the in-crowd” or because we are desperate to make the best impression or to feel more wanted or appreciated.   I did this episode as I felt this to be an oft-abused kindness which affects us all and I hope it’s been an interesting episode for you. Helping others is good for the soul, and is one of the 5 a day for good mental health that I keep mentioning here. Look back to episode 4 for information about that one.   Now big news here for all of your regular listeners. Over the next three weeks I’m releasing a special SERIES WITHIN THE SERIES of 6 connected episodes which will be released at 7pm on two consecutive nights SUNDAY AND MONDAY each week. In these shows I’ll be looking at NAPOLEON HILL’S book THE LAW OF SUCCESS IN 16 LESSONS and I will be giving you some of the most incredible advice on the topic of success that you will ever hear. As always it’s being delivered to you completely free so if you aren’t tuning in and listening then you are going to be missing out big time. As you know I try to make the shows accessible to all but this mini series in particular will be accessible to anyone from any walk of life so - if there’s a time to tell your friends to listen in IT’S NOW. If you want to know the secret of success, true success, not some made up fake sales programme about success, then the 3 hours of content that I will be releasing in those 6 episodes will lead you right there. And when that series within the series finishes I will be releasing the mail bag or listeners questions show which I’ve been talking about in four weeks time - so if you want advice with a productivity problem, or would like to get a tell it like it is type response on some relevant topic, please get in touch via the contact pages on the Film Pro Productivity website as soon as you can. Please also try out the speak pipe voice recorder on the websites contact page where if you can ask the question in 45 seconds, you can leave a voice message. It had been so long since I got a message through it that I checked last week that it was still working. It does work, and I’d love to hear from you on it. You can just access it through your phone, it’s dead easy. Surf via your phones browser to the websites contact page which is something like www.filmproproductivity.com/contact and hit Start Recording on the orange speakpipe button and you are off. If you don’t like it you can try again before sending. Finally thanks again to Ryan at Magic Monkey Films, he’s a magic guy and an awesome filmmaker and the sponsorship is greatly appreciated. There are still two episodes seeking sponsors this season so get in touch if you want to help.   For now though please - take control of your own destiny, keep on shootin’, and join me next time on Film Pro Productivity.   • The music you can hear right now is Adventures by A Himitsu • You can view the show notes for this episode on the official website filmproproductivity.com • You can follow my personal account on Twitter and Instagram @fight_director or follow the show on Twitter @filmproprodpod or on Facebook @Filmproproductivity • Please support the show by subscribing, spreading the word and leaving an AWESOME review.       Want to add a caption to this image? Click the Settings icon.     References: https://artplusmarketing.com/how-to-use-the-rule-for-reciprocation-in-content-marketing-2e1b283e24e0   Thanks: A Himitsu Music: Adventures by A Himitsu https://www.soundcloud.com/a-himitsuCreative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported— CC BY 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/b... Music released by Argofox https://www.youtu.be/8BXNwnxaVQE Music provided by Audio Library https://www.youtu.be/MkNeIUgNPQ8 ––– • Contact the artist: x.jonaz@gmail.com https://www.facebook.com/ahimitsuhttps://www.twitter.com/ahimitsu1 https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgFwu-j5-xNJml2FtTrrB3A

This episode I talk about faith. No, not religious faith or faith in a higher power. I talk about having faith in yourself and why that is so important to your success. I also mention a very good podcast called Film Pro Productivity hosted by Carter Ferguson. Check it out at the link below.https://www.filmproproductivity.com/episodesIf you have any comments or questions about the show, please stop by my Facebook page @howtheydiditpodcast I’m on twitter at @hfilmmaking and on Instagram at How They Did It: Filmmaking. Please show your support for the show by subscribing on iTunes, Spotify, Google Play or wherever you listen to your podcasts. Please take a few minutes to give me a review on any of these platforms...it would be so helpful and greatly appreciated. Thanks again for joining me and I’ll be back with another show soon. Until then, Keep Shooting!

Today’s episode is sponsored by Outlander Stars Hello and welcome to Film Pro Productivity, the podcast which helps film professionals and other creative people to live a more focused, effective and HAPPY life. My name is Carter Ferguson and this is EPISODE 36 – Crowdfunding: Lessons Learned Intro “If you launch your campaign with zero audience, you are launching to crickets.” — Khierstyn Ross “Crowdfunding Uncut” UNQUOTE Today, I’m talking about crowdfunding - If you have ever considered running a campaign of your own then there’s a few things which I’ve picked up along the way that you might find useful. As it’s still fresh in my memory and I’ve had a few messages about how I approach a campaign I thought it worth an episode. I see campaigns launched every week by filmmakers and artists and I’ve even seen a few film pros run them to get equipment or develop ideas. Running them efficiently and effectively and achieving success with them, however, is easier said than done. But first things first - What is crowdfunding? According to Wikipedia, it is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising small amounts of money from a large number of people, typically via the Internet. It goes on to say that in 2015, over US$34 billion – yes you heard me right BILLION) was raised worldwide by crowdfunding. The modern crowdfunding model is generally based on three types of actors: the project initiator who PROPOSES THE IDEA OR PROJECT to be funded, individuals or groups who SUPPORT THE IDEA, and a moderating organization (or "platform") that BRINGS THE PARTIES TOGETHER to launch the idea. It has been used to fund a wide range of for-profit, entrepreneurial ventures such as artistic and creative projects, medical expenses, travel, and community-oriented social entrepreneurship projects. My experiences of crowdfunding are entirely based on the use of the platform IndieGoGo, but there are a myriad of well-known crowdfunding platforms with good to middling reputations. Some are perhaps better for business campaigns, others for creative purposes. The one I hear about most often is Kickstarter but the 10 most popular crowdfunding platforms in 2018 according to INC.com also included Patreon, GoFundMe, CrowdRise, PledgeMusic, Razoo, RocketHub and finally Give.  “Before you even start building your crowdfunding page, Start building a crowd first.” — Roy Morejon of Command Partners UNQUOTE So, just last week as I start this episode, I ran a crowdfunding campaign to raise finance for THIS season, but before I did so, as you may have heard in earlier shows, I thought long and hard about what I was getting myself into. I’ve done all this before, you see, and it’s a hell of an undertaking. I’ve run 4 successful campaigns using the crowdfunding platform IndieGoGo, but with each campaign has come a great commitment of time and energy and a genuine commitment to delivering what I promise to those that have backed me. If you run a crowdfunding campaign and fail to deliver that which you promise, you will have a hell of a time getting anyone to trust you again.   Even with my positive experiences in raising finance through crowdfunding in the past I was extremely cautious about running a new one now. One reason for this is that I believe you can only “drink so many times from the same well” and I have a rule about never running more than one in a year. I’d also say that with so many people at the same proverbial well, it can become muddied and make people less likely to back you. The other big reason that I really wasn’t keen was that it is a MASSIVE undertaking. By tackling a fundraiser I was committing a vast amount of my time and energy to promoting and managing it and the cost, in loss of those valuable resources felt too great. I did run it though, successfully, and the primary thing that swayed me was this – By the very act of running the campaign, I would be promoting the show. Raising finance to support my endeavour was a very powerful second reason, but finding new ways to positively promote this show is really difficult and the peripheral promotional benefits which go with a crowdfunding campaign finally won me over. Lesson So let me get into some basics. There are some elements they say you should always do with a crowdfunding campaign - A Catchy Title, A Compelling Video, An Explicit Goal and Timeline, A good explanation of "Why" you are running it, A List of Costs, Great perks and regular Progress Updates. If you think you can just roll up and put your hand out then you’re going to be disappointed. There are a few good examples that prove that a bad idea or even an improperly presented good one, will not hit its target. For example:  Corey Feldman's 'Elev8or 2 Ascension' album only got 15% of its $100,000 target. The reboot of TV show Good Times which only hit 1% of its $1,000,000 target figure. And the sequel to the 2014 Nicolas Cage fiasco “Left Behind”. The original film scores 1% on rotten tomatoes, so you can imagine the powerful feeling that lay behind NOT FUNDING that Kickstarter. Chris Muscarella of Field Company says about crowdfunding “Do your Homework. Trying to throw together a campaign in a few days and thinking that you will shoot the moon is highly unlikely.” Crowdfunding is not an easy way to free money so if you are serious about raising capital in this way, you’re going to have to work hard for it. Asking a bunch of people you do and don’t know to help you fund your dreams is far tougher and more time consuming than it sounds. It’s also a landscape which is changing all the time, so you can’t always, as I found out with my latest campaign, utilise the same techniques to get results. I’ll talk about that a little later. Mihail Klenov of Half Bikes says “You must always be honest with your backers about what you do and why you do it.” Each campaign or product is unique, but there are some things you can do to get closer to crowdfunding success. TRUST is probably the biggest issue when it comes to crowdfunding: When you have no prior record, you have to consider how you can generate credibility with backers. Simply stated - without TRUST you might not generate enough interest in your campaign and fail to meet your targets. CHOOSE THE RIGHT PLATFORM: This is essential and as I listed earlier, you have plenty of legitimate platforms to choose from. If you’re raising money for a film, then go to the platform where people who might want to back it go - Don’t go for a small local platform if there’s no interest in what you are pushing there already. Crowdfunding has an internet-driven worldwide audience, so go where the audience for your product or project is would be my advice. SET REALISTIC TARGETS AND A DEADLINE. Setting up the right targets and the time to achieve them is essential. If the target seems too outrageous, the backers simply won’t support you. And not only should you decide beforehand what your fund-raising goal is, but you should also specify timeline goals, production goals and any others needed to keep your project moving forward. This information proves you know what you are talking about and will allow your backers to get behind you. BUILDING INTEREST. This is a common fail in crowdfunding campaigns. Nine times out of ten you need to build interest in your campaign a good bit prior to it starting. This will help you to get an initial large boost to your goal. I kinda trailed that I was going to do this on the show here, but due to time constraints, I only got specific about it a few weeks before. I was aiming for the lowest amount that IndieGoGo allows though, so my target was as achievable as it could be and I didn’t feel too bad about it. One thing I must add is that most platforms will NOT put any effort into promoting your campaign for you. Generating interest in your specific campaign is entirely up to you, although occasionally you may get a random backer passing through on the platform. Just don’t rely on it. Fulfilment. This is one area that is so important. It’s also far trickier than it sounds. Your reputation hangs on your ability to not just deliver the crowdfunding goal, but also to provide your contributors with their rewards, perks or whatever you want to call them, in a timely manner. Some problems that can be associated with fulfilment include: Not budgeting for it. Not budgeting for postage and packaging. Communication problems: I have had quite a few issues with the delivery of perks for my campaign. I get email addresses from IndieGoGo as a download, but I made a rod for my own back by communicating with backers via Twitter and Facebook direct messaging, through the platform itself and via two different email addresses. My situation was further complicated by receiving three messages through my website’s contact page. Trying to collate and verify information from so many different sources was and still is a nightmare, so if you can, encourage all your backers to communicate to you through one email address. If you do that, life will be a lot easier, believe me. DO YOUR RESEARCH. Before you even start your crowdfunding campaign, do your research. Find out everything you need to know about crowdfunding - mine for success strategies. Not only should you know how to run a successful campaign, but you should also be aware of all the rules and regulations surrounding this funding source. This was an area on which I fell down a little on the last run. I had calculated just 5% in costs going to IndieGoGo, but the reality was that I was losing percentages of committed monies to credit card companies and even a £25 surcharge at the end to cover the disbursement of funds. Rather than the percentage of running costs for the campaign totalling 5% of the total it ended up at 14% through my not following the fine print. CREATE MARKETING MATERIALS. Once you know who your target audience is and, create high-quality marketing materials. Personalize materials to yourself and your message and if you are wondering what is most effective here. Its video. You must create video content, with you right out there on camera, if you are to be successful in raising finance. Your face will gain a backers trust. If you don’t appear on camera it makes backers uneasy. Get over your fear of cameras and get in front of one, or you will fail. MAKE THE REWARDS WORTHWHILE. While you're not REQUIRED to reward your backers, offering something in return for their support makes for a more successful campaign. Make sure that any reward you offer is worthwhile, as well. Some will be happy with just a thank you but try and ensure that at least one of your perks has value. I tried not to offer perks that involved postage and packing so my most valuable perk was the opportunity to sponsor an episode, and it worked. Without that perk, I’d never have hit the target. Clay Herbert of Fund Your Dream says “The best campaigns I have worked with tell a specific story to a specific group of people.” So with that in mind, my next tip is GET PERSONAL… That’s why I say get in front of the camera and talk - When people feel that they know you, they'll feel more comfortable with, and trust in, your goals. Opening up about yourself and your situation is a great way to help your campaign see more success. PROMOTE IT. Once you've published your crowdfunding campaign, start spreading the word. Share your campaign on social media, with family and friends, on blogs and anywhere else where you can get it out there. The wider your reach, the more potential you have for investors to see it. It’s essential to talk to your backers throughout the entire process. This also helps to build trust. While you don't need to tell them every detail, be as open and transparent as possible. Don't just pitch them or try to sell to them either. With all that advice given, here are a few tips on what NOT to do too. E-BEGGING. This is something I detest and another reason that I think long and hard before running any crowd funder: According to URBAN DICTIONARY.com, this is when some pretentious asshole (usually on Youtube) decides to solicit "donations" from his or her audience. Sometimes they try to hide their e-begging under the guise of elaborate "movie projects" on sites like indiegogo.com with laughable incentives like "Donate 100.00 and get your name in the credits" ... The irony is that most of these youtube "movies" cost only a fraction of the donations received. The e-beggar then pockets the rest as profit and then laughs all the way to the bank. E-begging preys on stupid people but if you aren't a complete sheep, you won't be fooled by e-beggars. EXCEEDING YOUR TARGET. Yes, it happens. I had considered what would happen if I exceeded the campaign total, and I implemented it - My stretch goal was unspecific though. I just said any additional money would go into promotion for the show. I didn’t mess about with it as I had already met my target and I was happy with that. One thing to be cautious of - is not being able to deliver your promised rewards so be cautious and have a plan for this eventuality. IF YOUR CAMPAIGN GOES VIRAL, YOU BETTER HAVE A BIT OF AN IDEA HOW YOU ARE GOING TO PROCEED. ALL OR NOTHING. Some great projects fail simply because their fundraising goal is just too high and the fundraising platforms will not distribute any funds if you don’t hit your target. Many campaigns raise a sizeable amount but get nothing because they didn’t meet the funding goal. Be prepared. Do your research. Don’t fall on this really obvious detail. NOT ENOUGH TIME. New Crowd funders fail to understand the process involved in crowdfunding and the need to build excitement and a community before launch. There is just not enough time during a campaign to do the outreach necessary for success. You need to build an audience and then launch a campaign. You will never have enough time to do it all at once. And I’m going to end this list of mistakes with one just as problematic. TOO MUCH TIME. Yes, you heard me right. As I said earlier, running these campaigns is massively time-consuming. Epically energy absorbing in fact, and your promotional content will be swallowed up with each and every day that you are committed to it. Just as damaging to your efforts will be finding yourself chained 24/7 to a campaign that goes on forever. When I planned the campaign for this season, I set it at 7 days, and even knowing I was setting myself up for a tight deadline, I went with it as I knew I could create and deliver the publicity and social media interaction required for that period. If I'd run it for a month I’d have needed a month of marketing materials and ideas. Running a shorter campaign for a realistic amount was for me the only option. Peter Dering of the founder of Peak Design says “Something we have done really well with our campaigns is that we are extremely transparent. We go to great lengths and to create and justify our designs.” Earlier I mentioned that some things have changed as I’ve run several campaigns. On this last campaign I realised that the social networks are hobbling our ability to use them for promotion – for example, Twitter no longer previews YOUTUBE. Instagram only shows its own content and Facebook is hit and miss with its 3rd party previews. You may have to create content to be hosted Separately on each platform now. For the record, Instagram is limited to 60 seconds but you can kinda get around this with Instagram TV. Facebook limits its own videos to 15 minutes which is quite healthy, and Twitter allows videos of up to 2 minutes and 20 seconds. If you are putting out video content therefor, perhaps put out short 60 second videos so that the same content can be hosted on all three platforms… I’m going to wrap this up now but here’s a great bit of productivity advice to add to all that I’ve said already – I used a really simple hack with my first campaign which ended up at 156% of my target. That hack was that I didn’t start from scratch. I found similar campaigns which had done well and worked up my content to be based on those samples. It’s a hack that only goes so far but one that works. Use someone else’s successful campaign as a blueprint to build a new one of your own. One example that I include now in every campaign is the use of a pie chart to show where the funds will go. It’s helpful to potential backers and it’s helpful for you in planning how you will place the funds when you raise them, but it wasn’t my idea. If you plan to run a campaign, spy out a few that you like and which you think really work and use them to inspire you. Summing Up Thanks for listening to this longer episode than usual. I just want to remind you once again that the primary reason that I eventually bit the bullet and ran a campaign for this season was, NOT financial, but to raise the profile of this podcast. Crowdfunding is a powerful force and for creative people, it’s one which you should learn to harness and embrace. It’s not however just about the money. Call To Action Your call to action this week is not to run a campaign, but to consider how it could help you achieve your dreams. Let it open your mind to possibilities you had not previously considered. Ending I’ll end today's show with the words of Anne Frank, who said: “No one has ever become poor by giving.” Thanks to all of you who helped spread the word or backed my campaign for this season – and thank you all for listening here today – now take control of your own destiny, keep on shootin’, and join me next time on Film Pro Productivity. The music you can hear right now is Adventures by A Himitsu You can view the show notes for this episode on the official website filmproproductivity.com You can follow my personal account on Twitter and Instagram @fight_director or follow the show on Twitter @filmproprodpod or on Facebook @Filmproproductivity Please support the show by subscribing, spreading the word and leaving an AWESOME review. References: https://www.inc.com/larry-kim/op-10-crowdfunding-platforms-of-2018.html https://medium.com/@catapooolt/15-profound-quotes-elucidating-the-essence-of-crowdfunding-df62fc58ea34 https://www.floship.com/7-potential-problems-with-crowdfunding/ https://www.crowd101.com/biggest-crowdfunding-mistakes-how-to-avoid/     Thanks: A Himitsu Music: Adventures by A Himitsu https://www.soundcloud.com/a-himitsuCreative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported— CC BY 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/b... Music released by Argofox https://www.youtu.be/8BXNwnxaVQE Music provided by Audio Library https://www.youtu.be/MkNeIUgNPQ8 ––– • Contact the artist: x.jonaz@gmail.com https://www.facebook.com/ahimitsuhttps://www.twitter.com/ahimitsu1 https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgFwu-j5-xNJml2FtTrrB3A

Today’s episode is sponsored on behalf of CANCERSUPPORTSCOTLAND.ORG   Hello and welcome to Film Pro Productivity, the podcast which helps film professionals and other creatives to live a more focused, effective and HAPPY life. My name is Carter Ferguson and this is EPISODE 35 – DEVELOPING A SENSE OF URGENCY Professor of Leadership at the Harvard Business School, John P. Kotter, says “A higher rate of urgency does not imply ever-present panic, anxiety, or fear. It means a state in which COMPLACENCY is virtually absent.” I talked about A SENSE OF URGENCY last season in my episode entitled DRIVE, but for me, it’s really one of the cornerstones of productivity itself. John Kotter’s quote there says it very well. This is not about panic, anxiety or fear (although you may have to fight them off a wee bit along the way) it’s about killing complacency and replacing it with something else. An "inner energy" that drives your forward, to complete on your plans, to hit deadlines and to achieve great things.   This is one of the productivity terms which I have drawn from the business world, but in all honesty, I’m not quite sure who coined it. It may have been Brian Tracy or H. Jackson Brown, but I’m going to settle for on John Kotter as he has literally written a book about it.   In the business world, according to an article written by Annie Sisk in Bizfluent.com, “a sense of urgency” refers to communicating to an individual or team that it’s imperative to act promptly, decisively and without delay. The phrase can be applied in the context of leadership and management, or in the field of marketing and sales. In both cases, the term describes a positive state of mind that smart marketers, managers and business leaders use to evoke in those they market to, manage and lead. In the context of the individual film pro or freelance creative, we can utilise a sense of urgency in all that we do as who manage ourselves and our careers.   I’ve been keen to do an episode about this for a while, and as I’m pulling all my energy into creating this new season the time now seems right.   I’ve been nurturing the sense of urgency that comes with having to create 18 publicly released Season 3 episodes requires, but even with that proverbial gun at my head, it’s been a slow start.   Like many things in productivity, it’s easy enough to understand the principles but sometimes difficult to put it into action. Distraction and procrastination, those two ninja-like enemies of productivity are ever-present.   The crowdfunding campaign helped me to focus and its success gave me new energy, but at the same time, it’s been a huge distraction. My mind had to go into a different place to raise finance and although the overall experience was very positive, and the campaign was successful, I’ve found switching out of “fundraiser mode” and back into “podcast host” mode quite a challenge - but you wouldn’t be listening to this now if I hadn’t gotten over it.   As regular listeners know, I like to utilise large whiteboards to keep my mind clear and organised. A few days ago I tidied them all up and started making daily schedules of tasks specific not only to my season deadlines, but also to roll out the application of funds raised. My sense of urgency is driven by these lists, and when I feel like taking a break or find my self being distracted I can go to them to find new things to do. This keeps the momentum going that fuels the feeling of urgency.   Even this strategy has had its problems though as yesterday I got caught up in a minor task, that of designing a promotional postcard for the show, that ended up taking me most of the day. PRIORITISING within my lists has now become a primary directive in my efforts.   Today I start, while my mind is fresh, and with yesterday’s distraction task out of the way, by working on the podcast first and foremost. Other tasks, which are perhaps less time-sensitive and which require less mental energy are deferred to later in the day. It’s with this system of checklists, prioritised tasks and a designated timescale for delivery (remember Parkinson’s law here) that my sense of urgency is being honed and leading me to success.   Probably the most powerful quote about URGENCY I’ve come across is from Martin Luther King, Jr. He said: We are now faced with the fact that tomorrow is today. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. In this unfolding conundrum of life and history, there "is" such a thing as being too late. This is no time for apathy or complacency. This is a time for vigorous and positive action. Our own deadlines and goals may feel less important than that to which Martin Luther King refers, but we can still take energy and understanding from his words. We must fuel our own internally-derived sense of direction, motivation and compulsion to move or act in ways which benefit our lives, our projects, our careers, our passions and our family.   We must also learn to acknowledge the times when we assume an “I’ll get to it someday,” attitude. Putting off spending quality time with your child for example is not the same as putting off replying to an email. Get your priorities straight when honing your sense of urgency.   Let’s talk for a bit about why having a SENSE OF URGENCY matters. I’m going to be referring here to the article in Bizfluent.com again, as I’m not across the MARKETING and LEADERSHIP applications of the SENSE OF URGENCY concept. I’ll link to it as always in the show notes, which can be accessed through your podcasting app, or on my official website filmproproductivity.com “There’s significant power in employees and customers acting right “now.” Complacency, after all, is the enemy of progress. A failure to act promptly means that opportunities may be lost. Ultimately this will negatively affect the financial health of the company…” and I’d add to the financial health of the freelancer too… Thinking of ourselves as businesses is a definite sticking point for some creative people. I say, GET OVER IT, and LIVE A BETTER LIFE.   Lacking a sense of urgency in matters like this often leads to important issues continually being placed on the back burner. If we can learn to be responsive, flexible and nimble in our ability to evaluate and make decisions about new challenges and opportunities - we can only benefit by it.   To foster a sense of urgency, start with yourself. When you understand the “why” behind a particular goal or objective, and more specifically the “why now,” you must put it into action.   The article in BIZFLUENT says.   “Many successful managers and leaders find that increasing a sense of urgency around a particular project or goal is much easier when you get the employees' buy-in on the project from the start. Fostering a feeling of ownership and investment in the project makes a huge difference for participants.” If you’ve ever had to manage a creative team then this makes a lot of sense. It goes on to say that “Another proven strategy is to emphasize outcome-based results. Focusing on observable, measurable results helps you identify a successful outcome. This, in turn, means you can develop an internal sense of reward and satisfaction for completing a task, which helps increase your motivation level for the next project.” This is something I talk about in my 4 disciplines of execution episode. Finally, it says, “work to identify the reasons behind complacency in your team or workforce (I’d add, or in yourself). Most people seek fulfillment and satisfaction in their work. If they’re losing their motivation and their sense of pride in a job well-done as a group, there’s something that's contributing to their complacency and diminishing their all-important sense of urgency.” If that;s the case, it must be identified if you are to move past it. Brian Tracy loves this topic and he’s an awesome guy so I love him for his insight on it. He talks about creating a BIAS FOR ACTION and says “Most people talk the talk, but never really walk the walk. You need to treat action steps with a SENSE OF URGENCY. If something is important then learn to ‘do it now’. Don’t put things off - get them done, TODAY.” Summing Up   A sense of urgency helps turn “someday” and “later” into “today” and “now.” What’s that quote in fact that I’ve used here before? Someday is not really a day of the week you know… It’s kinda funny but it’s true.   If your bias for action is to put it off till tomorrow then you need to start reprogramming yourself and get rid of that delaying crutch. Change up your tempo to something a bit more lively, and as I’ve warned many times before - don’t wait for the planets to get into just the right alignment before you move – if you do that, THE RIGHT TIME will slip through your fingertips. BUILD MOMENTUM – remember it’s much easier to keep a body in motion, than it is to initiate that motion (BRYAN TRACY unquote) and PLAN YOUR WAY - decide on your goals, develop a list of the action steps you need to take, prioritize the list then EXECUTE IT – If you do this you’ll get into what they call a STATE OF FLOW, when all your senses are heightened and every element of your being is working towards a common goal. Finally, STAY ENERGISED, keep up your fitness level, drink enough fluids and eat properly so that you can MAINTAIN YOUR STATE OF READINESS.   Call To Action   Your call to action today is to utilise something known as the OWN PRINCIPLE to get you started. OWN has you ask yourself 3 questions, and I want you to ask yourself them right now. O– asks WHAT OUTCOME DO I WANT? W - asks WHY DO I WANT THIS? And N - ends with WHAT CAN I DO NOW TO ACHIEVE MY OUTCOMES? That’s OWN. OUTCOME, WHY, NOW. One last time - WHAT OUTCOME DO I WANT? WHY DO I WANT IT? WHAT CAN I DO NOW TO ACHIEVE MY OUTCOMES? I’ll end with the words of ‘Bob Proctor’: ‘Everyone should have a sense of urgency – it is getting a lot done in a short period of time in a calm, confident manner’. Later on this series I will be doing a mailbag episode, so why don’t you utilise this sense of urgency I’ve been cultivating and make a move to ask me a productivity question that I will answer in that episode? Don’t hand around though as I will be recording it in just a few weeks. You can get in touch via THE CONTACT PAGE on the website FILMPROPRODUCTIVITY.COM or on ANY OF THE SOCIAL NETWORKS. If you are struggling with something then I want to know about it. Get your act together and get in touch.   For now though, take control of your own destiny, get working on your sense of urgency, keep on shootin’ and join me next time on FILM PRO PRODUCTIVITY!   • The music you can hear right now is Adventures by A Himitsu • You can view the show notes for this episode on the official website filmproproductivity.com • You can follow my personal account on Twitter and Instagram @fight_director or follow the show on Twitter @filmproprodpod or on Facebook @Filmproproductivity • Please support the show by subscribing, spreading the word and leaving an AWESOME review.   References: https://bizfluent.com/facts-5879843-sense-urgency-definition.html   Thanks: A Himitsu Music: Adventures by A Himitsu https://www.soundcloud.com/a-himitsuCreative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported— CC BY 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/b... Music released by Argofox https://www.youtu.be/8BXNwnxaVQE Music provided by Audio Library https://www.youtu.be/MkNeIUgNPQ8 ––– • Contact the artist: x.jonaz@gmail.com https://www.facebook.com/ahimitsuhttps://www.twitter.com/ahimitsu1 https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgFwu-j5-xNJml2FtTrrB3A

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/support-one-more-year-of-film-pro-productivity/x/6579725#/ Hello and welcome to this SPECIAL INBETWEENISODE of Film Pro Productivity, the podcast which helps film professionals and other creatives to live a more focused, effective and HAPPY life. My name is Carter Ferguson and this is EPISODE 33 – CHOICE PARALYSIS Intro Steve Jobs once said “People think focus means saying yes to the thing you've got to focus on. But that's not what it means at all. It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas that there are. You have to pick carefully. Unquote One thing that is particularly true of many creative projects is that they don’t work to a known blueprint. We find ourselves often overwhelmed by the myriad of choices we could make to turn our dreams into reality. We find ourselves often overthinking our options or decisions about our careers or our finances. Have you ever spent so long thinking about a decision that by the time you make it, the opportunity has passed you by? That is what we will be talking about today. Prioritizing which I spoke about way back in episode 10 is an essential skill if you are working towards being more productive, but several times recently I have found myself in a situation of ANALYSIS PARALYSIS. That is the state of over-thinking about a decision to the point that a choice NEVER gets made. Have you faced analysis paralysis before? Do you tend to overthink your choices, to the point where you feel paralyzed and don’t make a decision? If you recognise this in yourself then listen up as this week I’ll be talking about how to overcome it. Anecdote I have been floundering a bit with this issue in recent weeks on how best to move forward with the show. Season 2 and its subsequent promotion was immensely time-consuming for me you see and I have a real feeling of apprehension in moving forward as the commitment of time and mental energy which this podcast requires is significant. Toiling with the uncertainty as to whether this show is worthwhile has undermined my confidence and with that wooliness of thought, I’ve been struggling with how to proceed. In my choice paralysis. I have been digesting and deliberating all of my options: Should run a crowd funder to pay for the second year of hosting or just bite the bullet and pay for it all myself. It would be a lot less bother and would mean that I could really get into season 3 instead of toiling over inbetweenisodes like this one and the substantial work that’s involved in crowdfunding. What if no one gives any money? Then I’ll have wasted even more time on stuff that doesn’t further the show. If it does work though it will save me a few quid and the campaign in itself will promote the show. I’ve also been considering how I can reach the people, creatives and film pros who will actually want to engage with and benefit from the show... I’m thinking about whether I should push the show onto Youtube too – to try and reach a bigger audience. The social media conversion of followers to actual listeners or subscribers is absolutely garbage at about 1% so I don’t want to spend quite as much time on it as I did last season - but by converting it to YouTube I’m creating another huge pool of work form myself. Many podcast gurus say podcasts shouldn’t go on YouTube as it waters down the potential subscriber list on podcasting apps but they also say promote where the audience is and I have a feeling I’ll find you there. Next, I have struggled with episode lengths and format choices, even trialling a mini-episode length which caused further confusion for me if I’m honest but which I’ll likely roll out in some form for a few episodes of season 3. Beyond that, I’ve also found difficulty with the most basic of podcast elements like deciding on what I am actually going to talk about. At the moment I have so many topics on my board that if I had the time I could create 2 new seasons but with bills to pay and other creative projects and business projects on my mind, I also need to keep earning money… There’s also a voice in my head that says quite often - you don’t have time for this - If you don’t create a new season you could work on your imminent business affairs, on promoting my fight direction work, on writing the first draft of a screenplay, on selling old kit on eBay to raise additional funds and the list goes on. You get the point - I’ve been getting distracted again and again and again and I’ve been paralysed by the choices before me. Lesson Choice or *Analysis paralysis is the state of over-thinking about a decision to the point that a choice never gets made. You face analysis paralysis when you… Are overwhelmed by the available options, Over-complicate the decision when it’s supposed to be quite a simple one, Feel compelled to pick the “best” and “perfect” choice, thereby delaying any decision until you do your research, or You feel a deep fear of making a wrong move, hence stalling yourself from making any decision, in case you make the wrong choice. If you want to learn more about simply prioritizing things then please listen back to episode 10, but if you are paralysed in any of the ways listed here, then listen on. Celestine Chua presents 8 tips for dealing with Choice Paralysis on personalexcellence.co which I’ll link to in the show notes. Here are a few pieces of advice from that article: Differentiate between big and small decisions. If the decision isn’t going to make a big difference a year from now and there are no serious consequences that will come out of it, then it is a small decision. Spend as little time as you need to nail this. Then, let go. If however, the decision will create major impact after a year and there are serious implications from making the wrong choice (such as marrying someone you don’t love), then it’s a big decision. For everything in between, give it some thought but don’t let it drag on for too long. Identify your objective. Every option has its pros and cons. Without knowing your end objective, you’ll forever be debating the relative pros and cons of each choice without a meaningful conclusion. Perfection is not the key. “Moderately okay” is. Unless you are dealing with a life-altering decision like who to marry and what career path to choose, perfection is not the key. Your goal is to pick a moderately “okay” choice in a fair amount of time, and then move on. Please listen back to my episode on perfectionism (episode 5) for more advice on this. Eliminate the bad options. When you have too many options, it clutters the decision-making process so list all the available options. Then, eliminate the bad ones. Get a trusted opinion. Consult someone with insight into what you’re asking about. Get expert advice from specialists who know what they are doing. It helps cut through the noise, get the information I need, and make the right choice. And this si something I find myself doing more and more these days, despite my frugal upbringing, pay and get expert advice from specialists who know what they are doing. Channel your energy into bigger goals, If you often face analysis paralysis with little decisions, here is my question to you: What are your goals for the next few years? Is there any goal you are procrastinating on? Work on them instead. As you shift your focus to the higher-level goals, you gain more experience and become better at making good decisions quickly. Nelson Mandela said “What counts in life is not the mere fact that we have lived. It is what difference we have made to the lives of others that will determine the significance of the life we lead.” I quote this as before I could deal with my difficulty in choices I had to deal with the uncertainty of purpose which has been undermining my drive. I’ve revisited my reasons for doing this show and recommitted to them. Even if this show just helps one person out there and makes their life better as a result, then I believe it is worthwhile. Denis Waitley said “Don’t dwell on what went wrong. Instead, focus on what to do next. Spend your energies on moving forward toward finding the answer.” With that in mind, I moved forward to solve my choice paralysis. Summing Up I need to work towards summing up on this episode and with that, I’ll remind you once more of Parkinson’s law – and it’s something that Celestine lists too. The law states that “Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.” so your work will take however long you allow it to take. If you set aside 15 minutes for a task, it’ll take 15 minutes. If you set aside 30 minutes, it’ll take 30 minutes. If you don’t set a time limit, it may take forever! A time limit alone could help you to make a decision if you are ever stuck in choice paralysis. Call To Action Your call to action today is to tackle something which has been stuck in a limbo of choice. Use Celestine’s tips to tackle the problem and move past it. Ending This is the second of 2 special episodes which I’ve put together to promote the IndieGoGo campaign to raise £500 to pay for the hosting packages and some marketing for year two of this podcast. Please help by spreading the word on social media or by buying one of the perks which include the opportunity to sponsor future shows. You can find the link to the campaign in the show notes and I’d be eternally grateful for your help. Now - take control of your own destiny, keep on shootin’, join me next time on Film Pro Productivity. The music you can hear right now is Adventures by A Himitsu You can view the show notes for this episode on the official website filmproproductivity.com You can follow my personal account on Twitter and Instagram @fight_director or follow the show on Twitter @filmproprodpod or on Facebook @Filmproproductivity Please support the show by subscribing, spreading the word and leaving an AWESOME review. References: https://www.scienceofpeople.com/choice-paralysis/ https://personalexcellence.co/blog/analysis-paralysis/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVH_bQ1Fk7U&feature=youtu.be   Thanks: A Himitsu Music: Adventures by A Himitsu https://www.soundcloud.com/a-himitsuCreative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported— CC BY 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/b... Music released by Argofox https://www.youtu.be/8BXNwnxaVQE Music provided by Audio Library https://www.youtu.be/MkNeIUgNPQ8 ––– • Contact the artist: x.jonaz@gmail.com https://www.facebook.com/ahimitsuhttps://www.twitter.com/ahimitsu1 https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgFwu-j5-xNJml2FtTrrB3A

INDIEGOGO LINK - https://igg.me/at/filmproprodpod Hello and welcome to A SPECIAL EPISODE of Film Pro Productivity, the podcast which helps film professionals and other creatives to live a more focused, effective and HAPPY life. My name is Carter Ferguson and this is Episode 32 – The Law of Single Handling Intro This is the first of two special episodes which will be released to support my crowdfunding campaign to raise funds to support this show for one more year. Details of how you can help will be given at the end of the show. Zig Ziglar says that “Lack of direction, not lack of time, is the problem. We all have twenty-four hour days.” One of my earliest episodes, episode 3, is all about prioritising because it’s such a fundamental part of what improving our productivity entails. The law of single handling links very much to another topic I covered in Episode 10, Multitasking. Season 2 of this show and its promotion was so immensely time-consuming for me that I have a real feeling of apprehension in moving forward into season 3. I’ve been so indecisive in how to move forward that I’ve ground to a near halt. In the end though, out of urgent necessity, I have had to pin my resolve to the sticking post and almost literally tie myself to a laptop for a few days to get things done. There’s nothing like an imminent deadline to jumpstart you from inaction back into action again. Lesson Adam Sicinski on MasterMindMatrix.com says “You will maximize your performance and potential only when you discipline yourself to concentrate single-mindedly on your single most important task from inception to completion without distraction.” That is the law of single handling. Only in this way will you effectively optimize your output and productivity. Pro-level Basketball coach Bob Starkey says “The ability to start and complete your most important task determines your productivity more than any other skill.” And that MAXIMUM PERFORMANCE is only possible when you concentrate single-mindedly on the task—the most important task, and you stay at it until it is 100% complete. You see picking up a task, putting it down and coming back to it several times, dramatically increases the amount of time necessary to complete it.   Picking it up the task but REFUSING TO PUT IT DOWN UNTIL IT IS DONE enables you to accomplish vastly more in a shorter period of time than you ever thought possible. By disciplining yourself to concentrate single-mindedly on the most important thing you could possibly be doing, and then by completing that task, you increase the quantity, quality, and value of your output substantially. And the good news is that every time you complete a major task, you experience a surge of energy, enthusiasm, and self-esteem and can BUILD THE HABIT of disciplining yourself to concentrate single-mindedly until the task is complete. With this the all-important habit of task completion ingrained on your mind you program your subconscious mind to look forward to major tasks because you know how good you are going to feel when you have completed them. Summing Up So single Handling is perhaps the most powerful of all time management techniques. It can increase your output by as much as 500%. It can reduce the amount of time you spend on a task by fully 80% —by the very act of launching into the task and disciplining yourself to stay with it until it is complete. Call To Action You cannot do everything, but you can do one thing, the most important thing, and you can do it now. By setting goals and priorities, and then by selecting your most important task, you can dramatically increase your level of productivity and output. Vince Lombardi said that “Success demands a singleness of purpose.” So today’s call to action is to utilise the LAW OF SINGLE HANDLING by selecting your most important task, getting yourself organized, and then working on it wholeheartedly and without distraction until it is complete. Do this over and over until this habit of single handling is firmly entrenched. Increase your output by the 500% which Single Handling creates. Ending This is the first of  2 special episodes to promote the IndieGoGo campaign to raise £500 to pay for the hosting packages and some marketing for year two of this podcast. Please help by spreading the word on social media or by buying one of the perks which include the opportunity to sponsor future shows. This episode was completed in a single sitting, and it was difficult to ignore the phone, the social media, the people who I know passing me by in the coffee shop where I’ve prepped it, but I managed it by single handling. Master this and you will be more powerful than you can possibly imagine – and yes I realise I’m bastardizing a quote by Alec Guinness in Star Wars. I’ll end with the words of Alexander Graham Bell  “Concentrate all your thoughts upon the work at hand. The sun’s rays do not burn until brought to a focus.” Now - take control of your own destiny, keep on shootin’, and join me next time on Film Pro Productivity. The music you can hear right now is Adventures by A Himitsu You can view the show notes for this episode on the official website filmproproductivity.com You can follow my personal account on Twitter and Instagram @fight_director or follow the show on Twitter @filmproprodpod or on Facebook @Filmproproductivity Please support the show by subscribing, spreading the word and leaving an AWESOME review. References: http://mastermindmatrix.com/knowledge-base/law-of-single-handling/ https://examinedexistence.com/12-fantastic-quotes-one-thing-not-multi-tasking/ http://www.planetofsuccess.com/blog/2016/inspiring-focus-quotes/ https://www.goalsontrack.com/blog/2018/03/28/the-law-of-single-handling/ Thanks: A Himitsu Music: Adventures by A Himitsu https://www.soundcloud.com/a-himitsuCreative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported— CC BY 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/b... Music released by Argofox https://www.youtu.be/8BXNwnxaVQE Music provided by Audio Library https://www.youtu.be/MkNeIUgNPQ8 ––– • Contact the artist: x.jonaz@gmail.com https://www.facebook.com/ahimitsuhttps://www.twitter.com/ahimitsu1 https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgFwu-j5-xNJml2FtTrrB3A

Hello and welcome to Film Pro Productivity the podcast which helps film professionals and other creatives to live a more focused, effective and HAPPY life. My name is Carter Ferguson and this is EPISODE 31 – WHY IT’S OK TO GIVE UP   If you Google why you SHOULD GIVE UP ON STUFF you’ll get a thousand hits that say the exact opposite - the message is strong and positive and seemingly sensible – NEVER GIVE UP – but this is not a black and white issue - there’s nuance here – You’ve already caught the episode title, and I say – let’s just wait a second here – and talk about this.   I mentioned in the last show in I’m waving the white flag and giving up on my passion for filmmaking – that is directing and producing films - AS I’VE HAD ENOUGH.   The amount of time and energy and money I have given to other peoples projects on which I have been invited, manipulated or otherwise drawn into, and on which I have been treated very poorly has gotten ridiculous. And many of these have never even seen the light of day.   And my own projects have been fewer and further between and have regularly been short-circuited as I’ve been let down by many of those that I put faith in - to the point where I find myself again and again - financially, mentally and creatively SPENT and no further forward for the effort.   To end this little rant I must also mention the complete waste of time that goes with interacting with the funding bodies in the UK, but that’s going to get a whole episode to itself in season 3 so I’ll leave it till then. In short, it’s a death to creativity following that path.   And I’ll frame this by stating that I am very passionate about filmmaking and making stuff that matters or is creatively interesting or fun or entertaining or all of the above. I’ve been passionate about it for years, and it’s been my main creative drive for at least the last 10 - but that passion has cost me dearly. I’ve got nothing much to show for it. A lot of awards yes: but in the grand scheme of things, seriously folks, they mean nothing at all. I’ve worked with some great people, and have had some fun and some creatively rewarding experiences and I am certainly proud of many of my films - but when looked at in the cold light of day the bad experiences far, far, FAR outweigh the good.   I’ve given up on a few friendships too - because some difficult, aggressive and manipulative people are just too abrasive to my life. Not having these people, no matter how talented or they are or how long I’ve known them – not having them in my life far exceeds the benefits I ever had from having them there. Every day I breathe a sigh of relief as I can be in control, without fear of the phone call or text that will manoeuvre my time and energy and wallet into someone else’s dreams or ambitions.   And I’m not the only one giving up on things. One friend of mine left a group she’d been working with for years as her priorities had changed and another gave up on screenwriting, a field in which they are both expert and experienced as he felt that the odds were being stacked against them – and for the record – I think they were too.   Lesson “Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end.” — Seneca I list these examples to highlight that NEVER GIVING UP on something is romanticized in today’s culture, especially for creatives - but making the decision to give up on things or people you care about deeply about in order to get yourself back on track - is essential and often ABSOLUTELY THE RIGHT THING TO DO.   Time and again I talk here about increasing our self-awareness, of working ON your life and career at the same time as you find yourself living and working IN it. Self-analysis, though, is a great weakness of the creative, as romanticizing our work often blinds us to truths that would enable us to move on. It stops us from finding happiness and leads us into a headspace where we are no longer in control - FROZEN WITH AN INABILITY TO LET GO because we fear we may be perceived by others, or perhaps even in ourselves as failures. This is an extremely damaging place to be. F. Scott Fitzgerald said: “It’s never too late to become who you want to be. I hope you live a life that you’re proud of, and if you find that you’re not, I hope you have the strength to start over.” If you dig deeper in Google you’ll find some advice on this topic. LARA RUTHERFORD-MORRISON wrote an article for bustle.com which I’ll link to in the show notes called 8 Times That Giving Up Might Actually Be A Good Thing. She says - If you know in your heart that something is not going to work out. If you don’t want a thing (or person) any more. If pursuing your goal is making you really, really unhappy. If the only reason you haven’t quit already is because you’re worried about what other people will think. If the only reason you’re sticking with it is because you don’t know who you are without it. If pursuing this path, or staying with this person, is preventing you from going down a road that would make you happier. If your inability to accomplish your goal is making you hate yourself. Or If the idea of giving up floods you with relief. Then maybe it’s time you let go of that particular goal or dream or project or person, and give up on it.   MORRISON goes on to say that giving up doesn’t always make you a bad person, or failure, or a deserter, or whatever bad thing you’ve been telling yourself. Sometimes giving up means that you are someone who is mature enough to know when to cut your losses and move on, someone who has the bravery to protect your mental health, someone who is willing to take the risk of changing course.   Summing Up   I’m not saying that when you hit a bump that you shouldn’t persevere and I’m going to be tackling that topic in another show which will focus on Resilience, but I wanted to introduce to you today the possibility of a new way of thinking. When you consider everything, you must truly consider GIVING UP, and yes sometimes that might mean giving up on a dream, or a relationship or something else - that’s life– but it’s not the end of the world.   And we all have something in us that allows us to dream big, but we can get caught up in the vision or feel of the dream and that can stop us from seeing the bigger picture and re-evaluating our goal, or our dreams. It’s a positive mindset trap and that stops us from proceeding and succeeding with those goals.   I’ve given up on filmmaking in order that I can achieve other things, but I fully expect to revaluate my situation again and return, having had a holiday from the problems which will allow me to return with a freshness that could change everything.   Call To Action   Your call to action today is to take this opportunity to re-evaluate your situation – your dreams and relationships – and to seriously consider giving up on something or someone that’s holding you back.   Ending   Thanks again for tuning in to Today’s show. I hope that I’ve been able to help in some small way. You can help me still by spreading the word about the show. If you’re listening you could perhaps take a screengrab of it and put it out on social networking. With your help, the show will live on. I’m still planning a crowdfunder to pay for year 2 btw – so watch out for that in a few weeks time.   I’ll end today with the words of Napoleon Hill who said “When defeat comes, accept it as a signal that your plans are not sound, rebuild those plans, and set sail once more toward your coveted goal.” Lao Tzu said “New beginnings are often disguised as painful endings.” Now - take control of your own destiny, keep on shootin’, give up on something or someone that’s been holding you back and join me next time on Film Pro Productivity.   • The music you can hear right now is Adventures by A Himitsu • You can view the show notes for this episode on the official website filmproproductivity.com • You can follow my personal account on Twitter and Instagram @fight_director or follow the show on Twitter @filmproprodpod or on Facebook @Filmproproductivity • Please support the show by subscribing, spreading the word and leaving an AWESOME review.   References: · https://www.bustle.com/articles/95182-8-times-that-giving-up-might-actually-be-a-good-thing · https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2Uyktpi6MA&feature=youtu.be   Thanks: A Himitsu Music: Adventures by A Himitsu https://www.soundcloud.com/a-himitsuCreative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported— CC BY 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/b... Music released by Argofox https://www.youtu.be/8BXNwnxaVQE Music provided by Audio Library https://www.youtu.be/MkNeIUgNPQ8 ––– • Contact the artist: x.jonaz@gmail.com https://www.facebook.com/ahimitsuhttps://www.twitter.com/ahimitsu1 https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgFwu-j5-xNJml2FtTrrB3A    

Show Notes: Transcript   Hello and welcome to Film Pro Productivity the podcast which helps film professionals and other creatives to live a more focused, effective and HAPPY life. My name is Carter Ferguson and this is EPISODE 30 – LESS SCROLLING, MORE LIVING   The Swiss psychiatrist Carl Gustav Jung said “Every form of addiction is bad, no matter whether the narcotic be alcohol, morphine or idealism.”   I think that if he were alive today, he might say the same about social media, or more broadly about technology.   Earlier this year I broke one the unspoken social media rules by announcing on Twitter that I was going to quit social networking. At least I was - for the MONTH OF JUNE. But people say they are quitting all the time - to return a few months, weeks, days or hours later because they still need their fix.   I’d been hammering the social networking to promote this show from February through to May and I was tired of it. That said I do like social media. I like interacting with people, I like to hear feedback on this podcast and see people discussing it. I like the podcasters who support each other, I like the uber fans of shows like Outlander, and the boxer lovers who say my dog is cute. I like the film pros and the regular folk who get online and interact as a community. I follow their the links, watch their videos and read their chat - the thing is though that I like all of it a little too much - I needed to break the circle of addiction, so from the 1st till the 30th of June I went offline – And I kid you not - it was freakin’ awesome.   Editor Aysha Taryam said “Just as one goes on a fast or a body cleanse you owe it to yourselves to detox your mind, it will not be easy but easy never yielded lasting results.”   I found leaving social media easier than you’d think though. I planned it as I said, setting up some twitter, Instagram and Facebook posts to go out via the Buffer app and If This Then That or ifttt dot com to promote the show whilst I was offline and I just stopped. A long time ago, for time management reasons, I’d already removed all my notifications – but I deleted the apps from my phone and signed out of all the social networks on my computers.   And I didn’t miss it. Not at all.   I could go on at length about the various benefits of a social media fast, how it will improve your mood, how you will gain more free time or how you will get an improved sleep but let me focus on just one benefit today which will trump all others:   The main benefit of a social media detox is that it gives you an increased focus on what really matters. If you’ve not caught onto it yet “developing our self-awareness” is a large part of what this show is all about. That we must work on our life and career at the same time as we are living and working in it.   And I wasn’t aware when I went into this that my self-awareness would be so augmented by the experience but good lord it made all the difference. By removing the social networking/ phone checking habit from the spare moments of my life, I gained back those moments for thought, for planning, for focussing on what matters and for action. In the end, I realise that I needed to disconnect, in order to reconnect. And I achieved a few things along the way.   For example: I exchanged social networking habit for a swimming habit. Sounds like an unlikely alternative but it worked. I swim every day now and I feel better for it. My fitness is up, my movement is better, my knee injury is slowly improving and my mood is elevated. This benefit alone was worth the break. Next, I was able to coordinate and complete work on an unresolved family business matter that had been unresolved for 2 years. A huge amount of focussed work made this possible. Now, this might sound like a negative, but in the last two years I’ve had terrible experiences in filmmaking and I’ve decided I’m putting a stop to it. I’m not saying that I’m giving up but I’m not wasting any more time or money on projects or people where I am treated with disrespect, where I am manipulated or where I am scammed or mistreated in some way. The detox allowed me to genuinely consider my relationship with filmmaking and without the constant reminders that come up on there, I finally realised that, at least for now, I can do without filmmaking in my life and that I can better use my creative time elsewhere. This perhaps deserved its own episode so look out for it in season 3. I was also able to spend time with friends and to plan a holiday which I took last week - and to start to build the infrastructure for a new creative business idea. I was able to plan 28 or so new episodes for this show and a schedule for recording them. And finally, I was able to confirm that the time I’d been spending on social media promoting the show could be far better spent elsewhere. The reality is that only 1% of my social media followers and friends actually go on to listen to the show. The conversion of followers to listeners is very bad indeed. That’s just a few things that I achieved through my detox induced self-awareness peak but there have been many more.   Summing up   If you take one yourself you’ll learn to live in the moment and appreciate the life you’re living. You’ll regain time that is otherwise wasted and get on top of tasks that just never seem to get done, from small household chores to larger life-changing goals. You’ll also be able to make time for people, actual face to face time, not virtual - which is a far healthier way to maintain great friendships and relationships. Finally, you’ll also be able to avoid the competitive one-upmanship of popularity practices that, consciously or not, lead you to compare yourself to others and vie for your attention online. In 2011 the former Vice President of User growth at Facebook said “The short-term, dopamine-driven feedback loops that we have created are destroying how society works.” He expressed regret for his part in building tools that destroy the social fabric of society.   Sanam Hafeez, a faculty member at Columbia University says “When you feel anxious because you haven’t updated your profile or aren’t ‘connected,’ that’s exactly when you should disconnect,” - “Being away for a month allows the brain time to create new neural pathways, which means new behaviours and routines begin to replace old ones,” - “So if you typically reached for your phone when you woke up to check Facebook, after 30 days, you would have adopted a new ritual, which is the new normal.”   Call To Action   Your call to action this week is to stop letting social networking dominate your life. I ask you to plan your own social media detox and stick to it. It’s as easy as just doing it, and when you’re finally offline, enjoy the experience and embrace your new found freedom.   Ending   One of the best quotes I’ve seen during my research is the title of this show “Less scrolling, more living” but I can’t locate the exact origin of it so I’ll just make it the title. I tried to keep this one shorter but kinda failed. I’ll leave it as it is and keep trying – these inbetweenisodes are tricky! There’s an awesome article on thegreatfull.com called tips for a healthier relationship with social networking which I urge you to read. I’ll leave a link to it and my other references in the show notes and I’ll be back again with another in-between-isode or two in about a month.   In the meantime - take control of your own destiny, keep on shootin’, and join me next time on Film Pro Productivity.   • The music you can hear right now is Adventures by A Himitsu • You can view the show notes for this episode on the official website filmproproductivity.com • You can follow my personal account on Twitter and Instagram @fight_director or follow the show on Twitter @filmproprodpod or on Facebook @Filmproproductivity • Please support the show by subscribing, spreading the word and leaving an AWESOME review.   References: https://www.thegreatfull.com/tips-for-healthier-relationship-social-media/ https://twitter.com/The_Great_Full https://ifttt.com/discover https://buffer.com/ https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/dec/11/facebook-former-executive-ripping-society-apart   Thanks: A Himitsu Music: Adventures by A Himitsu https://www.soundcloud.com/a-himitsuCreative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported— CC BY 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/b... Music released by Argofox https://www.youtu.be/8BXNwnxaVQE Music provided by Audio Library https://www.youtu.be/MkNeIUgNPQ8 ––– • Contact the artist: x.jonaz@gmail.com https://www.facebook.com/ahimitsuhttps://www.twitter.com/ahimitsu1 https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgFwu-j5-xNJml2FtTrrB3A

Show Notes Hello and welcome to Film Pro Productivity the podcast which helps film professionals and other creatives to live a more focused, effective and HAPPY life. My name is Carter Ferguson and this is EPISODE 29 – TEN MINUTE MOTIVATION AND THE MVP   I often hear that subscribers are going to listen to the show again, “to take it all in” so this special “in-between-isode” is trialling a shorter more on point format to the show, between 5 and 10 minutes, but I’ll be making up for it by releasing twice the number of shows when season 3 launches in September.   I’ve not abandoned the regular format of the show though. You can expect episodes in season 4 and beyond to be a mix of both short and long formats and even include some interviews.   The Lean Startup by Eric Ries says that “If you cannot fail, you cannot learn.” and it’s not entirely clear to me yet if I can really get this to work, so I’m testing new formats between season 2 and 3 so that I can iron out any issues that are not yet apparent before I go ahead and record the 24 new season 3 shows. Testing your PRODUCT or in my case FORMAT before diving headlong into things is what I’d like to go into here today.   A few years ago I got one of the first prosumer 360 cameras in UK. I realised that the technology was amazing and that there weren’t many people doing it and I immediately made moves to offer it professionally. I bought the website name of 360 Film Scotland, had logos designed, had t-shirts and fleeces made up all branded and put it out there that I was available for work. I trained down in London at no small cost, shot loads of freebies to put on the site and push out there that I was available and the work was really cool and what happened? Nothing. No one was interested. Or to put that more directly, no one was interested in paying for it. It was a real battle as people just didn’t know what it was. There were other problems too. YouTube hosted 360 videos but they weren’t available yet on Facebook or Vimeo, and another thing, 360 videos were a nightmare to make. They were hugely time-consuming and the earlier software packages didn’t work too well with each other. I wasted more money on the full latest version of premiere and bought special plugins to add logos etc and at the end of it all, after a huge amount of effort, I threw in the towel.   Here’s the thing - If I’d taken a few weeks to test of the concept BEFORE I jumped all in, I would have discovered many of the problems which in the end caused me to abandon the project and move back to regular film making. Which between you and I, I far prefer.   I quoted from The Lean Startup earlier as author Eric Ries details the concept of the MVP within it. Like the other productivity techniques from the business and lifestyle worlds, I believe that the principles behind developing a MVP or Minimum Viable Product can be applied directly to the creative and film worlds. “A minimum viable product or MVP, is one with just enough features to satisfy early customers, and to provide feedback for future product development.” Niamh Isobel Reed in “The Startup” points out that “minimum” and “viable” are not substitutes for ‘lazy’ or ‘settled for’. It means the simplest that your product can be. Creating a MVP forces you to boil down your concept to the core functions it needs to have, in - to solve a problem simply, elegantly and effectively. It allows you to get feedback from your customer base or in my case here my listener base or audience and adapt it to improve.   Now a screenwriter will usually sketch out their story line or plot before diving into a full blown 1st draft and we could consider this outline to be the MVP of their script. A designer will make sketches of various elements of a production before they commit to a presentation of their concepts to a producer or director so this isn’t entirely new information.   Summing up   I learned a few things from my experience with 360 Film Scotland. I found the limitations of 360 video and realised that really – I wasn’t that fussed with it. It’s amazing technology and it has its place for sure - but in the end, it really wasn’t for me. The thing is, of course, I could have found all that out before I committed quite as much time, mental energy and money into it if I’d first trialled it in principle as a MVP.   Call To Action   Your call to action today is - If you are planning something new - why not build yourself a minimum viable version of it first - and find out if it will actually work if it will have an audience or if it will even hold your interest. You can add the bells and whistles later.   Ending   In the next episode, I’ll be talking about the benefits of TAKING A BREAK FROM SOCIAL MEDIA. I’ll end todays show with the words of children’s author and designer Eric Carle “Simplify, slow down, be kind. And don't forget to have art in your life - music, paintings, theater, dance, and sunsets.” Now - take control of your own destiny, keep on shootin’, and join me next time on Film Pro Productivity.   • The music you can hear right now is Adventures by A Himitsu • You can view the show notes for this episode on the official website filmproproductivity.com • You can follow my personal account on Twitter and Instagram @fight_director or follow the show on Twitter @filmproprodpod or on Facebook @Filmproproductivity • Please support the show by subscribing, spreading the word and leaving an AWESOME review.   References: https://medium.com/swlh/what-makes-for-a-good-mvp-26826949a7c0   Thanks: A Himitsu Music: Adventures by A Himitsu https://www.soundcloud.com/a-himitsuCreative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported— CC BY 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/b... Music released by Argofox https://www.youtu.be/8BXNwnxaVQE Music provided by Audio Library https://www.youtu.be/MkNeIUgNPQ8 ––– • Contact the artist: x.jonaz@gmail.com https://www.facebook.com/ahimitsuhttps://www.twitter.com/ahimitsu1 https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgFwu-j5-xNJml2FtTrrB3A

Carter Ferguson, the fight director, director, writer, producer and podcaster, among other things, is back to talk filmmaking and productivity. He shares information about writing, producing and directing films then answers my question about the ‘inner critic’, that inner voice that tries to knock us all off stride. So happy to have him back. To find out more about Carter visit his website: www.FightDirector.com Listen to his podcast: Film Pro Productivity He's also on Facebook @FilmProProductivity He's also on Twitter @FilmProProdPodI can't thank Carter enough for coming back and sharing his experience and knowledge of filmmaking with us. I also want to thank him for helping us with the ever present 'inner critic'. It was a wonderful conversation that I know you'll enjoy.Please support the show by subscribing on whatever platform you prefer. Feel free to reach out to me on my Facebook page @howtheydiditpodcast. I’m also on twitter at @hfilmmaking and on Instagram at how they did it: filmmaking. Thanks again for joining me and I’ll be back with another show next week. Until then, Keep Shooting!

I had the absolute pleasure of talking with filmmaker Carter Ferguson, a fight director, director, writer, producer and podcaster, among other things. He has over 700 TV and movie credits to his name so, you know the man has information to share. Carter talked about his experiences of filming, Dead End, his award-winning short film. I learned so much from him and I know you will, too. To find out more about Carter visit his website: www.FightDirector.comListen to his podcast: Film Pro ProductivityHe's also on Facebook @FilmProProductivityHe's also on Twitter @FilmProProdPod