Last week was quite a week for me.
I spent more time studying and thinking about the years ahead than writing.
Marketing, business and finance were the topics of the week as they so often are these days.
Although I’ve been away, you’ll be happy to know that I’m back with even more to share and better ideas to ponder.
I’m a relative newbie at all this stuff.
Just 5 short years ago, I was an English teacher through and through.
For the better part of half my life I taught, created materials, and went the extra mile for my students, but I found that wasn’t getting me where I wanted to go.
I had always thought that my passion for teaching English would be what I would spend my life doing, but over time I began to see that my vision was much bigger than that.
My vision was, and still is, to help people live better lives.
I still believe that English is one of the most powerful tools available to all of us today, and those who are lucky enough to have grown up speaking it have a distinct advantage over those who haven’t been that lucky.
English is, for all intensive purposes, the Lingua Franca.
As such it gives us the ability to communicate with people all over the world and, more importantly, learn from and share ideas with billions of people.
To me, English is simply the tool of choice for learning.
English allows you to learn more. More from books, more from videos, and more from people.
But what to learn?
That was the question I faced when I realized that simply knowing English wouldn’t be enough to achieve all I wanted to in life.
The first thing I had to add to my repertoire was business skills so I got started.
I believe it was Keith Cunningham’s book, “The Keys to the Vault,” that started it all.
And boy do I wish I had picked up that book a few months earlier. I would have been able to avoid a few very costly mistakes.
After that I started to pick up anything I could get my hands on.
Robert Kiyosaki, Tony Robbins, Steven Covey, Dale Carnegie, Jeffrey Gitomer, Jim Stovall and so many more.
I started with books, then moved on to videos and then added audio lectures. Today I tend to favor audio lectures because of their ease of study, but when the speakers are kind enough to supply the transcripts of their presentations I print them out and go through them while watching the video.
Business morphed into the broader realm of success and that’s where I really hit my stride.
Success principles became my focus and over time I decided to write my own book on success, iSucceed.
I wanted to take the best of what was out there and make it easy, quick and practical. From the feedback I’ve gotten I feel I achieved my goal.
But I wasn’t done, because around the time I started studying business and success I felt it might be wise to learn more about economics.
I still remember my first economics class back in college, it was all Greek to me and I promptly signed the withdrawal slip, never to return…that is till I decided I wouldn’t be able to succeed in this world without a basic understanding of what was going on around me.
So many of us wake up, go to work, come home, spend some time with our family, and enjoy a few hours of entertainment before hitting the hay.
Most of don’t give a second thought to just how the economy works.
Instead, we are content with reading about events in the morning newspaper, and feeling safe in our belief that the governments will always protect us.
I wanted to know more.
I started out by creating an excel spreadsheet with a bunch of stocks I was interested in but that didn’t really get me anywhere. So decided to buy a lifetime subscription to a financial newsletter.
It wasn’t cheap, but it helped me get started. (in case you’re wondering, about 70% of their picks have done well)
I also did my own research on the web for sites that made sense.
These days I find myself spending about two hours each day reading about the economic situation we all face and it’s not looking good. A major reason why I’m putting on my first official seminar this coming March 4th. (and fyi, I’ll be creating a PowerPoint presentation for people interested in getting a hold of it)
Two hours of finance, one hour of success, and another of marketing basically 5 days a week – I am one busy little bee.
So what does this post have to do with success or life?
Simple – we can be anything we want to be. All we have to do is decide what we want and then take action.
5 years ago I was a teacher.
I could teach English. That was all I knew.
Today I could give a seminar on any of these topics (and will, in time):
- Finance
- Success Principles
- Time Management
- Marketing
- English
I don’t say this to boast, but to prove that if I (a guy with absolutely no background in any of the first 4 subjects) can do it, then you can, too.
None of us are getting any younger.
I like what Charlie “Tremendous” Jones is famous for saying, “You are the same today, you’ll be in five years except for two things: the people you meet and the books you read.”
I would like to add that in today’s digital world we can add two more things – DVD training programs and audio lectures.
The next 5 years will pass whether you choose to study or not.
I changed. You can, too…the question is not can you but will you?
Adrian Shepherd