Successful idea men generate ideas all the time, and they don’t hoard them. They do something about them, even if they give them away. There are a lot of other satisfactions than money in doing this. When I give an idea away and see it acted upon, I get a great thrill of satisfaction and accomplishment. The important thing is to keep having ideas and to keep putting them to work.

Most of us are lazy, however. We mean to do better, to improve ourselves, to make this year better than last one. But we fall down, we forget, we drift.

There are ways we keep prodding ourselves into reaching farther, to going beyond ourselves. We must, just like an athlete, consciously exercise our brain cells. If we do this, we will be amazed at how our creative energies will increase.

The more we see, the more our powers of observation increase. It is imperative that we push, goad, drive, and spur ourselves into being more creative. The more we look, the more we see. The more we think, the more thoughts we have. The more combinations of ideas we try, the more combinations we realize are available. The more we practice the principles of problem solving, the more problems we will solve.

Listen to H. W. Prentis, Jr., Chairman of the Board of Armstrong Cork: “To analyze and synthesize is not always easy, but here, as in most things, practice increases one’s ability. It was interesting for me to watch myself develop to the point where I could tackle problems I could not possibly have handled a few years before. Unless a man tries, he cannot develop this capacity. In this business of taking things apart, there’s hardly a week passes that something doesn’t come up that seems just about insoluble, like a greased pole you cannot possibly climb. But if you keep at it long enough -keep the problem constantly before you-gradually you can break it down into its component parts, which you can grasp and solve.”

I learned to exercise my creative powers several years ago when I read an article in the Reader’s Digest, which advised “Try Giving Yourself Away.” I tried it.

My first attempt was a smashing failure, but I still found it was fun. I broke a shoelace one morning and couldn’t find a substitute, so I sat right down and wrote a number of shoe manufacturers, suggesting they give a spare shoelace away with a new pair of shoes, or send a pair to a customer after six months. The idea didn’t catch on, but I got a stack of amusing letters from shoe manufacturers for my troubles.

Later I was writing to a friend overseas. I wanted to send the letter airmail-the postage was high and rated by half-ounces, but I couldn’t tell how much the onion-skin paper weighed. I wrote several paper manufacturers and got some action. I didn’t get a free box of stationery, but I do have the satisfaction of walking into a stationery store or a Wool-worth’s and seeing the weight of the paper-one sheet, two, three, and so forth-printed on the bottom of the box of airmail stationery. I admit it gives me a real lift and feeling of accomplishment. This increases my motivation to do something about other ideas, bigger ideas. It boosts my confidence and makes me know that my ideas can be put to work, that someone will listen to it when I have one.

A bigger idea I’m much more proud of is the dial-a-prayer one. I read on the subway one night about a YMCA man in Baltimore who had an inspirational message, which people could get by phoning a certain number. I was job hunting at the time, and I thought what a lift I would get if I could dial a number and get a Scripture reading or a prayer before going in to have an interview for a job. Then I thought of all the other times I needed a lift in a day full of the pressures of modern life.

I tried to get this done in New York but failed. I have since learned that the idea had struck other people, and that it was practiced on the West Coast. But I didn’t know this, and a year or so afterward I tried again to get some action on this -and it caught on in New York City (Circle 6-4200). Today hundreds of churches have the service, and many churches have had to add numerous telephone numbers and tape-recording machines to keep up with the need. I know the dial-a-prayer idea helps people when they need help most, and I get a great deal of satisfaction out of the role I have played in it.

These are not revolutionary ideas and not even completely original ones. That is important. You have to start small, but once you put those relatively small ideas into circulation, you’ll find you have more ideas and then still more. As they are adopted, you will double your confidence in presenting ideas. You will develop the habit of having ideas and doing something about them. You will build a backlog of laboratory experience in having ideas and selling them. All this increases what I call your CIQ, your creative initiative quotient.

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Once you make a habit of virtual assistant marketing, persistence will come naturally to you. Here is a week-by-week routine that many successful businesses have followed and are still following. This is something that nobody had ever told you before.

Week-By-Week Virtual Assistant Marketing

Monday: You contact two potential clients via email or phone. You ask them how they are doing in their business. Don’t go further than this. Keep the conversation simple and general.

Tuesday: Prepare a list of URLs containing beneficial and intriguing information and mail them to clients related to your field. It may be either articles, reports, press releases, or any piece of information that hits your eye while browsing the net. Don’t forget to attach your business card saying you hope it might prove to be useful.

Wednesday: Save this day for networking meetings. (They can take place at any weekday). If you’re invited, attend the meetings with your business cards with you. Be attentive in these meetings. Listen to people. Exchange business cards wherever possible.

Thursday: Devote this day to long standing clients. Ensure that they are happy with your services. Call them. If they are satisfied with your work, you can request for a testimonial. In case you have no pending project with them, ask if there is anything you can do for them.

Friday: Make it your virtual assistant marketing day. Make notes about the clients you contacted, the outcome of conversation, the projects you have with you, and other such details. This is important to hold the reigns of your business stronger.

Have you ever thought how this weekly routine will affect your business? You should try and see yourself! Make alterations in the virtual assistant marketing tactics you use with time. Write creative articles related to your business and submit them to web directories. Attend that luncheon at the local Chamber of Commerce. Do this 48 weeks a year, even if you’re busy. And don’t be stunned when you find your business slowly rising to the top and people recognizing you just by your name!

This has been the secret recipe of many famous people. Set aside an hour or two for assistant virtual marketing. You must have a routine AND attitude to maintain the routine in order to become a successful virtual assistant.

For some, success is a matter of habit!

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To understand the full force of ideas, you have to turn to history, but certainly not ancient history. One day in 1915 one man far down the executive ladder wrote a memo and passed it along to his boss. The man with an idea was the assistant traffic manager of the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company. Here is his memo, which I quote in full because it is one of the most astounding documents in business history:

I have in mind a plan of development, which would make radio a “household utility” in the same sense as the piano or phonograph. The idea is to bring music into the house by wireless.

While this has been tried in the past by wires, it has been a failure because wires do not lend themselves to this scheme. With radio, however, it would seem to be entirely feasible. For example-a radio telephone transmitter having a range of say 25 to 50 miles can be installed at a fixed point where instrumental or vocal music or both are produced. The problem of transmitting music has already been solved in principle, and therefore all the receivers attuned to the transmitting wavelength should be capable of receiving such music. The receiver can be designed in the form of a simple “Radio Music Box” and arranged for several different wavelengths, which should be changeable with the throwing of a single switch or pressing of a single button.

The “Radio Music Box” can be supplied with amplifying tubes and a loud-speaking telephone, all of which can be neatly mounted in one box. The box can be placed on a table in the parlor or living room, the switch set accordingly, and the transmitted music received. There should be no difficulty in receiving music perfectly when transmitted within a radius of 25 to 50 miles. Within such a radius there reside hundreds of thousands of families; and as all can simultaneously receive from a single transmitter, there would be no question of obtaining sufficiently loud signals to make the performance enjoyable. The power of the transmitter can be made 5 kW if necessary, to cover even a short radius of 25 to go miles; thereby giving extra loud signals in the home if desired. The use of head telephones would be obviated by this method. The development of a small loop antenna to go with each “Radio Music Box” would likewise solve the antennae problem.

The same principle can be extended to numerous other fields-as for example-receiving lectures at home which can be made perfectly audible; also events of national importance can be simultaneously announced and received. Baseball scores can be transmitted in the air by the use of one set installed at the Polo Grounds. The same would be true of other cities. This proposition would be especially interesting to farmers and others living in outlying districts removed from cities. By the purchase of a “Radio Music Box” they could enjoy concerts, lectures, music, recitals, etc., which may be going on in the nearest city within their radius. While I have indicated a few of the most probable fields of usefulness for such a device, yet there are numerous other fields to which the principle can be extended.

In connection with this idea I have had in mind for some time the possibility of connecting up the Wireless Age with the plan, thereby making the Wireless Press a profitable venture. What I have in mind is this:

Every purchaser of a “Radio Music Box” would be encouraged to become a subscriber of the Wireless Age, which would announce in its columns an advance monthly schedule of all lectures, music recitals, etc., to be given in the various cities of the country. With this arrangement the owner of the “Radio Music Box” can learn from the columns of the Wireless Age what is going on in the air at any given time and throw the “Radio Music Box” switch to the point (wave length) corresponding with the music or lecture desired to be heard.

If this plan were carried out, the volume of paid advertising that can be obtained for the Wireless Age on the basis of such proposed increased circulation would in itself be a profitable venture. In other words, the Wireless Age would perform the same mission as is now being performed by the various motion picture magazines, which enjoy so wide a circulation.

The manufacture of the “Radio Music Box” including antenna, in large quantities, would make possible their sale at a moderate figure of perhaps $y$ per outfit. The main revenue to be derived will be from the sale of “Radio Music Boxes” which, if manufactured in quantities of one hundred thousand or so, could yield a handsome profit when sold at the price mentioned above. Secondary sources of revenue would be from the sale of transmitters and from increased advertising and circulation of the Wireless Age. The Company would have to undertake the arrangements, I am sure, for music recitals, lectures, etc., which arrangements can be satisfactorily worked out. It is not possible to estimate the total amount of business obtainable with this plan until it has been developed and actually tried out, but there are about 15,000,000 families in the United States alone and if only one million or 7% of the total families thought well of the idea, it would, at the figure mentioned, mean a gross business of about $75,000,000, which should yield considerable revenue.

Aside from the profit to be derived from this proposition the possibilities for advertising for the Company are tremendous; for its name would ultimately be brought into the household and wireless would receive national and universal attention.

Like most good ideas, it seems obvious-after it has become history. Yet we have to remember that in 1915 there was no broadcasting industry. Telegraphy was used for communication, not entertainment. It was a serious business. The memo was tossed aside with a laugh.

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1. Don’t go fancy. The best way to keep and use a journal is to buy a notebook or journal that isn’t so pretty or attractive that you don’t want to mess it up by writing in it. Buy something rugged that can withstand being carried around and transported without tearing up.

2. Write down dates and times. As you begin your success journal, remember to write the date and even the time at the top of each page. You want to keep your journal very detailed so you can go back to specific dates as needed.

3. Make a note of accomplishments. Don’t forget to write down every accomplishment you experience, no matter how great or small. These are milestones in your journey to success and should be recorded.

4. Make a note of failures or mistakes. As equally important is your mistakes and failures. These are filled with important lessons for you to learn from. While you might feel bad about them at the time, it is important to write them down and write down any lessons you can see from them at the time.

5. Jot down your thoughts and feelings. It is also important that you keep notes of your thoughts during these times as well. You’ll be able to track your emotional highs and lows, and will probably even be able to see how your mental status corresponds with your successes or lack thereof.

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Dressing for success is not just a time worn cliché. Individuals who show up to an interview in a thoughtful, put-together outfit will best convey the immediate sense of self confidence. When choosing an interview outfit, carefully consider both the employer and the job opportunity. Match your clothing to the mood of the office is a must. If you are interviewing for a position in a conservative law firm, consider conservative attire. However, if you are interviewing at an up-start internet company, you may want to rethink conservative attire. Regardless of the individual items you choose to wear, ensuring they are clean, smartly pressed, and well tailored will make all the difference.

In addition to your dress, you should ensure your personal appearance reflects that of a potential employee. For those individuals with physical forms of self-expression, i.e. piercings, tattoos, or extreme dyed hair, you may find interviewers have difficulty getting past your initial appearance. Before you begin the interview process, take time to review the company’s specific rules regarding appearance. Ensuring your presence is neat will lend to your air of self confidence and appeal to your prospective employer. Take time to evaluate your appearance. Do you need a haircut? Are your nails neatly trimmed and clean? Make all necessary appointments a day or two before your interview.

Of course a potential employer is not just looking for an individual with a put-together outfit and a clean, neatly appearance. Employers are looking for individuals who have the capacity to successfully complete the job at hand. Whatever the job, affiliate yourself with the requirements necessary to fulfill the task. You will soon find that when you are confident in the task, you will exude self confidence and positively influence the interview. Create a list of potential questions an employer may ask in an interview setting. These questions can relate to your educational background, previous work experience, or your capability to handle the specific job. Once you have created this list, prepare your responses to these questions. Ask a friend or family member to pose as a mock interviewer in order to better prepare you for the actual interview.

Your actions during the interview can also affect the overall outcome. Individuals who possess a great deal of self confidence walk with their head held high, make eye contact, and have firm handshakes. Self confident individuals do not fidget, pull on their clothing, or make movements with their feet. Furthermore, you should take care to speak of your positive attributes and not focus on your negatives or weaknesses. Be careful not to brag or boast about your current position, educational background, social status, or work experiences. Again, there is a fine line between self confidence and arrogance, and few employers wish to add an arrogant individual to a team of employees. Instead, focus on how your positive aspects can best benefit the job, team, and company. However you choose to tackle your job interview, remember to bring your best attitude and self confidence.

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Success Is Not Defined By How Much You Do

So many people run themselves ragged every day, searching for that slice of life they think will make them feel happy and successful. All too often, this leads to misery and dissatisfaction…sometimes, even depression.

The truth is, no matter how much you do, no matter how much time you give to others, your success can never be defined by punching a clock.

Success Has Many Meanings

What works for one person doesn’t work for the next. When you think about what success means to you, you should never attempt to define that based on someone else’s success. This is one of the greatest pitfalls many people face: measuring themselves against others.

What is your measuring stick for success? If you could have anything you wanted in ten years from now, what would that be? What would your life look life if you were successful? Define your success based on your own desires and goals.

Believe In Yourself

Finally, before you can reach any level of success, you have to learn to believe in yourself. Without this self-belief, it will be difficult, if at all attainable, to reach any measurable success. Dig deep within yourself and polish the attributes you like about yourself. Use those to build upon to reach your own success.

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“Unless a man undertakes more than he possibly can do, he will never do all that he can.”

- Henry Drummond

“Greatness lies not in being strong, but in the right use of strength.”

- Henry Ward Beecher

“Any coward can fight a battle when he’s sure of winning; but give me the man who has the pluck to fight when he’s sure of losing.”

- George Eliot

“Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal.”

- Henry Ford

“Victory belongs to the most persevering.”

- Napoleon

“Success is never final. Failure is never fatal. Courage is what counts.”

-Sir Winston Churchill

“Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value.”

- Albert Einstein

“Eighty percent of success is showing up.”

- Woody Allen

“Pray that success will not come any faster than you are able to endure it.”

- Elbert Hubbard

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Seven Steps To Success

An effective delegation always begins with an agreement between two individuals where the assignee of the task agrees to take on the responsibility. However if you are planning for a delegation, here are seven golden rules to follow to achieve an effective delegation.

1. Identify the desired result: First step involves that you must plan a desired output. You must be sure what you want to get done through others. You have to be clear and explain your desired outcome to the delegate and make him agree to it.

2. Decide the guidelines and standards: Secondly, you have to set some standards and plan the order of work. It should be properly communicated to your delegate. You should be ready to answer all his queries and doubts and make sure he understands them thoroughly.

3. Define the resources: Thirdly, it is your duty to educate your delegate about the available resources and budget, within which he has to function.

4. Assure rewards and consequences: The fourth rule is to follow the logical aspect of an individual’s mind. People will take more interest in the job only if they are sure that their work will be rewarded and appreciated appropriately. Hence, inform your subordinates that good work will carry adequate rewards and vice versa.

5. Let them practice: The fifth step involves that you provide your subordinates appropriate time to practice. Initially they may commit mistakes. However, you can guide them by providing feedback. Remember that only practice can make a man perfect.

6. Entrust the total responsibility: As a sixth rule you must now handover the full responsibility to the delegate once he is ready to take over the job. Give him total freedom to plan his course of action and let him set his expertise into motion.

7. Monitor their progress: The seventh and final rule is that you have to monitor the work done by the employees. You have to fix periodical reporting schedules and discuss the progress of work. Thus, you can make sure that your delegates are proceeding in the right direction and are capable of rectifying errors if any.

Benefits Of An Effective Delegation

If you follow the above delegation guidelines, you are sure to reap the advantages of an effective delegation. The advantages of delegation are many and to mention some of the major benefits, they

* help time management

* lead to all round development of teams and individuals

* aid succession planning

* motivate people

Therefore, you have to remember that a secret to successful business depends upon the delegating skills of a manager. A delegation exercised blindly with improper knowledge of its actual procedure would lead to drastic results. Hence, before proceeding for delegating tasks it is necessary to learn all the techniques and then only go for an effective delegation.

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Multi-tasking refers to focusing your attention on more than one thing at once. Successful multi-tasking requires concentration, organization, careful planning, and discretion.

Doing two or more things at once is no easy proposition-in fact, some experts claim it isn’t even possible. Instead, they claim, what we are really doing when we multi-task is task switching, focusing our attention rapidly back and forth between two jobs. For instance, if we are trying to write a status report while talking on the phone, we pay attention to the phone call for a few seconds, and then focus on what we’re writing, and then return our attention to the phone call.

Sometimes when we multi-task like this, we can get into trouble. We may miss what our customer is trying to tell us, for instance, or become distracted and write the wrong thing on the report. Therefore, it’s important to be aware of what is going on around us and focus our attention where it needs to be at the moment. Thus if the routine phone call takes an unexpected turn, we need to pick up on this fact quickly and turn all our concentration toward the phone call until this issue is resolved.

Organization and planning are also key to multi-tasking. Tasks should be organized in two ways. First, it’s important to prioritize. What needs to be done this morning? This afternoon? What can wait until tomorrow?

Second, think about how much time and concentration each task will take. Perhaps you know you can do your time sheets in just a few minutes and that, because you have done them so often, you won’t need to give them a lot of focus in order to complete them. Projects like this are ideal for successful multi-tasking. Pick two or three tasks that won’t take a lot of your time or energy and work on them together. For instance, you can multi-task neatening your desk and making routine phone calls or sending emails and doing some easy online research. Getting these less taxing projects out of the way at once allows you to quickly clear these items from your schedule, making time for the projects that take longer and require greater concentration.

When you are working on several projects that require your full concentration, schedule your time. For instance, you might plan to work for one hour on the first project, then switch off and work another hour on the second project. Or you may decide to work to a pre-arranged stopping point on one project and then switch off.

Finally, it’s important to know when multi-tasking is not a good idea. Some jobs are simply not amenable to multi-tasking. For instance, one common method of multi-tasking is to drive and talk on one’s cell phone at the same time. Numerous studies have shown that talking on a cell phone while driving can lead to accidents, because the brain cannot simultaneously process the information from the road and the information you are receiving on the cell phone.

So before trying to multi-task, ask yourself if you really can perform two or more tasks at once without your performance suffering accordingly. If the answer is no, multi-tasking is probably not the best way to handle the projects at hand.

Multi-tasking is a quick way to get routine projects completed and free up your time for more complex jobs. But successful multi-tasking requires some advance planning and a good deal of discretion.

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To be successful in time management you must evaluate many viewpoints, line of attack, and replicas that are involved in premeditated plans. If you are working in an organization, you must plan accordingly to the atmosphere and people in the company. For example, businesses are often complex in their own way, and sometimes it is a direct result of dialect and miscommunication. Therefore, if you are experiencing problems within your organization you might want to find a resolve in the chain of communication, by laying out a plan that works for everyone. Time management falls into place when the organization is running smoothly. Each year most companies get together to lay out a business plan, or else to re-evaluate the business plan in question. If you have excess to this business plan you might want to ask your boss or if you are the boss to go over the plan. Business plans are great for helping businesses find a solution to problems. Often the problem is hidden in the fine lines of the business plan. Analyzing business plans is part of the strategy that heads in the direction of successful time management scheme.

Staying organized is also important. If you have a plan and find problems with managing your time, it might be because your organizing specifics are flawed. Staying organized also takes skills and knowledge. If you do not know where to start with organizing you might want to look at your desk, and if you see that it is trashed, you know your organizing skills are flawed. Skills come in when you take action to clean up your desk and organize your papers. If you are aware of the records in most office, you know for the most part they are categorized in alphabetic order. Lawyers often file their documents in filing cabinets labeling them by name. There are many ways to plan and organize to achieve a successful time management scheme, but for the most part, it starts by evaluating what our needs are and what we are expected to achieve. If you have a family you and work long hours, you might want to workout a time management plan that works to keep your family happy.

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