There is only one class in the community that thinks more about money than the rich, and that is the poor. The poor can think of nothing else. – Oscar Wilde

This quote tells the story of the power of the mind.

In order to become rich, you must place in your mind positive thoughts about wealth and achievement in the area of finances.

But the opposite is also true. The quote above says that the poor actually think about money more than the rich. Any guess as to the nature of those thoughts?

The mind is a rich fertile soil where we can plant and cultivate beautiful flowers and abundant crops. Or we can let the weeds and negativity in life take over. We can even plant weeds if we choose.

The hardest part is being mature enough to realize that the results you see today are because of the planting you have done in the past.

You must reap what you have sown, without complaint.

Take an honest assessment of the major areas of your life: relationships, physical, emotional, financial, spiritual. Try to understand the thought processes that have led to those results and then adjust.

Add a little more of the good stuff you got growing.

Do a little weeding with the bad stuff that crept in.

Stop planting what you don’t want more of.

The sooner you get started the sooner harvest will come.

Make it a great day.

Jake

Hardship often prepares an ordinary person for an extraordinary destiny. CS Lewis

Many of the stories of successful people also include a period of hardship.

Many have escaped abusive situations and used these difficulties to drive them forward.

I once heard Condoleeza Rice say "It is a privilege to struggle."

Struggle and difficulty are common to all of us. We may not have the same degree or difficulty, but we all have experienced difficulty.

Through our struggles and strife we able to relate with our fellow men and women who experience the same.

Just as struggle and difficulty are common, so is the antidote.

Inside of each of us is the capability to dream and then create a new future for ourselves. One that is away from our current struggles and hardships. One that is away from the current pain.

Encourage and grab on to those dreams of yours. Start working to make them a reality. Begin to let go of the struggles and hardship.

And make it a great day.

Jake

An ant on the move does more than the dozing ox. – Lao Tzu

I don’t know about you but this one sparked an interesting mental picture. A sleeping ox next to a tiny little any busily carrying a leaf.

An important part of being successful and happy is being action oriented.

An interesting realization I think I have come to lately is that is more of the “tortoise vs the hare” kind of action instead of the “bull in the china shop”.

The slow and steady and continual progress will win out in the end.

I have challenged myself lately to find smaller goals that lead up to the bigger goals.

Think about a half dozen long term goals that you have, the really big ones.

And then work on finding small, incremental steps you can take today that will lead to meeting those goals.

Want to be rich? Start saving and investing every month.

Want to be physically fit? Start exercising for x minutes x days a week.

Want to be wise? Start reading something smart for 5 minutes a day.

Whatever your long term aspirations, find something small and steady that will get you there and get started….today.

Make it a great day.

Jake

JM* – Our goals can only be reached through a vehicle of a plan, in which we must fervently believe, and upon which we must vigorously act. There is no other route to success. – Stephen A. Brennan

EB* – Your value doesn’t decrease based on someone’s inability to see your worth. – Zig Ziglar

JW* – Positive thinking won’t let you do anything, but it will let you do everything better than negative thinking will. – Zig Ziglar

JD – Income seldom exceeds personal development. – Jim Rohn

I didn’t get quotes from everyone this morning so I got to go out and find ones I liked for everyone.

I especially liked “Your value doesn’t decrease based on someone’s inability to see your worth.”

Just as a kind word said at the right time can do someone so much good, a critical word can do the same.

As you think about yourself and your assessment of your worth, does someone else’s comments or inability to see your worth weigh too heavily?

Challenge yourself to see your value differently. Be honest and positive about the areas of improvement, but don’t forget just how valuable and unique you really are.

One of the great things about this email list is that I personally know everyone on it. And I know it to be true for each and every one of you.

YOU are valuable. You are unique and talented in a way that is true of no one else on this planet.

Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.

Make it a great weekend.

Jake

http://youtu.be/o4VSdGzxSTw

Sent this out in honor of Vince Vaughn’s character in “The Internship”.

Funny movie about two guys who lose their sales jobs and decide to start back at square one and become interns at Google.

I’ve always been a believer in internship programs. They create that unique mix between people with experience and those rascally young whippersnappers.

For all the worry about the world going to hell in a hand basket because of “kids today”, I come away thinking the opposite when I interact with the interns we have had at Mavidea.

When I think of them, one word pops into my head: potential.

They remind me of the inherent potential placed inside each of us and the endless possibilities that lay before us.

And for those of us who aren’t the proverbial “spring chickens”, interacting with interns can be a great reminder to recapture a little bit of that youthful enthusiasm.

Make it a great day.

Jake

"You cannot take the mild approach to the weeds in your mental garden. You have got to hate weeds enough to kill them. Weeds are not something you handle; weeds are something you devastate." — Jim Rohn

This quote is a challenging one.

Similar to the area of tolerance, society seems to push us towards acceptance of the weeds that creep into our lives.

But weeds must be devastated and given no chance for survival in our lives.

Think about your own life. Are there any weeds creeping in?

A relationship that needs to be ended?

A habit that needs to be stopped?

A thought habit that needs to be changed?

Got something? Ok, time to get rid of it. Zero tolerance.

Make it a great day.

Jake

Below is a short story called “Father Forgets”. I know I have sent this out before but heard it again last night and since it was right after Father’s Day, I felt compelled to share.

The story is an important lesson for all our relationships, not just the one of father-son.

Remembering to support and appreciate those in our lives instead of criticizing can make a big difference in the lives of those we care about.

Is there someone in your life that you are being too critical of?

Make it a great day.

Jake

Father Forgets

by W. Livingston Larned

Listen, son; I am saying this as you lie asleep, one little paw crumpled under your cheek and the blond curls stickily wet on your damp forehead. I have stolen into your room alone. Just a few minutes ago, as I sat reading my paper in the library, a stifling wave of remorse swept over me. Guiltily I came to your bedside.

There are things I was thinking, son: I had been cross to you. I scolded you as you were dressing for school because you gave your face merely a dab with a towel. I took you to task for not cleaning your shoes. I called out angrily when you threw some of your things on the floor.

At breakfast I found fault, too. You spilled things. You gulped down your food. You put your elbows on the table. You spread butter too thick on your bread. And as you started off to play and I made for my train, you turned and waved a hand and called, "Goodbye, Daddy!" and I frowned, and said in reply, "Hold your shoulders back!"

Then it began all over again in the late afternoon. As I came Up the road, I spied you, down on your knees, playing marbles. There were holes in your stockings. I humiliated you before you boyfriends by marching you ahead of me to the house. Stockings were expensive – and if you had to buy them you would be more careful! Imagine that, son, form a father!

Do you remember, later, when I was reading in the library, how you came in timidly, with a sort of hurt look in your eyes? When I glanced up over my paper, impatient at the interruption, you hesitated at the door. "What is it you want?" I snapped.

You said nothing, but ran across in one tempestuous plunge, and threw your arms around my neck and kissed me, and your small arms tightened with an affection that God had set blooming in your heart and which even neglect could not wither. And then you were gone, pattering up the stairs.

Well, son, it was shortly afterwards that my paper slipped from my hands and a terrible sickening fear came over me. What has habit been doing to me? The habit of finding fault, of reprimanding – this was my reward to your for being a boy. It was not that I did not love you; it was that I expected too much of youth. I was measuring you by the yardstick of my own years.

And there was so much that was good and fine and true in your character. The little heart of you was as big as the dawn itself over the wide hills. This was shown by your spontaneous impulse to rush in and kiss me good night. Nothing else matters tonight, son. I have come to your bedside in the darkness, and I have knelt there, ashamed!

It is a feeble atonement; I know you would not understand these things if I told them to you during your waking hours. But tomorrow I will be a real daddy! I will chum with you, and suffer when you suffer, and laugh when you laugh. I will bite my tongue when impatient words come. I will keep saying as if it were a ritual: "He is nothing buy a boy – a little boy!"

I am afraid I have visualized you as a man. Yet as I see you now, son, crumpled and weary in your cot, I see that you are still a baby. Yesterday you were in your mother’s arms, your head on her shoulder. I have asked too much, too much.

“We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.” – Albert Einstein

As you look at your biggest challenge right now, how might this quote apply?

Are you having a hard time with one or two goals in particular because you are using the same kind of thinking?

I once read that simply changing something as simple as your route to work in the morning can change the way you think enough to work through a problem you are facing.

Just making some new pathways in your brain cause it to look at your old problem from a new angle.

What change could you make to shake things up?

Getting up early?

Staying up late?

No caffeine?

An extra latte in the afternoon?

A different route to work?

A new workout routine?

I am sure you can come up with some better ideas on your own, the key is to just do something different. Begin the process of thinking differently.

Make it a great day.

Jake

http://youtu.be/kZlXWp6vFdE

Since yesterday was father’s day I thought I would send out one of my all time favorite father-son moments from sports.

The story is of Derek Redmond who tore his hamstring in the middle of his race in the Olympics. Despite being only able to hop on one leg he was determined to finish the race he had worked so long to be a part of.

And seeing his son in so much pain and struggling to make it across the finish line, his dad did what most dads would do. He ran down there and helped his son across the finish line.

Two great morals in one story. Never give up. We all need someone to lean on sometimes.

I hope everyone had a great father’s day.

Make it a great day.

Jake

JW* – “You know you’re in love when you can’t fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams.” ― Dr. Seuss

JM* – “Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage.” ― Lao Tzu

EB* – I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear. – Martin Luther King, Jr.

JD – Where there is love there is life. – Mahatma Gandhi

In honor of Meaghan and I’s 11 anniversary today and since we aren’t having a management meeting I thought I would send out quotes on love.

I often say that I am the luckiest man in the world. I believe so mostly because I am lucky enough to be loved by such a wonderful woman.

We were built for love. You could say we are love machines. (Sorry couldn’t resist that one).

We were built to be loved and to love others.

Not just in a romantic sense, but in an all of mankind sense.

Make it a great day.

Jake