I have a few more creaks this year than last. I guess at 46 some small aches are to be expected. But I didn’t expect them. Nor am I willing to accept them.

There are things I can do to help myself “not creak.” And I am doing them. Walk, eat less, drink no soda, take an aspirin a day, take a few more vitamins, and other actions personal to me and my age and health that will help me both improve and prevent. I keep myself well oiled, so I can speed up rather than slow down.

Here’s what I have found to be true: The more I age, the less I am willing to “just accept,” and I am certainly not willing to “settle.”

Everyone is on their own journey.

How’s yours going?

Not the wealth journey, or the hunt for buried treasure. I’m talking about a WAY BIGGER journey. Your “learning journey.” How’s that going?

I have been an adult student for more than 25 years. Like you, when I was young, I knew everything. Then I traveled and met so many people from so many different cultures, and I suddenly realized I knew next to nothing. From there I resolved to learn something new every day. That was more than 25 years ago, and I’m still on that journey. I hope you are, too.

The older I get, the more I want to learn and the more I want to accomplish.

Some people want to relax, or watch TV every night, or want to retire, or are looking forward to retiring. Not me.

I get mail from senior citizen organizations. I throw it away. I don’t want to accept that just because I have reached a certain age I can save money on things.

I am on a mission. I have a few more lofty goals that are backed up with intentions:
• Write a book or two.
• Launch another product

And there are a few other major personal goals to achieve and places I plan to see before I pack it in.

What are you doing right now to identify, intend to, and achieve your lofty goals? Or are you “waiting to retire” to get or do what you really want? I have found that most people who want to “retire” don’t love what they do at present. Not me.

When you love what you do, you can’t get enough of it. I love my sleep but admit it is the biggest waste of my time. As such, I wake up early and try to go to sleep late. People say they need balance. And I do work on balance everyday – being a great father, family member, friend, significant other. But, I also love what I do! So, I therefore strive to be the best at everything I can be.

Back to my age of non-acceptance…

BIG QUESTION: What are you “accepting” right now that you might be able to change if you took a few more risks, or were willing to put in a bit more (or a lot more) effort?

BIGGER QUESTION: What are the three of four things in your life that you “wish” were different than they are now? And what the hell are you waiting for? Don’t you hate waiting? Traffic. Late flights. Long lines. On hold. Slow service. You do everything you can to avoid a 10-minute or 60-minute wait, yet you’re willing to wait YEARS to achieve your life’s desire. Not me. I’m not waiting for anything or anyone. I don’t accept waiting, either in a doctor’s office or in life.

BIG ANSWER: Here’s the cool part. By taking daily action toward what you really want, at some (indefinable) point, you create your own momentum, your own path to achievement, maybe even your own path to fulfillment.

BIGGEST QUESTIONS: What are you “just accepting”? What are you willing to do to make things happen in your life?

BIGGEST ANSWERS: If you’re constantly talking about what was, you’re robbing yourself of what will be. Complaining about life? “In my day things were different…” Take note: candy bars are no longer a nickel. If you’re sick of waiting, if your sick of just accepting your present lot in life, maybe it’s time to take action.

Gotta go. Time to start doing… or should I say, KEEP doing.

It is extremely rare to find a successful person who whines, complains, and frets about his or her circumstances. This is despite the fact that he or she may have overcome great obstacles to achieve their level of success. On the other hand, it is extremely common for struggling individuals to continually blame their circumstances for their lack of joy and abundance. The real question is: What cam first – the attitude or the success? The answer in virtually in all cases is that the winning, positive attitude came first, followed by a lifetime of abundance.

Your circumstances are what they are; they were what they were. If you are forty five years old and were a middle child, you’re still going to be a middle child when you’re ninety five. If you are black or white; a woman or a man; or if you were abused, taken advantage of, or bankrupt – these facts cannot change. If your parents couldn’t afford to send you to college or if you had to work your way though school, shovel snow in your driveway, or walk ten miles to school – these are all things in your past. It’s time to get over them and MOVE ON!

You’ll find that life will be a lot easier and much more fun when you make the decision – sad, angry, victimized, suspicious, and/or self-righteous. When you argue for you limitations, your thoughts and words merely get in your way and greatly interfere with you ability to create. With complaining out of the way, you’ll create the space for an explosion of creativity and brilliance. You’ll be able to be more focused and oriented to the present moment. Instead of focusing on problems, you’ll begin to see solutions. Instead of maintaining an “I can’t attitude, you’ll quickly develop a more positive vision for yourself.

All is takes is a simple decision; the decision to stop yourself from falling into the complaining habit. At first it may be difficult – even funny – to observe how often you complain. Habits can be hard to break. But in the is case, it’s well worth the effort. As an excuse or complaint comes to mind, gently shoo it away like you would flies at a picnic. Don’t worry about it too much. You’ll quickly get used to the nicer feelings that come from a life without complaints, as well as the success that comes with your new winning attitude!

As you probably already know, the wrong partnership – professional or personal – can be far worse than no partnership. And a winning partnership can be worth its weight in gold. Sometimes however, fear can keep us from seeking out good partners and forming winning partnerships. Many people worry that they will have to share the profits, decision-making authority, and/or prestige that come with a project or business. A fearful attitude, of course, won’t allow us to do this. As always, it is a good idea to overcome this fear so that you will know whether forming a winning partnership is in your best interest.

There are a few important points to consider when deciding if a partnership is right for you. If the members of a partnership do essentially the same thing, it’s almost inevitable that one will be harder working and have more commitment than the other. Often, that partner begins to resent the other partner’s pushing. It’s generally not a winning partnership. For example, two trial attorneys go into a legal partnership. At the end of the year, one or the other might wonder what benefit he received from the partnership. After all, each is fully capable of doing the other’s job. But, if a trial attorney and a corporate attorney go into partnership, usually each one, at the end of the year says, “Thank God for my partner – I don’t know what I would do without her.”

Ideally, each partner brings to the table different skills and attributes. One might be excellent at details and planning, the other in promotion and public speaking. Or one might be excellent in sales, the other in marketing. A good partnership is like a good marriage – it has to be formed carefully. If you can create the right combination of skills, work ethic, and vision you can create a winning team.

Here’s a classic example of a winning partnership. Alan and George each had poor financial years the past few years. Alan is a superb real estate deal maker and has an artistic flair. Although he could negotiate to purchase building lots and negotiate to sell, he did not have any serious product or any true expertise in building custom homes. George is a superior tradesman and building contractor, but he as been working only about half time. He didn’t have the foresight to locate great building sites or the courage to be a tough negotiator. They formed a partnership. Right from the start, their partnership was a match made in heaven. In their very first year of working together, they each had their most successful year ever. It’s true that they had to split their profits, but their combination of skills quadrupled their ability to produce. The key is that the partnership does something that neither could do by themselves. Now, George is busy full time building custom homes, the thing he does best. Alan is busy negotiating to purchase lots for future building, working on design, subcontracting, and negotiating material pricing. Although it sounds unbelievable, the partnership is able to complete a beautiful custom home, start to finish, in a matter of months. This is a winning partnership.

You may be the most talented person on earth, but until you hook up with a good partner, you may never truly unleash that talent. Rather than spending your energy trying to do everything, you and your new partner can each focus on what she or he does best.

Let Kolikoff & Company be your partner in Sales, Marketing and Business Development. For more go to www.kolikoff.com or call 623-455-6155

You’d be amazed at what people can (and will) do if you not only give them a chance but also believe in their potential. It’s important to know that everyone has unique gifts and talents out into the world. In other words, rather than sitting back and waiting for people to be perfect – and being frustrated when they are not – take some responsibility in the process by creating an ideal psychological working environment.

There’s an old motto in business: Give someone a reputation to live up to and watch them shine. It’s really true. Most people, given the right environment, are hard working, talented, creative, and productive. They want to please others just as you and I want to. Unfortunately, however, most people are hardly ever exposed to an ideal working environment.

What happens to someone when she is insecure, resentful, or frightened? Very simply, she loses most of her motivation to please you as well as most of her other positive work related qualities. Consider the following example: You have an assistant. Every day when he walks in the door, you remind him how incompetent he is. You point out his weaknesses and flaws. You belittle him in front of other people. Then you walk out the door. The question is, how does your assistant feel? It’s hard to know for sure, because people react differently to the same set of facts. But it’s a good bet that he’s either frightened, insecure, resentful of you, or, most likely, all of the above. His job performance is going to be suspect. If you are disappointed in him, you are missing the point! In my book, you haven’t done your job.

Wouldn’t you increase your odds of securing a dedicated, hard-working assistant if you treated him with enormous, genuine respect? Wouldn’t your assistant be more likely to work hard and keep your best interests in mind if you were to treat him with kindness, reminding him frequently how much you appreciate him, pointing out to him when he does something right? Ideally, we want everyone to feel good about themselves, to feel confident and secure; to feel as if they are talented, competent, and creative. This way everyone wins.

When you encourage creativity in others and have faith in them, it’s analogous to creating the ideal conditions for a garden. You are “planting the seeds” for an environment where success is the most likely to occur. When you plant a garden, you want to have the right type of soil, moisture, and sunshine. When you build people up – instead of pushing them down – you create the psychological equivalent. The same principle applies whether you are hiring a housekeeper, an attorney, and accountant, a publicist, or anyone else. It also applies to your children, you spouse, your significant other, your friends and your neighbors. It always works: When you believe in someone and when that person knows that you believe in her, magical things can happen. From this point on, see if you can expect great things from people. Do your part by creating the ideal working conditions. Be kind, patient, and supportive. Then sit back and watch what happens.

Looking back on my life, I’m a little embarrassed to admit that I have been a poor listener. And while I’m a much better listener today than I was, I still feel I have a long way to go. As I look (and listen) to those around me, however, I feel like I have a lot of company.

People love to be listened to. So much so, in fact, they will pay therapists enormous fees to listen to their stories and complaints. Consumers loved to be listened to as well. They will happily pay top dollar for those people who are smart enough to understand that this is what they want – and what they demand. Unfortunately, only a tiny percentage of business persons do understand, or are willing to implement, this important notion.

What does your customer or client REALLY want? Do you know? Are you guessing? Have you asked? If you have asked, are you giving him/her what he/she wants? Or are you giving him/her what you think they want or need? The difference in how you answer these question may well be the difference between success and failure.

An interesting and eye-opening exercise is this: Pretend that you are a therapist. Listen very carefully to what your customer is saying. As probing questions like, What do you really want? and What would make you even happier with our product or service? Be genuine and listen like you have never listened before. Listen from your heart. Make it absolutely clear to your customer/client that the only thing that matters to you is that they are happy and that he/she is getting Exactly what they want and expect.

If you are running a small restaurant, for example, ask your customers if they would be willing to sit down with you for five minutes. Tell them you want to find out what would make their dining experience a little nicer than it is already. Ask them what they like about your restaurant, what they don’t like, why they come in, and so forth. Listen carefully and respectfully.

When you listen in this manner you may be shocked at the positive response. When people feel that they are listened to, they also feel appreciated and valued. Feeling listened to is such a rare experience that when someone does listened to they tend to tell other about it. When your listening ear is genuine, you will create raving fans and customers who will love you will want to do business with you. Listening is like a magic formula that turns ordinary people into loyal, happy customers. One final tip: If you’re married and/or have children, the same principle applies. If you want a closer relationship with your spouse, kids, or significant other, the best place to start is by becoming a better listener!

Crisis is the best time to affect change… so what’s your crisis?
What’s happening in your personal world?
What’s happening in your business world?
What’s happening in your sales world?

Change is in the air.
You can feel it like a crisp winter day.
You can almost smell it.

The personal question is: How will you react to that change?
The bigger personal question is: Do you understand that change is opportunity?
The biggest personal question is: How will you take advantage of that opportunity?

We are in a crisis. Some will define it in other words, like recession or downturn, but the actions we as a people and a government take over the next few months will shape our world for the next decade.

Some people are “waiting to see what happens.” Big mistake. There are three kinds of people — people who make things happen, people who watch things happen, and people who don’t know what’s happening. Which kind are you?

TAKE NOTE: You can’t change things in THE world, but you can change things in YOUR world.

Now is the perfect time to change your situation, and take a self-leadership position. Now is the perfect time to take control of yourself — your thoughts, your expressions, and your actions.

If you’re in sales, now is the time to sell. Sell better and with more passion than ever before. Start with existing customers. Serve them so phenomenally that they buy more, and refer you to others. That’s not a change you can, “live with;” that’s a change you can survive with, even thrive with.

Don’t just guard your desk and your job. Guard your customers. They are your lifeblood.

REALITY: In order to change whatever you were doing before, you must intensify your efforts. TRANSLATION: In order to effect that change, work harder and smarter than ever before, and do it with a positive attitude and a service heart.

Here’s the secret: Outside change makes inside change okay.

At this moment, many people in our society are looking for answers — or better stated WAITING for answers. What are you waiting for? What are you looking for? What are you doing?

While this time is passing there are three atmospheres:
One is fear and anger. Being bitter, not better.
One is hope and anxiousness. Waiting instead of doing.
One is positive anticipation and determination. Digging in and doing.
Which atmosphere do you exist in?

HOPE: As I travel across the United States, I’ve noticed there is a renewed sense of friendliness and patriotism. A sense of union I’ve never witnessed. There is a willingness among many to try to get better and work harder. And clearly, there is a renewed sense of urgency.

Yes, there’s fear, frustration, and disappointment. But not as much as you might read about or hear about. (HINT: They rarely show the good things on TV.) The key is to not be angry about it. Anger affects your attitude, your ability to think clearly and think creatively, and your ability to see the best answers and the best opportunity for you.

Sure you want to be safe, but consider those who pay you, those you serve, and those around you. They are affected too. And their response to the same situation will most likely be different than yours.

PROBLEM: Big companies are looking to remain profitable, and are doing it at the expense of their employees and their service offerings. Airlines and automobile manufacturers are crying — not serving better or raising quality, rather cutting everything and everyone, and begging for money. Morale is in the gutter, along with service. HUGE mistake.

EASY ANSWER: Double your service offerings.

REALITY: People are looking to get closer, to find a bond, to find answers. People want the country to rally and win. Patriotism is rampant. (What was your last PROACTIVE act of patriotism?) It’s not just salute the flag and sing the national anthem, it’s look at history and see how we have overcome adversity in the past, and try to discover and work for positive outcomes in the future.

WAKE UP: Now is the time for friendly, and friendly itself is change that makes other change possible. Now is the time for service, and service itself can make people want to do business with you at all times, not just economically challenging times.

Welcome! Since this is my first entry I thought I might like to first set the table so to speak.  The purpose of my blog (well, besides some obvious selfish reasons – good for generating relevant content which in turn creates more traffic to our site and service and in the end some of that green stuff in my wallet) is to tell, through experience, stories that enlighten, inspire, perhaps even change your way of thinking.  So let’s get started!  And with that why don’t we start with some incredible things Kolikoff & Company is doing with one of it’s business partners… SEOrchers (formerly Novel Concept Studios).  Besides the fact that they are great human beings and wonderful to work with (which no one should ever overlook)… in a word they/we (through our seamless service and partnership) are the BOMB!  Here is an ad I produced on Craigslist that speaks the truth and has reeled in some very interesting clients:

Try It… Google “SEO Services”: We’re Number on the FIRST PAGE and NUMBER 10!  Now if we can make our firm number 10 in the world with perhaps the MOST competitive key word phrase on the planet (10th out of 23.7 million), imagine what we could do for your business! Fact: 80% of US consumers search the internet FIRST for the product or service they are intending to purchase! What SEO (Search Engine Optimization) does (if you don’t already know) is get you/your company or service top listed in Google/MSN/Yahoo, etc. based on certain key words entered. So let’s say you want to lure more prospective customers/clients to your website (and like who doesn’t!)… well, it is just this service that accomplishes that! Getting top listed in Google we all know will grow your business and you won’t need to work as hard and spend as much money (i.e., Yellow Pages, Direct Mail, Advertising, Sales Staff, etc.) to generate leads and new business relationships. There will be NO wiser investment in your business than this! For more on getting your company top listed in Google, Yahoo, MSN and others… go to http://www.novelconceptstudio.com (now known as http://www.seorchers.com)

So while this may not be a story yet that inspires and will change the world, one thing is for sure… we can and will inspire you and your business if given the chance!