What stops you from being successful?

The difference between the small percentage of people who experience massive success, and the great majority who live life in mediocrity, may be summarized in one word—character. This small minority that achieves greatness is made up of life’s winners. These are the people who overcome life’s challenges and achieve their goals because of strong inner character. A person’s character is composed of all his individual characteristics. The human characteristics contained within this article insure a person’s success in any worthy endeavor. Most, if not all, of these characteristics are present in great leaders throughout history. Some historical examples include leaders such as Christ, Mohammed, Joan of Arc, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Napoleon Bonaparte, Henry Ford, and Andrew Carnegie. The application of these characteristics is a key factor to living a happy, fulfilling, and satisfying life. Below are the characteristics of an unstoppable winner, along with a brief description of each characteristic:

1. Ambition – Unwavering Desire: a winner harbors an incredibly strong desire and never gives up on it. The greater the desire, the more and harder that individual works to attain it. The more that desire fills one’s mind, the greater the attraction of the desire to oneself. The lack of desire kills all personal ambition and is absolutely essential to progress in life.
2. Imagination – Taps into Creative Brain Waves: this characteristic separates the boys from the men—the geniuses from the ordinary. Imagination is an essential ingredient for greatness in any endeavor. Great fortunes have been made for individuals who tap into their creative imagination.
3. Faith – Positivity of Emotions: This is the concept of feeling possession of a desire before its actual completion. It is the subduing of all negative emotions—including fear, jealousy, hatred, revenge, greed, superstition, and anger—with the replacement of only positive ones—including desire, faith, love, sex, enthusiasm, romance, and hope. This state of being also provides the foundation for a pleasant personality, which is necessary to be cooperative with others and increase one’s power through association with others.
4. Courage – Confident, Understands Self: In order to be great, one must defy the odds. Challenging the norm requires courage, which is an essential leadership quality. The person must also understand the relationship between the universe and self with a realization of one’s purpose in life.
5. Self Control – Harnesses Thoughts and Emotions: A winner is in full control over life, which requires control over thoughts and emotions. The thoughts and emotions one holds make up the actions, which produce the habits, and thus one’s character. A winner possesses a tougher than steel character that does not bend easily.
6. Definitive – Decisive, Clear Vision and Purpose: Winners know exactly what they want, when they want it by, how they are going to get it, and why it is worth getting. Most have written down their goals, often signing a contract to self, and review their goals on a regular basis.
7. Responsible – Takes Ownership of Life: A winner understands the law of nature that there is a cause for every effect. He does not blame others or shift responsibility away from himself. A winner knows that nature put a brain in each of us for a reason, and that humans have the responsibility to use it for a positive purpose.
8. Cooperative – Utilizes positive energy toward others: A winner knows that people are of prime importance and treats everyone as an equal. He induces the help of others through exhibiting positive energy and manifesting an attractive persona in order to accomplish his goals.
9. People Oriented – Gains Power from Others: A winner knows that true power comes from without and not from within. It is the conglomeration of many brains that produces the energy to accomplish great things. He utilizes networks of people, and surrounds himself with a master mind of likeminded individuals with similar goals. Furthermore, a winner knows that he must give in order to receive, so he focuses on giving as much as possible to others. Additionally, in almost every case, great leaders have harnessed a combination of properly expressed sexual energy with the emotions of love and romance. This is manifested, not in the physical expression of sex and love, but in the transmutation of the energy and emotion into the pursuit of a desire.
10. Continuous Improvement – On-Going Education: A winner understands that there is an infinite amount of obtainable knowledge, and that active stimulation of the brain is necessary for peak performance. He emphasizes his independent education in order to improve and become better in all aspects of life.
11. Devoted – Goes the Extra Mile: The winner is absolutely devoted to the achievement of his desires and does whatever is necessary. He understands that a temporary unbalance in life may be necessary to accomplish certain goals. He puts forth his best effort all of the time.
12. Laser Focus – Applies All Forms of Energy to the Positive Good: This is the decision to pursue one’s definite major purpose in life in spite of life’s distractions. A winner concentrates his efforts into the activities that really matter and minimizes on the activities that have little to no significance.
13. Unbreakable Discipline – Undying Perseverance: A winner develops winning habits that do not permit failure. It is the habits a winner employs that make him disciplined. Perseverance is the insurance that guards against failure, because as long as one perseveres, eventual success is inevitable.
14. Everything Matters – Laziness and Ignorance Must Be Eliminated: A winner understands that laziness in any aspect of life has an effect on other aspects. Therefore, everything matters, from diet to exercise to associations with others. All areas of life must be in submission.

My personal views on how to obtain a living have been challenged by experiences in my life that presented alternatives to the dominant worker mentality in the United States. During the early to mid twentieth century, a shift in the means to earn a living occurred as the masses moved from a self sustenance agrarian lifestyle to one that depends on a large corporation for an income. Although the first generation or two may have maintained the hard working mentality of their forefathers, this lifestyle of trading time and some sort of personal value for monetary compensation is deteriorating the American productivity that once existed. The modern job creates opportunities for loopholes in positions where productivity is difficult to measure, and the emergence of workers’ rights, labor unions, and affirmative action restrain employers and decrease their power to enforce a high level of productivity. Americans have lost their sense of personal responsibility to perform and see the results of their performance. Furthermore, the ability to obtain a more prosperous lifestyle to achieve the American dream has become more and more difficult as the educational requirements for high paying jobs enlarge. As the United States government has increased its central power and size, the American government has significantly weakened the opportunities for working Americans by increasing taxes and reducing working class benefits while increasing the benefits for business owners. My family, like most families in America, continues to hold onto middle class ideals to obtain at least a bachelor’s degree and work as an employee for thirty to forty years; however, my experiences from reference groups outside of the home have altered my individual identity which has caused me to pursue an alternative lifestyle. Social institutions including school, dominant communities, church, the media, and my family have influenced me to accept the dominant view to gain an education and work as an employee; on the other hand, my older brother’s real estate investing, as well as newfound knowledge of United States law and knowledge made available by subordinate communities on the internet, sparked me into action to seek alternatives which ultimately led me to a differing stance on how to achieve economic mobility.

The United States school system plays a strong influence for and against the job mentality. Although school up through high school teaches children the same subjects as it has for hundreds of years, American children are questioning the values of their parents more than ever, and even parents are questioning how their children should proceed. For example, in school many children express discouragement and apathy because the course material is incongruent with the demands of the modern workforce. In addition, retiring parents wonder what went wrong as they retire without enough money to live at the same lifestyle. Only a single digit percentage of retiring individuals can live comfortably without picking up a part time job. Children see the disheartening outcome that the changing economic climate in the United States has produced, and it has created negativity and a certain level of disdain among students from middle school through college and beyond. School fails to teach children how to survive outside of a job, and it even fails to teach children the specialized skills that employers seek. School influenced me to follow societal norms by limiting my economic opportunities to only working as an employee, but it also created an agitation which strengthened my blossoming search for economic alternatives.

Dominant communities including my local neighborhood, sports clubs, and the great majority of my social network strongly enforce the idea of pursuing an education followed by employment. The presence of entrepreneurs, business owners, and alternative working lifestyles in general are hidden to the untrained eye. A large number of people who work in the business sector live side by side and completely unbeknownst to their employee neighbors; after all, most Americans could not give the first name of their next door neighbors—a sign that most people live in a social box with limited knowledge of the available opportunities. If employees could compare financial statements with the business owners and investors, then more than likely they would seriously consider the alternatives. It was not until I learned to recognize the titles of business owners (i.e. independent representative, business consultant, success coach) that I began to spot them in my own social network. When I recognized the lifestyle of freedom and unlimited economic mobility that the business and investing sectors offer, I became a member of a subordinate community that is ridiculed and challenged by the dominant community in America.

The business sector is a subordinate community that I joined as an alternative to the macro culture within the United States. Individuals in the business community are constantly scrutinized by their friends, co-workers, and family—that is, until they start to drive the Mercedez; then they are labeled as one of the ‘lucky’ ones. I am no exception to the discrimination given by family and friends, but I know from studying successful business owners that success comes after years of personal development through trials and failures. I expose myself as much as possible to the subordinate community in an effort to alter my life. The difference between the subordinate community and the dominant community is in the way they think about money; it is in their interpretation of money. The subordinate business community values money because of its ability to produce freedom of time. In addition, money enables individuals the power to influence others through charity and the opportunity to pursue leadership within their communities and social networks. The business community influenced me to deny the social norms of my family and friends and to pursue a life characterized by self education and personal development.

Despite the influence of business owners to start and sustain churches, the general message given by churches discourages the pursuit of greater economic mobility. Most churches focus on messages in the New Testament that condemn wealthy tax collectors and support giving away all material wealth. In contrast, I often wonder how many eternal riches Bill Gates exchanged for the thirty-four billion he gave to third world nations last year. When examining the entirety of Biblical Scriptures, some of God’s beloved individuals were wealthy. The kings in Israel, the line of Abraham, Joseph, and the inheritors to the land of Canaan all obtained a high level of wealth. Jesus makes it clear in the New Testament that while men judge by the outward appearance, God judges the heart. Just because many Christians struggle to put food on the table for their families does not make them holier than those who can afford to give two million dollars to their local church and provide housing for hundreds of people. Since I have exposed myself to the subordinate group of business owners, I have discovered many people who place their commitment to Christ ahead of money and are in full compliance with the Bible.

The United States media tarnishes the image of the wealthy business owners by portraying smut of the few who obtain riches illegally. Examples include Enron and Martha Stewart. It takes a monument like Bill Gates giving dozens of billions of dollars to make the news, yet many charities and social institutions are financially backed by business owners. While the media supports the dominant community, it was easy for me to see through it upon education by the subordinate community of entrepreneurs.

My family played the strongest role in influencing me to pursue the dominant economic culture in the United States, but my older brother indirectly led me to discovery and entry into the business subculture. When I was still in high school, my older brother was a landlord for sixteen units of apartment buildings. I was intrigued by the idea of earning passive income each month from people who are simultaneously paying off my mortgage. As almost a direct result of my family getting high speed internet, I began researching real estate investing techniques on the internet. When I learned that I could defer taxes by doing a 1031 exchange and upgrading a smaller apartment building to a larger one, I was completely sold. Then I learned of all the tax benefits that owning real estate could give me. Eventually I learned of business opportunities within real estate investing, and soon I became educated on other available business opportunities. On the other hand, my family supports the employee ideal and discourages any venture that appears risky—which characterizes any investment of time into a business or money into an investment. I, however, see the chance of losing my job or not getting the right job as very risky. If I can become personally responsible and fully competent to provide an income without an employer’s involvement, then I have eliminated the risk. Besides, the highest paid profession in the world, which is a crucial skill in business, is sales. I see the greatest opportunity for economic mobility in business, and thus I reject the societal norms that my family holds and endorse the views of my economic subculture.

A large part of my identity regarding how to earn a living has changed as a result of a sequence of specific experiences that exposed me to new ideas. These experiences challenged those of my culture and led me to change my cultural knowledge and practices from the ones held by the dominant community and most cultural institutions. My new interpretation of money transformed many aspects of my life. I have a new individual identity apart from the cultural knowledge and identity bestowed upon me by socialization from my home and peer reference groups. In contrast to America’s recent decrease in personal responsibility and feeling of individual importance, I support the ingenuity and opportunity that enabled the United States to prosper and grow into the most powerful nation in the world. My transformed culture has made me into an entrepreneur and an individual focused on personal development as I seek to love others by serving them.

I know a lot of people contribute to homeless people on the streets and feel good about helping individuals less financially blessed. I am about to argue that while there is nothing wrong with donating to individuals, it is not going to ultimately help the situation. We all have heard the stories of lottery winners who become broke shortly thereafter. Each person has his own financial blueprint at any given point in time, and his actions will direct him to that financial blueprint—whether it be one of a pauper or one of a billionaire. Now I am certainly an advocate of allocating ten percent of income to charity, ten percent of income to church, and at least ten percent to investing. I am not saying that giving to charity is bad, but I believe that like all financial decisions, the decision of who to give money to is a very important one.

The reality is simple: people’s money habits dictate their future financial status. There is a great dilemma in the United States today that is the catalyst for the current economic recession – people spend more than they earn. People must learn to live below their means and then securely reinvest their money back into the financial system. It is crucial that each person pay himself first; give no less than ten percent out of each paycheck to investments. This is money that cannot be spent no matter what, because this is the money whose children will create wealth. Furthermore, the grandchildren must not be spent either—not for many generations.

Another major problem in the United States is money lenders did not ensure that debtors could repay them. The result is a domino effect that hurts everyone. Similarly, individuals must invest their money wisely back into the market at reasonable interest rates such as 8-15% return on investment per annum. Real estate and stocks are two common investment mediums that consistently perform well over the long term. Always seek investment advice from individuals whose wallets are much fatter than oneself, and do not invest in hopes of romantic profits. Go with the gut; if the return is too good to be true, then it probably is too good to be true.

An additional problem with Americans is the lack of self education. People falsely believe that a school education is the end all be all, but in reality school alone is not enough to prosper in an ever-changing twenty-first century. One key piece of advice that the wealthy understand is to learn from not just the successes but also the failures. Talk to broke people—observe them. Figure out what they do and do the opposite. Figure out where they go and go elsewhere. Figure out how they talk and use the opposite language and vocabulary. Determine how they think and think completely opposite. Most people blame others for personal failures; instead, look in the mirror and come to the realization that life is exactly as the person in the mirror made it. Look at personal failures and live differently.

The reality is people are exactly where their prior actions have taken them. A homeless person will go right back to being homeless if he repeats his old actions; a broke person will go right back to being broke after winning the lottery; a billionaire will return to being a billionaire after filing bankruptcy. People must re-program their financial blueprints to one of a prosperous individual.

Listen to the homeless person’s story and determine the person’s financial blueprint before blindly giving money away to be recycled through society to the individuals with a prosperous blueprint. If possible, find a way to re-program others through education. As Lao Tzu said, “give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.”

What is especially exciting is that the principles for money apply to every other area of life as well. Look at people with a history of bad relationships, figure out what they did, and do the opposite. There are many more failures than successes, so it should be easy to find commonalities between multiple failures. Of course much can be learned from looking at the successes and copying them, but just as important is learning from the failures. Pick any discipline and become more educated by learning from others.

2000 Aflac Logo

As some of you may know, I attended the Job Fair at the University of Maryland Baltimore County last week. One of the employers represented was Aflac—that’s right, the company with the duck as shown on TV. Although Aflac is not technically an MLM company, I think it is still relevant to the business-minded. As an entrepreneur and business person, I thought it would be worthwhile to check them out. While I was at the Job Fair, I walked up to the Aflac table, talked with the recruiter named Jody, and within 90 seconds she scheduled me for a summer internship interview at their office in Merriottsville, Maryland. Today I went to that interview as well as did some online research on the company.

            The first thing that struck me was that I received a phone call at 11:30am today to remind me of the interview at 4pm. I wasn’t sure what to think about it; I feel like most major employers leave it up to the individual to remember the date and time of the interview. I believe Aflac wants to ensure as many people come out to their interviews as possible, so this practice seems reasonable. Most companies want individuals who are organized and motivated to come out to an interview, so if the individual misses out—tough luck. Aflac is different, and now I shall begin my interpretation of their company as someone acquainted with sales—particularly insurance—companies.

            The very first thing I noticed is that the company office is located in Merriottsville, a very nice area west of Baltimore. The next thing I noticed was the red corvette parked in front of the Aflac office; it must have been the state director’s car. As I parked my Ford Crown Victoria in front of the office, I noticed two tall, relatively handsome individuals walk out in full suit and tie. How is that for a first impression? It looks like they have some players at this office.

            I walked into the office to see trophies, plaques, and framed pictures with corvettes, horseback riding, and other expensive activities plastered all over the office; in fact, that is about all I could find at the office. No one was at the front desk, so I walked to a conference room where an individual told me to wait in a room for an interviewer. After about five to ten minutes of looking at the awards throughout the office, a thirty year-old agent came for my interview. We sat down and he asked me some basic questions based on my resume. I quickly averted the conversation from my school resume (which is not all that impressive since it shows none of my entrepreneurial side) and asked some open ended questions about Aflac.

            Aflac began business in 1955 and sells various sorts of insurance, including mainly health insurance and some life insurance. I knew the company from the duck commercials which began in 2000 when the company re-branded itself. Aflac is the largest insurance provider in Japan and the largest provider of guaranteed-renewable insurance in the United States. At the end of 2008, Aflac was worth over $79 billion. What all this means is that Aflac is a stable company with a working business model.

            The company info is all fine and dandy, but the real question for most people is “What’s In It For Me”? Well, the first thing to note is that a ‘job’ with Aflac is totally commission based. Anyone looking for a salary should quit reading this article now and look elsewhere. The truth is that if Aflac is someone’s first experience in sales and marketing, then it is most likely that person will not experience a desirable income—at least not at first. Most people just do not possess the skills to succeed in sales. In addition, while Aflac does offer some cold calling leads to local small businesses, a person who really wants to achieve something great will need to treat Aflac like his own business and work his own leads. Again, most people know little to nothing about marketing unless they have prior experience in business. Aflac requires a self-motivated individual. While they will accept just about anyone who wants a chance, less than ten percent of recruits will stick with the company for many years.

            The interviewer, a six foot Caucasian of seemingly above average intelligence, had interned with Aflac while at Towson and began full time when he was 22. He stated that he had been with the company for eight years. That is a good sign; as the old adage says, “if he can do it, I can do it.” I decided to act unlike every other interviewee by choosing NOT to ask him how much he makes; instead, I asked him how much I could make in the company. He said the average company that Aflac deals with in the Washington D.C. Metropolitan area has about 20 employees at approximately $1,000 in premium per employee. He said that an Aflac representative earns income in several ways: first, a representative gets paid 40% of the total premium up front when a policy is sold; second, the representative continues to get paid an additional 20% (for a total of 60% of the full premium) over the course of 12 months; third, the representative receives 5% of the total premium per annum for the rest of the term (about 25 years). There are additional incentives such as stock in the company, a percentage of premium from recruited individuals, and so forth. This all means that it is possible to earn a decent four figure pay check from the very beginning, and the residual income is respectable.

            However, before any money can be made, it is necessary to become licensed in the state for health insurance and optionally life insurance. My interviewer stated that only five percent of income comes from life insurance sales. The cost to become licensed is $90 in Maryland. Aflac does provide online study materials with quizzes to test readiness. It should be possible for most people to become licensed and ready to earn income within one month.

Aflac provides support at their regional office with meetings and help from other agents. They also have major events in the region and at exotic locations, such as Cancun and Las Vegas. Aflac offers many awards and incentives for sales achievement. It is a good, positive environment for a salesman to thrive.

             The first question that would hit a person when on the ‘job’ at Aflac for the first day is “who will I sell insurance to?” The interviewer stated that they sell mainly to small businesses, and that they would go off of an individual’s warm market then work through word of mouth, or referrals—as well as some cold calling. While I happen to know more small business owners than most interviewees, I had to question his logic of working the warm market. As an experienced MLM representative, I know this procedure all too well. This is the easiest way for a District Coordinator to make a quick buck and recover his investment in the recruitment process. The real players do not rely on warm market for all—or even the majority—of their leads. The way to go about sales in Aflac is to copy the top producers who are doing cold calling initially then lead generation; however, most people would quit immediately if they had to generate their own leads because they do not know a thing about marketing. In addition, most people get a sick feeling in their stomach when they consider cold calling. As usual, the recruiter did not reveal the full truth in an attempt not to dissuade me from accepting the position.

            How do Aflac’s products compare to the competition? That is a detailed question that would make this article rather long; however, the short answer is that working with a group like Aflac offers limited competitiveness compared to an independent producer. The main advantage is the ability to go into the field with help in the underwriting process. Workers in the insurance field for many years on the insurance-boards forum very consistently recommend staying away from Aflac because of its inferior products and saturated market. Aflac over hires and sends their recruits into the phone books to cold call businesses. It is not unusual for a business to hear from an Aflac representative multiple times per week. The trick is approaching businesses in a way that establishes trust and rapport. The economic downturn has eliminated all luck from the insurance industry; people really have to understand what they are doing to succeed in the recession.

            Aflac is a solid opportunity with good income potential. It is very close to running one’s own business. I would suggest any aspiring agent to think of it like his own business. There is minimal involvement on behalf of other agents to ensure success; no one is overseeing a new agent’s performance like would happen on a regular job. According to my interviewer, only 6% of Maryland businesses currently use Aflac, and I dare to say that regardless of the number of agents (most of whom do very little calling) working an area, there is plenty of opportunity for sales—especially in the Washington D.C. area. It is a sales position that takes much hard work, but it is possible to make a decent income. I saw the state director’s premium award plaques for every month of 2008: the numbers ranged from $200,000 to $300,000 each month. He is easily making six figures per month at his compensation rate. Aflac is an okay opportunity to seize the American dream; a dream that most jobs cannot deliver on in the twenty-first century.

            For further reading on this subject, visit the Insurance Boards Forum and do a search on the forums for Aflac.

Do You See Life As Beautiful?

Earlier today I was watching The Young Victoria in theaters and thought of a great concept embodied within the movie that also applies to business and life in general. If you are not familiar with the movie, it is about Queen Victoria’s life before coronation and includes the first few years of her reign. I would highly recommend the movie, but that is aside the point. Consider how each character treats Victoria and the conclusion reached as a result of those actions.

Young Victoria grew up in the palace in a very sheltered life. Her mother required Victoria to be with someone constantly; she could not read novels, and her life was generally quite dull, at least from my perspective. Her mother and the mother’s paramour, Conroy, suppressed Victoria’s freedom while living at home. They attempted to force Victoria to sign her regency over to Conroy and her mother for seven years with the reasoning that she was unfit to rule because of her young age. Victoria constantly rebelled against her mother and Conroy because she did not appreciate how they treated her.

Considerably better than Victoria’s mother and Conroy but still with fault, Lord Melbin mixed his own political agenda in to his support of Victoria. He forced in strong partisan support for his political cause without consideration for others in Parliament. This caused political turmoil and great trouble for Victoria in her early reign. He may have been kind and I believe he truly cared for Victoria, but his selfishness instigated much strife for himself, Victoria, and the country. He also did not consider the needs of the poor in England even though he knew that issue to be near and dear to Victoria’s heart.

As a stark contrast, the one person in Victoria’s life who supported her in every way was Albert of Brussels. He put his utmost confidence in Victoria’s ability to lead the country as ruler. In every way he encouraged her. He rarely rebuked her or criticized her, but he frequently praised her—often in front of others. Notice how Albert viewed Victoria as a very important person, and that altered his actions toward her for the better. On the other hand, Victoria’s mother, Conroy, and even Melbin considered themselves better than Victoria. As a result, their actions caused problems for their own lives, Victoria’s life, and the lives of their countrymen.

How do you view other people in your life? Do you think of them as better than yourself? The Bible states that people should do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than oneself. Certainly this is an applicable lesson for everything in life, and its successful employment in business is absolutely essential for long term success. How do you treat other people? Do you do unto them as you would have them do to you? Take the focus away from yourself and think about things from the other persons’ perspective.

The path to unlimited prosperity is paved by always doing unto others as you would have them do unto you. It is always necessary in business to create win-win scenarios for each party. Your ability to create value to others through winning situations for each party will determine your income level in business.