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Following hot on the heels of “Who is that?”, this lesson is in a very similar vein. Be careful – you never know who you are dealing with and the opportunity you may miss by not going the extra mile.

Most really successful people will have a story to tell of how they went the extra distance in putting a customer complaint right and that same person went on to become one of their best clients.

LESSON 4 – Pickup in the Rain

One night, at 11:30 P.M., an older African American woman was standing on the side of an Alabama highway trying to endure a lashing rainstorm. Her car had broken down and she desperately needed a ride.

Soaking wet, she decided to flag down the next car. A young white man stopped to help her, generally unheard of in those conflict-filled 1960s. The man took her to safety, helped her get assistance and put her into a taxicab.

She seemed to be in a big hurry, but wrote down his address and thanked him. Seven days went by and a knock came on the man’s door. To his surprise, a giant console color TV was delivered to his home. A special note was attached..

It read:

“Thank you so much for assisting me on the highway the other night. The rain drenched not only my clothes, but also my spirits. Then you came along. Because of you, I was able to make it to my dying husband’s bedside just before he passed away… God bless you for helping me and unselfishly serving others.”

Sincerely,
Mrs. Nat King Cole.

You may not meet someone really famous but the influence of some people should never be underestimated.

Everyone you meet in life, personally or through the internet is important. Whether that person is important to you is not important. That person is important to themselves at the very minimum.

I’ve always practised the lesson taught below – in my Financial Planning practice one of my best introducers’ of business is an ex-taxi driver who I got talking to who became a chauffeur for a huge multi-national company. He now sings my praises and business flows as a result.

Never forget that what goes around comes around…

LESSON 3 – The Cleaning Lady

During my second month of college, our professor gave us a pop quiz. I was a conscientious student and had breezed through the questions until I read the last one:

“What is the first name of the woman who cleans the school?”

Surely this was some kind of joke. I had seen the cleaning woman several times. She was tall,
dark-haired and in her 50s, but how would I know her name?

I handed in my paper, leaving the last question blank. Just before class ended, one student asked if
the last question would count toward our quiz grade.

“Absolutely,” said the professor. “In your careers, you will meet many people. All are significant. They deserve your attention and care, even if all you do is smile and say “hello.”

I’ve never forgotten that lesson. I also learned her name was Dorothy.

I’d like you to think about the times you could have shown some interest but didn’t. Would it have made a difference to you? I don’t know but I’m sure it would make a difference to the other person. How do you feel when someone really takes an interest in you?

A brief interuption to my 5 Lessons.

I just downloaded a great e-book (free of course) from Todd Gross’s new(ish) site. There’s a great tip for getting Opt-ins to your list using other people’s efforts. If you’re into internet marketing / business building (I guess you are otherwise you’re unlikely to be reading this) I strongly recommend Todd’s site – Monthly Free Gifts. The e-book is called something like “How to Get Other People To Build Your List” – you can’t miss it it’s highlighted on the sign-up page right now. I’d join the site for this one tip!

The second in my series of five simple lessons is all about success. To achieve real success you have to be prepared to do something others will not. If you don’t you will simply be the same as everyone else. Do you have what it takes?

LESSON TWO – The Obstacle in our path

In ancient times, a King had a boulder placed on a boulder on roadway. Then he hid himself and watched to see if anyone would remove the huge rock. Some of the king’s wealthiest merchants and courtiers came by and simply walked around it. Many loudly blamed the King for not keeping the roads clear, but none did anything about getting the stone out of the way.

Then a peasant came along carrying a load of vegetables. Upon approaching the boulder, the peasant laid down his burden and tried to move the stone to the side of the road. After much pushing and straining, he finally succeeded. After the peasant picked up his load of vegetables, he noticed a purse lying in the road where the boulder had been. The purse contained many gold coins and a note from the King indicating that the gold was for the person who removed the boulder from the roadway.

The peasant learned what many of us never understand!

Every obstacle presents an opportunity to improve our condition.

You’ll know by now that the first M in the 6M is mindset and I’ve been talking about a number of related issues over the past few weeks, being positive; being open to ideas; accepting of change; expecting good to happen; information arriving when it’s needed.

Over the last few days I’ve been experiencing real flow – information I need arriving when it’s required. Today I was going to post about treating people fairly and the results you can expect, you know – you smile – they smile; you scowl – they scowl. I like to give examples wherever possible and as I opened my emails this morning I found one addressed to Wizzer (my other name) that is just so relevant that I decided to post it here. It’s quite long so I’ve broken it down into 5 separate lessons.

LESSON ONE – Remember those who serve

In the days when an ice cream sundae cost much less, a 10-year-old boy entered a hotel coffee shop and sat at a table. A waitress put a glass of water in front of him.

“How much is an ice cream sundae?” he asked.

“Fifty cents,” replied the waitress.

The little boy pulled is hand out of his pocket and studied the coins in it.

“Well, how much is a plain dish of ice cream?” he inquired.

By now more people were waiting for a table and the waitress was growing impatient.

“Thirty-five cents,” she brusquely replied.

The little boy again counted his coins.

“I’ll have the plain ice cream,” he said.

The waitress brought the ice cream, put the bill on the table and walked away. The boy finished the ice cream, paid the cashier and left. When the waitress came back, she began to cry as she wiped down the table. There, placed neatly beside the empty dish, were two nickels and five pennies..

You see, he couldn’t have the sundae, because he had to have enough left to leave her a tip.

More will definitely be just around the corner for this small child since giving results in receiving. A great lesson to us all.

Following on from my Comfort Zone post – inspired by Christine OKelly – I came across this quote on Surjit’s blog that I found because he had just Famed me.

“When God takes away something from your hands, don’t think He is punishing you.

Rather He is merely emptying your hands, for you to receive something better.”

Now think about that – that’s exactly what we’ve been talking about – making changes for the better.

This has also reminded me of another issue – when you are looking for something you will be led to the answer. It’s Saturday morning and I thought I’d write a short post but wasn’t inspired by anything in particular until I read part of Surjit’s blog. Thank you universe!

“Nothing Changes Without a Change”

You’ve heard me say that before I know.

Most people spend their lives moaning about what they haven’t got, what they have got they don’t want and how lucky everyone else is.

Get real – you have to do something about it. It may mean getting out of your comfort zone but you have to change your mindset.

I have a female friend (she’ll know who she is but I can’t possibly reveal her name for fear of serious reprisals!) who overeats! “I want to lose weight” she says as she bites into another huge McThingy – having just finished two other McThingy type things.

SORRY “Nothing Changes Without a Change”. To lose weight she HAS to change her eating habits and exercise more. (Jes, talk to her!)
I see people in business saying things like “I need more sales; I can’t get enough traffic to my site; my computer is slow; my truck keeps breaking down”

“Tomorrow IT WILL BE THE SAME” (Wizzer shouts).

Please recognise you have to make some changes.

If you are just starting your business be open to making some serious changes. If you currently watch 4-5 hours TV a day use that time to build your business. Apart from being more rewarding you won’t be filling your head with TV negativity and junk but useful business and wealth creating knowledge.

Here’s an extreme example to us all.

Yesterday I posted my tagging game and tagged Christine OKelly at Create Business Growth. She posted her 8 facts about herself and I was amazed at her number 7. I posted my comment and she responded with this:

Thanks Wizzer! It is a little scary… but I’ve found that the only way to really grow is to get out of your comfort zone so I make it a point to do so on a regular basis. Not always with moving, but other ways too. After a while, it becomes kind of fun! It’s a chance to realize truly unexpected outcomes.

Now Christine clearly knows a little about getting out of her comfort zone and I know I don’t need to tell her that “Nothing Changes Without A Change”

Take a few minutes to think about where you are in your life, what you’re not happy about, what you really want different and then make a few changes. Start small, get up 15 minutes earlier than usual, go for a walk instead of watching 1/2 hour TV – just make a few small changes and get used to it. I guarantee it won’t hurt you. And when you are ready…

Move home and sell all your possessions every few years like Christine!!!

I was visited by Andrew Murphy earlier today and I took a look at his blog Murphs On (Great header image, Andrew).

I’ve not met Andrew before but I love the idea of The Tagging Game.

THE RULES:

1. Post these rules before you give you the facts.
2. List eight (8) random facts about yourself.
3. At the end of your post, choose (tag) eight people and list their names (linking to them).
4. Leave them a comment on their blog letting them know they’ve been tagged!

8 Random Facts about Mark aka Wizzer – The Tagging Game

1. My all time favourite band is Free – Paul Kossoff, Paul Rodgers, Andy Fraser & Simon Kirke

2. The name “Wizzer” came from a guy I worked with who called me “Wislon” instead of “Wilson” – someone else shortened it!

3. I love TVR cars – quirky, fast, unreliable but undeniably individual British (originally before take over) sportscars

4. Wherever I go I have a habit of always choosing the most expensive items – even before I know the price!

5. Football (soccer to most of you guys!) is something I am passionate about

6. My golf handicap is 19 but it should be a lot better!

7. The smell of freshly mown grass reminds me of my school days

8. I read every one of DavidBDale’s 299 word stories.

I’m tagging:
Tray Gamble
Jes Dawn
Suzie Cheel
DavidBDale
Ed Dale
Yaro Starak
Christine O’Kelly
Andy Beard

Who’s heard of Ed Dale?

You know the Tubby Nerd?

I met Ed briefly at a conference in Wembley London where he was a speaker talking about his “underachievers” program. He is a great public speaker – made the whole thing come alive for me.

Each year Ed runs a 30 Day Challenge where internet “newbies” (how I hate that term) are taught everything they need to know to make money on the internet within 30 days.

Due to a family holiday I’m unable to take part in the challenge myself but I have been following the information on the 30 Day Challenge blog and if you do nothing else during August so should you.

In a few short hours yesterday I learnt things about iTunes I never knew existed. I learnt about a great add-on on Firefox called Session Manage and it is something you really ought to take notice off.

Rather than re-invent the wheel and tell you about it here – get over to Ed’s blog and watch the videos. He has a great style (some of my loyal readers may recognise his accent!) and the videos are so well put together.

Have fun learning.

One of the additional benefits of the 6M ProfitMethod membership is meeting other members and taking advantage of their particular speciality.

For sometime I’ve been working to get properly fit again after a football injury and a health issue that required surgery. Feeling under par left me getting tired too easily, putting on a little weight, and more importantly getting stressed and probably raising my blood pressure. For me being in great health is a positive, not just for the obvious reasons but also because I find I have better attention and ability to get “ordinary” work done.

Looking to resolve all of these problems with a lack of available time – pressure of work, demands of family life (including 2 young boys who think it’s fun to jump on Dad’s back when he’s doing press-ups!!) is not easy. But I knew I had to put my health first and be disciplined after a new regime.

Today, I thought I’d download fellow 6M student Jessica Dawn’s free report to help me with my fitness goal.

As it’s free I wasn’t expecting too much but I was really surprised at how useful it’s been to me. Not quite a blueprint for my new regime but certainly full of great tips and information and I highly recommend it to you if you are looking for any improvements in your overall health & fitness. Since that’s probably everybody I expect you all to head over to Jes’s blog right now by clicking HERE

One of the things Jes recommends is drinking more water – I was just off to make a cup of tea – so now I’ll save some time & help global warming by not using the kettle!