Introduction
How to Complete
1 Your Mastery Mindset
2 Listen To Your Own Voice
3 Believe In Yourself
4 Your Own Business
5 Knowing Is Your Edge
6 Preparing For Success
7 What Wealth Means
8 Choosing Your Challenges
9 Making the Right Move
10 Entrepreneurial Potential
Conclusion

Lesson One - Embrace Your Mastery Mindset

Objectives:

To understand the application of the mastery mindset to business
To appreciate that others do not think as masters
To continue self-reliant independent thinking
To hone alertness and awareness skills
To become motivate to complete the course

Background:

   With a mastery mindset, you have an amazing potential for making money.

   It is doubtful that you were taught this fact because few teachers outside the military and martial arts community have this mindset.

   Many teachers, especially in higher education, possess a pacifistic non-confrontational mentality.

   Everyone plays the game

   Go along to get along.

   Don't rock the boat.

   Be the sheep.

   You should only expect to get what everyone else has gotten.

   This mentality is fine if you are only interested in collecting a degree to satisfy someone else's expectations for you. However, if you actually want to acquire information that you can put to profitable use, this lemming mentality is toxic.

Get used to the idea that most other people don't think like masters. They are passive. They do the minimum to get by. They are who they are. You are who you are. They don't know you. They don't know you, yet.

   As you work your way through this course and the entire Master Success System, you will learn that by combining a mastery mindset with a commitment to the Action Principles^® philosophy of self-improvement and service to others, wonderful things will happen. You won't have to say anything because the proof will be self-evident from your many accomplishments.

   People like you.

   People respect you.

   People trust you.

   They buy from you.

   They promote you.

   You make money.

   You are happy.

Alert and Aware

   Your life, the lives of those in your charge and the success of your life mission depend on your being alert and aware and prepared to take decisive action. While many go through life in a fog, you go through life with your head up and your eyes and ears open. Alertness and awareness are two or your master skills that have already taught you a lot about business.

   As an alert, aware master, you can already answer many important business questions:

   What types of people make good managers and supervisors?

   What types of people make effective employees?

   Where do you want to shop?

   How do you want to be treated when you exchange your hard earned money for a product or service?

   See. Listen. Read. Copy. Open your mind to the possibilities of your own potential. Life is your teacher. Alert and aware, it isn't too difficult to figure out how the winners win and why the losers lose.

   Many people's existence is little more than day after day after day of the same boring routine, deciding to sit passively and let life happen to them.

   You are a master. You are separate from the crowd. You are a tough thoughtful spiritual person of action. You are prepared to take risks, learn, adjust and attack again. By investing in and, more importantly completing the Master Success Courses, you are showing the inner fortitude to see how far you can go with the one wonderful life that God has given you.

Others may see what you see but they are oblivious to the significance and application of this input.

You want to make enough money to live comfortably. You can do this.

You want to make enough money to retire early. You can do this.

You want to make enough money to share with the needy. You can do this.

You. You. You. You.

   You are making decisions. You are in charge of you and your future.

   In years, not decades, you reach a comfortable level of financial stability. As you wealth builds, your housing, transportation and vacation options multiply. In decades, not lifetimes, you earn more than enough money to pamper your spouse and children, to pursue your avocations and to contribute to the well being of those in need. Finally, you leave a sizeable estate for your heirs and chosen causes, one part of your larger legacy of personal accomplishment.

   This is a good life for a master.

   This is about you.

   This is about you following the Action Principles^®.

   This is about you being your best.

   This is not about being born to privilege. Nice but not needed.

   This is not about going to going to college. Nice but not needed.

   This is not about winning the lottery. Nice but not needed.

   This is not about working in a prestigious profession. Nice but not needed.

   In this course, you will learn that as a master, you already possess the skills necessary to achieve success. You won't have to wait for anyone's permission to take immediate decisive action because you will have already given yourself permission to succeed.

The Master's M.B.A.

   To some, the pinnacle of business education is to earn an M.B.A., a Master's in Business Administration. Wow, you've done it. After fourteen years in school and hundreds of thousands in tuition and debt, you are ready to start your business career.

   Good luck. This formal M.B.A program may work.

   Nice but not needed.

   As part of this course and for no extra time or money, here is an informal M.B.A. program which definitely does work.

   Here is our Master M.B.A.

   Make a product or service that the market demands. Cut lawns, style hair, design websites, sell coat hangers, teach school, tend bar, run a labor union or pull teeth.

   Be in love with your customer. Customers have the money and you want them to give some of it to you. You want repeat business. You want referrals. If you work for someone else, you want your bosses to recognize your worth and to keep giving you promotions and raises. Make it happen.

   Always keep learning and improving. What is it going to take to increase the productivity of your business? Or, what is it going to take for you to get your next promotion? Who makes these decisions? Why? When? Find out. Take charge. Study the competition. Challenge yourself.

   Can a physician do this? Of course.

   Can a mechanic do this? Of course.

   Can a florist and a lumberjack and a pilot do this? Of course.

As you will be learning, the type of job doesn't matter. It is your style and attitude that matter.

   As you achieve personal and financial success, others will wonder:

   What is this magic that you have?

   Where did this charisma come from?

   Use your master mindset and take the power of the Action Principles^® as your own. It is yours! Be proud of your master status.

   Every morning, you open your email and read an Action Principle^®. You stop to think; where have I been, where am I now and where do I want to go.

   Just stop for a few moments.

   Just think.

In the midst of the turmoil of modern life, few stop to breathe and re-focus. A master does stop to think and consider options.

Problem Solving

   It doesn't matter if you are dealing with a personal problem, ethical question or a business dilemma. The reasoning process preceding your action is the same.

   You want to lose twenty pounds.

   You want to buy a house.

   You want a raise.

   You want to help your daughter deal with a crisis.

    You stop and you think.

   What has experience taught me?

   What can I learn from others who have faced a similar situation?

   What are my present options?

   What is my best option?

   You try.

   It works or it doesn't.

   You calmly and quietly try again and this time with a little more experience.

   You stop and you think.

   You learn and you adjust.

   You progress and with time your persistent progression leads you to success.

   This is the Action Principles^®.

   Yes, you are exceptional.

   Yes, you are a tough thoughtful spiritual person of action.

   Yes, if you follow the Action Principles^®, you are exceptional.

The Elite Twenty Percent

   In all countries, in all times, you will find that most social groups break into three components: 10-70-20. It's called human nature.

   The bottom ten percent for their own fault or no fault of their own will need a helping hand.

   The seventy percent, who compromise the overwhelming majority, are looking for the easy, the convenient, the known and the predictable. They aren't particularly ambitious. They are waiting to be told what to do. They will do what needs to be done to not get fired. Typically they advance as their company grows or someone ahead of them quits or retires or dies.

   The top twenty at the mastery level are the elite. They are the Action Principle^® Champions. They are tough, thoughtful men and women of action.

   This is where you fit in with the masters, the champions, the elite. You will study. You will apply what you learn. You will make mistakes. You will learn from your mistakes. You will try again with new wisdom. Repeat. Repeat over and over again until you have everything that you want from life.

   What others have done and are doing, you can do. You can become a Master of Success. By taking these courses, you are putting yourself on the path.

Reject Stereotypes

   What will stop you from succeeding?

   Who will stop you from succeeding?

   Immediately, reject those who try to stereotype you.

   Success is not about race, color, creed, religion, or how many initials you have after your name. Success is about persistence, courage, determination, discipline, research, goals, attitude and a willingness to take and learn from decisive action.

   As each new day of your life unfolds, only you can decide to brush aside the minor indignities of modern life, the meanness of the bigot and cynic in favor of the positive.

   How could Helen Keller be born blind and deaf and still inspire millions?

   How could Mother Teresa bathe lepers and speak at Harvard?

   How could Lance Armstrong conquer cancer and win the Tour de France?

   How could volatile Ted Turner make enough money to give away a billion dollars?

   They must be exceptional. They are. As a master, you are exceptional.

   What can you do?

   What can't you do?

Decide where you belong. The richest one percent of the world's population own forty percent of the world's household assets. The next nine percent own the next forty-five percent of the total wealth. The bottom fifty percent of the world own about one percent.

   To complete your life's mission, you are on an exciting personal journey of discovery. You will learn from your own trials and errors and from the experiences of others. You learn and adapt and try again.

   To complete your life's mission, you will have many obstacles to avoid, climb over or circumvent.

   Some will cry. Some will whine. Most will quit. Many weaker untested people will not be able to take the temporary bumps and temporary grinds and temporary disappointments along the road. Instead, they will give up and return to the perceived, relative security of doing what they've always done. They are average.

   You will learn a lesson each time you pick yourself back up. You are a master. You are exceptional.

Your Journey Is Your Life

   It is in the make-up of the ultimately successful person to learn from failures and mistakes and to muster the fortitude to move forward... again and again and again. Sometimes by tiny steps and sometimes by giant leaps... forward. It is taking the beachhead and then pushing inland to victory.

   Reaching a position of financial independence isn't easy but it is possible, and it may be possible for you without a lifetime of work.

   As you continue through the course, you should look for the style and attitude, and strategies and systems employed by the characters. This course is not meant, for instance, literally to show you how to make a million dollars in the art business or in the pizza business. The businesses in which the characters are involved are simply illustrative of unlimited financial possibilities and directions.

   In one story, a fellow fails in the insurance business and becomes a success in the real estate business. The story could have been told just as easily in the reverse; a person fails in the real estate business and becomes a success in the insurance business. Or, the real estate fellow who eventually specialized in selling investment real estate could have specialized and become a success in residential or commercial or industrial real estate or any of the many different specialties in the real estate field. It was his attitude and commitment that made him a success and not, necessarily, the specific business venture in which he was involved.

   Entrepreneurship is a talent and an ability that can be identified and developed.

Being a master in small business does not make you a better or necessarily a happier person. In fact, it can have the opposite effect. Power and wealth can easily corrupt. You are learning to proceed with awareness.

Let this will be you: a master: a tough, thoughtful, spiritual and rich person of action.

Story:

George Drives The Bus

   After ten years in the Air Force, thanks to veteran preference, George Madison is hired as a city bus driver. George has all the qualities you like to find in a bus driver. He is: alert, courteous, friendly, and punctual. He keeps the bus clean and the commuters happy. George is an all-around nice guy and quickly a valued city bus employee.

   But, no matter how good a job George does, driving, cleaning, and being friendly, George is never going to get rich driving that bus.

   The city bus company is not going to pay George a $100,000 annual salary no matter how hard he works. George is going to earn whatever the bus drivers' union has negotiated for all the drivers. Full stop. Period. Being a bus driver, George can make a decent living but he has no hope for extraordinary financial reward. Unfortunately for George, just like in the Armed Services, job performance and compensation are not necessarily commensurate.

   George has a friend, Louie, who started working at the bus company when he did. While George is hard working and conscientious, Louie goes through the motions.

   Every week, George stuffs the suggestion box with ideas on improving customer service and saving the company money. George's boss takes credit for George's ideas.

   Every week, Louie stuffs the union grievance box complaining about company working conditions. Louie considers George a sucker for being so serious.

   Every week, George's and Louie's paychecks are identical.

   Maybe, someday, all of George's good and hard work will pay off and he'll be promoted to dispatcher. Of course, George will not make this decision; this promotion, fairly or unfairly, will be passed down by those in a higher pay grade.

   Maybe, someday, Louie's cousin, Arnold, will be elected to the City Council and Arnold will use his influence to get Louie appointed as the next dispatcher.

Hard work alone is not a guarantee of success.

George The Entrepreneur

   Now, let's say that George is not content to "just do and die" for the next twenty-five years at the bus company. He has some ambition.

   George is a likable guy. He is hard working. He is smart enough to come up with a steady stream of good ideas. Maybe George has some entrepreneurial potential.

   Perhaps, what others have done, George can do. Perhaps, George could start his own transportation company?

   He could start a tour bus or school bus company.

   He could start a company to provide rides for the disabled.

   He could start a corporate shuttle bus service.

   He could start a limo service, taxi service or courier service.

   He could start an airport shuttle service.

   He could become an independent efficiency expert, marketing his skills to other bus and transportation companies.

   He could become a consultant on car-pooling to municipal, corporate and private clients.

   He could work as a commissioned employee selling or leasing buses and vans to municipal, corporate and private clients.

   If George has entrepreneurial potential, there are numerous profitable alternatives for him to consider. In the Air Force, George was a Staff Sergeant E-5. He knows how to run a shop. He has the experience necessary to work for himself by creating his own environment where his financial compensation is more directly related to his skills and efforts. If he puts his military skills to work as an entrepreneur, George will take control over his financial future.

A Different George Story

   George can start this Saturday, his day off. He has heard some of his elderly inner city passengers complain that they have no way of getting to a new suburban mall. That first Saturday, he drives five of the seniors to the mall and back and charges each $20.

   The next Saturday, as word of his shuttle service spreads, demand increases and he makes two round trips.

   In a month, George has his brother-in-law working for him.

   In three months, his wife is in charge of preparing schedules for the five drivers and his kids post the schedules around the neighborhood.

   In six months, George leases his first new transport van.

   In two years, his commuters are not only paying George but the four regional malls he services are also paying him. The malls find George's service to be both profitable and great PR (public relations).

   For three years, George keeps his full-time job while building his new part-time small business. One day, George is ready to take the plunge. He walks into his boss's office at the bus company and drops his keys and badge on the desk.

   A stunned Louie is heard to mumble, "What the heck does George think he's doing?"

   You know. While Louie was dozing off, George started his business part-time and slowly developed his business until it could provide a full time income. George is now his own boss. He has left the job security and the weekly paycheck and the insurance and pension benefits of the bus company. This is important. In quitting his city job and starting his own business, George has traded security for insecurity but in that insecurity lies financial potential beyond the imagination of the Louies of this world.

   Most people would be happy to coast through life on a cushy city job.

   Why take a risk?

   In twenty years, we know where Louie will be. He will be driving down 8th Avenue for the six billionth time.

   How far down the highway to financial freedom might George be?

   George has a lot of nerve. He is in the one percent. He didn't waste his master skills, he put them to use.

Operational Limitations:

You must not let the unhappy, miserable lazy cynics of the world rule your actions. Rather than build themselves up, these losers find amusement in pulling you down. Ignore them. Don't argue. You can't win. Smile politely. Move on and do your own thing.
If you are lazy, you've got a serious problem.
If you can't think for yourself, you've got a serious problem.
If you are a selfish, unpleasant loner, you've got a serious problem.
Hard work and money are not automatically linked.

Action Plan:

Make a decision to put your master skills to work. Proper application of your master skills can lead you to wealth.
Alert and aware, hold your head up, open your eyes and earns. Life is teaching you about business. Observe what makes a successful business successful.
Decide right now that you will complete this course. Don't miss out on the wonder of your own life!
Read your Action Principle^® each day.

Seeds for thought:

What does being rich mean to you?
How would most people around you act if you told them that you intended to get rich?
What kinds of lives do most average people live?
Why is perseverance so necessary for ultimate success?
What qualities do you think you'd find if you interviewed a successful person?
What "investments" do you think you'd have to make to be successful?
Do you know any real life Georges or Louies?
Can a bus driver stay a bus driver and have a happy productive life?
What is the source of Louie's real problem?
Could George have stayed with the bus company and bettered his situation there?

Jargon:

   Accountant A person who provides specific financial information to a person or business.
   Commissioned Employee A salesperson paid on a percentage of the value of product or service sold.
   Compensation Money or other rewards given to employees on the basis of how important their jobs are and their personal performance.
   Efficiency Expert A person who advises a company on how to achieve the maximum quality output with the least cost and/or effort.
   Entrepreneur A person who starts a business and assumes risk.
   Financial Independence Freedom from money worries.
   Income Money or something else of value received.
   Investment Purchase of stocks, bonds, real estate, art, businesses, etc. with the expectation of receiving income or a capital gain in the future.
   Pension Money paid regularly to a person who has reached a certain age or retired from employment.
   Public Relations (PR) Influencing the public to view a company in a positive light.
   Public Service Working for the government.
   Salary A regular payment to an employee.
   Venture A business started with some risk.

Question and Answers

   What is the biggest misunderstanding that people have about starting a business?

   Most people think that you have to be innovative when, in fact, you really have to be imitative. Find people who have already succeeded at doing what you want to do, and imitate them. When you try to be innovative you double your work. As an innovator, you first have to convince people that they need your innovation and then you have to convince them to buy that innovation from you. Use imitation to start and establish your business and you'll have plenty of opportunities to be innovative later, with a lot less risk.

   You may think that opening a diet center for overweight pets is a good idea, but if you can't find anyone in the history of mankind who has ever succeeded at this business, be careful. The more mainstream your business idea, the easier it will be to find successful businesses to clone and to become successful yourself.

   Why don't more people go into business for themselves?

   They listen to the negative advice of others rather than reaching an informed decision of their own. Starting a business involves risk and hard work. Friends and family who haven't researched your business may well advise you to take a more conventional and conservative career path and work for someone else. Be safe. Don't risk. Now, co-workers or others who might be jealous of your career plans might be equally negative and skeptical of your idea. The result is that most people in this circumstance will procrastinate rather than act. The answer is to do the research, get the facts, and act accordingly.

   If you want to open a gift shop, then take six months to learn everything that there is to know about gift shops. Find the best gift shops in your area, visit them, and spend time with the owners. Volunteer to work for a few days. Build a network. Join the gift shop association. Find the best suppliers and visit them. Talk to everybody you meet about when and how and where they buy gifts. Then, you will be able to meet any and all objections with facts. Or, you might now be smart enough to realize that the objections were valid, and you can turn your attention elsewhere.

   What's a good business to go into today?

   There are 5,000 different types of small businesses. You can make a comfortable living, and realize your long term financial objectives, with most of them. The business that you choose doesn't matter. Find people who are already successfully doing what you want to do and model yourself after them. The Chinese have a saying, "Do something that you love and you'll never have to work again." So, why not start looking at business opportunities based on a talent, interest, or skill that you may have, and you may find yourself loving every (work) day.

   Of course, the opposite is also true. If you can't find people who have ever been successful at doing what it is that you want to do, then be cautious. Make that very, very cautious.

Support:

Inspirational Insights:

   Whenever you see a successful business, someone once made a courageous decision.
      Peter Drucker, Management Expert

   We all have ability. The difference is how we use it.
      Stevie Wonder, Singer

   I believe talent is like electricity. We don't understand electricity. We use it. You can plug into it and light up a lamp, keep a heart pump going, light a cathedral, or you can electrocute a person with it. Electricity will do all that. It makes no judgment. I think talent is like that. I believe every person is born with talent.
      Maya Angelou, Writer

   The only thing stronger than me is my mind.
      Motto U.S. Army Special Forces

   Day after day train your heart out, refining your technique: Use the one to strike the many. That is the discipline of the master.
      Morihei Ueshiba

   Believe in God.
   Hide your talents.
   Work hard until you die.
   Give everything away.
   Bear hardships.
   This is a master.
      The Shaolin Master

   It is not the mountain we conquer but ourselves.
   Sir Edmund Hillary

   If you think you can, you're right. If you think you can't, you're also right.

   The past is an illusion. You must learn to live in the present and accept yourself for what you are now. What you lack in flexibility and agility you must make up with knowledge and constant practice.
      Bruce Lee

   Courage is not the lack of fear. It is acting in spite of it.

      Mark Twain

   The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing.
      Albert Einstein

   It is the soldier, not the reporter who has given us the freedom of the press. It is the soldier, not the poet, who has given us the freedom of speech. It is the soldier, not the campus organizer, who gives us the freedom to demonstrate. It is the soldier who salutes the flag, who serves beneath the flag, and whose coffin is draped by the flag, who allows the protester to burn the flag.
      Father Dennis Edward O'Brien, Sergeant, USMC

   You don't have to like it. You just have to do it.
      U.S. Navy Seals

   Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little.
      Edmund Burke

   These things we do that others may live.
      USAF Pararescue Motto

   Moral excellence comes about as a result of habit. We become just by doing just acts, temperate by doing temperate acts, brave by doing brave acts.
   Aristotle

   We lead the way. Onward we stagger, and if the tanks come, may God help the tanks.
      Darby's Rangers

   Follow me if I advance! Kill me if I retreat! Revenge me if I die!
      Ngo Dinh Diem

   There are no gains without pains.
      Benjamin Franklin

   I am only one,
   But still I am one.
   I cannot do everything,
   But still I can do something;
   And because I cannot do everything
   I will not refuse to do the something that I can do.
      Edward Everett Hale