Gary Screaton Page, Ph.D.

By Gary Screaton Page, Ph.D.

Copyright © 2008-2010 by Gary Screaton Page. All rights reserved.

 

[This article may be reproduced as is with none of the content changed except for spelling as appropriate for the country in which the reproduced articled appears, and further that all links are included as well as the copyright information.]

 

D. O. Mills

 

Darius O. Mills, financier and philanthropist, started on his road to fortune with nothing but a good physique and a large determination. His wealth grew to over $25,000,000. He acquired that amount of money by observing these rules:

 

1.  Work develops all the good there is in a man; idleness all the evil; therefore work if you would be good—and successful.

2.  Sleep eight hours, work twelve, and pick your recreations with an eye to their good results.

3.  Save one dollar out of every five you earn. It is not alone the mere saving of money that counts; it is the intellectual and moral discipline the saving habit enforces.

4.  Be humble, not servile or undignified, but respectful in the presence of superior knowledge, position, or experience,

5.  Most projects fail owing to poor business management, and that means a poor man at the helm.

6.  Success is not measured by the number of his millions one has or by the extent of his power, but by the good that he does.

  

Joseph Downey

 

Joseph Downey, was one of the wealthiest contractors in Chicago. He took a pessimistic view of every business venture. Downey said that he always expected the worst to happen, and was agreeably surprised when the reverse occurred. To his intimate friends he often gives these terse bits of advice:

 

1.  Never figure what your profits are going to be.

2.  Calculate what your possible losses will be on a venture.

3.  Figure what the lowest return will be in a business proposition with all things unfavorable. If matters turn out favorably, you can stand the prosperity that follows.

4.  Buy all the property that you can, but never build to suit you. Construct buildings to please others and they will sell.

  

C. P. Huntington

 

Collis P. Huntington laid the foundation of his fortune of over $50,000,000 by peddling hardware in California during the feverish days of 1849. His business maxims were:

 

1.  Don’t talk too much during business hours.

2.  Listen attentively; answer cautiously; decide quickly.

3.  Do what you think is right and stand by your own judgment.

4.  Teach others, by your conduct, to trust you implicitly.

5.  Never let your competitors know what your next move will be; time enough to talk after you have acted.

6.  Have a definite aim, and keep your eye on the objective point.

7.  Be bold with caution, prudent with boldness.

 

[Gary Screaton Page, Ph.D. is a Registered Psychotherapist and author of Pressing Your Own Buttons: How to Take Control of Your Life So Others Don’t™ at http://ww.pressingyourownbuttons.com]

By Gary Screaton Page, Ph.D.
http://www.pressingyourownbuttons.com

 

We all feel overwhelmed at one time or another. We may even get angry at what appear to be insurmountable tasks ahead of us. Sometimes we just keep putting them off altogether. Their shear size overwhelms us. Be overwhelmed no more. Here is a depressurizing strategy that will help you get that job done and make you will feel increasingly satisfied along the way.

 

Business coach and Internet entrepreneur, James Maduk, told a story about a man who set out to eat an entire car. Really! Why anyone would want to do that is beyond me. Nevertheless, that was what he wanted to do. But, how does someone eat a whole car? They do it the same way one eats an elephant: one bite at a time.

 

The “bites” that eat away at major tasks we call “chunks.” Break any task into manageable chunks will get the job done in comparatively short order. Suppose, for example, you wanted to do what I recently did: complete my first mini-site to market my latest book. When I first learned what it would take to make a commercial mini-site, I was overwhelmed. Then, I asked myself, “What are the steps I must take to get the site up and running and start collecting money?”

 

I began by making a list of all the required steps. Those steps, that themselves were quite big, I broke down into smaller steps. Each step was a chunk of the project. Each chunk I checked off brought me one step closer to the finished product. What is more, with each chunk I checked off there came a bonus. I began to feel more and more satisfied, even pleased with myself, as I checked off each completed chunk. I could see the chunks falling one by one. Before long–far less time than I imagined–my first mini-site was ready for business.

 

As I got a clear picture of the project and the steps required to complete the many chunks and sub-chunks, I could see the job was, in fact, quite manageable. I relaxed, focused, and got to work. One by one, I chunked my way to success. Now my site works as a mini-store welcoming my customers as they chunk their way to my site!

 

The point I’m making here is this: every task, no matter how big, is just a pile of chunks that need to be “eaten” before you move on to the next. Chunk the tasks that seem to overwhelm and you, too, will be able to, well, eat a car, an elephant, or simply get the job ahead of you done. And here’s the bonus; every chunk nourishes your business soul, and your sense of accomplishment increases-every “chunk” of the way.

 

Chunk your way to a successful business!

 

[Gary Screaton Page is the author of Pressing Your Own Buttons: How to Take Control of Your Life So Others Don't™ at www.pressingyourownbuttons.com.]