MENTORING THE NEXT GENERATION OF ENTREPRENEURS

As you likely already recognize, our society has undergone some basic changes, and many of them are not healthy changes! Let's delve into one of the biggest challenges.....education of the next generation.

Since the point in our history where television became a primary influence in our lives, it has evolved into the primary source of information for the upcoming generation of youth. As I was growing up, I recall various nicknames for that instrument, such as “boob-tube”. The influence of electronic media is even more the case with the rapid development of the Internet, social media, smart phone, etc. The concept of dumbing down takes on new meaning, as youth often can't function on a face-to-face level, texting each other across the table, or walking side-by-side. How will they be able to function in their future careers, businesses, etc.?

Recently, an e-newsletter article was forwarded for my review.....

http://www.tjed.org/2013/03/important-people-world-weekly-mentor/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ThomasJeffersonEducation+%28Thomas+Jefferson+Education%29 

I'll include a couple of snippits, and recommend reading the entire story. Overall, we need to be proactive in training our children in ways that will assure that they still have the freedom to choose their future! Quoting from Dr. DeMille:

“We elect based on media, especially television media. Many newspapers and bookstores are going out of business, and while TV media rules modern culture for now, it will likely be replaced by online media in the next decade or two. The point is that the problems we have in government, the dysfunctional arguments in capitols from Sacramento or Albany to Washington and Ottawa and London, are the natural results of societies steeped in television and online culture.

In contrast, free societies are reading societies, from the ancient Hebrews and Greeks to the medieval Swiss, Anglo-Saxons and Saracens, to the modern American founding generation and beyond.

Free people are reading people, and there are no exceptions in history.

Thus parents hold the future of our nation in their hands.

Nothing Washington does will have near the impact as how parents choose to educate their kids. Period.

Those who select reading of great books and discussion about these readings—along with whatever else they include in the education of their family, from classrooms to online options—are the new founding fathers and mothers because they will train the leaders of the 21^st century.”

Today, without our direct influence in mentoring our youth, they are being indoctrinated to believe that personal achievement and personal success is wrong. Be involved with them....daily!

Tithe Your Way to Success?

Our resources are not really ours. Everything we are and possess, in reality, belongs to God! He has asked us to share just ten percent back to Him. In Malachi, we are guided to:

Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it. (Mal 3:10)

However, be certain to apply the correct motivation here! If your motive is based on receiving more material wealth to enjoy, perhaps you need a different investment vehicle. If you are wanting to provide more for the needs of others, overcome some limiting situations, and such, you are likely on the right track. You will never get the Lord in your debt. And that blessing He promises may manifest in many ways.

As a young minister during the Great Depression, Dr. Norman Vincent Peale tells us that he was deeply concerned when his salary had twice been reduced, not knowing how he would be able to get by. Ruth, his devoted wife, insisted that the answer was found in the reference above from Malachi. Once applied, this was never again an issue for the Peales. Many of us have enjoyed similar outcomes in this manner.

Our Comfort Zone

A life lived of choice is a life of conscious action. A life lived of chance is a life of unconscious creation! ~Neale Donald Walsch

Following the Doctor's Advice...

Happy Birthday, Doctor Seuss! March 2, 1904 - September 24, 1991

A Modern Classic....

On Dr. DeMille's recommendation, I purchased this volume the other day. It arrived yesterday mid-day. I'll finish my first reading of it over the weekend. It will require additional reading (as should most books of its nature). Thus far, I am enjoying it....except for the parts which point out my major weaknesses! And Kris Krohn doesn't even know me (or does he?)!

 Modern Classic – The Conscious Creator

Published on 15. Feb, 2013 by Oliver DeMille at 

http://www.tjed.org/2013/02/modern-classic-conscious-creator

Book Review of The Conscious Creator by Kris Krohn & Stephen Palmer

The Law of Attraction, Revisited

Every once in a while I read a book that really changes me—deeply, drastically, truly. I’ve never been the same since I read Les Miserables the first time, for example, and when I read The Making of America by W. Cleon Skousen my whole life shifted. The same happened when I read A World Split Apart by Alexsandr Solzhenitsyn, and The Law by Bastiat. Of course, scripture is the best read because it has changes for you no matter how many times you re-read it. Some books just change your life.
Today I read another life-changing book. In fact, I read it through the evening and couldn’t put it down so I read through the night. I usually read fast, but in this case I took so many notes that I didn’t finish until after 3 a.m. The book is The Conscious Creator by Kris Krohn with Stephen Palmer.
This book is brilliant, and I don’t use that word lightly. This book is a revolution, because it really gets to the heart of what the whole modern “Manifesting Your Dreams” movement is all about. Manifesting works for some people, but not for others, and Krohn and Palmer show why.
When the book The Secret came out a few years ago, it was an international phenomenon. Millions of people were touched by it, and moved by its promise of what great things can happen to one’s life when we apply “The Law of Manifestation.” Within a year, many people around the world were using its concepts in their daily lives. But over time, a lot of them felt disappointed by the results. Many critics lamented that the reality just didn’t live up to the hype, that the promises of the book just weren’t as realistic as described.
Perhaps the problem was that many people didn’t quite understand what was really needed. “Manifesting” can mean different things to different people, after all.
This problem is remedied by The Conscious Creator. It outlines six laws of manifesting, not just one. The first law, which is basically the same as that listed in The Secret and so many other books on manifesting what you really want in life, doesn’t work if you don’t apply the other five laws!
Just the chapter on Law 4 alone is worth much more than the price of the book. Anyone who wants to really understand the laws of success should read this book. After I finished reading it, even though it was late, I pulled out my copy of The Secret and perused my notes. In fact, many of the six laws are there, I just didn’t quite catch them before. But with the six laws fresh in my mind from reading The Conscious Creator, suddenly The Secret was a whole new book.
I read every new book I can get my hands on about the topics that really interest me, and manifesting is a fascinating field—whether you buy into it or not. Having read dozens of books on the subject, I am impressed by how effectively The Conscious Creator teaches the principles of success. In my opinion, it is the best book in the entire manifesting genre, right up there with The Jackrabbit Factor.
It is written as a story, like The One Minute Manager or The Richest Man in Babylon, and the story is engaging and fun. This is a great book, and I couldn’t sleep until I wrote this recommendation to everyone. In short, this is truly a great book! Read it! It won’t disappoint. It’s a modern classic.

Seven Principles of Social Business

I was recently reviewing some notes and materials discussed in a university Business Management course and came across some notes on Muhammad Yunus, Founder of Grameen Bank in Bangladesh. He is said to be the "Father of Micro-Finance". Whether you agree with his social agenda or not, he has begun a sort of revolution in building entrepreneurship in some extremely poverty-ridden areas of the world. The concept of micro-loans is even available in the U.S. It may be worthy of looking into.

Professor Yunus developed his programs based on Seven Principles of Social Business:

• Business objective will be to overcome poverty, or one or more problems (such as education, health, technology access, and environment) which threaten people and society; not profit maximization

  Financial and economic sustainability

Investors get back their investment amount only. No dividend is given beyond investment money

When investment amount is paid back, company profit stays with the company for expansion and improvement

Environmentally conscious

Workforce gets market wage with better working conditions

...do it with joy

We each need to renegotiate our contract with Life!

My Wage

“I bargained with Life for a penny,
And Life would pay no more,
However I begged at evening
When I counted my scanty store.

For Life is a just employer,
He gives you what you ask,
But once you have set the wages,
Why, you must bear the task.

I worked for a menial’s hire,
Only to learn, dismayed,
That any wage I had asked of Life,
Life would have willingly paid.”

-Jessie B. Rittenhouse

We each need to renegotiate our contracts!

We Are Expected to Prosper

I recently read a story that leads me to believe that it not only OK to succeed and prosper...it is expected by God that we do so.................

Matthew 25

14 ¶For the kingdom of heaven is as a man traveling into a far country, who called his own servants, and delivered unto them his goods.

15 And unto one he gave five talaents, to another two, and to another one; to every man according to his several ability; and straightway took his journey.

16 Then he that had received the five talents went and traded with the same, and made them other five talents.

17 And likewise he that had received two, he also gained other two.

18 But he that had received one went and digged in the earth, and hid his lord’s money.

19 After a long time the lord of those servants cometh, and reckoneth with them.

20 And so he that had received five talents came and brought other five talents, saying, Lord, thou deliveredst unto me five talents: behold, I have gained beside them five talents more.
   
21 His lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful     over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.

22 He also that had received two talents came and said, Lord, thou deliveredst unto me two talents: behold, I have gained two other talents beside them.

23 His lord said unto him, Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.

24 Then he which had received the one talent came and said, Lord, I knew thee that thou art an hard man, reaping where thou hast not sown, and gathering where thou hast not strawed:
 

25 And I was afraid, and went and hid thy talent in the earth: lo, there thou hast that is thine.

26 His lord answered and said unto him, Thou wicked and slothful servant, thou knewest that I reap  where I sowed not, and gather where I have not strawed:

27 Thou oughtest therefore to have put my money to the exchangers, and then at my coming I should have received mine own with usury.

28 Take therefore the talent from him, and give it unto him which hath ten talents.

29 For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath.

30 And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Persist Unitl You Succeed!

Service with a Smile

From Dave Ramsey’s website

Have you ever experienced incredible service? Not just a brief smile and a “let me know if I can help you,” but the type of service where someone goes out of their way to provide you with the best experience possible with their company.

Maybe it was the shoe salesman at the retail store, the pizza delivery guy, or the customer service representative on the phone. If you’ve ever had the opportunity to experience quality service, then you know the type of impression it makes.

That’s the type of impression a young guy named Jonathan made on Dave. Jonathan was the manager at a sub shop right down the road from Dave’s office in Brentwood, Tennessee.

Every now and then, Dave would head over to the sub shop with his son. And, every single time, Jonathan would address them by name and call out their order before they could even speak.

This guy treated his customers well! You’re probably thinking, Well, he knew that was Dave Ramsey and his son. Well, he did…but that’s not why he treated them so well.

Everyone was treated with the same five-star service when they met Jonathan—bankers, construction workers, maids, mothers, teachers, corporate executives. Jonathan treated them all well. He knew their names and their usual orders—he went out of his way to make them feel comfortable while at the sub shop. That’s great service.

He smiled. He had energy. He came out from behind the counter and talked with the customers and cleaned tables. He was a leader in the business, and he served more than anyone else there. And, remember, this was a sub shop—not a world-class restaurant!

But something happened. One day, Dave returned to the sub shop and Jonathan was gone. He left to go back to college and get an education. But Jonathan already knew a lot more about business than many employees and entrepreneurs could ever grasp.

It all comes down to service. When you treat people with outstanding service, they are more than happy to buy stuff from you. It’s amazing, isn’t it?

Think about this: What if every business had a Jonathan? How could that type of positive, go-getter attitude transform businesses—and even the economy?

That’s why it’s so vital for business owners to understand the importance of having team members who are energized and supporting the company’s mission—whether it’s selling sandwiches or shipping boxes.

When you have someone like Jonathan, do everything you can to take care of him. Show your appreciation. Treat your team with dignity and respect, and they will treat you, your customers, and your business with dignity and respect.

Our Greatest Fear

Our Greatest Fear —Marianne Williamson

It is our light not our darkness that most frightens us.

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light not our darkness that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous,
talented and fabulous?

Actually, who are you not to be?
You are a child of God.
Your playing small does not serve the world.
There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other
people won't feel insecure around you.

We were born to make manifest the glory of
God that is within us.

It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone.
And as we let our own light shine,
we unconsciously give other people
permission to do the same.

As we are liberated from our own fear,
Our presence automatically liberates others.

—Marianne Williamson