Wisdom Executives Inc Reviews Candidates

Wisdom Executives, Inc. reviews job candidates to fill entry level positions within the company. After a successful first quarter that have turned their focus to expanding the company.

Wisdom Executives Inc Reviews Candidates

Wisdom Executives, Inc. is currently reviewing applications and meeting with candidates to bring in a few new people to the team. “The last quarter has been really busy for us. Being able to grow our business in this economy, while others are having to scale down or lay people off, has been really motivating to everyone here. Our clients love what we are doing for them and there has been a lot of encouragement for us to expand. So that’s what we are going to focus on in the second quarter this year” explains Zach, the founder of the company.



Entry level jobs are certainly in demand, especially during this time of year with the upcoming graduations in May. Although Wisdom Executives has received a great response to their open positions, they are focused on bring in people who share their values and are serious about starting a career. When asked about their current hiring efforts, one senior team member explained, “The management here focuses a lot on the quality of the training they provide. I know as they review applicants for these open positions they are really looking for someone who will be able to benefit from the training. Someone who will take it in and want to learn more.”

Learn more about Wisdom Executives and their open jobs by checking the website and social media pages.

wisdomexecutives.com

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Stay Positive When Dealing With Negative People

2 Ways to Stay Positive When Dealing With Negative People

By Tony Robinson 

We all have to deal with negative people at some point in lives, we just do. Sometimes we can avoid them, other times we can’t. Sometimes these negative people stay for a little while, other times they stay long enough to make us want to jump off a bridge.

But since we know it’s a fact of life that negative people exist, what can we do deal with Negative Nancy and Pessimistic Peter?

Understand They Have Different Values

There are times when the negative people we have to deal with aren’t always negative, they just happen to be really negative in certain situations.

When I started college, I was an engineering major. I did really well in school and got accepted into a summer internship program with one of the biggest oil companies in the world. It was awesome. I performed so well in the internship program that they brought me back the following summer. After the second summer I was told I had a full time job waiting for me once I graduated.

But unfortunately, not only did I turn down that high paying job offer, I left the engineering major entirely! I realized that engineering wasn’t my passion and I began studying small business management instead.

My family wasn’t so thrilled about the idea. I was going to be the first one in my family to get a college degree, and the fact that it was going to be an engineering degree made my family ecstatic because they knew that a degree in engineering meant financial security. That’s what was important to them, a nice steady paycheck with great benefits.

So when news broke that I was changing my major, my family voiced a lot of concerns and brought a pretty negative attitude to the situation. They kept reminding me of the time that would be wasted and the big payday that would never come. It was tough to hear, and it even made me second-guess my decision.

But I had to go back and remind myself of what my values were. What was important to me? Delivering something of significance to world the world, and I felt that a degree in engineering wouldn’t allow me to really reach my potential.

I valued significance, my family valued security. We couldn’t have been further apart from each other.

Once I realized that we had such a big difference in values on the topic, it made it a lot easier for me to tune out the negative comments and energy they were sending my way.

Take Responsibility for Your Own Happiness

Negativity is contagious. It’s easy for someone else’s negative thoughts to slowly creep over and start affecting you in a negative way.

But positivity is also contagious, so when someone is giving you a lot of negative energy, you have to fight back with positive energy. You can’t allow someone else’s negativity to become yours. Just because Negative Nick doesn’t think it’s a good idea for you to go after your dreams, that doesn’t mean you have to think it’s a bad idea too.

You have to be responsible for you own happiness and positivity. If we break down the word responsibility we get “response – ability”. Responsibility is simply your ability to respond.

You don’t have the power to choose what life throws at you, or what these negative people do and say to you, but, you do have the ability to choose how you respond and that’s what’s most important.

You can choose to respond in way that lets the negativity drains your positivity and makes you feel hopeless and frustrated, or you can choose to respond in way that makes you work even harder and focus even more on the positive aspects of the situation.

The dictionary defines responsibility as “the opportunity or ability to act independently and make decisions without authorization”. That means you don’t need an ok from anyone else to act on something that you’re responsible for. So even when the negative people disagree with you, who cares?

It helps if you ask yourself,

• “What can I do to reinforce my positive attitude?”
• “What can I do to discredit their negative attitude and opinion?”

Your happiness depends more on your own attitude than any external factors. So don’t let the negative people of the world get you down.

4 Ways To Ignite Your Personal Passion

By Brian Heat 

Personal passion is the explosive flame you possess inside in the form of strong ideas, gifts and fascinations. It is this passion that propels you towards your very own unique forms of creative expression, fields of interests and adventurous curiosity.

It is also your passion that drives you to push beyond obstacles and self-limitation.

The question then becomes, how do we tap into this enormous power?

1. “You Are a Walking Phenomenon”

As of right now there are over 7.1 billion people on the planet, but only one of you. Down to your very DNA you are a walking phenomenon, an anomaly of sorts…a unique deviation from every other person the world. You were born for reason, designed for a purpose and meant to be here. Embrace your individuality and know that your dormant talents were given to you as a gift. Determine your uniqueness, your strength and your voice…then begin to introduce it to the world.

2. “Chasing The Rush of Fascination”

I’ve often described the feeling your personal passions give you as “The Rush”, or that fiery exhilaration you sense inside while engaged. For some, it may be the excitement of competition that comes from playing sports, while for others the relaxation and creative outlet artist experience while performing.

Starting right now, feel yourself returning to those certain experiences that captivated you and moved your heart once before. Reflect back to reawaken the passions you once possessed assures that where you presently direct your time, efforts and focus is directly connected to the youthful spirit you were from the beginning.

3. The “MASSIVE Power of Mentors”

Now once you’ve taken the time to identify what gifts, talents and experiences that once sparked within you, your next move is to place yourself in situations where you can accelerate your learning and explore everything your passion has to offer. At this point, mentors become invaluable resources because in most cases they’ve already walked the road you are embarking on and now possess the essential expertise needed to point you in the right direction towards more opportunities for growth, resources and access to other like minded individuals. Now, in those cases where the mentors you require are not within your immediate circle of influence, I recommend using the web to profile those accomplished game changers in your fields through their bios, interviews and wisdom filled back stories.

4. “Build a Storm Ready Vision”

What continues to ignite the strength behind your passion as you travel your journey is your ability to create and hold an explosive vision that reflects everything that passion encompasses. This vision is nothing more than a crystal clear mental picture of what exactly you desire to accomplish or become. Just like a beacon in the storm this inspired vision helps you navigate your thoughts, actions and behaviours to stay focused. But in order to keep this vision realistic and grounded you must build into your vision the possibility of adverse circumstances and obstacles that will come along the way. With this in mind, as circumstances occur that attempt to deter your efforts you will already be prepared with contingency plans and alternatives routes to keep progressing forward.

Thinking like a Great Entrepreneur

How The Best Entrepreneurs Think

If you just observed the actions entrepreneurs take, you would conclude there isn’t that much to be gained from studying them. Each entrepreneur’s behavior is as idiosyncratic as they are. You would have to be Larry Page and Sergey Brin to start Google; Oprah Winfrey to found Harpo Productions.

But—and it is a huge but—if you look at how they reason, you see remarkable similarities.

The process just about all of them follows in creating their companies looks like this. They:

1. Figure out what they really want to do; what gets them excited. In other words, what is it that they really desire.
2. Take a small step toward that goal.
3.  Pause after taking that small step to see what they have learned.
4.  Build off that learning and take another small step.
5. Pause after taking that step.
6. Then they build off what they learned and take another small step…

If we were to reduce it to a formula, it would be, as we have written about before, Act. Learn. Build Repeat.

In other words, they don’t spend a lot of time planning or playing “what if” games. You never truly know how the universe is going to react until you give it something to react to.

So, in the face of an unknown future, entrepreneurs act. They deal with uncertainty not by trying to analyze it, or preparing for every contingency, or predicting what the outcomes will be. Instead, they act, learn from what they find, and act again.

Three things follow, all of them good. There are three wonderful benefits of taking this approach. 

1. You can get started right away.  
2. You don’t do a lot of planning and guessing about what the market might want. 
3. You go out into the marketplace and find out.

·         You don’t need a lot of resources. Remember, the best entrepreneurs are taking small steps toward their goals.  That means they just need sufficient resources to take the next step.

·        You can quickly respond to market needs.  Because they are moving rapidly, and don’t have a lot of resources committed, they can move to satisfy customer needs almost as quickly as those needs appear.

It is a simple, straight-forward approach. And what worked for these people should work for you.

Five Ways to Build Amazing Team Culture!

5 Ways to Build an Extraordinary Team Culture

When your employees work together to achieve common goals, everyone wins--you, your business and your customers.

Employee teams are one of the best ways to get things done in any business. When you take a group of independently talented people and create a team in which they can merge their talents, not only will a remarkable amount of energy and creativity be released, but their performance, loyalty and engagement will be greatly improved.

Here are five steps for building an extraordinary team culture:

1. Create a Team-Oriented Organization

Make teamwork one of your core company values, and put a clear emphasis on self-managing teams that are empowered to make their own decisions. Don't just talk about teamwork. Show your employees the seriousness of your commitment by giving teams the authority to get their jobs done on their own terms, while ensuring they accept responsibility for the results.

2. Assign Serious Team Goals

Give your teams really important assignments and projects, not just planning for next summer's annual company picnic. Bring teams in when you're looking at new trends in the market, or need to see things through new eyes. It's important to mix it up and not have the same people making the same decisions all the time. Ask them to challenge the status quo and the conventional wisdom. This will help to keep your company fresh and ahead of the game.

3. Encourage Informal Teams

More work in organizations is accomplished through informal teams than formal ones. It's therefore in your interest to encourage the proliferation of informal teams throughout your company, addressing any and all issues and opportunities that capture their interest. When your employees are able to tackle concerns themselves, without elevating every little decision to top management, you'll have a much more efficient organization.

4. Cross-Train Employees

When employees understand how different areas of the company work, they are more apt to make decisions that benefit the company as a whole, rather than solely their own department or group. Give your employees the opportunity to learn other people's jobs. Some organizations go as far as switching employee roles on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. And don't forget your managers. Have top executives spend a few days working on the front lines with customers or directly with your product. They'll have a new appreciation for what your regular employees go through on the job.

5. Provide Team Resources

No matter how talented a company's individuals might be, teams cannot be successful without the proper resources. Teams need a designated and available place where they can regularly meet. Nothing much can be achieved in an over-crowded lunch room. All employees need to be given adequate time to devote to their team meetings, with no grief from supervisors. And make sure to supply your teams with an appropriate budget if required, and the permission--with guidance--to spend it as they see best for the company.

BY PETER ECONOMY

Operation Smile Fundraiser!

Today is our Operation Smile fundraiser! Everyone in the office is participating to raise money and awareness for Operation Smile.

If you would like to donate: http://support.operationsmile.org/goto/WisdomExecutivesInc

About Operation Smile:

As an international charity for children, we measure ourselves by the joy we see on all of the faces we help. At Operation Smile, we're more than a charity. More than an NGO. We're a mobilized force of medical professionals and caring hearts who provide safe, effective reconstructive surgery and related medical care for children born with facial deformities such as cleft lip and cleft palate.
Every three minutes a child is born with a cleft. One in 10 of those children will die before their first birthday. The children who survive are often unable to eat, speak, socialize or smile. In some places, they are shunned and rejected. And in too many cases, their parents can't afford to give them the surgeries they need to live a productive life.
Every child deserves access to safe, quality surgical care. Every child deserves a future filled with hope.
That's where we come in as the largest volunteer-based medical charity providing free cleft surgeries. Since 1982, Operation Smile — through the help of dedicated medical volunteers — has provided more than 3.5 million comprehensive patient evaluations and over 200,000 free surgeries for children and young adults born with facial deformities. Our work creates a lasting global impact. We train local doctors in developing countries and strengthen healthcare systems so more children in some of the poorest areas in the world can be treated.
As one of the most prominent charities for children in the world, we work in over 60 countries to heal children’s smiles and bring hope for a better future. Together, we are saving children’s lives.
Thanks to the generosity and spirit of volunteerism shown by our supporters, we heal thousands of children per year. With your help, how many lives can we change tomorrow? 

Would You Like to Increase Your Influence at Work?

Alignment

This is one of the great buzzwords of our time. When used consciously, it's also the key to building solid relationships as well as the foundation for being influential. When you are able to show how someone else's needs can be met through your idea or process, you both stand a chance of walking away satisfied. 

The question: How do you do it?

Five Styles to Help You Influence

1. Demonstrate. Give a successful example of your idea. 

How? Highlight related examples of the same idea already taking place in your organization or in another business. 

2. Cost-Focus. Show how problems and costs can be minimized. 

How?  Run through the numbers to reveal, factually, the cost benefits of your approach. Do this on paper and hand the other person(s) a copy to hold in their grubby little paws. This makes it real. Don't just say it; print out the math.

3. Values-based consistency. Show that your solution is consistent with, and strongly supports, the other person's values. 

How? Do your homework and find out the non negotiables in the business lives of those listening. Then, clearly point out the values-alignment that your solution brings.

4. Time Awareness. Demonstrate how the plan will unfold over a specific period of time.

How? My favorite--because it is low risk and high payoff--is to do a trial project implemented in stages with "client" review at designated points. It is very powerful because the other person is actively involved, shares likes and dislikes at each step, and is part of the successes and problem-solving. Ownership emerges rather quickly.

5. Testimonials. Show that your idea already has the support of other respected people. 

How? Ask others who have used the idea to give you a blurb or, internally, to come to the meeting. Nothing succeeds like someone else showing how successful you have been with them. You hardly have to say a word except "thank you" to those who have helped.

Some Other Thoughts

• Listen to what sound like objections and acknowledge them. You'll gain respect. You'll lose respect if you don't treat feedback to your ideas as being legitimate. 

• Stay focused on your theme and not everything you know about the idea or proposal. Too many details will distract your listeners. However, if they ask for details, be prepared to respond. It means they are interested. 

• Consistent with #4 above: People are more likely to accept a smaller proposal if they've just rejected a larger one. Keep the pilot program in your back pocket as a reasonable alternative to implementing the entire idea. It will seem sensible to the individual or group.

I found this great Blog posted by Steve Roesler! Thanks for the info!

Networking Mistakes You May Be Making!

Whether you’re looking for a job or not, you’ve probably been encouraged to “network, network, network!” more times than you can count. Are all those conferences and events you’re attending leading to new connections or opportunities?

No? You’re not the only one. Many networking newbies have tendencies that actually inhibit building real relationships with their new contacts.

The good news: it’s not that hard to fix. Here’s what you might not even realize you’re doing wrong—and what to do about it.

Mistake #1: Talking about Yourself—All the Time

You’re talented! Eager! Ambitious! You have lots of ideas to share! And you want to make sure that every person you meet at the event knows who you are and what you do!

We get it. And yes, sharing your story with new contacts is important. But sharing your life story is overkill: Nothing can set a person off more than an aspiring professional who takes no interest in anything beside her own ambitions.

The Fix: Take Some Interest. Stop highlighting your latest accomplishment and start listening instead. Find people with industries or careers of interest to you, and ask them questions: How did they get their start? What do they love about their jobs, and what do they wish they could change? By taking an interest in your contact, you will make her feel valued—and hopefully interested in continuing the relationship. And you’ll likely gain some new insights, too.

Mistake #2: Expecting a Job

You’re looking for a new job, so you hit the circuit of industry events every week, asking every person you meet to help you find your new gig—after all, it’s not what you know, it’s who.

Well, yes. But give people some credit: If you pursue networking opportunities purely for the job prospects, your contacts will figure you out. You will leave them feeling used, and they will be less likely to recommend you for an opportunity.

The Fix: Provide Some Value. If you’re looking for a job, don’t ask for it—work for it. Do some research into what your contact does both in and out of work and find ways that you can contribute your time or support. Perhaps you could volunteer your expertise in social media for the big convention she’s heading up, or offer your accounting knowledge for her non-profit. Provide some opportunity for contacts to see you in a working light, and you’ll be that much closer to a good referral.

Mistake #3: Not Saying Thanks

You attended a large event last week and grabbed coffee with one of your new professional contacts afterward. And then—the week got busy, and you didn’t get around to saying thank you. She’ll understand, right?

Maybe. But if you don’t show gratitude, even in the smallest (or largest) event, you risk leaving a negative impression—probably not the desired outcome of your meeting.

The Fix: Just Do It. Whether you pack notecards in your purse for post-meeting scribbles, set yourself a reminder on Gmail to send off a quick note, or just insert a quick “thanks for taking time to meet with me!” at the final handshake, you must say thank you. Not only will you solidify your reputation as a courteous individual, but you won’t be leaving your contacts with a bad taste in their mouths. Always say thank you, and your good impression will last until your next meeting.

Mistake #4: Forgetting to Follow Up

You meet someone over a networking happy hour and tell her you’ll send her your portfolio. But as the night goes on, she has a few drinks and meets a few dozen more people. You’re sure she’s forgotten all about you, so you decide it’s not even worth emailing her the next day.

Bad idea. Meeting someone is just the first step in networking. In order to forge a lasting relationship (and make sure people don’t forget you), you need to follow up, every single time.

The Fix: Stay Accountable. If you told a networking contact that you would do something, do it. Even if you’re not sure she remembers you, you can bet that she will be grateful that you took the time out of your day to send her what you had discussed. If you’re worried about forgetting, keep a pen near your business card holder to quickly scribble out what follow-up actions you have for that contact, and review your cards after the event.

Above all, keep in mind that networking isn’t about short-term gain, but about learning, growing, and forming connections. Adopt good social habits, and you’ll see your skills and comfort improve, your opportunities increase, and your relationships grow—for the long haul.

Best Business Moves from Breaking Bad

Walter White's 5 Most Badass Business Moves in 'Breaking Bad'

August 8, 2013

URL: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/227744

Slide 1 of 5

Walt intimidates Tuco

In the first season, Walt's partner in the meth business, Jesse Pinkman, has a line on a major buyer for their product who could take their business to the next level. Unfortunately, the buyer, Tuco Salamanca, is a psychopath who refuses to pay upfront for the product and beats Jesse so badly that he winds up in the hospital. Walt, who previously wanted nothing to do with the distribution side of the business, is forced to confront Tuco himself, adopting the pseudonym "Heisenberg."

When Tuco laughs off his demand, Walt detonates a chunk of fulminated mercury, which Tuco mistook for meth, blowing out the top floor of the drug dealer's headquarters. Impressed as much by Walt's "balls" as by his high-quality product, Tuco agrees to buy two pounds of meth a week from Walt and Jesse.

Lesson: Sometimes you have to do things yourself instead of delegating. And when pitching an important client, don't take no for an answer.
 

Slide 2 of 5

Walt delivers the goods

In the second season, Walt and Jesse's crooked lawyer, Saul Goodman, puts them in touch with a major distributor named Gustavo Fring. Fring has doubts about Jesse, who is in a downward spiral from drug use due to a friend's death at the hands of rival drug dealers. Nevertheless he offers to buy a few dozen pounds of Walt and Jesse's meth for $1.2 million, but gives them only one hour to deliver the goods.

Walt rushes to Jesse's house, where the drugs are stashed, only to receive no answer when he rings the doorbell and calls Jesse's phone. He breaks in and finds Jesse and his girlfriend catatonic from injecting heroin. He manages to rouse Jesse long enough to find out where the meth is hidden. While scrambling to meet Fring's deadline, Walt learns via text message that his wife, Skyler, is about to give birth. With no time to spare, he makes the hard choice, earning the $1.2 million and missing the birth of his daughter.

Lesson: Make sacrifices when necessary to meet your stretch goals -- although you should probably be present at the birth of your child.
 

Slide 3 of 5

Walt protects Jesse

In the third season, Jesse discovers that Tomás, the kid brother of his new girlfriend, is the one who killed his friend. The boy is being used by drug dealers who work for Gus Fring. Jesse announces a rash plan to murder the dealers in revenge. Walt advises against it, but is rebuffed.

He goes to Gus, and together they organize a reconciliation between Jesse and the dealers. Gus says he will stop using children in his criminal enterprise. But then Tomás is found dead, apparently murdered by the dealers. Jesse goes to confront them, gun in hand. Just as a shootout is about to begin in the middle of the street, Walt appears out of nowhere, smashing into the dealers with his car. He kills them both, one in the collision and the other with the dealer's own gun, while Jesse looks on, not believing his eyes.

Lesson: Have your partner's back. Be there when the strain of work gets to be too much for him or her.
 

Slide 4 of 5

Walt blows up Gus

Walt's relationship with Gus deteriorates in the fourth season following his murder of the dealers. Gus, however, is forced to keep him around as a chemist while he grooms Jesse, now clean and sober, to replace him.

Matters with Gus grow desperate when the drug lord informs Walt that he is going to eliminate Hank Schrader, Walt's brother-in-law who is an agent with the Drug Enforcement Administration [DEA], and that he will kill the rest of Walt's family if Walt intervenes. Scared for their lives, Walt forges an unlikely alliance with the wheelchair-bound Hector Salamanca, Tuco's uncle and a once-powerful member of the Mexican cartel who is a blood enemy of Gus.

Together they trick Gus into believing that Hector is informing on him to the DEA. When Gus shows up at Hector's nursing home to kill him personally, he encounters Walt's surprise: a pipe bomb rigged to Hector's wheelchair. The resulting explosion kills both men, after which Walt storms into the meth lab where Gus's henchman are holding Jesse and frees his partner. They burn down the lab to destroy any evidence. When the dust settles, Walt stands alone as heir apparent to Gus's criminal empire.

Lesson: Think creatively and form alliances to stay ahead of the competition. Eliminate rivals before they eliminate you.
 

Slide 5 of 5

Walt gets away

In the fifth season, Mike Ehrmantraut, formerly Gus's right-hand man, becomes an equal partner in Walt and Jesse's meth business following Gus's death and the freezing of Mike's assets. But he and Jesse, alarmed by Walt's growing volatility and callousness, soon decide they want out. Mike sets up a meeting with a distributor who is willing to buy them out of the meth trade for $5 million apiece. But Walt refuses the deal, preferring to continue cooking.

Mike takes matters into his own hands; he zipties Walt to a radiator so that he can sell their entire supply of raw materials for $15 million without the other man's permission. But Walt frees himself, stripping electrical cord with his teeth and sparking the wires to burn through the ziptie, badly scorching his flesh in the process. Earlier in the episode, after Jesse asks, "Are we in the meth business or the money business?" Walt answers: "Neither. I'm in the empire business." Only now do his partners see just how far he is willing to go to keep his throne.

Lesson: Decide what business you want to be in. And don't let anyone stand in your way as you move forward.
 

8 Cardinal Rules to Succeed as an Entrepreneur

8 Cardinal Rules to Succeed as an Entrepreneur

by Linda Descano

Over the past two years, I’ve had the pleasure of speaking with 100+ business owners from different industries and at different stages of growth about what it takes to succeed as an entrepreneur. I first shared what I learned at a National Association of Women Business Owners Leadership Conference in Philadelphia last year, and recently dusted off my take-aways, in the form of eight cardinal rules, for a presentation last week. So, here goes in no particular order:

1.      Work on your business, not just in your business. Time and time again, I heard stories from entrepreneurs about how they were so focused on their product or service that they overlooked something important in their finances, in the fine print in legal documents, or in the marketplace. Their lesson learned? Make sure you understand the “business of being in business,” which means to invest your time and energy on the management side of running a business. And, while you definitely should tap experts in accounting, finance, and the law, you need to educate yourself on those issues so that you can provide appropriate oversight.

2.      Keep your personal and business wallets separate. The old adage that business and pleasure don’t mix also holds true when it comes to your business finances. Make sure you set up separate accounts for your business, and handle your business finances in an organized ― not haphazard ― way. When it comes to money, have some in savings and a credit line available to get you through the tough times.

3.      Form an advisory board. Most of the business owners that I spoke with view an advisory board as essential to their success. They use their board compliment their “weak areas” and provide an ongoing, structured means of soliciting feedback. To be effective, make sure your advisory board is made up on people who have different disciplines, backgrounds and life experiences.

4.      Network with intent. Networking is an important activity whether you are a business owner or corporate executive. However, it is particularly relevant for entrepreneurs. Successful business owners view attending functions and joining business organizations as part of the job — it helps you build awareness for your business. And the stronger your personal and professional networks, the easier it will be to deal with decisions and challenges.

5.      Find your “business Iowa”. One of the people I spoke with is Betsy Myers, a successful entrepreneur who today is the Founding Director of Bentley University’s Center for Women and Business. In her book Take the Lead, Betsy shared how a relentless focus on "winning Iowa" by the 2008 Obama for President campaign brought clarity to an organization "under siege" and provided a strategic "filter" for deciding what to do as well as what not to do. So try having a focusing question to create clarity. For the Obama campaign, it was “Will this help us win Iowa?” Then, it becomes easier to make trade-offs. Keep distractions at bay and keep your eye on the ball.

6.      Remember that not all money is created equal. You need to know when and how to raise capital, (both equity and debt), and how to wisely put your money to work on things that adds value. You should be spending as much time researching what investors and lenders want as you spend understanding what your customers want. Understand the approach that angel investors take versus mezzanine debt investors. The more you know, the better positioned you will be to tap the capital markets and make the appropriate asks.

7.      Plan, plan, and then plan some more. Most business owners spend a lot of time planning before they take the plunge and start a business. That makes sense. But, the need to plan doesn't stop when your business is up and running. You need to still need to plan for business cycles, life events, retirement, and more.

8.      Evolve and adapt to thrive. The business owners I spoke with were always doing research and speaking to customers, partners, and more. They leverage all types of resources to stay inspired and bring a fresh perspective to their work. A great business starts with a solid business plan and a clear picture of what you bring to the market and what problem you are solving for your client or customer. Then, a great business keeps evolving and adapting.

http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20130520135600-34334392-8-cardinal-rules-to-succeed-as-an-entrepreneur

9 Career Tips You Need to Know in Your 20's

Here are some great tips on how to get your career started off on the right foot while you are young. If you like these check out the full article on Forbes.com!

You’re Talented, But Talent is Overrated - Congratulations, you may be the most capable, creative, knowledgeable & multi-tasking generation yet. As my father says, “I’ll Give You a Sh-t Medal.” Unrefined raw materials (no matter how valuable) are simply wasted potential. There’s no prize for talent, just results. Even the most seemingly gifted folks methodically and painfully worked their way to success.

Pick Up the Phone – Stop hiding behind your computer. Business gets done on the phone and in person. It should be your first instinct, not last, to talk to a real person and source business opportunities. And when the Internet goes down… stop looking so befuddled and don’t ask to go home. Don’t be a pansy, pick up the phone.

Don’t Wait to Be Told What to Do – You can’t have a sense of entitlement without a sense of responsibility. You’ll never get ahead by waiting for someone to tell you what to do. Saying “nobody asked me to do this” is a guaranteed recipe for failure. Err on the side of doing too much, not too little.

You Should Be Getting Your Butt Kicked –Meryl Streep in “The Devil Wears Prada” would be the most valuable boss you could possibly have. This is the most impressionable, malleable and formative stage of your professional career. Working for someone that demands excellence and pushes your limits every day will build the most solid foundation for your ongoing professional success.

People Matter More Than Perks – It’s so trendy to pick the company that offers the most flex time, unlimited meals, company massages, game rooms and team outings. Those should all matter, but not as much as the character of your founders and managers. Great leaders will mentor you and will be a loyal source of employment long after you’ve left. Make a conscious bet on the folks you’re going to work for and your commitment to them will pay off much more than those fluffy perks.

Map Effort to Your Professional Gain – You’re going to be asked to do things you don’t like to do. Keep your eye on the prize. Connect what you’re doing today, with where you want to be tomorrow. That should be all the incentive you need. If you can’t map your future success to your current responsibilities, then it’s time to find a new opportunity.

You Need At Least 3 Professional Mentors – The most guaranteed path to success is to emulate those who’ve achieved what you seek. You should always have at least 3 people you call mentors who are where you want to be. Their free guidance and counsel will be the most priceless gift you can receive.

Pick an Idol & Act “As If” – You may not know what to do, but your professional idol does. I often coach my employees to pick the businessperson they most admire, and act “as if.” If you were (fill in the blank) how would he or she carry themselves, make decisions, organize his/her day, accomplish goals? You’ve got to fake it until you make it, so it’s better to fake it as the most accomplished person you could imagine

Read More Books, Fewer Tweets/Texts – Your generation consumes information in headlines and 140 characters: all breadth and no depth. Creativity, thoughtfulness and thinking skills are freed when you’re forced to read a full book cover to cover. All the keys to your future success, lay in the past experience of others. Make sure to read a book a month (fiction or non-fiction) and your career will blossom.

Check out the full article here

15 Success Principles You Need to Know!

The 15 Success Principles You’ll Never Want To Forget

By Joel on March 12, 2013

You can’t assure success, but you can increase the chances of it happening. After all, opportunity favors the prepared. With the following 15 success principles, you can dramatically increase the chances of success in your life.

1 – Prepare

The first success principle is preparation. It’s the foundation of success. With preparation you create your own opportunities. Once you have all the different elements lined up, it only takes a small opening to realize your goal. At the same time, taking advantage of big opportunities without enough preparation means risking your success, as you’re building without a well-laid foundation.

2 – Do something you love

You have to work very hard whatever it is you choose to do. Your work or your project will dominate much of your time and your life. Therefore, find something that you enjoy doing and do that.

3 – Get started

You have to start somewhere. Today is as good a day as any to start. Get into action today and start moving in the direction you want. Putting it off can only lead to failure, whereas if you start and see an early setback, at least you conquered that setback early on.

4 – Move in the right direction

Keep everything moving in the direction you want. It doesn’t matter if things go slowly initially. As long as the overall direction is favorable, you’ll get where you want to go eventually.

5 – Use the power of dreams and your imagination

What you dream and visualize today will become true tomorrow. You just have to work on turning it into reality. Just as your dreams can only influence your life if you let them, the cities you build in your imagination can only become real if you build them.

6 – Think big

If you set your aim a bit too high you might fall short. If you set your aim too low you might achieve your goal… and miss out on the other opportunities. By thinking bigger, the only limit is what is possible. You’re no longer limited by what you think is possible.

7 – Focus on growth

Seemingly impossible challenges are just cleverly disguised opportunities for growth. If you take those challenges and, in solving them, improve yourself, you’ll find yourself continually moving in the right direction.

8 – Maintain your determination

With enough determination, you can succeed through almost any odds. Enough determination means you’ll find a way no matter the situation.

9 – Set a clear vision

Think through where you’ll want to go. Develop a clear sense of what your final goal is, and keep this with you. By knowing the destination you want to reach, you can continually look at your current path and decide if it’s a route that will help you get where you want to go.

10 – Set goals along the way

A final goal isn’t enough. You need intermediate goals that set the path. These goals should be specific, measurable, realistic, attainable, and timely. These intermediate goals define the steps that you need to take to get to the final one.

11 - Work out plans of action for your work

For each goal, it helps to have plans to reach them. Your plan describes how you can reach each step from where you are, or where you will be. Keep in mind that the future is never certain. Things rarely work out exactly how you plan. Therefore, see these plans as showing one or more possible routes, not necessarily the route you’ll end up taking.
Still, knowing the plan means you can avoid long detours that might compromise your chances of reaching a goal on time — or at all.

12 - Commit to taking action

Once you start going, keep going. Never, never, never give up. If you find an obstacle in your way, chip away at it or go around it. The only way to really fail is to give up. If you keep going you’ll succeed. If you hit the limits of what’s possible, you can regroup and find another way.

13 - Use affirmations

Affirmations are just short, positive, and above all direct phrases in present tense. Things like “I’m getting more and more successful.” The idea is that they reinforce a positive world view. With affirmations, you are defining your own reality. By transmitting a positive world view to your mind, it adopts this view. As your mind adopts this view, it helps shape the world around you to fit it, which means it helps make the world around you one that reflects a reality of you getting more successful every day.

14 - Get rid of negative influences

Avoid harmful influences around you that might shake you from your goal. Keep people and ideas around you that support your success and your belief in yourself.

15 - Be grateful and appreciate what you have

The final success principle is to appreciate what you have already. Realize that — by sheer virtue of the fact that you can be reasonably certain you’ll live from one day to the next — you already have enough. Enjoy it! Appreciate what you’ve achieved so far, and see that what you want, where you’re going, is not what you need or what you must do. Rather, these are things and actions that will make your situation even better.

Article By James Meyer | Addicted2Success.com

Richard Branson's 5 Steps to a Presentation

This interview with Richard Branson is very relevant to the main principles we teach at Wisdom Executives during training. Although we are not trying to start a new company each day, we have the opportunity to show customers why they should choose our client over the competition. Keeping explanations simple, being confident during presentation and avoiding vague language and doubt words are all key skills that can be used in any situation, whether it be with a potential customer or future investors.

“When billionaire entrepreneur and Virgin Group founder Richard Branson had the idea of launching Virgin Atlantic, he pitched it to his fellow directors who had no previous experience in the airline business. He delivered the idea simply, concisely, and effectively. Branson offers leaders and entrepreneurs this advice: “It is vitally important to present a clear, concise plan that investors can easily understand and repeat to their own people. In the first meeting avoid overly complicated, numbers-laden presentations.”

Branson is a master marketer and communicator. His new book, Like a Virgin, reveals “secrets they won’t teach you at business school.” Many of those secrets involve effective communications and presentations.
In his book, Branson recommends that entrepreneurs who are looking to raise money in these tough economic conditions keep their presentations simple and memorable. He says that the best investment pitches hit five areas. I would take his advice one step further. I believe that any effective pitch or presentation should include these five components.

What’s in it for them?
“Occasionally, an entrepreneur hoping to launch their first business puts so much thought into the concept that he or she neglects the financial and legal plan—and unfortunately, this often becomes apparent early in a meeting, when an investor can lack clarity in what exactly the proposed deal is going to look like.”
According to Branson, investors want to know when they can expect to see a return—what’s in it for them. In my first class at Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism, my instructor said, “Always ask yourself, ‘why should my readers care?’” I use this journalism principle to teach the art of corporate storytelling. Branson asks the same question of entrepreneurs who pitch him.

Be concrete.
“Winning the trust of an investor means demonstrating a thorough knowledge of your concept or industry and laying out a step-by-step plan for offering something that’s new, innovative and will deliver healthy returns on their investment.”
Branson recommends that communicators avoid ‘wishy-washy’ language, doubt words and phrases such as “It is hoped…”or “With some luck…” He says look your investors in the eye and be specific, concrete, and confident. One way to craft a concrete and confident story is to use a message map.

Be unapologetically disruptive.
“Emphatically explain how your new company will give your customers a better deal than your competitors.”
The key word here is ‘emphatically.’ Branson is unquestionably the most passionate business leader I’ve had the pleasure to interview. I believe his passion for disrupting the status quo is a key component of his charisma. The majority of business leaders who I’ve met underestimate the role of passion in delivering presentations. Branson looks for passionate entrepreneurs who understand the competition and “irreverently explain” why their business will do better than the competition.

Prove that growth is sustainable.
“Nothing stays the same for long, so explain how you plan to tackle the inevitable technological changes and market shifts that are heading your way.”
Investors and partners want proof that you understand the environment in which you will be selling your product. One way to get your idea across is to start with a problem before the solution. Every great story has a protagonist. Introducing the villain (problem) before the hero (solution) makes for a compelling business narrative. So take some time to explain how your product or service solves the problem.

Demonstrate bench strength.
“Show prospective investors that you have found the right people to work at your new company.”
I’ve seen investor pitches where CEO’s or founders feel as though they have to carry the show. The best and easiest way to show investors that your company has bench strength is to share the stage. Apple executives—Tim Cook and Steve Jobs—have always done this brilliantly.
The subtitle of Branson’s book is, “Secrets They Won’t Teach You At Business School.” When it comes to communications, he’s right. I’ve spoken to several MBA programs at America’s most prestigious universities. After every presentation students approach me and say, “We never learn stuff like this in class.” It’s time they do.