Service First Means Excellence

I had the good fortune to find myself in HOAG Hospital, Newport Beach, California. While it may not seem good luck to end up under medical care for me it was an opportunity to experience first hand why HOAG is ranked among the top hospitals in the U.S. Of course, over the years and living in southern California I knew that if you need urgent medical care HOAG is the place to be. Yet I had never really thought about what made this particular hospital such a luminary institution. What I learned, over the course of a one week stay, is that the care-givers I encountered, exhibited a Service First attitude and made me feel safe, cared for, and almost as if, I was the only patient under their care.

Anyone is apprehensive about being admitted to a hospital. Doing so puts one in an atmosphere of uncertainty and vulnerability. It would be easy for care givers to become jaded or somewhat numbed to the constant repetition and parade of medical casualties and circumstances passing through the hospital halls. However, what I found at HOAG was a uniform and consistent effort and emphasis to put the patient first and to preserve the dignity and humanity of every person traversing their particular medical issue.

Teamwork is a hallmark of success at HOAG. Nurses and doctors attend to patients in a grand ballet backed by an exquisite symphony of care givers, staff and helpers. Even though shifts of nurses, assistants, orderly staff, administrators, nutrition staff, housekeeping, doctors and others ebb and flow with patient priorities, task requirements and shift changes there is never a skipped beat, nary a dropped baton on the hand-off from station to station, shift to shift.

The most remarkable aspect of the Service First excellence I experienced at HOAG was the wonderful kindness, care and giving I experienced from every single staff member I encountered. Not only were they kind, caring, concerned and attentive, but they took time to smile, hear my story, and share a bit of their own lives. This wonderful gift of intimacy and love instilled in me a sense of safety, security and trust. I also found that I not only liked every one of these great people but I admired them for their gift of service and of putting others first. How proud must be their parents, spouses, sons and daughters and how high their self esteem and sense of self must be.

At the end of the week and at the end of the day I am reminded about Service First and giving to others. It is the highest level of service excellence and part of the pathway to success destiny.

In closing I would like to thank the nurses, doctors and staff at HOAG Hospital ER and especially the 6th Floor, West Wing for their kindness and care during my stay. You are the best!

Kindness Gives To The Giver

Every act of kindness, no matter how small, in fact especially small acts of kindness, are building blocks of character and self esteem. They also set the giver apart from the taker and reward the person who initiates the act of kindness as well as the person who receives the gift of kindness. President Ronald Reagan was known for his gracious and gentle manner. One quote, attributed to him, is "a gentleman is always kind". I like this idea, that a person of integrity, inherent goodness and great leadership qualities would also be a "giver". A very popular little book is "Random Acts of Kindness" and in it the author talks about small acts of kindness and how it feeds the soul of both giver and receiver. It is extremely important to recognize that we often touch people, for better or for worse, in the smallest, seamingly meaningless, and often in a momentary way. The simple words of "please" or "thank you" or "it is a pleasure to meet you" are powerful means to convey kindness, love, and respect. They tell a great deal about the giver. They are a means of "reaching out" or simply reaching through the barriers of uncertainty that sometimes separate strangers. Small acts of kindness don't usually involve money, they sometimes go unnoticed, but they always build the character, feed the soul and bring a sense of rightness and goodness to the giver. It is simply the right thing to do. So, perhaps you might open a door, or say you are sorry, offer to help, ask how he is feeling, "are you ok", pick up a piece of trash, fill your mothers car with gas, anything and everything in your day to day life. Little things that you would like to see another do or a society embrace. Kindness is giving.......to others and to yourself.

Discover Formulas That Lead To Success

About ten years ago I was in a kind of slump in my business and career. It was a time when I was doing "just OK", nothing special. I spent some time thinking about my actions and results. I also retraced my past successes to see if there was a common denominator between the times I had had special and accelerated success. I came to the realization that I had had several "cycles" of success in my adult business life and that with each period of success there had been a kind of formula or "model" which I replicated over and over. In one instance I had created the model with a strategy that had been fulfilled. In the other two instances I had begun having success with my actions, then discovered that a formula was present, and even though I had stumbled onto the model, I, at least, had the common sense to simply replicate the formula leading to more and more success. The point of all this is that it is important to reflect on your actions and the patterns that lead to success. If you can identify what it is that is leading to success you may find that by simply repeating the pattern you will harness a (sometimes hidden) formula and "pays off' like a slot machine. Certainly patterns and models and formulas can take the shape of actions and disciplines like steady work habits, networking, developing good communications skills, etc. But on an even more strategic level they can be found it types of customers, transaction sizes, typical orders, the time frame from order to delivery, customer payment terms, etc. Working for a large company I am used to serving two "masters": One is my customer the other is my employer. A big part of my personal success formulas are to make sure that I am presenting what my company can deliver.....while at the same time I am bringing the types of customers that suit my company's objectives. The bottom line is to understand that there are formulas and models for success and that by finding the right ingredients and timing you can create a type of business flow that may surpass your expectations.

Communication Skills Lead to Success

One of the hallmarks of successful people is that they learn from others. Another is that they seem to indistinctly know how to start and "carry" a conversation. But you might be surprised to know that a good conversationalists ability to "converse" is not based so much on their own ability to jabber away, but rather their ability to "engage" the other party in a good exchange. Good conversationalists extract information and learn from their counterpart. They learn not only facts and details and knowledge but they learn about the person they are talking with. Many times people don' t seem to know exactly what to say and resort to asking dead end or "closed" questions such as "how's business?". This closed end question is usually met with "fine" and the conversation can come to a quick conclusion. One of the greatest "open end questions" I ever learned was in a Dale Carnegie sales course in the early part of my career. It has served me throughout my business career and I find that it is one of the most powerful questions one can use. In fact, for me, it is the most powerful question I ask and it almost always results in a "home run" in terms of engaging the other party in a full dialogue. The question is so powerful in fact , that the person giving the answer often takes 15, 20 or 30 minutes to answer. During that time I am building rapport, learning about the history and personality of the person, his views on business, life, family. During that time I am engaged by listening with "empathy". During that time I gain a geographical and psychological perspective of my counterpart. The question, and I like to use an non-grammatically correct version, is: "How'd You Happen To Get Into This Business?" When I ask the question I ask it with sincerity and look into the person's eyes with a kind of expectation. Usually my counterpart will smile then say something like, "oh you really don't want to hear all that" or "oh my, that would take me an hour to tell". Always, Aways I respond with , "Oh yes I would really love to know how you go to" (this place, this level of success, this point in your life, etc). Then I lean back and listen to this man or woman's "story". Before my eyes and ears their life unfolds and in the telling they are remembering and in the remembering their is a kind of connection, a bond, that occurs between the person and me. Sometimes they will get to a part, perhaps an emotional point, and they will pause as if to see if I am bored, but I lean forward and encourage them to tell me the complete story. It is an extremely powerful question and it serves to deliver a moment of intimacy, kindness, caring. Inevitably the other person "feels" that you must be smart (to want to know about them). In one's life very few people come along who want to know your "story" and when someone does and asks us a question like this, with sincerity, the answer, our words come tumbling out like a kind of therapy, a flood of experiences. We DO want to tell our own story. So the next time you meet a client for the first time, or a stranger at a party......in a relaxed and casual tone say, "Would you mind telling me, "how'd you happen to get in this business"? And then be prepared to enjoy a journey into your new friend's life. It is a great question that should be taught by every parent, by every teacher, and at every school and every business class because it allows us to "engage" our counterpart with interest, kindness and sincerity.

How Choices Are A Law Of Success

One law or principal of success is that every decision you make, every choice you make, moves you toward or away from your goal. It is one of the reasons why having a clear goal or objective is so important. It is also a key reason why the ability to focus on high value actions is important to achieving your goal. But it is true that every choice or decision you make has the effect of transporting you toward or away from your goal. Sometimes this is obvious and sometimes it is more subtle. If you choose to skip a class you might not get the "A" you wanted in that class. But let's say that you attend all of your classes, do all the homework but decide to not study before the big exam. You also may not get the A you said you wanted. Many times our use or allocation of time is what "steals away" from our achieving a certain goal. If we want to earn one million dollars yet we are unwilling to give up our weekly bridge game we may find that our income goal was not as important to us as our leisure or social goal. In this regard sometimes our true goals are defined as much by our actions as they are by our stated objective. Choosing many interests can make us a "well rounded individual" and yet sometimes that prevents us from being the "specialist" we need to be to achieve that one goal we want to achieve. Even who we choose to spend our time with, how much time we spend effects achievement of our goal. Self talk effects whether or not we reach our goal. How much time we spend on problems vs. how much time we spend on solutions effects whether or not we achieve our goals. If you find that you are struggling to achieve a certain goal or timetable in achieving your goal ask yourself: "What things may I be doing to undermine achieving my goal"....if you answer honestly you will often find that you are "self sabotaging your efforts by making choices that take away from the energy, time, focus, or actions that will result in the achievement of your goal. Learn to become conscious of the choices that you make, even the smallest ones concerning use of your time, and whether they lead you toward or away from your goals.

Everyone Sells

Many people feel that sales is the art of convincing someone to buy something they neither want nor need. I have had business associates, acquaintances, friends and even family tell me that the last thing they would ever do is consider "sales" as as career. And yet, those same people, when passionate about some idea or concept that appeals to them, become the very best sales people, influencing, negotiating and making their points with zeal and a conviction worthy of the very best sales professionals. When one considers that sales is really the act of sharing a good or worthwhile idea with another it doesn't seem to have the same type of "arm twisting" negativity. And when we view "sales" as an effort to educate, influence or help another to make a good decision the act of selling takes on a more benevolent quality. The fact is that we all sell. We all need to have skills of persuasion to articulate those things which we believe in and when we do want to influence another. This is especially true when we want another to "buy" into who we are, that we are sincere, that we have talent, ability, are worthy of trust or that we would make a good "partner". Yes, even in "love" there is a good deal of "selling" that goes on and some of it is an excellent, subtle or almost invisible selling quality of the highest order. Look around you. Every thing you can see has been sold, and most things have been sold several times over. You probably bought your computer from a store or online where it was sold. The manufacturer sold it to a retailer. Before that the parts were sold to the manufacturer. Before that the materials for the parts were sold and on and on. Selling is a noble profession. Don't under estimate the value of selling whether it is your profession or whether your sales is more personal. Value the art and ability of sales and consider the many shapes and forms it comes in.

Identify Problems but Dwell On Solutions

Have you ever known someone who spends an inordinate amount of time on the problems, even the minor ones, in their life? Some people seem to want to "wallow" in the pain as if owning the problem brings them a strange kind of comfort. I am not a psychologist but my sense is that these people crave attention, pity, or "there there it will be OK" as their only means of affection. In doing so they completely undermine their own self esteem, their time management, their goals and objectives, their image at work and even their family life and important relationships.

A healthy, efficient and practical approach to problems is to recognize that we are going to experience problems in our daily lives. The key is for us to handle them, by identifying the problem clearly, avoid embracing the problem as part of us and, as quickly as possible, focus on the solutions to the problem.

Lets say you are driving in your car and you have a flat tire. You have lots of choices. You can sit in the car and moan, cry and complain to yourself that you have a flat tire. You can call someone on your cell phone to tell them of your bad luck. You can fix the tire, complaining as you do and asking why these things always happen to you. You can then drive to work, spending the rest of the day telling everyone of your misfortune. When you go home at night you can repeat the story to everyone in the house. Maybe even keep it going by telling others over the next several days. OR you can get out of the car, fix the tire and get on with your life, recognizing that it had nothing to do with you and was a minor, and momentary, inconvenience. With the latter choice you dismiss the problem efficiently and move on to what is important to you.

Make it a point to not "make a mountain out of a mole hill". Put problems in their place by focusing on the solution. In doing so you will become expert and efficient and dispatching problems and issues in your life. People around you will notice your ease of handling problems and you will gain recognition for your composure and ability to manage daily issues. Relationships will improve. You will find your days easier and more pleasant and your self esteem will grow as you manage the "little things" in your life.

A Key Trait Shared By Successful People

Some successful people have vision. Others have strategy. Some have genius level intelligence. Some are just smart. Some success stories include "good luck". Others successful achievers are great strategic planners and goal setters. Some individuals just grind it out and achieve success through hard work. But the single most common factor of successful achievers is that they share the quality of persistence. Persistence has been identified as the single most important factor leading to success and achievement of one's goals. There are countless stories of individuals who have been challenged at every step and every turn, yet succeeded because they didn't give up. It is often true that the difference between achievement and failure is that the achiever took one more step, turned one more corner, or tried one more time. How sad that some people will never know if they were inches or moments away from achieving their goal because they withdrew from the race. It is said that Thomas Edison failed with over 2,000 experiments before finally inventing the incandescent light bulb. During World War II Winston Churchill's commitment to succeed was reflected in his famous and historic statement of persistence: "We will never, never, ever give up!" Whatever your goal, whatever your dream you owe it to yourself to pursue it with a full commitment to persist until your dream is realized. Although we live in a society where it often seems too easy to quit it is essential to our self esteem and to our own individual character that we persist. Persist toward your dream job. Persist toward your dream car. Persist toward your dream relationship or the love of your life. Persist in achieving good health. Persist in your faith and your spirituality. If there is one trait to embrace and build as a character strength within yourself it is PERSISTENCE. Persist and achieve your dreams.

Work From A Task List Of Daily Priorities

One of the simplest and most pragmatic tools to help get things done is the use of a daily Task List. Written in the morning in 10 or 15 minutes before you begin your day you first list all of the things you want to accomplish that day. Then you organize every task by priority. You can arrange your tasks into "peak" and "non-peak" work times. For instance, even though it may be important to complete your expense report it may be best to do that at the end of the day and after the primary hours during which you can reach customers on the phone. It also helpful to get items out of the way that are your least favorite tasks. As you go through the day, working your way through the tasks, you may need to add new tasks and insert them in order of priority. AS each task is completed "check" or cross-off the completed item to create a visible record of your achievements. At the end of the day you may need to "carry over" items into the next day. I find that keeping a "steno" pad with a record of tasks listed and tasks completed helps to give me a sense of accomplishment and also provides a good reminder not only that I am good at "chopping down trees" but that I am chopping in the right "forest", as well.

Relationship Building Begins With Caring and Curiosity

Relationship building is key to any one's success. The ability to connect and leverage relationships with people is at the heart of any idea, initiative, action, or endeavor. Relationship building begins with caring about people and caring about people begins with having a natural curiosity about others, their life, their strategies, and how they might interact and engage with you and your ideas, plans and dreams. By putting the "other person" first you position yourself for success. There is an old adage that goes: " Help other people achieve their dreams and you will achieve yours". This is because in the act of helping others you create a cause effect relationship that is reciprocal and feeds back energy, resources and action to your own endeavors, dreams and ideas.

Today, too many people believe that an email or Instant Message constitutes relationship building or relationship maintenance. This form of communication is efficient and in many ways it helps us to quickly communicate and contact our Friends, families associates, and customers. However don't fall into the trap of defaulting to email and IM alone. Regularly reach out to your contacts with a phone call and whenever possible a personal visit. For many of us our best talents are engaged when we are in front of people, when they have the opportunity to feel our sincerity, first hand, and when we can explain our ideas and offerings with more clarity and in more detail.

Relationship building is an opportunity to harness the power of many people who can support your ideas and help multiply the number of "impression points" on a real life basis. Just as you need impression points on your website, or on your idea, you need real, live, devoted, passionate, believing people to carry and sustain your message. Don't default only to technology as a "short cut" when you know that people and good relationships with people is the power behind you.

Designing SMART goals

It is common knowledge that having a crystal clear objective is the foundation to achieving ones purpose. The problem for most people is that they don't really know what they want. Or their idea of what they want is vague and poorly defined. Sometimes we have too many "wants" and our goals are in conflict with each other. Other times we choose objectives that are not in balance with our family, beliefs, or spirituality. A man who wants to "spend more time with his family" yet has a goal to sail around the world has competing goals, unless of course the family goes along!

In tonight's presentation I would like to talk a bit about Goal selection. We all have dreams, desires and ambitions. From early on we think about things that might "make us happy". We dream of having a pony or a bike or tickets to see Hanna Montana. For those less fortunate maybe we dream about more simple things, a roof over our head, a jacket for winter, food for our brothers and sisters. In the book, and subsequent movie "The Pursuit of Happiness" the true story tells of a man who is desperate to take care of his young son. He also wants to show his young son how to live, to dream big dreams and to "not let anyone take them away". The key point here is that the hero of this true life Horatio Alger story focused on one clear goal, to get out of poverty and to make a life for he and his son.

Choosing a big goal, an important goal and a goal that has depth and meaning in ones life is an important act that prioritizes all of your energies, actions and initiatives. Choosing an important personal goal transcends everything else for you. You may have other goals too: a car, a house, pay your bills, take a vacation, save $100,000, or retire by 55, but your primary goal ill be bigger than any of those. Once you determine your primary goal everything else falls into place.

Many times I work with business executives or owners who have started a business and reached some level of success yet don't have an "exit strategy". They don't know where to go "from here"......Their goal was to build the business, but along they way they lost their way because their goal was limited.

In developing your primary goal or goals make them something that transcends your smaller objectives. Have your primary goal intersect your values, your spirituality and the meaning of your life.

SMART goal setting is an acronym that stands for Specific, Measurable, Accountable, Reasonable and Timeline (having a timetable). Unless your personal goals are guided by these strategic markers your goals may be too vague. Using the SMART steps you create an action oriented goal with a specific outcome by someone with responsibility for completion on a set timetable by a specific person. Use SMART planning and goal setting and remember that you must frequently update, change and modify your goals and planning to reflect the continual sea change in your environment.

How do I stay steady and "on course"?

For all of us the "road less traveled" is pocked with potholes and detours. There are a myriad of distractions, disappointments, and dis satisfactions along the way. Sometimes we feel like we are alone, or burned out, or even on the wrong path. We have those two inner voices always competing ("yes you can" vs. why not give up") But, staying steady and true toward your objective is a hallmark of success. (remember that my definition of success is "success is the progressive realization of a goal or dream"). A big part of staying on course is feeding yourself the "right" thoughts. Having a positive perspective is important but so is your circle of support, your sources of inspiration and your maintenance of energy inducing moments. Such moments might come when you are with a loved one who believes in you, a friend who sees your potential, a biographical book where you learn how someone else overcame obstacles to achieve their goals. Course correction and stability often comes through the gained serenity of prayer or meditation. Sometimes a quiet walk in the awe inspiring beauty of nature can help us get back on track. For others a physical work out at the gym, on a jog or a swim clears our mind and helps us focus. Being able to "compartmentalize" issues, distractions and problems (such as bills, or an injury or an argument) often helps us reduce those obstacles to their actual size and not let them become "a mountain out of a molehill. In summary, staying on course is the business of managing all the things that interfere with your progress toward your goal. As a popular book says "Don't sweat the small stuff" and most of what gets in our way is more disstraction and disruption than destruction. ( as long as we don't allow it).

Being organized is critical to success

Being organized and the efficient use of time is a critical element to success. Just being brilliant, having incredible ideas, being "driven", working hard, having amazing energy...all those things are like unharnessed energy unless that power is directed. And the channeling of power comes from being organized and consistently, I mean consistently, making efficient use of a limited supply of TIME. In his book "The Seven Habits Of Highly Successful People", Stephen Covey divides how we spend our time on work into four quadrants: 1) Work that is imporant and urgent, 2) Work that is Urgent but not important, 3) Work that is Important but not Urgent and 4) Work that is not urgent and not important. Mr. Covey makes the point that we are under such stress to perform by attacking the work that is urgent and important, that we default to handling all work that is urgent but not important and that as a relief we default to things that are not urgent and not important and the things that are often the Most Important get shuffled to the bottom of the pile on our desk.......day after day after day. Its important that we make a priority of the things that are Important, but not as urgent as some other things.

Being organized and time management is a critical learned skill. Learning to organize ones day, even if the office is hectic and the phones are ringing is essential. Taking time to pre-think and plan ones day the night before or the morning of, may only take a few minutes yet will reap big rewards. Using reminder lists, to do lists, task lists and the ranking of tasks from highest to lowest priority can give us a feeling of accomplishment and satisfaction as we work through the issues and opportunities of the day. There is work that needs to be scheduled for "peak time" and work that can be scheduled for "non-peak" time. For instance an expense report done at 10 AM takes up selling time that might be more productive. Better to do that at the end of the day, at night or during the lunch hour when calling customers may not be as rewarding. Also research may be best left for non-peak hours, unless your sole task is research.

For sales people I recommend a very simple mantra as the key to sales success. Broken down to it simplest most sales success is the result of making calls and seeing people. The personal interaction is key and is what differentiates most great sales people. I make it even simpler "Make calls - see people"......When I ask myself what the most important thing I can do each day it is "Make calls - see people";.. Every transaction, relationship, opportunity begins with a people to people interaction and I am the beginning and the end of those initatives.

In summary......get organized, get prioritized, schedule your time with actions that are slotted to be a high impact "peak time" activity or a less critical "non-peak time" action.

Making Progress

A definition of success that I have held for many years is: "success is the progressive realization of a lifetime goal or dream". Sometimes I substitute the word "worthy" for "lifetime" but the emphasis here is that success is more defined by "progressive" than anything....Success is the act of moving toward your goal. When I reflect that any goal is achieve one step at a time I take inspiration in the fact that a step forward is achievement and many small achievements lead to the ultimate success. Today it seems the idea of success is defined by media "glitz" and visability. Being center stage and the messiah of the next pop culture idiom is actually a false idol and a trap that, unfortunately, many kids fall into. Our current state of idol worship is a reflection of our seach for ourselves and our desire to be thought of as worthy or worthwhile. And yet, it is the very people who shun the media spotlight who are the most worthy. Think of some of the examples of the people you hold in highest esteem and they will not be those in the spotlight, onthe center stage, in front of the cameras or followed by the papparatzi. They will be those quiet souls toiling in some giving profession.....in the name of love or like or kindness. Think about success, about making progress but don't fall victim to the false promise of celebrity or idolatry.

Persistence

Persistence is a key attribute of success. Persistence often can help over come disadvantage, lack of education, lack of knowledge, lack of skill, and many other apparent ingredients that foretel success. Persistence wins because it is steady, unrelenting and won't give up. Those who are persistent eventually win because they defeat or overcome all obstacles and usually do so as those less than persistent souls fade and fall from the race. The fable of the Tortoise and the Haare is a common picture of how slow but steady persistence can win over flash and flame. But other things happen when one is proceeding persistently toward his goal............connections are made, knowledge is built, the persistent competitor learns and understands his competition. He learns and understands his customer better. He gains confidence in his ability to endure. Cal Ripkin Jr. is an example of a baseball player who achieved many records and was voted into the baseball Hall of Fame because of his edurance and persistence. A famous quote by Winston Churchill during World War II in which he expressed his ferocious drive to beat back the Germans was "Never, Never, Never, ever Give Up!". Those who persist less or who give up never know if success was just around the corner. There are countless stories of men who achieve success at the tail end of countless tries. It is reported that Thomas Edison counted 2,000 failures before reaching the moment when his incandecent light bulb came to life. No matter what your strength or weakness, your skill level or knowledge, aim for your goals and persist, persist, persist and you will achieve.

Discover and leverage your greatest strengths

When Benson Smith and Tony Rutigliano wrote "Discover Your Sales Strengths" the two Gallup organization research specialists departed from traditional thinking that had companies and individuals working on correcting weaknesses and spending inordinate time trying to fix faults. What they discovered after years of research on successful sales professionals is surprising and strategic for anyone who wants to improve by leveraging the special gifts that each of us are uniquely endowed with. The book provides plenty of insights and practical exercises and a fun and insightful component is that at the end the reader is invited to take a an online exam, by use of a secret access code provided in the book. The exam registers one's top five strengths and further encourages the reader to build on those strengths as an efficiency mechanism towards success and ultimately happiness as well. I recommend "Discover Your Sales Strengths" as an interesting, practical and useful tool in helping understand one's own motivations and perhaps gaining some insight into why some activities or endeavors seem to come to us so naturally and why, in others, we struggle as if swimming against a current.

Where does inspiration come from?

Its free of course. And it is everywhere. But an interesting thing about inspiration is that it comes to us only when we are ready to receive it.

Success (and this blog) Begins With Belief

These writings are intended to be practical tools but may seem short, static with burst's of thoughts, meteors flaming through the mind, reflections, acknowledgements of hope, experiences, encounters and statements of faith intended to inspire, encourage and engage anyone who desires to reach for the stars or for the next step.

FAITH:

It all begins with faith. We need hope. We need to believe we can make change, make a difference, move forward, step up, gain momentum, achieve our dreams, make a better life, give of ourselves. Faith comes from someplace deep inside.....a kind of trusting of the unknown. A key for us is to develop a trust that we are destined to succeed. For some that means validating the steps of their lives that have brought them to this point. For others it means that the past means nothing (in terms of achievement) and that only the present and the future are focal points on which to build. All of the "good mother" messages, all of the encouragement from friends or family, all of the books, the tapes, the outside motivations.....mean little. It must come from within. Belief, trust, hope are self statements of the heart. Success is a step by step process ("little steps") ("a journey of 1000 miles begins with a single step, one before the other"). Begin with faith.........find that deep light of faith within yourself and follow it to success. Faith is the foundation the starting point of all success and achievement.