Set Goals - Start Early - Track Results

Life teaches many lessons to the willing participant. Some seem so basic that it is amazing we are not born with them as a part of us. The fact is that one must pay attention and learn from mistakes made along the way. Those that do that find their lives to be an enjoyable and successful event. Others live with needless, anxiety, stress and repeated failures.

Set Goals
A simple trip to Google searching for quotations on goal setting turns up 495,000 web sites full of smart things said by wise people about goal setting.

I have found that there are two types of people;
1.) Those that get what they want.
2.) Those that take what they get.
The first group enjoys far more success than the second, and it’s a fact that knowing what you want is a great place to start.
I use a lot of sports analogies when talking about success. How long would a group of adults bang their heads together on a football field if there were no goals to achieve? Too many people go through life senselessly banging their heads against obstacles without a purpose.

Start Early
I say in SUCCESS MADE EASY that one of the worst inventions ever created is the snooze button on alarm clocks. Procrastination is the enemy of success. Set your alarm for the time you need to get up, and when it sounds, get up an go. Develop the habit of arriving early for work or wherever else you need to be. The most important 10 minutes of your work day are the last five minutes before you start and the first five minutes after you start. Arriving early makes the trip stress free and you are prepared to do what you need to when the time to start arrives.

Track Results
I copyrighted The Boss© in 1966 and it appears in all five of my books. The Boss© is a simple graph that will keep you on track towards whatever you want to achieve. Seeing your progression towards a desired goal fills you with inspiration and motivation to succeed. Those are things you need when the going gets a little tough, and it will.

The Boss© is a scorecard. How long would 50,000 people sit out in the noon day sun watching a football game if there wasn’t a scoreboard to look at? I put The Boss© on steroids in 2002 when creating the Morning Report. Today it is responsible for the success of people in close to 500 locations, 28 states and two countries.  They know where they stand in their quest for success.

Set Goals - Start Early - Track Results

Be sure that all three of these elements are a part of your life. You will be glad that they are.

 buti groove

The excitement in Hawaii over the UH Warriors upcoming Sugar Bowl appearance on New Year’s Day against the Georgia Bulldogs is at a fever pitch. The buti groove store on Piikoi has even been painted in UH colors.

The store windows feature provocative merchandise reflecting the mood of the Hawaiian people. It seems like only yesterday that Coach June Jones arrived on the scene to take over the 0-12 UH “Rainbows”. When he changed their name to Warriors and their uniforms to black, rather than rainbows on white, many long time fans complained.

Many others however felt that the “Rainbow” name was a bit too, uh…  “colorful”, the “Warrior” look was seen as more manly and appropriate for a football team, and thus embraced. Chances are that Coach Jones could have led a pack of “Rainbows” to a championship year as he did the Warriors”.

Call them what you want, either way they are the champs with the only undefeated record in all of college football this year.

Everywhere you go in Hawaii, the two words, “GO WARRIORS” are seen and heard.

 The Morning Report

When Cheryl and Howard Konrad, owners of Lahaina Scrimshaw came to Honolulu to see Broadway Musical The Lion King, the last thing they expected was a commercial for our Morning Report.

Cheryl felt certain that I had something to do with it when she heard Zazu singing The Morning Report.

To see what I mean, turn your speakers up and then just click right here to enjoy it on YouTube.

It Is Quite A Pile Of Money

We hear politicians throwing around the word “billion” in a casual manner, as if money grew on trees.

A billion is a difficult number to comprehend. To put that figure into some perspective, consider these facts.

A. A billion seconds ago it was 1959.
B. A billion minutes ago Jesus was alive.
C. A billion hours ago our ancestors were living in the Stone Age.
D. A billion days ago no-one walked on the earth on two feet.
E. A billion dollars ago was only 8 hours and 20 minutes, at the rate our government is spending it.
 
While this thought is still fresh in your brain, take a look at the catastrophe in New Orleans, and what could be done about it.

Louisiana Senator, Mary Landrieu, is presently asking the Congress for $250 BILLION to rebuild New Orleans. One must wonder how it would be spent. Here’s some options that I doubt were considered.

A. If each one of the 484,674 residents of New Orleans (every man, woman, child), got a share of the cash, each would get $516,528.

B. If each one of the 188,251 homes in New Orleans were allotted a share, each home would get $1,329,787.

C. Or, if every family of four split it up, each family would get $2,066,012.

And then there’s the war in Iraq. The Cost of Iraq War calculator was set to reach $456 billion September 30, 2007.

One might wonder, “Where is all of that money coming from?” We all know the answer, and it isn’t being picked from a tree growing in Washington.

“We screwed up.”

That was race director Jim Barahal’s response in today’s Honolulu Advertiser to claims of faulty times on runner’s finisher certificates. Barahal also acknowledged that the marathon association could be faced with lawsuits from angry runners. I find that thought ridiculous!

Jim Barahal is a stand up guy, and I think that he is accepting more responsibility here than need be. Hey, stuff happens; and the rain screwed up the clocks. Unless you were one of the front runners or out to set a record in your time group, I say, “So what?”

Stop my running watch was the first thing I did as I crossed that line in 1984, and I remember that time well; 4 hours, 36 minutes. I don’t even know where the certificate is, and I threw away the t-shirt long ago. It’s the memory that counts, not the stats.

All of the runners that hit that finish line have done something special, whether it was in 3 hours, 4 hours or more. Congratulations!

 How Do Customers Rate You?

This story appearing in TRANSWORLD Business Magazine raises concern about manufacturers and vendors selling on line and in their own stores.

Mikke Pierson, owner of ZJ Boarding House in Santa Monica, California said it all when he said, “For ZJ Boarding House that means a dedicating ourselves to hard goods, product knowledge and great customer service.”

You Can Compete With the Web 

The Internet is here to stay, but so are the brick and mortar stores that offer what you cannot get on the web. People still like to touch, feel and ask questions of a human being. The Internet cannot compete with human beings provided they do what the Internet cannot. Retailers that stand back and let customers walk around the store without assistance will fall prey to the Internet where they can do that from home.

Pro-Active Service Is Crucial

Success Dynamics works with many retailers with a large number of surf shops being among them. Those that remain focused on their customers will not lose business to the Internet. In fact, shoppers will browse the vendors site to narrow the choice and then come into their favorite neighborhood shop to buy and “talk story” with their “friends”.

People Make the Difference

People buy people first, and what they sell second. Money isn’t everything.
One of the best examples I see is Surf-n-Sea in Haleiwa, Hawaii where there are about 20 surf shops all competing with the same merchandise at similar prices. Surf-n-Sea continues to see rising sales month after month.

Strive For Excellence
A previous article that appeared in TRANSWORLD Business Magazine illustrates what Surf-n-Sea is doing to remain competitive with anyone and everyone. You can do the same.

 No Shocker to Me

The Honolulu Advertiser announced today that CompUSA sold out to a liquidation firm and will be closing both of its Hawaii stores after the holiday season.
 
The worst part of this news is that I am losing the best example I have on lousy service. “No service” would be a more appropriate term. I often ask my audiences if they have shopped at CompUSA and most indicate that they have. I then ask if they were pleased with the service, and I get negative head turns or outright laughter. The laughter increases to a roar when I tell them that my nick name for CompUSA in InCompUSA”.

I have countless stories of attempts to purchase something at CompUSA and the battle required to get one of their many employees to help. I ask my audiences if anyone has left without what they went there for purely for this reason and the hands all go up.

Call Customer Service 

I then will share my secret method for getting assistance when I just do not want tp go elsewhere. I simply call CompUSA and ask for customer service. I usually get a polite voice offering to help me. I then say, “Please send someone over to section 42 to help me, I am the guy with the pony tail”. It Works! They don’t like it, but it does work.

Customers should not have to be so clever to get what they want in a store, especially one with so many technical aspects of the product.
 
CompUSA’s plan to liquidate follows financial difficulties for the chain, which earlier this year closed 126 stores and attempted to restructure operations with management changes and a $440 million cash infusion. They would have been far better off to spend some of that money and energy in teaching and motivating their employees to be nice and helpful to their customers.

In May they announced a new strategy to divert its focus from mainstream consumers more toward businesses and tech enthusiasts as well as educated professionals. I guess the thinking here was that those were people not in need of help.

I continue top be amazed how the “Big Ones” think they are doing everything right and are not open to help. I have developed the attitude that a company can grow so large that they can do everything wrong, yet still make some sales. They can do everything wrong without any help at all. They have no idea what they are missing.

 Who Will It Be?

In addition to the Bowl games, another bit of business to be wrapped up in the college ranks is handing out the Heisman award. The Heisman Trophy finalists were announced on Wednesday and they include Florida’s Tim Tebow, Arkansas’s Darren McFadden, Mizzous’s Chase Daniel along with Hawaii’s Colt Brennan.

Colt Brennan

While Tim Tebow seems to be the favorite, the Hawaii faithful feel otherwise. Colt Brennan proved himself worthy all year long. He set school and national records, led his team to the only undefeated college record, and he overcame two serious injuries without missing a beat.

Also worth considering is the fact that he turned down the opportunity to enter the draft last year in the best interest of his team. It is doubtful that Arkansas’s Darren McFadden will make that sacrifice this year, and Tim Tebow still has two more years to play.

Big Sacrifice

And if all of that is not enough, he also shed his dreadlocks when the season started. Now That’s a commitment!

The bottom line is; COLT BRENNAN for the Heisman. 

 Egg On This Face

The University of Hawaii had an allotment of 17,500 tickets to the Sugar Bowl, but ended up with only 13,500, which were all gone by 2:30 PM Tuesday.

UH officials underestimated the demand for tickets to the Jan. 1 game and gave 4,000 away to Hawaii’s opponent, the University of Georgia.

When asked why, Athletic Director Herman Frazier said, “They pressed us; they wanted a decision.” There’s nothing wrong with that, the problem lies in the decision to give away the tickets rather that show confidence in the Hawaii fans that they would make the trip to Louisiana.

When “pressed” for a name as to who pressured him to give away 4,000 of UH’s tickets to Georgia, Frazier said, “We’re not going to go there”.

Hawaii fans expressed anger that the belief just wasn’t there. All year long Colt Brennan and other players said that this is a season based on belief. Returning thousands of tickets that could have gone to Hawai’i, doesn’t show much faith.

Of course Gov. Linda Lingle has her Sugar Bowl ticket, as does University of Hawai’i President David McClain and UH Manoa Chancellor Virginia Hinshaw — all from UH’s remaining allotment of 13,500 tickets.

Something just doesn’t smell as “sweet” as it did a few short days ago.

 Drugs, Booze and Jail

I find myself wondering if it has always been this way or not. I remember when stars were stars and expected to be role models for the rest of us. A celebrity going to jail was virtually unheard of. Perhaps it is just because of our access to news these days.

Paris Hilton parlayed her name and relentless partying into worldwide notoriety, and had to forgo her high fashion wardrobe for prison stripes for about 45 days. The ironic thing is that she demands a higher appearance fee now than she did before that publicity. Hilton told Fox News Magazine that she now collects $500,000 in fees just to show up at parties and other events from Las Vegas to Tokyo.

The latest star to go behind bars is Kiefer Sutherland. He was sentenced Wednesday to 48 days in jail for his latest DUI arrest and for violating probation.

It appears that there is a whole new legal category; star defense. Sutherland hired attorney Blair Berk, who is also currently representing Lindsay Lohan. I think that Johnny Cochran started something when he manipulated the jury into allowing wife killer O.J. Simpson to go free.