Have you ever been hit in the gut? I mean PUNCHED or KICKED in the belly and had the wind knocked out of you? If no, have you ever had anything happen to you that FELT like you got hit in the gut? Maybe lost a ton of money when the market dropped, got fired from a job you loved and were doing well at or felt betrayed by a ‘friend’?

Weather REAL or SYMBOLIC, getting hit in the gut is part of life. It is inevitable. The KEY is, do you double over and give up or get up and start ‘punching’ again?

In my youth, I played full contact karate for 4 years. There were times I got kicked, stomped and punched in the gut and lost all my breath in an instant. There were times I was lifted completely off the ground with a kick to the groin and felt like my heart was in my mouth. Yea… it hurt, but what kept me fighting was not my skill or physical strength, but the fear of losing and the passion for winning. This dynamic duo is a strong and powerful motivator to get through the toughest of times.

The fear of losing for me was the fear of my instructor. Once, he told me he would never hurt anyone, but me he’d KILL if I ever told him I was quitting. That thought alone got me through MANY tough situations. After surviving these in a karate match, life, well… just seemed easy by comparison. After all, rarely do we DIE from a business, financial or relationship mistake.

Questions: What have you lost at lately that maybe you should go back and fight for until you win? Are you in any battles now you should just refuse to give up until you make it work? What can you do NOW to fix it so you don’t lose the war, even if you lose a battle or ’round’ now?

The passion to win is the other key motivator. Doesn’t winning FEEL good? Doesn’t winning make it EASIER on the other end of the battle? Maybe it’s time to rekindle that passion. After losing several skirmishes, it’s easy to forget the reason you got into a fight was to win. It is easy to start to think, “Maybe it’s time to just minimise the pain.”

DON’T LET THAT HAPPEN! Not in your marriage. Not in your job. Not in your finances. DEFINITELY not in your faith. What ever is busted, fix it. Whatever is tough, get tougher. Whatever is hurting, ignore it and more on to victory.

I’m not saying stay in an abusive relationship or keep investing in a losing proposition. I’m saying if you believe what you do has merit and the same reasons exist now to pursue a course of action as when you got started, don’t let some bumps and bruises stop you or even slow you down. Use them as mental energy to push harder, longer and more intently until you achieve your target and WIN.
As Vince Lombardi said, “Winning isn’t everything. It is the ONLY thing.” Find your motivation in both the pain of the struggle and the passion for winning to bring you to the ultimate success you deserve.

Smile Maker: Got culture? Bacteria is the only culture some people have!

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With the Beijing Olympics over, here are a few thoughts for all of us to take back to the office:

1) You don’t need to be perfect to compete.  Natalie Du Toit from South Africa did not take the gold, the silver or the bronze. In fact, she came in 14th. She DID, however win our hearts. Being the first amputee to compete in an Olympics, she did better with ONE leg than MOST of the competitors did with two. I guess it’s not what you have it is how you use what you have and the heart and desire to use it.

Question: Are you complaining about what you are missing or celebrating and using what you have?

2) Michael Phelps takes a record 8 gold medals for a total of 15 in his ‘lifetime’, and he’s only 23. It doesn’t take age to be great. It takes a great champion with the heart and desire to be great.

Question: Do you have the heart and desire to make your career soar, your marriage glow and your life catch fire?

3) Singapore, a tiny nation of 2.5 million citizens took on China, a land of 1.5 BILLION, Korea with 48 million and even the USA with 300 million. Across the table, their table tennis stars shined and came in 2nd in the world, capturing the silver medal.

Question: Are you willing to take on insurmountable odds to get what you want in life, even if it means coming in second, third or fourth? In other words, are you willing to do battle where the odds of winning are stacked completely against you?

4) Usain Bolt takes 3 gold medals with 3 new world records. Amazing!

Question: Does winning just mean being the best or does it require us to smash old standards and put the competition so far behind us they have no hopes of catching up? We can do this by training and education, through drive and creativity and by always doing our best.

What an amazing Olympics. What an amazing opportunity we have every day in life to win our OWN place in this world and take our OWN gold at work and in Life. Go for the GOLD!

SMILE MAKER: Patience is a virtue!

3 inmates on death row were asked what they wanted for their last meal.

The first asked for pizza, got it, ate it and was promptly executed.

The second asked for a steak, got it, ate it and was promptly executed.

The third asked for strawberries and was told, “They are out of season.” He said, “I’ll wait.”

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I’ve survived 3 recessions and several major business upsets over the past 27 years of owning and running my own business. Here are 3 quick tips to turn things around if they start going wrong.

1) Focus. Stop doing 10,000 things and focus on ONE thing that has the greatest chance of producing great results. I wasted too much time in the beginning trying to work on too many activities. THEN, I focused on writing my newspaper column and calling potential clients and the business grew.

At this stage of my life, I focus as much on family as I do on business. I don’t want to lose what really matters while I seek business and financial success.

2) MASSIVE ACTION: A little action gets you a little result. Think of turning a huge ship around. The Titanic hit the ice berg in part because the rudder was too small for the size of the ship. Had the rudder been twice the size, it may not have crashed. Don’t make 10 calls a day, make 100.

Applying the concept to your personal relationships, don’t tell your spouse you love him / her, show it by changing, growing, hugging longer, smiling more and being better.

3) Eyes on the prize: Keep looking at your main goal. Everything in this world will try to distract you from your main goal. Email. Text messages. Low-priority phone calls. Keep your eye on the prize and spend 80% - 90% of your day working on achieving your main goal (business or personal)

I could share 100 more ideas for turning things around but if you don’t use these first 3, the rest is really wasted effort. Wishing YOU great success and happiness.

Smile Maker: A lawyer called a plumber to fix a leak under his sink. Fixing the leak, the plumber handed the lawyer a bill for $200.

The lawyer complained, “You were only here 15 minutes. That’s $800 an hour!. I’m a lawyer and I don’t make that much money!”

The plumber said in reply, “That’s why I quit being a lawyer.”

To your success and find out how Michael Podolinsky will help you and your organization by browsing through the links below:

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For our long time subscribers, my personal apology for not writing our weekly newsletter since January 2008. The decision was made to switch to a Blog format to make it more responsive to our readers and with business up 335% in the first quarter, I just got swamped. So now, here we are in July and you finally get our first Blog commentary. THANK YOU for your patience.

For new readers... Welcome on Board Podolinsky’s Success Series!

Recessions: Don’t ya love them? I’ve survived 3 and actually thrived in the last one. This one, I suspect will be much the same only worse for those dependent upon USA business. $9.5 Trillion national debt, $50 Trillion debt owed to the American public in social security, medicare, etc. and the average American with $10,000 in personal debt , often with a 2nd or 3rd mortgage, means the population is “at the end or very near the end of it’s ‘plastic’.” The word I get from friends at The Economist, if China banks hold, we will have a normal recession. If they don’t… hold on to your economic socks as it will be a very bumpy ride.

SO… how to survive or THRIVE in this recession? Here are 3 Recession-buster Steps.

1) Grab market share or boost your career. In every recession, most companies and people cut back. So, be the one to take on more. Take on other people’s work and projects and ideally at a higher level. This not only guarantees you do NOT get fired, it positions you for the next higher job. Do not take on the ‘C’ work, take on the higher profile, higher level projects.

For the business professional, as companies cut back on your products or services, find ways to combine orders, save your clients money, start buying groups or do whatever you can to be the one REMAINING supplier of choice. They love you for it and YOU become the vendor who survives.

2) Cut your costs. During good times, we all get a little lazy about spending. We buy what we FEEL like and spend on a whim. Get ruthless. Cut what you do not need NOW. Share magazine subscriptions with colleagues where you pool the expense instead of you carrying it. Bury your pride and take lunch from home. Use public transport instead of driving and get work done on the bus or train. Sell off what you have not used in a while. Repair rather than replace. Find ways to economise.

3) Sell, Promote, Educate! Most companies and individuals cut back on that which is most needed in recession times. Spend the budget you saved in step 2 on more advertising or promotion, just make sure it is more targeting and FOLLOW-UP on every lead. Increase the quantity and frequency of your sales calls. (most sales people spend only 50% of their time selling)

Get an education. In slow times rather than twiddle your thumbs, go get the MBA when you have the time to do it. Learn what other departments do by volunteering your time to help them. These are awesome career moves for when times turn around.

Bottomline, life and business is a pendulum. It swings to bull, it swings to bear. BOTH can boost your business and your career if you learn to profit from a recession.

SMILE MAKERS for the week: Recession meeting definitions…

Committee: Individuals who can do nothing individually but as a group sit and decide that nothing can be done.

Conference: The confusion of one person multiplied by the number of those present.

Conference Room: A place where everyone talks, nobody listens and after they all disagree.

Conference: A place where delegates catch up on SMS and e-mail messages while a speaker drones on about his life’s achievements with a buffet lunch in the middle.

To your success and find out how Michael Podolinsky will help you and your organization by browsing through the links below:

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