The problem with many working people today is that they believe that job security is attainable. Once they have a job, most people think their career challenges are over.

This is false: Job Security no longer exists.

In today’s high tech world, companies face even greater challenges to remain competitive. These companies will do anything to build the bottom line, including laying off people.

The funny thing is that they don’t say they are firing you, they say you are being laid off, i.e., you just happen to be one of the unfortunate ones.

With the recession in late 2000 and 2001, I personally know literally thousands of people who have been laid off, including myself.

I was a victim of corporate downsizing

Unfortunately in September 2001, I too was a victim of corporate downsizing. Eight days after the September 11th tragedy (and after almost three years of a successful sales record), I was laid off by Merix. Thankfully I received an attractive severance package and was able to get another sales position within two weeks with a competitor in the printed circuit board industry, TTM Technologies.

This experience of being laid off was very difficult for me, but through this adversity, I learned the truth of what Nietzsche said:

“That which does not kill, strengthens.”

After eighteen months at TTM Technologies, I was again laid off due to much of the U.S. printed circuit board manufacturing being shifted to offshore manufacturers in Asia.

As a result of this experience (being laid off twice in as many years), I decided that I would never put myself in a situation where I was dependent on a job to support my family.

I made a plan for my own destiny…

I remember driving that day, northbound on I-5 heading back toward Seattle, deciding I was going to transition my part-time business to full time and become unstoppable as I pursued my business goals. Since then, there have been many bumps in the road, but I have never looked back, and now my business is soaring.

It was at this time that I also launched my publishing coaching services with Best Seller Publishing Coaching. The publishing coaching portion of my business has been a great way for me to supplement by business as a speaker while simultaneously helping numerous people from all walks of life publish their books.

As a result of these adversities and diversifying my business, today I am no longer dependent on corporate America to support my family.

Getting back to layoffs, the problem is that when companies go through downsizing, the victims (including myself) have virtually nothing to show for their work except old paystubs. Most simply look for another job, hoping that they can get hired (so they can probably get slapped in the face again). This is foolish, haven’t these victims learned their lesson?

To combat this, I recommend that you do some soul-searching (as I have done) and turn your hobby into a home based business. Then, if you do happen to get laid off, at least you have a second alternative to fall back on.

You owe it to yourself and your family to build something that becomes an asset, rather than just wasting time on a job, renting out your skills and looking for job security.

This is an excerpt from my book “Creating Your Own Destiny”.

As a Motivational Keynote Speaker, I can speak on this subject or adapt my subject to your audience.

Contact me the next time you need a speaker for your event.

“When you were born, you cried and the world rejoiced! Live your life in a manner in which, when you die, the world cries and you rejoice.” - Indian Proverb

You can become a success; I’m certain of it. In fact, Henry David Thoreau said:

“If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life in which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.”

Success will happen. When it comes, what are you going to do? Are you going to keep all your success to yourself? Or are you going to give of your time, your energy and your money? When you become a success, I’d like to press upon you an important thought: Develop your higher calling.

What is a higher calling?

It’s something that you do above and beyond your destiny; in other words, it’s the something that you do to give back to the world.

For many, this might be faith. For others, it might be family or some other worthwhile cause. This higher calling is different for everyone. I challenge you to seek out and develop yours.

As Mother Teresa said: “I do not pray for success, I ask for faithfulness.”

Mother Teresa, possibly more than anyone, devoted almost her entire life to living out her higher calling by founding a mission in Calcutta, India and devoting her life to helping the poor. When she died on September 5, 1997, I am sure she rejoiced at the time when the world cried!

Many professional athletes today come from modest backgrounds. Once they make it to the big leagues, they have the resources to give a tremendous amount of money to their communities.

Take Alex Rodriquez, for example. He’s a professional baseball player who played for the Seattle Mariners for seven years. I watched him come up through the ranks to become the premier shortstop in Major League Baseball.

In the early 1990s, he was a high school student. After the 2000 season, he signed a new contract with the Texas Rangers for $252 million (before becoming a New York Yankee). That’s right – more than a quarter of a billion dollars.

That’s a lot of money by anyone’s count. With a higher calling combined with his looks, personality, charisma and money, Alex Rodriquez can help impact the world for the better.

Alex has chosen to give millions of dollars of his money and countless hours of his time to the kids of inner-city Miami in an effort to help them overcome many of the adversities they face every day.

I know you’re probably thinking: It’s easy to give money away and make a difference if you’re a multi-millionaire.

Everyone can contribute…

That may be easy, but I also believe anyone can make a difference in the world regardless of how much you have to give. How? By giving of your time and energy.

Whether you realize it or not, we are all capable of changing the world if each of us were to reach out within our own communities and help feed, clothe and nourish those in need. One person at a time, each of us can make a difference.

• Spend more time at home with family
• Volunteer for neighborhood and community boards or committees
• End domestic and sexual violence
• Become involved in a world wide cause
• Coach a kid’s sports team
• Donate food to food banks
• Rescue animals
• Donate money or clothes to worthy organizations
• Volunteer your time in a church group
• Save a sea creature that has been washed ashore

This is an excerpt from my book “Creating Your Own Destiny”.

As a Motivational Keynote Speaker, I can speak on this subject or adapt my subject to your audience.

Contact me the next time you need a speaker for your event.

This is the third in a 3-part series: The first article was: Successful Entrepreneurs, the second article was How Do I Get New Clients?

It’s important to analyze why people purchase products and services from one company over another.

If you ask buyers, most say, “strong relationships.” People buy from people they like. If you want to increase sales, you need to develop more solid relationships.

The entrepreneur who becomes the person others want to do business with will ultimately get the biggest results.

The Sales Success Formula I Suggest You Use:

Trust (T) + Respect (R) + Need (N) + Ask (A) = Money ($)

Like every formula, each part must be fulfilled to reach the desired outcome. Trust is crucial in order to close sales. Your prospect may respect your company, and he may have a need, but if he doesn’t trust you, he won’t buy from you.

To build trust, show your prospect you care about his success. When a buyer sees you care, then he’ll trust you. The best way to earn this trust and respect is to let your prospect share his problems with you.

Another way to build trust in the relationship is to ask the buyer about his or her interests. Questions can include asking about his or her family, children and hobbies. Asking these questions will give you a better idea of the buyer’s interests, passions and priorities.

Respect is another key component to this equation. It’s possible to trust someone but not to respect him. The best way to build respect is to follow up on action items as promised. Always respond in a timely manner. Show the prospect you value his business.

Is There a Need…

All too often, entrepreneurs forget to ask whether there’s a need for their services or products. It’s vital to qualify need as quickly as you can.  Without it (regardless of how much trust and respect you’ve established), you’ll never close the sale.

To discover a prospect’s need, ask whether he’s in the market for your product or service. If not, move on to the next prospect and qualify that person’s need.

This is an excerpt from my book “The Affluent Entrepreneur”.

As a Motivational Keynote Speaker, I can speak on this subject or adapt my subject to your audience.

Contact me the next time you need a speaker for your event.

This is the 2nd in a 3 part series. The first article was: Successful Entrepreneurs

In my business, I’ve had incredible months of growth and record income, while at other times I’ve struggled. Looking back at this rollercoaster ride, the worst months occurred when I spent a disproportionate amount of time doing administrative tasks.

When I implemented my Sales Success Formula, I had my best months. If you want to get clients, I can’t emphasize how important my system is to an entrepreneur.

If you follow a proven system, you’ll soar. If you don’t, you’ll starve.

“SYSTEM” stands for: Save Your-Self Time, Energy and Money. As an entrepreneur, I challenge you to implement:

12 Tips in my Prospecting System:

1. Develop a data base that works for you. The less time you spend doing data entry, the more time you can prospect.
2. A successful business is 5% creation and 95% daily promotion. The old adage “build it and they will come” doesn’t work! Develop your product or service, then spend the rest of your life promoting it, and you’ll experience success.
3. Prospect a minimum of 4 hours per day. Entrepreneurs can lose focus on their most important task: selling.
4. Utilize the rule of seven. Studies show on average that it takes seven bits of communication between buyer and seller before a sale occurs. You have to develop trust, respect, and need, which result from spending time with your prospect.
5. Get samples in the hands of your prospects. Many aspiring authors have asked me how I turned my book Creating Your Own Destiny into an international bestseller. It all came down to my willingness to give out review copies to prospects who would later buy my book in volume.
6. Build a full commissioned sales team. As an entrepreneur, you must do everything possible to keep your overhead low. One of the best ways is to pay your team based on sales and project-specific performance, and not on salary.(with the exception of administrative personnel).
7. Create and update an income funnel. You need to know from where your next paycheck is coming. Monitor all your prospects as they move through your sales funnel.
8. Focus on marketing your business instead of advertising. For example: instead of paying the steep price of a newspaper ad, submit an article. This method costs you nothing, and sets you up as an expert in the eyes of your prospect.
9. Protect your seed money sources. If you’re just beginning your entrepreneurial pursuits, keep your day job and build your business part time. Once you have a year’s worth of income saved and are debt free, then quit your job and pursue your venture full time.
10. Successful businesses always take longer and cost more than planned. It may take three times longer and cost three time more than you budgeted to make your business a success. This principle also helps you to determine how long you’ll need to keep your job.
11. Golden Rule. Simply put, treat others as you wish to be treated. Respect others as you wish to be respected. Prospect others as you wish to be prospected. Finally, sell others as you wish to buy.
12. Negotiations. Always remember that when it comes to negotiations, whoever mentions the amount first always loses.

My Destiny Mantra

If you want to create your own destiny using the business you’ve selected as your financial vehicle, I challenge you to apply my Sales Success System to your business and follow my destiny mantra: “Dream, Plan, Execute and Soar”

In our next article, we’ll discuss my Sales Success Formula taken from my book “The Affluent Entrepreneur”.

As a Motivational Keynote Speaker, I can speak on this subject or adapt my subject to your audience.

Contact me the next time you need a speaker for your event.

“My advantage is that I can endure more pain than anyone else in the world.”  - Steve Prefontaine

To reach your life’s destiny and to achieve more love and more health, you will need to eliminate all excuses and reasons not to do something.

You’ll also need to overcome addiction and adversity. One you can control (addictions), the other you often can’t control (adversity).

Additionally, you will need to gain control over your temptations.

But if you are a person who can beat adversity, temptation and addiction, and you also stay true to your core values and beliefs, then nothing will stop you.

Overcoming Adversities

Here are some specific ways to both anticipate adversities and to overcome them when they do enter your life:

• Understand that adversities are only temporary (better times are bound to come.) Nothing lasts forever, in other words. Focus as much as possible on solutions rather than the negative aspects of the adversity.
• Appreciate all the good in your life. Even when something bad happens, you still have many positive things to draw on: your health, family, children, freedom, etc.
• Remember the people before you who have persevered when faced with more difficult times: Holocaust survivors, victims of war, POWs, etc.
• Know deep in your heart that you have what it takes to persevere. You can face and overcome adversities. You’ve done it before, you’ll do it again.
• Understand that when one door closes, another almost always opens up. Look for hidden opportunities when faced with an adversity; something positive is almost always lurking close behind.

Adversity is part of life

All of us will face adversity. It’s part of life. The adversity may not be as scary as having a house fire, or being a family victim of the September 11 tragedies, but the challenges along the road to your destiny can be just as severe.

In your quest to have a positive attitude, you must first focus on the positive.

“That which does not kill us makes us stronger.” -Friedrich Nietzsche

This is an excerpt from Patrick’s Book “Creating Your Own Destiny”

As an international best-selling author and professional keynote speaker, Patrick will customize his message to the needs of your audience.

Contact him for your next event

As an entrepreneur, you know what you want (you want to be successful), but you may not know how to get it. No doubt, you’re trying to start a new business or grow your existing one.

During this process, some business owners fall into the trap of spreading themselves too thin, thus needing to increase their revenue. You may have the same concern.

Let’s face it: Until your company adds more employees, you’re wearing all the hats for all the roles in your business.

How can you focus on the amount of prospecting needed to keep your revenue stream coming in?

It’s my belief that you can’t until you implement a system specifically designed to keep you on track.

Overnight Sensation

Becoming an Affluent Entrepreneur doesn’t happen overnight. You’ll face adversity:

• Your bank account may run dry and your perfect credit rating may suffer.
• You may damage your relationship with your spouse or significant other.
• In the end, your trials will be worth the pain if you can develop the courage to stay the course and make it happen!

Easier said than done

Perhaps you’ve had a goal, a dream, or a vision that you didn’t pursue because you didn’t know how you could attain that goal. Many others have the same concerns.

I’m going to offer you a system to follow so you can learn the “how”. Once you unleash this secret, your business can explode.

Over the course of 15 years, I’ve interviewed thousands of employees from all walks of life. What do these people say they want?

• More time
• More money
• More freedom
• More health
• More love
• More happiness in life

Entrepreneurs want the same things, and when you own your own business, you’re in a great position to achieve them!

What level of success do you want?

Your ability to sell is vital to the level of success or failure you’ll experience.  The better your sales skills are, the more money you’ll make. If you have a background in sales, then you’re more qualified than you realize to succeed as an entrepreneur.

Bottom line: Great sales people make the best entrepreneurs.

So how can an entrepreneur get more out of life? By overcoming self-limiting beliefs, applying the following sales success formula, and implementing my prospecting system.

Before I offer you my formula, it’s important to identify your self-limiting beliefs.

Your biggest obstacle isn’t another company or entrepreneur, but you. Your mind can help or hurt you, depending on how you’ve programmed it. Rather than focusing on doubts, you must learn to believe and trust in yourself.

This is a 3-part article, in our next 2 articles, we’ll discuss my Formula and my Prospecting System, taken from my book “The Affluent Entrepreneur”.

As a Motivational Keynote Speaker, I can speak on this subject or adapt my subject to your audience.

Contact me the next time you need a speaker for your event.