Good Morning Freedom Fighters and Truth Seekers,

Hope your week is going well.  We are preparing for the launch of our major Skill Certification, Workers Comp, Liability and Consumer Directed Health Plans with HSA benefits for the manufacturing sector in Southern California.  It is critical to keep the manufacturing sector strong and productive since it produces the highest job creation multiplier of any industry.  If any our our readers have contacts or clients in manufacturing, please ask them to contact us so we have determine whether they will fit into the system.


Don't Act Like An Elephant!
by Fran Briggs

In India, elephants are used for manual labor.

When an elephant is small and weighs approximately 200 pounds, it is securely tied with a heavy-duty rope. In between "jobs," the elephant tries to break through its limitation. The calf whines, tugs-even tries to chew through the rope-but it is unable to break free. Finally, the elephant gives up its will. He accepts his circumstances. His spirit is broken.

The elephant believes there is absolutely no chance to free himself and overcome his "limitation." This is recognized as a "defining moment." A defining moment is the exact moment one adopts/accepts a new belief that drastically alters their life. They accept this "new belief" as a "truth," regardless if it is true or not. Because the brain accepts repetition of thought and deduction as "the truth," the rope reigns sovereign not only in the calf's immediate environment, but in his mind as well.

With this "belief" deeply embedded in the elephant's mind, his handler came up with an ingenious idea to permanently disempower him. He realized all that was needed was to tie the four-ton animal up with extremely small ropes and he would remain tied. You see in the elephant's mind, any size rope would keep him "securely confined."

Don't act like an elephant. Size up and break through the confining ropes in your mind. When you're faced with change, change your perspective. When you're overwhelmed with something new; change your view. Use affirmations, to eradicate limitations and nothing will be impossible for you!


Partnering for Profit
by Brian Tracy

The way you can stand out from your competitors is for you to position yourself as a business partner, always looking for ways to improve your customer’s business. 

Help Your Customer's Business

When you deal with a businessperson, you can be sure of one thing: that person thinks about his business day and night. It is very close to him. It is dear to his heart. And if you come in and talk to him and ask him questions about his business, looking for ways to help him run his business better, the customer is going to warm up to you and want to be associated with you and your company. 

Differentiate Yourself From Your Customers

As a partner, you should always be looking to help your customer to cut costs and improve results in his or her area of responsibility. You should look for ways to help your customer in non-business areas as well. You should position yourself as someone who cares more about the success of your customer than anything else, even more than you care about selling your product or service. This approach to partnering in profit with your customer is a key way to differentiate yourself and to keep your customer for the indefinite future. 

Practice the Reciprocity Principle

There is a principle of reciprocity in business that is extremely powerful. It is simply this: If you do something nice for someone else, they will feel obligated to do something nice for you. You should be looking for opportunities to go the extra mile, to do more than you are paid for, to put in more than you take out. By extending yourself, you improve your positioning in the customer’s mind and increasingly differentiate yourself and your company from your competitors who are after the same business. If you do this long enough and strong enough, you will eventually develop the partnership to the point where your competitors don’t have a chance against you. 

Action Exercises

Here are two things you can do immediately to put these ideas into action. 

First, think about how you can help your customer’s customer with your product or service. Take time to understand how your customer uses your product to do his business better. 

Second, focus on increasing your customer’s profits and financial results. Show your customer that doing business with you is both satisfying and profitable in the long run.


You've 60 Seconds To Make Up Your Mind
by Jeffrey Mayer

You must make up your mind in 60 seconds.  No time to think. No time to change your mind. Answer Yes, or No.  What are you going to do? 

Has anybody ever given you a choice where you had to make a decision almost instantly?  How did that make you feel?  What if it was a $41 billion decision?  I'm asking that question because a feature story in almost every 
newspaper in America was the high-stakes poker game being played by Cingular and Vodafone over AT&T Wireless.  The winner would become the largest wireless communications company in the United States.

The loser.  Well, you know what happens to losers.  As you go through life you must capture the opportunities that come your way.  Do so and you can become a HUGE success.  Let them slip through your fingers, and you're an all-so-ran. The payoff for making this strategic acquisition is huge. If Cingular, which is jointly owned by SBC and BellSouth, were to win the AT&T Wireless auction it would extend its reach to 97 of the nation's 
top 100 markets, and would have 46 million customers. 

It's late Monday night. The Cingular team has yet to hear from AT&T Wireless as to who has won the bidding war. At 9:30pm, James Kahan, the head of SBC's mergers and acquisitions department, called his lead attorney Joseph Frumkin. He suggested that Mr. Frumkin contact Steven Rosenblum, his counterpart t AT&T Wireless' law firm, to ask if they would be open to receiving one more bid from Cingular.Mr. Frumkin had one more requirement: Cingular would offer $15 per share - $41 billion - if AT&T Wireless would make its decision within 60 seconds of receiving the revised offer.They said yes.  SBC and BellSouth went to work.

Midnight conference calls were scheduled for the boards of directors of both companies. 

By 1:40am both boards had approved the offer. 

At 2:15am on a cold February night, the Cingular legal team walked 
the four blocks to meet with AT&T Wireless' executives, board 
members and attorneys.

At 2:30am the deal was signed. 

In London it was 8:30am. The board of Vodafone was about to 
meet to approve the deal that Chief Executive Arun Sarin 
had negotiated the night before. Just before the meeting 
was about it begin he received a phone call informing 
him that Cingular had already closed the deal.  I can only wonder what the members of his board of directors had to say to him when their meeting started.

Three Lessons Learned
There are a three lessons we can learn from these events.

1. Capture Your Opportunities.
As you go through life, there are some opportunities that you 
can't allow to slip through your fingers. You must do 
everything possible to close the deal.But that means you must see the opportunity in the first place.Unfortunately, most of us are too busy looking at the knots in the trees to see the tree itself, let alone the forest.We're doing things that keep us busy - but offer little or no payoff - instead of being productive.We're so busy putting out fires, many are the result of arson, that 
we don't have time to think about - let alone - execute our 
strategic goals and objectives. Then we wonder why we're 
working so hard, and have so little to show for it.         

2. Don't take anything for granted.

Dot your I's and cross your T's. You can't take anything for granted.Create a sense of urgency.Vodafone 'assumed' they had a deal. But they forgot the #1 rule in sales: A deal isn't a deal until the contract's signed. Apparently, 
they weren't in a hurry to get it done. They hadn't given 
AT&T Wireless an agreement to sign. The Vodafone board of directors was going to consider a sweetened offer at 9:00am London time, 3:00am NYC time.By then they were too late. The deal with Cingular was signed, 
sealed and delivered. It was DONE! The champagne was flowing.

3. Pick up the telephone.

Don't be a wall flower. If you want to talk with 
someone, pick up the phone.If you've got a question, pick up the phone. If you're looking for new customers, pick up the phone.What would have happened if James Kahan hadn't called Joseph Frumkin. Nothing!AT&T Wireless would have become Vodafone's  

The telephone is the most efficient way of finding prospects and creating opportunities. Cingular acquired AT&T Wireless because they decided not 
to sit around and wait for AT&T Wireless' attorneys to tell them 
if they had won or lost. James Kahan picked up the phone 
and changed the rules of the game. He gave Cingular one last opportunity and they walked away with the grand prize.


William Prouty, CLU RHU CEC MBA PhD
CEO and Founder
Champions For Life Foundation
PO Box 989, Sun City, CA 92586-0989
909-301-0605  Phone
909-301-0606  FAX
wprouty@aol.com