An Interesting Quote, and a Story To Go Along With It

“All great changes in America, begin at the dinner table.” ~Ronald Reagan

The Story:
The other night I was at a New Years Eve party. My buddy informs me that his wife came to him and asked him what things he planned on changing in the new year. Knowing where this was going, he smartly replied… “I thought I’d change the part in my hair. I thought I’d change my golf grip, and I thought I’d move the  Christmas tree from the left corner of the room to the right corner. Not really the answer she was looking for.

I then asked her point blank, what things she thought she was going to change about HERSELF in the new year. She said she didn’t really think of that. Why is it that we frequently want to change OTHERS, yet we don’t think about working on ourselves? Change starts with you. It’s a heck of a lot easier changing you, then you, changing someone else.

Gandhi once said  “Be the change you want to see in the world.” Pretty smart man that Gandhi was! Read more

How do you start a trend?

Ever Wonder how you start a TREND and get the MASSES to follow you? This video is from the Master Marketer, Seth Godin. Seth finds things, analyzes WHAT HAPPENED, and DESCRIBES it to his readers in a PITHY, SUMMARIZED form. Perhaps that’s why Seth has such a humongous  following himself?

Take a look at Guy #3 and  Seth’s analysis. Pretty cool……

T.A. Smith
www.Smile-Therapy.com
Contact me via E-mail

Give people a reason to talk you UP

A tiny incident at a local Pizza shop turned a FROWN into a SMILE (and some positive TALK too!)

It’s the little things in life that get people excited (and/or angry). This past week a very small and trivial thing happened, but under the surface, it had much larger consequences.

Here’s the scenario:
I go to a local pizza shop. They have this little promotion that if you buy ten LUNCH Specials, you get your 11th lunch for free (probably a cost/savings of $5). Nice idea, not a make or break thing either way, but it does get me going back and punching the little card they give you.

I go there last night for a “late lunch” (it’s about 6 pm). Kidding, I ask the young server behind the counter what’s the specials today. She seriously responds “we don’t have any“. I kiddingly respond “well make something up and even if it isn’t a special tell me that it is, and I’ll probably get excited“. She shrugs it off. Read more

Attitude is everything and more

A book recommendation: You can’t send a Duck to Eagle School, by Mac Anderson. Absolutely great book for business owners, managers and anyone else in life. Here are 10 gems of info I pulled from the book.

#1 Survey of 1 million people were taken who thought they had the best boss. The most popular answer was.. Boss was willing to listen to what they had to say. Hello….Are you listening????

#2 Keep it simple. Red Auerbach and Vince Lombardi, 2 of the all time most famous coaches, only has 3-7 plays, but practiced and practiced them to perfection. Simple enough?

#3 Southwest Air CEO was asked HOW he gets such nice employees. His answer was that he hires people with nice, positive qualities. You can’t teach people enthusiasm, motivation and to smile. It makes all the difference in the world.
Seems so simplistic, yet it makes perfect sense!

#4 Attitude is everything.  We all have down days and tough stuff. Just deal with it and BOUNCE BACK. Read more

People that exceed expectations

Have you heard the story of super human, Roger Crawford? Roger was born with no left hand. A right hand with only 1 out of 5 fingers. A right foot with only 3 out of 5 toes, and if that was not bad enough, his left leg was so deformed, that it had to be amputated before Roger reached his 6th birthday.

It’s no surprise that doctors told the Crawford’s not to expect their son to ever walk. Well, once in a while, the human spirit doesn’t listen to naysayers and ‘pessimists’(in this case the doctors prognosis for Roger). I’m happy to report that, with some hard work, grit, determination, and a superbly positive mental outlook, Roger Crawford ended up walking , and walking just fine In fact, Crawford even started to run. Then he actually tried to hit a tennis ball and run around the court a bit. Then, he actually tried out for the school tennis team. Then, he actually made the tennis team and became CAPTAIN of the team. This wasn’t a sympathy assigned position. Roger Crawford actually earned 4 varsity letters and compiled a match record of 44 wins and only 6 defeats. This earned the man who was never supposed to walk, Northern California’s  Athlete of the year. Read more

Roots and Wings

“There are only two lasting bequests we can hope to leave our children. One of these is ROOTS. The other, WINGS.”
-Honor Books, ‘Gods Little Instruction Book for Parents’-

Amidst this small sentence is quite a bit of SUBSTANCE. Let’s take a look the first part.

ROOTS
First, parents, you would do well to build a solid foundation for your children, right from the start, up until they leave your nest.

Second, Be sure you give them clear, crisp, fundamentals.

Next, Make certain their core values are as good as you can teach, and the best that you know of, even if yours could have been improved upon.

Fourth, give them the basic tools to work with. Read more

World’s oldest showgirl, Dorothy Dale Kloss

Thanks to Tim Smith of Smile-Therapy for sharing this inspiring story. Watch the short video below of Dorothy Dale Kloss, now the world’s oldest showgirl, still kicking with the Fabulous Palm Spring Follies.

8 year old girl makes huge score with $100 golf ball

We’ve all seen these young entrepreneurs. They are peddling raffle tickets, they are selling cookie dough, they are distributing refreshing lemonade on a hot summer day. All to make a small profit. All at the ages of 7, 9 or even 12 years old.

The latest I saw was a young 8 year old lady who had a golf ball stand off the first fairway of a local golf course. Twenty five cents for the decent balls and 50 cents for the top shelf. Three for $1 of any kind of ball you wanted. Being a fan of the young budding minds of America, I like to support their efforts. These  are our future business leaders. These are our hard working pre teen youth. Heck they could be off texting, playing on the wii, blogging on Facebook or at the local mall with their older siblings. But they are working, exchanging goods and services to make a buck. God bless their little souls.

Before describing what I find at the 8 yr old’s Golf Stand, I digress to share information learned just 3 days PRIOR. While on a one day trip with 3 golf freaks, one guy says to me—- “if you ever see any of those 2 colored PING  golf balls, keep them as there aren’t many of them around and they are selling for about $100 a ball on EBay”.

YIKES!   Who knew? Isn’t life all about INFORMATION?

So, I mosey on over to the golf stand to leave a $5-10 tip and take 2 of the worst looking balls she is selling( hey, got to move that inventory). What do you think I find sitting in one of the egg cartons filled with golf balls? Would you believe an orange and blue 2 colored PING golf ball Read more

How the Doctor found a cure for polio

(Thanks to our Smile-Therapy friends at Bits and Pieces/ Economic Press for this wonderful story)

Dr Jonas Salk discovered the first vaccine against Polio in 1954. Of this scientific breakthrough and other triumphs, he offers this reflection…

“Ideas came to me as they do all of us. The difference is I took them seriously. I didn’t get discouraged that others didn’t see what I saw. I had trust and confidence in my perceptions rather than listening to dogma and what other people thought. I didn’t allow anyone to discourage me—and EVERYONE tried. But life is not a popularity contest.”

Now  let’s bring ourselves back in time to 1954 and before when Salk was in the process of his lifesaving discovery.

You think he found the right formula in 1-2 tries?

You think it took him a week to make this happen?

You think anyone was telling him.. “your going to find a cure for polio.. right!”

Think anyone called him crazy?

Bottom line is if we all listened to the negativity and the people trying to discourage us from accomplishing anything worthwhile… NOTHING WOULD EVER GET DONE. Trust your instincts. Work hard, do your homework, be passionate, be persistent. Listen to YOU. Read more

My thoughts and your thoughts #204

I love Quotes. I love them because they make me think. What does the quoter mean? Why did he/she write this? Is there a message to get through to the reader/the world? What did YOU initially think when you read it?

Here goes blog quote #204…

“There is a direct proportion to how fast you speak and how little people understand.”
-Fran Loeber, my awesome godfather-

Does anyone have the challenge that I have.. in that I talk too fast? Let me clarify; I’m not a fast talker( as in slick), I’m just a spaz and whatever I’m trying to say seems to rush out of my mouth. Perhaps it’s just that my mind is racing at 123 miles per hour. Maybe, I’m thinking, if I don’t get it out in a hurry, I’ll forget what I wanted to say?

Well, when Uncle Fran told me the above quote, it really made sense. The faster I speak, the less people will comprehend. Clear communication begins with S-l-o-w-i-n-g D-o-w-n.

Much work to do for me, but let’s just say I’m a ‘work in progress’. Who isn’t?

That’s my view……. What Say You?

T.A. Smith
www.Smile-Therapy.com
Contact me via E-mail

Next Page »