Think About This.

Here's something to think about... There are many people who are wondering what happened and they have no defenses to protecting what they worked so hard to build over their lifetimes... unfortunately they do not know how to reinvent themselves to take advantage of the great opportunities that are being created right now. Remember this... the thinking and the behavior that got you where you are today... will keep you living in the dark ages! You need to be reinventing yourself right now. You need to be thinking how you are going to learn more skills... because you need to become a bigger thinker tomorrow to go where you have never gone before because yesterday's thinking is not what's going to create your opportunities of tomorrow!

Personally, I am working longer hours on myself to learn more than I ever have at any one time in my life. We have all heard Abe Lincoln's advice... "if I have 6 hours to chop down a tree, I am going to spend 4 hours sharpening my axe." I have always believed that every hour you spend in planning or learning a new job skill that you will increase your productivity 4 fold. So my challenge to you... "how many of you are spending any time right now at home before you go to bed to increase your effectiveness?" Jim Rohn a great teacher and very successful entrepreneur say... "if you were to spend just one hour a day on becoming more knowledgeable about your craft... in 5 years, you will be in the top 1% of the people in your industry!"

I would encourage all of you to pass on anything that you are doing whether it is a best practice or even just a great thought... maybe even a good laugh... I would love to hear from you!

I am excited about 2009... more to come... "Famous"

Dealing With Tough Times

If you think its tough around here…its because we are doing what only the tough can do!

1. First Get Your Emotions Out of Your Thinking
It's only human to get down when faced with crushing times. But you cannot be sick enough to heal the sickness around you. The same way now... you cannot solve your down times by being down on yourself! By removing the emotions from your thinking… because your problem solving thinking needs to be larger than your problems.

2. You Must Consider The Worst Case If All Fails… then come to a conclusion that:
• You will be OK
• You will still have the real things that matter most to you—your family, your health, and your willingness to work.
• Believe that it’s OK to start over if need be

3. Once You Have Considered The Worst—Put It Behind You and From NOW On You Will Only Look To The Future!
• No more pity parties
• This is important—don’t beat yourself up! …you can’t move forward to solve your problems… if you are beating yourself up.
• Only a positive attitude and hard work will help solve your problems
• Be grateful for what you do have
• Be determined that no matter what…you ain’t quittin’!

4. Decide You Are Going To Be a Positive Breath of Fresh Air To Everyone Around You
• Be the steadying force everyone can believe in
• Be confident in who you are, the things you believe in, never losing sight of your vision and your goals

5. Take It One Day At A Time
• Don’t worry about what may never happen—you can’t control the future
• Focus all your energy to making a positive difference now
• Enjoy the moment

6. You Must Communicate With All Your Stakeholders
• Don’t let the fact that you are having a tough time cause you embarrassment to the point where you start hiding from your creditors. Best thing you can do is stay in constant communication with them and let them know everything that is happening.

7. Negotiate
• Just because you had one set of agreements doesn’t mean you can’t go back in and negotiate.—the key is not to be arrogant about it but ask for their help in a win/win sort of way. Don’t negotiate while whining—you must present to your creditors that you are confident of your future and you are not giving up.

8. Give Them Something No Matter How Small The Payment
• Every month give your creditors something even it is just $50. It demonstrates to the creditors that you have their invoice on your mind. They get raving mad if they think that you are stiffing them on purpose and abusing the fact that they put their trust in you—so give them something. This will help immensely until you have things figured out. If you can’t pay something—make sure you call them ahead of time to let them know what’s up.

Abundant Opportunities

Opportunities are not as elusive as most people think they are! The greatest opportunity is often forged on the brink of the most unpleasant and devastating disaster or adversity. Hence the old adage... "The greater the risk--the greater the reward!" Unfortunately most people wallow in their self-pity about how bad they have it... they never have the "open and alert mind" to recognize the opportunities that have just been created for them as a result of their tough times. Their self-imposed defeatist attitude takes over and they stubbornly refuse to cast-off their self-pity to embrace a positive attitude that is so necessary to overcome their adversity. It is at this moment that you must create a a strong resolve in your mind and you must dig deep to summon up every once of positiveness you can find with yourself to claim victory over whatever is crushing you.

Next you must create a very positive picture in your mind of you breaking through to the finish line to achieve your ultimatevision of success. Your ability to manifest this vision into reality, requires you burn this image into your mind. This positive picture of your enjoying your success must overpower all other negativeness that wants to creep back into your thinking. Get up every morning with a positive resolve that you are going live this day with all the positive gusto you can and keep the most cheerful outlook on everything that comes your way. No more self-pity ever!

Next you must prepare yourself. There is no getting around the fact that you must do your homework! An unprepared person armed with only his or her ignorance who put themselves into the jaws of great risk is a complete fool... headed for disaster. To take advantage of "Opportunity" you must be prepared mentally, you must sharpen your skills, and start conducting yourself with the behaviors of a winner not a loser. If you are having tough times and you think like a loser, talk like a loser, look like a loser, and behave as a loser... you will always be a loser! But... if you are having tough times and you change your thinking to start thinking like a winner and you start talking like a winner, start looking like a winner, and you start behaving like a winner... guess what? Sooner than later... you will become a winner!

Everyday you must do everything with the best effort you can muster and you must do this every single time you try something. Striving to do your best to give your best is always rewarded with equal measure of opportunity. If you want incredible opportunity--you must give incredible effort everyday in everything you do. If you want outstanding opportunities--you must give whatever you do outstanding effort. If you want unbelievable opportunities to come your way--you must dig deep to give the most unbelievable effort you have ever given anything. When you live your life like this everyday... soon you will never have to look for opportunity. Opportunity will come looking for you!

Dave's Thoughts On Success

Somebody once said to me in passing… “Dave it seems like everything you touch turns to gold… I would sure like to be in your shoes just for a day!”

I was somewhat taken back by this remark because the more I thought about it, I quickly realized how much people really don’t understand about what it takes to be successful and even more misunderstood is the fact that unlimited success is available to all people who make a decision to live their lives free of excuses.

I shared the following thought with this friend… “I don’t think so… I don’t know if you could handle the extreme adversity and the most challenging problems that I face on a daily basis and even more than that… I don’t know if you want to force yourself to work like I work everyday!”

This person countered… “It sure sounds like your life is awful especially if you have to work all the time… besides don’t you have enough?

I answered… “On the contrary I am very happy doing what I love to do and I love working because it gives me a great sense of accomplishment and I am constantly amazed at what I am learning all the time. It is this joy of expectation that keeps me excited about what tomorrow is going to bring. And no… I am not working because I am greedy and trying to accumulate more… I am grateful to be blessed with abundance from the fruits of my labors because my success creates job opportunities for many others and I am in a position to share our abundance with those less fortunate. I am thankful to be living in such a great country where I can follow MY dreams! It is so unfortunate that many people spend their whole lives doing something they don’t love to do and then work everyday fulfilling the dreams of someone else because they have no goals or plans for their own life.”

This person than asked if I could share with him the secrets to success from what I have learned the hard way.

I thought for moment and said… “It is really simple… it starts with having an open mind to explore how to develop a meaningful relationship with an Almighty Living God. Success requires a positive cheerful attitude, a willingness to work hard, being responsible and not blaming others for your failures, and then a complete understanding that the problems in your life… are not there to make your life miserable but these problems which often seem like insurmountable crisis’s… are really your opportunities for unlimited success. Most people think that success is limited to only just a few select people… I shared that it only seems that way… because most people run from their problems and only a few are willing to step up and meet these problems head on.

Problems are unlimited so therefore the opportunity for success is unlimited!”



Here’s my understanding of what it takes to be successful…

You need a positive cheerful attitude fueled by a crystal clear vision of your goals in life. This vision must be anchored by the strongest unwavering resolve to never… never… ever quit… until you have manifested your dreams into reality. How you program your mind moment by moment on a daily basis is the secret to creating that deep foundation to your positive attitude and this is what gives substance to your dreams.

Most people go through life without spending any time on a daily basis to develop their minds or investing in on-going education to empower their thinking… and then they wonder why their dreams are so elusive.

Here’s why you need an awake mind that is filled with positive attitudes…

You can never experience the unbelievable rewards of being enormously successful unless you have experienced the sheer terror of facing the most challenging adversity caused by going where you have never gone before… to do the things you have never done before... to experience the success that you have never experienced before!

There will be days that you will wish you never started out on this journey into the unknown. There will be days that it seems that everything around you is crashing in on you… and there is no way out. There will be days when you feel all alone and that all your friends have abandoned you. There will be days that you want to scream to the universe to give you a break because you can’t take it anymore. It is then… that you must dig deep and tell yourself that you are not going to give up on yourself. This is the time that you will need a deep understanding of the greatest power you possess and this power is your spiritual faith.

The greater your success… the greater your effort will have to be give up your own understanding to in order to ask for wisdom from God. The greater your success… the greater your effort to give up your self-righteous pride to do the things you said you would never do! The greater your success… the greater your effort will be to get yourself out of the way and place greater attention to being a servant to other people.

The greater your success… the greater your risk of failure. The greater your success… the more determined you will have to be to jerk yourself out of your comfort zone. The greater your success… the greater your self discipline will have to be… in order for you to change who you are right now.

You cannot be enormously successful being the person you are right now.

The thinking and behavior that got you to where you are today… is not the thinking and behavior that will need to stretch to where you want to grow… tomorrow. Luke 1:37

The Power of Dreams and Surrender

One of the most meaningful lessons you will learn in life is that your future begins to be manifested into reality, the moment when you fully focus on your vision, trust in your ideas, and follow where your heart leads you. Successful people see their futures as already being achieved. They believe in their dreams—Always!

The second part of this lesson is that your future is never determined by your present circumstances. People who focus on their present circumstances never move into their future. Remember your future quality of life is always determined by what is in you and never by what is around you! All failures in life always blame what is around them for their excuses and lack of success. The successful will always tell you it was past circumstances that were the motivating factors for their success but never their excuses!

Start everyday like everything was “brand new!” Don’t pollute your new day with the negatives of yesterday. Treat everyone with genuine interest like they were the one person that you were just dying to meet, no matter how frustrating they might have been to you the day before. Give them the same second chance in life that you would want if you screwed up. Put aside your worries and disappointments. Instead look at everything with optimism and hope. Start seeing the good in everything or everyone that you come in contact each new day and soon your days will be filled with blessings and joy.

When I was young I spent much time and effort trying to earn a lot of money so that everyone would think that I was “rich and important!” My whole life changed from the depths of personal failure when I was stunned by the fact that my selfishness to make myself look important was greatest stumbling block.

I also learned a very significant lesson when I finally understood that there was power in the word “surrender.” By surrendering my personal ego and self-righteous pride, my blindness turned into enlightenment. This incredible awakening enable me to access a universal wisdom that life’s higher purpose was to become a positive difference in the life’s other people. Instead of asking “what’s in it for me?”…I started asking, “how can I give of myself to make someone else’s life better?” Today with humbleness, I am now recognized beyond anything that I might have dreamed possible because I have surrendered myself into the service of others. Using the giftedness that God blessed me with to make someone else’s life a little bit better is the greatest reward and personal fulfillment that cannot be matched by any selfish need to feel important.

Enjoy The Fruits Of Your Labors!

I was picking up a few things in a building supply center, when I was greeted by a local business owner. He asked how I was doing and we traded small talk. I thought to myself, how enjoyable it was to always run into this guy because of his cheerful outlook and quick smile. As we were saying our goodbyes, he said to me... "Enjoy the fruits of your labors!"

I immediately thought, how refreshing to hear someone say... Enjoy the fruits of your labors! I have always enjoyed what I do for a living... making great food that puts smiles on faces and creating thriving businesses that provide jobs for good people who are willing to learn and work hard. I have always felt fortunate to be living in this great country and living the American Dream.

Then I also thought about how often I hear people complain about their lousy jobs, their lousy pay, and their lousy bosses. They call what they do for a living... "their daily grind." They complain about the very job that puts food on their tables and clothes on their back... and then they dread having to go to work on Mondays.

Enjoy the fruits of your labors! What a refreshing attitude and then I remember just recently when I was standing in line at McDonalds ( I admit I love McDonalds french fries right out of the fryer!)... well anyway, the kid in front of me must have known the counter clerk and said to him as he was leaving... "Take it easy, don't work too hard!" I immediately thought... what an awfull thing to tell someone and the counter clerk replied... "Don't worry, I won't... my shift is almost over and then I am out of this hell hole!"

My mind really started in overdrive and I thought that I would chase that person out of my business if I ever heard that comment. Don't ever tell my employees to take it easy and don't work too hard... what kind of foolish advice is this?

How unfortunate that these kids are starting off their careers believing that the "cool thing" to do is to tell their friends... "Take it easy, don't work too hard!" If this person really cared for their friend... wouldn't it be better to say... "You have a wonderful opportunity here, learn all you can, work your butt off, and let everyone know how fortunate they are to have the best worker in town!"

The opportunity to work is a privilage that should always be respected. It is an opportunity for you to grow, learn, and be productive. When you give more then you are getting paid... you are making the world a better place and you are creating profits. If everyone understood this and had a personal passion to constantly strive to improve their productivity no matter what they were being paid... they would be in high demand and highly compensated. Having a positive attitude about your productivity and what you produce is reflective on your own personal character, your personal values and a healthy work ethic.

Always give your best no matter what. Everything that is produced over what you get paid... consider it to be an investment in your career and your reputation. And whatever you do... NEVER tell someone else to... "Take it easy and don't work too hard!" they may listen to you and then when they get fired for being lazy, and when they can't pay their bills, and then when the government has to give them handouts... remember this comes out of your taxes and your hard earned paycheck! Is this really good advice? I don't think so.

I have always been grateful for the opportunity to work. I like working. I like to push myself to see what I can accomplish. I like sharing the best I have to offer with others... and yes.. I enjoy the fruits of my labors!

Living A Life Of Gratefulness

Everyday I get up I am grateful to be alive, grateful to be sober, and grateful to my God for all the blessings that he has so abundantly given me. I share these thoughts because today I feel that my higher calling in life is to make a positive difference in the lives of others. I also share these thoughts because I know that there are many people who are having a tough time and totally feel helpless with what is happening around them... and I feel that if I can encourage others not to quit in their toughest hour then my being alive has served a purpose. I have many things that I want to share but it seems that the people who search me out for help in dealing with their issues weigh on my mind the most... so before I share my cooking secrets and other fun things I wanted to get these thoughts out there "in the digital universe!" on how to get through the tough times. First, I have learned the hard way that there is no school for easy answers. And, secondly, I have learned that you must not quit or give up on yourself. Many times people will look at my life and comment that it seems I have had a streak of good luck but I have to quickly point out that this streak of seemingly good luck is also built on many failures, adversity, problems, and tough times. What I have found out though in these tough times that in the past, I was generally my own worst enemy. Once I got Dave Anderson out of the way and learned to let God lead then it seemed that things started to flow in a positive direction. I know this sounds too cliche especially when it seems your world is collapsing around you.. but this is the time when you need to tell yourself over and over again... that with God all things are possible! No matter how tough things may be... you must stay true to your goals, your heart, and your higher purpose in life. Above all else... never give up on yourself. Never use your problems as your excuses why things are not turning out as you expected. Things always get better if you keep smiling and believing that God will give you the wisdom and strength necessary to get through your times of growing!

Something to think about...

When you plant lettuce, if it does not grow well, you don't blame the lettuce. You look for reasons it is not doing well. It may need fertilizer, or more water, or less sun. You never blame the lettuce. Yet if we have problems with our friends or family, we blame the other person. But if we know how to take care of them, they will grow well, like the lettuce. Blaming has no positive effect at all, nor does trying to persuade using reason and argument. That is my experience. No blame, no reasoning, no argument, just understanding. If you understand, and you show that you understand, you can love, and the situation will change.
- Thich Nhat Hanh