The Most Lucrative “Entrepreneurial Window” The World Will Ever See!

3 “Global Super Factors” are currently aligning that will create an unprecedented explosion of newly-created billionaires in the next 5 to 30 years.

Here’s what’s happening and how you can position yourself to capitalize through this “Perfect Storm”, build your legacy – and – make a real difference in the process…

Dear successful entrepreneur,

If you’ve ever wished you could play a bigger game, have more impact and build kingdoms of wealth in the process; the next five years will be your window.

My name is Dame DC Cordova, and over the last 40 years I’ve helped to build the Excellerated Business School® for Entrepreneurs, now expanded to what we call the Global Excellerated Business School™ for Entrepreneurs (BSE) – part of a little-known educational curriculum that includes the Money & You® program that helped launch the career of Robert Kiyosaki (Rich Dad / Poor Dad) – and have had graduates like Jack Canfield (Chicken Soup for the Soul)Ben Cohen (Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream)Paul Mitchell (Hair Products), and countless other multi-millionaires and billionaires. Read more

Decide To Network

Decide

Decide To Network

by DC Cordova

I was reminded of the power of Networking with Intention the other day when I read this poem by the former Assistant Secretary General of the United Nations. Global Entrepreneurs know the power of networking. And I know this poem will inspire you to be more powerful in realizing your dreams.

Use every letter you write
Every conversation you have
Every meeting you attend
To express your fundamental beliefs and dreams.
Affirm to others the vision of the world you want
Network through thought
Network through action
Network through the spirit
You are the center of a network
You are the center of the world
You are a free, immensely powerful source of life and goodness.
Affirm it
Spread it
Radiate it.
Think day and night about it
And you will see a miracle happen:
The greatness of your own life
IN a world of big powers, media and monopolies
But of four and a half billion individuals
Networking is the new freedom
The new democracy
A new form of happiness

Robert Muller
Assistant Secretary General
of the United Nations

Isn’t that beautiful? I’d love to read and hear about your fundamental beliefs and dreams. Share!

If you’d like to see more of Robert Muller’s work, go to http://www.robertmuller.org/decide

With loving thoughts,

DC Cordova
CEO, Excellerated Business Schools®/Money & You® Program

Creative Commons License photo credit: piccadillywilson

A Great Business Success Model

Strategic Profits - business models

A Great Business Success Model

A Whole-System Approach to Business
How to make the most amount of money in the shortest amount of time!


Step 1: Mastery

Find a Master. Be with them to learn. Become a master in your discipline(s). Mastery is gained through experience. (Discover what you love. Identify your passion. Align with your personal purpose.)

Step 2: Niche

Around that master there will be a niche. Identify your niche. Where is there an unfilled need? Where do people have “pain”? What is the problem for which your expertise can provide a unique solution?

Step 3: Leverage

Create repeatable, duplicatable systems that can be used over and over to fill a need. Businesses add value by doing more with less.

Step 4: Team

Build a team. The team will complement your own strengths, contribute their own expertise, bring new perspectives. Teams take time to form. They develop based on willingness to participate, supportive communication, and trust.

Step 5: Synergy

Create synergy. Synergy is where “magic” happens. The whole is greater than the sum of the parts. Synergy results from listening*, trust, intuition, flexibility, compassion and commitment to resolution.

*Listening is the #1 business skill.

Step 6: Results

Results will be spectacular, if all the other elements of this model are in place. Results will often happen precessionally to your stated intention.
By DC Cordova
CEO Money & You® Program/Excellerated Business Schools®
http://www.excellerated.com

Creative Commons License photo credit: mundo resink

6 Steps to Create Happiness and Wealth – Part 1

Feng Shui: 6 Steps to Create Happiness and Wealth in Your Life

1. What is Feng Shui?

Feng Shui, meaning wind and water, is an ancient art and science based on laws that govern the flow of energy. The Chinese called it Chi or Qi. By creating improvements in the flow of Chi in your home or office, you create positive changes in your life.

2. What is Diamond Feng Shui?

Marie Diamond has studied the Laws of the Universe since she was 7 years old and has seen that Happiness and Wealth depend on 3 aspects. She calls this the quantum physics of the home.

You can attract happiness and wealth with your spirit and mind but if your home is not telling the universe the same, the universe cannot deliver.

Two important parts of the Law of Attraction are: Act as if and Like attracts like. You can act as if you are already wealthy and happy by making your home and workspace exactly as you wish.

If you create disharmony around you, the universe can’t bring you harmony because the message between your mind and your environment need to be in sync for manifestation to occur.

1 – Your Heaven Luck: Every human being born on this planet is not only living this one life. You are coming in with a bag of Heavenly Good and/or Bad Luck. These are simply actions, thoughts, and emotions you have created in a past life experience. This creates 1/3 of the Law of Attraction. What you have created in a past life experience will reflect in the life circumstances you were born into.

The astrologer will tell you: tell me when you are born and I will tell you your life.

2 – Your Human Luck: Every human being has a physical, emotional, mental and spiritual experience and how you use your talents and skills to attract happiness and wealth, is 1/3 of your Law of Attraction.
What you create through living your daily life as a human being will reflect in the life circumstances you are creating. Your attitudes and behaviors will determine what you do with your life.

The psychologist will tell you: tell me how you think, how you feel and how you act, and I will tell you your life.

3 – Your Earth Luck: Every human being lives in several environments: your home, your workspace, your community, your country, the earth. This creates 1/3 of the Law of Attraction.
The positive or negative influence of these environments reflects on your life and work.

The Feng Shui specialist will tell you: show me your home and I will tel

l you your life.
Marie Diamond has discovered that these 3 kinds of luck are totally interconnected and that the Law of attraction works on these 3 levels.

Improve your destiny, and you will attract your greatest dreams.
Improve how you think, feel, and act, and you will improve your destiny.
Improve your home, and you will think, feel, and act differently.

DO YOU WANT TO KNOW THE SECRET?

Improving your home is the easiest of all.

Changing your bed, changing pictures, changing the flow, can all be done in a couple of minutes.
Changing your destiny and changing your thoughts and feelings, can take many years of practicing.

In this Free Diamond E-Book, Marie Diamond gives you the first 6 steps to use the Law of Attraction in your home. Use the Secret of the Law of Attraction in your home to change your life and your destiny.

Marie Diamond wishes for each of you that you become the Queen or King in your own Universe. Your home or office is your castle in your universe. Marie will explain the 6 steps to be free to manifest all the wealth and happiness that you as a queen or king deserve to have in the universe of your life.

First Step: BE GRATEFUL FOR WHAT YOU HAVE

The Law of the Attraction says you can’t go from where you are to where you want to go, if you are not grateful for what you have.

How to be grateful in Diamond Feng Shui?

Gratitude for your environment is by taking care of what you have.

1 – Clean up your home and office: garbage bins cleaned out, no clutter, no spider webs, and no piles of books or magazines.

2 – It is better to hide things in closets and cabinets than show disorder in your energy field- you can organize it later if necessary.

3 – Paint old surfaces, put lights in dark corners.

4 – Wipe the dust and clean the floor.

5 – Remove dead as well as dried flowers.

6 – Place fresh bouquets to thank your home for sheltering, supporting and loving you.

Click here for Part 2 – Create Happiness and Wealth with Feng Shui – Steps 2 and 3

Good Fortune,

Marie Diamond
Info@MarieDiamond.com

Copyright Marie Diamond USA 2006
Creative Commons License photo credit: (A3R) angelrravelor (A3R)

Connectedness Is Coming In Vogue

Money and you brings a new conciousness

The world is ready for the work of Consciousness.

As a “Mentor of Nurturing,” and having worked in the Asia Pacific Region for the past couple of decades, I bring back good news… Yes, the world is ready for the Consciousness work that we have had an opportunity to enjoy and teach so readily for the past three decades in North America…

In my work as a Management Consultant for large companies in the Far East – I was happy to receive the title of “Mentor of Nurturing” from some of my clients. This credit comes from all the work we do and the programs our company has offered and pioneered in that part of the world which are unique in the way we teach. The result of our emphasis on connection, building relationships, and the win/win principles that become so obviously attractive through our games, appeals to all cultures, ages, and levels of experience.

All our transformational/entrepreneurial education programsMoney & You, the Excellerated Business Schools for Entrepreneurs and our other related courses – plus many of the courses our graduates go on to teach – create learning environments that encourage and make being “connected” not only appealing – but safe. For many of my clients and our course participants, we provide their first actual experience of safety in sharing which allows them to be able to openly give and really let in positive feedback from others.

I have learned that no matter how profitable a company is, there are always “people challenges.” And the more disconnected they are – the less opportunity they have to create that safe space together at work – the more problems, projections, lack of communication, conflict, upsets, separation and disconnection they experience. Even when they succeed financially because their products and services are in demand, no matter how much money they are making, their daily lives are filled with stress. There is a sense of lack of satisfaction and fulfillment, and they literally experience what some would call “a living hell.”

In our early days of consulting and doing our programs, we were invited to work with mainly entrepreneurial companies whose biggest challenge was mostly around their people systems. We know that all companies have people-challenges, but in the authoritarian/submissive expectations in the Asia culture, they would describe it differently to us – more like “how do we handle a sense of conflict, unruliness, and a desire to challenge authority?

However now, and since so many companies have been impacted, either directly or indirectly from the type of programs they received from us, the word “connectedness” is actually being used. They now ask for support in helping their people to have a greater understanding of each other, to “see” into each others’ minds and hearts, and to not only to create results for their companies, but also to do it while enjoying each other. They are actually beginning to use the word “happy” – and not just happy with bonuses, with incentives, with time off, but happy on a daily basis.

I am brought in at times to do “my thing” – sometimes they even call it my “California thing” (they find that my accent is because I was born in Chile but from 12 years old on I grew up in Southern California.) And once we do the work which has been so familiar to us for so many years to us here in the USA, the results they experience is an amazing shift (to them) in more open communications, more productivity, profitability –and, of course, more connectedness.

Who “woulda’ thought”!

It is very satisfying to be able, from my own proven experiences, to be encouraging any teacher of consciousness to travel the world and share their principles of consciousness that have come so easily for so many years to many of us. And as long as we do it appropriately, it represents our way of being and our home country well.

People who do and teach transformational work are becoming “Ambassadors of New Thinking” which, in Education, is considered “New Education”. They always ask, “What do you mean by ‘New Thinking?” This is the opening to share about your knowledge… your hard-earned way of thinking that truly brings peace to the world. And once people see it can eradicate conflict in people’s daily lives, they then can transfer it to the whole…

We are encouraging people to think of themselves as “new thinking” global citizens – people who speak the language of crossing cultures, religions and beliefs.

I always like to share that one of the most exciting things that happened to me when I first started spending long periods of time in Singapore in the mid-1990’s and had a growing network of interested entrepreneurs, hungry to learn more about American business thinking. So at dinner I would often find myself with people from many religions at once – Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, Spiritually-aware businesspeople and professionals. As we talked, they could suddenly see that they all were interested in the same thing – improving their business and relationships. So as a result of coming together at dinner like that, they also started doing business with each other, with complete respect for each other’s backgrounds.

Common goals and respect for differences is truly World Peace at work.

As Lynn Twist, the author of “The Soul of Money” shares, many people are living a “Committed Life.” I realized through the years that this is what many of us have been and are still teaching. So we continue going out to the world – like good old fashion missionaries – spreading the word that anyone can live an awesome life; to be abundant, wealthy, sexy, and conscious all at the same time – and make a difference in this world.

We are bringing in the ultimate gift of our programs, products, and services: Higher Consciousness.

What are you willing to do to really “spread the word”? What I am a bit disturbed is to find that in our so-called “civilized” countries – not only in our own home, the good ol’ USA, but also in countries like Singapore and Malaysia – many people have reached high levels of success and then stopped sharing with others because this is was their biggest goal – to make it big. But something happens when they reach the level of success that they want. At that point some just get greedy, wanting to make more and more money so they can spend, spend, and spend some more, competing with others to get bigger. But then they start looking for “something else” because they feel no satisfaction. They have that yearning to do more – but they don’t know what to do with it. They start having feelings that they are so unfamiliar to them – so while it is not like something the rest of their neighbors, peers, associates, friends and family may be experiencing – that confusion starts setting in.

Here is where our WORK – yours and ours – becomes so valuable and it is so welcome…

The longing of the heart is happening more and more as the world becomes abundant for one segment of the population and so fiercely scarce for so many others.

Even Mother Nature and our world is going through its shift. If you notice, now it is becoming in vogue for the mega-rich to invest in environmental causes (See BusinessWeek August 14, 2006 “Tree Huggers on Wall Street”). The fact is even the richest man in the world and his wife, Bill and Melinda Gates, be retired in 2008 and his goal is to transform the American educational system.

I don’t have to tell you how excited I was to have this couple demonstrating so publicly a similar mission to mine – to transform educational systems around the world in order to eradicate poverty and hunger. They have chosen the American educational system and are starting at home. And even more of a miracle, he attracts another of America’s richest men, Warren Buffett, to donate the bulk of his wealth to this work!

Where does that come from?

It comes from Heart, from Spirit… and when you begin to really touch your heart, you can’t help but realize that all the material goods in the world will not bring you that peace of mind – the satisfaction of that yearning. It is a calling in your heart that has been there all along!

It is time to make public and spread the Consciousness Principles that so many of us have been practicing daily. People want that knowledge; they want that connectedness.

Who knows why it is happening? It was written about years ago in “The Aquarian Conspiracy” and I know some of my Spiritual Teachers tell me that this awareness is coming in very strongly into the world as the collective consciousness evolves. Human beings are beginning to remember their Spiritual roots and Spiritual Responsibility is beginning to set in. It could actually mean true “heaven on earth”.

It couldn’t be happening at a better time in history. So for this great news, we are thankful and proud to be a part of it! And there is still MUCH, MUCH work to do.

The world is actively looking for the tools, the principles, and the Consciousness work so join us – go out there and share your knowledge.

The world is ready for it…!

Please accept a gift from me to assist you in achieving your business results.

DC Cordova,
CEO/Co-founder Excellerated Business Schools/Money & You Program
http://www.excellerated.com

Creative Commons License photo credit: h.koppdelaney

Unforgettable Commencement Address by Paul Hawken

the global entrrenuerUnforgettable Commencement Address by Paul Hawken to the Class of 2009. 3/5/09

When I was invited to give this speech, I was asked if I could give a simple short talk that was “direct,naked, taut, honest, passionate clean, shivering, startling, and graceful.” Boy, no pressure there.

You are going to have to figure out what it means to be a human being on earth at a time when every living system is declining, and the rate of decline is accelerating. Kind of a mindboggling situation… but not one peer-reviewed paper published in the last thirty years can refute that statement. Basically, the earth needs a new operating system, you are the programmers, and we need it within a few decades.

This planet came with a set of operating instructions, but we seem to have misplaced them. Important rules like don’t poison the water, soil, or air, and don’t let the earth get overcrowded, and don’t touch the thermostat have been broken.

Buckminster Fuller said that spaceship earth was so ingeniously designed that no one has a clue that we are on one, flying through the universe at a million miles per hour, with no need for seatbelts, lots of room in the coach, and really good food, but all that is changing.

There is invisible writing on the back of the diploma you will receive, and in case you didn’t bring lemon juice to decode it, I can tell you what it says: YOU ARE BRILLIANT, AND THE EARTH IS HIRING. The earth couldn’t afford to send any recruiters to your school. It sent you rain, sunsets,ripe cherries, night blooming jasmine, and that unbelievably cute person you are dating. Take the hint. Forget that this task of planet saving is not possible in the time required. Don’t be put off by people who know what is not possible. Do what needs to be done, and check to see if it was impossible only after you are done.

When asked if I am pessimistic or optimistic about the future, my answer is always the same:

If you look at the science about what is happening on earth and aren’t pessimistic, you don’t understand data. But if you meet the people who are working to restore this earth and the lives of the poor, and you aren’t optimistic, you haven’t got a pulse. What I see everywhere in the world are ordinary people willing to confront despair, power, and incalculable odds in order to restore some semblance of grace, justice, and beauty to this world.

The poet Adrienne Rich wrote,

“So much has been destroyed I have cast my lot with those who, age after age, perversely, with no extraordinary power, reconstitute the world.”

There could be no better description. Humanity is coalescing. It is reconstituting the world, and the action is taking place in schoolrooms, farms, jungles, villages, campuses, companies, refuge camps, deserts and slums.

You join a multitude of caring people. No one knows how many groups and organizations are working on the most salient issues of our day: climate change, poverty, deforestation, peace, water,hunger, conservation, human rights and more. This is the largest movement the world has ever seen.

Rather than control, it seeks connection. Rather than dominance, it strives to disperse concentrations of power. It works behind the scenes and gets the job done. Large as it is, no one knows the true size of this movement. It provides hope, support, and meaning to billions of people.

Its clout resides in ideas, not in force. It is made up of teachers, children, peasants, businesspeople, rappers, organic farmers, nuns, artists, government workers, fisherfolk, engineers, students, incorrigible writers, weeping Muslims, concerned mothers, poets, doctors without borders, grieving Christians, street musicians, President of the USA and as David James Duncan would say, the Creator, the One who loves us all in such a huge way.

There is a rabbinical teaching that says if the world is ending and the Messiah arrives, first plant a tree, and then see if the story is true. Inspiration is not garnered from the litanies of what may befall us; it resides in humanity’s willingness to restore, redress, reform, rebuild, recover, re-imagine, and
reconsider.

“One day you finally knew what you had to do, and began, though the voices around you kept shouting their bad advice,” is Mary Oliver’s description of moving away from the profane toward a deep sense of connectedness to the living world.

Millions of people are working on behalf of strangers, even if the evening news is usually about the death of strangers. This kindness of strangers has religious, even mythic origins, and very specific 18th century roots. Abolitionists were the first people to create a national and global movement to defend the rights of those they did not know. Until that time, no group had filed a grievance except on behalf of itself. The founders of this movement were largely unknown and their goal was ridiculous on the face of it: at that time three out of four people in the world were enslaved. Enslaving each other was what human beings had done for ages. And the abolitionist movement was greeted with incredulity.

Conservatives ridiculed the abolitionists as liberals, do-gooders, meddlers, and activists.

They were told they would ruin the economy and drive England into poverty. But for the first time in history a group of people organized themselves to help people they would never know, from whom they would never receive direct or indirect benefit. And today tens of millions of people do this every day.

It is called the world of non-profits, civil society, schools, social entrepreneurship, and non governmental organizations, of companies who place social and environmental justice at the top of their strategic goals. The scope and scale of this effort is unparalleled in history.

The living world is not “out there” somewhere, but in your heart. What do we know about life? In the words of biologist Janine Benyus, life creates the conditions that are conducive to life. I can think of no better motto for a future economy. We have tens of thousands of abandoned homes without people and tens of thousands of abandoned people without homes.

We have failed bankers advising failed regulators on how to save failed assets. Think about this: we are the only species on this planet without full employment. Brilliant!!!

We have an economy that tells us that it is cheaper to destroy earth in real time than to renew, restore, and sustain it. You can print money to bail out a bank but you can’t print life to bail out a planet.

At present we are stealing the future, selling it in the present, and calling it gross domestic product. We can just as easily have an economy that is based on healing the future instead of stealing it. We can either create assets for the future or take the assets of the future. One is called restoration and the other exploitation. And whenever we exploit the earth we exploit people and cause untold suffering.

Working for the earth is not a way to get rich, it is a way to be rich.

The first living cell came into being nearly 40 million centuries ago, and its direct descendants are in all of our bloodstreams. Literally you are breathing molecules this very second that were inhaled by Moses, Mother Teresa, and Bono.

We are vastly interconnected. Our fates are inseparable. We are here because the dream of every cell is to become two cells. In each of you are one quadrillion cells, 90 percent of which are not human cells. Your body is a community, and without those other microorganisms you would perish in hours. Each human cell has 400 billion molecules conducting millions of processes between trillions of atoms. The total cellular activity in one human body is staggering: one septillion actions at any one moment, a one with twenty-four zeros after it! In a millisecond, our body has undergone ten times more processes than there are stars in the universe exactly what Charles Darwin foretold when he said science would discover that each living creature was a “little universe formed of a host of self-propagating organisms, inconceivably minute and as numerous as the stars of heaven.”

So I have two questions for you all:

First can you feel your body? Stop for a moment. Feel your body. One septillion activities going on simultaneously, and your body does this so well you are free to ignore it, and wonder instead when this speech will end.

Second question: who is in charge of your body? Who is managing those molecules? Life is creating the conditions that are conducive to life inside you, just as in all of nature.

What I want you to imagine is that collectively humanity is evincing a deep innate wisdom in coming together to heal the wounds and insults of the past.

Ralph Waldo Emerson once asked what we would do if the stars only came out once every thousand years. No one would sleep that night, of course.

The world would become religious overnight. We would be ecstatic, delirious, made rapturous by the glory of God. Instead the stars come out every night, and we watch television!

This extraordinary time when we are globally aware of each other and the multiple dangers that threaten civilization has never happened, not in a thousand years, not in ten thousand years.

Each of us is as complex and beautiful as all the stars in the universe. We have done great things and we have gone way off course in terms of honoring creation.

You are graduating to the most amazing, challenging, stupefying challenge ever bequested to any generation. The generations before you failed. They didn’t stay up all night. They got distracted and lost sight of the fact that life is a miracle every moment of your existence. Nature beckons you to be on her side. You couldn’t ask for a better boss. The most unrealistic person in the world is the cynic, not the dreamer. Hopefulness only makes sense when it doesn’t make sense to be hopeful. This is your century. Take it and run as if your life depends on it.

Paul Hawken is a renowned visionary environmental activist, author of many books, most recently Blessed Unrest.

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Entrepreneurs Build Successful Businesses With This Key

Entrepreneur's Success Key

Entrepreneurs Build Successful Businesses With This Key

For the past thirty years I have been working with people in different parts of the world through our programs, including Money & You® and the Excellerated Business School® for Entrepreneurs to uncover what holds people back from having money, building successful businesses or achieving financial success. Over and over again, what comes up is that we must clear our consciousness from emotional blocks in order to receive the level of abundance we desire or to enjoy the financial resources we may already have.

If you want to enjoy an abundant life—including a beautiful home (or homes), automobiles for yourself and your family, a great education for your children (and yourself) and a business that provides you with profits, royalties, rents or other residual income—financial literacy is key.

Being educated about the basics of money—how to start, manage, build and expand a business—is key. It is my hope that in the near future, financial literacy becomes a subject for children in primary school, along with reading, writing, grammar, math and all other key subjects necessary to be a fully educated, functioning human being.

In the mean time, most of us learn to be financially literate without proper guidance, sheerly by trial and error. It’s easy to see around you. The result is a society riddled with debt, fearful of the future, investing in ventures we know very little about, or enslaved to jobs or businesses that bring us very little profit or joy.

For those of us who wish to have more than our basic needs met and do not wish to live in debt, financial literacy is as important as breathing and having clean water and nutritious food. Having a sound understanding of financial systems allows us to grow our financial independence with much more ease and joy.

Become a great student of financial literacy to allow your dreams to come true. Learn the different systems and choose the one that works best for you. Be sure to call upon financial advisors who have succeeded in their area of endeavor; do what is congruent with your inner knowing and the knowledge you have gathered through your educational process.

Do not leave the task of building your wealth to others. While others—financial advisors and masters—may support you, ultimately you are responsible for your results. In our programs we say, “Education is the highest form of leverage.” Once you acquire the techniques and tools, you now must allow yourself to be wealthy by clearing any blocks that may be in the way of your dreams coming true. Herein lies the secret to financial health and wealth.

With loving thoughts,

DC Cordova
CEO, Excellerated Business School® for Entrepreneurs and the Money & You® Program

You can also read my original article that appeared in Networking Times

Creative Commons License photo credit: Lora <3

Perception vs. Talent: What is Perception Worth?

Perception vs. Talent:

What is Perception Worth?

One of our graduates sent along an e-mail that many of you may have already seen.

Is perception real? Some say perception is everything! What can you learn from this story? Can you apply this to your personal life, and in doing so, make a transformation in your career or business? I think so. And that is at the core of what we teach in our Money & You® 3 1/2 day Program. That not only are we all ordinary and we all wake up every morning with the same dreams and fears… we are also unknowingly extra-ordinary. So much so that we don’t even recognize it when it’s right in front of us.

Here’s the forwarded e-mail:

Perception

…something to think about…

Perception vs. Talent

In a Washington, DC Metro Station on a cold January morning in 2007, a man with a violin played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time approximately 2,000 people went through the station, most of them on their way to work.

After 3 minutes a middle aged man noticed there was a musician playing.

He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds and then hurried to meet his schedule.

4 minutes later:
The violinist received his first dollar: a woman threw the money in the hat and, without stopping, continued to walk.

6 minutes:

A young man leaned against the wall to listen to him, then looked at his watch and started to walk again.

10 minutes:

A 3-year old boy stopped but his mother tugged him along hurriedly. The kid stopped to look at the violinist again, but the mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk, turning his head all the time. This action was repeated by several other children. Every parent, without exception, forced their children to move on quickly.

45 minutes:
The musician played continuously. Only 6 people stopped and listened for a short while. About 20 gave money but continued to walk at their normal pace.The man collected a total of $32.

1 hour:

He finished playing and silence took over… No one noticed. No one applauded, nor was there any recognition.

No one knew this, but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the greatest musicians in the world. He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written, with a violin worth $3.5 million dollars. Two days before Joshua Bell sold out a theater in Boston where the seats averaged $100.

This is a true story. Joshua Bell playing incognito in the metro station was organized by the Washington Post as part of a social experiment about perception, taste and people’s priorities. The questions raised: in a common place environment at an inappropriate hour, do we perceive beauty?

Do we stop to appreciate it? Do we recognize talent in an unexpected context? Are we quick to judge? To stereotype?

One possible conclusion reached from this experiment could be this:
If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world,
playing some of the finest music ever written, with one of the most beautiful instruments ever made…
How many other things are we missing?

___

Isn’t that an amazing story?

Maybe you’ve become aware of something in your life by reading this incredible story of how unconscious we can be. My purpose is to “Uplift Humanity’s Consciousness Through Business” and I hope this story made you look inside; made you more aware and conscious.

With loving thoughts,

DC Cordova
CEO, Excellerated Business Schools®/Money & You® Program
Get Your Personal Entrepreneurial Strategy here: http://excellerated.com/index1.htm

P.S. – Here’s the video on YouTube if you’d like to check it out…

Joshua Bell – “Stop and Hear the Music” by the Washington Post

It IS a Small World: the “6 Degrees of Proximity”

It is a small world

It IS a Small World: the “6 Degrees of Proximity”

Do you remember the last time you were on a holiday and met another compatriot? Ten-to-one you discovered you had a mutual contact and that one of you made the remark:

“It is a small world, isn’t it?”

This happens a lot on holidays. It even seems that this happens more abroad than in our daily lives. Is this a coincidence? Or is there more?

It is not that odd. We indeed live in a small world. The first person who started doing research in this area was Stanley Milgram. In his 1967 “small world experiment” the theory of the “6 degrees of separation” was born. This theory states that everybody in the world is connected via 6 steps (read: people). Several other studies between 1967 and today have proven that this is indeed the case.

Let’s also look at this theory from another angle, from a more mathematical one. Let’s assume that everybody has on average 250 contacts (professional and private ones). Each of these 250 contacts also has 250 contacts. If we conservatively assume that you know half of those people yourself then every contact of yours knows 125 people you don’t know yourself. This means that in the second degree you have access to 31,250 people. And that is where the real power of networking is: in the second degree. You don’t only have many more opportunities, you also have a bond of trust via your mutual contact.

If you can contact anyone in the world via only 6 people you are rather connected than separated, aren’t you?

This principle of the “6 Degrees” that I call the “6 Degrees of Proximity” can also be found in online networking Web sites like LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com), Ecademy (www.ecademy.com) and Xing (www.xing.com). You don’t only see how many people you can actually reach in the second degree, but also who these people are!

What is the value of this insight for me?

That we can deal with each other in a different way on events, cocktail drinks, online networks and other networking functions. Too often participants of events don’t feel comfortable because they feel like having to “sell” themselves or their organizations (see the article about “The Difference Between Selling and Networking”). And because they don’t like someone else approaching them with this attitude they don’t want to radiate this themselves to others as well.

But if you know that the greatest value of the network is in the second degree, you can deal with people in a different way than “selling”. In your next conversation at a networking event, look and listen for what the other person can do for your network and what your network for his of hers. And the other way around: what the network of this person can do for you and you for his or her network. You won’t only discover more opportunities, but also have another kind of conversation and more enjoyable one !

PS: If you discover that you and the person you are talking to can help each other or can do business with each other, don’t miss this opportunity! You don’t have to exclude yourself and only think about the needs of your network instead of your own. However, by starting your conversation with this networking attitude, you can get another kind of conversation with surprising results!

Jan Vermeiren is the Networking Coach and author of the network book “Let’s Connect!” (soon also available on Amazon) and the CD “Let’s Connect at an event”. Jan and his team don’t only give presentations, training courses, workshops and personal coaching concerning networking and referrals, but also advice organizations how to stimulate networking at their events and how to integrate networking in their sales and recruitment strategy. The Networking Coach team works for large international companies like Alcatel, Delta Lloyd Bank, Deloitte, DuPont, EDS, Ernst & Young, IBM and SAP as well as for small companies and freelancers.

Go to www.networking-coach.com to get your FREE networking e-course and a light version of the book.

Creative Commons License photo credit: hawken.dadako

TED: Tinkering School – The Power Of Experiental Learning

TED - money and you experiential learning - Excellerated Business Scool

I’d like to share  this video by Gever Tulley from TED to help you understand the power of experiential learning. At Money & You® and Excellerated Business School® for Global Entrepreneurs, we use the same principals of immersion and experiential learning to rapidly guide our students through learning, with outstanding results.

Gever Tulley uses engaging photos and footage to demonstrate the valuable lessons kids learn at his Tinkering School. When given tools, materials and guidance, these young imaginations run wild and creative problem-solving takes over to build unique boats, bridges and even a rollercoaster!

“This is the exact moment that I started creating something called Tinkering School.

Tinkering School is a place where kids can pick up sticks and hammers and other dangerous objects, and be trusted. Trusted not to hurt themselves, and trusted not to hurt others. Tinkering School doesn’t follow a set curriculum. And there are no tests. We’re not trying to teach anybody any specific thing.

When the kids arrive they’re confronted with lots of stuff, wood and nails and rope and wheels, and lots of tools, real tools. It’s a six-day immersive experience for the kids. And within that context, we can offer the kids time. Something that seems in short supply in their over-scheduled lives. Our goal is to ensure that they leave with a better sense of how to make things than when they arrived, and the deep internal realization that you can figure things out by fooling around.

Nothing ever turns out as planned … ever. And the kids soon learn that all projects go awry —  and become at ease with the idea that every step in a project is a step closer to sweet success, or gleeful calamity. We start from doodles and sketches. And sometimes we make real plans. And sometimes we just start building. Building is at the heart of the experience. Hands on, deeply immersed and fully committed to the problem at hand. Robin and I, acting as collaborators, keep the landscape of the projects tilted towards completion. Success is in the doing. And failures are celebrated and analyzed. Problems become puzzles and obstacles disappear.

When faced with particularly difficult setbacks or complexities, a really interesting behavior emerges: decoration. Decoration of the unfinished project is a kind of conceptual incubation. From these interludes come deep insights and amazing new approaches to solving the problems that had them frustrated just moments before.

All materials are available for use. Even those mundane, hateful, plastic grocery bags can become a bridge stronger than anyone imagined. And the things that they build amaze even themselves.”

If you’re interested in helping your teenager – SuperCamp is the world’s best Teen Program and is presented by our ‘sister’ organization Quantum Learning Network.

For those of you looking for the best educational teen programs this summer, including a wide variety of summer camps for teens of all ages, College Prep, or 21st Century Real-Life Skills, go to SuperCamp’s Web site.

Creative Commons License photo credit: xmacex