Entrepreneurs

I've been reading a book called "Banker for the Poor" by Muhammad Yunus, who is this years winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. Yunus discusses the use of micro-credit lending to the very poorest of people allowing them to start small businesses and pulling themselves and others out of poverty.

Here is a quote:
"To me, an entrepreneur is not an especially gifted person. I rather take the reverse view. I believe that all human beings are potential entrepreneurs. Some of us get the opportunity to express this talent, but many of us never get the chance because we were made to imagine that an entrepreneur is someone enormously gifted and different from ourselves." P. 207

This is an important thought for people in the home business world. It fits very well with what most home businesses promote - the opportunity for every individual to start a home business at a minimal start up expense.

Unfortunately many people still believe today that they don't hhave what it takes to be an entrepreneur. People believe that it is only the very gifted who will succeed and that they themselves could not achieve their goals.

Of course this is rubish. Everyone has within them the ability to achieve their goals. They may need to grow and develop, but they already have the most important skills - the ability to be persistent and consistent in working towards a goal.

If you are not in a home business, check out the links on the right side of this blog. You too can be an entrepreneur.

Danny Gamache

Keep Booking Appointments

"If you are not setting appointments you are going out of business." - This is a quote I heard at a recent training session.

It is such a good quote, the concept is vital for your business. You must consistently be setting appointments, every day or at least every week you need to be booking new appointments. You can't stop booking appointments just because you have a couple booked. You need to keep on booking and moving forward. You can't stop booking appointments just because you got a new enrollment you need to work with. Yes you need to work with them, but you must keep on booking appointments and moving your business forward.

My favorite approach is the help approach:
"Hi.... Listen can I get your help on something? I've just started a new business and I’m really excited about it. I was wondering if I could run it past you and get your thoughts on it. It might be something you are interested in, and if not you might know some people that can help me out. It would take about 45 minutes. Would you have time Monday or would Tuesday be better?"

Danny

Are you already where you want to be?

I hope you enjoy this story. It is a reminder to make sure that you know what you want in life, and how sometimes there are easier ways to get there!


"A boat was docked in a tiny seacoast village. A tourist from another country complimented the fisherman in the boat on the quality of his fish, and asked how long it had taken him to catch them. "Not very long," answered the fisherman. "But then, why didn't you stay out longer and catch more?" asked the tourist.

The fisherman explained that his small catch was sufficient to meet his needs and those of his family. The tourist, a successful businessman, then asked, "But what do you do with the rest of your time?"

"I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, and take a siesta with my wife. In the evenings, I go into the village to see my friends, have a few drinks, play the guitar, and sing a few songs. I have a full life."

The businessman interrupted, "I have an MBA from a very prestigious university’s business school. I can help you! You should start by fishing longer every day. You can then sell the extra fish you catch. With the extra revenue, you can buy a bigger boat."

“And after that?" asked the fisherman.

“With the extra money the larger boat will generate for you, you will be able to buy a second one, then a third one and so on, until you have an entire fleet of trawlers. Instead of selling your fish to a middleman, you can negotiate directly with the processing plants and maybe even open your own plant. You can then leave this little village and move to a big city anywhere in the world! From there you can direct your huge new fishing enterprise."

"How long would that take?" asked the fisherman. "Twenty, perhaps twenty-five years," replied the businessman, enthused about his wise counsel.

"And after that?"

"Afterward? Well, my friend, that is when it gets really interesting," answered the businessman-tourist, laughing. "When your business gets really big, you can start selling stocks and make millions!"

"Millions? Really? And after that?" inquired the fisherman

"After that you'll be able to retire, live in a tiny village near the coast, sleep late, play with your children, catch a few fish, take a siesta with your wife and spend your evenings drinking and enjoying your friends.""

Hummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.............................
Danny

Taking Care of The Environment

The following is a quote from the book "Adventures in Missing The Point" by Brian McLaren and Tony Campolo. Tony Campolo writes,

"Christians have let new agers hijack the environmentalist movement and make it their own domain. Environmentalism should be a Christian concern.

All creation is waiting for the sons and daughters of God to rescue it from the painful suffering it has had to endure at the hands of those of us who have been neglectful and discouraged, wrote the apostle Paul in Romans 8........

The two biggest reasons why Christians should make environmentalism a high priority, however, are that Christian stewardship requires it, and that the descruction of the earth's natural beauty impacts the worship of God." P. 187

This is important for Christians. We should be at the front of the environmental movement. In our home businesses, there are many companies that promote products that are better for the environment (including me! Check out http://dannyg.makemoreathome.com).

If you promote environmentally friendly products you are doing an important task. Something that I am sure God is happy with.

Danny

Inspiration

I want to encourage you to check out my friend's blog. Shantelle is a co-worker who is fighting cancer. In November, doctors told her she was not going to make it through the night. Friends and family entered into prayer, and a few hours later doctors came back and told her she may have a chance. God stepped in and Shantelle did not die that night. Since November she has been couragously fighting. Please pray for Shantelle, and read her inspiring blog.

http://spaces.msn.com/prairierascal/

Danny

Create Habits

One of the best ways to improve your life is to create better habits. Habits allow you to do things with less effort, even automatically. There are many good habits you can create in your life that will make a significant improvement in creating balance in your physical, spiritual and emotional life.

Top 10 Habits to create

1. Exercise
2. Pray
3. Read scripture
4. Read personal development books
5. Return phone calls and e-mails promptly
6. Make business calls every day
7. Take time with your kids
8. Take time with your spouse
9. Weekly goal setting
10. Daily planning

Creating a habit takes consistent effort. Experts say that 21 straight days of activity will create a habit. Initially some of these may be hard to do, however the rewards are great. If you push forward, create the habit, you will significantly improve your life.

Danny

Get Active!

I recently started running. I've run before, but I hadn't run for a long time. Let me tell you it is great. It is amazing how much better I feel after exercising for a while. I feel stronger, more energetic, and more focused. Exercise clears the mind allowing you to think better. Not only will you be healthier, but you'll feel better too.

Get out and get active!

Danny

"The Millionaire Next Door" - book review

Last week I read this book written by Thomas Stanley and William Danko. If you are a numbers person like me you will certainly enjoy this book. If you can't handle numbers it is likely still worth reading about the first 80 pages to get the main thesises of this book, however you may struggle through the many statistics throughout the rest of the book.

The book is the result of a study conducted by the authors of the wealth people (net worth of more than $1m) in America. Their findings were some what unexpected. The wealthy are NOT the people you expect them to be. The wealthy people live in average homes in modest neighborhoods. They drive modest cars, and generally are not distinguishable to the eye from their middle-class neighbors. These people become wealthy by hard work, wise investment and money mangement, and especially by being very frugal.

For me, this book was a powerful reminder of how average people can become wealthy. It was valuable to think through the importance of living a frugal life, and it allowed me to reevaluate what my money-spending goals are.

On the downside of things, there are certainly some elements of this book that are at odds with the Chirstian faith. The book certainly makes wealth building the number one priority. We are warned in Scriptures against making wealth too high of a priority. Proverbs 28:19-22 says, "He who works his land will have abundant food, but the one who chases fantasies will have his fill of poverty. A faithful man will be richly blessed, but one eager to get rich will not go unpunished. To show partiality is not good-- yet a man will do wrong for a piece of bread. A stingy man is eager to get rich and is unaware that poverty awaits him."

Another philosophy that the book gets wrong is in its view of charity and giving. The book seems to promote a stingyness in how much you give away. The authors do speak positively of giving money away in retirement, but little until then.

Anyways, it is certainly a worthy read, especially the first 80 pages!

Danny

Olympics and a Cruise and more!

So, obviously it has been a long time since I have posted. That is primarily because of the amazing adventures I have had over the last month. In the last month I have had the amazing opportunity to go on a mission trip to the Olympics, and a couple of weeks later I was able to go on a cruise through my home business! Talk about an exciting time. BUT IT GETS BETTER! While in Italy for the Olympics, I got engaged! My girlfriend Darla agreed to marry me!! So it has been a very exciting time. I am back and focused and ready to go!

I want to quickly reflect on the last couple of months. First of all, the Olympics. This was my third mission trip to the Olympics. I also went to Salt Lake City, and Athens, all with Athletes in Action. Athletes in Action is Christian sports group that works with athletes from around the world. At the Olympics we work with athletes and sharing the Jesus film on DVD with them. Hopefully through the DVD they will learn about the love of Jesus.

I want to share a portion of my thank you letter about this event:

"In this Olympics, venues turned into a great place to meet athletes. A good example of this was at the womenÂ’s skeleton event. We worked our way to the start line to watch the first run of the event. It seemed that when we got up there everywhere we turned we were running into athletes who were there to watch their friends perform. We were able to talk to members of the Swiss bobsleigh team, skiers from New Zealand, and a member of the US menÂ’s skeleton team.

It was later during this same event that one of the neatest experiences of the games occurred. Due to some of the Canadian clothing that a couple of us were wearing, a girl came up and approached us, asking us if we were from Canada. It turns out that this was girl was the third member of the womenÂ’s skeleton team for Canada. Unfortunately Canada was only allowed to enter two athletes in this event and she was left out. Clearly this had to be difficult for such a world class athletes (she had been 3rd at the 2003 World Championships). It was neat to hear her story, and to be able to share our DVD of the Jesus film with her.

Throughout the week these kinds of experiences continued. I was able to give DVDs to athletes from many countries. These included athletes from Russia, Kazakhstan, Switzerland, Ukraine, Japan, France, New Zealand, Italy, the United States, and Canada. Some of the most encouraging of these conversations was with people who spoke very little English. They were often extremely excited to be given a DVD when they were shown that it was in their own language. They were often thrilled for such a gift."

Clearly this was amazing opportunity. However, the blessings didn't stop there as less than two weeks later I was off to the Caribbean for a cruise. My home business company had chartered tmagnificentant ship. Everybody on board was part of our company, and had to earn their way onto the boat. The trip was amazing. It was a great chance to relax, to enjoy the sun, and to spend time reading and praying.

We had stops in Belize, the Cayman Islands, and the Bahamas. It was a wonderful time. In Belize I had the opportunity to go "tubing" down a river through caves and rain forests. It was unbelizeable. On top of that we got amazing seminars and were able to learn a lot about building our business.

Well I'm ready to go and keep moving forward with my newsletter, my business, and this blog. Watch here for more posts soon!

Danny

Quote on Stress

"Stress comes from making things more important than they really are" - Tony Robbins

This quote is very powerful, and remembering it helps me to reduce the stress in my life. It is so easy to make things more important than they really are. After all most of the things that stress us out are things that really will never happen. Others, have very small consequences if they do happen - they are far from life and death situations. So, if you are stressed, I want you to ask yourself if what you are worrying about has any real probability of happening. If it does, I want you to ask yourself what the worst thing that could happen is. Chances are, that worst thing, if it occurs, is really not very important in the wider view of life.

I hope this helps! Have a great day!

Danny