9 Years Old & Caked With Dirt

Perry Marshall, THE guru when it comes to advertising on Google, sent me the following this morning. It captures the spirit of what it is like to be an entrepreneur so well that I wanted to put it in here so I could read it over and over:

Margie,

When I was a kid, I would play all day at the creek, riding my bike through mud puddles and jumping it off the edges of the ravine. Always came home filthy.

Mom would make me take a bath. When I was done she'd say, "Now Perry, doesn't it feel so GOOD to be clean?"

"Actually, mom, I like being dirty better."

Oh yes, I sure did. Dirty feels so.... natural. Moms don't always understand that, but... dads remember.

This week I took my 9 year old boy, Cuyler, to camp. A father-son gig, just the two of us. He's in the prime of boyhood, wrestling with other boys, proclaiming himself king of carpet ball, eating French toast sticks for breakfast, and.... playing in the dirt.

Oh, and does he. Likes to literally roll around in that dirt pile. You pat him on the back and there's a big puff of fine brown dust that flies up in the air and slowly settles down on everything. His pillow case has a big dirty brown patch right in the center.

The morning we went home, I told him to take a shower. A few minutes later I see him headed over there and ask him, "Where are your clothes?"

"I'm wearing them."

Meaning, he put on his clean clothes over his dirty body before he headed to the shower. Then he put 'em back on.

I'm reminded of the conversation with mom 30 years ago when I was nine. Oh yeah, dirty was so much better then.

And you know what? It still is.

It's a different kind of dirty... it's the rough-and-tumble grit of the actual business world. The "is" world, which should not be confused with the "should be" world. What I often call the Laboratory Of Reality.

Today I'm locked away in a private mastermind meeting at an undisclosed location in Virginia. It's where I go to play in the dirt. Me and 13 other guys, we get together in a conference room and the gloves come off. A motley crew this is... banker, surgeon, real estate developer, founder of a franchise company, a consultant from the UK, a platform sales person... iron sharpens iron.

The situations are as varied as the careers. And as you can expect in any room full of entrepreneurs, a spectrum of tales to tell. A couple of these guys handily pull down a couple million dollars a year, after expenses. One member lost everything last year, including 32 houses. Got left holding the bag in a deal that wasn't quite sewn up right. But he's a scrapper and he's making a comeback.

Some prefer the textbook version of the world, but to others of us, the call of the wild takes us to the front lines. It's risky, it's dangerous, yet a true player cannot rest on the side. Better to get beat up every now and then, than to sit idle and dream.

Next time you see an entrepreneur who's up to his eyeballs in alligators, bravely fighting them and taking back ground, just remember - decades ago he was "just" a grimy kid with a baseball cap and a shirt that says "I didn't do it" and fistfulls of dirt pounded into his clothes.

Until mom rings the dinner bell and it's time to come home, he's racing his bike, he's charging across the field as fast as he can, he's pounding that soccer ball into the net, he's jousting and shooting guns and calling out to his friends. He's lost in his youth and adventure.

Sometimes mom doesn't understand, but dad knows.... number one son was made to play the game.

Copyright Perry Marshall
For more information on Perry and his services, visit: www.PerryMarshall.com

I Get It, I Get It, I GET IT!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am so excited I could hardly sleep last night.

Have you ever been taught the same thing over and over, but then one day--BAM--it really sinks in? Like it took hearing it from several different sources and put in many different ways for you to finally "get" it?

Well that's what happened to me.

Though I have learned this lesson before (Beyond Freedom, T. Harv Eker, Tony, and so many others), finally, this weekend, it sunk in. I mean really sunk in. My life will never be the same.

So what lesson am referring to? The difference between having a standard and having an ideal.

Last Thursday I had HAD it with my daughter's room. She was having a birthday party on Saturday, and it was important that she get her room clean, so I set her to the task while I went and made some phone calls. I told her that if it was not done when I came back, I would clean her room, and she wouldn't be happy with the result (i.e. I would throw away all of her possessions!).

Well, I came back, and it wasn't done, so I got out the shovel. I literally went through every corner and gathered armfuls of trash, broken toys, dirty clothes, books, art projects, jewelry, hair stuff, scattered shoes--it was really disgusting. And the whole time I was kicking myself for being a bad mother and letting her let it get this bad.

I have always felt like the kids' rooms were their domain and that they should be responsible for how they live there. I make them clean the rest of the house (so it's not like they don't know how to clean!), and I guess I was just hoping the lessons would spill over into their rooms. Not so with my daughter! I was mad at her and disappointed that she would let it get this bad--until I realized it was actually my fault for not teaching her correct principles. I never taught her how to care for her room--how could I expect her to know what to do?  She is only 8 years old.

So when we were done, she and I sat down and I wrote out a list of standards for her room. The list included things like:

• Clothes belong in the closet, the hamper, or the drawer.
• Shoes belong in the closet.
• Toys only go on the floor when someone is playing with them.
• Unless you are sleeping in it, the bed should be made.
• etc.

After that, I made two checklists--one for morning and one for bedtime--to get her in the habit of checking the state of her room against the standards (checklists are nothing new in our house--we use them all the time and love them! :o).

Finally, I made her an accountability chart, which she has to sign each morning and bedtime, to indicate that she followed the checklist and her room is up to spec.

It has been four days so far, and it has worked beautifully!

This experience got me to thinking about the power of standards. I thought, "Good grief, I need to write up standards for everything in my life!" I felt I needed to develop a measuring stick that says, "This is the minimum I expect in this area."

I started making a list of all the rooms in my house, and my mind started churning about how they should look. Then I started expanding my ideas beyond the house and into things like my physical appearance, my relationships, my daily life, my energy level, my financial condition...I was on fire!

And then it hit me...

Suddenly I realized the motivating power of a standard--a power far stronger than an ideal.

Like I said, this was not the first time I have learned this. T. Harv Eker calls this principle your "thermostat." The temperature in a room is determined by the thermostat--the setting of what the temperature should be--and it is so powerful that even when conditions temporarily change (a blast of cold air or sweltering heat), it will work to bring the temperature in the room back to the setting on the thermostat. The only way to make permanent change, he says, is to change the setting.

Harv uses this analogy when referring to finances and having a "millionaire mindset"--that is, an expectation of being a millionaire, being financially free, etc.

Liberty League and many other home-based businesses teach their associates to have this same expectation.  "Expect success and you will get it," you will often hear the gurus say.

But I never "got" that concept.  I had a hard time believing it because I could point to example after example of times when something turned out differently than I expected.

I think what made it click for me now is simply applying a new word to the same concept:  standard.

A standard is something that is usual, normal, average, common.  The standard is the natural state of things.

What made this concept really sink in, though, was when I compared it to a word I had been using instead:  ideal.

An ideal is something you work toward but never really get.  In fact, dictionary.com goes as far as saying an ideal is "something that exists only in the imagination."

So all this time, all my affirmations, all my personal development, all my house cleaning, all my working out, all my financial decisions were based on something that could never happen!

My reality was, in fact, my standard.

Look at it this way.  Every single aspect of your life is governed by the standards you set for yourself.  If you are in a relationship that you're unhappy with, and you remain in that relationship, it's because the relationship meets your minimum standards.  Even victims of abuse will use this logic: "Well, at least he doesn't beat me" or "Well, at least he only beats me and not the kids."  The very fact that they use the words at least is an indication of where they draw the line.

If you're in a house you don't like, if the house you live in is not as clean as you'd like, if your kids are not behaving the way you'd like, if you don't make as much money as you'd like, if your body does not look the way you'd like it to--it's simply because your current state is somehow "acceptable" or "good enough" for right now.  Once you raise your standards and your current state is no longer acceptable to you, all the force of the Universe will conspire to deliver what you desire!

This is why studies have shown that the number one factor of success is the expectation of success.  This is why kids who grow up with money end up making a lot of money.  This is why the only thing required to succeed is the decision to do so!!!

Whew!  OK.  Wow.  I said I was on fire!  I am just bursting with gratitude and excitement about the future.  This powerful realization just happened over the weekend and already I can see a tangible difference in my life, my attitude, my family, and my surroundings.

Suddenly I feel I can accomplish anything!  Suddenly I my dreams feel like reality!  Suddenly the burdens and "overwhelment" of my life have vanished! 

I get it, I get it, I GET IT!!!!!!!!!!!!  :o) 

Daily Gratitude

"And he who receiveth all things with thankfulness shall be made glorious; and the things of this earth shall be added unto him, even an hundred fold, yea, more." (Doctrine and Covenants 78:19)

Thank you for Dan.  He makes my life complete.  I would never have been able to accomplish all that I have without him.  Thank you thank you thank you.  Thank you for palankas, and Gary's suggestion that we write them.  Thank you for a beautiful morning and a beautiful bike ride.  Thank you for getting me all riled up so I didn't go back to sleep this morning!  Thank you for the lists.  Thank you for the knowledge, inspiration, and clarity.  Thank you for Carla.  Thank you for Lyn's decision.  Thank you for Matt.  Thank you for guidance.  Thank you for Paul and the beautiful waterfront.  Thank you for my strong legs.  Thank you for my beautiful home.  Thank you for my hearing, my singing, and my love of music.  Thank you for light and beauty.  Thank you for my incredible children--so much love!  So much joy!  Thank you for time.  Thank you for Tony.  There is success and abundance all around!  Thank you thank you thank you!  :o)