Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Prepare for the future...


Brian Tracy is one of the world's leading authorities onpersonal and business success. Read his important insight onhow to prepare for the future:
'To position yourself for tomorrow, here is one of the mostimportant rules you will ever learn: 'The future belongs to thecompetent.' The future belongs to those men and women who arevery good at what they do. Pat Riley, in his book The WinnerWithin, wrote that, 'If you are not committed to getting betterat what you are doing, you are bound to get worse.' To phrase itanother way, anything less than a commitment to excellentperformance on your part is an unconscious acceptance ofmediocrity. It used to be that you needed to be excellent torise above the competition in your industry.
Today, you must be excellent even to keep your job in yourindustry. The marketplace is a stern taskmaster. Today,excellence, quality, and value are absolutely essential elementsof any product or service, and of the work of any person. Yourearning ability is largely determined by the perception ofexcellence, quality, and value that others have of you and whatyou do. The market only pays excellent rewards for excellentperformance. It pays average rewards for average performance,and it pays below average rewards or unemployment for belowaverage performance. Customers today want the very most and thevery best for the very least amount of money, and on the bestterms. Only the individuals and companies that provideabsolutely excellent products and services at absolutelyexcellent prices will survive. It's not personal. It's just theway our economy works.
To earn more, you must learn more. You are maxed out today atyour current level of knowledge and skill. However much you areearning at this moment is the maximum you can earn withoutlearning and practicing something new and different.
And here's the rub. Your accumulated knowledge and experienceis becoming obsolete bit by bit, day by day. The knowledge inyour field is doubling every three to five years. That meansthat your knowledge must double every three to five years justfor you to stay even.
The solution to the dilemma of unavoidable change andrestructuring is continuous self-development. Your personalknowledge and your ability to apply that knowledge are your mostvaluable assets. To stay on top of your world, you mustcontinually add to your knowledge and your ability. You mustcontinually build up your mental assets if you want to enjoy acontinuous return on your investment. And only by building onyour current assets do you stop them from deteriorating.
By engaging in continuous self-improvement, you can put yourselfbehind the wheel of your own life. By dedicating yourself toenhancing your earning ability, you will automatically beengaging in the continuous process of personal development. Bylearning more, you prepare yourself to earn more. You positionyourself for tomorrow by developing the knowledge and skillsthat you need to be a valuable and productive part of oureconomy, no matter which direction it goes.'

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My book's wishlist

  • Embrace The Struggle - Zig Ziglar