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What I learnt From One Of The UK’s Best Selling Business Authors

Written by: Andrew Rondeau

Article Overview: A few months ago, I embarked on a new project, The Great Successful People Package to interview numerous top successful individuals, in order to pick their brains on what made them a success and what important points they had learnt over the years. I did this with the goal of sharing their advice and proven ideas with others. I have choosen from hundreds of ideas, this one because it was simple and it worked for me!

What I learnt From One Of The UK’s Best Selling Business Authors

A few months ago, I embarked on a new project, The Great Successful People Package to interview numerous top successful individuals, in order to pick their brains on what made them a success and what important points they had learnt over the years. I did this with the goal of sharing their advice and proven ideas with others.

I have choosen from hundreds of ideas, this one because it was simple and it worked for me!

One of the individuals I conducted an interview with was Robert Ashton. Robert is one of the UK’s best selling authors in both the business and entrepreneurial world. His book 'The Entrepreneur's Book of Checklists' is consistently the UK's third best selling practical business guide.

What Do You Want In Life

One of the great ideas Robert shared with me was a different approach to understanding what you want in life. This idea is that you describe your future life in the present tense.

For example, you could say it is now 2010, I have no debt, I’m an author selling my books in 20 different languages, and am touring the world speaking about my passionate subject. You describe what this is like, the feedback you got and how you felt about it.

Describe Your Picture And Write It Down

Then write it down as if it's already happened, in the present tense, but date it in the future when you have decided it will happen e.g. 2010.

The future date you choose might be a year away, or it maybe a month away. It is your choice.

Another example could be, it’s January 1 2009 and I’ve just had a New Year's party. I've got a bad headache and I can't cook breakfast because of last night. But actually, there's a huge cheque sitting on the side that came in after Christmas from the royalties of my first book and when I look out the window I see my new car that I bought in November.

Check That It Is What You Want

To make you feel better, you can just take this picture of life as you want it to be on that day looking at the positive things you want in life rather of the negative ones.

These ideas are ways of actually checking whether you want them or not. If they don't feel right when you write them down or picture them i.e. you realize you don’t want a Nissan 350Z, but you'd be happier with a Mazda NX5 then these goals are not right for you and need changing. You can be quite specific regarding what you want as it is you who's going to actually be driving that car, living that life, or going to that place.

Share It

Robert also stated you should share your future plans with anybody whose life would be influenced by them. So if you live with someone for instance, then it's quite important for them to know where you're looking to head to, otherwise it could come as a shock to them, when you suddenly start behaving strangely and doing different things.

For instance, maybe you decide you want to run a marathon and you start training for it. So instead of you spending Sunday morning in bed with the paper, like you always do, all of a sudden, you're going out in your shorts and trainers on and disappearing down the road for a 10-mile run, then they would want to know why you're doing that and what you're trying to achieve.

It may even encourage them to embark on things that they want to do as well and if you don’t share your goals with others, you may start growing apart and leading separate lives.

It Works!

So since learning these ideas from Robert, I have put them into practice.

I have always had goals / plans in my life but this approach has made me add the emotion and gauge how I would feel once the goal is fulfilled. These emotions and feelings change or cement what you want. It really does make the difference.

Another difference I learnt to do was to share my goals and I now have family and friends helping me achieve my goals, which is great.

So give it a try and let me know what difference it makes to your goal setting.

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Article Tags: best selling authors, brains, business guide, checklists, cheque, christmas, cook breakfast, different languages, entrepreneur, future life, headache, january 1, new car, new year, present tense, robert ashton, royalties



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Name for website - Hmmmm Authors World Authors Network Authors World Wide Weblog World Wide Authors Arboretum (or some other alliterative word) WritertoWriter Writer to Reader WritersWorld WritersConnect AuthorsandtheirReadersBlog
Blog pinging - Thanks Martin - yes, I do ping and it has been very effective. I'm currently on the first page of Google for Mastermind Group and on the second page for Selling to Small Business.
Ryerson or McMaster? - It's true McMaster probably does have a better reputation than Ryerson but after you graduate I don't think when you go to an interview the deciding factor will ever be the university you went to. At least that was true in my case. I went to Ryerson and did their Technology/Business Program. I was employed the very next day after graduation not because of my grades (though that helps during co-op) or the fact that I went to Ryerson but because of what I brought to the table in terms of experience (part-time jobs I held while in school), social skills (verbal and written) and my goals. Since 2003 I've worked in Marketing, Content Management and Consulting. The Marketing program at Ryerson has some good classes and topics within it but entreprenuer on your resume if you plan on getting a job after graduation is going to be a tough one. BUT you can get around it by focusing on the classes you've taken and how you can apply them to any business. I believe true Entreprenuership can't be learnt in a classroom by a Professor who's never been an entreprenuer (not saying the profs at Ryerson were never an entrepreneurs - some of mine were). It has to be learnt in the field. If your move to Ryerson means you will be out of school faster, can take a 3 month vacation (which I missed out on but am planning for next summer) and then get a job or start your own thing then it sounds like a good deal to me BUT you need to decide.
My entry - 1. The Best Business Books Ever: The 100 Most Influential Business Books You'll Never Have Time to Read - this is a fascinating book about the history of Business theory, and I'd recommend it to anybody. 2. The Big Book of Small Business: You Don't Have to Run Your Business by the Seat of Your Pants, by Tom Gegax. Ditto. 3. PADI: The Business of Diving Book Okay, so this book won't be of use to anyone who doesn't want to start a scuba store, but I did, and this book was of course invaluable to me in reaching that goal.
Re: Is getting a formal education worthwhile for entrepreneu - Knowledge in whatever form is valuable. Its not just about usefulness in the business that you plan to start. The knowledge that you gain via an education system definitely is not enough for an entrepreneur because Facts that you will face in your role as an entrepreneur will be much different than what you have learnt. But having an education will definitely equip you with getting the leads in handling situations. So my suggestion is that you continue with your studies and gain as much knowledge you can. You are already aware that the learnings you make can be applied on the Website. Same also applies for all your other learnings. The only thing is you will have to wait for the time to apply what you have learnt.


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