Tweet

Common and Uncommon Sense

Guest post by: Jim Stovall

Article Overview: I have long been intrigued by people who have become known as universal men and women. These are people who have succeeded at the highest level in more than one field of endeavor. The person who probably most embodies the concept of a universal man is Benjamin Franklin. Franklin was a statesman, inventor, scientist, publisher, and philosopher just to name a few of his areas of accomplishment.

Common and Uncommon Sense

I have long been intrigued by people who have become known as universal men and women. These are people who have succeeded at the highest level in more than one field of endeavor. The person who probably most embodies the concept of a universal man is Benjamin Franklin. Franklin was a statesman, inventor, scientist, publisher, and philosopher just to name a few of his areas of accomplishment. Benjamin Franklin was fond of saying, "Common sense is not common." He was pointing out the fact that just because most people know the right thing to do, doesn't necessarily mean they will do the right thing.

Think about the current problems you are facing or messes you are cleaning up in your personal or professional life. Oftentimes, we have to admit that we brought these situations on ourselves, either by doing or not doing something that we understood to be important.

Since the invention of the automobile over 100 years ago, there has been no development that has saved more lives than the seatbelt. The seatbelt is a simple, low-cost solution to a potentially lethal problem. Seatbelts are simple, painless, and are literally at our fingertips every time we need them; however, more than a half century after the development of the seatbelt, many people still fail to wear them.

Millions of dollars are spent on advertisements to encourage us to simply wear our seatbelts. All of us of an age to obtain a driver's license understand the practical, safety, and legal benefits of wearing a seatbelt, but millions of times every day, people get in a car and take their life into their own hands as they drive without putting on their seatbelt. As Mr. Franklin told us, having everyone aware of a benefit is not the same as everyone taking advantage of that same benefit.

There are many obstacles and difficulties in life that we cannot avoid, but unfortunately the ones that are readily avoidable still plague many people who don't do what they know to be in their best interest. Whether it's wearing your seatbelt, funding your retirement, getting your insurance and will in order, or any number of simple commonsense things we know we should do, our success and failure is determined not by what we know but, instead, it is determined by what we actually do.

As you go through your day today, determine to make common sense common in your life.

Today's the day!

Related Articles
  The State of the Union, Common Sense and Success
  Writing Tip: Put what you want to get done in paragraph one
  Cornerstones
  Take the Road Less Traveled
  Common Sense and Success
  SURVIVING IN CORPORATE AMERICA
  Entrepreneurialism
  “The Power of Your Belief System” The Beginning (One-liners)
  Trading To Win-It Takes Uncommon Knowledge
  Successful People Create and Nurture Their Unique and Powerful Personal Brand
  Data Money Online Scam
  On Success
  USP - Unique Selling Proposition
  Idiot! Why do you think that way...what's wrong with you?!
  Live Consultant Thinking: Looking at Honest, Confidence and Integrity
  What the Super Bowl Teaches Us About Successful Branding
  The Power of the Embedded Entrepreneur
  Home Staging Helps Sellers Meet Conditional Offer Deadline
  Lesson #2: Grab the opportunity whenever you can
  Your Values and Your Success

Article Tags: accomplishment, benjamin franklin, inventor, Jim Stovall, universal man



Related Forum Posts
Affiliates vs selling your own material - [quote:1w85dxq6]I will check into the few mentioned other affilliate programs, anyone have any other suggestions?[/quote:1w85dxq6] Rather than using an affiliate (other than Google Ad Sense, which works well,at least for me) , why not write pamphlets or How to Books of your own, and sell them on your site. Then, when you get a purchase, *you* get the full purchase price, not just a small percentage, which is what you get as an affiliate...
Re: Discover 5 Traps of Internet Marketing that Derail Business - [quote="Donna":gj06obvi] I started working as a full time freelancer a couple of years ago and I have noticed that so many people think there is instant money to be made online. Donna[/quote:gj06obvi] This is true. Many years ago when I first started my SF webzine, my only ad partner at the time was Amazon.com. I confidently expected to get dozens of orders a day, and be a millionaire within a year without ever having to do lift a finger - after my initial articles had been published to the web. Of course it didnt' turn out like that at all, and if I'd been dependent on that zine to make a living wage, I'd've had to quit right then and there. Even when I started with Google Ad Sense I was also expecting to make money quite quickly... and it took that three or four years to get to a decent level. (And, as I keep pointing out, had I started with my Sports Zine first, all this might have been so different, as the topic of sports is probably 300% more popular than science fiction...) On the other hand, by persevering, I got a lot of experience in my chosen field, and was ready to do some good stuff once it occurred to me to go on the Sports kick....
Reality in Television - [quote="SueB":2xhla35c]I've been watching Cashmere Mafia but not Lipstick Jungle. What I like about CM is that these incredibly powerful and success business women are imperfect and older. Kudos to Hollywood for hiring 3 lead actresses who are actually 39-40 vs 25 playing older. The 4th is early-mid 30's.... I'm not sure how old the actresses were in Sex and the City when it aired... Imperfect in that they do have challenges balancing the various aspects of their lives. Take Juliet for instance. She's this high-ranking if not head of some large company (I don't really know what she does) yet she let her husband take care of the money! She probably knows the cash flow particulars for her business though. Common error that many women make but that you wouldn't expect a power woman to make. In this week's episode I thought it was rather interesting and perceptive of the Mia character to realize that her ex-fiancee Jack could only be with her if he was on the same level career-wise. Otherwise his self-esteem took a beating and he left. Her fear being that this is a pattern that would continue. Mind you, her character didn't do anything to support his self esteem when they were competing for the same position. Just a few thoughts...[/quote:2xhla35c] Interesting how they are incorporating real life mistakes that many women make and having their characters do the same things. You gave a couple of very good examples. I can't believe the people - male or female - who turn their paychecks over to their spouse or significant other and have no clue where it goes. I have an aunt that did that for 10+ years and then he husband left - with a large chunk of money she didn't know "they" had. Then she got married some years later and did it again. I wonder sometimes what it takes for people to learn a lesson. Shri
Re: HOw to market a B2B consulting company - How about providing a white paper on Common security holes (only mention the ones that the prospect can easily and inexpensively fix themselves). Towards the end explain that there are other greater security flaws that exist and that you provide a "Free Security Consultation and Report". They could use this report to get cheaper quotes but you are getting so much more... you get face time with the company and get to build rapport with them. I know of a company here in Toronto that does Energy Audits on your home and provide you with a report on ways you can save energy- they also also offer to fix it for you through their suppliers. they had a story run on them on Earth Day this year and they were bombarded with over 200 calls in one day to have these audits done. The audits are done for free. You could write up a shocking story on Security and holes that exist within businesses today and submit this story to the newspapers business edition or to a Trade Magazine written for the industry you are trying to serve. Most journalists may pick up this article and feature it or interview you directly. Also, I would redesign your site to be more Information-based to educate potential prospects (how to solve common security issues) rather than it being all about the company - people are more interested in solving their problem and often aren't searching the internet for a particular company by name unless it is well established. So give them juicy information freely. note: When I first heard this idea of giving away free information about solving a problem I was hesitant to use it in my web design business. I gave it a try anyways and the amazing part was that even the easy inexpensive things I advised them they could fix in their websites they offered to pay me to do it for them - from there I was able to upsell them on greater improvements. I've since sold this company - but it was fun!


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

The Biggest Domain Name Myth

Fear Factors in Small Business: Sales & Marketing

Listen to Your Inner Melody

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.