Tag Archives: Planning

Don’t take no for an answer

I am getting more and more confirmed that a (first) no that you mostly get from people when asking something. And of course this idea goes back to the story of R.U. Darby and his uncle at the very beginning of Think and Grow Rich. And I didn’t really understand how it would work, as I often encountered “no’s” in my life and just took them for a no. And even when (stubbornly) trying to push something, the ‘no’ stayed ‘no’. Until recently, especially when I started working on my project Connect Mindanao and started sending e-mails to many people I wanted to ask for help or involve in my project. Or more recently, sending e-mails to find an initial investor or initial investors for my project.

And somehow something changed, as with these e-mails I decided to get answers from all people I tried to reach. And especially with this decision something changed. As suddenly e.g. I became more structured with keeping track of the e-mails I sent and the e-mails I received. And suddenly my approach to people became much more careful, more kind, more, I don’t know how to say, maybe just less stubborn, less controlling.

And it works, it pays off. As I learned more about persistence (vs. stubbornness). As I just keep going like sending follow up e-mails if I don’t get an answer or don’t get an answer that satisfies me. So I do get answers. And I get satisfying answers. As if an answer is not satisfying I just continue following up or asking questions or something like that.

Ah, and I can be very impulsive, so I developed the habit of not replying e-mails on the same day I receive them, at least if they are important e-mails. And I developed the habit of following up e-mails after two weeks if they are important. And I developed the habit of following up anyhow, even if I did not do so yet after two weeks, for whatever reason. So I do get answers. And I do get satisfying answers. From everybody I am writing e-mails or letters to. And that is very satisfying, for both parties I guess. As I get the answers, and the other party knows I am serious, that I am a person, and not some robot or something sending thousands of e-mails. Ah, yes, maybe last but not the least, I sent much less e-mails, as I am much more careful what to send and whom to send them to. As I know I am going to follow them up, as most have to be followed up. As most e-mails I send go to people who as far as I figured out right now, never reply to the first e-mail. Indeed, as some kind of persistence test. As indeed, also, described in Think and Grow Rich.

So don’t take no for an answer. But do it in a kind way. And make sure you ask the right thing from the right person.

Updating my desire document

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I just made a major update to my desire document. And I was scared doing that, as some dates had passed and I had not achieved the goals that were written by those dates, far from it.

But I had planned it for today, so I had no option but to do it. As I have decided to finish my daily planned items, no matter what. And yes, of course sometimes there are circumstances that I can’t finish it. Like when I am traveling (and as I also have decided not to have a tablet, not to have continuous internet access). And sometimes I forget to write things down correctly, like if things depend on other people and I didn’t write ‘if it pushes through’ or ‘if the other person agrees’. But in general it is very rare that I don’t finish my daily list. And yes, sometimes the list is empty, like when I know I am traveling or something.

But I don’t want to talk about my daily planning today, I wanted to talk about my experience with updating my desire document, an experience I was scared of.

And as usual I was wrong, being scared of something. As my desire document is there to help me and not to scare me. And it did, in an unimaginable way, for more than two years now. And I just checked the date of the original document that became the basis of my desire document, which is October 22,2 014. And the first ‘readable’ version must have been written November 11, 2014, so a little more than two years ago. And of course the major things are just there, nothing really changed, except that I kind of made it more specific, made it even much ‘tighter’ than the original document.

And I am still looking for words to describe what has happened to me, what an enormous power a desire document summons. As when I wrote down my original desires they were completely impossible, or at least they appeared, they felt impossible. And quite soon after the most impossible thing became quite likely. And over the last two years I slowly found myself living the document, which was and is kind of strange. As the document still contains a lot of unrealized goals and, as indicated above, I passed some dates for some important goals without realizing them. But somehow I am just living the document, living my impossible goals from two years ago.

And it is hard to explain how it works, but it works indeed somehow like influencing your subconscious mind. And I noticed that when I realized that when I first started with phrase like ‘I desire to have 1 million dollar’ (no, that’s not in the actual document, as I consider that private), when reading the document over time this felt inadequate, as it felt like it should be ‘I have 1 million dollar’. So in general actual the opposite happened as what I was scared of: I made the document more specific and more in the now than in the future.

So today I made some major updates, basically because some dates had passed. And strangely enough, the new document is more specific, more in the ‘now’ than the original. And no, nothing really changed related to my desires, they are still the same. They just came closer with this new version of my desire document.

Blog birthday

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I was recently reading Leo Babauta’s blog and ended up in his page about the first birthday of zenhabits. And I was a bit jealous, or actually a lot, as I read that within a month after starting his blog he had a few hundred followers, readers. And right now, after almost one and a half year Inspiration for Success I think I hardly have any followers. And I know there are many reasons for that, like now it is 2014 and not 2007 (when there were hardly any bloggers and blogging was probably hardly known). And I am not, and have not been, pushing this site, this blog, very hard. And I guess I am not as good a writer, a blogger, someone with a lot of value to other people as Leo Babauta and many other successful bloggers are. As I just found what I guess is probably his most recent post, on the homepage: pushing past the dip. And it just reads easy and is inspiring, even though I might have been just impressed as it is based on The Dip written by Seth Godin. And that book and Seth Godin had and still have great influence on my, on my thinking.

But anyhow, my blog posts may not always be that inspiring, while thinking now I think this site is still some kind of masterpiece, even though it is not fully finished and of course never will be.

So maybe the big question is how I would get out of my chicken/egg problem of not having enough readers and probably not having any people using the inspirational tools I made a start with (and yes, they are working) and creating better stuff, spend more time.

Maybe the answer is pretty simple though. Maybe I should just do a little more effort and then everything will go by itself. Was already thinking about that, but I will plan something.

Thanks for listening.

Going to the moon

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Today I discussed my draft presentation for the internet city project with someone, and yes, I compare my project with something like flying to the moon. As when John F. Kennedy set the goal of going to the moon there was no budget, no technical capability, not enough knowledge, no experience and not enough time (target ‘this decade’). But that didn’t stop us from going to the moon, on schedule. So the idea that grew slowly in my mind over the last two years or so may be similar to something like flying to the moon, read ‘impossible’, but with the right mindset I believe it can certainly be done.

And maybe I should study a bit more how he did it, how it was prepared, like similar to my project, it would probably be announced by the Mayor of Cagayan de Oro City and not by me, and it would probably be attached to him, not to me. So let’s try to figure out what was all behind that simple statement of intending to go to the moon by John F. Kennedy.

Well, found some background on the moon program on Wikipedia.

Online report of the way to success

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Recently I have been thinking a lot of what to write here. And one of the things is that I want to write more inspirational stuff in the pages part of the site. But that is not ‘here’, the posts part of the site. And another thing is that I wanted especially the posts part of the site to be a kind of diary of my road to success using the Principles of Success as described by Napoleon Hill in his book Think and Grow Rich. But the last part is not that easy, as the big project I am working on includes quite some stuff I don’t want everybody to know, especially not Globe and PLDT. But maybe for some parts I will need them and somehow I am also starting to believe more and more that ‘peace’ is better than ‘war’ and that competition should be on quality and service, not price or putting the other party down.

So that is what I learned from Napoleon Hill and that is the main reason why I am taking on this challenge, that is why I think it can work. As I can compete on service, as service is the only thing a company is all about: serving people. And yes, of course shareholders need to be paid and employees need to be happy and be paid. But in the end, the only reason why companies exist is to serve customers, to provide some kind of service or product, nothing more, nothing less. And that is what the big industries seem to forget the last decade or decades or so. As recently it seems to be all about shareholders value and profit and sometimes employees.

And for long I thought it was a combination of all, but the more I think about it, the more I am convinced that companies are all about serving customers, nothing more, nothing less. So indeed, something like the customer is always right, always.