I was talking to a new friend over at StomperNet the other night and mentioned what a shift I had had to make in my thinking now that I am back in the real world and building businesses again. The shift in mindset from the scarcity mode to an entrepreneurial mode is a difficult one to make, particularly after so long a period of time living from month to month, often from one day to the next…and sometimes moment to moment!

This is a discipline, like any other, a mindset that takes training and real effort to develop.

The fact is, most people live in a constant state of “we can’t afford that!”

Whereas, in the entrepreneurial mindset, instead of living in a constant state of “we can’t afford that!” we shift our thinking and ask “how do I make this happen?”

In many ways the difference is, on one hand, living in the scarcity mode, protecting what resources we may have, living from “paycheck to paycheck,” doing without when it didn’t fit the budget, and when it doesn’t fit our mindset.

While, on the other hand, living life in the “make it happen,” entrepreneurial mode, we make things happen in order to reach the goals and acquire the possessions important to us and our families.

This shift in thinking takes training because most of us are raised in the former mindset, rather than the latter.

Some of the “protective-negative” mindset is a carry-over from the Depression mentality of our grandparents and great-grandparents; it is entrenched in our culture, our philosophy and, to a large extent, in our national psyche. The recession of the early 1980s, and the shift in our economy from a manufacturing-base to a service-base with the resulting loss of high paying blue-collar jobs, did nothing to eliminate this mindset. In fact it re-established it as the cornerstone of our fiscal mentality and entrenched it in the lower/middle and middle/middle class mindset. It also invaded the upper middle class mindset as so many mid-level and middle management jobs, particularly in the industrial sector, vanished. This latest recession has done little to help people shed this now-antiquated way of thinking. In fact, it has once again reared its ugly head as millions face another shift in our way of doing business, here and around the world, with its obvious, and not-so-obvious, effects
on the “masses.” Of course the “masses,” and I use this word “cautiously,” will never rid themselves of this mindset, the day-to-day, paycheck-to-paycheck mentality; and, they are simply getting by, getting through, and getting on with life the best way they know how.

It is the entrepreneur who has to guard against what some have coined as cautious optimism. Cautious optimism is a plague on our thinking and, by the way, it is one of the most overused and abused phrases in the English language.

Google it with quotes, “cautious optimism,” and you still get almost half a million results!

That’s unreal!

How can so many be so cautious about being optimistic?

It should actually state something like:

“I’m gonna say this but I want to cover my backside…so I am going to add the words “cautiously optimistic” to my assertion, thus protecting my neck if I happen to have stuck it out too far.”

Cautious optimism equals negative thinking and that has failure built in!

Ask Sir Richard Branson about cautious optimism! I can only guess what he would say?

Henry Ford?

Thomas Edison?

Napoleon Hill?

Listen to The Strangest Secret and then tell me about cautious optimism!

It is an oxymoron!

So, how does that take me back to my shift to an entrepreneurial mindset?

Well, it is impossible to succeed in life unless you shed the “protective-negative,” cautious optimism mindset and believe in what is possible…not only what is possible but what is probable, what we can make a reality is we only believe!

Belief?

Belief is the magic ingredient, the key component necessary to shift from guarded optimism to cautious optimism, and finally on to real optimism.

The first two being synonymous with failure, the latter the only mindset acceptable in the entrepreneurial mode, the mindset required to succeed…to “make it happen!”

My two favorite quotes sum it up best:

“Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve!” Napoleon Hill

“To desire is to obtain; to aspire is to achieve.” James Allen (Author of As A Man Thinketh)

Charles Darwin spoke of belief in The Descent of Man.

In it he wrote: “The highest possible stage in moral culture is when we recognize that we ought to control our thoughts…”

So many say they believe in themselves, in the possibilities life offers, but in reality they are “cautiously optimistic.”

Believe and you can achieve!

This is not peculiar to Hill, James, and Darwin, this mindset has been championed throughout history. The power of belief has been suggested by everyone from the Buddah to Jesus, and from the Qur’an to the Bible.

However, while many parrot the quotes, buy the books, listen to the CDs and DVDs most fail to put into action this powerful message daily in their lives.

Why?

I think when it is all said and done it is about the ultimate belief…belief in one’s self!

As Tony Robbins recently put in a copy of Power Talk, people fail to believe in themselves, in what is truly possible in their lives, in just how powerful belief can be!

Ultimately, the shift in mindset must be preceded by a belief in one’s self, in the belief that all things are possible to those who believe.

Only through faith, hope, and ultimately belief can one hope to achieve!

Great things are possible to those who can conceive and believe. I believe this, it allowed me to shift my thinking, and from there all things are possible. They are possible for me…they can be possible for you!

Simply do one thing:

Believe!

Remember what Earl Nightingale maintains in The Strangest Secret:

“We are what we think about!”

John

John P. J. Zajaros, PhD
216-712-6526
Skype: johnzajaros1
johnz@johnzajaros.com

Be Sociable, Share!

• 

I just received an email from one of my freelancers, hired from one of the outsourcing platforms so popular online. The email took me back to 1967 in an instant and I thought I would share it with you. It is a valuable lesson, one I learned early on, one I still struggle to honor and live up to every day! Sometimes I succeed and sometimes I crash and burn…but I have never forgotten it and it has shaped my life!

Here goes:

When I was a little boy, I went around the neighborhood and asked people
if I could cut their grass for $5.

I had quite a few jobs and quite a few people who said “No thank you!”

I took one job and the lady was very nice. I was no more than 12 and I
still remember her and that lawn 42 years later.

Why?

Because as soon as I started the job I knew I was going to be doing a lot more
work than I had initially thought I was taking on.

The lawn was there, the lady was there, everything was pretty
apparent…cut the grass and get paid.

Well, the job was taking me a long time!

About half way through, I had had enough! I stomped up to the front door and told the
lady I had made a big mistake and that I needed $10 for the job.

She smiled very politely and said, I will never forget this…

“You made a commitment. You took on the job and I agreed to your price, a
price you set in advance.

Two, you can quit right now and I will never hire you again.”

I hesitated for a moment, then nodded and went back to work.

Every bone in my body was screaming “QUIT!”

That lady hired me every week for the next 4 years for one job or
another, I always made sure the money was out of the way up front,
and she also referred me to all of her friends and relatives in the area.

That nice lady was responsible for hundreds of dollars every year.

Not bad for a little kid who almost didn’t finish the job he was
initially hired to do…because it was too much, too big, and too tiring!

That job paid me many times over.

If all I had focused on was that first job…and the extra $5 bucks, what
would have been the outcome?

I would have quit, a bad habit at any age…a black hole at 12!

Instead I bucked up, sucked in my pride, yes grumbled a bit, and finished
the job.

Had I walked away, I would never have made all the money to come over the
years and I definitely would never have learned one of the most powerful lessons
in my life…at any age!

You make a commitment, you keep it!

Commit to a task, you finish it!

Have I broken commitments since then, no one is perfect, but in reality only a few times…
and only when deathly ill. Even then, I did everything I could to honor the commitment
made before finally saying…

“Uncle”

…and finding someone else to finish the task. Even then, it was like being
tortured beyond the breaking point.

I will never forget that lady or the lesson! I owe her a great deal!

The End!

Just thought I would throw that in!

After all, every 12 year old thinks all stories have an ending…right or wrong!

In fact, life is a process, a progression toward an end. The end is up to you!

The process, the progression defines your ultimate success…

and the lessons learned from little old ladies when you are 12 last a lifetime!

John

Professor John P. J. Zajaros, Sr.
216-712-6526
Skype: johnzajaros1
johnz@johnzajaros.com

Be Sociable, Share!

• 

I will keep these wonderful men, The Team Hoyt, in my thoughts always!

I will believe all things are possible!

I will never say never…ever again!

I will believe all things are possible!

I will never again make excuses!

I will believe all things are possible!

I will work harder, aim higher, and never quit…ever!

I will believe….

In my life, I have witnessed many great and wonderful things, this video is at the very top!

So humbling….so wonderful!

A Celebration of Life and Love!

John Zajaros
216-712-6526
Skype: johnzajaros1
johnz@johnzajaros.com

Be Sociable, Share!

•