SUCCESS PRINCIPLE #1

Don’t focus on problems—focus on Goals and Solutions.

You can and will succeed, in anything, providing you can focus on your goal and not dwell on the obstacles.

"Obstacles are those things you see when you take your eyes off the goal".  Cavitt Robert.

Everyone—everyday can find a reason to not do the things that they need to do in order to be successful in their chosen endeavor.  Whether it’s ASN or any other business, the easiest thing in the world is to make excuses.  Want success? Get rid of excuses!

If you focus on doing the things that you know need to be done, eventually you will have the positive outcome you are after.  When you focus on your objective, obstacles simply become stepping stones.  When you focus on obstacles, they become brick walls and the objectives that should serve to motivate and inspire you, become invisible.  It bears repeating…  Obstacles are those things you see, when you take your eyes off the goal.

Don’t focus on problems—focus on Goals and Solutions.

I’m not saying ignore problems.  What I’m saying is give them only the weight and concern they deserve and only when they deserve it.  Do you have to go to court? The day of court, go!  But don’t worry about it for the prior 2 weeks.  Worrying accomplishes nothing other than to create constant anxiety that diminishes your performance on productive endeavors by sucking your energy and focus away from productive thoughts and activities.  Worrying about finances?  Don’t worry about it… DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT.  Every moment that you spend simply worrying, is a moment that you are not working on and focusing on fixing it. 

PLAN! DO! ACT!... but Don't Worry. 

Time spent worrying NEVER accomplishes anything!  It’s the time spent finding the solution that matters.  There is always a solution.  It’s up to you to find it. 

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Don’t dwell on the problems, concentrate on the goals, the things you have to do. Then when you must deal with the obstacles, do it- but not until it is necessary, once it's dealt with?  Get right back to work achieving your objective.  Get back to the big picture.

No Excuses—don’t let anything stop you!

Success Principle...

"Great ideas are useless without positive action". 

ASN didn’t always exist.  It was once only an idea that required an enormous amount of work, perseverance and absolute commitment in the face of many obstacles and much adversity.  That meant focusing on the goal, not the obstacles. 

In 2000, the solutions network was little other than the germ of an idea; an assortment of notes on scratch paper and a couple of html pages residing on my computer.  I already had my law degree but hated the practice of law.

As I was one of the top students, I had the honor of clerking for the dean of the law school.  It provided me the opportunity to see the complete practice of law, up close and personal.  It wasn't nearly as much like my favorite television shows as I had imagined or hoped.

I had found that no matter how you tried to practice, no matter how much integrity you had, a major key to success in law was not to solve problems, but rather to create them by creating billable hours.  Think about it, if you are working on an hourly basis, as soon as you prevail, that "job" is concluded; you are unemployed!  On the other hand, if you are clever enough to interject a new issue into the legal mix, the other attorney has an obligation to respond, you, then, have to respond to the response, they then respond to your response... This is what's known as creating billable hours.  It is often a never ending cycle of income, in which, doing a truly good job for your client, is often bad for your pocket book. 

Even if you try to stay out of this despicable money grabbing game, you are forced to participate, because as soon as the opposing attorney, creates a new issue, you have no choice but to address it, or lose on the issue by default.  All the while you and the opposing attorney are racking up billable hours at the rate of, at least, $200 to $500 per hour.  Great money, but I like being able to look in the mirror.  I have always been about solving problems, not creating or participating in their continuance.

Consequently, I decided not to practice. I decided that I was not going to participate in what I see as system that is often little more than legal theft.  So, I did nothing other than an occasional Bankruptcy here and there and handled a few legal issues for a select group of friends and acquaintances.   I was also performing as a professional musician who played local clubs a couple of weekends a month.  Consequently, money was the thing that I needed the most but had the least.  I wanted and needed money, but I insisted that I earn it on my own terms.

I didn’t have much, but I did have a goal.  I was going to create the solutions network and reach out nationwide and even worldwide to provide the kinds of services and opportunities that everyone needed.  I wanted to create a system that would allow anyone, no matter their circumstances or education to join with us and improve their lives by helping others improve theirs.

Many friends thought I was suffering from delusions of grandeur :-)

I didn't feel I had any delusions.  I simply believed in the idea and was absolutely committed to making it happen. (friends and family thought I should simply be committed)  In spite of my financial situation I continued on, focusing on my long term objective rather than my short term issues.  I was totally convinced that my idea would work and that everything would be alright.  If I could actually create the system, I couldn't even imagine how or why it wouldn't work... But there was a caveat... I would be alright only as long as I continued to do and concentrate on the things that I knew I needed to do--  rather than concentrate on all the reasons that I should be doing something else.

THEN IT GOT WORSE

As I mentioned, I’m also a musician and during this time music actually generated a large portion of my income.  One Friday night as I left a performance at about 2:00 am, I was convinced to take “one shot for the road”.

I had been drinking already, but not at all to excess.  But since I hadn’t eaten since about 10:00 am, there wasn’t anything to absorb my last “harmless” little shot. 

The club was a quaint little bar in the mountains and the road home wound round and round through the hills and cliffs. That “one for the road” was not one of my better life’s choices. 

While driving home, all of a sudden the alcohol hit me like a ton of bricks.  I saw 3 roads as I rounded a curve and totally lost control.  I ended up, upside down in a ditch, (if I had gone on the other side, I’d have been off a cliff and certainly died).  The car was totaled, my shoulder had been slammed through the side window, cut up horribly, (the crash bag didn’t inflate), I was knocked unconscious, etc…

Then the police showed up.  They took me to the hospital where I was bandaged up and then carted off to jail.  It turned out that my blood alcohol level was .18 so now I was looking at some uncomfortable legal issues…

My brother came to pick me up (my wife couldn’t do it because I only had one car... and that was now totaled).

So now my life had just gotten even worse.  I had no job to speak of, No money, A big DUI, Fines on the way, Hospital bills, A license that I was about to lose because of the DUI, an unhappy wife, a baby on the way, No car,  a home in foreclosure, etc…  But I did have one important thing left.  My Goal.  My Dream... and I would not, could not, let it go.

Years ago I had heard a statement by Zig Ziglar that always stuck with me.  “You can get anything in life you want… if you help enough others get what they want”.  This is the fundamental precept of the solutions network.  It is the idea that permeates every aspect of it.  That was my dream and I would not let it go, for anything.

My circumstances were now such that anyone in their right mind would have changed directions.  Remember, I had a law degree.  I could have given up the dream and gone out the next day and gotten a great job and solved all of my money problems by simply suing people.  But I just didn’t find that very exciting or fulfilling.

Most sane people would have re examined their life, their situation and changed paths.  What did I do?  The moment I walked into the house after returning from jail at about 9:00 am, I sat down in front of the computer and went to work creating ASN!

After spending a night in jail and the hospital; after totaling my car, knowing that I would lose my license, face huge fines, etc… knowing that it had just become even more difficult to improve my financial circumstances… instead of giving up the dream and taking the path that “made more sense” i.e. getting a job, I rededicated myself to my goal.

I  could so easily have just gotten a job like everyone else. Instead...

The moment I got home from my hospital and jail visit (around 9 am), I literally walked into my house (that I was losing) and sat down in front of the computer and begin transforming my notes and ideas into an actual website.   I worked 18 hours a day for about 4 weeks straight, not letting ANYTHING distract me.  My pregnant wife was furious (why didn’t I get a job?), my friends perplexed (they "knew" I had better options), within one month I had the first incarnation of the solutions network.

I’ve never looked back since.  That’s not to say there haven’t been more issues, more obstacles, setbacks…  I've had a massive heart attack, in one span of 4 months around 2007, my mother in law and then father in law, passed away in our home, I then had to help my wife and children get through the horrible emotional trauma this caused, not to mention the fact that I had cared deeply for both of them and had my own sorrow to deal with...  then, if that wasn't enough, during this time of distraction, someone I would have trusted with my life, stole everything, that wasn't nailed down...  Unfortunately, things happen... If I had to bet, I’d guess I'll have to deal with more issues and more setbacks.  It's not fair, but guess what—that’s life. 

For me, when they occur, I will do what I’ve always done.  Focus on the objective, not the obstacle.  Whatever the issue, I'll deal with it when it's time to do so and not one second sooner.  Then, after I've dealt with it,  I'll move on.  That's the trick... don't worry about problems before hand.  When it's time to solve them, solve them... and then don't dwell on them afterwards.

 I don’t care what you do, who you are, what you want to accomplish… I assure you, there is no business concept that is more important to success.  Focus on your objectives not your obstacles.

It's impossible to effectively move forward if you are always looking in the rear view mirror.

WHATEVER YOUR DREAM YOU CAN DO IT

If you have a dream, don’t give up.  Don’t let anyone steal it or diminish it in your mind.  If you’ve analyzed it and know that it is sound, workable and worthwhile for yourself and for the public, focus on it and don’t let anything stop you.  YOU CAN DO IT!

But realize… that doesn’t mean that there won’t be obstacles. THERE WILL BE.  It doesn’t mean that there won’t be set backs even temporary failures.  THERE WILL BE!  No matter what you do, things will not always go your way.  It just means that you have to deal with them as best you can.  But don’t worry about them before necessary and don’t dwell on them afterwards.  What’s done is done.  What will be, will be.  You can substantially control your destiny, providing you keep your eyes on the prize.  Focus on the objective and deal with the obstacles when you must but not one second longer... and never take your eyes off the dream.

If you want to work with us in our objective to help others we will help you in any way that we can.  But whatever your dream is, whatever you choose to pursue, realize that with persistence and proper focus you can achieve it.

THE HAPPY ENDING???

Remember the house that I was losing?  I wish I could say that I was so brilliant and quick that I fixed everything at light speed and saved my home and didn’t have to move my family.  That would be the fairy tale ending, but it would also be inaccurate.

I couldn’t save my home.  No matter what you do, things do not always work out.  But I was able to use the techniques that we teach for FREE on your website, to find another home; a home that we moved into with nothing down.  It was larger, nicer and a much better fit for our growing family.

See How to purchase a home with no money and no credit.

The moral to that story?  Even if you don’t get exactly what you are after or accomplish exactly your goal, as long as you keep your head up and your eyes open things will still work out… 

If you are reaching for the stars, you will never come up with a handful of mud!

As Napoleon Hill said in his classic book “Think and Grow Rich”, “Every adversity carries with it the seed of an equivalent or greater benefit”.  If I hadn’t been in the process of losing my existing home, I’d have never purchased the home that ended up being so much better for my family.

Each of us has our own destiny in our own hands.  But it is up to each of us to grab it and mold it to our choosing.

see more success principles below...

The true measure of a man is not determined not by what he has… but rather by what he gives.

B. Castro

Defeat isn’t bitter if you don’t swallow it.

Ted Engstrom

It is better to have a good life than a great moment.

B Castro

Small attempts repeated will complete any undertaking.

Og Mandino

It’s hard to move ahead if you are always looking behind.

B Castro

It is more important to have a good life, than it is to have a good day.

B Castro

Concentrate on those things that are goal achieving, not stress relieving.

Tom Hopkins.

One who fears failure limits his activities and limits his accomplishments.  Failure is only the opportunity to more intelligently begin again.

Henry Ford