Sourav Ghosh says:

Past two years I was doing my Engineering. I always have been very good in studies, hence parents never let me think beyond job, atmost they wanted me to work for NASA or ISRO. I had never thought either what I really wanted to do in my life. But after getting admission in engineering college and seeing the real picture of the jobmarket in this changing economy I thought ‘Even if I win the rat race, I will still be a rat!’. So inspite of having great resistance from the family, I joined a wonderful Network Marketing Company eBIZ.com Pvt. Ltd. in my 2nd year of Engineering. And life became absolutely wonderful. At the age of 19 I got the taste of being an Entrepreneur. Thanks to ebiz.com leaders, I started learning to dream big, to have wealth education. I started reading every good books on success, started attending leadership seminars. What I got most is Inner Peace. I felt wonderful doing what I really wanted to do. I started building my Network in West Bengal, and teaching them everything I was learning. In my India, very few people dare to dream big. So when you see, some guy from village dreaming big, & taking action, being inspired by you, you can feel that real success comes from making others successful.
This changing economy had made this studious,middlecast, self-centered guy a dreamer, innovator, motivator, professional speaker, leadership & HR trainer, an Entrepreneur at the age of 21! So this changing economy came to me as blessing. And what’s best? It taught me to worry less, live more. People around me says today ” how can you always have smile on your face!”. Secret? You know-following your heart!
Sourav Ghosh

Brett Oyer says:

2 years ago I was introduced to a leadership development organization (TEAM). Their system has made a life changing impact in me and my wife’s thinking and life. After my wife and I really plugged into the leadership, motivation, success principles, and personal development, it pulled the Greatness and hunger out of us. Just recently (4 weeks ago) I was laid off from my job as a Mechanical Engineer in the Auto Industry and 2 weeks after that my wife was laid off as a Chemical Lab Manager in the Auto Industry. From the information that we have learned, we are moving forward towards our goals and Dreams and we are not participating in the challanging economic situation today.

Shamar Hamilton says:

I feel that when the economy is good, spending is good. Everyone is doing their own thing. We are obliviously going through life without many worries. We are confident. For the most part, we are taking care of the things we need to and even sometimes taking things for granted.

However, now that the economy is bad it has forced me to solidify the relationship I have with my family. We communicate more on how things are going, and on a day-to-day basis we look at our financial condition. Now we are sticking closer to a budget that we can effectively use in any economic condition. We cut back where needed, and we strategically spend on necessities (personal/business) also when needed. I have stopped and smelled the flowers, so to speak, I am very grateful for what I have. I focus more on my work performance and that allows my employer the freedom to expand in other areas. I have also been able to start my own small home-based business that helps people financially and it helps them get through this temporary rough path in their life. The bad economy has allowed me to open my eyes to opportunities that are really out there in helping people save their homes and still enhance their financial lifestyle. I have established a business coaching call that I host along with some of my other friends and business associates, and on this call we focus on reading positive inspirational business building books that keep us all focused and on top of our game.

We realize that many people are scared, so we invite others to listen in and hopefully it helps them to start thinking positively and not just allowing the negative factors get to them and keep them down. I tell my wife and kids I love you each and everyday. I pray several times a day for the life I have, opportunities I can share with others and the power to keep plowing through the wreckage.

Dahlia Corella says:

In a recent interview that you conducted with Tony Hawks he made a very important point about starting a business in a down economy. He stated that it was a good thing because one can be poised to move forward when the upswing in the economy does come. And it will come. Those that wait until the economy is better are way behind in start-up strategies and thus not as capable to quickly grasp the renewed economy. I took that advice very seriously!

Being a fan of Network Marketing or MLM, I am working very hard at preparing for the upswing in the economy. I am involved in a few companies and they offer fantastic products for the current economy. As people begin to see the advantage of what I have to offer in the way of helping themselves recover from the economic slump, they will gain greatly needed assistance to weather the hard times. One of my offerings is that of credit restoration. There is no better time than now when credit is tight and people need the best credit scores possible to qualify for mortgages, car loans, and personal loans.

I am taking these difficult economic times and making it work for me. I’m planning strategies for marketing in the present economy and working with those customers that are ready now. I am banking the names of the clients that want to wait for better economic times for the future. Either way, it is a win win situation for my business model.

It’s true that I may need to see more prospects, but the payoff will be there provided that I maintain the right attitude and preserver. As a result, I see myself as growing and becoming a more patient individual, more careful in choosing marketing strategies, and leaner and wiser in where I put my advertising dollars. These are good lessons to learn in any economic climate.

I am not giving up my day job just yet. But, with the training that I am now receiving from my companies, the belief that I have in this business model, and the fact that time is on my side, I know that I will make a six figure income within five years regardless of the economic climate. Because I know where I want to be, how I am going to get there, and I am coachable and have the right attitude, there is no stopping my organizations growth.

This is what I have learned from the current economic crisis of the past two years. I’ve studied it, analyzed the possibilities, and have a clear vision for the future.

Dahlia Corella-Ryle
8635 FM 2146
Jourdanton, Texas 78026
830-277-2305 home
210-557-6719 cell
dahliacorella@yahoo.com
Success Magazine Subscriber

Erin Al-Mehairi says:

I made the leap this year in the midst of the unstable economy, to quit my healthcare marketing and public relations job of 7 years and start my own business. Many people thought I was crazy because so many people have lost their job or are happy to just be holding on to a job. But having a job does not define me. I define me. I wasn’t happy and I wasn’t going to make excuses or talk myself into staying. I had to do what was right for me to move on and be successful. I needed to take care of my health, as I was diagnosed this year with a connective tissue disorder (autoimmune disease) and have small children that I wanted to spend more time with before they all were in school and grew up before I had a chance to grow with them. I can have my own business now, a business I love because public relations is my life, I can still do all my community service work, I can rest when I need to because I work from home, and best of all, I can bet there for my children. I am happy and I am prospering. My business skills are needed and valued. I love where my life is going!

http://www.addisonscompass.com

Marcos A. Rondineli says:

In the past two years… I’ve met Internet, believe me or not (I already worked a bit with it but didn’t know its power so far). By the year 2000 I left my job and decided to write books denouncing corruption and violences in Brazil due to awfull personnal experiences involving my most beloved relatives and friends, besides my own self getting caught by surprising hipocrisie on society.
Well, in order not to get long with this story, after expending all my economies travelling and trying to get support on foreign authorities, I’d realize that people do not really care for each other as long as they have their own life moving on.
On 2003 a grandson of mine born and my youngest sister died of cancer and I decided not to live on society anymore and refugied myself on a countryside house without either food or money, dealing with young people mostly involved with criminalities and drugs, while I experienced writing my reflections and experiences on helping them getting more faith on their lives by annalising reasons to the various happenings.
That did work and by the end of 2007 I moved to my father’s house, where I live now, and then I’ve found a brand new world of people who actually care to others, deeply, but most of them socially apart of others, hiding themselves behind their computer screens.
That changed my life. I found out that words of wisdom do move people towards serenity and acceptance of dificulties in normal life, and finally found a use for my own experience sharing thinkings and well… spreading love, a very Christian way of serving brothers. I’m not religious and all I preach is the existence of a powerfull force judging our acts, and I do accept the name of light or even God for that undiscovered force. Names do not matter, actually.
I’m happy now and I do feel myself spreading seeds of generosity and goodness on wounded hearts everywhere. Blood and/or crying tears are, as I found out, excelent food for growing hopes and fraternity, and humanity really does need that.
My life has changed from a dusty rock lost in the jungle to a shiny star brighting on the sky. It feels good.
Well… I can say I comprehend myself as an egual to anybody else and I owe that mainly to Internet who gave me a reason to keep on living. I found it just divine, gave me back faith and peace of heart. What else could I want if not sharing with the world my experiences? My grandson will inherit the world we are building for him and I’m willing to do the best I can to improve it.
The true life admits another called false, or fake and taking a longer look to the mirror, I do believe I found a new path on these past two years: my face looks younger every day.

JOE STOGSDILL says:

I would appreciate it if you would discontinue all my subscriptions to SUCCESS MAGAZIN & any thing else on get rich quick schemes. They do not work for me & I don’t like wasting my money !

JOE STOGSDILL says:

I would appreciate it if you would discontinue all my subscriptions to SUCCESS MAGAZIN & any thing else on get rich quick schemes. They do not work for me & I don’t like wasting my money !

Ed Taylor says:

I have lost over 110 pounds in the last 18 months. The economy is starving me… No my weight loss has nothing to do with the economy but it does have a lot to do about success. I have been a loooong time reader of Success my dad subscribed since I was a teenager. I even had a chance to meet and have lunch with W. Clement Stone back in the 80’s.
I was involved with the promotion and marketing of motivational seminars for many years, my clients included Tony Robbins, Brian Tracy, Jim Rohn and dozens of other well known speakers and authors.
I bring all of this up only to say that as a backdrop to my story, my path to fitness.
I was heavy since high school, in shape but heavy. I played football, wrestled and put the shot (non particularly well but I did them all.) I was married at 20 (I weighed about 200 at the time) to a great cook and as a commercial fisherman and longshoreman I stayed rather fit but I was on the large side and getting larger.
At 23 I went into sales, doughnut shops, lunch meetings, late night restaurant stops, fast food, all of it by the time I was 30 I was way out of shape and 230 pounds. My ideal weight is probably 180 or 185, I was cubby is a child and at 30 45 or 50 pounds overweight… but wait, that just the beginning by the time I was 50 I was well over 300 (I topped out at 323 when I was 52- I’m now 212 at age 54.)
Obviously I still have a few pounds to go, but I have lost over 110 ponds and I’m still dropping.
OK back to the beginning of my story, I have ALWAYS been a very positive person with a VERY positive outlook. I have never had a serious health problem and my extra 150 pounds didn’t impair my life nearly as much as all of my new fans seem to think it would have.
I have been a reasonably successful professional speaker (I have delivered over 700 presentations on Internet marketing and in some small circles I’m recognized as something of an expert.) I can’t think of anything that I have wanted to do that I haven’t done, I have fire-walked and skydived and scuba dived, and white water rafted, etc. I was not impeded by my obesity, I was sickened by it, my wife loved me all along (35 years this year). A good question at this point is- Why then did I make a conscience effort to lose weight and get in shape?
The answer to that is too long for this article. But what we do have time for is the how- how did I do it. I decided. That’s the start. I made a decision, in fact I made several decisions. I decided not to be fat anymore. I decided I wasn’t going to go on some fad diet, I knew how to lose weight and get in shape, so do you. You eat less and exercise more. So I decided to eat less and exercise more. I also know I had to cut out some things and add some things, right? Cut out the sweets and chips and breads and pasta and add more fresh veggies, right? You know that, I know that. I also had to add some movement, come on, we all know this- the trick is what? Doing it, right?
This is where all of those old Success magazine articles started to come back, all of the things the Tony Robbins , Jim Rohn and Brian Tracy said… but and this is a huge but (pun slightly intended) I have never been willing to be a slave to anything including disciplines that would clearly benefit me. I have always placed a VERY high value on my personal freedom and flexibility- I would not, and will not be owned by a diet or a ridged set of “must do’s”.
I took what I have come to describe as a spiritual path. I have given up being fat, I have become an exerciser. I use my own common sense, I don’t have a deadline or specific goals and due dates but I would like to get to my ideal weight quickly and in a way that is healthy and flexible.
Of course Clement Stone, Jim Rohn and Tony and Brian all mention spiritual stuff in there books and talks, I just didn’t get it. A big part, for me the biggest part of success in this endeavor, has been staying true to my nature, being who I am, trusting that I am good, life is good and I can have what I want simply by wanting it, doing the things that move you closer to that vision and not doing the things that you know don’t and then trusting that you can stay the path.
Failure comes from 3 things quitting, doing the wrong things and or not doing the right things.
Success comes from the exact opposite- staying the course, not doing the wrong things and doing the right things. It seems about that simple to me.
Of course the short cut to success is learning from others but the trick, at least for me, was not trying to become like someone else, in fact I spent years trying to be things I was not, today I am very happy being me, doing my thing in my way and understanding the basics, know what to do and… do it.
Ed Taylor
ed@EdTaylor.com

Christopher McCann says:

Are you playing it safe, but feeling trapped in the life you have created for yourself? How do you know when it’s time to move on from a job, a relationship, or even the town you live in? Often times the best strategy to achieve victory in life’s battles is to “burn the boats behind us.” Times may be a bit lean right now but the truth is, this is a great opportunity to grow. Before you write me off as crazy, listen to what I have to say about job loss, income issues, and any of life’s major challenges.

Step 1: If you are not dead, this challenge will make you stronger.
Step 2: This is your opportunity to think about what you really want in life.
Step 3: Ask yourself what kind of goals inspire you right now. If you move towards you inspiration fully, learn from your passion, and share it with the world, you can’t fail!

Is the reason you don’t reach your goals because you don’t care anymore? You may not have a clear vision of where you want to go, but you may know that you need to leave where you are right now. When I first got into the habit of setting goals, people told me they should set S.M.A.R.T goals (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timely). It was very methodical, but it didn’t work well for me. I wanted to achieve my S.M.A.R.T goals, but they never consistently got my butt in motion to do anything about them. What did work for me was scrapping that whole process by looking at the goals I had already achieved and the goals that I hadn’t. What I found was that the goals I achieved weren’t usually the S.M.A.R.T ones. They were the goals that inspired me and they drove me to action the minute I thought about them. Now when I set a goal, if it doesn’t change the way I feel or my state immediately, then I know it’s a bad goal, I won’t bother with it.
How do I know when I’m inspired? Not too long ago I made a decision to “burn the boats” with my career and begin, again. You know how people suggest to you that the things you did as a child are what you should do for a living? What I really enjoyed was coaching youth sports teams (even though I was a kid myself) and creating art. I would immerse myself so deeply in those projects, and would lose track of time. I love how it felt to help people grow, seeing that “A-ha” moment in people’s eyes. That has always been something I got off on. How could I get back in touch with wanting to inspire people, have fun helping and connecting with people? The more work I’ve done towards that as a recruiter, the more the goals themselves totally inspired me. The funny thing is that somewhere along the line I’ve begun to achieve it; it inspired me, drove me to action and created a result. I am no longer was adopting socially conditioned goals, where you set them, start working on them then realize deep down you just don’t care. My goals were always about what other people wanted, not what inspired me.
So I thought I would try to set inspiring goals. The question is; how do you tease out that motivation by connecting what you want in your life? One of the first steps is disconnecting what you don’t want. You may find yourself in a trap where your life is filled with things you don’t want, or don’t feel connected to. They leave you feeling uninspired. Maybe you’re in a city you don’t want to live in, or a job you don’t like, maybe a relationship where you feel stuck. It’s counter-intuitive to shed what you don’t want in order to create space for what you do want. Now at this point you may be asking yourself “Who is this guy and is he serious? It’s a crappy job market and I’m going to leave what do have, behind? It’s better than nothing!” As Steven Covey says, go for win-win or no deal. Too many of us think that compromise is the best solution. Personally, I’d rather be homeless than be in a situation I don’t enjoy. Did I burn the boats? Absolutely. You have to burn the ships that got you there when you land on the new shore. However, you don’t want to burn the food and supplies! I’m guilty of this and had to learn the hard way a few times… Make a careful distinction between what you need (food and supplies) vs. the escape route that’s keeping you tied to that ship. It’s no different that going through a divorce, you’ve got leave, but DAMN you wish you had grabbed that end table…
After burning the ships, you’ve taken it far enough to where you are committed. If you have to quit your job to move forward (and a lot of people do) the job isn’t only the food and supplies, it’s the ship as well! That’s what may very well be keeping you in the wrong harbor. In my parents and grandparents generation, the idea was that you picked a job and did that for life. We’ve inherited the ability to not question our circumstances or choices we made years ago. It’s not that I woke up one morning and turned the corner; it was a gradual malaise, a long slow curve, that developed over time. I t took me years to realize what was happening to me, no matter how many times I had heard it from others. I couldn’t mute my feelings any longer, and made the choice to recreate myself. Rather than mute my feelings, I made the choice to follow inspiration. There’s a part of me that wants to shake the hell out of the people I interact with, rip the heart out of my chest and stick it in theirs! By heart I mean courage. The definition of courage is “the state or quality of mind or spirit that enables one to face danger, fear, or vicissitudes with self-possession, confidence, and resolution; bravery.” It is derived from the Middle English corage, from Old French, from Vulgar Latin *corāticum, from Latin cor, heart. The root of the word courage is heart. Ask yourself, does this path I’m on have a heart?
How do you know if the path has heart? You feel it in your chest, it excites you, and you have an emotional reaction to it. At the same time it scares you, you have this feeling of “wow, that would be awesome but I don’t know if I can pull it off…” These are the goals that should really inspire you. Excitement is part inspiration and part terror. I have to be somewhat scared about the path I’m on because that’s the path that is building courage. It’s scary out there and so many of us are playing it safe. Find that edge, that thing you feel in your chest that both scares and excites you. Safe is an adjective and a noun, it means both free from harm and an enclosed locked container. If you’re living the noun you’re living the adjective as well. The need for security is restricting your freedom. If the basis of your of your self esteem is your need for security, a safe relationship or a steady paycheck, you’re living in a cage.
What does it look like to take a step outside of that? Initially it’s terrifying. At the same time it’s thrilling. From a pretty early age, I made a conscious decision to create difficulty in my life as a means of creating growth. It’s been long, progressive training, no different than using dumbbells to strength train. For someone who has been stuck, changing jobs is a huge weight to lift. It’s like a “newbie” looking at a 100 pound dumbbell, thinking that’s too much weight to curl. Yet everyone is at a different level of courage, only able to tolerate a level of uncertainty. You need to have a vision of where you are going when it comes to the application of courage. Ask yourself “where do I want to be? What shore am I sailing to” THEN burn the ship! How important is that vision of where you want to be? It depends on if you’re in more of a training or destination mindset. There are times when I have goals that are just about training. Maybe there something I’m afraid of where I need to build my courage. a fear I need to get over, then I’ll go do it. Maybe after that the vision is more about competition so it’s more of performance mode than practice. Performance mode is applying the strength I’ve already built. As any athlete knows, there’s a big difference between practice and games. If all they did was play games, they wouldn’t be a great athlete because practice puts you in as many potential scenarios as possible.

Now to the meaty part. Are you worried about your job and the possibility of losing it? Wondering what to do if you’ve already lost your job? How can you turn that job loss into a positive opportunity? How can focusing on your passion, rather than paying your bills actually help build a more satisfying life? We all have been at the “oh shit, what am I gonna do” part. Some of us will look at the glass being half empty and some half full. This path I’m sharing with you of courage and inspiration seems like the high, unrealistic and impractical road. There is a hidden benefit to losing your job. It is GOING to make you stronger. It’s very true that whatever doesn’t kill you will make you stronger. You may be running deeper and deeper into debt, even on the verge of bankruptcy. You know what? You will still be here. Your life won’t end, it’ll only make you stronger and wiser. You’ have plenty of time to relax when you’re six feet under. You should be building skills that may have never developed if you hadn’t gone through that experience. To reiterate, the first step is;
1: If you lost your job, that’s a wonderful thing because it’s going to make you stronger. People will come to me and tell me they quit their job, lost it, or got laid off. Invariably my response is congratulations! That’s awesome! I can say that because I know they are about to go through a monstrous growth experience. There are lots of people who lose their jobs and feel a sense of relief, as if some enormous burden has been lifted. It’s all in your mind and depends entirely on your perspective, how you react is under your control. You can see it as a huge opportunity, or not. Your goal shouldn’t be to live a cozy, secure and safe life-you’ll have plenty of opportunity to do that when you’re 6 feet under, in a nice little box. No one will bug you then.

2: Start thinking about what you really want to do. Maybe you’re not strong enough to lift that weight yet, but you can start developing your courage and skills in that direction. What kind of goals inspire you right now? Don’t look at the easy ones, but the ones that will lift you up. Re-frame it from “Oh my God, holy sh*t” into “here we go, this is a gift, it’ll make me stronger”. Now we need to get clear about what we really want and what starts moving us towards that, what gets us fired up.

3: Ask yourself what kind of goals inspire you right now. If you move towards your inspiration fully, learn from your passion, and share it with the world, you can’t fail! There’s a balance between being freaked out. What’s a simple way of finding the balance between challenge and being freaked out? Grow a pair! Helen Keller said life is a daring adventure or nothing. There is no in between. The challenge is what makes you you stronger. It’s the equivalent of going to the gym and lifting the same weight day after day. Whats the point? You’re not gonna get any stronger? How long are you going to stick with the 10 pound dumbbells? Progress! Get stronger! Of course its harder to lift the heavy weights, you’d be bored and frustrated by a lack of growth. There’s no need to fear it or resist it, even though it’s called resistance training. Let the resistance come from life itself, not from whats within you.

When people lose their jobs, they really start thinking hard about their lives, maybe for the first time in quite awhile. You may be feeling a mixture of panic and relief. Almost always they’re losing a job they didn’t really want (which is often the reason why they lost it). They were expendable. They were fired or laid off because they weren’t really needed. They weren’t doing work that they were passionate about. It’s not very common that people who are passionate are fired or laid off. They are usually awesome to be around and management is going to let that person go last and only if they absolutely have to. That person is probably doing more work than anyone else and they’re creating a ton of value. Knowing those things to be true, turn inward, determine what you’re really passionate about, what you’d really like to do and how can you create that.
Don’t focus too much on the “how” right away..its the why. Ask yourself, what would that kind of life be like, and start feeling that passion once again. That passion and excitement is what’s going to get you into action! Job security is finding that passion, adding energy, and contributing. That’s what people want to be around. You are adding energy-you’re a contributor. A manager of 10 employees that has to lay off two is NOT going to lay off those that have the energy, passion and contribute. They’re going to lay off those that are miserable, unproductive, that don’t really fit, those that aren’t easy get along with and that don’t want to be there. The manager is actually doing them a favor by laying them off! Those are the individuals that really DO need that wake up call! If I’ve been laid off, and I’m sitting here reading this trying to shift my perspective, there is incentive for me to dig deep and find out what I’m inspired by because that’s going to make me more attractive. Take the time and find out what fires you up because THAT is going to make you more marketable and relevant. Inspiration is absolutely critical. I’ve worked for a time without it and a great deal of time with it. After experiencing both sides of that fence I could never go back to working without it. When you’re passionate, filled with energy, happy and contributing, you find yourself inspiring people in ways that you can’t even imagine!

When I truly became successful in this business, it wasn’t when I started billing x amount of dollars, it was when I made the decision to start helping and inspiring people. People say do what you love and the money will follow. I find that it’s somewhat accurate, but you have to understand why that is the case. See, when you do what you love, you do it often and you get good at it. Eventually. Hopefully. If you keep working at it, for 10,000 hours (according to Outliers) you’re going to become great! I imagine this is only true if you work at it intelligently and passionately, rather than making the same mistakes over and over. Eventually you’ll create some value for other people. Now you have some talent that you can share, use and teach other people how to do what you’re doing. Then you can create income by exchanging value with others. It started for me with awareness of finding my passion, really focusing on it, developing it and sharing it with others.
Just because you made your bed doesn’t mean you have to lie in it. I no longer believe that I have to live with my past decisions, choices, and actions. Thank God. The past is past and has nothing to do with me. It has nothing to do with Now. Do not let anything from your past inhibit you as you go about re-creating yourself. Start over. Start Fresh. Each day. Each hour. Each minute. Just get going. Just do it. Just say it. With passion. All else will take care of itself.

Marie Joseph says:

I save regardless of the ecomony, therefore I have no obstacles- you should do a piece on personal finance bloggers, starting with me

Scott Wimberly says:

I have been teaching at a private Christian school for the past three years. However, the past few years have put a strain on the school. I realized this year that it was time to launch out and start writting. I have been working on a book project: a book concerning people’s destiny and their decisions. Should be complete by summer. I am then going to start work on another book project: one on developing character and integrity through athletics. I will be working with a school here in Tuscaloosa and their athletic department. I am so looking forward to moving into my own destiny and purpose in these projects. Also, I will be working on a daily blog: http://scottwimberly.com Along with public speaking on the subject of destiny, personal/leadership development, and purpose. The economy has been hard on folk, but it has got me moving toward my destiny!!