How do we do it, wade through all of the negativity keeping our heads up high and walking with pride?  Well yesterday I got an email (a chain letter but I read these sometimes because they do cover  important issues), this one dealt with negativity. Here is the email.

“A 92-year-old, petite, well-poised and proud man, who is fully dressed each  morning by eight o’clock, with his hair fashionably combed and shaved  perfectly, even though he is legally blind, moved to a nursing home today.
His wife of 70 years recently passed away, making the move necessary. After  many hours of waiting patiently in the lobby of the nursing home, he smiled  sweetly when told his room was ready.
As he maneuvered his walker to the elevator, I provided a visual description  of his tiny room, including the eyelet sheets that had been hung on his window.  I love it,’ he stated with the enthusiasm of an eight-year-old having just  been presented with a new puppy.

Mr. Jones, you haven’t seen the room; just wait.’

‘That doesn’t have anything to do with it,’ he replied.  “Happiness is something you decide on ahead of time.  Whether I like my room or not doesn’t depend on how the furniture is  arranged … it’s how I arrange my mind. I already decided to love it. ‘It’s a decision I make every morning when I wake up. I have a choice;  I can spend the day in bed recounting the difficulty I have with the  parts of my body that no longer work, or get out of bed and be thankful  for the ones that do”.

“Each day is a gift, and as long as my eyes open, I’ll focus on the new day  and all the happy memories I’ve stored away.. Just for this time in my life.
Old age is like a bank account. You withdraw from what you’ve put in.
So, my advice to you would be to deposit a lot of happiness in the bank  account of memories”!

Wow – what do you say when someone shares that type of information, even if it comes in a chain email.

Thank you for your part in filling my Memory Bank.  I am still depositing.

Remember the 5 simple rules to be happy:

1. Free your heart from hatred.
2. Free your mind from worries.
3. Live simply.
4. Give more.
5. Expect less.

That’s it,  you don’t need the ‘forward to 20 people or be crushed by a falling building’! Just 5 simple rules to live by, worth a try hmm?

And who am I to share this advice?

When I graduated from High School I was awarded the Joe Francomano Junior Achievement Entrepreneurial Scholarship and was bound for better things.  But after 2 years trying to track down my parent to get financial information for FAFSA I admitted defeat and like Bill Gates I quit college.

I tried my hand at HARD SALES for 10 months, representing companies like Staples, Quill, and AT&T but was forced to QUIT on ethical grounds and I realized that Sales wasn’t my thing.    I started work for a company which provides affordable funerals, and loved it but it was barely at a living wage.  It did however help me regain my confidence and develop my skills.  After another false start working for a Title company, my boyfriend encouraged me to reassess my goals , I realized I was WAY OFF my original plan to get a degree in business and take an admin position at a not for profit.  Four months later I secured a position at a College of Fine Arts and went back to school part time.

In fall 2008 I received my Associates Degree in Business Administration with an emphasis in Accounting and began to think hard about what I should do with my degree.  With my full time position to sustain me, I knew I needed something to sustain my entrepreneurial soul, after reviewing many businesses I decided AVON gave me the best chance of survival and growth.

It has been a bumpy ride and I learned a lot from the adventure, its definitely NOT EASY getting customers on a shoe string budget but I’m making progress.  I am now working on returning the investment from the Joe Francomano scholarship.  No more PLAYING around. It is time to focus on becoming independent.

The BIGGEST LESSON I ‘ve learned is to keep plugging away; sometimes the growth is so gradual that you do not even realize you are growing.  Another lesson was that I need to be more friendly (I have never been the most popular and probably never will be since I march to my own drum);  to really make it in a home business you have to stop focusing on yourself and learn to make friends along the way, those friends will help you succeed.

I made Unit Leader this year, which means I have recruited 5 people and my team is selling $1200 in product total every two weeks. This gives me residual income from the hard work and training I have provided for my team, so it’s all worth it!

In order to keep on track I write a blog called: Adventures of a Juggling Artist,  I post positive pep talks, funny stories, heart warming moments, and updates on my AVON business.  I’m in the middle of living, learning, laughing and invite you to share my experiences and hoping you will share yours!

Heidi Walker is a Unit Leader for Avon Cosmetics, a Finance Assistant  at Kansas City Art Institution and a Co-owner at Integral Real Estate Investments.  Heidi  says “my blog is to help me and others to keep a positive outlook on their goals and to get a few laughs out of it too ~ Life is not worth living without laughter”.  Her blog is Adventures of a Juggling Artist” http://ow.ly/1Ws8W.   If you would like to order Avon products or learn more about Avon’s compensation plan http://hwalker.avonrepresentative.com and her Twitter id is http://www.twitter.com/KCAVONLADY

My adventure started back in early 1998, I received a small inheritance from an Aunt who had passed, and ‘we’ decided to try and get my husband out of his unhealthy corporate job by starting a business for him.  I found myself doing a lot of the research and each night I’d give him idea after idea of things which might suit him.  He seemed totally disinterested, but I continued to search.

Eventually I stumbled upon www.Staffcentrix.com and the Virtual Assistant industry, not for my husband, but I thought it might be something I could do part-time while my husband was building his business, and which might offer me a way out of my totally unethical corporate job.

By early summer, my husband was still not sure what he wanted to do, and I was starting to make a little extra cash doing administrative projects for neighbors and friends.  Because of the demands of my current position I wasn’t able to devote much time to marketing and growing the business, but it was becoming a profitable endeavor nonetheless.

In early July, I experienced an incidence of degradation at the hands of one of my co-workers.  I received a totally inappropriate public berating witnessed by one of the company managers, who did nothing to help me and made no attempt to stop the offender, a totally unacceptable situation!   I sat quietly until my supervisor returned an hour later,  marched into his office and gave my 2 week’s notice.

YIKES! I hadn’t even spoken to my husband or my daughter.  Even I was shocked I did it.  But the next morning, rather than feeling remorse or fear I felt incredibly relieved; I knew I’d made the right decision.  Fortunately, both my husband and daughter were very supportive,  for which I’m truly grateful!  I decided to take my part-time hobby and turn it into a thriving business.  I didn’t doubt that I could do it;  in fact I was grateful to have the opportunity to try it full-time.

There was a time two years in when I was ready to throw in the towel, it just didn’t seem like I could make a go of it. I had gone back to work part-time causing my business to stagnate because I had NO time to do the marketing, and I’d spent all my inheritance.  I just could not see how I would ever make it work, but we found a way.  I realized that I was willing to do just about anything to avoid giving up on what I’d started.  Once again my husband came to the rescue providing me with the support and encouragement to keep going.

Within a year, I was well on my way to creating a business that could do more than contribute to the family expenses. By my fifth year in business it was turning a nice profit.  Enough for us to travel regularly (something we both enjoyed), it was glorious!

Then, towards the end of that year my husband got laid off and everything changed.  Now I needed to step up the pace to help our family make ends meet.  I worked day and night, training and hiring sub-contractors and was able to grow my business to the point that I was making a significant contribution to our family finances, while still loving every minute.

I am very fortunate and extremely grateful to be where I am today.  I  would never have been able to do this  without the support, encouragement and mentor ship of many others I met on the journey.

I’ve always thought the key to my success was that I made every mistake in the book;  my ability and willingness to learn from those experiences has been my biggest assets.  My entire professional outlook and attitude made a HUGE shift over those first six to seven years.

• I transitioned my mindset from that of an employee to that of an entrepreneur.  While I still had to do marketing and sales,  doing it for MY business, something I was personally attached to created a different persona that my employee self would hardly recognize.
• I found that I needed to look at situations differently,  I had to be willing to look at both sides and to take the emotion out of my decision-making process.  .
• The level of customer service changed, too.  I  realized,  what it means to say, “The customer is always right” a difficult adjustment. I learned  that when  someone feels they’ve been treated badly or unfairly, even due to their own unethical approach, there’s nothing in the world that you can do or say to change their view of the situation.  I had to reach a mindset to cut my losses, even if it meant providing the service but refunding all their money, without letting it drag me down. This allowed me to maintain my level of ethics, reputation and, professionalism while learning what I could from the situation to allow me to make better decisions.

On a personal & professional level all of this growth has helped me be positive and stay determined not to give up.

You may wonder what happened to my husband’s “dream business”. Well, after being laid off several times, my husband decided that his calling might be in  real estate investing (we already owned and managed one rental property).  We cashed in stocks and savings and sent him back to school to find out how to buy, sell, hold and, flip houses.

We learned that owning and operating a business was not for him.  He needs the structure of someone else telling him what needed to be done.  So after several frustrating years and, two bad property purchases (a very humbling and frustrating experience for both of us)  he threw in the towel and went back to work full-time

Today, three years after returning to the corporate world, he still hasn’t  been able to get back into management because he has ‘aged out’ of the market and can no longer compete with those just entering the field.  We continue to look for something in the corporate world that will allow him to better serve his passions.

Owning your own business is by no means easy, or everyone would be doing it! Even when you own and successfully operate one business it doesn’t necessarily follow that you will succeed  at another.

You may wonder why some ‘make it’ while others with the same skill level may not? I believe that although some have great skills and expertise, they lack the attitude and mindset to establish and manage a business.  Some people require structure, while others fail to understand the human factor.

To be successful in business, I believe you have to really want it bad.  You have to sacrifice a lot to make a go of it.  You have to not only think outside the box, but be willing to do some things that take you out of your comfort zone.  YOU CAN DO IT! It’s by no means easy; but it is incredibly rewarding.

I have definitely found my niche, one that is expanding beyond my initial dreams.  Thanks to the trials and tribulations in my business and, what I learned from my husband’s foray into entrepreneurship I realized there was a need for coaching in my industry,  so I started my own VA Coaching Practice to help others learn what it takes to establish and grow a VA business so they can follow their passions and do the work they LOVE.

An Entrepreneur’s Adventure © by Jeannine Clontz

Jeannine Clontz, owner of Accurate Business Services, a VA practice, is an author, writer, speaker and VA Business Coach specializing in providing professional business coaching to established and start-up virtual assistants (VA’s).  For her FREE audio CD “What’s Holding Back my Business Success?”, a 2-month trial in her Insider group coaching program, or 1-month trial of her coaching club visit: http://www.VAbizcoach.com ; or contact her at: coach@VAbizcoach.com. Jeannine’s expertise has recently been recognized with her appointed as  President of the International Virtual Assistance Association.  http://www.ivaa.com.

This article may not be copied or reproduced without permission from the author.

My youth was filled with entrepreneurial endeavors. Like many young girls I started out babysitting, tried some housekeeping which definitely was not my calling, and eventually started designing tote bags and purses. I started my first real business in 2006 and learned how to operate a large retail and wholesale clothing business replete with importing, accounting and sales. Most of what I learned was through trial and error. I love being my own boss and being in control of my finances, but wanted to do more than just make money.

Early in my working life I realized; that I could accomplish more by collaborating with other business owners especially women and it was at this point that my experience and need to give back came together.  I began Investing In Women (IIW) in the spring of 2008 with a few pages of business resources and a blog celebrating women. As the name suggests, my primary goal is to empower and encourage women to be financially independent. Having read about the positive effect of micro grants in developing countries, I knew this would work in the USA. Through the site I have set up a micro-grant program for women in the USA. The first micro grant was awarded in 2009 and I am currently working on awarding the second.  I decided that grants would have to be more than the usual $30 given in other countries to make a difference to a business in the US, and finally decided that $500 would work because it can buy advertising, products and or a website. Of course new business owners need more than just money to become a success, so offering free business resources would be needed.

My goal is to award 100 grants in the next 2 years and I would like to extend the program to add a micro-scholarship for women studying business and a grant for Eco-conscious businesses.

Information about the grant program can be found at this link http://iiwomen.com/New/index.htm

Leah Oviedo is a successful business owner in Encinitas, California; she has a background in website design & PR and owned a retail business for 4 years.  Coming from a family of successful women business owners she wanted to give back and support other women business owners.

Leah created the Investing In Women website in February 2009 and now provides a rich resource of business tools and advice for other small business owners. Since its inception visitors to the site have increased every month, becoming more and more popular. IIW now has a monthly newsletter going to over 200 business owners (women and men).

For over 20 years I worked in the nonprofit field in New England and Ohio and upon moving back to New England from Cleveland in 2007 I needed to find a job.  We moved back east to be closer to family and friends after 16 years in the Midwest.  Well, jobs here in western Massachusetts are not easy to come by, at least not for me, as a 60 year old woman.  Having had many years of experience in staff supervision and believing I might use that experience as a life and leadership coach I got my coaching certification in June 2008.  Were clients waiting on my doorstep for my newfound wisdom and skill?  Well, it seems not………………..

However, the experience of learning about the techniques and philosophy of coaching had a transformative effect on my life.  I began to really see possibilities, to explore my interests, to trust my intuition.  I literally had a spontaneous idea one day to create a web-based directory of consultants, coaches, vendors and other specialists who serve the nonprofit community in order to connect them to nonprofits who could use their experience and expertise.

I didn’t know anything about building a website or growing a business, but I found a company called Stores On Line that specializes in building and hosting business websites and I was on my way.  With a lot of phone assistance from SOL I created the NonProfit National Resource Directory website and invited a few folks who were serving nonprofits to list their services for free in order to “seed” the directory.

I began building a database of potential specialists from consultants and coaches I found on the internet.  I contacted them via email and introduced the idea of the NonProfit National Resource Directory.  Remarkably some of them took me up on the listing offer almost without hesitation, paying $50 for a 12 month full page listing in the directory.

Over the last 15 months the directory has grown to include 140 paying specialists   and our scope has expanded to include sponsoring teleseminars relevant to nonprofit organizations  all presented by our  resource specialists.  They cover an ever widening range of topics including:  Social Media for Nonprofits; Conducting a Capital Campaign; and Making the Case for Support and, we already have a full schedule of teleseminars confirmed through November 2010.

Another addition to the directory is a monthly e-newsletter sent to nonprofits called “Give Us 10 Minutes (and we’ll give you): Support on Issues of Import, Concern and Challenge to the Nonprofit Sector”.

Although the directory is just about supporting itself (and not yet me) I am excited about the connections I am making between my specialists and the nonprofits who can benefit from their services.  I introduce each teleseminar with the following words:

“The work of the nonprofit sector is essential to the well-being of our society.  Millions of Americans rely on you to provide services that support their physical and mental health, their educational aspirations, their religious and spiritual needs, their quest for happiness and fulfillment, their hopes and dreams for themselves, their families and their communities.  Here you will find those who will partner with you, as you guide your organization into the future.”

I still get a thrill each day when I open my computer and see the NonProfit National Resource Directory website on my screen.  It’s real; it’s something I created out of a wish to follow my purpose and I am passionate about sharing it with nonprofit organizations in order to help them fulfill their purpose.

I wholeheartedly believe that we can envision our future and make it real.  It definitely takes time, patience and some frustration and, yes there are some days when you feel it would be better to stay in bed but in the end, there is pride, passion, and a sense of purpose as the prize.

Passion and Purpose are the Prize by Marcia Bloomberg ©

Marcia Bloomberg, owner of The Bloomberg Group manages the NonProfit
National Resource Directory. The Directory encompasses 140 specialists,
consultants, coaches, and vendors serving the nonprofit community and
is growing every week; Marcia also sponsors teleseminars and publishes
a monthly e-newsletter on topics pertinent to nonprofits both featuring
materials developed by Directory specialists.

Marcia lives in Greenfield MA and can be reached at:

Email:    Marcia.bloomberg@gmail.com

Twitter:   http://www.twitter.com/nonprofitdirect

Website: http://www.nonprofitnationalresourcedirectory.com

Phone:    413-325-3196

This article may not be copied or reproduced without permission from the author.

Who will be on your list?   Let us know………  IWD was originally celebrated on March 19th 1911, so in my mind we have a couple of weeks.

My list includes my sister ( a leader in precision engineering),  she is my hero and friend who takes on the men in what they think is their field and quickly becomes their hero too;  Valentina Tereshkova, my childhood hero (the 1st woman in space, she piloted Vostok 6 in June 1963) now there is a step out of your comfort zone;  Julie Tullis  who was strong and cared about others until the end (a  British mountaineer,  my mentor  and friend who died on K2 in August 1986) and many more who show their courage, strength and passion every day in everything they do!

Remember……………….

“There is a special place in hell for women who do not help women.” Madeleine Albright

For me a spark ignited shortly after I started high school,  probably a common enough occurrence I would image.  I had always been the quiet one in the family, somewhat of a tomboy but definitely no scholar although habitually with my nose in a book or preferably with a book in one hand and a line of view to the flights of fancy of  Children’s Hour on the BBC.  I had an imagination that was certain, but I was no match for my younger sister whose academic prowess was renowned even at an early age and who’s precocious humor charmed all around her.

In those days kids of 11 went through a ritual hazing similar to the SATs, basically IQ testing with a strong emphasis on comprehension I think.  I can’t say I actually remember taking the tests but there definitely wasn’t much math involved, because Mr. Phimister had already declared me to be mathematically illiterate!  Well, somehow I aced the test and ended up being placed in one of the top academic streams at the high school.  Most of the kids around me went to the local technical school instead.   I was stunned &  it must be said a little triumphant (although I did worry that someone had checked the wrong box), my parents were stunned and my teachers were amazed.  In fact, the only person who seemed totally unsurprised was the elderly lady at the library who had long since given me a ticket to the mysterious adult side because I had read everything there was in the kids section.  As she said “Books are knowlege, knowlege is power” and that was my first key to the kingdom.

In my first year of high school I found my niche and plodded along quite happily hovering on the edge of a number of different cliches until I found my own.  I wasn’t the sharpest in the class but neither was I the dunce,  I was suddenly up to my ears in formal academics and did pretty well.  I avoided the rich and snobby kids and the wild kids and meandered down the middle of the social world.

I went to an all girls high school with 300 girls in my year, 150  in higher level academics and 150 in slightly less academic classes. The school had a compliment of about 1700 girls ranging from 12 to 18.  By whatever chance of fate, I ended up in the highest academic class for my year!

I’ve been thinking about this lately, my daughters have both just transitioned into new schools , one to middle school and the other high school and we’ve just been pulling together holiday gifts for kids at school and working out who they know or can swap gifts with.  I was reminded of how I met my first  high school friend.

For the first couple of months I stuck to those few who had transferred over from my junior school although none were in my classes.  Margy was in my class,  our ‘home’ room was the Domestic Science room,  so we didn’t have the advantage of a real desk or locker to store our stuff in and had to lug it everything around with us in our satchel or wicker basket.    When Christmas came around, we were just finishing assembly when Margy reached into her satchel and thrust a small package into my hand.  I felt a little awkward since  I didn’t have anything for her but I was thrilled.  I went out that day and bought her the little pottery animal that was missing from her collection but I definitely got the best of the deal.

What was the treasure? A Collins pocket dictionary ~ are we sensing a pattern here!?  I found out years later that she just had an ‘extra’  gift but I will be forever grateful for that and the friendship it cemented.  It has had a huge impact on my life, both the friendship and the dictionary.  The former because Margy was/is a great and stoic friend plus she had a huge cadre of acquaintances  who opened up their ranks to me.  The dictionary because an edict my Father had passed a long time before (as a punishment!) to read and digest a page of the dictionary a day became a habit.

While I had always loved to read I began to love words.  As I began to travel I realized that I love to write, anecdotal hyperbole mostly but.. after all storytelling and verbal histories are part of our heritage.

In the re-telling of meeting my first friend in high school I linked my daughters present with my past in a very tangible way.  They certainly know  how much I value using the correct word and they are beginning to realize the importance in that skill.  They also use my dictionary daily (thank you Margy!) less for spelling as definitions since it is a family joke that I spell color with a ‘u’.  After all “books are knowledge and knowledge is power!”

What that little battered blue dictionary  taught them this week was the ripple effect of reaching out a hand, in this case by buying an extra gift with no expectation other than to make someone smile ~ who knows what impact it will have on the donor as well as the recipient.

Of course for me it’s more,  my love of books took me where no-one expected me to go, it turns out I’m pretty smart too.  And a little blue book full of words gave me my first grown up friend and helped me reach my children at a tough time in their lives.

I’m not 12 anymore but words are central to who I am,  it doesn’t matter what else you go through sometimes you need to regroup and go back to the basics.

I’ve been raising my girls on my own for nearly 12 years and had taken a job that allowed me to be around, but it was becoming more and more difficult on limited money and recently with the reversals in the economy my firm cut my hours.  I’ll admit I panicked but since our standard of living has been pared down to a minimum for years there wasn’t much room to cut, the prospect of Christmas on half pay was grim.

I had just started this website and didn’t want to give it up, this really matters to me.   Instead I looked inwards at my skills, at my power.  I am an excellent communicator, a great administrator, very analytical  and empathetic to a fault.  I had also started to build a business network, (including many of my clients who appreciated my handling of  their work) to launch this site.  I decided to contact them and tell them about “Thoughts…” but also to put the word out that I was looking.  I heard lots of stories of how people are dealing with our economic challenges and received overwhelming support and admiration that my response had been to put emphasis on inspiration.   I was offered somewhere to stay,  lots of encouragement and  I’m now starting an exciting new career.

While I’m sure that my new work will quickly become a passion this website will remain.  Above all I’ve found that whether you are passing on an extra gift ,  sharing part of yourself  be it:  a kind word, your attention, your interest in what or how someone is doing, a smile or an outstretched hand;  it’s all the same.   Call it the power of reciprocity, quid pro quo or simple human kindness it’s amazing what doors and hearts can be opened.

A good woman is proud of herself,

She respects herself and others,

She is aware of who she is,

She neither seeks definition from the person she is with,

Nor does she expect them to read her mind,

She is quite capable of articulating her needs.

A good woman is hopeful.

She is strong enough to make all of her dreams come true,

She knows love, therefore she gives love,

She recognizes that her love has great value,

And must be reciprocated,

If her love is taken for granted, it soon disappears.

A good woman has a dash of inspiration

A dabble of endurance

She knows that she will, at times,

Have to inspire others to reach the potential God gave them,

A good woman knows her past,

Understand her present and moves towards the future.

A good woman knows her God,

She knows she needs a belief system and to believe in herself,

She knows that the world is her playground,

A good woman does not live in fear of her future because of her past,

Instead she knows that her life experiences are merely lessons,

Meant to bring her closer to self knowledge and unconditional self love.

Author: Unknown