The joy in failure!

I think most people have different ideas about what success is, and when they don't get it, they quit. I always find it fascinating when I hear a story about someone who seems to be living life exactly the way they want, but that it took many attempts to get there and it wasn't all just a cake walk.

Last year I read "If Success is a Game, These are the Rules" by Cherie Carter-Scott.

Cherie Carter-Scott really knows her stuff! Here is an excerpt from her book that really stood out for me, and made me realize that... there is an order of things that have to happen before you can really, truly live life the way you want.

"Success and failure are as intricately entwined as the moon and the tide, the mountains and the valleys, and the sunshine and the rain. .......
There is sound reason behind the adage that claims you cannot know the sweetness of success unless you have tasted the bitterness of failure. You cannot fully appreciate the joy of fulfillment unless you have traveled through the eye of adversity, been seriously defeated by setbacks, or had the crushing wave of disappointment knock you down so that you actually considered not getting up again.

Setbacks are what build character. They are what separate the lucky from the truly successful. It is not the person who wins the first time out of the gate who demonstrates strength, stamina, wisdom, and grit. Rather, it is the one who has run before and narrowly missed the finish line---who runs with all he or she is worth. Such people are the ones for whom victory tastes the sweetest." - Cherie Carter Scott

Failing is inevitable at some point, and it is how you handle that failure and what you decide to do with it, that will strengthen your character.

So, go out and who cares if you fail! As Benjamin Franklin so honestly puts it,

"I didn't fail the test, I just found 100 ways to do it wrong"

The quicker you learn that failure is not the end all, be all- the quicker you will succeed in whatever it is you want to do.

Dan Lier , "The 10 Minute Coach" advises "Fail as much as you can, as fast as you can."

In his book he made the analogy that if you knew it would take 10 times to fail before you would succeed and finally get it right- wouldn't you try to get those 10 "failures" out of the way as quick as possible so that you could get to succeeding? I know I would!

Even though we don't know the exact number of times we will fail before we finally "get it" We know that if we keep pushing and working at it, then eventually we will succeed!

So, once again,hurry and go fail to succeed!:)

Dream BIG!

Chet and I both dream of having an absolutely beautiful home library someday, chalk full of great inspiring books. Starting in 2007, it has been my resolution to read 52 books a year. I did not realize that I would fall in love with reading. I was never a reader growing up, no matter how much my mom tried to get me to read! It just would not work- I did not think reading was "cool" and therefore tried to stay away from it. The book I am reading now is called, You've Got to Read this Book: 55 People Tell the Story of the Book That Changed Their Life put together by Jack Canfield and Gay Hendricks


As I have been reading, I will recommend certain books to my friends, that I really, really enjoyed, and that I thought were "life altering". However, some of them seemed to love the books while others just thought that they were ok. While reading this book, I came across a quote by Bernie Siegel that says it all.

"To be honest, I really don't believe any book can change your life- only you can. Look, two people read the same book: One is inspired while the other is bored. It's the person- not the book- that creates the transformation."

This is precisely why we can read the same book over and over and depending where we are in our lives, we will notice something else about it, and learn from it in a different way.

It has been fascinating to read the book titles that have changed these peoples lives. Each and every person in the book is prominent in the world today. They all started off in a similar place in their hearts and minds, and when they came across a certain book, it just had that "click" for them and they were able and willing to change and make themselves better and grow. Everyone has a different book too!

My life changing book as of right now is, Wins, Losses and Lessons: An Autobiography by Lou Holtz

My favorite quote from his book is:

"Coaching gives one a chance to be successful as well as significant. The difference between those two is that when you die, your success comes to an end. When you are significant, you continue to help others be successful long after you are gone. Significance lasts many lifetimes. That is why people teach, why people lead, and why people coach."

-- Lou Holtz

When I read that statement I knew I wanted to lead a life of significance!

Now it is your turn, I want to know about the book that changed your life.

A Newsletter recieved from "The Ladders.com" - very inspirational

I've just re–discovered a YouTube video that reveals the secret to success in your job hunt… or anything else in life. Now, you may have seen this before, but give me just 2 minutes and 44 seconds this crisp March Monday morning, and have a look at this video.

No matter how many times I watch this video, it gets me every time. That, Readers, is the secret to success in your job hunt, your life, or anything else you've ever wanted to do, accomplish, or be.

I'd like to ask you to really think about Jason McElwain today.

I'd like to ask you to really think about what he's gone through in his life – folks telling him he's different, he's handicapped, he's not able to do things the other kids do.

Everybody had their little box; their little box into which they put their preconceived idea of what Jason was capable of and what Jason could be.

And maybe sometimes we all feel like we're in that little box. Maybe sometimes we all get pigeon–holed or typecast or put down a path that we didn't choose. Maybe that's why you found your way here to us and to this newsletter; because you didn't feel that the box that other people had come up with really represented you or what you are capable of becoming. You didn't feel that that box was fair.

And that's what I'd really like for you to think about today, Readers, because Jason McElwain is here to teach you something. The lesson of Jason McElwain that we've shared this morning is… there is no box.

There are no preconceptions or typecasting or opinions that can ever change who you are. Those are other people's thoughts, other people's errors.

And if you have it within you – if you have the talent, or the dream, or the desire, or the smarts, or the capability – if you have it within you, other people's words are just smoke drifting by in the mid–day breeze. They can't change you or stop you.

The lesson of Jason McElwain that we've shared this morning is that there is nothing stopping you; there is nothing that can hold you back; there is nothing that you can't achieve if only you know you can achieve it.

So please, Readers, let's be humble. Let's be humble today and learn from Jason McElwain.

Sure, as a subscriber to this $100k+ jobs newsletter you are in the top 10% of the American workforce today, and in the top 1% of all successful professionals across the globe. But, today, let's be humble, and let's learn just this one lesson from a determined, enthusiastic, amazing, beautiful kid in upstate New York…

There's nothing stopping us – nothing at all.

Warmest Regards,

Marc Cenedella
Founder & CEO
TheLadders.com, Inc.

Greetings, all! Chet Ranger here, Bertie's awesome husband. It's about time I contributed to the blogosphere, and more specifically to Bertie's blogs seeing as how we're fam and all. Anyhoo... Life: Have it YOUR way, baby! I just quit my job at Mattress Giant; I've been a manager there for awhile now, worked there since July. I hit a plateau in pay and between politics and pay cuts, I couldn't get any more upward mobility for at least 6 months.

So here's my 2 cents on having life your way - and while I'm at it, lemme explain the pasted "4-Hour Workweek" title.... it's real simple. Time and how we spend it is the currency of the x and y generations. At any retail job (or any desk job for that matter), your time is not your own -- it's your company's time. And they (rightly so) feel entitled to you spending it however they please. Trouble is, none of us are adequately remunerated for:

A) co-worker interruptions
B) mindless, boring, redundant meetings
C) training sessions, HR sessions designed with the few in mind that aren't 'compliant'
D) in Mattress Giant's case -- cleaning, organizing, filing, answering telemarketing calls, etc.
E) fill in your favorite time-wasting items here

So, if all of us could just focus our time and energy on what we each do best, just how productive and happy could we be? I don't know about you, but to me the possibilities are staggeringly endless. If I could schedule each day around work, this is what it'd look like. Your mileage may vary:

A) peacefully prepare for the day in the comfort of my home. This would include absorbing 30 minutes to an hour's worth of information via RSS feeds, music, and other items relevant to increasing my energy level. Oh, and a nice breakfast.
B) around 9 am, be calling on individuals as energetic and positive as myself to network, close a deal, etc.
C) continue this until lunch, at which point a natural turn of events might include eating a nice meal with an associate, my wife or popping over to my son's elementary school to eat with him
D) repeat B until anywhere from 4-6 pm depending on how productive I'm being
E) once I feel a dropoff in productivity, spend some time planning, setting goals and reviewing current results
F) rinse and repeat daily

Key here is -- my time needs to be my own, period. All the interruptions? Email, phone, 'heat cases' with customers... all should be dealt with through gatekeepers and triage, no matter the organization. David Allen's "Getting Things Done" is a great look at how to manage, organize and prevent life in URGENT mode. Tim Ferriss' "4-Hour Workweek" clarifies how to outsource all the junk and garbage that fills your day so you can be productive in as few hours as possible and free up the rest of your time to deal with things that matter.

So that's the blueprint for my new career. While I'd like to stay in the same industry (retail), it's unlikely I'll find a position that offers enough flexibility to suit my needs, so we'll see who wins out and gets ol' Chet on board.

More to come!

CAN and Dick and Rick Hoyt

Dick and Rick Hoyt have inspired me to reach my highest potential, when I first heard about them a few years ago. They are the true meaning of "I CAN! and more importantly I WILL!" I hope they give you some inspiration to really get out there, no matter what it is you want to do. Let go of whatever it is that is holding you back- and KNOW that YOU CAN! I got this from http://www.snopes.com/glurge/teamhoyt.asp


Be ready.....you WILL cry!

This is the most unbelievable thing I've ever seen. I am absolutely in AWE of this man. Please watch the video, too — I am sitting here at my computer at a loss for words. There are no words for this, only tears filled with emotion.

A MUST Watch Video

This Father does it all just for the purpose of seeing the smile on his son's face. If you want to see the most profound reflection of the Father's love for us that you've ever seen ... watch. Time taken to watch this is the best time you've ever spent on email.

Read this and then watch the video (the website link is at the end)


I try to be a good father. Give my kids mulligans. Work nights to pay for their text messaging. Take them to swimsuit shoots.

But compared with Dick Hoyt, I suck.

Eighty-five times he's pushed his disabled son, Rick, 26.2 miles in marathons. Eight times he's not only pushed him 26.2 miles in a wheelchair but also towed him 2.4 miles in a dinghy while swimming and pedaled him 112 miles in a seat on the handlebars — all in the same day.

Dick's also pulled him cross-country skiing, taken him on his back mountain climbing and once hauled him across the U.S. on a bike. Makes taking your son bowling look a little lame, right?

And what has Rick done for his father? Not much — except save his life.

This love story began in Winchester, Mass., 43 years ago, when Rick was strangled by the umbilical cord during birth, leaving him brain-damaged and unable to control his limbs.

"He'll be a vegetable the rest of his life," Dick says doctors told him and his wife, Judy, when Rick was nine months old. "Put him in an institution."

But the Hoyts weren't buying it. They noticed the way Rick's eyes followed them around the room. When Rick was 11 they took him to the engineering department at Tufts University and asked if there was anything to help the boy communicate. "No way," Dick says he was told. "There's nothing going on in his brain."

"Tell him a joke," Dick countered. They did. Rick laughed. Turns out a lot was going on in his brain.

Rigged up with a computer that allowed him to control the cursor by touching a switch with the side of his head, Rick was finally able to communicate. First words? "Go Bruins!" And after a high school classmate was paralyzed in an accident and the school organized a charity run for him, Rick pecked out, "Dad, I want to do that."

Yeah, right. How was Dick, a self-described "porker" who never ran more than a mile at a time, going to push his son five miles? Still, he tried. "Then it was me who was handicapped," Dick says. "I was sore for two weeks."

That day changed Rick's life. "Dad," he typed, "when we were running, it felt like I wasn't disabled anymore!"

And that sentence changed Dick's life. He became obsessed with giving Rick that feeling as often as he could. He got into such hard-belly shape that he and Rick were ready to try the 1979 Boston Marathon.

"No way," Dick was told by a race official. The Hoyts weren't quite a single runner, and they weren't quite a wheelchair competitor. For a few years Dick and Rick just joined the massive field and ran anyway, then they found a way to get into the race officially: In 1983 they ran another marathon so fast they made the qualifying time for Boston the following year.

Then somebody said, "Hey, Dick, why not a triathlon?"

How's a guy who never learned to swim and hadn't ridden a bike since he was six going to haul his 110-pound kid through a triathlon? Still, Dick tried.

Now they've done 212 triathlons, including four grueling 15-hour Ironmans in Hawaii. It must be a buzzkill to be a 25-year-old stud getting passed by an old guy towing a grown man in a dinghy, don't you think?

Hey, Dick, why not see how you'd do on your own? "No way," he says. Dick does it purely for "the awesome feeling" he gets seeing Rick with a cantaloupe smile as they run, swim and ride together.

This year, at ages 65 and 43, Dick and Rick finished their 24th Boston Marathon, in 5,083rd place out of more than 20,000 starters. Their best time? Two hours, 40 minutes in 1992 — only 35 minutes off the world record, which, in case you don't keep track of these things, happens to be held by a guy who was not pushing another man in a wheelchair at the time.

"No question about it," Rick types. "My dad is the Father of the Century."

And Dick got something else out of all this too. Two years ago he had a mild heart attack during a race. Doctors found that one of his arteries was 95% clogged. "If you hadn't been in such great shape," one doctor told him, "you probably would've died 15 years ago."

So, in a way, Dick and Rick saved each other's life.

Rick, who has his own apartment (he gets home care) and works in Boston, and Dick, retired from the military and living in Holland, Mass., always find ways to be together. They give speeches around the country and compete in some backbreaking race every weekend, including this Father's Day.

That night, Rick will buy his dad dinner, but the thing he really wants to give him is a gift he can never buy.

"The thing I'd most like," Rick types, "is that my dad would sit in the chair and I would push him once."


Here's the video ...

Calling for guest bloggers!

Yes- that is right! I want to hear from YOU! I want you to be a guest blogger on my blog:) Now, this is all for free- and just to share knowledge. I feel that we can all learn a lot more, if there are a lot of people joining in a expressing their thoughts or stories. So- come one, come all to the achievement ball:) E-mail me at bertieranger4@gmail.com and let's get your post on here!! I don't care if this is the first time you have read my blog, if you are a blog lurker, or are an avid commenter... I still want to hear from YOU:)

Act AS IF

I recently just finished "The 10 Minute Coach" by Dan Lier. It was a really good book. Very to the point and had a lot of good information. One of my favorite "do's' in his book was the Act AS IF principle. He says,

"You're the same person, with the same talent and skills, yet often it's what's going on inside your head that limits your potential..... so act as if you are that person you really want to be. Show up strong, confident, and full of certainty. Great job! This is the day you make the decision to act as if you are the person you want to be. Think about yourself and where you want to be in the next five, ten years. Act as if you are that person today. Walk that way, talk that way. "

So, today my advice is Act AS IF you are the person you want to be... and you will see a change, and get things done!:)