"If you can imagine it, you can achieve it 
If you can dream it, you can become it."   WILLIAM ARTHUR WARD


Doing the same thing but expecting a different result is NUTS! December 14th, 2007


There is a lot of information floating around at the moment about "The Secret" and how it is new etc. When I was much younger, it was called "The Strangest Secret" and was an audio cassette recording by Earl Nightingale which still holds the record for the most spoken word sales of a single cassette or CD.

The source material for the information included on "The Secret" is either claimed to be Wallace D Wattles "The Science of Getting Rich" or Napoleon Hill's "Think and Grow Rich." Both are great books... and you can, if you haven't read them, down load a free copy from The Maverick Spirit website. ( although if you own the printer that you print them out on, it will cost more to ptint it out than if you buy your own copy of the books at somewhere like Jennifer Marr's Inspiration Factory in Subiaco Western Australia that has the greatest collection of "The Law of Attraction" books I have seen in Australia)

For the record, I read Hill's "Think and Grow Rich" on November 11th, 1975. That was the same day the Government of Gough Whitlam was sacked! After reading Think and Grow Rich, I set goals and plans to be in business and quit my day job and started out in business aged just 23 and have never had a "real job" since.

Early in my Insurance agency career I was exposed to the work of Earl Nightingale and "The Strangest Secret" and played the cassette dozens of times as I drove from appointment to appointment.

So, both works have had a strong influence on my adult life... although some of the advice was misinterpreted... like persistence is critical for success. The invention of the modern light bulb is such a story.

One of my modern day mentors is Dan Kennedy the great direct advertising guru. I am revisiting his great early 1990's book "No Rules - 21 Giant Lies about Success" and he writes about what Hill really meant when he wrote about his encounter with Edison.

According to Kennedy, the late Napoleon Hill, author of the famous book Think and Grow Rich, visited Thomas Edison in his laboratory.

Edison had tried ten thousand times to make electric light work before finally getting it right.

Hill asked Edison, "What would you be doing now if your ten thousandth experiment had failed?"

"I would not be standing here talking to you," Edison replied sharply. "I would be locked in my laboratory conducting the next experiment."

This little story is used by lots of motivational speakers as an example of exceptional persistence in action: "Every time you flick on the lights, you can be grateful that Edison was an extraordinarily persistent man," so the story is told.

Kennedy says that is  nuts. "Every time we flick on the lights, we can be grateful that Edison was a scientist who took a solidly scientific approach to invention."

What Napoleon Hill never spelled out, probably assuming, people would figure out for themselves, is that Edison did NOT do the same experiment ten thousand times.

He did ten thousand different experiments. He tested ten thousand different hypotheses, and he gave up on each one as rapidly as possible. He was a "quitter" ten thousand times.

So, for success you need to learn how to "fail fast" and get on with trying new stuff to reach your ultimate goal.

 


Enjoy this issue of The Maverick Spirit...  That's it for today, until next time, continue to enjoy being a free spirit in a complicated world... 

Wayne Mansfield

P.S.  Did you know the only thing better than a "Yes" is a quick "NO". When you are raising money, selling a customer, or trying to get a deal done, it is the long drawn out process that never ends that will kill you. It is the same thing with startups. Being successful is always the goal, but if it is going to fail...Fail fast.

P.P.S.  "I have missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I have lost almost 300 games. On 26 occasions I have been entrusted to take the game-winning shot... and I missed. I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that’s precisely why I succeed.’ says Michael Jordan.
 

And for something really different:

Visit my daily thoughts and views at    Confessions of a Boy from Margaret River   where you can leave comments and ideas
on stuff that doesn't make it to The Maverick Spirit
 
Life's Little Instruction Book

Never complain abut the music in someone else's car when you're a passenger.

Remember that it's better to be cheated in price rather than in quality.

When no great harm will result, let your children do it their way, even if you know they are wrong. They will learn more from their mistakes than from their successes.

Source:          H. Jackson Brown, Jr  Life's Little Instruction Book
MAVERICK QUOTE OF THE DAY


"Every adversity, every failure,
every heartache carries with it
the seed of an equal or greater benefit."

Napoleon Hill

Samuel Maverick (1803-70) Texan rancher who, when branding of stock was introduced chose "Not to Brand." Every unbranded horse or cow he then claimed as a Maverick!

Feedback:   Wow... did I get some feedback from "It's Been A Long Year" issue on Tuesday. I didn't think I was project such a negative outlook and I truly apologise. Thank you for those who wrote and gave me a boot up the proverbial.

Here are a few comments... those I can print!

Cheer up Wayne!

You haven’t heard from me before, but I love your Maverick Spirit thoughts, quotes and snippets, and have missed them.

Remember, the sort of delays and wastage your describe in the courts occurs in all sectors – just look at health, for example, where such ‘slippage’ not only wastes doctors’ and nurses (expensive) time and skills, and scarce hospital bed spaces, but puts people’s lives at risk as well. It’s also in the private sector, and the bigger the corporation, the worse it seems to get.

It’s those who can work around and through the cracks in such systems – and even take advantage of them, by filling niches that they leave vacant (as we are doing) - who come out on top! Perhaps it’s hard to see the opportunity when you are sitting wasting your own precious time, but no doubt there is one there for some enterprising person.

Maybe the festive season blow away a few cobwebs.

Robyn Lewis
Visit Vineyards®
the best of wine and food country®

Dear Wayne,

Fantastic to receive the Maverick Spirit again I have missed your wonderful and encouraging words. I haven't read it yet but will do so as I like to give myself time to absorb what you say.

Have a great relaxing Christmas and man 2008 will be fantastic and rewarding for you.

Margie McClelland
Wildprints

Wayne,

This spirit mail is not from the usual Wayne - it is full of complaint and resignation and has no sense of possibility!

Lets see your maverick spirit back in form - in the face of the year's difficulties.

Thank you for your inspiring stories and insights.

Ian Higginbottom
Myriax Pty Ltd

Wayne,

I hear your frustration, however The Maverick Spirit has always been an uplifting sheet - alas not this one.

Sharon Johnson
Head Teacher - Travel & Tourism
TAFENSW - SWSI

Hi Wayne

Good to receive Spirit again. Sorry you have had a tough year but "you know something" (I am learning from Kevin Rudd) happens and the tide turns and things begin to go your way. I have found that in business over many years. You just have to be patient.

Merry Christmas

Judy Nettleton

Hi there Wayne.

I just wanted to drop you a line and let you know that I also recently had "my day in court" to try and get access to see my daughters, since my ex-wife moved interstate 5 months ago. It ended pretty much the same way, but worse than that is the fact that the matter has been transferred to another state and now I have to wait until that court decides to pull it's finger out and get things going there instead.

All the while, I am missing out on seeing my children, and my ex gets more strength to stop me altogether, and all because she's a vindictive, schemer.

Life is indeed complicated at times, and it's nice to know even the most successful of us is not immune. Thanks for your newsletter. It does help.

Ray Grinberg
(Brisbane)

And I will include some more next issue... I appreciate that you feel strongly enough to offer advice and encouragement. Sometimes the motivator needs motivation too... and I can feel all your thought helping my spirit rebuild. Thank you all!

 

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Until next time then... enjoy being a free spirit in a complicated world.

Wayne Mansfield Editor

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