Personal Development. When you start a network marketing business personal development becomes very important but sometimes that importance is not realized until several months have gone by. You may spend those first few months focusing only on learning the business, product and compensation plan. Or you could believe that by attending company conference calls and business presentations that you are gaining personal development. Most of the time this is not the case.

Most successful entrepreneurs will say to work more on yourself than you do your business. What does this mean? There are several ways to gain personal development. Books, DVDs, Cd’s, online courses, and seminars are just a few that you can use for your home based business. A new exercise program, dietary research, and personal hygiene can be used for physical personal development. You may go even further and decide to work on your spiritual development and can do that be attending your personal religions’ church or temple, reading spiritual books, and learning how to have a relationship with your God.

Let’s take a closer look at using your personal development for your home based business. You may want to sit down and write down your weaknesses pertaining to you business as well as your strengths and then systematically start creating situations where you are making both stronger. Weaknesses are important to improve upon, but strengths are going to carry you so improving your strengths is just as important.

Pick some mentors to mold yourself after. Each business that you are in will have several mentors available to you whether they are in your business or in your industry. Surrounding yourself with these leaders will make you become stronger, more confident, and focused in your business. Your most important mentors can be people that you have never even met. They are leaders whose material you follow and learn to create greatness within yourself. Call the leaders within your organization- interview them, take them to lunch if possible, and ask them how they got where they are at. I guarantee it was through personal development coupled with a determination and desire to succeed.

Set goals for yourself on a daily basis. Personal development should be twenty percent of your daily activities. So if you are working a five hour day in your home based business four hours should be spent on your business and one hour spent on your personal development. Decide what you are going to be doing and stick to it. Start small and work up to where you want to be. You definitely do not want to overwhelm yourself with too much information. Realize that everything that you read, see and hear may not be for you but take the key components that are and apply them to your home business and your life.

Make sure that the business that you choose has a way set up for you to gain personal development from within the business. Many businesses offer webinars or calls with industry personal development coaches, have recommendation site for reading, or provide referrals for seminars to attend. Having a business that promotes personal development as well as the business is key to your success.

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If you would walk in a bookstore this moment, you will see a lot of self-help books, by TV personalities, renowned authors and even successful entrepreneurs who have used their pen to share their valuable experiences to help others. These books contain the magic formula in order to be successful and life as well as to reach your very full potential. That is why personal development has suddenly become a big hit in the business world today. It was one of the booming and fastest growing industries of our generation.

Let’s face it! A lot of people need all the help they can get to develop themselves. We need to grow, learn and find out the ways in order to reach the pinnacle of success. Financial freedom is one of the first things that come to mind when faced with the word success. Anyone who has the success mindset thinks that in order to be successful, one must have this amount of cash stored in one’s bank account. Although this may make a huge chunk of the success description, there’s actually more to financial freedom than meets the eye. In order for people to fully explore this further, they need some help and that’s where you enter.

The area of personal development could certainly reward you with an online business opportunity to help others in their search for learning and growth. Many people are actually willing to invest good money in discovering their life path and financial success. It is through this that you now have the chance to start with your personal development business.

If you are seeking an internet home based business opportunity that would encompass this particular field, then you are on the right track. Here are the three steps to get you started in your personal development business right away.

1. Know your Industry

In order to stay on top of the game, you must first know what your industry is all about. Make sure you read books and watch videos so you can be updated with the latest trends in your personal development business. Expect that you will have to compete along with the others in the same business so make sure you know what you are doing. You need to live, breathe and dream about this industry so that you can stay competitive and people will turn to you instead of your competition.

2. Seek Out every Business Opportunity

If you do take your online business opportunity seriously, then you need to take action. Working from home does not mean resting on your behind and not work. This means you need to have goals and strategies to be successful. If you are serious in taking this life path, then you need to tap into different markets and make sure that your business plan is properly implemented.

3. Make some Money

Establish integrity among your target customers. Make sure that you communicate with them and send out the right message. When you do this and you implement your business strategy properly, then making money would be the easiest part.

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I am not sure how I first came to hear about this book, but I quickly discovered that it is well recognized as one of the all time greats for examining the psychology of people in terms of obtaining riches in the material, educational, and emotional sense of the word.  After just one time reading the book it was clear why this book has lasted the test of time since being released during the Great Depression in 1937.  Mr. Napoleon Hill wrote this book based on his life followings as an associate and biographer of Andrew Carnegie.  The book contains timeless advice and insight to understanding human emotion and thought, straight from one of America’s most successful entrepreneurs.  I strongly suggest anyone interested in the philosophy of what drives human actions read this book and take note of its primary message.

To open the book, Napoleon Hill outlines that there are 12 areas of real riches, nearly all of which cannot be quantified in a material sense:

1)      A Positive Mental Attitude – (NOTE- Positive attitude comes first)

2)      Sound Physical Health

3)      Harmony in Human Relations

4)      Freedom from Fear

5)      Hope of Future Achievement

6)      Capacity for Applied Faith

7)      Willingness to Share Ones Blessings with Others

8)      To Be Engaged in Labor of Love

9)      Open Mind to All Subjects and All People

10)   Complete Self Discipline

11)   Wisdom to Understand People

12) Financial Security –  (NOTE – Money comes last)

Immediately following this introduction of key areas, Napoleon Hill challenges his readers that throughout the book there is one central theme throughout each chapter that has helped to create many successful and rich men and women.  Hill explains that this theme is crucial to fully understanding how to grow rich in life and that it is made mention to quite often.   He teases that he will not explain exactly what that idea is, as it becomes much more powerful when you read between the lines and discover it for yourself.  I will highlight this theme later in the review, but first I think it is important to look at the main area Napoleon Hill feels we must grow rich:

Positive Mental Attitude

A positive Mental Attitude heads the list of items needed for a person to grow rich.  The reason being is that every single other item included in the twelve is virtually impossible to attain without the positive mental attitude to start.  There is no way to be free from fear in life, when you let negativity and self doubts overcome you thoughts.  There is no way to be fully engaged in love when have no self confidence or lack the ability to make another feel good.  There is no way to be open to a new person or idea if unwilling to accept the potential benefits to be gained.  There is no way to advance your financial situation if you subscribe to notion that you are victim and a change cannot be made.  It all of these situations you must possess the positive self image, hope, and foresight for the future that is needed to grow rich in any situation.

A positive mental attitude and the understanding that can you achieve, instills the new perspective and level of confidence needed to take on mastery of all riches.  A positive mental attitude in turn creates hope for the future.  When you have hope for the future, anything is possible.  So focus your mental attitude, build your hope, and then work on mastery of the remaining riches.  I have worked constantly on my mastery of a positive mental attitude and can proudly say that is the fuel behind much of my fire.  When you start to cut out the negativity and start to be solution oriented, the world has amazing possibilities.

What It Takes To Grow Rich (According to Napoleon Hill)

As mentioned, I have pinpointed the principles and theme presented in the book that Mr. Hill refers, but will not implicitly say.  I call them the 4 D’s. Essentially, these D’s provide what it is needed to be successful and grow rich:

1) DEFINITE OF PURPOSE – Once you identify your purpose, everything takes a new level of significance.  Wandering in the dark will only get you so far and will leave you with some bumps and bruises.  Set your goals and purpose and once the target is marked, proceed forward with a lighted path.

2) DESIRE – Once you have defined your purpose, there is still no guarantee you will act on it.  Hill infers that deep desire for what you want and passion in the pursuit of it is a must.  As Tony Robbins would say, make it feel like achieving your purpose will create ultimate pleasure.

3) DEDICATION- Hill speaks to levels of maturity and understanding that commitment, dedication, and sacrifices are needed to obtain riches.  In Hill’s personal example, Andrew Carnegie asked Hill to work for him for years without pay, with the agreement that Hill would someday be able to chronicle his experiences.  This required years of sacrifice, but ultimately this dedication was the determining factor in the success of Hill.

4) DETERMINATION – I understand this to be the overcoming of obstacles.  Things will inevitable stand in your way in quest of your purpose.  You must use your desire and dedications to stay determined and let persistence carry you through challenges.  Often times financial struggles will act as a seemingly insurmountable obstacle, use your resources to work past this.

Hill refers to all of these throughout his book and tells countless stories when all of the four are applied.  Overall he suggests that to think and grow rich we must apply ourselves passionately and use these four D’s.   Hill also goes in much more depth about attaining riches in each of the highlighted 12 areas that are most important.

As I stated, I believe his in depth analysis on the psychology of people is dead on.  As an entrepreneur I have found countless ways to apply his methods and have proceeded to re-read his book twice over.

This article is available at: http://www.mattlehr.com

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