Sunday 31 January 2021
Friday 29 January 2021
Thursday 28 January 2021
Small Business Growth - 7 Tips to Manage Your Growth Successfully
By Kris Bovay | Submitted On August 04, 2008
Fast growth can be seductive; but challenging to manage. All small business owners want growth; and fast growth sounds like it should be a good thing - something to strive for. However, it is important to control your small business growth or risk your business' future. One of the most exciting times for small business owners is when they see their sales grow; even more exciting when those sales grow quickly. Sales are often used as a measure of business success. In reality, all business owners should use profit as a key measure of the business' success because sales growth can require a high price. Rapid sales growth can be achieved either organically (that is, through activities internal to the business) or inorganically (that is, through activities external to the business).
Organic growth typically occurs through the launch of new products or services; by expanding the geographic market; and by starting up a new business - although growth in this case can start slow and then speed up. Inorganic growth typically occurs through mergers or acquisitions. While inorganic growth is often very fast growth - if you buy a company that's bigger than you, you've more than doubled your size - it is often expensive growth in terms of money, time and resources. Buying growth by buying a company means that you will often purchase the bad along with the good. For example, the bad can be the total cost of the acquisition; purchasing old equipment and/or inventory along with new; acquiring unhappy or high priced labor; a bad reputation; and more. The good can be acquiring the sales book, which is the company's list of customers; additional services; a larger territory; more staff, taking out a competitor; and more.
The additional considerations for buying or not to buying growth should be how challenging is it to merge the two companies and the two cultures; what synergies can be gained - if any; if the acquisition results in an over-staffing who will be laid off, how will the lay-offs be decided, who will do the lay-offs, what will be the outcome and the environment after lay-offs. Do you have enough in-house human resources support for this type of growth? If not, can you outsource to a competent individual or firm? The difference between acquiring a company and merging with another company is usually related to either a win-lose proposition (one company is the winner, the other the loser) or a win-win proposition (both companies are motivated to merge successfully for a number of business reasons). Mergers can consume a different resource focus: ensuring that both companies, their staff, their customers and all stakeholders feel that the end result was a win-win. 1/25/2021 Small Business Growth - 7 Tips to Manage Your Growth Successfully https://ezinearticles.com/?Small-Business-Growth---7-Tips-to-Manage-Your-Growth-Successfully&id=1382485 2/2 In either of these inorganic growth strategies, create a checklist approach to ensure that you carefully review all the pros and the cons and weigh the rationale carefully before you move forward on the merger or acquisition path.
Organic growth is typically a slower and more manageable type of growth. However, if your business is growing through a period of fast growth, you need to manage that growth before it overtakes you. 7 Tips for Managing your Growth: have a comprehensive human resources plan to handle fast growth and peaks and valleys in business activity; have job descriptions and a structure for your company; have developed standard operating procedures for your business; have a strong customer service program - so that customers are not negatively impacted by your fast growth; have a strong quality and continuous improvement program; ensure that you have the operating structure (whether that means increased inventories, longer hours of work - moving from a one shift operation to a two shift operation; adding more productive equipment); and have the cash flow to sustain growth (you will need to pay for more supplies and materials, for labor, for transportation, etc.) - unplanned and/or fast growth can have a big, negative impact on liquidity.
Whether you grow organically or inorganically, you need to plan for sustainable growth. Your plan needs to include how you will manage fast growth. For more information on managing and operating your small business, visit http://www.more-for-small-business.com/ other business strategies can be found in the strategy section at http://www.more-for-small-business.com/strategy.html Kris Bovay is the owner of Voice Marketing Inc, a business and marketing services company. Kris has 25 years of experience in leading large, medium and small businesses. Copyright 2008 Voice Marketing Inc.
Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Kris_Bovay/216730
Wednesday 27 January 2021
Don't Sweat the Small Stuff: Simple ways to Keep the Little Things from Overtaking Your Life: Simple Ways to Keep the Little Things from Taking Over Your Life Paperback – 5 Feb. 1998
Good easy read with lots of make sense tips for being a happier person and not dwelling on trivial silly things. Would also recommend the book called...stop thinking start living... by the same author. I am reading these due to massive anxiety and panic attacks, they have defiantly helping to put things into a bit more perspective
Tuesday 26 January 2021
Monday 25 January 2021
Tips On How To Stop Being Lazy
By Trevor Johnson | Submitted On December 11, 2011
Laziness is one of the root causes of failure to succeed in all the activities in life. Some people define laziness as the behaviour of resting before working. In order to succeed in life one has to learn on the best ways on how to stop being lazy. Hard work is the key to success hence everybody who wishes to have a prosperous future need to stop being lazy and work hard. Laziness reduces ones productivity of a person either in their personal life or in the work place. Most manager and other human resource managers do not prefer to hire lazy people and instead will go for the hard working people who are results oriented.
One of the tips on how to stop being lazy is by developing a habit of getting out of bed as soon as the alarm sounds. Most people ignore the alarm and prefer to continue to sleep and switch off the alarm or press the snooze button. To stop laziness one needs to develop a habit of waking up as soon as the alarm rings. Doing this for 30 days can help one to stop being lazy. Engaging in any physical activity to get one started especially during the morning hours is one way on how to stop being lazy. One can decide to clean the house, writing articles, washing dishes or any other activity that has not being completed can help one to stop being lazy.
The main objective of this tip is one to achieve satisfaction from completing a task. Exercise is a method that has being proven to help in keeping the body fit and health. It's a known fact that exercising helps to improve the body immune system to fight diseases. Developing a habit of exercising for at first 10 minutes every day can help one gain momentum on stopping laziness. This is a short period for anyone but the duration should increase as the ones get used to the exercise. This can help one improve his or her health while at the same time keep away the behavior. One can make a list of the tasks that the individual want to achieve in a day.
This list will act as a guide to the individual on what to do during the day. The list should not be too long but should be manageable. Making a commitment to oneself can help in achieving all the goals set for the day. Media is one of the contributing factors to one being lazy. One way on how to stop laziness is by practicing media fating for at least a week. Not all the information that we get from the media is helpful, hence one can reduce the time spent o the media and instead use that time to do a productive activity such as doing assignments.
Perception towards oneself can be of great help to avoid laziness. If one believes that he or she is lazy, one will most likely develop the habit of laziness that is detrimental to ones future. Tips on how to stop being lazy just like any other bunch of tips need patience in order for the expected results to be achieved. Get more help with how to stop being lazy and start to be more productive.
Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Trevor_Johnson/143711 ©
Friday 22 January 2021
Thursday 21 January 2021
Book Review - 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
By Leonard Kloeber | Submitted On January 12, 2013
When the late Stephen Covey first published his highly acclaimed book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, even he could not have predicted his spectacular success with sales of over 10 million copies. Yet over twenty years after its publication, the practical wisdom contained in each of the seven habits continues to provide valuable guidance to new readers. People who choose to master these simple concepts are much more productive in business and all other life endeavors; however, the habits require practice to realize their full potential. If you want to be more effective, read this book and discover how each of these
7 Habits can help you: 1. Be Proactive: Effectiveness begins with taking personal responsibility to exercise initiative. Regardless of the situation, you can always do something to "take charge," even if it is only controlling your attitude. 2. Begin with the end in mind: When you begin with the end in mind, you will have a mental vision of your intended outcome which will guide your actions towards your desired result like a global positioning guidance system in a ballistic missile that guides it to the target. 3. Put first things first: Some things are more important to success than others, even if they don't appear to be urgent. Practicing this habit will help you focus on those tasks which are most important to achieving your goals. 4. Think win - win: When your success depends on cooperating with other people, as it most often does, you should find common ground so that both of you can succeed. A "win-win" outcome is usually more lasting and effective than "win-lose," where one party wins at the other's expense. 5. Seek first to understand, then to be understood: Before you try to convince others of your own position, try first to understand their position. Understanding others will help you find the common ground basis necessary for success. 6. Synergize: Combine your own power and resources with others to achieve something greater than you can achieve by yourself. 7. Sharpen the saw: Periodically take time out to re-charge, re-energize, and learn new skills that will ultimately make you more productive than if you burn yourself out. 1/18/2021 Book Review - 7 Habits of Highly Effective People https://ezinearticles.com/?Book-Review---7-Habits-of-Highly-Effective-People&id=7461306 2/2 The focus of the first three habits is on your personal self-mastery. Effectiveness begins with taking control of yourself and the situation. The next three habits focus on cooperating with others.
Effective collaboration is critical when your success depends on getting help from others. Habit seven is all about renewal, and is just common sense. If you desire to become a more effective person, read this book, practice the habits, and change your life for the better. Leonard Kloeber is an author and leadership consultant. He has extensive leadership experience as business executive and as a military officer. He has been a hands-on leader in a variety of organizations large and small. Most recently he was a human resources executive for a Fortune 100 company. His book - Victory Principles, Leadership Lessons from D-Day - illustrates seven bedrock leadership principles that all successful leaders use. Download a free summary of the Victory Principles at: http://www.victoryprinciples.com and find other bonus materials for leaders. Contact him at staffride@gmail.com or find his book Victory Principles at http://www.leadershipthebook.com
Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Leonard_Kloeber/332142
Wednesday 20 January 2021
Tuesday 19 January 2021
Monday 18 January 2021
A Disciplined Approach to Process Improvement
By Willie Carter | Submitted On May 31, 2010
Why Do Process Improvement Initiatives Fail? Many organizations have failed miserably in achieving their process improvement goals. Most of these failures occur because the organizations did not integrate their process improvement efforts with their management practices to achieve strategic business initiatives. As a result process improvement is pawned off to the quality department or some other staff functions. A disciplined approach to process improvement prevents the catastrophic failure experienced by so many organizations. In a disciplined approach process improvement initiatives are targeted at improving those cross-functional processes that have the greatest impact on achieving strategic business objectives. These key processes involve a number of departments in the delivery of a product or service to the organization's customers. Successful process improvement initiatives recognize this horizontal flow of value creation and are structured accordingly. Disciplined process improvement is what it takes to achieve positive business results.
This means that work is accomplished and organizations succeed based on what occurs within key business processes. By linking strategic business goals, improvement efforts, and the business processes that most affect customers; process improvement does work, and some organizations do achieve results. There are three basic reasons process improvement efforts miss the mark and do not accomplish critical business objectives. 1. They are not focused, meaning that process improvement is implemented erratically, with little regard for what is important. 2. Top management is not intimately involved in overseeing process improvement efforts. I call this the "bubble up" theory. Senior managers send employees to training, create a lot of teams, and wait for a host of ideas and improvements to bubble up. Top management think that process improvement, customer satisfaction, and cycle time will instinctively improve and that they will realize lower costs and higher profits. It does not work that way. Bubble up is all fizz and no discipline. 3. Some organizations have a vision, but lack the discipline or the focus necessary to make it a reality.
Their process improvement efforts flounder because they do not: - Focus on the key processes critical to achieving strategic goals - Include top management in the selection process when identifying specific improvement projects 1/18/2021 A Disciplined Approach to Process Improvement https://ezinearticles.com/?A-Disciplined-Approach-to-Process-Improvement&id=4394073 2/3 - Provide for regular senior management review to ensure that implementation produces both short-term and long-term results The evidence is clear, a disciplined management-led approach is essential if process improvement initiatives are to succeed. The approach must be aimed at improving those vital few cross-functional business processes that result in a product or service for the organization's customers. Discipline is what differentiates championship athletes, dominant sports teams, and world class competitors. In the business organizations top management creates that discipline. The important thing to realize is that those vital few or key business processes are the heart of the business. Identifying and improving them will in turn deliver dramatic improvements in product or service quality and the bottom line. The As Is If we lived in a perfect world, all employees would clearly understand their business processes, create their work, coordinate activities, manage the white space, be very proactive, quickly deliver products or services, and produce defect free work.
The world, however, is not perfect. Almost all organizations are structured and managed through functional departments (i.e. customer service, sales, marketing, operations, accounting, distribution, etc.). Such a functional structure effectively reduces a complex environment to manageable units. However, functional structures ignore the fact that products and services are delivered to customers through horizontal processes, that is, key business processes that cross functional department lines and require cooperation and collaboration from many departments. In every organization, even if one department has primary responsibility for production, others play roles from marketing to distribution. That is the real world. Unfortunately, most organizations and most process improvement efforts labor under the false assumption that the world looks like the organization chart. Today's customers are showing an increased willingness to challenge the inefficiencies and poor service of the functional approach. They are also rebelling against the costs associated with this approach. Work thrown over the wall at the functional transition points not only annoys and inconveniences the customer, but leads to a lot of rework. In fact, rework has been shown to chew up 30 to 50% of the total cost of doing business. Just as important is the impact on current and potential customers when products or services are late, defective, or too costly.
It is important to understand that customers care about and react to the end product or service that is the sum of all the functional operations. Yet over and over again in the workplace this concept is lost. Engineering worries about engineering, sales worries about sales, purchasing guards its territory. Manufacturing merely makes widgets. Customer service fixes problems, and management executes plans or people, depending on how it goes. Now and then everything comes together. All too often, however, everything falls apart, and customers lose. When the customers lose, the business loses them. The Should Be Disciplined process improvement emphasis is on managing key business processes across the organization. In other words, managing cross-functional processes rather than taking a functional approach that matches the organization chart. Further, disciplined process improvement takes the responsibility for process improvement out of the quality department or other staff functions and puts it in the lap of top management. Disciplined process improvement requires that senior managers get committed and stay committed if they want sustained results. It puts the manager where he or she belongs: in the strategic leadership role. Management defines the organization's strategic goals and identifies the key business processes. Management selects the process improvement strategies and projects and regularly monitors progress to ensure the key business processes are structured and managed so as to achieve the organization's strategic goals. Management does not sit around deliberating what went wrong with the process improvement effort or why it works in other organizations.
Process improvement has only worked in organizations when senior management was committed. Why The Emphasis On Discipline? Disciplined process improvement does produce results. Refining your process improvement efforts by defining the key business processes that deliver products or services to your customers enables you to determine metrics that are important for creating things that the customer value. Using a disciplined approach will also help you overcome the common barriers to process improvement: - Barrier #1: People dislike being measured: One of the secrets to getting better, making improvements, and increasing customer satisfaction is to realize that your employees don't like being measured. Typically, when companies measure their employees' work or productivity, they use the information to blame employees or point out their mistakes. While key metrics in the organization can indeed be useful, you need to use the metrics you uncover to identify how the processes or systems you have in place fail, not how your people fail. 1/18/2021 A Disciplined Approach to Process Improvement https://ezinearticles.com/?A-Disciplined-Approach-to-Process-Improvement&id=4394073 3/3 Therefore, look at what you're measuring and decide if it is providing useful information. Is what you're measuring addressing what your customers value? After this analysis, you might need to totally change your current metrics.
Or you might find that your metrics are correct, but the information is used to blame your people-blame your process instead, and then fix the process. - Barrier #2: The "hero" complex: Sometimes managers think they know all the right answers. These "heroes" (and heroines) of the organization think they're golden. They don't want to be driven in a direction to improve because they think they're doing a great job already. They believe they're great managers and don't need to change. To them, changing something is an admission that something they did or implemented didn't work. These are the people who truly prevent an organization from moving forward. All companies need new or revitalized processes, approaches, and techniques to find the hidden treasure in the organization. Help them realize that the golden opportunities are already there in the business-they just have to broaden their perspective to see these opportunities. - Barrier #3: Getting collaboration between achievers and problem solvers: You can group all of your employees into one of two categories: Achievers or Problem Solvers. To identify the Achievers and Problem Solvers in your company, ask people two simple questions: 1) What is important to you about your work? And 2) Why is that important? Let's suppose you ask everyone the first question and they all answer that serving the customer is important. When you ask them why that's important, Achievers will give answers like, "We get more business," "We improve the bottom line," and "We increase market share." To them, it's all about achieving and what they get. Problem Solvers will give answers like, "We avoid having irate customers on the phone," "We don't have as many complaints," and "We don't have to do rework." To them, it's all about avoiding pain. Once you know which category everyone fits into, you can bridge the gap between the two mindsets so everyone works together effectively to improve your processes. Conclusion As your organization continue to grow and change, it is important to understand that some of the processes that worked well in the past may be ineffective in today's rapidly changing environment.
The stakes are high and the challenge is clear: you must continue to improve your processes to remain competitive. By improving processes, you improve results. Successful process improvement efforts must be integrated with management practices to achieve strategic business objectives. It is a disciplined approach that will help you discover new opportunities, reach top performance, and quickly increase customer satisfaction. Give it a chance. Once you realize what disciplined process improvement can do for your organization, you won't give it up. It is a habit forming endeavor that will transform your organization. Willie L. Carter is the president and principal of Quantum Associates, Inc., Northbrook, Illinois. He is the author of the book "Process Improvement for Administrative Departments- The Key to Achieving Internal Customer Satisfaction", available on Amazon.com. Carter is a Certified Lean Sensei, Certified Manager of Quality/Organizational Excellence, and a Certified ISO 9000 Lead Assessor. For more information on how we help companies create customer value please visit our website at http://www.quantumassocinc.com. For a free copy of our operational excellence newsletter please visit our feedback page at http://www.quantumassocinc.com or call 847-919-6127.
Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Willie_Carter/195187 © 2021 EzineArticles
Thursday 14 January 2021
Facts About the Art of Persuasion
By James Corman Submitted On December 08, 2011
What Is Persuasion? Many people think of persuasion as evil. Well, we're going to disprove this fallacy right now because there is absolutely no truth in this common belief. Persuasion, more than anything, is a form of human communication. Persuasion is a sub-type of human communication that aims to introduce change in people. Of course, this is usually done to help manifest an ideal outcome for the speaker. The art of persuasion can be applied to a variety of situations, from regular conversations to important meetings. Persuasion is used by politicians, marketers, advertisers, and even by your tough teachers back in high school. Persuasion, unlike power, has the capacity to reach out and introduce new concepts and ideas to a wide array of people without the need to resort to threats or punishment. And unlike people who abuse authority or power, persuasive individuals are viewed as positive members of organizations and groups. The art of persuasion is used in political propaganda, speeches, television commercials, radio commercials, print advertising, etc. Everywhere you look, strategies of persuasion are being used by businesses and organizations to fortify their respective positions and to stay on top of their game. And now you too can enjoy the benefits of being truly persuasive.
With this course, you will learn the basics of persuasion and how you can apply it to real-life situations. Just remember: persuasion is a skill, just like driving or skiing. You need to practice frequently to perfect it! Why Emotions Matter in Persuasion The classical approach to persuasion is to create elaborate arguments that will convince the other person to acquiesce to whatever you're saying. Persuasion is mostly one-sided if we use this technique, and it won't work. People are no longer interested in traditional sales pitches, negotiations, etc. So what will work nowadays? Based on the current literature on persuasion, the best way to persuade someone to believe in what you're saying is to tap into known emotional triggers. Emotions actually play a huge role in persuasion because people usually act based on their emotions. People rarely use their critical faculties once a persuader is able to tap into emotional triggers. The most common emotional response is the buying response. If you watch television commercials close enough, you'll start to see triggers embedded in the commercials that prompt the audience to buy the advertised product. The triggers are subtle and yet, after days and weeks, it's possible for a person to suddenly want to buy that product - based on the memory of an emotion that they felt while watching the television commercial. So the next time you want people to agree with you, don't focus too much on facts and figures. Instead, try to appeal to your audience's emotions. Do this and you automatically have the upper hand.
They'll become more trusting and they'll be more 1/13/2021 Facts About the Art of Persuasion https://ezinearticles.com/?Facts-About-the-Art-of-Persuasion&id=6744679 2/2 comfortable accepting your ideas. Do Rewards Work? Another classical method in the world of persuasion is the "reward and punishment" technique. I admit that this technique has its benefits. If you've ever seen an online sales letter (or a landing page), you know what I mean. These sales letters frequently make use of the "reward and punishment" model of persuasion. If people agree with the arguments, they instantly get a chance to get the rewards. But if they disagree, people are 'punished' because their problems remain, they won't save money in the long-term, etc. This model of persuasion might work in the short-term, but if you're a business owner and you want repeat business, you have to rethink your persuasive strategy. Even if this model worked in the beginning, people will eventually want more rewards because they're sticking with your business. If you run out of concessions for your customers, they'll lose interest in your offers and will look for better offers.
This fickle nature of consumers is the main reason why you should not depend wholly on the reward and punishment model. It's extremely tiring to keep giving concessions over a long period of time. Besides, this persuasion technique rarely creates a long-term impact on people, and that's what we really want. There are many other strategies that can create a big impact on your audience. You can appeal to your audience's intelligence (tell them that smart people choose your services and products), or you can tell them that over the long-term, they'll save a lot of money by choosing your idea or product. Experiment: You might be surprised how people respond to the simplest of persuasive arguments. To learn more about persuasive speaking, go to the Lifestyles100 web site or pick up the Kindle book, "The Power of Persuasive Speech" at Amazon.com or the Nook Book at Barnes & Noble.
Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/James_Corman/1058139
Tuesday 12 January 2021
Friday 8 January 2021
Napoleon Hill - Think and Grow Rich - Does it Work?
By Roy D Aylmer | Submitted On July 07, 2010
There's so much hype on the internet these days, regarding every subject you can imagine; even Napoleon Hill's Think and Grow Rich doesn't escape. When people claim Think And Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill is the best self help book in the world, can you believe this is true, does it really work or is it just yet more internet hype? The statistics about Napoleon Hill's best selling book can't be relied on either because many websites say that 30 million copies of Think and Grow Rich have been sold yet other sources claim it is more like 60 million. Some of the book reviews say Think and Grow Rich is a book about money? If they think that, then the reviewers obviously haven't read Napoleon Hill's classic work! So; the question is; "Napoleon Hill's Think and Grow Rich - Does it Work?" The only way I can answer this question is by sharing with you, some of my own life experiences. To illustrate this, I will need to explain a little about my background, if you will be tolerant with me for a few moments. Having come from a broken home, I lived in bed-sits and rooming houses until I was about 25 years old.
This was the time when I got married and tried to settle down. Not long after getting married I went into business with a couple of guys I knew. At first the business went pretty well. We won a number of decent contracts and started to make some money. However, my partners soon bought flashy cars and announced they could pick up more business at the golf course than they could by sitting in an office. It wasn't long before the company was spending far more money than we were earning. At about the same time I discovered my wife was having an affair with one of our employees. Can you believe it; when I confronted the guy and sacked him, he took me to the industrial tribunal for unfair dismissal. This was just about the lowest point my life ever descended to. With my company collapsing I was at loggerheads with my business partners. My home life was crumbling and I started to have panic attacks and was seriously contemplating suicide. I very soon became homeless; jobless and broke with massive debts; this inevitably led to me rapidly becoming friendless too.
It was about 20 years since I'd had any regular contact with my father; I felt that he was part of the "conspiracy" against me, plotting to make me miserable. However, running out of options, I decided to look him up and he was none too pleased to see me. By this time he was remarried, with a young family and to come across me in such a wretched state was an embarrassment to him. He fed me and let me stay for a week and on the first night, gave me a tatty little book called "Think and Grow Rich" by Napoleon Hill. He said, "Read this, you never know, it may change your life!" With nothing else to do, I spent the next seven days in my room reading the book over and over again and things started to make sense to me.
Since that date, I dip into Think and Grow Rich just about every day for inspiration. 1/5/2021 Napoleon Hill - Think and Grow Rich - Does it Work? https://ezinearticles.com/?Napoleon-Hill---Think-and-Grow-Rich---Does-it-Work?&id=4623266 2/2 After the week of reading Napoleon Hill's little book there was no going back to despair, self pity and panic attacks. I began developing positive thoughts that turned into strong burning desires. This gave me hope and faith in myself which gave me back my self esteem. It wasn't long before I secured a good job and my massive credit card debt was replaced by a manageable loan. So, is this the end of the story, settled down at last? No chance! The company I worked for was taken over by a multinational conglomerate and in their program of streamlining the business; I was destined for the scrapheap, yet again.
Once I heard redundancies were on the way, I didn't wait for the axe to fall in the hope of getting severance pay; I gave my notice and declared I was going into business on my own. The next six months were probably the most challenging I've ever faced in my life. Some folks were a great help to me and I will be for ever indebted to them. Others people were deceitful and took advantage of someone so vulnerable. Despite all the tribulations, the business became successful. What was different from just a few years earlier? How did I prosper this time with greater challenges than those that broke me before? What had changed? What was different? It was my ATTITUDE that had changed! With my new positive mental attitude Instead of fearing challenges, I welcomed them! The business I started in 1984 is still flourishing today.
We have challenges and setbacks of course but for more than 25 years the inspiration Napoleon Hill gave me in the pages of Think and Grow Rich steered me through. Did reading Napoleon Hill's book change my life for the better? Yes, it most certainly helped me. Was it a one off 'light bulb moment' that turned my life round in an instant? No, of course it didn't. Reading Think and Grow Rich over and over for a whole week was definitely a pivotal moment in my life. However, it was only one small first step in the right direction after I had been running full tilt in the wrong direction for years. Napoleon Hill opened my eyes to a whole spectrum of information and thought processes that I didn't even know existed. So to return to my opening question, "Napoleon Hill; Think and Grow Rich - Does it Work? Well it unquestionably did for me! It gave me hope and faith that life could get better and it still does every day. After Roy rebuilt his life using the inspiration and teachings from within Napoleon Hill's Think and Grow Rich, he realised not everyone who reads the book actually understands it. If you don't comprehend the principles Napoleon Hill puts forward in this book, how can you expect to gain from it.
Roy therefore decided to train people the Napoleon Hill Think And Grow Rich "way" without them having to decipher the books secrets themselves. One of the first things Napoleon Hill teaches is "definiteness of purpose." Basically this means, to succeed you must have a specific action plan. An exact course of action you can just follow to generate the future you desire. Roy decided to create a simple action plan that anyone can easily follow to immediately start to change their life in any direction they desire. His first priority was to make sure the plan can be implemented in a few hours rather than the weeks, months or years it "normally" takes to understand the principles found within Think and Grow Rich. Consequently, Roy created an interactive, video based training course. This course is so simple to understand, anyone can follow it to use the teachings of Napoleon Hill to realise their dreams. You can get full details of the interactive course by Clicking Here As Napoleon Hill said, "Your life Right Now is a direct result of decisions and thoughts you've had and made in the past." Who knows, you may be the next big success story. [http://NapoleonHillThinkAndGrowRich.net
] Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Roy_D_Aylmer/320384
Thursday 7 January 2021
What It Takes To Become Financially Stable
By Rosemarie Sumalinog Gonzales | Submitted On August 05, 2017
Financial stability is all about being prepared and ready for any event that can affect your personal finances. Regardless of the changes or scenarios that you will encounter, you know that your finances will not falter. Being financially stable means you can face any economic situation without having to sacrifice your current lifestyle - at least, not immediately after. There are so many reasons why being financially stable in the real world can help you in the long run. It is one of the important basic necessities to grow into something worthwhile.
When dealing with your finances, not only are you teaching yourself how to save money you're also disciplining yourself. You're equipping yourself to be more responsible with handling and controlling your funds. When you're disciplined with your account, you know how much to save, how much to spend, how much to give, etc. Don't you just hate those moments when you end up being unexpectedly broke? This is where being financially stable comes to play. When you know how much savings you have, it prevents unexpected situations that may put you into debt. When saving money, you tend to start looking at how you shop differently.
Being financially stable during the rough times helps you grow, and it also helps through tough times when it just seems like everything is expensive. Make savings part of the budget as if it were an expense to make cash allocation for. Make it at least 10% and go higher as your earnings increase. If the income is not enough, then you have to find ways to increase it. I know it's easier said than done but nonetheless, it should be done. We can either come up with reasons why we can't increase income and decrease expenses or do away with excuses and resolve to change things so we can start saving. There is no excuse for not saving now, no matter what now is.
Before you know it, your now is already yesterday, so if you don't do anything right now, you will end up with a very bleak tomorrow. Once you have committed to set aside an amount for saving and investing, make it regular and automatic. Everyone should save and invest. This way you can see the fruits of your labor. Seeing your assets grow will encourage all family members to help in contributing to reach your financial dreams. Being confident about your finances is one of the ways that you can deal with financial stress. When you know that you have the capabilities to finance the lifestyle of your choice, that will remove any worries or anxieties in your mind.
When your mind is clear from worries, you can think clearly so you can act on the financial plans that will bring you towards wealth and abundance. What you have to realize is that economic mobility does not necessarily mean you will be more stable financially. While your ability to improve your economic status can help you achieve financial stability, it is never a guarantee. 1/5/2021 What It Takes To Become Financially Stable https://ezinearticles.com/?What-It-Takes-To-Become-Financially-Stable&id=9763590 2/2 Although it is elusive, stabilizing your finances is not impossible. You just have to possess the determination and the perseverance to achieve this financial position.
Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Rosemarie_Sumalinog_Gonzales/1972656
Wednesday 6 January 2021
Approval: Why Do Some People Need Approval?
By Oliver JR Cooper | Submitted On October 28, 2012
To gain the approval from others is the ultimate achievement for some people. It's as if this is the primary purpose that they have on this earth. And should they actually achieve this; their life will then be complete. This will mean that this person's focus is more or less external. I say person and not individual, because in order to be an individual; one would have to be individual. And if one is looking for approval from others, it means that this person hasn't separated from others and is therefore not an individual. People The place where one will look for approval is from other people; as it can't come from anywhere else. It is unlikely that one will look to animals, or to tress and other so called inanimate objects, for approval. However, if ones is religious, it could be from a certain deity or god or some other kind of presence. But with that aside, it is unusually a human being. Areas of life Here one may look to their social group or friends for approval, from their family and intimate relationships. And it could also extend to people in society; with certain authority figures or people of status being looked towards for approval.
This could range from 'celebrities' to musicians and anyone else who has been elevated, interestingly enough, through the public's approval. All Of Nothing To some people who compulsively desire the approval of other people; it will be ether complete approval or complete disapproval. There will be no middle ground, there will only be one choice and one option available. This will mean that one's mental and emotional wellbeing will be constantly under threat. How other people react to what one is presenting will define their state of mind. I say presenting, as one could be looking for approval in a myriad of ways. Examples Ranging from the type of clothes that one has, their career choice, style of hair, how one should be behaving and who one should be in a relationship with. Are but a few examples and are many more. 1/5/2021 Approval: Why Do Some People Need Approval? https://ezinearticles.com/?Approval:-Why-Do-Some-People-Need-Approval?&id=7354542 2/3 Approval Or Disapproval. Seeing the choices as being either; approval or disapproval is the result of the dual nature of the ego mind. This is a normal process of the mind and how it perceives reality. To see life in this way is not only dysfunctional; it will also lead to a lot of unnecessary pain and suffering. Sometimes people will approve of what one does and sometimes they won't. Pleasing Others If one is seeking to gain the approval from others, it will mean that pleasing others is more important than pleasing themselves. However, it would be inaccurate to say that one does not gain anything from this type of behaviour. Perhaps this person is so out of touch with what they truly want and need; that pleasing other people is the only thing they know. And this will mean that their ego mind has associated getting the approval from others, as the only way to survive.
This is not to say that the person who is motivated to please other people is consciously thinking about this. It could be a process that is so normal and natural that it goes on without any conscious awareness. Adults And Children As an adult, it is clear to see, that one does not need to have complete approval of others in order to survive. What does need a hundred percent approval to survive - is a child. This is completely normal, as the child is powerless and dependent on its caregivers for its own survival. Looking at this logically, one can see that an adult is not a child and so this means that what happened all those years ago is, in theory, irrelevant now. Regression Letting go of seeing the world through the eyes of a child is not something that always happens by itself. What can impede this process is a lack of emotional development, being brought up by undeveloped caregivers and trauma. And due to having a past that wasn't conducive to growth or was traumatic, it will mean that there will be memories and emotions that have remained trapped and frozen. These will cause one to react and not respond and to behave without awareness. That is, until they are acknowledged, processed and healed. Another description is known as regression. This is where the ego mind goes to an earlier point in time that has been associated as safe to the mind. This does not mean functional or empowering; it simple means familiar and familiar is safe to the ego mind. The Child's View To the child, there is only complete approval or complete disapproval. Because at that age it does not have the awareness to see that there is any other way. And neither is the child developed enough to approve of its self. So even though this is a scenario that could have happened decades ago for the adult, it will not matter. As through the act of regression, one will see the world through the eyes of the child.
And as this child needs complete approval to survive, it will mean that this is an extremely strong need or instinct. This child is also completely connected or enmeshed to its caregivers. Individuality does not exist at this time. Present Day In the present day one may wonder why this need for approval is so strong and yet based on the process of regression; it starts to become clearer. It may mean that ones boundaries are not very well developed and therefore cannot see that they are separate from others. And this can then lead to the childlike perspective that gaining complete approval is essential for ones survival. Self Approval Gaining approval from others is not always possible, part of being human means that we don't all value or appreciate the same things. People's wants needs and desires are often different. People can often be unstable and capricious. There will be times that when what one does, will gain the approval from a certain amount of people and there is likely to be times when few people will approve. However, if one can approve of themselves, it will no longer be a case of all of nothing. 1/5/2021 Approval: Why Do Some People Need Approval? https://ezinearticles.com/?Approval:-Why-Do-Some-People-Need-Approval?&id=7354542 3/3 If one is constantly looking outside for approval and has no self approval; it will only lead to a life of inner instability and pain. Awareness In the short time it may be more pleasurable to please others and more painful to please oneself. But the long terms is a very different scenario. For if it was easy, this would be the common route.
One may require assistance of a therapist, a healer of some kind of coach; to allow one to develop self approval. The ego mind may resist and this is the result of seeing it as either approval or disapproval. And either pleasing others or displeasing others. Ultimately it is neither of these two. It is about following one's own truth and at times this will please others and at times it won't. My name is Oliver J R Cooper and I have been on a journey of self awareness for over nine years and for many years prior to that I had a natural curiosity. For over two years, I have been writing articles. These cover psychology and communication. This has also lead to poetry. One of my intentions is to be a catalyst to others, as other people have been and continue to be to me. As well as writing articles and creating poetry, I also offer personal coaching. To find out more go to - http://www.oliverjrcooper.co.uk/ Feel free to join the Facebook Group - https://www.facebook.com/OliverJRCooper
Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Oliver_JR_Cooper/818466
Rich Dad Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money That the Poor and Middle Class Do Not! Paperback – Illustrated, 11 April 2017
Amazing book: changed my perspective on money and life in general, most importantly, gives you the tools and answers on how the rich become rich in simplified examples
Tuesday 5 January 2021
The Ultimate Guide to Improving Your Persuasion Techniques
By Stuart Dobson | Submitted On April 03, 2010
The power of persuasion can open doors for you and make the path to success much smoother. After reading this article, you will have an array of persuasive techniques at your disposal. The most persuasive techniques have their roots in NLP (neuro-linguistic programming). These persuasion techniques are based on empathy - in order to persuade someone - you must understand them. Empathy-Based Persuasive Techniques The first and most important thing you must understand about the person you are trying to influence is what their mind best responds to - feel, visual, or auditory stimulation. Knowing this will allow you to be more persuasive by plugging into and feeding this specific desire. Females usually respond best to feelings, but not always. Men often respond well to visuals, and some people are affected by audio. To learn which is the best stimulation to focus your persuasion, look at how they talk. Do they say "I see", "I hear what you're saying", or "I feel that..."? These are obvious examples of course, the correct answer could be more subtle and perhaps a mixture of two types of stimulation. Adjust your persuasion techniques based on the kind of mind you are dealing with; for example, when persuading someone who is "feel" orientated, focus on how they will feel if they do what you are trying to convince them to. Don't try and tell them what it will be like - you have to make them actually feel it.
The more you're aware of the person you're dealing with, the more effectively you will be able to focus your persuasive techniques. Mirror-Based Persuasive Techniques Matching your body language and even your pose/position is a subtle but surprisingly powerful persuasive technique. You need to be subtle and it may feel awkward at first, but with some practice you will see how effective this technique, known as "mirroring", can be at developing a rapport and easing persuasion.As well as focusing the content of your persuasion in a way that interacts well with their specific personality type, you can also adjust your language and the way you speak to put yourself on their level. People respond better to persuasive techniques that are in their own "language". Pick up on specific words that they use and use them back on them, especially adjectives. Pay attention to their speed, pitch and volume, and respond as similarly as possible. Other Persuasive Techniques 1/5/2021 The Ultimate Guide to Improving Your Persuasion Techniques https://ezinearticles.com/?The-Ultimate-Guide-to-Improving-Your-Persuasion-Techniques&id=4045969 2/2 There are many other persuasive techniques that you can work on and build up. We recommend that you master the empathy/mirror persuasive techniques most importantly as these are the most effective. However, the following techniques can be valuable additions to your persuasion armory. PERSUASIVE WORDS There are many subconscious persuasive words that one can use. Often these will be a call to action: for example "Do that" or "Be this". Positive words and adjectives such as "Definitely", "Most" and "Effective" are very persuasive all on their own. Use "now" words such as "today" or "at the moment" often to subliminally suggest urgency. RHETORICAL QUESTIONS Getting the person to think for themselves is highly motivating and can therefore be extremely persuasive.
Ask questions that engage them and they automatically become more receptive. This will also help you learn more about them. Often this will even convince them that they are making the decision when in fact you have simply steered them to this persuasion. EYE CONTACT It is highly important to develop a good rapport with the person you are trying to persuade. Without eye contact this is virtually impossible. With consistent and non-threatening eye contact, you can develop trust. Add a genuine smile and persuasion will be much easier. BE PERSUASIVE BY CONNECTING EMOTIONALLY, NOT RATIONALLY Anyone in politics will tell you - people simply don't respond rationally. They respond based on emotions. To persuade someone, you must connect with them emotionally. Aristotle identified the three basic elements of every persuasive argument: Ethos: the credibility, knowledge, expertise, stature and authority of the person trying to persuade. Logos: the appeal of logic, reason, cognitive thinking, data and facts. Pathos: the appeal to the emotions; the non-cognitive, non-thinking motivations that affect decisions and actions. All layers are of course important, but it is perhaps the emotional layer that holds the most power of persuasion.
We are emotional beings and are much more likely to be persuaded by the promise of feeling good than the promise of "something being correct". Are Persuasion Techniques Moral? Of course you may be thinking that using persuasion techniques is immoral, underhand. Indeed, you may find yourself with the dilemma of whether to use them on someone you love. It's really up to you how you feel about using persuasive techniques, but remember the following. People should be aware of the techniques, and know when others are trying to manipulate them. If you successfully persuade someone, you have simply out-competed them. Persuasion is always optional. Yet, after much practice, you may find that these persuasive techniques simply embed into the nature of your being. Would you feel guilty for using any other aspects of your personality such as speaking confidently? Much of the time, you will be trying to do what is best for them anyway. The purpose of connecting with someone emotionally is to learn what they want. When you know this, you are only persuading them to do something that they will want to do anyway. So, by its definition, persuasion is not manipulation - it is just bringing your point across. People should be aware enough to make their own decisions. Ideally, you should be confident that you can use these persuasive techniques to do what is right for all concerned. Learn to think like a genius and other success secrets Article Source:
https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Stuart_Dobson/303581
Monday 4 January 2021
The Difference Between Being Smart, Educated, and Intelligent
By Gian Fiero | Submitted On April 11, 2009
I've always been intrigued by the subject of intelligence. As a child my mother would refer to me as "smart," but I quickly noticed that all parents refer to their children as smart. In time I would discover that all children are not smart, just as all babies are not cute. If that were the case, we'd have a world full of beautiful, smart people - which we don't. Some of us are smart; but not as smart as we think, and others are smarter than they seem, which makes me wonder, how do we define smart? What makes one person smarter than another? When do "street smarts" matter more than "book smarts"? Can you be both smart and stupid? Is being smart more of a direct influence of genetics, or one's environment? Then there are the issues of education, intelligence and wisdom. What does it mean to be highly educated? What's the difference between being highly educated and highly intelligent? Does being highly educated automatically make you highly intelligent? Can one be highly intelligent without being highly educated? Do IQs really mean anything? What makes a person wise? Why is wisdom typically associated with old age? My desire to seek answers to these questions inspired many hours of intense research which included the reading of 6 books, hundreds of research documents, and countless hours on the Internet; which pales in comparison to the lifetime of studies and research that pioneers in the fields of intelligence and education like Howard Gardner, Richard Sternberg, Linda S. Gottfredson, Thomas Sowell, Alfie Kohn, and Diane F. Halpern whose work is cited in this article.
My goal was simple: Amass, synthesize, and present data on what it means to be smart, educated and intelligent so that it can be understood and used by anyone for their benefit. PRENATAL CARE With this in mind, there was not a better (or more appropriate) place to start than at the very beginning of our existence: as a fetus in the womb. There is mounting evidence that the consumption of food that's high in iron both before and during pregnancy is critical to building the prenatal brain. Researchers have found a strong association between low iron levels during pregnancy and diminished IQ. Foods rich in iron include lima beans, kidney beans, pinto beans, spinach, asparagus, broccoli, seafoods, nuts, dried fruits, oatmeal, and fortified cereals. Children with low iron status in utero (in the uterus) scored lower on every test and had significantly lower language ability, fine-motor skills, and tractability than children with higher prenatal iron levels. In essence, proper prenatal care is critical to 1/4/2021 The Difference Between Being Smart, Educated, and Intelligent https://ezinearticles.com/?The-Difference-Between-Being-Smart,-Educated,-and-Intelligent&id=2181806 2/8 the development of cognitive skills. COGNITIVE SKILLS Cognitive skills are the basic mental abilities we use to think, study, and learn. They include a wide variety of mental processes used to analyze sounds and images, recall information from memory, make associations between different pieces of information, and maintain concentration on particular tasks. They can be individually identified and measured.
Cognitive skill strength and efficiency correlates directly with students' ease of learning. DRINKING, PREGNANCY, AND ITS INTELLECTUAL IMPACT Drinking while pregnant is not smart. In fact, it's downright stupid. A study in Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research has found that even light to moderate drinking - especially during the second trimester - is associated with lower IQs in offspring at 10 years of age. This result was especially pronounced among African-American rather than Caucasian offspring. "IQ is a measure of the child's ability to learn and to survive in his or her environment. It predicts the potential for success in school and in everyday life. Although a small but significant percentage of children are diagnosed with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) each year, many more children are exposed to alcohol during pregnancy who do not meet criteria for FAS yet experience deficits in growth and cognitive function," said Jennifer A. Willford, assistant professor of psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. Paul D. Connor, clinical director of the Fetal Alcohol and Drug Unit and assistant professor in the department of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the University of Washington has this to say about the subject: "There are a number of domains of cognitive functioning that can be impaired even in the face of a relatively normal IQ, including academic achievement (especially arithmetic), adaptive functioning, and executive functions (the ability to problem solve and learn from experiences). Deficits in intellectual, achievement, adaptive, and executive functioning could make it difficult to appropriately manage finances, function independently without assistance, and understand the consequences of - or react appropriately to - mistakes." This is a key finding which speaks directly to the (psychological) definition of intelligence which is addressed later in this article. ULTRA SOUNDS Studies have shown that the frequent exposure of the human fetus to ultrasound waves is associated with a decrease in newborn body weight, an increase in the frequency of left-handedness, and delayed speech. Because ultrasound energy is a high-frequency mechanical vibration, researchers hypothesized that it might influence the migration of neurons in a developing fetus.
Neurons in mammals multiply early in fetal development and then migrate to their final destinations. Any interference or disruption in the process could result in abnormal brain function. Commercial companies (which do ultrasounds for "keepsake" purposes) are now creating more powerful ultrasound machines capable of providing popular 3D and 4D images. The procedure, however, lasts longer as they try to make 30- minute videos of the fetus in the uterus. The main stream magazine New Scientist reported the following: Ultrasound scans can stop cells from dividing and make them commit suicide. Routine scans, which have let doctors peek at fetuses and internal organs for the past 40 years, affect the normal cell cycle. On the FDA website this information is posted about ultrasounds: While ultrasound has been around for many years, expectant women and their families need to know that the long-term effects of repeated ultrasound exposures on the fetus are not fully known. In light of all that remains unknown, having a prenatal ultrasound for non-medical reasons is not a good idea. NATURE VERSUS NURTURE...THE DEBATE CONTINUES Now that you are aware of some of the known factors which determine, improve, and impact the intellectual development of a fetus, it's time for conception. Once that baby is born, which will be more crucial in the development of its intellect: nature (genetics) or nurture (the environment)? Apparently for centuries, scientists and psychologists have gone back and forth on this. I read many comprehensive studies and reports on this subject during the research phase of this article, and I believe that it's time to put this debate to rest. Both 1/4/2021 The Difference Between Being Smart, Educated, and Intelligent https://ezinearticles.com/?The-Difference-Between-Being-Smart,-Educated,-and-Intelligent&id=2181806 3/8 nature and nurture are equally as important and must be fully observed in the intellectual development of all children. This shouldn't be an either/or proposition. A recent study shows that early intervention in the home and in the classroom can make a big difference for a child born into extreme poverty, according to Eric Turkheimer, a psychologist at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville.
The study concludes that while genetic makeup explains most of the differences in IQ for children in wealthier families, environment - and not genes - makes a bigger difference for minority children in low-income homes. Specifically, what researchers call "heritability"- the degree to which genes influence IQ - was significantly lower for poor families. "Once you're put into an adequate environment, your genes start to take over," Mr. Turkheimer said, "but in poor environments genes don't have that ability." But there are reports that contradict these findings...sort of. Linda S. Gottfredson, a professor of educational studies at the University of Delaware, wrote in her article, The General Intelligence Factor that environments shared by siblings have little to do with IQ. Many people still mistakenly believe that social, psychological and economic differences among families create lasting and marked differences in IQ. She found that behavioral geneticists refer to such environmental effects as "shared" because they are common to siblings who grow up together. Her reports states that the heritability of IQ rises with age; that is to say, the extent to which genetics accounts for differences in IQ among individuals increases as people get older. In her article she also refers to studies comparing identical and fraternal twins, published in the past decade by a group led by Thomas J. Bouchard, Jr., of the University of Minnesota and other scholars, show that about 40 percent of IQ differences among preschoolers stems from genetic differences, but that heritability rises to 60 percent by adolescence and to 80 percent by late adulthood.
And this is perhaps the most interesting bit of information, and relevant to this section of my article: With age, differences among individuals in their developed intelligence come to mirror more closely their genetic differences. It appears that the effects of environment on intelligence fade rather than grow with time. Bouchard concludes that young children have the circumstances of their lives imposed on them by parents, schools and other agents of society, but as people get older they become more independent and tend to seek out the life niches that are most congenial to their genetic proclivities. BREAST-FEEDING INCREASES INTELLIGENCE Researchers from Christchurch School of Medicine in New Zealand studied over 1,000 children born between April and August 1977. During the period from birth to one year, they gathered information on how these children were fed. The infants were then followed to age 18. Over the years, the researchers collected a range of cognitive and academic information on the children, including IQ, teacher ratings of school performance in reading and math, and results of standardized tests of reading comprehension, mathematics, and scholastic ability. The researchers also looked at the number of passing grades achieved in national School Certificate examinations taken at the end of the third year of high school. The results indicated that the longer children had been breast-fed, the higher they scored on such tests. TALKING TO YOUR CHILDREN MAKES A DIFFERENCE Thomas Sowell, author of Race, IQ, Black Crime, and facts Liberals Ignore uncovered some fascinating information that every parent should take note of. He writes:
There is a strong case that black Americans suffer from a series of disadvantageous environments. Studies show time and again that before they go to school, black children are on average exposed to a smaller vocabulary than white children, in part due to socioeconomic factors. While children from professional households typically exposed to a total of 2,150 different words each day, children from working class households are exposed to 1,250, and children from households on welfare a mere 620. Yes, smart sounding children tend to come from educated, professional, two-parent environments where they pick-up valuable language skills and vocabulary from its smart sounding inhabitants. Mr. Sowell continues: Black children are obviously not to blame for their poor socioeconomic status, but something beyond economic status is at work in black homes. Black people have not signed up for the "great mission" of the white middle class - the constant quest to stimulate intellectual growth and get their child into Harvard or Oxbridge. 1/4/2021 The Difference Between Being Smart, Educated, and Intelligent https://ezinearticles.com/?The-Difference-Between-Being-Smart,-Educated,-and-Intelligent&id=2181806 4/8 Elsie Moore of Arizona State University, Phoenix, studied black children adopted by either black or white parents, all of whom were middle-class professionals. By the age of 7.5 years, those in black homes were 13 IQ points behind those being raised in the white homes. ACCUMULATED ADVANTAGES At this juncture in my research it dawned on me, and should be fairly obvious to you, that many children are predisposed to being smart, educated, and intelligent, simply by their exposure to the influential factors which determine them long before they start school. An informed mother, proper prenatal care, educated, communicative parents, and a nurturing environment in which to live, all add up to accumulated advantages that formulate intellectual abilities. As you can see, some children have unfair advantages from the very beginning. Malcolm Gladwell, author of top-selling book Outliers, wrote that "accumulated advantages" are made possible by arbitrary rules...and such unfair advantages are everywhere. "It is those who are successful who are most likely to be given the kinds of social opportunities that lead to further success," he writes. "It's the rich who get the biggest tax breaks. It's the best students who get the best teaching and most attention." With that in mind, we turn our attention to education and intelligence. WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE WELL EDUCATED? Alfie Kohn, author of the book What Does It Mean To Be Well Educated? poses the question, does the phrase well educated refer to a quality of schooling you received, or something about you? Does it denote what you were taught? Or what you remember?
I contend that to be well educated is all in the application; the application and use of information. Information has to be used in order to become knowledge, and as we all have heard, knowledge is power. Most people are aware of the floundering state of education in this country on some level. We tell our children that nothing is more important than getting a "good" education, and every year, due to government budget shortfalls, teachers are laid off, classes are condensed, schools are closed, and many educational programs - especially those which help the underprivileged - are cut. The reality is, we don't really value education. We value it as a business, an industry, political ammunition, and as an accepted form of discrimination, but not for what it was intended: a means of enriching one's character and life through learning. What we value as a society, are athletes and the entertainment they offer. The fact that a professional athlete makes more money in one season, than most teachers in any region will make in their careers, is abominable. There's always money to build new sports stadiums, but not enough to give teachers a decent (and well-deserved) raise. Ironically, the best teachers don't go into the profession for money. They teach because it's a calling. Most of them were influenced by a really good teacher as a student. With the mass exodus of teachers, many students are not able to cultivate the mentoring relationships that they once were able to because so many are leaving the profession - voluntarily and involuntarily - within an average of three years. At the high school level, where I got my start, the emphasis is not on how to educate the students to prepare them for life, or even college (all high schools should be college-prep schools, right?), it was about preparing them to excel on their standardized tests.
Then the controversial "exit" exams were implemented and literally, many high schools were transformed into testing centers. Learning has almost become secondary. This mentality carries over into college, which of course there's a test one must take in order to enroll (the SAT or ACT). This explains why so many college students are more concerned with completing a course, than learning from it. They are focused on getting "A's" and degrees, instead of becoming degreed thinkers. The latter of which are in greater demand by employers and comprise the bulk of the self-employed. The "get-the-good-grade" mindset is directly attributable to the relentless and often unnecessary testing that our students are subjected to in schools. Alfie Kohn advocates the "exhibition" of learning, in which students reveal their understanding by means of in-depth projects, portfolios of assignments, and other demonstrations. He cites a model pioneered by Ted Sizer and Deborah Meier. Meier has emphasized the importance of students having five "habits of mind," which are: the value of raising questions about evidence ("How do we know what we know?"), point of view, ("Whose perspective does this represent?"), connections ("How is this related to that?"), supposition ("How might things have been otherwise?"), and relevance ("Why is this important?"). 1/4/2021 The Difference Between Being Smart, Educated, and Intelligent https://ezinearticles.com/?The-Difference-Between-Being-Smart,-Educated,-and-Intelligent&id=2181806 5/8 Kohn writes: It's only the ability to raise and answer those questions that matters, though, but also the disposition to do so.
For that matter, any set of intellectual objectives, any description of what it means to think deeply and critically, should be accompanied by a reference to one's interest or intrinsic motivation to do such thinking...to be well-educated then, is to have the desire as well as the means to make sure that learning never ends... HISTORY AND PURPOSE OF IQ We've always wanted to measure intelligence. Ironically, when you look at some the first methods used to evaluate it in the 1800s, they were not, well, very intelligent. Tactics such as subjecting people to various forms of torture to see what their threshold for pain was (the longer you could withstand wincing, the more intelligent you were believed to be), or testing your ability to detect a high pitch sound that others could not hear. Things have changed...or have they? No discussion of intelligence or IQ can be complete without mention of Alfred Binet, a French psychologist who was responsible for laying the groundwork for IQ testing in 1904. His original intention was to devise a test that would diagnose learning disabilities of students in France. The test results were then used to prepare special programs to help students overcome their educational difficulties. It was never intended to be used as an absolute measure of one's intellectual capabilities. According to Binet, intelligence could not be described as a single score. He said that the use of the Intelligence Quotient (IQ) as a definite statement of a child's intellectual capability would be a serious mistake. In addition, Binet feared that IQ measurement would be used to condemn a child to a permanent "condition" of stupidity, thereby negatively affecting his or her education and livelihood. The original interest was in the assessment of 'mental age' -- the average level of intelligence for a person of a given age. His creation, the Binet-Simon test (originally called a "scale"), formed the archetype for future tests of intelligence. H. H. Goddard, director of research at Vineland Training School in New Jersey, translated Binet's work into English and advocated a more general application of the Simon-Binet test. Unlike Binet, Goddard considered intelligence a solitary, fixed and inborn entity that could be measured. With help of Lewis Terman of Stanford University, his final product, published in 1916 as the Stanford Revision of the Binet-Simon Scale of Intelligence (also known as the Stanford-Binet), became the standard intelligence test in the United States. It's important to note that the fallacy about IQ is that it is fixed and can not be changed. The fact is that IQ scores are known to fluctuate - both up and down during the course of one's lifetime. It does not mean that you become more, or less intelligent, it merely means that you tested better on one day than another.
One more thing to know about IQ tests: They have been used for racist purposes since their importation into the U.S. Many of those who were involved in the importation and refinement of these tests believed that IQ was hereditary and are responsible for feeding the fallacy that it is a "fixed" trait. Many immigrants were tested in the 1920s and failed these IQ tests miserably. As a result, many of them were denied entry into the U.S., or were forced to undergo sterilization for fear of populating America with "dumb" and "inferior" babies. If you recall, the tests were designed for white, middle class Americans. Who do you think would have the most difficulty passing them? Lewis Terman developed the original notion of IQ and proposed this scale for classifying IQ scores: 000 - 070: Definite feeble-mindedness 070 - 079: Borderline deficiency 080 - 089: Dullness 090 - 109: Normal or average intelligence 110 - 119: Superior intelligence 115 - 124: Above average (e.g., university students) 125 - 134: Gifted (e.g., post-graduate students) 135 - 144: Highly gifted (e.g., intellectuals) 145 - 154: Genius (e.g., professors) 155 - 164: Genius (e.g., Nobel Prize winners) 165 - 179: High genius 180 - 200: Highest genius 200 - higher ?: Immeasurable genius *Genius IQ is generally considered to begin around 140 to 145, representing only 25% of the population (1 in 400). *Einstein was considered to "only" have an IQ of about 160. 1/4/2021 The Difference Between Being Smart, Educated, and Intelligent https://ezinearticles.com/?The-Difference-Between-Being-Smart,-Educated,-and-Intelligent&id=2181806 6/8 DEFINING INTELLIGENCE Diane F. Halpern, a psychologist and past-president of the American Psychological Association (APA), wrote in her essay contribution to Why Smart People Can Be So Stupid that in general, we recognize people as intelligent if they have some combination of these achievements (1) good grades in school; (2) a high level of education; (3) a responsible, complex job; (4) some other recognition of being intelligent, such as winning prestigious awards or earning a large salary; (5) the ability to read complex text with good comprehension; (6) solve difficult and novel problems.
Throughout my research and in the early phases of this article, I came across many definitions of the word intelligence. Some were long, some were short. Some I couldn't even understand. The definition that is most prevalent is the one created by the APA which is: the ability to adapt to one's environment, and learn from one's mistakes. How about that? There's the word environment again. We just can't seem to escape it. This adds deeper meaning to the saying, "When in Rome, do as the Romans do." It means recognizing what's going on in your environment, and having the intelligence adapt to it - and the people who occupy it - in order to survive and succeed within it. There are also many different forms of intelligence. Most notably those created by Dr. Howard Gardner, professor of education at Harvard University. Dr. Gardner believes (and I agree) that our schools and culture focus most of their attention on linguistic and logicalmathematical intelligence. We esteem the highly articulate or logical people of our culture. However, Dr. Gardner says that we should also place equal attention on individuals who show gifts in the other intelligences: the artists, architects, musicians, naturalists, designers, dancers, therapists, entrepreneurs, and others who enrich the world in which we live. He felt that the traditional notion of intelligence, based on IQ testing, was far too limited and created the Theories Of Multiple Intelligences in 1983 to account for a broader range of human potential in children and adults. These intelligences are: Linguistic intelligence ("word smart") Logical-mathematical intelligence ("number/reasoning smart") Spatial intelligence ("picture smart") Bodily-Kinesthetic intelligence ("body smart") Musical intelligence ("music smart") Interpersonal intelligence ("people smart") Intrapersonal intelligence ("self smart") Naturalist intelligence ("nature smart") Not associated with Dr. Gardner, but equally respected are: FLUID & CRYSTALLIZED INTELLIGENCE According to About.com, Psychologist Raymond Cattell first proposed the concepts of fluid and crystallized intelligence and further developed the theory with John Horn. The Cattell-Horn theory of fluid and crystallized intelligence suggests that intelligence is composed of a number of different abilities that interact and work together to produce overall individual intelligence. Cattell defined fluid intelligence as "...the ability to perceive relationships independent of previous specific practice or instruction concerning those relationships." Fluid intelligence is the ability to think and reason abstractly and solve problems. This ability is considered independent of learning, experience, and education. Examples of the use of fluid intelligence include solving puzzles and coming up with problem solving strategies. Crystallized intelligence is learning from past experiences and learning. Situations that require crystallized intelligence include reading comprehension and vocabulary exams. This type of intelligence is based upon facts and rooted in experiences.
This type of intelligence becomes stronger as we age and accumulate new knowledge and understanding. Both types of intelligence increase throughout childhood and adolescence. Fluid intelligence peaks in adolescence and begins to decline progressively beginning around age 30 or 40. Crystallized intelligence continues to grow throughout adulthood. SUCCESSFUL INTELLIGENCE Then there's Successful Intelligence, which is authored by intelligence psychologist and Yale professor, Robert J. Sternberg, who believes that the whole concept of relating IQ to life achievement is misguided, because he believes that IQ is a pretty miserable predictor of life achievement. 1/4/2021 The Difference Between Being Smart, Educated, and Intelligent https://ezinearticles.com/?The-Difference-Between-Being-Smart,-Educated,-and-Intelligent&id=2181806 7/8 His Successful Intelligence theory focuses on 3 types of intelligence which are combined to contribute to one's overall success: Analytical Intelligence; mental steps or components used to solve problems; Creative Intelligence: the use of experience in ways that foster insight (creativity/divergent thinking); and Practical Intelligence: the ability to read and adapt to the contexts of everyday life. With regard to environment, Mr. Sternberg writes in his book Successful Intelligence: Successfully intelligent people realize that the environment in which they find themselves may or may not be able to make the most of their talents. They actively seek an environment where they can not only do successful work, but make a difference. They create opportunities rather than let opportunities be limited by circumstances in which they happen to find themselves. As an educator, I subscribe to Mr. Sternberg's Successful Intelligence approach to teaching. It has proven to be a highly effective tool and mindset for my college students. Using Successful Intelligence as the backbone of my context-driven curriculum really inspires students to see how education makes their life goals more attainable, and motivates them to further develop their expertise. Mr. Sternberg believes that the major factor in achieving expertise is purposeful engagement. EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE In his best-selling 1995 book, Emotional Intelligence, Daniel Goleman reported that research shows that conventional measures of intelligence - IQ - only account for 20% of a person's success in life. For example, research on IQ and education shows that high IQ predicts 10 to 25% of grades in college. The percentage will vary depending on how we define success. Nonetheless, Goleman's assertion begs the question:
What accounts for the other 80%? You guessed it...Emotional Intelligence. What exactly is emotional intelligence? Emotional intelligence (also called EQ or EI) refers to the ability to perceive, control, and evaluate emotions. Many corporations now have mandatory EQ training for their managers in an effort to improve employee relations and increase productivity. TACIT KNOWLEDGE aka "STREET SMARTS" You've heard the phrase, "Experience is the greatest teacher..." In psychology circles knowledge gained from everyday experience is called tacit knowledge. The colloquial term is "street smarts," which implies that formal, classroom instruction (aka "book smarts") has nothing to do with it. The individual is not directly instructed as to what he or she should learn, but rather must extract the important lesson from the experience even when learning is not the primary objective. Tacit knowledge is closely related to common sense, which is sound and prudent judgment based on a simple perception of the situation or facts. As you know, common sense is not all that common. Tacit knowledge, or the lessons obtained from it, seems to "stick" both faster and better when the lessons have direct relevance to the individual's goals. Knowledge that is based on one's own practical experience will likely be more instrumental to achieving one's goals than will be knowledge that is based on someone else's experience, or that is overly generic and abstract. BEING BOTH SMART AND STUPID Yes, it's possible to be both smart and stupid. I'm sure someone you know comes to mind at this precise moment. But the goal here is not to ridicule, but to understand how some seemingly highly intelligent, or highly educated individuals can be so smart in one way, and incredibly stupid in others. The woman who is a respected, well paid, dynamic executive who consistently chooses men who don't appear to be worthy of her, or the man who appears to be a pillar of the community, with a loving wife and happy kids, ends up being arrested on rape charges. It happens, but why? I found the answer in Why Smart People Can Be So Stupid. Essentially, intellect is domain specific. In other words, being smart (knowledgeable) in one area of your life, and stupid (ignorant) in another is natural. Turning off one's brain is quite common especially when it comes to what we desire. A shared characteristic among those who are smart and stupid, is the difficulty in delaying gratification. Olem Ayduk & Walter Mischel who wrote the chapter summarized: Sometimes stupid behavior in smart people may arise from faulty expectations, erroneous beliefs, or merely a lack of motivation to enact control strategies even when one has them.
But sometimes it is an inability to regulate one's affective states and the behavioral tendencies associated with them that leads to stupid and self-defeating behavior. The central character in this book who many of these lessons regarding being smart and stupid revolve around is Bill Clinton and his affair with Monica Lewinksky. 1/4/2021 The Difference Between Being Smart, Educated, and Intelligent https://ezinearticles.com/?The-Difference-Between-Being-Smart,-Educated,-and-Intelligent&id=2181806 8/8 WISDOM & CONCLUSION My great grandmother, Leola Cecil, maybe had an 8th grade education at the most. By no stretch of the imagination was she highly educated, but she had what seemed like infinite wisdom. She was very observant and could "read" people with startling accuracy. Till the very end of her life she shared her "crystallized intelligence" with whomever was receptive to it. She died at the age of 94. I often use many of her sayings as a public speaker, but most importantly, I use her philosophies to make sure that I'm being guided spiritually and not just intellectually. Many of us who are lucky enough to have a great grandparent can testify that there is something special about their knowledge. They seem to have life figured out, and a knack for helping those of us who are smart, educated and intelligent see things more clearly when we are too busy thinking.
What they have is what we should all aspire to end up with if we are lucky: wisdom. Wisdom is the ability to look through a person, when others can only look at them. Wisdom slows down the thinking process and makes it more organic; synchronizing it with intuition. Wisdom helps you make better judgments regarding decisions, and makes you less judgmental. Wisdom is understanding without knowing, and accepting without understanding. Wisdom is recognizing what's important to other people, and knowing that other people are of the utmost importance to you. Wisdom is both a starting point, and a final conclusion. Gian Fiero is a seasoned educator, speaker and consultant with a focus on business development and music/entertainment industry operations. He is affiliated with San Francisco State University as an adjunct professor and the United States Small Business Administration (SBA) where he conducts monthly workshops on topics such as career planning, public relations, and personal growth.
Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Gian_Fiero/30225
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
-
By Scott Hogue | Submitted On October 18, 2015 There is an ancient saying about abundance and it goes like this, "From abundance he to...
