One of benefits of being an employee is not having to take TOTAL responsibility for your life. Its made me realize that rarely have I observed successful individuals complain about their circumstances. It is a major distinction between people who exhibit entrepreneurial flair and those who will always remain employees. W.I.T. The biggest issue that I have found with success is actually defining “the word” SUCCESS on my own terms. Over years I have developed a love affair with dictionaries. You might remember those books our ancestors used in pre-search engine days. Anyway, I use dictionaries regularly to see how they define a word. What has become fascinating about this is that dictionaries often disagree with one another….kind of like search engines do today.

If you look up word success in most dictionaries it will normally come up with some variations of following ideas:

a)accomplishment, achievement, attainment; triumph, victory

And my experience has been that these synonyms promote following viewpoints:

When you get what you want then you can be happy.

Life begins when you get X.

What you don’t have is better that what you do have.

More is better.

I find these perspectives woefully inadequate for truly defining elements of a successful life. Until you decide what success means to you, inadvertently you will fall for one of these perspectives. The key is defining SUCCESS based upon what is ultimately significant to your life, on your own terms, by your own design.

For me, W.I.T. is a wonderful definition of SUCCESS. Football coach and legend Vince Lombardi said, “The pride of success is hard work, dedication to job at hand, and determination that whether we win or lose, we have applied best of ourselves to task at hand.” If anybody understood W.I.T, it was Vince Lombardi.

I, also however am reminded of French prisoner Papillon who was unjustly condemned to life imprisonment on Devils Island. He was disturbed by a recurring nightmare. His dream was that he stood before a harsh tribunal. “You are charged,” they would shout, “with a wasted life. How do you plead?” “Guilty.” He would mutter. “I plead guilty.” Papillon, prisoner knew that to waste his life under control of others was WASTE. He also consistently pursued his freedom. W.I.T.

Life is essentially composed of energy, time and space. To ultimately live a successful life would mean that we intensely understand these basic elements and invest them wisely without waste in pursuit of our goal.. The rich have money. The successful individual has a rich entrepreneurial life and lives it intensely.

Success is a passionate love affair with life. W.I.T. On your own terms, by your own design.

So be it!

Decorate your office with red, white and blue Americana images. Decorate your work area with Olympic icons such as Olympic torch, Olympic rings, posters of athletes, balloons, streamers, etc. Create your own, using poster board, Kraft paper and large-tip markers.

Raise Flag. Hoist American flag every time someone in your group records a special sale or does something noteworthy. If appropriate, ring a bell or signify achievement through some other means.

Keep Score. Put on your thinking cap and come up with ways to use Olympic events as a way to “keep score” as you head toward your goals. For example, create a Marathon map on a poster board indicating each of 26 miles (the marathon race is actually 26 miles 385 yards). Every time someone sells X-product or does X-activity, mark it in color on map, etc.

Let’s Eat Greek! If appropriate, treat your people to a dinner at a local Greek restaurant.

Food, Drink and Munchies Ideas: * Wheaties, Breakfast of Champions * Power bars * Bottled water * Gatorade and other sports drinks

For more ideas on staging a fun, exciting and effective Olympic Games campaign, visit www.bizmotivation.com where there is an Olympic Games Party and Idea Kit available, plus information and links to motivation articles, themes, decorations and award merchandise.