Use friendly discussions to advance your career

Written by Brenda Koritko


Think about allrepparttar different people that you chat with on a regular basis. This group most likely includes family, friends, classmates, neighbors, and co-workers. Then, think aboutrepparttar 123545 people that you have pleasant, often personal, discussions with from time to time. This group might include your hair stylist, parents atrepparttar 123546 local baseball field, merchants in your community, or people in your religious community. Next, review any lists or rosters you have for professional organizations, social clubs, or athletic clubs. These lists will help you remember folks you meet occasionally.

Just by completing these simple tasks, you have completedrepparttar 123547 first step of effective networking. You have identified your existing network, and you are ready to begin organizing your networking strategy usingrepparttar 123548 information you have gathered to create a dynamic contact list. You know people that know people. It is easy to expand your network quickly once you identify your core group of great connections.

Don’t focus on whererepparttar 123549 people you have identified work. When you have finished listing allrepparttar 123550 people in your existing network, rank these people by how comfortable you feel with them. Plan to build your confidence by contactingrepparttar 123551 people atrepparttar 123552 top of your list first.

Keep a handwritten record, or enter your information in a database. Make this decision based on what isrepparttar 123553 most convenient way to make sure that you have easy access your information. Include some, or all, ofrepparttar 123554 following information in your record: referral source; contact and organization name;repparttar 123555 date of your meeting; key information gathered; follow-up action/s, andrepparttar 123556 date you sent a thank you letter.

Family and friends are a valuable resource. Plan to askrepparttar 123557 people you know for advice, opinions, information, help, ideas, research, or suggestions. How many times have you shared information withrepparttar 123558 people on your contact list? How many times have they spoken to you about their families, mutual friends, orrepparttar 123559 challenging and exciting events that they are experiencing in their workplace? I am guessingrepparttar 123560 number is beyond measure, and that you have access to an endless number of rewarding opportunities to explore.

Melting The Thinking Mind: Is your self confidence based on what you accomplished in the past?

Written by Charlie Badenhop


Do you ever find that your level of self confidence tends to go up and down likerepparttar stock market? Or perhaps it even goes up and down along withrepparttar 123544 stock market! Here is a story about a Japanese businessman that might give you a new perspective.

I recently heard from a friend, about a Japanese business man that has created a highly successful business with hundreds of stores throughoutrepparttar 123545 country. At first I thought my friend was going to be telling me aboutrepparttar 123546 "how to" of business success, but insteadrepparttar 123547 story took quite a different path than I was expecting. What follows is my version of an inspiring story.

The man in my story had actually failed at numerous businesses overrepparttar 123548 years. He started out with a large and successful family business, but he ran that business intorepparttar 123549 ground and eventually went bankrupt. After his bankruptcy he said, "Even though my business had failed, I did not feel like I had failed. I still had confidence in myself. I still knew that I could do something good. I didn't try to figure out allrepparttar 123550 details of what I had done right or wrong, I didn't try to understand whether I was a good business man or a bad business man. I just continued to believe in myself, andrepparttar 123551 vision that I had."

After his bankruptcy he searched around and managed to borrow some money for a new business. In a reasonably short amount of time he ran this business into bankruptcy as well. Afterwards he said, "Even more so now, I still had confidence in myself. I had seen some flashes of brilliance, and I knew that I could do something good. Once again, I didn't try to figure out right or wrong, good or bad, I only concentrated on how I could borrow more money and start all over again."

So, he manages to borrow some more money, and starts another business, and of course this business also goes bankrupt, or I wouldn't be telling this story! After his third bankruptcy he said "I knew I was getting closer to getting it right." What a fantastic spirit this guy has! He has huge confidence inrepparttar 123552 face of big time short term failure.

Back out onrepparttar 123553 streets he went, and this time he only managed to borrow a rather small sum of money. Not being able to start a "real" business with such a limited amount of cash, he rented a small Japanese pick-up truck. (The small ones are REALLY small. Sort of like a bonsai version of an American pick-up truck). With little money to spend he shopped around in various wholesale markets and wound up deciding to only buy things that he could sell cheaply with no seeming connection torepparttar 123554 various products, except that they were inexpensive and of reasonable quality. He loaded his goods intorepparttar 123555 back of his tiny pick-up truck and parked illegally on a busy street where he hawked his wares torepparttar 123556 passersby, andrepparttar 123557 launch of a new retail phenomena had begun. Over time he parleyedrepparttar 123558 success he had with his one tiny truck, into a chain of highly successful stores.

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