Much financial failure is the result of players simply not knowing the nature and the rules of the game.

How could you win a game of Monopoly if you didn’t know the purpose of placing hotels on your properties?

How long would a basketball player last on a football field if he didn’t know what football was?

If you feel like you are losing the game of finances, take a step back and ask yourself if you know what the rules are and what the purpose of the game is.

After you’ve identified the things that you think you know, find out if the rules you’re playing by are principles or strategies.

If your knowledge is based on strategies, the rules will be constantly changing. Principles never change and hold true in every context.

When all else fails, ask for or read the directions from an experienced and successful player.

Where are you on the CASHFLOW Quadrant? Rich Dad, Poor Dad author Robert Kiyosaki explains.

*If you’re reading this in an RSS reader or e-mail, you may need to click the title of the post to view the video on our blog*

“Where is success?” asked the young man. The guru answered not a word, but pointed down a little worn, obscure path.

The young man ran down the path and out of sight. Soon, shouting, screaming, and thudding was heard, followed by a “SPLAT!”

Some time later, the young man returned to the guru, beaten, worn, bleeding, and with disheveled clothes.

When he regained his composure he exclaimed, “That was horrible! Please tell me, where is success?”

Again, without speaking a word, the old man pointed down the same path. The eager young man ran down the path again.

Soon, there was a crashing, a pounding, and a bleating heard. The screams and cries were hideous, the thudding loud and incessant, all of which were followed by a loud, “SPLAT!”

A long time later the young man returned. He was crawling on his belly, pulling himself along on fingers and toes. His head was bloody, his ear was torn off, his eyes blackened, his hair pulled out, and his clothes in rags.

For a long time he just lay on the ground. Finally he pleaded very weakly, “This isn’t working. I’m not having any fun. Please speak to me. Please tell me, where is success?”

The old man looked at him wisely and replied, “On the other side of SPLAT.”

Are you allowing your fear of failure to hold your success hostage? Is your reason for wanting success greater than the growing pains?

Sadly, most people quit right before they would have experienced success. Learn to see beyond the pain to the often unseen lessons that result from sustained, painful effort.

Sometimes the only way to get rid of pain is to face it directly, bravely, and for a sustained period of time.

Cast off financial tyranny. Declare fiscal independence. Seek for real freedom, rather than simple security.

Take it from William Wallace.

If you’re reading this in an RSS reader or e-mail, you may need to click on the title of the post to view the video on our blog.

To succeed in sales, you must figure out what your prospects want and present it to them in their language.

Learn from the master, Joe Dirt:

*If you’re reading this in an RSS reader or e-mail, you may need to click the title of the post to view the video on our blog.*

If you want to understand how entrepreneurs think, a great place to start is Michael E. Gerber’s The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What To Do About It.

It’s one of the most famous books on entrepreneurship on the market, and it can be a tool to help you develop systems to improve your Max business.

Like all tools, the key is knowing how and where to use it.

Gerber says you need different mindsets to develop a business.

You can’t just go in with your current knowledge and expect to know how to pay the bills, be the technician and be the business owner all at the same time.

You can’t expect to have all the right mindsets you need to make that business flourish.

In many ways, “The E-Myth” doesn’t apply to a Max business.

Gerber says that, for whatever you can do, find someone who can do it cheaper and more efficiently and then let them do it. You don’t have to pay them that much.

Just get them to do a basic job you can describe and let them do it over and over again. That’s the path to success.

Max businesses are very different than that. You want someone who is innovative and creative. Someone who knows how to build. Someone who know how to solve problems. Someone who can inspire and is willing to talk to people.

You want someone who has a slightly different personality.

This person really wants to own their future and create a better life. They want to — and can — see the vision that Max has and that Max can give them.

You don’t want a pure technician who does exactly what you want and follows the road exactly. You want someone who’s going to break the rules a little bit, who thinks outside of the box.

You want someone who can see opportunity and make it a reality.

That’s the difference.

Here’s how “The E-Myth” can apply to your Max business.

It fits in terms of you creating systems in which the people who join your team can be successful. You have ways of helping them recruit. You have ways of having conference calls. You have ways of using the materials to help yourself.

These ways not only help people utilize the product, but also see the opportunity.

The story is told of two businessmen who took a business trip to an undeveloped region in Africa.

Upon arriving, the first thing they noticed was that no one was wearing any shoes.

The first businessman said, “We don’t want to do business here because there is no opportunity.”

However, the other businessman said, “Wow, look at all this opportunity.” He called his office and said, “Send me all the shoes you can.”

Many network marketers start out enthusiastically but fizzle out quickly.

They begin to see barriers where there were once opportunities. Instead of seeing potential clients, they only see closed doors.

Perspective Determines Prospective Clients

Your perspective is the life and soul of your business. Opportunities will be all around, but if you fail to discern them, you have buried your own business.

Innovative businesses continue to see a market for their products, and aptly supply it.

Businesses that have the competitive edge are the ones that can recognize this faster. To be a successful network marketer, you must hone the skill of seeing the glass half full.

When I was CEO of a nutritional company, we had a distribution in Trinidad and also serviced the entire Caribbean. I was invited to present in Guyana.

When I arrived I began to look at the quality of life of the people. 13 percent were HIV positive and many lived in poverty. I didn’t see an opportunity because I thought our product was too expensive for them to buy.

As I voiced my concerns to my liaison, he told me something that changed my perspective.

He simply said, “These people have no hope. They have no job opportunity. They have no choice. And you are providing an opportunity for them to have a choice. Yes, it looks like they can’t afford the product, but they can’t afford not to.”

At that moment I had an epiphany because I realized I was the one putting up barriers, not the people or their circumstances!

Being flexible in your approach is key when dealing with varying demographics.

How we view potential clients will determine how effective we are in any business endeavor.

Here’s another example:

A telemarketer at a Fortune 500 company was the top seller in his branch. Every week during the company’s ongoing sales competition he took the top spot and won all the incentives, even though the competition was stiff.

His managers became inquisitive about how he did it week after week.

He told them it was simple:

“Even if I have doubts in my mind about selling to a certain type of client, I leave my judgments at the door and sell just as hard as I would to the best potential customer.”

The employee was taken off the phones to train other employees in selling effectively. While training, he found that those who had the lowest sales were “afraid” to offer services to “certain types” of clients.

These employees had put up their own barriers.

Network marketing is all about the work you put in. Those who are successful exhibit tenacity through perceived difficulties.

If you see no opportunity to work, you will sit on your laurels and not earn a dime. The key is to work regardless of what the circumstances or clients look like, and leave your judgments at the door.

You might find that where you only saw rubble, there is a field of glistening diamonds.

Every successful network marketer and business owner who has come from traditional schooling knows this.

So how can you break this mold for your own children? Watch this video to find out:

Once there lived a village of creatures along the bottom of a great crystal river.

The current of the river swept silently over them all — young and old, rich and poor, good and evil, the current going its own way, knowing only its own crystal self.

Each creature in its own manner clung tightly to the twigs and rocks of the river bottom, for clinging was their way of life, and resisting the current what each had learned from birth.

But one creature said at last, “I am tired of clinging.Though I cannot see it with my eyes, I trust that the current knows where it is going. I shall let it go, and let it take me where it will. Clinging, I shall die of boredom.

The other creatures laughed and said, “Fool! Let go, and that current you worship will throw you tumbled and smashed across the rocks, and you will die quicker than boredom!”

But the one heeded them not, and taking a breath did let go, and at once was tumbled and smashed by the current across the rocks.

Yet in time, as the creature refused to cling again, the current lifted him free from the bottom, and he was bruised and hurt no more.

And the creatures downstream, to whom he was a stranger, cried, “See a miracle! A creature like ourselves, yet he flies! See the Messiah, come to save us all!”

And the one carried in the current said, “I am no more Messiah than you. The river delights to lift us free, if only we dare let go. Our true work is this voyage, this adventure.”

But they cried the more, “Savior!” all the while clinging to the rocks, and when they looked again he was gone, and they were left alone making legends of a Savior.

There is nothing quite like the excitement, the collaboration with a team of like-minded people, and the reward of a vision realized.

However, one of the most difficult parts of success is the behind the scenes part, the part of the iceberg underneath the cold waters.

Let me ask a few questions to see if you can guess what I’m talking about.

• What is at least four times more work than the idea, planning, and creative stage in any new venture?
• What is the most important part of creating a sustainable and profitable business?
• What is the most time-consuming component of success?
• What is the most common thing that entrepreneurs and innovators forget to do on a daily basis?

All of these questions can be answered with one simple term: execution.

Execution is the ability to get the things done that you set out to do. Sounds simple enough but the phrase is right, “the devil is in the details.”

We’ve all had experience with starting something with intentions to succeed.

The first few weeks it’s relatively easy, while we’re still motivated. Then comes the time where the motivation is gone and it’s just plain work.

Gyms make their money on the no-shows. That is why execution is part of the iceberg of leadership. It’s hard work.

Many entrepreneurs start their ventures with excitement only to leave them behind when they hit walls of difficulty and feelings of being under-appreciated.

The world, society, and families need social leaders who have a vision and can execute to make it a reality.

If you are doing it for the glory, chances are you won’t make it.

If you are doing it for the purpose, the passion, and for the journey, you’re far more likely to experience success because you’ll be more willing to execute through challenges.