Subject Six Industry means water color of Ireland!

 

Industry.  Doesn’t that mean working 80-120 hour work weeks?  Been there, do that!  What about using my time fore wisely.  What about doing the fun things as well?  So, I recently read The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss and will be reviewing it on my website as part of the 24 Challenge and the Power Strategies Monthy Marketing service – 24 Hours Style!  Anyway, read the book, loved it and hated myself!  Why?  I waste so much time.  There are so many ways to streamline and still be productive and successful and then with that extra time, take time to do the things I love.  Like water color.  I was recently in my family home town of Dunmore East, County Waterford, Ireland and watched as a woman artist water colored my favorite seaside cliffs in Dunmore.  Wow!  She said she was just starting to take a little time for it and found she had a knack!  I paid 40 Euro for the piece and she said to her husband, “I must be good I just sold my first painting, perhaps I should of sold it for more!”  How can we find undiscovered talents unless we take the time?  I spend my days doing marketing, helping people become successful online, I am the first woman to pioneer Internet talk radio marketing and yet . . . I may be an artist waiting to be discovered.  I may find joy in other areas if I could just take the time!  My focus this week thanks for Ben Franklin and the 13 Focus Subjects in the Monthly Marketing service on www.powerstrategies.TV is to waste no time . . . we will see how I do but I am definitely going to give water color a try!!!  Kim Power Stilson

How the Lamplighter inspired me and Frank to focus on 13!

In his book, How I raised myself from Failure to Success in Sales, Frank Bettger shares that he was born in the blizzard of 1888 and as a small boy he recounts watching the lamplighter light the street lights with a blazing torch leaving an illuminated path behind him.   He equated that analogy later in life while recovering from a career failure and looking for inspiration, to reading the book The Autobiography of Ben Franklin.  Of Ben Franklin, Bettger says, “Ben Franklin left a trail of lights behind him so other could see their way.” 

 

How much do you really know about Ben Franklin?

 

Benjamin Franklin was not only one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. He was a leading writer, publisher, inventor, diplomat, scientist, and philosopher. He is well-known for his experiments with electricity and lightning, and for publishing “Poor Richard’s Almanac”.  He served as Postmaster General under the Continental Congress, and later became a prominent abolitionist. He is credited with inventing the lightning rod, the Franklin Stove, and bifocals.

A year after Benjamin Franklin’s death, his autobiography, entitled “Memoires De La Vie Privee,” was published in Paris in March of 1791. The first English translation, “The Private Life of the Late Benjamin Franklin, LL.D.” Originally Written By Himself, And Now Translated From The French version was published in London in 1793.

13 Subjects?

The story of the 13 Subjects goes like this: Ben Franklin chose 13 subjects which he felt were necessary for him to focus on to become more successful.  He gave each subject one week’s strict attention by focusing on perfecting that subject with action and attention, always carrying a 3” by 5” card with that subject information in his vest pocket .  The next week he would move on to the next subject and put the next index card in his pocket.  He did this for 13 weeks in a row and then went on to repeat the first through 13 again and did this 4 times in one year.  It was said that Ben Franklin with all his successes claimed this as one of his best practices for success.  And Frank Bettger, the author who shared this idea said, “Reject this (plan) and you reject one of the most practical ideas ever offered you.  I know what it did for me and I know it can do the same for anyone who will try it.  It’s not an easy way. There is no easy way.  But it is a sure way.”  

Why 13 Subjects?  I have no idea. Perhaps to Ben Franklin it seemed an unlucky number of traits to turn into a successful number of traits! Our friend Frank Bettger said that if a man of little formal schooling like Ben Franklin could be showered by the highest honors for his successes that there must be something to this so he tried it and applied this to selling!

As for me, the idea of focusing on one thing each week to increase my success was way less overwhelming than jumping into that kind of list all at once.   I was excited this to make my life,  my business and myself better and surely with that kind of effort one week of focus at a time I would be more successful.  I suggest this for everyone who is overwhelmed and wants to try out a little advice from one of the world’s most successful individuals.    Kim Power Stilson, The 24 Challenge Monthly Marketing Service from 24 Hours to Zero Down Marketing and $1 per marketing tip! Power Strategies! www.powerstrategies.TV.