Stop! Do not make New Year's resolutions. Here's why:

It's one of the oldest traditions we have, so lost in the mists of time that most people have no idea that the practice extends back to Roman and maybe even Babylonian times thousands of years ago. In all of that history, resolutions have been made and forgotten, ignored, put off, or, in very rare cases, accomplished.

And that's the problem. How many resolutions did you make last year? How many did you accomplish? How many do you even remember? If you are brave enough, tell me (and the world) about them in the comments box. By the way, don't be upset if you have no idea what they were. Studies show that a very small percentage of New Year's resolutions are even attempted, much less attained.

The biggest trouble with resolutions is that they are very broad, general statements, for instance lose 100 pounds or write a book, with no starting date and no specific steps attached to them. It is easy to put them off until tomorrow or the next day. After all, we have all year to accomplish them. One day won't hurt.

One day does hurt and so do all those days that follow, the worst one being December 31, when we realize we did nothing and have to make that same resolution all over again.

Let's change it this year. Instead of just writing down a bunch of resolutions today, let's take a more serious approach. After all, if these resolutions are important enough to make, they are important enough to achieve.

Instead of making resolutions, let's create year-long action items, just like you create action items of returning a phone call or writing a blog post. However, these are not random action items. They are specific projects we want to accomplish.

Here's how you do it:

1. The Review: Look back over the last year. Be hard on yourself because your future depends on it. What did you accomplish last year? What did you fail to do? Of the failures, which ones are still important? Which items did you find easy to work on and which ones were difficult and why? Where does your business or life stand at this exact moment? As you move forward, what items you planned to do last year still fit into this year's projects? How have you changed in your passions and goals for the coming year?

2. Choose Your 2012 Projects: Pick three items you want to accomplish in 2012. These are not the only goals you have for the year, just the ones everything else depends on. As you look over the review, specifically decide yes or no on each potential project. Since I am in the book business, I will use that as the example but the steps you take apply to anything. Decide definitively on January 1 that these are the items you will finish before next December 31. Nothing will stop you. The only question is how long it will take.

3. Give Yourself a Specific Completion Date: For each of the three items, write down the date you want it completed. Be realistic. For instance, don't decide to have your 500-page novel written in one month. Give yourself the time you realistically believe it will take for completion. Now work backward from that completion date to today, writing down the steps you will need to take and the time needed for each. Keep it general. For a book it might be December 31, 2012 publication date, to printer December 15, start getting endorsements October 15, finish editing and corrections October 15, finish cover design October 15, to the editor September 1, complete final draft September 1, finish first draft June 30, begin writing February 15, finish research February 15, complete outline February 15, start outline February 1, complete theme statement by February 1, start working on theme statement January 1.

4. Determine the First Step: What is the actual first item you need to do to start you on your journey. On a blank piece of paper or in a notebook, write the date January 2, 2012 at the top of the sheet. Under it write the words "To do list." This list is a mini-resolution for that date. Write down every item you need to do that day, the time you will do it, and how long it will take. If you have to watch a football game, write it down. If you see that you cannot accomplish all the items, schedule them for the next day. You will eventually get a feel for how much you can accomplish each day. Do not over schedule yourself. You do not need to work on every item every day but you must schedule the necessary work so you can meet the schedule you set for yourself in number 3.

5. When dawn January 2 arrives, sit down at your desk and review the list. Look at the clock and get started. Do not play a game, do not read email, do the first item. This is its time. It has top priority. Nothing else may interfere with it. Complete the first item and move on to the second. When you reach lunch, stop working, relax and eat. Don't think about other items. Lunch is your task of the moment so enjoy it to the fullest. Watch the football game if that is your passion. Stay in the moment so you enjoy it to the fullest. Then return to work.

6. Please note that I am not telling you to become a workaholic. If you only want to work four hours a day, schedule that four hours so you get your short-term and long-term work done. If you find it is not possible to get all of the work done, you either need to do less or expand the hours you work. Do not complain that you can't get it all done. Reinvent yourself so you can.

7. Keep track of your progress as you move through the year. Determine where you are at the end of each month and quarter. If you are behind, make arrangements to catch up. If you are ahead, congratulate yourself on a job well done. Remember, we all have exactly the same amount of time as everyone else. It's how we use that time that matters. If you are having trouble fitting everything in, hire a coach, mentor, or an assistant. If the project cannot be completed on time, set a new deadline. Don't give up on it.

8. Give yourself plenty of time for family, play, and reading, both recreational and educational. This will keep you recharged so your work hours will be most effective.

Remember the important point: Success is the result of action, not thinking. Businesses get built, books get written, and projects get done because you take action. This year make Resolution Day into Action Day and celebrate it every day of the year, not just January 1.

 

The Top Ten Reasons You Need to Write Stories

By Lee Pound

 

With apologies to David Letterman, who is a hell of a lot funnier than I am (most of the time), here’s my top ten reasons you need to be writing stories. 

10. So you can make a million dollars writing novels. (Ha Ha. Gotcha on that one)

9. What the heck. Nobody knows if fiction is true or not anyway.

8. Grampa was full of stories. Is your life so dull you can’t think of any to tell? Go ahead, make them up like he did.

7. Someone might actually recognize themselves in one of your stories and sue you. Hey, lawyers need business these days.

6. Your stories are so bad everyone laughs at them whether they are funny or not. Tell them anyway, laughter’s good for everyone’s health.

5. So you can make a million bucks on David Letterman’s show. (You say a thousand, maybe a hundred, maybe nothing? Whatever, it’s publicity and we all need publicity.)

4. So you can make people cry. I made people cry with a story and they bought thousands of dollars worth from me. (I’m not saying of what. Figure that out for yourselves.)

3. Everybody else tells them about you when you’re not listening. It’s payback time!

2. You’re just itching to tell the world what momma and poppa did to you 50 years ago that made you such a horrible, unsuccessful, depressed, amoral person. (As if the world cares) (By the way, it might. Some of those sell really well.)

1. You might as well learn how to tell stories. Lots of resumes floating around out there are fiction anyway.

 

The Highest and Best Use of PowerPoint

When I first started to use PowerPoint for presentations I was like a lot of speakers. Most of the words on the screen were in bullet points, the titles were dull, and the pictures were sparse. At least I didn't put too much type on a slide like some people do.  Ever try to read 50 lines of 10-point type from 50 feet away?

I gradually improved the slides until they had quite a few photos and a lot less type but there was one point where I fully realized the power of PowerPoint, and it has nothing to do with words.

PowerPoint is a supplement to your presentation. It enhances it and makes it more understandable. It is not a set of notes for you the speaker. Its greatest value is to enhance the emotional impact of your presentation. How can a slide do that? Good question.

During my presentation at one of our Speak Your Way to Wealth events, I decided to illustrate one of my favorite stories. I have often told the story of my father, who took photos of rodeos for many years in the 1950s. One of those photos landed in Life Magazine. The story is all about how he took a risk, got inside the bullring and in the process got some powerful photos. This one was one of the most powerful of all. However, when I told the story, I wasn't using the photo.

This one time, I added the photo to the PowerPoint presentation and set it up so a blank screen would show while I told the story. When I reached the part where my Dad takes the picture, I flashed it on the screen and was rewarded with oohs and aahs from the audience (and a whole lot of sales). The photo, appearing right at the climactic moment of the story, created a powerful emotional moment for the crowd and implanted the idea that risk is necessary and good for anyone wanting to grow.

I still use that photo every time I do that speech with a PowerPoint presentation.

By the way, the first time I used that photo, I didn't even have a PowerPoint presentation. However, I had a large framed copy of the original photo, which I set up on an easel and covered with a cloth. The audience was only 12 people. At the appropriate moment, I revealed the photo, again to wonderful audience reaction. Someone that day said, "You ought to put that photo in every talk you do." And I have, ever since then.

The point is that it wasn't the means of presentation that made the difference, it was the content. I got the same audience reaction with the real photo as I did with the PowerPoint. That's why you must pay attention to your content and to your emotional reaction creators. If you have something that you know will get the desired reaction, use it. It's worth a hundred dull PowerPoint slides.

Three Keys to Marketing Your Book

If you want to sell your book, you have to do several key things before you write the first word. These have little to do with the quality of your writing and everything to do with the purpose of your writing.

The very first one is to ask yourself who you are writing to. This is your audience, your target market, or whatever else you choose to call it. Who represents this market, what do they want, what to they need, what do they fear? Be very certain who you are writing to before you write the first word.

Second, ask yourself what they know. If you write too advanced a book for your audience, they will not read it. If it is too general or too simple, again your audience will not read it.

Third, ask yourself what you want them to know after they have read your book. This does two things. It gives you an end point but it also tells you what you have to build up to as you write. The chapters you create will be the steps from what your audience knows to what you want them to know. You can't decide what to put in the chapters unless you know this.

Now that you know who you are writing to, your writing has purpose. When it comes time to market your book, you will know which organizations to speak to, how to position your marketing materials, what radio shows to get on, and where you will find your email list and social media followers.

By deciding these three items, you have already started to market your book. Good luck!

Will Nothing Every Happen?

By Lee Pound

One of my favorite stories from the Santa Barbara Writers Conference back in the 1990s comes from one of the presenters. I’d tell you who he was but that was so long ago I can’t remember his name.

Anyway, he taught a workshop seminar on how to begin your story. He would have the writer read his or her story in front of the whole group. The kicker is that he opened the session with this comment: “I’ll let you read until something happens or until I decide that nothing will ever happen.”

I loved this comment because it went right to the heart of the problem most writers have today. They get so caught up in describing the character or setting the scene in minute detail that they never get around to starting the story.

Readers will put up with this only so long then they get bored and move on to another book or story. The best way to start a story is at the latest possible point and with the key action that changes everything for the main character. Then work in the description and back story as needed. It’s interesting that often much of that back story and description is never needed.

By the way, that instructor stopped everyone when he decided nothing was going to happen and he didn’t wait much more than a page or two to make that decision.

With today’s short attention span it is even more important today to begin with action that catches the attention of the reader and makes them want more.

Going Professional: It's all in the Mindset

There's a point at which you go from being an amateur wannabe to professional, no matter what career you are in. This is not the moment when you start to get paid. It may come long before that happens or long after.

The point you become professional is a mindset switch. The difference is in how you see yourself in your profession or hobby.

For instance, I became a professional after my second speech. The first was amateur in that I didn't see the power of speaking when I was invited. The second one, which came as a referral from the first (the story is on this web site) meant that people really wanted to hear what I had to say. I had inadvertently created an aura of expertise that led to many speaking engagements, some at conferences, some at associations, without any marketing whatsoever.

In high school and college I was an amateur writer even though I worked on the school newspapers. It was not what I did and I didn't necessarily see a future in it. However, when I started to cover night meetings for the Fullerton Daily News Tribune, I became a professional, not just in money but in mindset.

I was an amateur accountant most of my life and never considered that I might make money at it. Then I was offered the job of controller at the newspaper where I worked. The first week on that job I was still an amateur but in the process of doing my first set of financials my mindset became professional. I knew deep down what I was doing now and that made all the difference.

There are many amateur business owners out there, people who never allowed themselves to believe they could actually create a thriving business. They dabble in it but don't take the actions that make all the difference. This includes the writer working full time while trying to write a novel, the consultant with a part time job because the consulting doesn't pay the bills, and the unemployed executive who coaches until the right job comes along.

When you move from hoping the business will work to actively making it work, you go from amateur to professional, no matter how much money you are making.

If There's a Chance You Can do it, Say Yes

I've gotten a long way in life because on several important occasions I said yes to an offer of work I wasn't necessarily prepared for.

We often hear that we have to get training, a degree, have experience, and so forth before we can get a job. My experience is exactly the opposite. I got the job then got the experience. Most of them were chance opportunities that I took the moment they were offered.

What would it take to become controller of a $2 million company? A degree in finance? Years of experience? CPA? Maybe, but for me it took being in the right place at the right time when the previous controller left. My previous job at the company? Editor.

What would it take to become Chief Financial Officer of a $6 million public company? All of the above plus SEC experience. By that time I had some of the above, namely two years of experience. All I knew about the SEC was that it had some regulatory powers.

I became editor of a weekly newspaper chain with six months experience as a newspaper reporter.

Why did all of this happen? Because I said yes to the offer when it came. Could I have worried about the experience I didn't have? Been afraid the job would be too much? Of course.

I didn't because I learned very early on that the purpose of education and training is above all to teach you how to find out what you don't already know. To learn the CFO job in a few weeks required me to look at what the previous occupant of the job had done and make sure I did it too. It required listening and observation and the confidence that the needed information would be there when I needed it.

Nobody knows everything. Nobody is ready for the next job. Nobody has the experience to do the next job up. You get that experience by doing the job. This applies to everyone, up to and including CEOs of major corporations.

I just watched the Undercover Boss show on ABC tonight. The CEO on the show had been with the company, a waste processing operation, for under a year and came from a completely different industry. On the show he saw much of the company's operations for the first time. He was getting his experience in that business as he worked.

The next time someone offers you a job you are not quite ready for or commissionsyou are not quite confident you can carry out, stretch a bit and take it. You will surprised by how much you CAN do.

The Difference Between Wanting to Do Something and Doing It

As I contemplate the last seven months of writing one story a day, it becomes very clear that what I am doing is nothing special. In fact it is what every successful person does every day of their lives. It's also the reason there aren't that many successful people, by whatever measure they use on themselves.

It's the difference between wanting and doing. Everyone wants something, whether it's money, happiness, hobbies completed, a book written, a spouse, a friend, or a house. How many people have you heard state that they've wanted a certain thing for a very long time but they never seem any closer to making it happen? Be honest, it's almost everyone, including you.

If you see yourself here, ask yourself one question and come up with a very honest answer. Why don't you have what you want? The honest answer is that you don't want it badly enough to make it a priority in your life. If you did that, you would have what you want.

Last year, I attempted to start writing on one or more of my blogs once a day. Now a lot of people do this but above 99 percent of all bloggers don't. It's hard, it takes a lot of work and time, it takes commitment. I even joined a couple of challenges and failed miserably, the first one after five or six posts and the second after 15 posts of a 30-day challenge. For a writer this is a sad situation indeed.

Yes, I had excuses but the simple truth is that I forgot and then didn't follow through. These contests weren't important enough to me. I had other work going on, book projects, clients, speeches, and so forth. Doing the writing wasn't important enough.

When August rolled around, I wondered what I could do to get back on track. The best path seemed to set an insurmountable goal and then attempt to achieve it. Why the best? It was a challenge that I would put out publicly so that I couldn't fail. I made this blog part of what I do every day, no matter what.

Achieving a goal is simply taking the actions that lead to success. In my case, the goal was to write one story a day for one year. That goal is very clear and very straightforward. I know exactly what I need to do to make that goal. Write a story. Every day.

If you look to the right side of the blog you will see the months since August and you will see that there is a post for every day since August 25. Instead of wishing I could write a story every day for a year, I started doing it. Interestingly, it wasn't that hard once I made the decision to do it. I may do it late at night, in the morning, at lunch, whenever. They key point is that I do it.

The goal of writing a story a day for 365 straight days seems impossible, if viewed as a whole. The goal of writing a story every day seems impossible. The goal of writing a story before you go to bed that night isn't so impossible. In fact writing one story before you go to bed is easy. So here it's gone, one day at a time, with great success.

This is how goal achievement works. It's not a big chunk you have to swallow all at once. It is a step by step process where you do one item at a time without worrying about all the other items you will need to do. I don't think about coming up with 100 story ideas. All I need is one, right now.

Try it with whatever you want right now. Start today, right after you read this post. Then keep doing it piece by piece until your goal is met.

Our History is Filled with Mistakes and Outright Lies

I've always been fascinated by the history of the world and by the history of families. If you read the history books, it seems like we have it pretty well down, year by year.  Yet, when you get below the superficial aspects of rulers and wars and other movements, much of our very recent past is almost unknown and unrecorded. In many cases the written record is entirely wrong, based on assumption and misreading.

Here's one example: In our history one of the most celebrated voyages is that of the pilgrims to Massachusetts in 1620. All the names are well known, well researched, in fact over researched. Yet of the passengers on the Mayflower, we know the actual origin in England of less than half. We know the parents of even fewer. Many of the maiden names of the women are unknown.

Here's another example from one of my own families. John Drake was a well-known settler of Connecticut in the 1630s. Based on letters and wills, he was identified as a member of the Drake family of Ashe, Devon, a very well connected baronial family. One will even referred to John Drake as being in Connecticut. No problem. It had to be that family. However, there was one inconsistency. John Drake had children born in England and no record of them had ever been found around Ashe, Devon, or anywhere. One of the names was Job Drake, very unusual. Still the identification stuck.

With the indexing of more and more records, researchers continued off and on to look for Job Drake without much success. Finally one day he was found and not where anybody expected to find him, Hampton in Arden, Warwickshire, in 1619, several counties away from where he should be if the assumptions about his family were correct. His father was John Drake, his mother was Lettice, and his brothers were the same men with the same birthdates as later appeared in Connecticut. It seemed the aristocratic connection was all wrong and the Connecticut Drakes would have to give up their royal ancestry.

However, there is a twist to this story. Arden was near Stratford on Avon and when John and Lettice's marriage record was found, her maiden name turned out to be Shakespeare and given the few of that name in the area, she is most likely a cousin of that well-known dramatist William Shakespeare.

This problem happened in the era about 400 years ago in an era when there were plentiful records. If you go back in history another 200 years, the records fade to the vanishing point and much of history becomes a web of tales written down many years later, annals compiled by people of varying veracity, and mostly by the winners of whatever conflicts were going on at the time.

When we reach ancient history, the records are very thin, scattered and incomplete. So when anyone speaks of certainty about what happened in any given period of history, and bear in mind that we use history and its myths to justify almost everything we do, just remember that they don't know any more about that period of time than you do and that what they do know is probably wrong, just as the accepted story of my ancestor John Drake was so miserably and fascinatingly wrong.

One Thing After Another Going Wrong?

How many of you live lives where it seems like one thing after another goes wrong, when you can't seem to catch a break? In this economy I'll bet there are a lot of you. Money is tight, jobs are scarce, clients are hard to come by, dollars go out faster than they come in, that great client just quit, you didn't get as much money for that last job as you wanted, and on and on and on.

Most people are programmed to remember the past that way. We are usually complainers, whining about all the problems we have. If this is you, stand up and admit it. Then stop it.

I too have had many things go wrong in my life. I could name a few of them: companies I worked for going broke, companies getting sold out, failing job interviews, a divorce, losing money, and there must be a bunch of others. You see, when I sat down to write this post, I had to think hard about what they were and when they happened. The reason is that I remember the things that went right in my life, even if they seemed to go wrong.

Here are a few examples:

When I went to college I got accepted to Pomona College, an expensive private school, but could not afford to attend. Bad news. Then I got into the University of California, Riverside and got a full ride Regents Scholarship, one of only 36 that year.  Good news. Which do I remember? The good news.

I searched a lot for my first job and got turned down in a lot of places, including selling insurance. Maybe not such bad news. Then I applied to the Fullerton News Tribune and got hired to report on night meetings. Good News.

I had a part time job with Newberry's Department Store and got fired because I didn't want to be on the management track. Bad news. A month later the Fullerton Tribune offered me a full-time job as a newspaper reporter, my passion. Good news. Getting fired from Newberry's? No big deal.

Because of problems at the newspaper in Placentia years later, I quit with no new job to go to and no idea what I would do next. Really bad news! A week later I got a phone call offering me the job of editor at the Newport Ensign in Newport Beach, a peachy job. Good news. VERY good news! Quitting that job? The best thing I ever did.

I could go on and on with seemingly bad things that had great endings. It's the great endings I remember and talk about because they are what count. The bad parts? Well, they happen to us all. I just choose to not dwell on them.

Next time you are tempted to cry about all the bad things that have happened in your life, clamp your mouth shut and try to remember the good part. It will be hard at first but eventually you will find something. Hang on to that good part, make it part of your life and eventually that bad thing will fade into hidden memory and your whole life will change from that person with a disaster of a life to that person with a charmed life.

Try it. It works.

How Bad is it, Really?

Every generation thinks they're having the toughest time in history and yearns to look back at the "good old days" when everything was fine, we all got along, and problems were fewer.

We lament the latest disasters, like the Japanese earthquake and the nuclear reactor explosions and think it is a horrible disaster, which it is. However, 66 years ago two atomic bombs exploded over Japan, killing hundreds of thousands of people, ending one of the most destructive wars in history.

We lament fighting two wars and losing some American soldiers. Yet the same 66 years ago a worldwide war ended with many millions of people dead and a wide swath of destruction, both physical and economic.

We complain about the quality of our schools and yes they have their problems. However, 150 years ago most children had no opportunity at all to attend school and many spent their entire lives unable to read or write.

We complain that politics is divisive yet 150 years ago we were in the middle of a horrendous civil war that almost split this country in half and caused the deaths of hundreds of thousands of men, women and children.

We complain about immigration yet one hundred years ago a far higher percentage of our population consisted of immigrants from Ireland, Italy, Eastern Europe, Germany and Scandinavia. Their descendants are among our most productive citizens.

We complain that we have too much information. Yet 150 years ago almost nobody had any information at all. News took days if not weeks to make its way around the world and never reached many places at all.

We complain about a weak Arab world and its destabilizing problems. Yet 500 years ago, Europe was surrounded by Arab and Muslim states and the armies of the Turkish sultan were threatening the gates of Vienna and controlled all of the Balkan countries.

We complain that medicine is ineffective yet 500 years ago most children did not live beyond the age of 2 or 3 and most adults were aged or dead in their 50s.

We complain about repressive regimes yet we have more democracy in the world than at any time in its history.

We complain about disputes among our churches yet less than 400 years ago almost one-third of the population of Germany died because of religious conflicts.

The next time you decide to complain about a situation, whether political, personal, or religious, just remember that however bad we have it today, it's been worse, far worse, not that many years ago. Instead of complaining, give thanks for what we do have, for the leaders we have and for the technology that has allowed most of us to live in ways the emperors of 500 years ago would have thought impossible.

Our world is more peaceful that at any time in its history, more people are more educated, have better jobs, live longer, have more medical attention and have more control over their lives, both economic and political, than ever before.

And we should celebrate that.

It Can All Change in an Instant

It only takes a few seconds for everything to change and we never know when it might happen. People going about their daily tasks can never know if the next moment will be the one when the great quake strikes, the tornado touches down, a hurricane comes to town, or a volcano erupts.

Yes, we have warning systems, but these are geared to the last such incident. In Japan for instance, there are very sophisticated warning systems protecting Tokyo, where the last great quake in the 1930's hit. Nobody expected one off the north coast of Japan, where the last huge quake was 1200 years ago. So the warnings came to those who needed them the least and for the north coast, where the quake hit, 5 to 10 minutes was all the warning anyone got.

We seem woefully unprepared for huge disasters. When New Orleans was flooded, nobody knew what to do. The impact was just too big. In San Francisco and Los Angeles, earthquakes are second nature and we've handled them mostly pretty well. However, what about St. Louis, Missouri, which sits right next to a very dangerous fault and which has no earthquake preparations in sight?

It is well to remember, as we continue to build in very dangerous areas, that Nature will act up from time to time with very little or no warning to us. Many of our coast cities are the potential victims of earthquake and flood, the plains cities will get devastating tornados, ice and sleet can devastate the northern cities. And of course, little known to most of this country, Yellowstone Park sits on top of what would be a hugely devastating volcano, should it decide to erupt.

In spite of all of this, with a few minimum precautions, we can live normal lives and not worry about such incidents. They will come when they will come and will damage what they will damage and those of us who remain will carry on until the next one arrives. Calls for reform, for change will mostly go unheeded, the damaged areas will be rebuilt in the same places, and time will march on.

Once we have done the best we can, we can't worry about the worst. That would paralyze us all. We must instead forge ahead with what we individually do best to make the world the best place we can for our families and descendants.

Meanwhile, think twice before building your house on the San Andreas Fault or in a deep river valley or one of California's fire zones.

The Earthquake in Japan Puts Our Problems in Perspective

I remember many years ago, on January 17, 1994, when the Northridge earthquake occurred in Los Angeles. At the time I was living in Irvine and worked in Beverly Hills, fifty miles closer to the quake epicenter. At first the most spectacular damage showed up in the news. Part of the Santa Monica Freeway, and several other regional freeways, collapsed, very near to my commute route.

However, aside from this and some collapsed buildings, the 6.7 magnitude quake appeared to have done relatively little damage. At my home in Irvine we felt it but had no damage. On my commute I saw no collapsed buildings so there was an eerie sense that yes there was an earthquake but unless you went close to the epicenter in the San Fernando Valley, it wasn't too evident and except for a day off work, didn't affect me much.

During the weeks after the quake, damage estimates rose. Thousands of buildings were declared unsafe, roads were cracked and water mains broke. It was a major disaster that caused 20 billion dollars damage, making it one of the most costly natural disasters in United States history. We heard about deaths, eventually estimated at 33 to 60 or so, and thousands of injuries that were not evident at first.

After several weeks, we realized that we had lived through one of the worst catastrophes to hit in the United States yet it didn't affect most of us in the Los Angeles basin that much, unless again you lived near the epicenter.

The disastrous earthquake in Japan puts all of this in perspective. Watching the videos of raging water, entire cities destroyed, over 1,000 people dead, tsunamis all along the coast, and incredible destruction of infrastructure, I can only imagine what the ultimate toll will be. This is only the beginning and already it is makes what we experienced here in Los Angeles 17 years ago rather minor.

Over the years we have hosted a number of Japanese students at UC Irvine and my wife checked in with some of them and to our relief they were okay. However, many people in Japan today are not okay and I suspect it will take many years of reconstruction before the country is back to normal.

The Quake in Japan: There are problems, then there are PROBLEMS

A few days ago I wrote about my problem with upgrading my Writing for Marketers blog in Wordpress. It seems it had been so long several items needed to be upgraded before the site would work again. It's all pretty technical but at least I figured it out.

Now this kind of problem is a major hassle. If your site doesn't work right, people can't read the blog. It also takes a lot of time to figure out what went wrong and make it right again.

Just as I'm breathing a sigh of relief that my blogs are working well again, my wife calls me down to the news. It seems there was a huge earthquake in Japan that set off a tsunami that wiped out a big part of  a city on the north island of Honshu, set off fires in Tokyo, and pointed a tsunami right across the Pacific Ocean toward Hawaii and toward us here in Southern California as well.

My blogs suddenly became far less of a problem compared to what the people of Japan and other parts of the Pacific are now facing. The damage promises to be devastating and the loss of life possibly huge.

I just watched the water sweeping into the city nearest the quake, near drivers on a roadway attempting to get away, taking out buildings like they were matchsticks. Nothing could stop it except time and distance.

Instead of thinking about how bad our problems are, let's take a moment of silence for the people of Japan and the Pacific, who REALLY have problems.

The True Secret to Success in Writing and Business

By Lee Pound

193 isn't a particularly meaningful number. It's one more than 192 and one less than 194 but it's just a plain ordinary number. So what does it mean to write 193 stories in a row, every day?

We know a lot of people who can do a task for one or two days in a row, maybe even three or four, and think they've done pretty well. Get to ten and that's really an accomplishment. Those people are fooling themselves. Doing a task ten times in a row isn't much and it isn't hard to do. I don't care what that task is.

The plain truth is if you can't do your basic tasks every day, day in and day out, you are setting yourself up for failure. Successful salespeople make a certain number of calls every day. If they don't, they aren't salespeople, they are order takers and they fail when the orders don't come in.

For a writer, writing is a basic task. Writers write. Every day. Or they aren't writers.

Yes, I write a story every day. However, I'm also writing and editing two other books, not to mention several ongoing clients. My Profitable Social Media book is scheduled to be completed this summer. I work on it every day. Adapt or Perish is scheduled for completion this spring. I work on it every day. Success for a writer means writing every day.

Success for a business means doing the basic tasks of your business every day. If you get around to them once in a while, you aren't in business. Just like writing, there are certain things you must accomplish every day. You know what these are.

This is why 193 stories in a row, one every day, means something. If you can build the habit of doing what you need to do every day, in a row, day after day, you will find massive success in your business.

Writers, if you write every day, not just one story, but a story, a chapter, an article, every day, you too will succeed. You will find yourself growing as a writer exponentially, you will find that your ideas come more readily, writing seems easier, and every so often one of those pieces you write will get published.

This is the secret to success. Tools are important but commitment is critical. Without it all the tools in the world won't make you a dime.

How committed are you to success?

When the cherry Blossoms Fall

Spring is a wonderful time in Japan. The cold of winter fades away, green shoots of new grass poke up through the soil, and the days gradually warm. Cherry trees, leafless all winter, sprout buds on the ends of their branches that bulge, then blast forth in a riot of red and white cherry blossoms.

This is a time of high anticipation, of new life and new energy, color filling in for the dreary gray of winter. Freshness fills the air.

We all experience cherry blossom time. It's that wonderful day when you first show up for work at a new job, the day you announce the opening of your business, your wedding day, all days of anticipation when everything you do seems right.

Then the blossoms fade and morph into cherries, tasty and juicy, that sit on the tree in their dark glory, soaking up the sun and maturing, quietly and strongly. The anticipation has worn off and the hard work has begun, the work of making food for the cherry pits that will one day fall to the ground and wait their turn to become new cherry trees.

We all also experience cherry time. Our jobs and businesses grow and mature. We become comfortable with our duties, which become almost routine. It's not as exciting, it's the time of getting the work done.

Then the cherries fall from the trees. Some are picked and go into jam, cherry baskets, pies, and ice cream sodas. Some simply fall to the ground, where they rot, releasing the cherry pit and feeding it until it can take root in the soil and grow into a bigger tree.

This is the time when everything changes and everyone goes their separate ways. It's the day when businesses grow and businesses stagnate. It's the time of uncertainty when seeming failure can suddenly turn to triumph.

Every blossom's time must end; every cherry must fall from the tree. Which will you be: the cherry that makes pie, sits on the soda, makes jam and then vanishes? Or will you be the one that takes a risk, winds up on the ground rotting, and hangs in there to create something new and far better than ever existed before.

It's your choice, the easy road to nowhere or the rocky road to success.

The Education of Johnnie Peel

It was an ordinary day. Then most days were ordinary for Johnnie Peel. On most of those ordinary days, he dreamed about having some not so ordinary days. But that always seemed to be a project for tomorrow so those days stayed in his dreams.

He worked at an ordinary job, in a cube at a large corporation. His job was to pay bills, not just any bills, only those with the letters R, S, and T beginning their names. At first he'd gotten a lot of companies starting with The ---, until management wised up and distributed them by the second word. After that there weren't so many companies with those starting letters.

Johnnie paid his bills and he did a great job of it. He got awards for excellence at writing checks and he'd done it so many times he really was good at it.

And driving home each evening he sometimes thought about that book he wanted to write some day. He didn't have a title and he hadn't thought much about the theme and he wasn't sure what he wanted to say to the world. But that wouldn't matter. The dream was what was important.

By the time he got home, he'd left his dream on the freeway and was ready to deal with the realities of home, family and kids. The dream would have to wait. After the kids went to bed there was television, more bills to pay, personal this time, wife to deal with, his time just wasn't his own.

But that dream continued to ache in the back of his mind. It would jump out at the oddest times, when nothing had happened to provoke it. When things got better, when he had more time, he told himself. Then we'll do the dream.

One day he got a phone call from his friend Paul. "There's a great seminar I want to take you to next week. And don't tell me you can't go!"

Johnnie said, "I can't go. The kids, you know. They need me."

Paul said, "I'll pick you up Thursday at 6 p.m. Be ready." He hung up.

So Johnnie was ready at 6 p.m. Thursday. Damn seminar, he thought. Can't be much. He didn't want to go but he was committed.

He didn't say much as Paul drove him to the meeting room. The sat down among about 50 other people. He just listened.

On the way home, Paul asked, "What did you think?"

Johnnie was silent for a long time. "I've had this dream. Never even talked about it. Someday ... I want to write a book. Before you talk, yes, I don't know how, or what or anything, it's just a stupid dream and that's why I never told anyone."

"You did tell me," Paul said. "Two years ago. Tell me what you learned at the seminar."

Johnnie said, "There was a time when I might have written my book. But time gets away, the kids, the wife, all take time. I don't have any."

"Stephen King got up at 5 a.m. to write, every day and then went to work. He didn't have much time either," Paul said.

"Yeah, I know. It's just an excuse, lame one at that. The speaker hit it right, there is no tomorrow. If I don't start now, I'll never do it. Ever." Johnnie paused a few seconds. "I've been lying to myself. Paul, I learned more in that two hours than in the previous 40 years."

Paul said, "Join me at my writing group next week. Might not be the right fit but you'll get a feel for how it's done."

Johnnie's first instinct was to say, "No, I'll wait." He swallowed the words with a sigh. "Okay, I'll go. I just don't know how much good it will do."

"It's the first step," Paul said. "And that's the hardest one of all to take."

The Night Before the Big Event

By Lee Pound

Tomorrow, Friday, February 11 is the first day of my big event, Go For the Gold, in Newport Beach, California.

My business partner, Arvee Robinson, and I have tied down all the speakers, filled the room, completed the hotel contract, and checked out the room setup.

This is the sixth time we’ve done this, six big events in the last five years, and each time it feels the same. All the work leading up to the event is over. Days spent writing sales letters, emails, and promotional copy, talking to speakers, dealing with attendees, are all over. The hotel room is set up and ready to go. It seems like there should be more to do but there isn’t.

That night before the event, the calm before the storm, is an eerie time. When you look at the empty room, knowing that the next day it will be filled with people eager to learn, there is a strange quiet that includes the satisfaction that you’ve done all you can do to make it a success.

Now the event team takes over, the speakers take to the stage, the attendees, each with his or her agenda and needs, arrive. The event takes on a life and energy of its own, different from that which created it.

Go For the Gold, a mere glimmer in our imaginations a year ago, opens at 9 a.m. tomorrow morning. We’ll be on stage for three days, during which lives will change, partnerships will be formed, and friendships will be born.

Arvee and I are just the catalysts. We’ve created the opportunities. It’s up to the attendees to take advantage of them. And many will.

So here we are the night before. The work is done. Let the fun begin!

Building a New Habit: It's all About Consistency

Today marks the 139th straight day I've written and published a story on my blog 365 Stories in a Year. It's a milestone for me, not because it's number 139 but because it's still continuing.

You see, I've been writing blogs for almost five years now and prior to this effort, the longest consecutive writing streak was 16 posts last year. That time I was attempting to do 30 posts, not stories, just posts of any kind.

Therefore to take on a challenge like this one last August was quite a long shot. I challenged myself, nobody else, to write a story every day for the next year and at the time had no idea how far I would get.

So, now that I'm 40 percent of the way through the year, I have no intention of stopping. In fact, I plan to make the stories better and better over the coming months. The challenge became a habit and now, whether I feel like it or not, I write something here every day. They may be stories from my past, stories of my family, of people I have known, places I have visited, or in many cases, pure fiction (which as we all know can be based on reality as well).

I'm doing this to make it clear just how important stories are in influencing people with writing. Too many times we hear the old adage that "facts tell, stories sell" and go right on writing facts. The truth is that the best marketers and salespeople are also fantastic storytellers.

If you want to influence people with your writing, build the habit of writing stories, just like I'm doing here. And do it publicly. No matter how many people read these stories, I know they are here, I know I wrote them and I know that I kept up my part of the challenge.

For the next eight months or so and perhaps beyond, all the stories here will be mine. That's part of the bargain. However, I may open up some of my other blogs to posts from guest writers from time to time, as long as they keep to my general subject of stories and writing.

I'll keep writing stories now because that's what I do. Make it what you do as well.

Ghosts, Goblins and Assorted Wierdos in Black Star Canyon

Ghost stories in Orange County, California?

The county's hardly old enough to have ghosts, much less stories about ghosts. Yet they do abound here, particularly about a strange canyon in the Santa Ana Mountains that hardly anyone ever visits.

Black Star Canyon Road has been around since the 1920's when it was built to access a mine at the top of one of the mountains between Orange and Corona. For many years this dirt road was wide open and wound up the canyon and across the peaks to a quick run down the other side near Corona.

Sometime in the 1980's the road was closed to auto traffic but was maintained by the county and was and is still open to hikers, bikers and other assorted trail mavens. Although they are not supposed to, teenagers and wilderness junkies hike up the trail all the time, during the day and well into the night.

According to one story, sometime in the 1970s a school bus crashed up the road, killing 12 children. Their ghosts are supposed to still appear from time to time, according to some canyon visitors. Others are more skeptical. The tales do add to the mystery of the place, however.

From time to time, two residents of the area will accost visitors and tell them that the road is private and that they are trespassing. According to those who know, the county holds an all access easement on the roadbed and all people who want to are welcome to use it. According to county records, the Irvine Company owns most if not all of the property in the area and claims by residents that they own the property may or may not be true.

It all adds up to an adventure for those who get up the courage to cross the closed fence and walk or bike up the road.

I know this road from personal experience. Back about 1972 or so, I drove up the road (when it was still open) all the way from Orange, across the mountains and down to Corona. On the way I took a lot of pictures of the area as it was back then, which was mostly pristine and virtually untraveled. Even then the road was and is unpaved. It was filled with potholes and washouts and was difficult to drive. Twenty miles an hour was about the top speed and that was rare.

I have to admit I saw no ghosts, crashed buses or angry residents and met only a few cars coming from the other direction.

At the time I was the editor of the News-Times Newspapers in Placentia, just to the north, and after making this trip published the photos and a story in the paper, making my early trip about the best documented one on record.

Apparently after the road was closed, a lot of squatters moved into the forests at the top of the canyon and caused problems for visitors. There were stories of gunshots and even dead bodies, none of which have been confirmed as far as I know.

Black Star Canyon is one of those fascinating places found all over the country, where mystery, legend, rumor and innuendo mix to create a volatile attraction to anyone with a sense of adventure. That it is within minutes of one of the most populated urban areas in the country adds to the mystique.

I wouldn't have it any other way.

By the way, Google "Black Star Canyon" for a bunch of sites and photos where you can spend a couple of hours reading more about this fascinating place.

The New Year's Zoo: Lessons for 2011

My wife and I spent New Year's Day at the San Diego Zoo today and, although the weather was horribly cold, had a wonderful time.

We learned a couple of good lessons from the animal kingdom that we can all apply in the upcoming year. These are all from odd critters that you would never expect to have ideas any of us could use.

First there was the tortoise from the Galapagos Islands. These creatures are huge, weighing in at 400 to 600 pounds and when they look at you that face is UGLY. But, this fellow was over 150 years old and had lived at the zoo for somewhere approaching 80 years. The keeper said that these animals were smart for reptiles, lived in herds, and learned lessons well. They had lived at the zoo so long that everything they did was by habit. If anything new happened, they wouldn't have a clue as to what to do.

The lesson is that it may be okay to be comfortable and it may help you live longer but the life you lead will be incredibly boring. Success in life is all about taking risks in order to grow and prosper. If you find yourself caged and bored, living the same basic pattern every day, take a few risks and start living an interesting life.

Second, there was a beehive and we were lucky enough to see the queen bee in the hive. A little background: the hive depends on the queen bee. If she were to die or be harmed in any way, the hive would break up. The queen looked ordinary except that she had a few different markings from the other bees. The extraordinary thing was that she was surrounded by eight or ten bees that protected her from everyone else. It was the only bit of organized activity among thousands of bees working in the hive.

The lesson? This hive and other beehives depend on just one individual for its existence. If you have just one or a few clients, or have one critical employee who your business depends on, you are setting yourself up for disaster. Diversify, get more clients, have more than one person who knows your business intimately.

Third, we saw a show that featured a couple of well-trained seals who did all kinds of tricks for the trainers. The seal was obviously having a great time but it also had a major incentive to perform. Every time it did the trick correctly, the trainer gave it a treat, a reward. Without the reward would the seal have performed? No.

The lesson: Reward your best customers with great products and services and they will keep coming back for more. The better you treat those around you, the better they will work for you.

Fourth, we went to see the polar bear exhibit just after dark to see the bears frolic in the water. It's a fun exhibit and the bears are wonderful hams, bouncing balls around, jumping into the water and making a great splash. We looked forward to seeing them. When we arrived, we searched a while and finally found one bear in a corner, sleeping. All he did was move one paw a few inches. Needless to say, we were disappointed.

The lesson? Make good on your promises. Real people are making real efforts when they use your program. Make sure that your program delivers what you say it will. There is so much hype out there today that it's hard to believe it all any more. Those who do what they say they will do and more are the ones who will win.

Fifth and last, we ended the visit with dinner at Albert's Restaurant at the zoo. It's a fancy eatery with high prices and quality to match. Now the zoo has a lot of people who come for one visit and they want you to come back. On the table we found a small note in one of those plastic displays that made an almost irresistible offer: Pay an additional $49 before you left that day and you could get a year-long membership in the zoo, unlimited visits to this and a companion zoo, and free tickets for friends.

Lesson? Always upsell. The real value of that one time customer to the zoo wasn't that they attended that day. It is that they will come back and spend more money over the next year and that as a member they will receive the magazine, learn more about the animals and maybe donate money to the conservation programs. I'm not selling zoo memberships but consider how smart it is to urge your existing customers to buy more from you. The true lifetime value of a customer is not that they bought once from you but that they will buy many times from you.

I'm sure there are a lot more lessons I could come up with but this will do for today. Just remember that everything we do as business owners, sellers, and providers of goods and services is aimed at building better customer relationships and more future sales.

These few tips from a few animals at a wonderful zoo can give your business a powerful sendoff for 2011.