A Note From The President

Avil Beckford, President

This month we are celebrating our first anniversary and I have a treat for you. Whenever I interview leaders for the "How Did They Do That" section, I always ask them how they integrate their personal and professional lives. I am including a few of their responses this month.

How Do You Integrate Your Personal And Professional Life?

"They are one and the same. My hobby became my career. I was a broadcaster and when that came to an end I transitioned into humour." Neil Atchison, Humorist

"Early on I was swept into the professional world to the detriment of my personal life. I was doing too many public appearances. I have learned to be the same person in every situation. I am a casual person and I tend to be casual in the business area. I try to have a consistent personality throughout. I always try to be myself and I am positive and very accessible. I try to deal with people in business the same way that I deal with my family and friends." David Chilton, Author

"I don't really see much difference between my professional and personal life. For me they are closely intertwined. The same passion and persistence that leads me to excel is applied to both the personal and professional areas of my life. It's more a philosophy, a way of thinking and viewing this world that makes work more of an extension of living rather than living as an extension of work. I live my life, and work is an aspect of it. It's not the other way around. I believe I have been blessed with my skills and talent because I have a duty to share them with humanity. I see myself as a key that enables others to unlock their abilities and become better and more beautiful people. To me I find life more fulfilling and work more rewarding by viewing the world and living life this way." Asha McLeod, Hair Stylist

"I do not make a distinction. I do not have a personal or professional persona. Making a distinction makes your life more difficult. I have fun doing what I do." Maria Nemeth, Author

We are one year old and I would like to issue a challenge. I would like you to think of the past year and ask yourself and answer the following questions:

• Describe a business a business challenge and how I resolved it? If you haven't resolved the challenge yet, think of one different step that you can take toward resolution
• What lessons have I learned in the process?
• What is the formula for success?
• How do I integrate my personal and professional life?

Think on these things. If you are so inclined, email your answers to me at avil.beckford@ambeck.com

Book Review

Review of The PhotoReading Whole Mind System by Paul Scheele

PhotoReading, a term coined by Paul Scheele, is "mentally photographing" the printed page at rates exceeding 25,000 words per minute. According to Scheele, "The PhotoReading process bypasses the conscious mind and sends the information to storage bins in the other-than-conscious. This means that when you are PhotoReading you will have little or no conscious knowledge of the materials. It is all there some place, but consciously you may not know it. Don't worry, as long as you can "activate" it to the conscious mind so that you can use the information however you use information."

This may be too much for Ambeck Edge readers, but suspend your judgment for a few minutes.

The PhotoReading System which is comprised of five steps: preparing, previewing, PhotoReading, activating, and rapid reading, are actually options that you can use depending on what your needs are.

Preparing
In the preparation stage, explicitly state your purpose for reading the material then enter into a state of relaxed alertness.

Previewing
Survey your reading material quickly, looking for about 20 trigger words, words that are repeated, in the sub-title, highlighted and so on. Decide if it's necessary to read further.

PhotoReading
Ask yourself why you want to PhotoRead the material, relax your body, calm your mind and confidently flip through your reading material.

Activating
Allow time to elapse before you enter into the activation stage. Let the information incubate, then probe your mind by asking yourself questions about the material. Super read the parts that attract you.

Rapid Reading

Quickly move through your reading material from start to finish, at a speed comfortable to you. Zip quickly through the information that you've established to be unimportant and spend more time on more important information.

Scheele suggests that to manage your time effectively, you should sort all your reading material into levels of priority, handle paper only once, always have reading material with you - you never know when you'll have a few minutes, and preview everything that's important.

Five - 1 Great Ideas

1. When the best readers read, they do so in an active, purposeful, questioning and fully engaged manner
2. To effectively read, you must begin with a clear sense of purpose, why are you reading the material and what do you hope to accomplish?
3. Set specific reading goals
4. After you've read important information, create a visual diagram of the key ideas
   

The PhotoReading Whole Mind System has some very good information, but the concepts may be somewhat foreign to most people. I recommend that you read it, but I think that for you to understand and use the new concepts, you'll need to follow-up with a seminar on the topic.

October's Book List

PhotoReading Whole Mind System, Paul R. Scheele
Drawing On The Right Side of the Brain, Betty Edwards

Survey Results

Want to Learn How to Slow Aging? Have a Positive Attitude!

A team of researchers from the University of Texas followed and studied 1,558 older people from a Mexican American community to examine whether there was a link between positive emotions and the onset of frailty. All the people were in good health when the study started. The researchers assessed the development of frailty during the study by measuring the participants' weight loss, exhaustion, walking speed and grip strength. The researchers found that:

1. People who maintained a positive attitude were significantly less likely to show signs of aging, they were less likely to become frail and were more likely to be stronger and healthier than those that had a negative attitude
2. Your beliefs have a direct impact on your health - because your beliefs actually alter your body's chemical balance
3. Findings suggest psychosocial factors - as well as genes and physical health - play a role in how quickly we age

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/health/3642356.stm

How Did They Do That?

Dan White, Founder & President, WNBC http://www.wnbc.net

Challenge: I allowed a contract employee to have too much control over one aspect of my business. The contract employee ran the tax business and did not regularly relate to me what was going on. The contractor fell behind, in some cases, more than a year. I had 82 angry clients. I now had to get a year's worth of work done in three months.

Solution: I took back control of the business, and the contractor decided to leave the company. I set up a customer relationship management system to automate all processes. I could now see everything that was going on in the company. I hired a team of tax consultants to do one year's worth of work in three months to satisfy the 82 angry clients.

Lessons Learned

1. I am accountable and responsible for everything that happens in my business
2. I learned that I wasn't a good leader because a leader is not necessarily someone who inspires, motivates and set a good example, but one who takes the team into battle and make sure that they arrive home safely
3. I should not delegate the critical functions in my business without knowing what's going on
4. I should not give anyone too much freedom without making sure that I am very comfortable with what is going on at all times
   

What Can Ambeck Do For You:

Ambeck Enterprise provides diverse business research and analysis services to senior level executives, through the relevant distillation of diverse facts and data.

Formula For Success

Dan White

Recognize a need, have a solution and understand where the customer/prospect is going to find the money to pay for the solution. There is a shortage of money. Governments create a scarcity of money. If a person doesn't have something that is less wonderful they are not going to buy your solution because they simply do not have any spare money.

If you do not wish to receive this e-Newsletter, please send an e-mail to postmaster@ambeck.com with unsubscribe written in the subject line.