14600 days

14600 Days On Planet Earth Has Taught Me….

I made it! 14600 days later….

40 years old today!

God has blessed me with 14600 days on his green earth and like they always say ‘time flies’…WOW, this past decade has been a blur.

I wanted to share with you some thoughts I’ve learned over the 4 decades I’ve been alive and hopefully you can learn (from my many failures lol) some tips and tricks on how to keep on keeping on…

God, Family & Friends Must Come First – I made some huge decisions in the past few years that have translated into becoming not only a happily married man, but also a baptized Christian. Faith is big for me and so is family. This needs to be my focus going forward in life, because if you work on those relationships, everything works out. I’m learning every day, trying to become better. However when I put my faith, family or friends second, things start to unravel quickly. Your foundation becomes your reason why. It’s your fuel. Make that what drives you to grow daily and you’ll be on the right path.

You Will Fail – I have stumbled, crawled, crashed, burned and picked myself up more times than I can count. I’m a high school drop out, that FINALLY graduated 8 years after I started secondary education. I’ve had businesses that have grown and failed. I’ve been broke, in debt and still managed to pull myself out of the hole. The trick…Was persistence. Being stubborn about success and accepting failure for what it truly is…A lesson! How we choose to learn from that lesson determines our ultimate success…

Reputation Is Everything – It’s funny, I started my business online by sticking my phone number on my websites. People came to trust me and come see me when they needed advice or help. That phone number helped bridge the trust gap. Over the years, I’ve gained the trust of some amazing customers but I’ve also broken that trust with just as many. My only regret, is that I have done people wrong in my life. It’s never my intention, but the only thing people really care about is how you treat them. Treat everyone the exact same way you wanna be treated, the golden rule is the golden rule for a reason. Once you break it, it’s extremely hard to mend it. Learn from my mistakes, believe me! Don’t abuse people’s trust! Serve them daily!

It’s O.K. To Show The Real You – I love being transparent and I think it’s a big key to my growth and success over the years. I don’t want to ever lie to people, and I think there is way too many copy and paste business people out there. We need to be true to ourselves and to our customers. For example, if I did these videos I do and was wearing a suit and tie, that would be a lie. I work from home. I’ve been blessed to be able to work literally in my PJ’s for almost 2 decades now. Doesn’t mean I don’t wanna project a professional image, but I think it’s important for my customers to see who I really am…A guy that loves what he does for a living from the comfort of his home office. And with that comes passion, excitement, stress, love, failures, anger, joy and every other human emotion known to mankind….What you see, is what you get!

Negative Thinking Will Destroy You – I was an angry dude over the past decade. I don’t know why either. I have been so blessed. But for some reason, I was bitter, grumpy and angry at anyone and everyone that didn’t fall in line with my thinking. How arrogant of me…If I ever did disrespect you, or hurt you, I truly am sorry. Negativity comes from the ego. We have to be right, we have to win, we have to come first…It’s all bull. I just got finished reading that book Change Your Thinking, Change Your Life by Brian Tracy and he put it perfectly…Our minds can only hold one thought at a time, so why do we waste that moment on negative thinking. When our ego takes over, negativity and pride fill our mind. Let it go. You don’t always have to be right. Trust me, this is from personal experience….Not everyone is out to get you, and at the end of the day we all have so much to be grateful for. Focus on that first, let the negativity go.

Action Speaks Louder Than Words – That’s a time tested truth for sure but think about it. We are in the age of memes on social media where everyone has something cute or witty to say about how one should live their life. Problem is…Most of the time, they don’t take their own advice. Why? Cause it’s easier to SAY SOMETHING than it is to DO SOMETHING. Wanna see real change in your life? Do something about it. Be the change. Stop trying to tell the world that it needs to change, start changing YOURSELF first. Then…And only then…Real change can happen. Action is the key, words are the beginning of it but you need to DO SOMETHING after you post all those memes on Facebook 😉

Serving Others Is True Wealth – I get super stressed out some days. Our servers break, sales are low, customers are upset at us…But then I’ll get a message from someone…Saying that one video we did or one article we wrote really helped them. Years ago I got an email from a great lady named Lynn McCutcheon where she basically said that no matter what kind of drama is going on, our training and products have really helped her. It changed my life. It reminded me why I am here and why I am in business….Sure, to feed my family but before that, it’s to serve others and add value to their lives and business. If we focus on others first, we will become the richest people on the planet. And not always by our bank accounts, but by our spirit. Zig Ziglar famously said, “You can have everything you want in life, if you help enough people get everything they want in life…” It’s so true!

The Journey Is Everything! – Everyone wants a million bucks! They want real success. The truth is, that real wealth and real freedom is found in the journey. It’s the things you learn. It’s the people you meet. It’s the relationships you build. The experiences you gain. Wanna see something truly remarkable in your life? Start journaling for a year and then look back at that year…You will be amazed at what you have learned and discovered along the way! The journey should be celebrated. Don’t look at trials and tribulations as a bad thing, look at them as part of your growth!

Have Fun – You have to love what you do! No matter what you choose to do in life, it’s so important to have fun. You will bring much more value to people when you truly are enjoying yourself. Stop taking things so serious, lighten up and SMILE! Maybe even start a gratitude journal to remind ourselves, WHY we love what we do and how thankful we are to be able to do what we do. That has really helped me over the years and I know it can help you to. Nothing is better than to start your day with a mental reminder of how blessed we are and are given a new opportunity to serve others daily. Enjoy it! Embrace it!

God willing I go forward over the next 14600 days and learn from my successes but more importantly from my failures. I continue to grow. And I serve people to the best of my ability….And oh yeah, guaranteed trips to the bookstore weekly is still a must no matter what 🙂

19 thoughts to “14600 Days On Planet Earth Has Taught Me….”

      1. That’s great Jon. Did Theda talk you into it? It’s good to have a faith even though I am a fallen away Catholic. I still have my faith and even more now because I believe there is much much more to God.

        1. She introduced me for sure, but all praise and glory due to Jesus for reaching me. He knew when to come knocking at my door 🙂

    1. Jon taking care of my birds keeps me going. They mean everything to me and they are my kids. I need to be able to feed myself and my birds! I was so depressed a month or so ago I was almost going to give up but I went to the doctor to get another antidepressant. I know I am better than what I was thinking I was. I had to step out of that negative mode and needed some medication to help.

      1. Try reaching again for a bible 🙂 Helped me a ton when I was down an out but I know what you are saying. They become quite a source of happiness. Got a bird meeting and first bird show this weekend….I’m hooked lol

  1. Jon you have great ideas in this post. I have learned a lot from you and it’s helped me in my business as well. I just finished reading your post. It’s so true that being happy and having fun makes more people want to be around. People don’t want to be around a negative person.

    And yes there is more to wealth than money. It’s spiritual, too. But we do need money to survive so we can eat and pay for rent and utilities.

    1. Absolutely. I think the big ah ha moment was for me…When I started having ‘fun’, business became a joy…And that turned into an income.

      But when I tried to force everything and was upset at the world…Nothing went right.

      So the ‘fun’ came while doing something I love…Which turned into a real business.

  2. I really think you should become a Professor of some kind in business, Jon. You are very intelligent and if you want to, you should go to college and get a 4-year degree. But it’s not necessary.

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