There is a common misconception that taking risks is … well, risky. But the truth is that taking risks is no more risky than playing it safe, or maintaining the status quo. In fact, often by failing to innovate, make changes and move forward in different areas of our lives, we open ourselves up to the possibility of stagnation and falling behind. It’s all perception. How we see ourselves, our lives, our world, our intimate relationships with the countless circumstances that surround us, determines how we make decisions and choices. And often our perceptions of reality do not match the truth of reality. For example, statistically speaking, you are far less likely to be injured in an airplane than in an automobile, by almost 100 to one. Cars are far more dangerous. Think about it. How many people do you personally know that have been injured or killed in a plane crash? Not in newspaper reports you’ve read, but people you actually know. Now how many people do you know who have been injured or killed in a car accident? Point made. Yet many people feel apprehensive about taking a plane trip, and these same people feel no apprehension whatsoever about a car ride. Their perceptions and fears do not match the reality of the situation. This happens in our lives more than we would care to realize. Another common misconception that many people have is that life just arbitrarily happens to us without cause or reason. “While some of it we may have control over” they argue, “most of it is just luck.” Mind Power students of course would find this notion incredulous, yet, amazingly, most people believe it. If this hypothesis is true and everything is just a matter of luck, then choice and decision are a meaningless exercise. Those people who think in terms of good luck and bad luck are obscuring the truth, because they separate events from their causes. When we say that someone has fallen on bad luck, we relieve that person of any responsibility for what has happened. When we say that someone has had good luck, we deny that person credit for the effort and choices they have made that undoubtedly have led to the happy outcome. The question becomes what is luck, and what is cause and effect? Canadian essayist Stephen Leacock once wrote, “I’m a great believer in luck. Amazingly the harder I work, the more of it I seem to have.” A. J. Foyt, five-time winner of the Indianapolis 500 said it another way, “Luck is when opportunity meets preparation.” There is very little “luck” in our lives as we understand the term. Synchronicity yes, but luck isolated from cause and effect, no. True, many of the causes behind events are beyond our perceptions and understanding, but the vibrating matrix that we live in is governed by laws of cause and effect. We are on far more solid ground when we look to ourselves for an understanding of [...]

Hero worship shouldn't disappear with adolescence. It can and should be a lifelong source of inspiration and motivation for us. Many of the most famous and influential people we know let great men and women shape their lives well into their own adulthood, and so can you. Long before he ever became a Beatle, John Lennon idolized many of the old rhythm and blues greats, people like Chuck Berry and Muddy Waters. He had their pictures on his wall and used them as inspiration when he first began playing guitar. In this way he could influence his imagination by conceiving mentally that he was them. This process is not just idle daydreaming, but allows new creative ideas to be released from the subconscious. It allows us to move beyond our preconceived limitations and feelings of inadequacy. It is an excellent process for developing inspiration and creativity. Woody Allen watched the Marx Brothers' films hundreds of times and dreamed of being as funny and talented. It's no secret that Groucho Marx was a major influence on the talented filmmaker. Billionaire Ted Turner, founder of CNN, studied the Greek classics in university. His father, a very practical businessman, couldn't understand why his son was wasting his time with the classics. What he didn't realize was that Ted was conditioning his mind with images of the fabled Greek heroes who seized opportunities, turned sure defeats into victories, and surmounted countless obstacles in order to win. Sounds familiar? It certainly does to those who watched the meteoric rise and breathtaking moves made by one of America's most exiting and successful businessmen. [And congratulations Ted on giving away one billion dollars to charity. For those of you who might not have heard, Ted announced last month that he would give one billion dollars to the United Nations for humanitarian purposes. I hope you now become a role model for many of the world's millionaires. I know you're certainly one of mine and have been for many years.] Singer Whitney Houston watched her older cousin Dionne Warwick release hit after hit and dreamed of one day being just like her. She was lucky in that she had a family member to model herself after as she made her way to super stardom. But you don't have to know the person in order to model yourself after them. Few of us get that chance. A millionaire clothing manufacturer once shared with me how in her early struggling years, she would draw inspiration from other successful women. She had pictures on her wall of prominent women who had made it. They became her mentors. Each time she looked at the pictures it gave her encouragement. If they could do it, she could too, she reminded herself. And she did! All big companies that pride themselves on excellence have what is called their "war stories." IBM, Microsoft, 3M, and Hewlett Packard, all have them; stories of past employees who performed great feats under difficult circumstances. These were people who [...]

This month we draw upon the wisdom of a scientist, a professional athlete, a rock musician, and the CEO of a major corporation to share with us their personal secrets of excellence. Each one of these individuals offers a single insight on how a particular practice has helped them achieve personal success in their chosen fields. From these four distinct individuals we gain four pieces of wisdom to help us navigate ourselves to a winning and prosperous life in 2009. For our first piece of wisdom we hear from Daria Hazuda, scientific director for the giant multinational pharmaceutical company Merck. For most of us, failure is a disappointment, but not to Daria. She explains her approach: “For me, a failed experiment is actually a rich source of information. People tend to focus only on positive results. But if you look at people in the drug-discovery business who are successful, it is often those who also learn from the negative. They take all that information and synthesize it in a holistic way.” One of Hazuda’s fellow researchers at Merck, Amy Espeseth, adds, “What’s unique about Daria is that she’s a very creative, nonlinear thinker. A lot of people in science do things in a step-by-step way. With Daria, it’s kind of like a chess game; her moves show she’s thinking a few steps ahead of everyone else.” For her part, Hazuda says she begins with simple curiosity. “I really try to understand the basic biology and chemistry of how the different enzymes work. There were dozens of publications on enzymes that other researchers had discovered, but none of them worked against the HIV virus. I was trying to learn from what some really fantastic scientists had done. I tried to understand why those particular approaches weren’t successful, and then I used those lessons to develop a different approach.” This different approach helped Hazuda develop one of the first successful drugs in treating HIV. Studying what didn’t work led to her success. Wisdom learned: Failure is valuable information. Don’t ignore it or miss its lessons. For our next piece of wisdom we go to Adam Vinatieri, kicker for the Indianapolis Colts. Adam may well be the greatest clutch kicker in NFL history. In his 13-year career he’s been to four Super Bowls with the New England Patriots, and won two with last second kicks. His grace under pressure has earned his the nickname “Iceman.” He explains the importance of focusing your efforts. “I know exactly what I need to do to help me do my job. The older I get—and let’s face it, it’s a young man’s sport—I do a lot more stretching, including Pilates and yoga. I need to be flexible to avoid injury, and for my follow-through. I don’t have to run as long and fast and as far as a receiver does. It’s not my job. My job is to build fast twitch muscles so I can kick the ball a long way. In my third year as a [...]

This above all - to thine own self be true... -Shakespeare The following is an excerpt from Money Success & You, a book by John Kehoe. A recent national poll revealed that more than 80 percent of North America's working population do not enjoy the work they do. This is a profoundly tragic statistic, considering that work consumes so much of our lives. Nor is it a good formula for success, because when you study closely people who are successful it becomes abundantly clear that their achievements are directly related to the enjoyment they derive from their work. This really struck home for me while I was writing this book. Since this is a book about money and success, I decided to send each of my financially successful friends (those with assets over $1 million) a copy of the manuscript so that I could get their feedback. As I finished my list and was reading over the names, I suddenly realized that every single one of them had achieved their success in areas they enjoyed working in - one was in publishing, another was a jewellery wholesaler, one in law, still another in home renovating - and so it went. They had found their passion, devoted themselves to it and had prospered. Every single one of them was doing what they loved doing. It got me thinking: Has anybody ever made a fortune doing what he or she dislikes? I thought about it for a while and you know what? I couldn't think of anyone. Not one. This is something to seriously ponder if you presently find yourself trying to get ahead working at an occupation you dislike. Do What You Love; the Money Will Follow Lars-Eric Lindblad loves traveling. As he backpacked his way to some of the more exotic locations around the world, he thought of what he would do when he eventually returned home. Nothing seemed appealing; and then he suddenly had an idea. "There are probably others like myself", he thought, "who want to experience a more adventurous type of travel. Why not start a business to cater to their specific needs?" So that's what he did. He started his own travel agency, Lindblad Travel, offering adventurous trips to offbeat locations-the Gobi Desert, Antarctica, the Galapagos Islands. People in the travel industry told him he was sure to fail. "You can't make money offering just adventure packages", they said almost unanimously. This was before exotic travel became fashionable. Lars was one of the first to venture into this field and succeed he did, in a very big way. And 500,000 customers later, his travel business is still booming. Here's the lesson for those of you who wish to follow your dream: the real key to Lindblad's success is that he chose something that he was excited about, something he believed in. Peter Moore hated his job as a bank manager. Although he liked dealing with people, he felt stuck in his choice of occupations and felt [...]

Her identity is top secret, but word of her good deeds has spread across Canada one Tim Horton's coffee at a time. (Tim Horton's is our largest coffee and sandwich franchise, with numerous outlets in every major city.) For the past three years, a mystery woman from Toronto has consistently surprised Tim Horton's drive-thru customers who pulled up to the take-out window right after the coffee angel" has driven away, only to find their bill has been taken care of. Big order or small, the 40-year-old mother of two boys doles out money for total strangers at Tim Horton's with a single purpose in mind: To see how good it feels to do something nice for someone else." Usually people react with shock, she says. A few have literally chased her car down the road. I've had somebody follow me, honking wildly," she says. I'm trying to wave at them it's no big deal but they insist on me pulling over. They roll down their window and say, 'Do I know you?' No, I say, and they reply, 'But you bought my food. I have a sandwich here.' " They just don't know how to deal with it. And I say, 'I hope you enjoy it.' I really love those moments: when they're speechless. And then I imagine them going back to their work or to their life and saying, 'You're not going to believe this...' Hopefully it shocks them," says the woman who refuses to be identified because she does not want to appear in any way self-promotional. And hopefully it injects some positive energy into their days so they can feel better about themselves. I know my kids and I sure do." The java angel, whose sons are 12 and 8, says she started the coffee crusade while coming out of a nasty divorce. It was a tough time as a family, and one day I was having a very stressful day at work. I remember very clearly; it was a Monday morning. The next person's tally came up on the screen after I'd paid my order and it was like a big red neon sign that said to me. 'You're supposed to buy that person a coffee.' I came home that day and I felt so good-after feeling really sad for a long time." Employees around the city love the coffee angel, who has befriended many staff at her regular haunts. We all adore her," says an Assistant Manager at one of the outlets. She's become a friend who brightens all our days. Sometimes she even starts a chain reaction with as many as five cars buying in succession for the people behind them." Adds the manager, I always like to see the expression on people's faces. They're shocked and pleased too. There is a gentleman who also now comes into our stores and regularly buys for complete strangers. As a movement it seems to be growing." Indeed many of the coffee angel's friends who live in [...]

Last year, while in South Africa, we spent about twenty days with a remarkable Zulu Songoma, Credo Mutwa. This was over a four-month period, and we would stay for three or four days at a time. My wife was shooting a documentary to be released in 2008, and we gathered over forty hours of footage for this show. We have visited Credo Mutwa each year since 1993, and over that time a friendship has developed. We felt honoured when he invited us to record some of his teachings, for he has no successor, and when he dies many of his stories and teachings will leave with him. He is not the only teacher of Ubuntu, but he is perhaps the most knowledgeable and most eloquent. When he passes, and at eighty-six, that will be sooner rather than later, it will be as if a great library has burned to the ground. It is Credo’s wish that Ubuntu will spread throughout the world to ail a suffering humanity that has lost touch with its basic humanness. “Africa’s wisdom must be shared with the world now. Africa has so much to offer the world…but alas, people only focus on negativity and problems.” - Credo Mutwa Africa does indeed have so much to offer. And for too long, it has been ignored and trivialized. Long before the eras of the Greek and Roman empires, Africa thrived and was the foundation for and creative genius behind such divergent subjects as mathematics, astronomy, medicine, philosophy, architecture and engineering, to name but a few. Let us not forget that the pyramids of Egypt, built thousands of years ago, are still, to this day, a pinnacle of human engineering. Even today they could not be built with greater accuracy and precision. Western civilization is built on the wisdom and knowledge of the African continent. Egypt had the first universities and the first libraries. The history books written by Europeans forget this aspect, but the truth of man’s evolution culturally and intellectually is open to anyone to pursue, and once pursued, it leads clearly to Africa, with the height of its achievement being Ancient Egypt. However it was not just the Egypt we know from history books, but Ethiopia as well, which in ancient times stretched across most of Africa, as far south as South Africa and west to the Atlantic Ocean. This great nation has not been given its due respect. What Does Ubuntu Mean? Ubuntu is a term derived from the word “muntu,” meaning a person - a human being. Ubuntu is not easy to describe. It is both a philosophy and a way of action. It is a distinctive African cosmological system of teaching each individual to appreciate and enjoy their life while caring, sharing and respecting others. Ubuntu belongs to no one tribe or no one religion or teaching. It transcends all attempts to restrict it and place it in a category. According to ancient African traditional wisdom, each individual possesses positive, loving [...]