After working with others all my life I find this to be 100% true: ATTITUDE IS EVERYTHING!

Attitude Is Everything by Jim Rohn

The process of human change begins within us. We all have tremendous potential. We all desire good results from our efforts. Most of us are willing to work hard and to pay the price that success and happiness demand.

Each of us has the ability to put our unique human potential into action and to acquire a desired result. But the one thing that determines the level of our potential, that produces the intensity of our activity, and that predicts the quality of the result we receive is our attitude.

Attitude determines how much of the future we are allowed to see. It decides the size of our dreams and influences our determination when we are faced with new challenges. No other person on earth has dominion over our attitude. People can affect our attitude by teaching us poor thinking habits or unintentionally misinforming us or providing us with negative sources of influence, but no one can control our attitude unless we voluntarily surrender that control.

No one else "makes us angry." We make ourselves angry when we surrender control of our attitude. What someone else may have done is irrelevant. We choose, not they. They merely put our attitude to a test. If we select a volatile attitude by becoming hostile, angry, jealous or suspicious, then we have failed the test. If we condemn ourselves by believing that we are unworthy, then again, we have failed the test.

If we care at all about ourselves, then we must accept full responsibility for our own feelings. We must learn to guard against those feelings that have the capacity to lead our attitude down the wrong path and to strengthen those feelings that can lead us confidently into a better future.

If we want to receive the rewards the future holds in trust for us, then we must exercise the most important choice given to us as members of the human race by maintaining total dominion over our attitude. Our attitude is an asset, a treasure of great value, which must be protected accordingly. Beware of the vandals and thieves among us who would injure our positive attitude or seek to steal it away.

Having the right attitude is one of the basics that success requires. The combination of a sound personal philosophy and a positive attitude about ourselves and the world around us gives us an inner strength and a firm resolve that influences all the other areas of our existence.

To Your Success,
Jim Rohn

"In essence, if we want to direct our lives, we must take control of our consistent actions. It's not what we do once in a while that shapes our lives, but what we do consistently."

Anthony Robbins

Yahoo! News - Bush Signs No-Call List, Hurdles Remain My friend Billy works for a Telemarketing company and witnesses to people he will never ever meet. He also
has a gentle spirit and a nice tone of voice. I'd hate for him to lose his $14/+hr job. He cannot replace it in West Texas. The bad thing about this bill is---it may un-employee another 2mil people, add that to the 50million we have in Iraq now and we have some serious unemployment. Yes I did say Iraq, the whole country is out of work and we own it--
The telemarketing companies are fast moving to India and off shore people can call as much as they like.

Yesterday I made a fast trip to Oklahoma Territory. I asked Ray King to travel shotgun with me. On the way Ray received a call that his son who is a resident of Disability Resources in Abilene had an eye infection. As soon as Ray got the call he said, "you know I'll not be able to think about anything but Brian's eye infection if I don't get back to Abilene and take care of it". Ray rented a car and returned from Wichita Falls Texas. One can hear a lot of sermons on Priorities but this my friend was a sermon in action. Remember Coach Landry's list:
1. GOD 2. Family 3. Football (whatever else).

Connect the Dots
I've heard it said a butterfly can flap its wings in the Amazon and effect our weather in Abilene, Texas. Well after reading this article there is more to the war on Terrrorism than meets the eye!

No Regrets

At the 1924 Olympic Games in Paris, the sport of canoe racing was added to the list of international competitions. The favorite team in the four-man canoe race was the United States team. One member of that team was a young man by the name of Bill Havens.

As the time for the Olympics neared, it became clear that Bill's wife would give birth to their first child about the time that the U.S. team would be competing in the Paris games. In 1924 there were no jet airliners from Paris to the United States, only slow ocean going ships. And so Bill found himself in a dilemma. Should he go to Paris and risk not being at his wife's side when their baby was born? Or should he withdraw from the team and remain with his family?

Bill's wife insisted that he go to Paris. After all, competing in the Olympics was the culmination of a life long dream. But Bill felt conflicted and, after much soul searching, decided to withdraw from the competition and remain home, where he could support his wife when the child arrived. He considered being at her side his highest priority, even higher than going to Paris to fulfill his dream.

As it turned out, the United States four-man canoe team won the gold medal in Paris. And Bill's wife was late in giving birth to their child. She was so late, in fact, that Bill could have competed in the event and returned home in time to be with her when she gave birth.

People said, "What a shame." But Bill said he had no regrets. For the rest of his life, he believed he had made the better decision.

Bill Havens knew what was most important to him. Not everybody figures that out. And he acted on what he believed was best. Not everybody has the strength of character to say no to something he or she truly wants in order to say yes to something that truly matters. But for Bill, it was the only way to peace; the only way to no regrets.

There is an interesting sequel to the story of Bill Havens...

The child eventually born to Bill and his wife was a boy, whom they named Frank. Twenty eight years later, in 1952, Bill received a cablegram from Frank. It was sent from Helsinki, Finland, where the 1952 Olympics were being held. The cablegram read: "Dad, I won. I'm bringing home the gold medal you lost while waiting for me to be born."

Frank Havens had just won the gold medal for the United States in the canoe racing event, a medal his father had dreamed of winning but never did. Like I said, no regrets.

Thomas Kinkade eloquently said, "When we learn to say a deep, passionate yes to the things that really matter, then peace begins to settle onto our lives like golden sunlight sifting to a forest floor."Steve Goodier
Author and Speaker

Yesterday we had Cowboy Football legend Bob Lilly speak to a group of about 500 men at the Abilene Civic Center. Bob told his story of faith and the influence of his mentor Tom Landry. One interesting story was the first time he met Tom Landry when he was recruited by the Dallas Texans and later became the Dallas Cowboys. Coach Landry put three priorities on the board:
1. God
2. Family
3 Football
Lilly thought the coach and it wrong for sure thought football should go to #1 or at least #2. But he would later lean Coach Landry was right.
The unique thing about coach Landry he said was, He lived it!
Landry went on to compete in 5 SuperBowls and the team was called: Amercia's Team for the duration of Landry's coaching.
Lilly also said coach Landry allways opened up the day with a scripture reading and they'd close out a game win or lose with scripture on the subject.

"Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow."

Melody Beattie
Author

"When Marco Polo, businessman, returned home to Venice from China, he was called,"Marco of the millions." He got his nickname not for the size of his fortune but for the number of lies people thought he had told about his journey to the courts of the khans. Given a deathbed chance to recan and repent, Polo purportedley said, "I do not tell half of what I saw because no one would have believed me."
Harvard Business Review, Kenneth Leiberthal & Geoffrey Lieberthal

I was not surprised last evening when I watched the Senate on C-span question the Ambassador to Iraq, Paul Brenner. Pete Domenici
floated the idea that we propose to the Iraqi's that some day we might want to impose a $1 barrel levy on their oil to help us recoup the Billions of dollars the US will spend to rebuild Iraq.
I was surprised to learn that Iraq has a combined debt of $200billion to the world. Now one can see the reluctance of some countries to pour anymore resources into this effort. Couldn't we find a country to fix that didn't have so much debt?

Eat some Cajun Food: The Louisiana Purchase is 200 years Old!
This year is the 200th anniversary of the largest land acquisition without bloodshed in the history of the world. Amid a barrage of political fire storms, the US bought land for about THREE cents per acre from a bankrupt France. The negociations too place mostly behind among US and French diplomats in France. Give and take on the price it seemed was forever on going.
The opposition to this cried it would bankrupt the country, the constitution didn't give authority to buy land and it would lead to war.
War with Britian since in effect we were negociating with an enemy of Britian and some thought this would end up bringing the European war to US soil. It did lead to Britian trying to take New Orleans but a great Amercian Andrew Jackson repelled them in a short and decisive battle: Thus the line in the song, "we fired our guns and the British kept a coming". It took 20 yrs to pay for the LP. It created the largest trade area in the country and opened up the US for western expansion.
A great book on it is: Jefferson's Great Gamble!

wok (wok) noun

A pan with a convex base, used for frying, etc.

[From Cantonese wohk (pan).]

A month from tomorrow I follow in the footsteps of Marcopolo who visited China. Upon his return he was reluctant to tell what he had seen because people would not have believed him. And of course his "leaks" of information led to a rush to get to China which ultimately led to the the discovery of the America's.

Yesterday I spent some time with my friend Roger Chary at Traders village Flea Market. Roger immigrated to American from India where in India he was a meteorolgist(very prominate weather man), then he came to UT Arlington and was recruited to translate the bible into several languages in India. Roger is just shy of a PHD in mathematics but found trading and working at flea market much more improbable than solving compel math problems. Roger says, "Every day there's something new, in the marketplace you cannot predict outcomes are conclusions." Roger's son is a top notch computer programmer who flys all over the world implementing software. His wife Sue works in the market and sells on Ebay as well runs a home daycare center where she keeps children which she dearly loves to do.

Home Our E-zine for the week is full on great jewelry designs. Be sure and check it out!

Why Insurance rates are High? In an article in Forbes this month it highlights the unluckiest mariner in the world. Rex K DeGeorge, Rex has successfully lost four yachts his very expensive paintings and of course his cars have been stolen. Insurance is one of those products whereby we are "all connected"! Just like a butterfly flapping its wings in the Amazon can move our weather in Texas someone abusing insurance can effect us all. Rates are high because of people like Rex who abuse the system.

Jeff Tabor Paintings, Home
This is a friend of mine: Jeff Tabor who is a great artist! Jeff will be doing a exhibition here in Abilene at ACU 10/22--10/26 with some of his work, I hate to miss it! You will be blessed by his work!

In Abilene we are in the 2nd day of the Vietnam Wall experience. I began working with a grassroots committee to bring the Wall here, we are one of 2 places the traveling wall will be in Texas. Over 30 people have worked tirelessly to get this event to Abilene and make it a success and looking at the crowd today I would say its a huge success. The wall is a 1/5th size replica of the one in DC and has all Vietnam War casualties on it over 58,000 names etched in the granite wall, today people lined up to scratch a relief of their loved on on a small piece of paper.
As a young boy the Vietnam war was so foreign to me. I used to watch my grandfather (Benjamin Winslow Hillis) watch the evening news with Walter Cronkite. Seeing the war report was puzzling. Until one day my dad & I caught a huge Yellow Catfish and I had my picture in the local paper holding this big fish. I was 8 yrs old. A Uvalde Leader News made it to Vietnam and a soldier read about me and wrote me a letter saying that he loved the photo of the fish and when he returned on leave he wanted to meet me. To an 8 year old a visit from a US soldier was just about as big as it gets. And one day this fully decorated US soldier came by to meet me, I was on cloud nine. He wanted to hear a fish story and I wanted to hear war stories.
Vietnam was a wound and is a wound but thanks to events like this the wounds are healing.
I'm grateful for those men who when called served!

E-Zine Full of Jewelry Ideas
Our E-zines never cease to amaze me. Great ideas and the colors are so vibrant and rich--Janalyn Harrison does these and give so much effort--hats off to Janalyn on a great job!

eBay item 3626783718 (Ends Sep-19-03 08:11:33 PDT) - Horse statue

Be sure and check out my horse auction on Ebay! These are one of a kind leather molded horses! I love them! They are so real looking.

We surpassed the 1000 mark in sales for our Bead Kit today! This is a ready to use Bead kit with well over $50 worth of supplies for $25, included in it is our catalogs and lots of beads. It is a great gift to someone who needs some beading in their life. And it might get them gainfully employed, some of our customers make great extra money beading for a living.

In a Story in Forbes FYI by Andrew Ferguson History Repeats itself he highlights the annual Association of Lincoln Presenters convention, stating, "Not all Abes are created equal, but you certainly can't questions their honesty." This must be a site to see more than 35 Abes all gathered together. Held in Spencer County IL where Lincoln lived until he was 21 years of age at The Santa's Lodge. They have a new motto, "Ready, willing and Abe L." My first thought when looking at this was, this must be nice for Elvis at least there's the Abe impersonations.
Some are full time Abes. Some are part-time Abes.
And the best is the guest lecture: Lincoln In-Laws, the Other Civil War!
Dr. Bassuk the director of ALP, Being Abe is a calling. Lincoln presenters bear a terrible handicap. They're trying to make history pay in a country that is famously indifferent to history. Our historical ignorance is almost a point of national pride.
Most get there buy someone saying: Hey you look like Abe Lincoln and they start believing it and bingo they are a ALP conference attendee.
When the Abes all gathered near the Lincoln Family farm a small girl asked:
Are they crazy men?
Her mom answered, " No, honey of course not, they just want to be Abraham Lincoln. I don't know why."

A friend of mine referred me to a plumber today, as some may know I don't hear very well and I thought he said:
Billy Turtle, I said are you sure Turtle, a slow moving plumber then I thought he said Turdle--now that's a name for a plumber: Billy Turdle-it got worse from there----

RubelShelly.com
Great story on relationships by Rubel Shelly!

A friend of mine commented that my blog clogs him up--I suggested that he take some Exlax while reading it to remove any clogs in my blog! He likes Mike Copes blog better, of course Mike is a professional and this is pure amateurblogging!

Employees Paying Ever-Bigger Share for Health Care
I don't know where this guy got 15% increases for our group its been in the 35% range per year. Of course employees will pay more of the cost---or they'll get out of the system.

statesman.com
My insurance rates doubled last year, you'd think a special session to deal with that
run-a-way problem in the state of Texas would hold priority to politicians getting to draw new maps?
But No politicans work for votes and one of the easiest ways to secure them is
to coral them all in one place--those who like you!

This is good for any new parent to know!

ipse dixit (IP-see DIK-sit) noun

An assertion without supporting proof.

[From Latin, literally, he himself said it.]

The term ipse dixit is the Latin equivalent of the Greek autos epha, referring to Pythagoras, as in, The master (Pythagoras) said it so it must be true and no proof is needed. In our modern world, this has many forms:

Child: Why do I have to go to bed at eight every day?
Parent: Because I said it.

Employee: Why do we have to do this project if it's going to be scrapped anyway?
Boss: Because I said it.

"The critical ingredient is getting off your butt and doing something. It's as simple as that. A lot of people have ideas, but there are few who decide to do something about them now. Not tomorrow. Not next week. But today. The true entrepreneur is a doer."

Nolan Bushnell
Founder of Atari Computer

Lucent to cut retiree health-care benefits
A sign of things to come!
As a small business owner I know something about healthcare cost, ours is going up an average of 35% a year and some have just opted to fly solo. The national crisis on heathcare is getting worse by the day and our present politicians will not touch the issue. In fact we are about to spend 87bln on rebuilding Iraq and our people all over this country are declaring bankruptcy because they can't pay for their medical bills. Something must be done and it must be done fast!

On Sunday we had a big cook out, I fired up the smoker and cooked ribs, brisket and chicken my family came up and we enjoyed the day together. When Hillis' get together politics is a big conversation topic and this time was no exception in fact it gets more so as the day approaches to the election. My uncle and dad talk just about everyday for hours and then when they get together they talk for hours over most of the same subjects they've talked for hours on the phone, but that's the way Hillis' are, emphasis is a sure sign of rightness!

Just got back from Fredericksburg, Texas and its the most luscious green that I've ever seen there. In 7 years of owning a place there we've never seen it this green. My uncle has never seen this much rain in Aug and he's been there for about 25+ years.

Hannah fed the goats. I let a man run about 13 head of spanish goats on the property, Hannah would grab a little twig of grass and head to the goat pins just about everytime we went outside.

Again Great wisdom from my friend Ray:
Homer, It just came to me what this great truth behind this little phrase. An excuse is a bar forever to suceeding at whatever, while a failure is a door to finding a better way.

Thanks, finally!

Ray

Home Our Friendze E-zine is a great source for ideas and specials, be sure to tell your friendz about it. Our team does a great job on getting these out each week and you can sign up for Free on our website!

Our preacher(Mike Cope, Blog) is preaching on John 2 this Sunday: Title: Jesus at Napa Valley! This should be an interesting sermon.

On trade, I'm a member of a barter group called Itex. If you really want to know how free trade is hard to implement join a barter group, everyone wants trade on their terms and not others. Some get mad and quite all together. Everyone wants there own best deal.

I just read an interesting article by John Norris Chief Economist for Morgan Asset Management. He was writting about the domestic manufacturing loss of approx 3mln jobs in the last 5 yrs and how this used to be a political hot button, which he expects it will as we get closer to the 2004 elections. With the dollar at huge lows against other currencies one would think we'd be net seller country but the opposite is true we are a net buyer--and our trade defict is balooning.
The tossed about phrase of the last decade is "free trade" but its really hard to implement, as Wilbur Ross states, "The mantra of "free trade" has hypnotized the Amercian press and a lot of politicians. The problem with free trade isn't the theory. The theory is a right theory. Every country should export whatever it can to make most efficiently. It should import what it can't make efficiently. The unfortunate truth is that everyone uses the slogan "free trade," but its only the US that's been practicing it.

The Whole 9 Yards: I learned this phrase came from the military, a machine gun use to have a clip with 9 yards of shells in it--thus when someone said give them the whole 9 yards--it ment all the bullets!

Bruce just took some of my new leather horse statues (1 life size, 12 small little ones) to my store in Lubbock. The life size one is bungee corded in the back of the pickup-and the others are all over the cab and back--I said, "Bruce if you get stopped by a highway patrol, just tell him you have too much "horse power" today! These are really neat, in fact I have one in my office and its quite a statement---

Sunday we talked about the word "guile" when Jesus meets Nathaniel in John 1 he states, "there is an Israelite in whom there is no guile". I had a teacher who have me the best definition of guile, it litterally means, No fish bait! Fish bait is full of guile in that its aim is to trick a fish into thinking that's real food----some peoples life is like that full of fish bait, beware today of the fish bait walking around!

Universal Passports & Visas, UPV - The Expediting Experts If you ever need a Passport or Visa in a hurry this is a company that can do it and considering all the hassel of doing it yourself--its well worth it! I just applied for my Visa to China today.

Uvalde Leader News - Newspaper for Uvalde, Texas with Uvalde real estate, news, and entertainment
Tomorrow marks first day that rivers are reopened to hunters

You really don't know how big this issue is in Uvalde, County. Its HUGE and now the TPWD has said they can't stop it. Hunting used to be a sport now its big business, tax payers underwrite large landowners to high fence and great Deer, Inc. businesses. I guess its inevitable for all things to turn commercial in a free capitalistic society, even Game animals!

I'll bet you'll run into a few of these in your life:

polemic (puh-LEM-ik, poh-) noun

1. A controversial argument.

2. A person who engages in arguments or controversy; a controversialist.

adjective, also polemical

Jim Rohn has been called the Will Rogers of American business, here's a few quotes from Jim:
Success/Failure by Jim Rohn

Success is not to be pursued; it is to be attracted by the person you become.

Failure is not a single, cataclysmic event. You don't fail overnight. Instead, failure is a few errors in judgment, repeated every day.

Don't take the casual approach to life. Casualness leads to casualties.

Success is the study of the obvious. Everyone should take Obvious I and Obvious II in school.

It's too bad failures don't give seminars. Wouldn't that be valuable? If you meet a guy who has messed up his life for forty years, you've just got to say, "John, if I bring my journal and promise to take good notes, would you spend a day with me?"

Success is not so much what we have as it is what we are.

Yahoo! News - Bush Vows to Help Restore Lost Manufacturing Jobs
Where'd all our US manufacturing jobs go? One country: China, China has been acquiring our jobs by the tens of thousands per month. Last month at the Las Vegas show it became apparent to me even with more clarity that our US manufacturing base is history. Its a short time till they are manufacturing cars, they already have the parts. So what do we do: Upgrade skills and become better at what we do than anyone else. No one is exempt.

"Constant kindness can accomplish much. As the sun makes ice melt,
kindness causes misunderstanding, mistrust, and hostility to evaporate."

Dr. Albert Schweitzer
1875-1965, Medical Missionary and Nobel Prize Winner