Brian Gosur

Advice and Strategies That Will Take You Out of This World

Tag Archives: Christmas

Graduating From The School of Hard Knocks

Many of you out there have a college degree, and probably some student loans to pay off as well. I also received a degree, but mine was free. No loans for me to pay back, but there was a price to pay when you are graduating from the school of hard knocks.

Maybe some of you have taken a few courses from this very prestigious school.  I’ve seen lots of friends there, but it has been some of the hardest training that I’ve ever had to endure.

Graduating From The School of Hard Knocks

Coming out of Ford Motor Company after thirty-five years of successful service, I was looking for a new career. I didn’t want to go back to school, but I eventually signed up for some classes from the University of Hard Knocks.

I want to give you five pointers, that I learned during my time there, so that you won’t ever have to take the same courses that I did.

 

1. Do One Step at a Time

When I left Ford Motor Company and decided to change the direction of my life, the one thing that I didn’t want to do was flip burgers at the local MacDonalds, nor did I want to be a greeter at Walmarts.

I was introduced to network marketing and discovered the power of large numbers, and leveraging through a network. It’s a 120 billion dollar a year industry and many people are starting to discover this, “Business of the Future,” as Robert Kiyosaki and Donald Trump have labeled it.

But the first thing that happens is you get bombarded with business offers and solutions to help you in your business, and it can be very overwhelming to the newbie, such as I was.

Fortunately, I got introduced to some of the top marketers in the industry and I have learned so much from them.

Focus on one strategy until you master it and then use it in your pursuit of growing your business. Don’t try to spread yourself out to doing fifteen things all at once, like I did. You will just get frustrated and want to quit, it won’t work, so don’t even try it.

2. Pick a Strategy That is You

Find a marketing technique that fits you. One that your comfortable with and you can use to produce results.

Believe it or not, the best marketing strategies are free. Don’t get sucked into paying hundreds of dollars for stuff that you will never use and it will just sit as an empty desktop icon staring at you when you get on your computer.

You will go down this road, I did, we all did, it’s a class that they offer at the school of hard knocks. Learn this lesson well and as fast as you can, because you don’t want to have top repeat this class again, it can become very costly.

3. Put a Plan Together and Follow It

This was another hard lesson for me to learn. I was all over the map, because I didn’t have a blueprint mapped out to follow.

Find your one or two marketing strategies, master them and then put a daily and weekly plan of action into action, and implement your plan to success.

4. Keep Track of Your Results

Another class that is offered at the hard knock school, that I failed over and over, because I didn’t keep track of my results, whether they are good or bad.

You need to know if what you’re doing is working or not, otherwise you maybe walking down the road to failure and not even know it.

5. Make Changes When Necessary

If you aren’t getting the results that are leading you to success, then don’t ever be afraid to make changes. I was always afraid to make changes.

I’m a very patient person, and sometimes I can walk down the wrong road for a lot longer then I should, before I realize this isn’t working. I’m always trying to squeeze out every single drop of use from what I’m doing, before I abandon it.

Learn to follow your results and only do the things that are producing. Don’t be afraid to make the changes when they need to be done.

It’s all a part of the classes offered at the school of Hard Knocks, which are not all bad, as long as we learn and grow from them.

Just because it’s Christmas, I’m going to give you a free strategy that I use all the time. It’s seven videos that will explain free strategies that will get you up and running your business on the road to success, and avoid any classes in the school of Hard Knocks.

Get Your 7 Free Videos Right Here.

God bless your endeavors and have a Happy and prosperous New Year.

 

 

Christmas Giving and Receiving

The Christmas season is here again. My favorite time of year. The snow, the cold, the lights, the music, and……..the presents. Come on you know you like rushing down in the morning. The smell of the fresh coffee, the tree, and all those beautifully wrapped gifts under the tree. I always look and try to guess which one is mine. Of course I do this very indiscriminately. I can’t let on to people that I’m looking.

“It is more blessed to give then it is to receive.” We’ve all heard that before, and especially around Christmas time. It is so true. There is something that goes on deep in your heart when you give to someone else. Someone who has a special need that you can fill, and they don’t have the resources to ever pay you back. There is such a blessing, a warmness in your heart, that comes to you when we do that.

But what about receiving? Christmas giving and receiving? That’s another question. That is the hardest thing to do. Why? What is it that makes it so hard to reach out to a hand that says, I want to give to you, and you don’t owe me anything for it.? Why do we struggle when it comes to receiving? We hear things like, ” I have my pride”, ” I don’t take charity”.

Our economy has put a lot of people, who are good educated people, that are not on drugs or have a drinking, or gambling  problem, out on the street. These people have never taken a dime from anyone and they are finding themselves in the soup kitchens, and sleeping in the homeless shelters. Receiving is hard.

There was a story about a lady who fell asleep while she was driving. The car spun off the road, crashed through the guardrail and hung onto the side of the cliff with one tire. Several motorists stopped and tied the rear bumper of the car to a tree so it wouldn’t go over the edge. Every little movement of the car, they could her the girl inside screaming. Finally the fire department came and pulled the car back onto the flat ground, but the one firemen said he could her the girl constantly telling them that she could do it herself. Now that might have been just the shock and trama of the whole scary ordeal that she was in, but isn’t that  funny, that in that terrible state, all she could say is, “I can do it myself “. This women was thinking she could do it herself, and didn’t realize that all these people had to work together to save her life.

We always feel that we have to give something back or do something for every gift or good thing that comes our way. Why? What about Christmas charity? Christmas giving? Christmas help? Do you need Christmas help?

I am going to give you four reasons why I think it is so hard for us to do any receiving.

  1. People have let us down in the past. (hard to trust anymore)
  2. Ego or Pride. (this is why a man doesn’t ask for directions)
  3. Emotional Insecurity (I ride the wave of giving to forget my own insecurity)
  4. Past Incident (we feel unworthy to receive)

Can you imagine getting a Rolex watch for Christmas and reaching into your wallet and asking the person, “how much did you pay for that?’  “You shouldn’t have”. Then you reach into your wallet and say, “here, let me give you something. I know I can’t pay for it all, but let me give you something.” That would totally offend the giver, and be very rude and embarrassing.

These same things prevent us from receiving the greatest gift of all time. The gift of God’s forgivness and a new life.

You see having faith in God is not about doing, it’s about receiving. The difference between Christianity and any other religion is this. In religion, I work a list of all kinds of different things to do for God. He receives those works and I get all the credit. In Christianity, God does the work, He gives to me, I receive, and He gets all the credit. This is the truth about Christmas.

It’s hard for me to receive when I was raised to always believe that I don’t need anybody. I can stand on my own two feet and get the job done all by myself. God should be happy He has me on His team.

But we can’t do it on our own, just like that women who couldn’t keep her car from going over the side of that cliff and plunging to her death, she could not save herself. Sin and a stubborn will have kept me from living the kind of life that I really want to live. The kind of life that God wants me to live, no matter how hard I tried.

What I could not do, God did. That’s what we celebrate at Christmas in Christianity. Receiving the free gift that God paid for on that cross so many years ago. We celebrate the entrance of God into our world at Christmas. He came for one reason. To pay the penalty for your sin and mine. The penalty for sin is death. (Romans 6:23) The gift of God is free. (Ephesians 2:8-9), (Titus 3:4-5)

Now the way is open. I can come to God, receive His gift, and with Him, start to learn to live my life the way He intended it to be.  Jesus said, ” I have come that they might have life and have it to the full.”

Now my friend all the obstacles have been removed. There is nothing standing in your way, except a stubborn, disobedient heart, and even that He will begin to heal once He comes into your life. Just ask Him. That’s why He came. Learn to receive. Reach out and take His hand. He has a gift for you.

Revelation 3:20; ” Listen! I am standing at the door and knocking! If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in and dine with him and he with Me.”

Do you hear Him knocking? Do you hear His voice?

Give Someone a Helping Hand….please?

I have a Christmas wish that I would like to ask you all to do.

I know that there is a movie out or was a movie out about people doing three things for someone else that

cannot do anything for you and can’t pay you back. It has to be something that they could not do for

themselves. Think about that for a minute. I’m thinking about a person right now, who if they ever even

thought about doing anything nice for someone else, why I think their brain would immediately fry right in

their head. It is just not something that were used to seeing. Think… Think real hard and tell me when was

the last time you say someone do something nice for someone else? When was the last time that you did

something nice for someone else? Takes a little bit of brain power to even think about it let alone do it.

Now what if we were to get together with our family, all the kids and did a family project for Christmas. All

of us had to think of doing something nice for someone, and we could get the rest of the family to help us

out, if we needed it.

My idea was to give up buying Christmas presents for all of us, and instead, take all that money and go out

and find a family in need. (I don’t think you would have to go to far to find one of those.) Use that money to

get them some food, pay some past due bills they may have, help with some repairs around the house, get

them a Christmas tree, or any other need that they may have. Wow! What a blessing that would be, not only

to them, but to your entire family. What a Christmas present that would be to the kids, and a wonderful

lesson that would place a mark on their hearts that would last a lifetime. Im being blessed right now just

thinking about it.manger

But lets quit thinking about it and, like the Nike ad says, JUST DO IT! After all, we had someone who left us a great example.

Please comment on what you think about this and what kind of ideas you came up with.

God bless all of your efforts, and have a Merry Christmas.

Brian Gosur