From Sweet Success to Bitter Tears

The immigrant who became the 'doughnut king' had wealth and clout -- and a nasty gambling habit. Now he sleeps on a trailer porch.

January 19, 2005|Sam Quinones | Times Staff Writer

MasterMind Team Meet with Mr. Ted Ngoy on 13 March 2010

On the porch of a friend's mobile home in Long Beach, the Cambodian doughnut king falls asleep each night shivering.

Once, he enjoyed the warmth of family and the respect of his community. Once, he was a poor boy who carried away one of Cambodia's wealthiest daughters. Once, he was a millionaire who met three U.S. presidents.

For The Record

Los Angeles Times Wednesday January 26, 2005 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 1 inches; 46 words Type of Material: Correction

Cambodian entrepreneur -- A Jan. 19 article in Section A about Cambodian entrepreneur Ted Ngoy said Ngoy saw Elvis Presley perform in Las Vegas in 1977. Presley, who died in 1977, made his final Las Vegas appearance the previous year, which is when Ngoy saw him.

Ted Ngoy made a fortune in doughnuts. Over the years, he led thousands of his countrymen into the business. Through doughnuts, many Cambodians stepped out of isolation and into the American mainstream. And a new figure emerged on the California business landscape: the Cambodian doughnut-shop owner.

Today, at 62, the doughnut king is broke, homeless and dependent on the goodwill of his few remaining friends.

"He lost all the doughnuts," said James Dok, director of the United Cambodian Community, a social service agency in Long Beach. "He has to start a new life."

He was born Bun Tek Ngoy. His mother raised him in a rural village near Cambodia's border with Thailand. He was Chinese Cambodian, part of a despised underclass.

In 1967, his mother sent him to study in Phnom Penh, the capital. At school, Ngoy fell in love from afar with a beautiful girl. Her name was Suganthini Khoeun. Her father was a high-ranking government official. Her brother-in-law, Sutsakhan Sak, was chief of police and would become, briefly, the country's president.

Suganthini's parents hoped she would marry well. Until then, she was kept sheltered. At 16, she had no friends, could not talk to boys and was forbidden to leave home alone.

Ngoy lived in an attic apartment a few blocks from the Khoeun family's mansion. The son of a peddler had no chance with such a girl, no right even to think of loving her. But one night, he had an idea.

He sat on the roof of his apartment and played his flute, the music sweeping over the neighborhood. Suganthini and her mother heard the music. Those are the sounds of a man in love, her mother said.

Ngoy wrote to her. I am the flute player, he said in a note passed through the family's maid. A week later, Suganthini wrote back, and the two began a secret correspondence. Ngoy asked to visit.

"I don't think you dare come to my room," she responded. Soldiers and dogs guarded the mansion. One night in a pouring rain, Ngoy scaled a coconut tree beside the wall surrounding her home. He cut his chest sliding under barbed wire. From the wall, he leaped onto the roof and crawled through an open window. Drenched and bleeding, he tiptoed into a hallway. He had to guess which room was hers.

He opened a door, and there she was.

Suganthini was terrified, but she let the stranger stay. For the next 45 days, he lived in her room. He slept under the bed and hid when the maids came to clean.

Late at night, Ngoy would put Suganthini on his back and climb down the roof, then down the coconut tree. They would speed through Phnom Penh on his motorcycle, the couple recalled. Before sunrise, they would climb back into her room.

One night under a full moon, they knelt and prayed. They pricked their fingers and squeezed drops of blood into a cup of water. They both drank and vowed to be faithful.

Eventually, her parents discovered Ngoy and threw him out. They arranged a meeting for the couple at a relative's house, where Ngoy was expected to formally end their romance. Her parents and cousins hid behind curtains so they could hear him break off the relationship.

Ngoy told Suganthini that he didn't love her. He was a fraud, he said.

Then he pulled a knife. That is a lie, he cried, and plunged the blade into his belly. Suganthini's father ran out from hiding and called an ambulance.

Suganthini's parents kept her locked in her room for days. Distraught, she took an overdose of sleeping pills and fell into a coma.

When the couple recovered, her parents finally allowed them to marry.

War erupted in 1970. Ngoy joined the army. With the help of his brother-in-law, he was promoted to major and appointed military attache at the country's embassy in Thailand.

Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge came to power in 1975, and the Cambodian genocide began.

"Then I went to America," Ngoy said, "and created the doughnut world."

The couple and their three toddlers arrived penniless at Camp Pendleton, part of the first wave of Cambodian refugees.

Peace Lutheran Church in Tustin hired Ngoy as a janitor. He found a second job at a gas station. Near the station was a doughnut shop. Night after night, he watched customers come and go.

Eager to learn the business, Ngoy approached the shop owners. They told him Winchell's Donuts trained store managers. Ngoy became a trainee and took over a Winchell's in Newport Beach. He hired his wife and nephew. The family members worked 17 hours a day and saved for a year.

Ngoy bought his first doughnut shop from a couple who was retiring. Christy's Doughnuts in La Habra never did great business. But from then on, every store Ngoy and his wife bought or opened they named Christy's Doughnuts.

Top 75 Inspirational and Motivational Quotes by Anthony Robbins

May 29, 2009 by Gerber  

Tony Robbins is one of my heroes. His first book Unlimited Power really opened up the world of personal development to me. After that, I listened to almost all of his audio programs like Get the Edge and Personal Power II. I also attended two of his seminars (Unleash the Power Within & Wealth Mastery). Tony Robbins began his personal development career selling seminars and products for Jim Rohn. You will sometimes here him using the same kind of language, but what I admire most about Tony Robbins is that he keeps on improving himself and his products. Here are some inspiring and motivating quotes from the man himself.

Decision / Action

“A real decision is measured by the fact that you’ve taken a new action. If there’s no action, you haven’t truly decided.”

“If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always gotten.”

“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.”

“You are now at a crossroads. This is your opportunity to make the most important decision you will ever make. Forget your past. Who are you now? Who have you decided you really are now? Don’t think about who you have been. Who are you now? Who have you decided to become? Make this decision consciously. Make it carefully. Make it powerfully.”

“It is in your moments of decision that your destiny is shaped.”

“Remember, a real decision is measured by the fact that you’ve taken new action. If there’s no action, you haven’t truly decided.”

“Stay committed to your decisions, but stay flexible in your approach.”

“Using the power of decision gives you the capacity to get past any excuse to change any and every part of your life in an instant.”

“You see, in life, lots of people know what to do, but few people actually do what they know. Knowing is not enough! You must take action.”

“Personal power is the ability to take action.”

“You must know that in any moment a decision you make can change the course of your life forever: the very next person stand behind in line or sit next to on an airplane, the very next phone call you make or receive, the very next movie you see or book you read or page you turn could be the one single thing that causes the floodgates to open, and all of the things that you’ve been waiting for to fall into place.”

“How am I going to live today in order to create the tomorrow I’m committed to?”

“It not knowing what to do, it’s doing what you know.”

Beliefs

“Beliefs have the power to create and the power to destroy. Human beings have the awesome ability to take any experience of their lives and create a meaning that disempowers them or one that can literally save their lives.”

“I’ve come to believe that all my past failure and frustration were actually laying the foundation for the understandings that have created the new level of living I now enjoy.”

“What we can or cannot do, what we consider possible or impossible, is rarely a function of our true capability. It is more likely a function of our beliefs about who we are.”

“All personal breakthroughs being with a change in beliefs. So how do we change? The most effective way is to get your brain to associate massive pain to the old belief. You must feel deep in your gut that not only has this belief cost you pain in the past, but it’s costing you in the present and, ultimately, can only bring you pain in the future. Then you must associate tremendous pleasure to the idea of adopting a new, empowering belief.”

Change

“For changes to be of any true value, they’ve got to be lasting and consistent.”

“Any time you sincerely want to make a change, the first thing you must do is to raise your standards. When people ask me what really changed my life eight years ago, I tell them that absolutely the most important thing was changing what I demanded of myself. I wrote down all the things I would no longer accept in my life, all the things I would no longer tolerate, and all the things that I aspired to becoming.”

“Commit to C A N I ! – Constant And Never-ending Improvement.”

Success / Achievement

“Most people have no idea of the giant capacity we can immediately command when we focus all of our resources on mastering a single area of our lives.”

“Once you have mastered time, you will understand how true it is that most people overestimate what they can accomplish in a year – and underestimate what they can achieve in a decade!”

“One reason so few of us achieve what we truly want is that we never direct our focus; we never concentrate our power. Most people dabble their way through life, never deciding to master anything in particular.”

“Success comes from taking the initiative and following up… persisting… eloquently expressing the depth of your love. What simple action could you take today to produce a new momentum toward success in your life?”

“The path to success is to take massive, determined action.”

“There’s no abiding success without commitment.”

“If you want to be successful, find someone who has achieved the results you want and copy what they do and you’ll achieve the same results.”

“People who fail to achieve their goals usually get stopped by frustration. They allow frustration to keep them from taking the necessary actions that would support them in achieving their desire. You get through this roadblock by plowing through frustration, taking each setback as feedback you can learn from, and pushing ahead. I doubt you’ll find many successful people who have not experienced this. All successful people learn that success is buried on the other side of frustration.”

“You’re in the midst of a war: a battle between the limits of a crowd seeking the surrender of your dreams, and the power of your true vision to create and contribute. It is a fight between those who will tell you what you cannot do, and that part of you that knows — and has always known — that we are more than our environment; and that a dream, backed by an unrelenting will to attain it, is truly a reality with an imminent arrival.”

“Determination is the wake-up call to the human will.”

Contribution

“It is not what we get. But who we become, what we contribute… that gives meaning to our lives.”

“Life is a gift, and it offers us the privilege, opportunity, and responsibility to give something back by becoming more.”

“Only those who have learned the power of sincere and selfless contribution experience life’s deepest joy: true fulfillment.”

“I discovered a long time ago that if I helped people get what they wanted, I would always get what I wanted and I would never have to worry.”

Passion

“Live with passion!”

“Passion is the genesis of genius.”

Goals

“People are not lazy. They simply have impotent goals – that is, goals that do not inspire them.”

“Setting goals is the first step in turning the invisible into the visible.”

“Goals are a means to an end, not the ultimate purpose of our lives. They are simply a tool to concentrate our focus and move us in a direction. The only reason we really pursue goals is to cause ourselves to expand and grow. Achieving goals by themselves will never make us happy in the long term; it’s who you become, as you overcome the obstacles necessary to achieve your goals, that can give you the deepest and most long-lasting sense of fulfillment.”

“The most important thing you can do to achieve your goals is to make sure that as soon as you set them, you immediately begin to create momentum. The most important rules that I ever adopted to help me in achieving my goals were those I learned from a very successful man who taught me to first write down the goal, and then to never leave the site of setting a goal without first taking some form of positive action toward its attainment.”

Energy / Health

“The higher your energy level, the more efficient your body. The more efficient your body, the better you feel and the more you will use your talent to produce outstanding results.”

“Remember, the quality of your life is dependent upon the quality of the life of your cells. If the bloodstream is filled with waste products, the resulting environment does not promote a strong, vibrant, healthy cell life-nor a biochemistry capable of creating a balanced emotional life for an individual.”

Pain / Pleasure

“The truth is that we can learn to condition our minds, bodies, and emotions to link pain or pleasure to whatever we choose. By changing what we link pain and pleasure to, we will instantly change our behaviors.”

“The secret of success is learning how to use pain and pleasure instead of having pain and pleasure use you. If you do that, you’re in control of your life. If you don’t, life controls you.”

“My definition of success is to live your life in a way that causes you to feel a ton of pleasure and very little pain – and because of your lifestyle, have the people around you feel a lot more pleasure than they do pain.”

Communication

“The way we communicate with others and with ourselves ultimately determines the quality of our lives.”

“To effectively communicate, we must realize that we are all different in the way we perceive the world and use this understanding as a guide to our communication with others.”

Questions

“Questions provide the key to unlocking our unlimited potential.”

“Quality questions create a quality life. Successful people ask better questions, and as a result, they get better answers.”

Failure / Problems

“You always succeed in producing a result.”

“There is no such thing as failure. There are only results.”

“When you temporarily run aground, remember that there are no failures in life. There are only results. Consider the adage: Success is the result of good judgment, good judgment is the result of experience, and experience is often the result of bad judgment.”

“If we don’t see a failure as a challenge to modify our approach, but rather as a problem with ourselves, as a personality defect, we will immediately feel overwhelmed.”

“Surmounting difficulty is the crucible that forms character.”

“The only people without problems are those in cemeteries.”

“Let fear be a counselor and not a jailer.”

“The past doesn’t equal the future.”

“Nothing has any power over me other than that which I give it through my conscious thoughts.”

Life

“Live life fully while you’re here. Experience everything. Take care of yourself and your friends. Have fun, be crazy, be weird. Go out and screw up! You’re going to anyway, so you might as well enjoy the process. Take the opportunity to learn from your mistakes: find the cause of your problem and eliminate it. Don’t try to be perfect; just be an excellent example of being human.”

“If you don’t set a baseline standard for what you’ll accept in life, you’ll find it’s easy to slip into behaviors and attitudes or a quality of life that’s far below what you deserve.”

“Take control of your consistent emotions and begin to consciously and deliberately reshape your daily experience of life.”

“In life you need either inspiration or desperation.”

“Most people fail in life because they major in minor things.”

“I challenge you to make your life a masterpiece. I challenge you to join the ranks of those people who live what they teach, who walk their talk.”

And some more quotes

“We are the only beings on the planet who lead such rich internal lives that it’s not the events that matter most to us, but rather, it’s how we interpret those events that will determine how we think about ourselves and how we will act in the future.”

“Things do not have meaning. We assign meaning to everything.”

“The meeting of preparation with opportunity generates the offspring we call luck.”

“The only limit to your impact is your imagination and commitment.”

“There’s always a way – if you’re committed.”

“We will act consistently with our view of who we truly are, whether that view is accurate or not.”

“Whatever happens, take responsibility.”

“When people are like each other they tend to like each other.”

“Put yourself in a state of mind where you say to yourself, ‘Here is an opportunity for me to celebrate like never before, my own power, my own ability to get myself to do whatever is necessary.’”

“Repetition is the mother of all skill.”

I hope you enjoyed these quotes. Let me know in the comments below which quote you like best.

And remember, “Live with passion!”

Source: http://bit.ly/192IzQ

Gerber

Habit 2 Begin with the End in Mind

Habit 2 Begin with the End in Mind
This is a part of the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. It presents an "inside-out" approach to effectiveness that is centered on principles and character.

If life were a painting and you were the artist, what would you paint? ... What will they remember? Just a lines on a canvas? Or a work of art? Make it a masterpiece then sign your name ....

How To Win Friends And Influence People

How To Win Friends And Influence People
By Dale Carnegie


To download this book please click here:
http://erudition.mohit.tripod.com/_Influence_People.pdf

Contents:


Eight Things This Book Will Help You Achieve
Preface to Revised Edition
How This Book Was Written-And Why
Nine Suggestions on How to Get the Most Out of This Book A Shortcut to Distinction


Part 1 - Fundamental Techniques In Handling People
• 1 - "If You Want to Gather Honey, Don't Kick Over the Beehive"
• 2 - The Big Secret of Dealing with People
• 3 - "He Who Can Do This Has the Whole World with Him. He Who Cannot, Walks a Lonely Way"
• Eight Suggestions On How To Get The Most Out Of This Book


Part 2 - Six Ways To Make People Like You
• 1 - Do This and You'll Be Welcome Anywhere
• 2 - A Simple Way to Make a Good Impression
• 3 - If You Don't Do This, You Are Headed for Trouble 
• 4 - An Easy Way to Become a Good Conversationalist 
• 5 - How to Interest People

• 6 - How To Make People Like You Instantly 
• In A Nutshell


Part 3 - Twelve Ways To Win People To Your Way Of Thinking
• 1 - You Can't Win an Argument
• 2 - A Sure Way of Making Enemies—and How to Avoid It
• 3 - If You're Wrong, Admit It
• 4 - The High Road to a Man's Reason
• 5 - The Secret of Socrates
• 6 - The Safety Valve in Handling Complaints
• 7 - How to Get Co-operation
• 8 - A Formula That Will Work Wonders for You
• 9 - What Everybody Wants
• 10 - An Appeal That Everybody Likes
• 11 - The Movies Do It. Radio Does It. Why Don't You Do It? • 12 - When Nothing Else Works, Try This
• In A Nutshell


Part 4 - Nine Ways To Change People Without Giving Offence Or Arousing Resentment
• 1 - If You Must Find Fault, This Is the Way to Begin 
• 2 - How to Criticize—and Not Be Hated for It
• 3 - Talk About Your Own Mistakes First
• 4 - No One Likes to Take Orders
• 5 - Let the Other Man Save His Face
• 6 - How to Spur Men on to Success
• 7 - Give the Dog a Good Name
• 8 - Make the Fault Seem Easy to Correct
• 9 - Making People Glad to Do What You Want 
• In A Nutshell


Part 5 - Letters That Produced Miraculous Results

Part 6 - Seven Rules For Making Your Home Life Happier
• 1 - How to Dig Your Marital Grave in the Quickest Possible Way 
• 2 - Love and Let Live
• 3 - Do This and You'll Be Looking Up the Time-Tables to Reno 
• 4 - A Quick Way to Make Everybody Happy
• 5 - They Mean So Much to a Woman
• 6 - If you Want to be Happy, Don't Neglect This One 
• 7 - Don't Be a "Marriage Illiterate"
• In A Nutshell
--------------

Eight Things This Book Will Help You Achieve

• 1. Get out of a mental rut, think new thoughts, acquire new visions, discover new ambitions.
• 2. Make friends quickly and easily.
• 3. Increase your popularity.
• 4. Win people to your way of thinking.
• 5. Increase your influence, your prestige, your ability to get things done.
• 6. Handle complaints, avoid arguments, keep your human contacts smooth and pleasant.
• 7. Become a better speaker, a more entertaining conversationalist. 
• 8. Arouse enthusiasm among your associates.

Inspirational Quotes from Albert Einstein

• Imagination is more important than knowledge. 

• Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds. The mediocre mind is incapable of understanding the man who refuses to bow blindly to conventional prejudices and chooses instead to express his opinions courageously and honestly. 

• Bear in mind that the wonderful things you learn in your schools are the work of many generations, produced by enthusiastic effort and infinite labor in every country of the world. All this is put into your hands as your inheritance in order that you may receive it, honor it, add to it, and one day faithfully hand it to your children. Thus do we mortals achieve immortality in the permanent things which we create in common. 

• The most precious things in life are not those you get for money. 

• The true value of a human being is determined primarily by how he has attained liberation from the self. 

• The life of the individual has meaning only insofar as it aids in making the life of every living thing nobler and more beautiful... 

• A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new. 

• Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life's coming attractions.

• True religion is real living; living with all one's soul, with all one's goodness and righteousness. 

• We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them. 

• Once we accept our limits, we go beyond them.

YOU WERE BORN RICH

One And Only You!

Every single blade of grass, And every flake of snow- Is just a wee bit different...There's no tow alike, you know.

From something small, like grains of sand, To each gigantic star 

All were made with THIS in mind:

To be just what they are!

How foolish then, to imitate-Howueless to pretend!

Since each of us comes from a MIND Whose idea never end.

There'll only be just ONE of ME

To show what I can do-

And you should likewise feel very pround, There's only ONE of YOU.

That is where it all starts With you, a wonderfull unlimited human being

Jmes T. Moore

This article quote from "YOU WERE BORN RICH" by Bob Proctor

Free download this e-book please follow this link:

http://bobproctordownloads.com/BornRichBook.pdf

Hope you enjoy read it! 

DECISION

DECISION  - By Bob Proctor

There is a single mental move you can make which, in a millisecond, will solve enormous problems for you. It has the potential to improve almost any personal or business situation you will ever encounter ... and it could literally propel you down the path to incredible success. We have a name for this magic mental activity ... it is called DECISION.

Decisions or the lack of them are responsible for the breaking or making of many a career. Individuals who have become very proficient at making decisions, without being influenced by the opinions of others, are the same people whose annual incomes fall into the six and seven figure category. However, it’s not just your income that is affected by decisions; your whole life is dominated by this power. The health of your mind and body, the well-being of your family, your social life, the type of relationships you develop ... all are dependent upon your ability to make sound decisions.

You would think anything as important as decision making, when it has such far reaching power would be taught in every school, but it is not. To compound the problem, not only is decision-making missing from the curriculum of our educational institutions, up until recently, it’s also been absent from most of the corporate training and human resource programs available.

So, how is a person expected to develop this mental ability? Quite simply, you must do it on your own. However, I think it’s important to understand that it’s not difficult to learn how to make wise decisions. Armed with the proper information and by subjecting yourself to certain disciplines, you can become a very effective decision maker.

You can virtually eliminate conflict and confusion in your life by becoming proficient at making decisions. Decision making brings order to your mind, and of course, this order is then reflected in your objective world ... your results.

James Allen may have been thinking of decisions when he wrote, “We think in secret and it comes to pass. Environment is but our looking glass.” No one can see you making decisions but they will almost always see the results of your decisions. The person who fails to develop their ability to make decisions is doomed because indecision sets up internal conflicts which can, without warming, escalate into all out mental and emotional wars. Psychiatrists have a name to describe these internal wars, it is ambivalence. My Oxford Dictionary tells me that ambivalence is the co-existence in one person of opposite feelings toward the same objective.

You do not require a doctorate degree in psychiatry to understand that you are going to have difficulty in your life by permitting your mind to remain in an ambivalent state for any period of time. The person who does permit it to exist will become very despondent and virtually incapable of any type of productive activity. It is obvious that anyone who finds themselves in such a mental state is not living; at best, they are merely existing. A decision or a series of decisions would change everything.

A very basic law of the universe is “create or disintegrate”. Indecision causes disintegration. How often have you heard a person say, “I don’t know what to do.” How often have you heard yourself say, “What should I do?” Think about some of the indecisive feelings you and virtually everyone on this planet experience from time to time.

LOVE THEM - LEAVE THEM 

QUIT - STAY

DO IT - DON’T DO IT 
GO BANKRUPT - NO DON’T 
GO TO WORK - WATCH TV 
BUY IT - DON’T BUY IT 
SAY IT - DON’T SAY IT 
TELL THEM - DON’T TELL THEM

Everyone, on occasion, has experienced these feelings of ambivalence. If it happens to you frequently, decide right now to stop it. The cause of ambivalence is indecision, but we must keep in mind that the truth is not always in the appearance of things. Indecision is a cause of ambivalence, however it is a secondary cause, it is not the primary cause. I have been studying the behavior of people who have become very proficient at making decisions for over a quarter century. They all have one thing in common. They have a very strong self image, a high degree of self-esteem. They may be as different as night is to day in numerous other respects, but they certainly possess confidence. Low self-esteem or a lack of confidence is the real culprit here. Decision makers are not afraid of making an error. If and when they make an error in their decision, or fail at something, they have the ability to shrug it off. They learn from the experience but they will never submit to the failure.

Every decision maker was either fortunate enough to have been raised in an environment where decision making was a part of their upbringing, or they developed the ability themselves at a later date. They are aware of something that everyone, who hopes to live a full life, must understand: Decision making is something you cannot avoid.

That is the cardinal principle of decision making. DECIDE RIGHT WHERE YOU ARE WITH WHATEVER YOU’VE GOT. This is precisely why most people never master this important aspect of life. They permit their resources to dictate if and when a decision will or can be made. When John Kennedy asked Werner Von Braun what it would take to build a rocket that would carry a man to the moon and return him safely to earth, his answer was simple and direct. “The will to do it.” President Kennedy never asked if it was possible. He never asked if they could afford it or any one of a thousand other questions, all of which would have ... at that time ... been valid questions.

President Kennedy made a decision ... he said, we will put a man on the moon and return him safely to earth before the end of the decade. The fact that it had never been done before in all the hundreds of thousands of years of human history was not even a consideration. He DECIDED where he was with what he had. The objective was accomplished in his mind the second he made the decision. It was only a matter of time ... which is governed by natural law before the goal was manifested in form for the whole world to see.

I was ... just hours ago ... in an office with three people. We were discussing the purchase of shares in a company. I was selling, they were buying. After a reasonable amount of time, one of the partners asked me when I wanted a decision. I replied, “Right now.” I said, “You already know what you want to do.” There was some discussion about money. I pointed out that money had nothing to do with it. Once you make the decision you will find the money ... every time. If that is the only benefit you receive from this particular message on decision- making, burn it into your mind. It will change your life. I explained to two of these people that I never let money enter my mind when I am deciding whether I will or will not do something. Whether I can afford it or not is never a consideration. Whether I want to or not is the only consideration. You can afford anything, there is an infinite supply of money. All of the money in the world is available to you, when the decision is firmly made. If you need money, you will attract it.

I am well aware there are any number of people who will say that is absurd. You can’t just decide to do something if you do not have the necessary resources. And that’s fine if that is the way they choose to think. I see that as a very limiting way of thinking. In truth, it probably is not thinking at all ... it is very likely an opinion being expressed that was inherited from another older member of their family who did not think either.

Thinking is very important. Decision makers are great thinkers. Do you ever give much consideration to your thoughts? ... how they affect the various aspects of your life? Although this should be one of our most serious considerations, for many people it is not. There is a very small select few who make any attempt to control or govern their thoughts.

Anyone who has made a study of the great thinkers, the great decision makers, the achievers of history, will know they very rarely agreed on anything when it came to the study of human life. However, there was one point on which they were in complete and unanimous agreement and that was, “We become what we think about.”

What do you think about? You and I must realize that our thoughts ultimately control every decision we make. You are the sum total of your thoughts. By taking charge this very minute, you can guarantee yourself a good day. Refuse to let unhappy, negative people or circumstances affect you.

The greatest stumbling block you will encounter when making important decisions in your life is circumstance. We let circumstance get us off the hook when we should be giving it everything we’ve got. More dreams are shattered and goals lost because of circumstance than any other single factor.

How often have you caught yourself saying, “I would like to do or have this but I can’t because...” Whatever follows “because” is the circumstance. Circum- stances may cause a detour in your life but you should never permit them to stop you from making important decisions.

Napoleon said, “Circumstances, I make them.”

The next time you hear someone say they would like to vacation in Paris, or purchase a particular automobile but they can’t because they have no money, explain they don’t need the money until they make a decision to go to Paris or purchase the car. When the decision is made, they will figure out a way to get the amount needed. They always do.

Many misguided individuals try something once or twice and if they do not hit the bulls-eye, they feel they are a failure. Failing does not make anyone a failure, but quitting most certainly does and quitting is a decision. By following that form of reasoning, you would have to say when you make a decision to quit, you make a decision to fail.

Every day in America, you hear about a baseball player signing a contract which will pay him a few million dollars a year. You should try to keep in mind ... that same player misses the ball more often than he hits it when he steps up to the plate.

Everyone remembers Babe Ruth for the 714 home runs he hit and they rarely mention that he struck out 1,330 times.

Charles F. Kettering said, and I quote, “When you’re inventing, if you flunk 999 times and succeed once, you’re in.”

That is true of just about any activity you can name, but the world will soon forget your failures in light of your achievements. Don’t worry about failing, it will toughen you up and get you ready for your big win. Winning is a decision.

Many years ago Helen Keller was asked if she thought there was anything worse than being blind. She quickly replied that there was something much worse. She said, “The most pathetic person in the world is a person who has their sight but no vision.” I agree with Helen Keller.

At 91, J.C. Penny was asked how his eyesight was. He replied that his sight was failing but his vision had never been better. That is really great, isn’t it?

When a person has no vision of a better way of life, they automatically shut themselves in a prison; they limit themselves to a life without hope. This frequently happens when a person has seriously tried, on a number of occasions, to win, only to meet with failure time after time. Repeated failures can damage a person’s self-image and cause them to lose sight of their potential. They, therefore make a decision to give up and resign themselves to their fate.

Take the first step in predicting your own prosperous future. Build a mental picture of exactly how you would like to live. Make a firm decision to hold on to that vision and positive ways to improve everything will begin to flow into your mind.

Many people get a beautiful vision of how they would like to live but because they cannot see how they are going to make it all happen, they let the vision go. If they knew how they were going to get it or do it, they would have a plan not a vision. There is no inspiration in a plan but there sure is in a vision. When you get the vision, freeze frame it with a decision and don’t worry about how you will do it or where the resources will come from. Charge your decision with enthusiasm ... that is important. Refuse to worry about how it will happen.

Advanced Decision Making

We make advanced bookings when we fly somewhere - that is quite common. We make advanced reservations to eliminate any confusion or problems when the time arrives for the journey. We do the same with renting a car, for the same reason. Think of the problems you will eliminate by making many of the decisions you must make ... well in advance. I’ll give you an excellent example. As I am preparing this message it is Ramadan, a time where all practicing Muslims fast. I was in an office yesterday in Kuala Lumpur and was asked if I would like a cup of tea or coffee. I replied that I would appreciate a cup of tea. The lady next to me was then asked if she would like a cup and she replied ...

“No, I’m fasting.” When she was asked, she did not have to decide whether she wanted anything or not. Whether she was thirsty or not was not a consideration. A decision had previously been made and her advanced Decision was well tempered with discipline.

The exact same concept works with a person when they are on a diet to release weight. Their decisions are made in advance. If they are offered a big slice of chocolate cake, they don’t have to say, “Gee, that looks good ... I wonder if I should.” The decision is made in advance.

I made a decision a long time ago that I would not participate in discussions of why something cannot be done. The only compensation you will ever receive for participating in or giving energy to that type of discussion is something you do not want. I always find it amazing at the number of seemingly intelligent people who persist in dragging you into these negative brainstorming sessions. In one breath these people tell you they seriously want to accomplish a particular objective. And, in the next breath, they begin talking about why they can’t. Think of how much more of life they would enjoy by making a decision that they will no longer participate in that type of negative energy.

The humanistic psychologist, Dr. Abraham Maslow who devoted his life to studying self actualized people, stated very clearly that we should follow our inner guide and not be swayed by the opinion of others or outside circumstances. Maslow’s research showed that the decision makers in life had a number of things in common; most importantly, they did work they felt was worthwhile and important. They found work a pleasure, and there was little distinction between work and play. Dr. Maslow said, to be self actualized you must not only be doing work you consider to be important, you must do it well and enjoy it.

Dr. Maslow recorded that these superior performers had values, those qualities in their personalities they considered to be worthwhile and important. Their values were not imposed by society, parents or other people in their lives. They did make their own decisions. Like their work, they chose and developed their values themselves.

Your life is important and, at its best, life is short. You have the potential to do anything you choose, and to do it well. But, you must make decisions and when the time for a decision arrives, you must make your decision where you are with what you’ve got.

Let me leave you with the words of two great decision makers, William James and Thomas Edison. William James suggested that, compared to what we ought to be, we are making use of only a small part of our physical and mental resources. Stating this concept broadly, the human individual thus lives far within his limits. He possesses powers of various sorts which he habitually fails to use.

Years later, Thomas Edison said, and I quote, “If we all did the things we are capable of doing, we would literally astound ourselves.”

By making a simple decision, the greatest minds of the past are available to you. You can literally learn how to turn your wildest dreams into reality.

Put this valuable information to use and recognize the greatness which exists within you. You have limitless resources of potential and ability waiting to be developed. Start today - there’s never any time better than the present. Be all that you are capable of being. 

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