MESSAGE #241 - THE TRUTH

I am 100%

responsible for

how I choose to

respond to

everything that

happens in my

life!

MESSAGE #240 - HOW DO YOU GET STARTED???

It’s the start
that stops
most people.

How do you get started?

Simple.

You get started by getting started.

Many people make the mistake of thinking:
“When I feel like it, then I’ll do it.”

Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way.
Never has and never will.

The truth is:

“Once you start doing it, then you start feeling like doing it.”

In other words,
“When I do it, then I’ll feel like it.”

In other words,
when you put
your body
IN MOTION
then your
EMOTIONS
will follow.

For example . . .

Superstar athletes often
DON’T FEEL LIKE
training until
THEY START TRAINING.

Best-selling authors often
DON’T FEEL LIKE
writing until
THEY START WRITING.

Famous musicians often
DON’T FEEL LIKE
practicing until
THEY START PRACTING.

The following story illustrates this . . .

The late, great economist
John Kenneth Galbraith knew this secret.
He wrote volumes of books and articles
over the course of his career.

He was once asked
what he learned from a lifetime of writing.
Professor Galbraith said it took him many years
to discover that the quality of the writing
he did on the days he didn’t feel like getting started
was just as good as the quality of the writing
he did on the days he did feel like getting started.

It’s much easier
to act yourself
into a certain way of feeling
than to feel yourself
into a certain way of acting.

MESSAGE #239 - 101 SIMPLE WORDS THAT CAN CHANGE YOUR LIFE

Two little words that will make all the difference – START NOW!

When you have exhausted all possibilities, remember this – YOU HAVEN’T!
- Thomas Edison, genius

DOn’t waIT.
DOn’t quIT.

To get to the top – GET OFF YOUR BOTTOM.
- Matt DiMaio, motivation speaker, sales trainer, & memory expert

If it is to be – IT IS UP TO ME.

If there is no wind – ROW.

You can get everything you want – IF YOU HELP ENOUGH OTHER PEOPLE GET WHAT THEY WANT.
- Zig Ziglar, the father of motivational speaker

For your wildest dreams to come true – FIRST YOU MUST HAVE WILD DREAMS!
- Gary Pritchard, coach & motivational speaker

I will – UNTIL.
– Brian Tracy, motivation speaker and author

If you can dream it – YOU CAN DO IT!
- Walt Disney, genius

It’s the start that stops most people – SO GET STARTED!
- Ed Tseng, motivational speaker

MESSAGE #238 - THE ENVELOPE PLEASE

The recurrent themes of this blog are:

You have all the ABILITY -- all you are lacking is the strategy.

Blame no one.
Expect nothing.
Do something.

H.O.P.E. = Hold On Possibilities Exist

You’re not lacking ability -- you’re blocking it.
Once you unblock it you unleash it!

Everything you need is already inside of you. ”It’s in Every One of Us.”

Will beats skill.

Diligence beats intelligence.

Passion bests everything.

Hang on until you catch on.

There’s a big difference between saying, “I can’t do it,” and I can’t do it yet.”

Fake it until you feel it.

Nothing is too good to be true.

Of all the major motion pictures, which movie embodies the themes of this blog???

Rocky?
Rudy?
It’s a Beautiful Life?
The Prestige?
Dead Poet’s Society?
Lorenzo’s Oil?
Chariots of Fire?

The winner is . . . "THE ENVELOPE PLEASE.”

AND THE WINNER IS . . . . . . . . . .

Click here

MESSAGE #237 - IT'S ABOUT OTHERS

The secret formula for happiness:
Make other people happy.
It’s about others.

The secret formula for motivation:
Motivate other people.
It’s about others.

Will Allen Dromgoole figured this out years ago.
She lived from 1860 – 1934 and wrote over
7,500 poems. Here’s the one she’s most famous for . . .

THE BRIDGE BUILDER

An old man, going down a lone highway,
Came in the evening cold and gray,
To a chasm vast and wide and steep

With waters rolling cold and deep.

The old man crossed in the twilight dim
That swollen stream held no fears for him
But he turned, when safe on the other side,
And built a bridge to span the tide.

"Old man," said a fellow pilgrim near,
"You are wasting strength with building here.
Your journey will end with the ending day
You never again must pass this way
You have crossed the chasm, deep and wide --
Why build you this bridge at the eventide?"

The builder lifted his old gray head.
"In the path I have come," he said,
"There followeth after me today,
A youth, whose feet must pass this way.

This chasm that has been naught to me,
To that fair-haired youth may a pitfall be.
He, too, must cross in the twilight dim;
Good friend, I am building this bridge for him."

Remember: It’s about others . . .

Rob Gilbert

MESSAGE #236 - I CAN READ YOUR MIND!

Pick a card, any card...

Here is a well-traveled card trick/mindreading illusion that has popped up again and again on the Internet, even circulating in the form of a PowerPoint presentation purporting to be (though it almost certainly is not) the work of master stage magician David Copperfield.

The illusion can be startling, until you figure out how it works -- at which point you may find yourself wondering how anyone could possibly fall for such a simple, obvious deception.

It goes something like this:

I can read your mind!

Don't believe me? Here, I'll prove it.

Take a look at these 6 cards:

Now pick one, just one, and hold the image in your mind. Concentrate!

Are you thinking of the card?

Excellent.

I will now, through the magic of the Internet -- even though we're not in the same room and possibly not even on the same continent -- read your mind...

Got it! I know which card you chose. I will now make it disappear...

Voila! It's gone!

Amazed? Don't be.

This is truly one of the simplest yet most effective mindreading illusions ever devised. How does it work?

Take another look at the "before" and "after" card layouts and all should become clear:

Fig. 1



Fig. 2

See it? The obvious difference, besides the fact that there is one less card in Figure 2, is that none of the cards in the second layout are the same as in the first. I didn't just make your chosen card disappear - in effect, I made all of them disappear, replacing them with different ones.

Like most magic tricks, this one depends on misdirection: since our attention and memory are focused on just one card out of the six, most of us fail to absorb any details about the other five cards. Hence, when they're subsequently replaced by a set that looks approximately the same, we accept it as exactly the same. Voila!

From the Guide to Urban Legends on About.com

MESSAGE #235 - GRATITUDE

The following story first appeared in Our Daily Bread . . .

Missionary Benjamin Weir was held hostage in Lebanon and imprisoned under miserable conditions for 16 months.

In his first interview after his release, he was asked how he spent his time and how he dealt with boredom and despair.

His answer stunned the reporters. He simply said, “Count my blessings.”

“Blessings?” they responded.

“Yes,” he explained.

“Some days I got to take a shower. Sometimes there were some vegetables in my food. And I could always be thankful for the love of my family.”

MESSAGE #234 - THE DIFFERENCE THAT MAKES THE DIFFERENCE

T.E.A.M.
Together Everyone Achieves More

On Thanksgiving, just about everyone in the small town went to the traditional high school football game.

At half-time of the big game, the football team from 1982 was honored. They were the only team in the school’s history to win a state championship.

That Saturday night, the class of ’82 had their 25^th reunion. It was there that former teammates Jack and Leo finally got a chance to talk about the good old days.

They hadn’t seen each other since graduation. Jack, the All-State quarterback, had gone on to become one of the most successful and powerful CEOs in the country.

After Leo graduated from college, he returned home and became the minister of a local church.

“Leo, I want to thank you for making me the success I am today,” the businessman said.

“Jack, stop pulling my leg!” the minister said with a laugh. “From what I’ve read, you run a huge corporation. I didn’t have anything to do with that and we haven’t seen each other in years.”

“You never knew this Leo, but when we were in high school, I was incredibly jealous of you.”

“Me? Jack, you were the golden boy. All the big-time colleges were recruiting you. All the girls wanted to go out with you. And your name was in the paper every day.”

“That may have been true, Leo, but here’s what you didn’t know. Even with all my honors and awards, you had the one thing I always wanted the most. The guys on the team elected you captain. I may have been the star of the team, but you were the captain of the team.”

“I never knew that you cared about that,” Leo said.

“I certainly did! It bothered me so much that just before graduation, I asked Coach why the guys on the team voted for you -- and not me. Coach told me something I’ve never forgotten. He said, ‘Jack, you’re the best player I’ve ever coached. Leo doesn’t have the kind of the talent you have. But here’s the difference. Jack, you were the best player on the team, but Leo was the best player for the team. You wanted to be the best player in the state while Leo wanted to make us the best team in the state.’”

“You know, Leo, it was tough hearing that from Coach,” the CEO admitted. “He was being so blunt and I knew he was telling me the truth. I was selfish and you were always selfless and everyone knew it. Everyone could see it everyday at practice. That’s why everyone voted for you. It’s a lesson I had to learn and it’s a lesson I’ve never forgotten. You see, Coach was right. The difference between us is that for me, it was all about ‘ME,’ and for you, it was all about ‘WE.’

“After we graduated, I worked hard to become more like you. As a matter of fact, thanks to you, I was voted captain of my college team my junior and senior years. And what Coach told me also helped me to quickly climb the corporate ladder.

“The ‘old me’ would have wanted my company to be the best company in the world,” Jack said. “Now I strive to make my company the best company for the world. Leo, that’s why I need to thank you.”

“I want to thank you too, Jack” the minister said warmly.

“For what?”

“You just wrote tomorrow’s sermon for me!”

It’s more important to be the
best person for the team
than to be the
best person on the team.

THIS MESSAGE IS DEDICATED TO COACH JOHN McCARTHY – A GREAT TEAM PLAYER.

MESSAGE #233 -THANK YOU

Happy Thanksgiving,

Rob Gilbert

MESSAGE #232 - A PERFECT GAME

Click here or click above to view video.

300 Game Boosts Bowler's Reputation
By Jason Lieser
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, October 31, 2007

The first time he met Ryan Lingholm, Pete Karas was stunned.

The Boynton Beach High School athletic director filed paperwork for Lingholm to participate in the state bowling tournament each of the past two years, but never saw him until this season's tryouts.

Ryan Lingholm, who bowled a perfect game Thursday, twists his upper body away from the lane during his throwing motion. 'I'm confident most of the time,' he said.

This boy, a junior, did not look like the other athletes. His arms were shorter than average and he couldn't raise them above his head or fully extend them. His wrists were cocked at an angle and his fingers did not appear capable of the standard bowling grip.

Karas asked his wife, Veronica, who coaches the team, about the student.

"When she told me it was Ryan, I was taken aback," Karas said. "I'd never had the privilege of meeting Ryan, so it was just a name on a sheet of paper for me. Then I watched him bowl.

"If you didn't watch the person who threw the ball ... you wouldn't know he has any type of physical impairment. You would think it was a professional bowler because of the bite, the spin and the different shots he can make."

Lingholm, 16, was born with a genetic disease known as arthrogryposis, which causes extreme joint contraction. The birth defect can afflict any joint and Lingholm is affected in his upper body.

"It affects one out of every 3,000 births, so it's actually pretty common," said Dr. Lisa Baumbach-Reardon, a geneticist at the University of Miami. "We see a lot of children with it."

But Baumbach-Reardon said she rarely sees those children excel at sports, especially at the level Lingholm displayed Thursday, when he bowled a perfect game — the first in school history and his first since he began bowling nine years ago.

"It was just the greatest feeling," Lingholm said. "I was pretty level until about the eighth frame, because I've been there so many times, but when I hit the ninth frame it started to get to me. Then when I threw the first two in the 10th, I was really excited. I've always wanted the 300 game."

Lingholm was not the only one excited. Boynton Beach's opponent, St. Andrew's, rallied behind him.

"Our players were filming it on their cellphones," St. Andrew's coach Roberta Wheeler said. "For anybody to bowl a 300 game is great. For him, who has overcome a handicap, it is incredible. It brought tears to everybody's eyes."

Karas was ecstatic when his wife called with the news.

"I had goose bumps," Karas said. "With an imperfect body, this young man has achieved perfection. How many of us are ever perfect? To do that, when he's not even supposed to be able to bowl, according to some people, is as feel-good of a moment as I think I've ever had."

The next morning, Karas sent word of Lingholm's achievement through an e-mail and the public-address system at the school.

"I usually just hear about football stuff, so I never actually thought it would be me," Lingholm said of the announcement. "I had teachers coming up to me, and friends. I had a lot of text messages congratulating me, so it was good. You can't beat the feeling."

Karas said the feat touched everyone at the school.

"People who don't generally say 'hey' to me, stopped and said, 'What a great story,' " Karas said. "I got an e-mail from one of our volunteer secretaries who said, 'I had a horrible morning, but this made my day. I feel so much better now.'

Lingholm is not able to execute a traditional bowler's throwing motion, but has his own style.

He puts two fingers in the holes of the ball and rests his thumb on the outer surface. He holds the ball with both hands and as he makes his approach, he rotates his body away from the pins to get momentum before spinning back and sending the ball down the lane.

"Most bowlers use reference marks on the lanes, like arrows, but I don't," he said. "I start out looking at the pins, and then when I go into my backswing, I blank out. I'm confident most of the time, but there are still times where the ball goes into the gutter because I don't have a reference point."

His unique style was not designed deliberately, but it was the natural motion he developed while trying to roll the ball at age 7. Lingholm's mother, Jeanette, worked as a bartender at Fair Lanes (now AMF Boynton Beach), and Lingholm frequently would tag along and watch.

Eventually, he decided to give it a try.

"I just started throwing with the flow of the ball," Lingholm said. "My backswing doesn't go high, so I basically use gravity and just a little bit of my own force."

Lingholm, who has back pain after he bowls, couldn't bowl for four months his freshman year because of a hairline fracture in his spine.

In bowling circles, neither his inimitable style nor his disease comes up when Lingholm is discussed. His 300 game was no fluke. Lingholm has come as close as 288 in the past and averaged 219 this season as Boynton Beach's No. 1 bowler. He finished 14th in last year's state tournament.

"He's a go-to guy," Veronica Karas said. "His handicap isn't pointed out or talked about. The players and coaches don't see Ryan that way. We just talk about how good he is."

Lingholm struggled in Tuesday's district match and did not qualify for the state tournament, but his perfect game has made this a memorable season for himself, his school and the local bowling community.

"I'll still always think of it as a pretty good year," Lingholm said. "At least I know I bowled the 300, and it's what I'd been pushing for all my life."

MESSAGE #231 - IMAGINE

Today is Tuesday.

The 39-Day Challenge begins this Friday.

If you have no idea what I’m referring to –

Call Success Hotline at (973) 743-4690 today.

Now...just IMAGINE...

MESSAGE #230 - READY . . . SET . . .

I know something about you . . .

I KNOW THAT YOU KNOW.

You’re not like most people.

You’re very smart.
You’re very intelligent.
You’re very inquisitive.

That’s the good news.

Want the bad news?

You’re too smart.
You’re too intelligent.
You’re too inquisitive.

You think you’re going to
solve your problems by
KNOWING more.

Wrong.

You already know enough.

You’re going to solve your problems by

DOING MORE!

Here’s what I mean:

You know exactly what you have to do to lose weight.
You know exactly what to do to get better grades.
You know exactly what you have to do to ______________ (You fill in the blanks.).

Your problem isn’t knowing – IT’S DOING.

That’s my problem too.

I know HOW to exercise.
I know HOW to diet.
I know HOW to pay bills on time.

My biggest problem is doing what I already know.

THERE IS A SOLUTION.

I have important message for you about how we can solve this problem.

Call my Success Hotline at (973) 743-4690 today (Monday)
so we can get started.

Rob Gilbert

MESSAGE #229 - CAN YOU HANDLE THE BIG STAGE AND THE BRIGHT LIGHTS???

Watch this video and then we’ll talk . . .

That’s Broadway superstar Linda Eder singing a song from “Man of La Mancha” at Carnegie Hall.

QUIZ

1. How many people can sing that well?

1. 5
2. 10
3. 100
4. Tens of thousands
5. None of the above

What’s your answer?

Correct answer: D

That’s right tens of thousands of people can sing as well as Linda Eder.

BUT . . .

Only a few can sing that well under the bright lights and on the big stage like Linda Eder can.

MANY CAN.

FEW DO.

Many can do it physically.

But . . . many cannot do it mentally.

Many have the physical skills.

Few have the mental skill.

If you have the physical skill (whether it’s singing, dancing, comedy, tennis, golf, etc . . .) and still can’t do your best when it means the most -- I can help you.

If problems like stress, stage fright, choking, lack of confidence, poor concentration, etc. . . keep you from doing your best when it means the most -- I can help you.

Here are FOUR things you can do right now.

#1. Read all the entries of this blog.

#2. Print out the messages that pertain to you and read them over and over again.

#3. Call Success Hotline -- (973) 743-4690 -- every day.

#4. Listen to the Success Hotline Seminars

If you are in need of one-on-one personal coaching by phone . . .

e-mail me at sendmeastory@aol.com or call me at (973) 743-4428 and I’ll tell you how we may be able to work together.

You can be one of the few who do,

Rob Gilbert

P.S. Many can.
Few do.
You will.

MESSAGE #228 - COLLEGE STUDENTS: READ THIS LETTER SO YOU DON’T

If you think it’s going to be difficult to graduate
from college, imagine how difficult it will be
to compete against a college graduate
if you’re not one.

Dear Professor:

You probably don’t remember me. I took your New Student Seminar course about five years ago. I never finished the course because I quit school right before Thanksgiving.

I was sick and tired of going to class and studying. I got way behind in my classes. I had so much work to catch up on. It all got to be too much.

As soon as I decided to quit I felt great -- like a ton of weight had been taken off my shoulders. Back then, I thought quitting school was the solution to all my problems. Now, I realize that quitting school was the beginning of all my problems.

The toughest part was telling my parents that I had quit. They were so upset. They had been saving and sacrificing for many years so I could go to college. They were hoping that I’d be the first one in our family to earn a degree. I now wish that I had been a better role model for my younger brothers and sisters. I let everyone down.

I now realize that quitting college was one of the biggest mistakes of my life.

Oh, I had a lot of good reasons for quitting. I had a chance to make some decent money. I had a part-time job and my boss offered me a raise if I worked full-time. So I went from part-time to full-time -- to no-time, when the company went out of business. I naively thought that I had job security.

Back then, I thought I had good reasons for quitting. Now, I know that they were just reasonable excuses.

I never thought that school was really difficult. I know I could have done the work. I just didn’t want to. I hate to admit that I took the easy way out, but I did.

Professor, right about now you’re probably wondering why in the world I’m writing to you. I made a big mistake five years ago. I cannot change that now. But if some day one of your students comes to your office and tells you that he or she is going to quit -- maybe you can show them this letter. Here’s my advice: DON’T DO IT! DON’T DROP OUT! DON’T QUIT!

What I know now that I wish I had known then is that there were a lot of people I met on campus who could have helped me if I had only asked them. I had a great opportunity at Montclair State, and I turned my back on it and walked away.

Regretfully,

A former student

P.S. One last thing . . . one day last May, I remember seeing an article in the Star-Ledger about Montclair State University’s 2007 graduation ceremony at the Meadowlands. It hit me like a ton of bricks when I realized that this is my class -- I was in the Class of 2007. I could have graduated that day. I wish I had.

This article is reprinted from The Montclarion (November 15, 2007).

SUCCESS HOTLINE SEMINARS UPDATE: I’VE RECEIVED MANY POSITIVE RESPONSES ABOUT “THE ORANGE SEMINAR” WITH COACH TULLY. TO HEAR A RECORDING OF IT, CALL 1-(641)-715-3413, ACCESS CODE: 1072571#. THIS RECORDING IS AVIAILABLE 24/7 FOR THE NEXT FEW DAYS.

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MESSAGE #227 - THE DIFFERENCE THAT MAKES THE DIFFERENCE IN THE CLASSROOM

What is the #1 predictor of college success?

Your high school rank in class?

Your SAT scores?

Your college essay?

No . . . no . . . no . . . no . . . NO!!!

The #1 predictor is something that you have total control over and something you can do – if you choose to.

What’s the predictor?

Your notebook.

Well, not really your notebook, but what’s in your notebook – YOUR NOTES.

You show me your notes and I’ll tell you your grades.

If you take world-class notes – you’ll be a world-class student.

ABSOLUTELY. POSITIVELY. GUARANTEED!

You have to take great notes. Why?

Here’s a passage from Ken Blanchard’s fabulous new book Know Can Do: Put Your Know-How into Action . . .

“Unless a person is one of the 0.0001 percent of the population who has photographic ears, listening alone will not make that person learn. In fact, three hours after a seminar or class, pure listeners will remember only about 50 percent of what they just heard. Twenty-four hours later, they will have forgotten 50 percent of that. At the end of one month, they will have less than 5 percent recall of the new material they were exposed to at the seminar.”

Take great notes. It’s the difference that makes the difference in the classroom.

For more information on note-taking and other aspects of college success -- read my book How to Have Fun Without Failing Out: 430 Tips from a College Professor

PLEASE NOTE: There’s a very important recording on the Success Seminar Hotline. To hear it, call 1 (641) 715-3413. When asked for your access code, enter 1072571# . . . this is available 24/7 for the next few days. Don’t miss it.

MESSAGE #226 - IF YOU HAVE A BIG ENOUGH “WHY” – YOU’LL ALWAYS FIND THE “HOW.”

From the book You Don’t Have to Be Blind to See by Jim Stovall . . .

There were two warring tribes in the Andes, one that lived in the lowlands and the other high in the mountains.

The mountain people invaded the lowlanders one day, and as part of their plundering of the people, they kidnapped a baby of one of the lowlander families and took the infant with them back up into the mountains.

The lowlanders didn’t know how to climb the mountain. They didn’t know any of the trails that the mountain people used, and they didn’t know where to find the mountain people or how to track them in the steep terrain.

Even so, they sent out their best party of fighting men to climb the mountain and bring the baby home.

The men tried first one method of climbing and then another. They tried one trail and then another. After several days of effort, however, they had climbed only several hundred feet.

Feeling hopeless and helpless, the lowlander men decided that the cause was lost, and they prepared to return to their village below.

As they were packing their gear for the descent, they saw the baby’s mother walking toward them. They realized that she was coming down the mountain that they hadn’t figured out how to climb.

And then they saw that she had the baby strapped to her back. How could that be?

One man greeted her and said, “We couldn’t climb this mountain. How did you do this when we, the strongest and most able men in the village, couldn’t do it?”

She shrugged her shoulders and said, “It wasn’t your baby.”

MESSAGE #225 - NUTRITION MADE EASY!

One day a man went to his doctor for his annual check-up.

He had gained some weight, his blood pressure was dangerously up, and his cholesterol numbers were too high.

His doctor said that there was a simple solution to his problem. All that he had to do was to start eating right.

The doctor suggested that he go on “the color diet.” The doctor said, “Whenever you eat fill your plate lots of different colors – greens, yellows, reds, etc. . . . ”

The man went home and ate a bowl of M&Ms!

MESSAGE #224 - WHAT VINCE LOMBARDI CAN TEACH YOU ABOUT WINNING

Vince Lombardi is the greatest pro football coach of all time. Here are his thoughts on winning...

Winning is not a sometimes thing; it’s an all-the-time thing. You don’t win once in a while; you don’t do things right once in a while; you do them right all the time.

Winning is a habit.

Unfortunately, so is losing.

There is no room for second place. There is only one place in my game, and that’s first place. I have finished second twice in my time at Green Bay, and I don’t ever want to finish second again. . . . It is and always has been an American zeal to be first in anything we do, and to win, and to win, and to win.

Every time a football player goes to ply his trade he’s got to play from the ground up -- from the soles of his feet right up to his head. Every inch of him has to play.

Some guys play with their heads. That’s O.K. you’ve got to be smart to be number one in any business. But more importantly, you’ve got to play with your heart, with every fiber of your body. If you’re lucky enough to find a guy with a lot of head and a lot of heart, he’s never going to come off the field second.

Running a football team is no different than running any other kind of organization -- an army, a political party or a business. The principles are the same. The object is to win -- to beat the other guy. Maybe that sounds hard or cruel. I don’t think it is.

It is a reality of life that men are competitive and the most competitive games draw the most competitive men. That’s why they are there -- to compete. . . . The object is to win fairly, squarely, by the rules -- but to win.

And in truth, I’ve never known a man worth his salt who in the long run, deep down in his heart didn’t appreciate the grind, the discipline. There is something in good men that really yearns for discipline and the harsh reality of head to head combat.

I don’t say these things because I believe in the “brute” nature of man or that men must be brutalized to be combative. I believe in God, and I believe in human decency. But I firmly believe that any man’s finest hour -- his greatest fulfillment to all he holds dear -- is that moment when he has worked his heart out in a good cause and he’s exhausted on the field of battle -- victorious.

MESSAGE #223 - HOW TO MAKE SURE YOU DON’T GET WHAT YOU WANT

If you don’t ask,
the answer is always
“No.”

Want to guarantee
that you don’t get into
your dream college –
don’t apply.

Want to guarantee
that you won’t have a
date with that dream person –
don’t ask.

Want to guarantee
that you don’t get
your big break on Broadway –
don’t audition.

GUARANTEE:
If you don’t ask
The answer is always
“No.”

Success Hotline Tele-seminar with special guest Professor Lisa Sargese!

Join us for a free LIVE TELESEMINAR TUESDAY NIGHT AT 9:00PM (Eastern time).
Call: 1-(641)-715-3200

Enter the Access code: 1072571#

Don't miss it.

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MESSAGE #222 - FOR VETERAN'S DAY

IF YOU HAVE SERVED IN OUR NATION’S MILITARY –

THANK YOU!

The following comes from a wonderful newsletter named Connections written and edited by Dr. Jay Cormier . . .

SAVING PRIVATE RYAN

On the eve of D-Day, three brothers – the Ryans, an Iowa Farm family – are killed on different battlefields within days of each other.

When the allied commander discovers that there is a fourth Ryan brother out there somewhere, the decision is made to find him and return him home immediately to his grieving mother.

A unit of eight soldiers, commanded by Capt. John Miller, is ordered to find and return Private James Ryan.

So begins what many are calling the finest war movie ever made, Steven Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan. Captain Miller (Tom Hanks) and his men must forge behind enemy lines to find the young Ryan.

It is a dangerous, costly journey.

The platoon questions the sanity of their mission – eight guys risking their lives to save one guy?

“Hey, we got mothers, too!” one soldier protests. After the bury one of their buddies who is killed By German sniper fire, Captain Miller himself says, “Ryan better be worth it. He better go home and cure some disease or invent a new longer-lasting light bulb.”

Without giving away too much of the movie, Ryan is found by Miller and his men. But before they can head out, Miller, Ryan and the platoon must defend a strategic bridge against a German tank squad.

At the end of the battle, Ryan is all too aware of the price Miller and his men have paid in order to find him and return him home.

Ryan asks the same question the platoon has wondered from the beginning – is one guy worth all this?

The captain’s parting words to Private Ryan are this simple challenge: “Earn it.”

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MESSAGE #221 - WE ARE ALL CONNECTED

story from Today show
By Mike Celizic
TODAYShow.com contributor

Dolphins save surfer from becoming shark’s bait!
A pod of bottlenose dolphins helped protect a severely injured boarder...

Surfer Todd Endris needed a miracle. The shark — a monster great white that came out of nowhere — had hit him three times, peeling the skin off his back and mauling his right leg to the bone.

That’s when a pod of bottlenose dolphins intervened, forming a protective ring around Endris, allowing him to get to shore, where quick first aid provided by a friend saved his life.

“Truly a miracle,” Endris told TODAY’s Natalie Morales on Thursday.

The attack occurred on Tuesday, Aug. 28, just before 11 a.m. at Marina State Park off Monterey, Calif., where the 24-year-old owner of Monterey Aquarium Services had gone with friends for a day of the sport they love. Nearly four months later, Endris, who is still undergoing physical therapy to repair muscle damage suffered during the attack, is back in the water and on his board in the same spot where he almost lost his life.

“[It] came out of nowhere. There’s no warning at all.

Maybe I saw him a quarter second before it hit me. But no warning. It was just a giant shark,” Endris said. “It just shows you what a perfect predator they really are.”

The shark, estimated at 12 to 15 feet long, hit him first as Endris was sitting on his surfboard, but couldn’t get its monster jaws around both surfer and surfboard. “The second time, he came down and clamped on my torso — sandwiched my board and my torso in his mouth,” Endris said.

That attack shredded his back, literally peeling the skin back, he said, “like a banana peel.” But because Endris’ stomach was pressed to the surfboard, his intestines and internal organs were protected.

The third time, the shark tried to swallow Endris’ right leg, and he said that was actually a good thing, because the shark’s grip anchored him while he kicked the beast in the head and snout with his left leg until it let go.

The dolphins, which had been cavorting in the surf all along, showed up then. They circled him, keeping the shark at bay, and enabled Endris to get back on his board and catch a wave to the shore.

Our finned friends
No one knows why dolphins protect humans, but stories of the marine mammals rescuing humans go back to ancient Greece, according to the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society.

A year ago in New Zealand, the group reports, four lifeguards were saved from sharks in the same way Endris was — by dolphins forming a protective ring.

Though horribly wounded, Endris said he didn’t think he was going to die. “Actually, it never crossed my mind,” he told Morales.

It did, though, cross the minds of others on the beach, including some lifeguards who told his friend, Brian Simpson, that Endris wasn’t going to make it.

Simpson is an X-ray technician in a hospital trauma center, and he’d seen badly injured people before. He had seen Endris coming in and knew he was hurt.

“I was expecting him to have leg injuries,” he told Morales. “It was a lot worse than I was expecting.”

Blood was pumping out of the leg, which had been bitten to the bone, and Endris, who lost half his blood, was ashen white. To stop the blood loss, Simpson used his surf leash as a tourniquet, which probably saved his life.

“Thanks to this guy,” Endris said, referring to Simpson, who sat next to him in the TODAY studio, “once I got to the beach, he was calming me down and keeping me from losing more blood by telling me to slow my breathing and really just be calm. They wouldn’t let me look at my wounds at all, which really helped.

A medivac helicopter took him to a hospital, where a surgeon had to first figure out what went where before putting him back together.

“It was like putting together a jigsaw puzzle,” Endris said.

Six weeks later, he was well enough to go surfing again, and the place he went was back to Marina State Park. It wasn’t easy to go back in the water.

“You really have to face your fears,” he told Morales. “I’m a surfer at heart, and that’s not something I can give up real easily. It was hard. But it was something you have to do.”

The shark went on its way, protected inside the waters of the park, which is a marine wildlife refuge. Endris wouldn’t want it any other way.

“I wouldn’t want to go after the shark anyway,” he said. “We’re in his realm, not the other way around.”

MESSAGE #220 - I'M CHALLENGING YOU!!!

What's today’s video about?

Not so quick . . .

I’m not going to tell you.

But, I’m going to challenge you . . .

HERE’S YOUR CHALLENGE:

I CHALLENGE YOU

TO WATCH THIS VIDEO

WITHOUT

LAUGHING,

SMILING,

CHUCKLING,

GIGGLING

OR GRINNING!

Bet you can’t do it!

It’s impossible.

Trust me.

Not only are you going

to laugh, smile, chuckle, giggle, or grin

– you’re also going to feel better after you watch it!

Absolutely positively guaranteed!

If you want to take up my challenge click below . . .

MESSAGE # 219 - ADVICE FROM GEORGE BURNS...

George Burns (1896-1996) was a legendary comedian and actor.

Did you ever see “Oh, God!”? George Burns played the role of God.

George was incredibly smart and clever as you’ll discover in his quotes.

I guess you’d have to be smart and clever to play the Almighty!

Here’s George . . .

What’s the secret of enjoying old age?
I can’t tell you. It’s a secret.

My best advice:
Fall in love with what
you do for a living.

Happiness is having
a large, caring,
close-knit family
in another city!

Here’s my advice about money –
make it!
Money buys lots of things
including more money.

I would rather be a failure
at something I love
than be a success
at something I hate.

It’s too bad the only
people who know
how to run the country
are busy
driving cabs and cutting hair.

Acting is all about honesty.
If you can fake that,
you’ve got it made.

If you ask me what is
the single most important key
to longevity, I would have to say
it is avoiding worry, stress, and tension.
And if you didn’t ask me,
I’d still have to say it.

This is the sixth book I’ve written,
which isn’t bad for a guy who’s
only read two.

It’s good to be here.
At the age of 98, it’s nice to be anywhere!

Look to the future,
because that is where
you’ll spend the rest
of your life.

The secret of a good sermon
is to have a good beginning
and a good ending, then having
the two as close together as possible.

Thanks George Burns . . .

MESSAGE #218 - FOUND IN A STATIONERY STORE IN NYC...

I beg you to have patience
with everything unresolved
in your heart and try to love
the questions themselves as
if they were locked rooms
or books written in a very
foreign language.

Don’t search for the
answers, which could
not be given to you
now, because you would
not be able to live them.

And the point is to live
everything.
Live the questions now.

Perhaps then, someday
far in the future, you
will gradually without
even noticing it, live
your way into the answer.

Rainer Maria Rilke 1875-1926
German writer

MESSAGE #217 - This boy IS NOT crying wolf!!!

How many times have I written in this blog that a video was “amazing,” inspiring,” or “unbelievable”?

Trust me . . . I AM NOT CRYING WOLF!

The videos keep getting better and better.

But . . .

today’s videos are

THE MOST AMAZING !

THE MOST INSPIRING !

THE MOST UNBELIEVABLE!

TRUST ME!

I wouldn’t lie to you!

There are two parts to the video.

THANK YOU

JOHN McCARTHY

Your trusted motivator,

Rob Gilbert

P.S. Tonight (Tuesday) at 10:00 PM EDT,

I’ll be conducting a phone seminar on

THE ONE SECRET

THAT’LL MAKE YOU

OUTRAGEOUSLY

SUCCESSFUL IN COLLEGE!

Call: 1-(641)-715-3200

Access code: 1072571#

MESSAGE # 216 - GOD SPEAKS - THE MYSTERY!!!

Back in 1998, there was a mystery in the Ft. Lauderdale, Florida area. Quotes attributed to God were showing up on billboards all around the area.

Here’s the rest of the story . . .

An anonymous client approached a Ft. Lauderdale-based advertising agency. This person wanted to create an advertising campaign that would attract people who used to be devoted to a religion, but have since drifted.

The mystery person initially invested $150,000.

As you might guess, the billboards quickly attracted world-wide attention.

All the billboards were very simple – white letters on a black background.

Here is a sampling of the messages from God:

I’ve missed you.
-- God



Lost?
-- God


Don’t make me
come down there.
-- God


If we don’t communicate,
you haven’t got a prayer.
-- God


If you can’t hear me,
maybe you’re not listening.
-- God


Right,
wrong,
choose.
-- God


I heard your prayer;
I just don’t care
who wins the game.
-- God


Ditto
the lottery.
-- God


Your children
will inherit your values.
-- God


You know,
“Bless you” doesn’t have to be
preceded by a sneeze.
--God


Those who preach hate
aren’t speaking for me.
-- God


I have big plans for you.
--God

For more messages and an up-date go to www.GodSpeaks.com

MESSAGE #215 - EXCELLENCE INSPIRES #2

There’s something about excellence . . .
when you see it – it inspires.

I know I wrote that yesterday . . .
but it’s true.

When we see someone else doing something
extra-ordinary . . .
it reminds us of our own possibilities.

This reminds me of my favorite quote:

The purpose of life is to
discover your gifts.
The meaning of life comes from
giving your gifts away.

Dr. David Viscott said that.

A big THANK YOU to
DAN PERKINS
for sending me this video.

MESSAGE #214 - EXCELLENCE INSPIRES!

There’s something to excellence . . .

when you see it – it inspires.

I never thought I’d get inspired

from watching rollerblading . . .

I never thought that I’d get goose bumps

from watching rollerblading . . .

I was wrong.

MESSAGE #213 - FAILURE???

Failure can be seen as a

stumbling block

or a

stepping stone.

The choice is yours.

Here are some thoughts by others

who have already made the choice . . .

“I missed more than 9,000 shots in my career.
I’ve lost almost 300 games.
Twenty-six times I’ve been trusted to
Take the game-winning shot and missed.
I’ve failed over and over again in my life.
And that is why I succeed.”

Michael Jordan
Pro basketball superstar

* * * * * * * * * * *

A bend in the road is not
the end of the road
unless you fail
to make the turn.

Author unknown

* * * * * * * * * * *

“Failure is not fatal.
Failure should be our teacher . . .
not our undertaker.
It should challenge us to new heights
of accomplishments,
not pull us to new depths
of despair.
From honest failure
can come valuable experience.”

William Arthur Ward (1921-1994)
Educator and writer

MESSAGE #212 - DR FRITZ’S 10 UNUSED KEYS TO SUCCESS

Success does not always require sensational new ideas.

It just might require a return to some fundamental, but often neglected, principles.

Here are “10 Unused Keys to Success” by management guru Dr. Roger Fritz:

1. The greatest rewards begin when we change from “What’s in it for me?” to “How can I help you?” (The basis for true customer satisfaction.)

2. The best motivator of people is not money but genuine benefit.

3. To avoid failure is to limit accomplishment. (Avoiding failure is not the same as success.)

4. Confidence grows with achievement.

5. Always look for what’s wrong before who’s wrong.

6. The key to accountability is: Who will do what by when?

7. Brainpower without willpower is no power.

8. Cooperation is spelled “WE.”

9. Thinking is the hardest work there is. Don’t avoid it.

10. Competence without accomplishment is worthless. (Intentions have no value without results.)