Personal Development.

Sometime ago I was on the search for additional income for myself to sustain mounting student loan debt. After looking at a couple of different options, you know, selling drugs, marrying a foreign girl, selling my hot body and the like, I settled on a multi-level-marketing company. It seemed like the most reasonable after comparing the risks. Now I did make a few bucks at the company and I did have a little "team" that was working for/with me for about almost 10 months. During which time Photon Concepts did suffer, although as you'll soon find out, I learned a lot.

With this company, and I won't name names but it rhymed with Shmee Shmade Shmegal, there was a large commitment to go to trainings and seminars. Being there to actually make money, I dove in head first. I attended almost every training, seminar, special event, etc.

One of the many things that I walked away with from this company and its trainings once I moved on from it, was embarking on a path of personal development.

I'm paraphrasing here but I was told once...
"In order to succeed in business, you must work twice as hard on yourself as you do your business." -Jim Rohn

The only place where accomplishment comes before hard work, is in the dictionary. You must go to work on yourself, and luckily for you, its not that difficult. That multi level marketing company that I once worked with shouted just - 10 pages of a good book per day. If you think you can't handle that, or its just too much... put the book by the toilet. Its really not that difficult at all and the compounding goodness that stems from it is seriously incredible.

Embarking on that path of personal development almost 3 years ago has left me, 20-30 books smarter, more patient, more thoughtful, a better listener, better speaker, attentive to my daily work, more detail oriented, a better family man, consistently smarter on the take, a better presenter, a better friend, and a better reader, just to name a few.

Recently I attended a seminar called, Craig Duswalt's Rockstar Marketing Bootcamp in Los Angeles with a good friend of mine, photographer, author, Michael Stern. One of the stars of the 5 day seminar was famous speaker, author Brian Tracy. By the time I had gotten to a book by Brian Tracy in my path for personal development I was right where I needed to be. It was a pivotal moment and the name of that book was, Million Dollar Habits. That book single handily catapulted my understanding of what I really wanted for myself and my family both in my business and financially.

I got to meet Mr. Tracy and take a quick snapshot with him in the front of the lobby. Its kind of a shakey pic, but you get the idea. He was kind full of humility and I must admit, I've been to the Playboy Mansion and this was one of the first times being just a little starstruck. I'd love to download his brain via USB. It was really nice to meet a the guy who wrote the words that were the "cherry on top" so to speak.

Here are a couple of books I've read and I believe you should too.

Million Dollar Habits - Brian Tracy
The Slight Edge - Jeff Olson
The Success Principles - Jack Canfield
The Exceptional Presenter - Tim Koegal
4-Hour Work Week - Timothy Ferriss