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This is the third and final in a series about Nido Qubein and his book, Stairway to Success.

Developing a plan for success involves three things:

1. Setting Goals
2. Setting Priorities
3. Developing Strategies

“Good personal planning involves no more than determining how you will get from your present circumstances to the future you have created through your vision.” - Nido Qubein

I tend to set pretty ambitious goals for myself, and I do so by writing or printing them out and hanging them around my office. Up until last week I listed goals on my blog for page views and other meaningless stats. I have since pulled those off because I personally think those are the wrong goals to have because of their small measurable impact. I am instead working on a new set of goals that I might not publicly post for this blog and its growth. Goals are a must and should be taken vary seriously.

“Wisdom ofttimes consists of knowing what to do next.” - Herbert Hoover

Setting priorities gives you a place of reference when you come to a situation in which you are unsure of where to go. Knowing your goals and making them your priority makes day to day decisions easier. Suppose your goal is to save $2,000 and you are buying Christmas gifts for your family and extended family. It is easy to want to splurge on the people you love even if it goes against your goal of saving money. Is there a way to save money and still buy / create gifts for your family? Of course there is. It might take a little more imagination than cruising the isles of Best Buy, but it can be done.

More important, the issue of saving money vs. buying Christmas presents for your family shouldn’t even be an issue. Nido talks about the different levels of planning and problems. Most problems like the one above can be addressed early and then shouldn’t ever be an issue down the road at Christmas time. If you plan ahead with your goals and set priorities you should be able to navigate your way through most problems fairly easily.

“There usually are half a dozen right answers to “What needs to be done?” Yet unless a [person] makes the risky and controversial choice of only one, he will achieve nothing.” - Peter F. Drucker

Developing your strategies for success in any area of your life is like having a playbook in sports. Could you imagine if a professional sports team just said: “Aw…this week, let’s just wing it and see what happens”? My guess and I am sure yours as well would say they are guaranteed to lose.

Your strategies should meet these criteria:

• They must specify actions to be taken.
• They must specify the person or persons who is to take the actions.
• They must establish a time for beginning the actions.
• They must establish a deadline for completing the actions.
• They must establish criteria for determining when the actions have been satisfactorily completed.

This can be addressed pretty easily by stating what the problem or goal is that you are trying to achieve or overcome. Then developing a plan of action to tackle that issues in a systematic and bit sized way. You need to set an “end game” for that issue when you get to your defined goal or conclusion.

I have brought you through roughly half of the book Stairway to Success by Nido Qubein. If you would like to learn more, I would highly suggest buying it or checking it out of your local library. Although I did not read this book before I started out on my own quest for success in business and life, I have been using many of the same techniques learned by other teachers and writings. I think this book has the plan well laid out and is a solid package of advice for building upon your success in any facet of your life.

Here are the first two parts, Nido Qubein Part 1 and Nido Qubein Part 2

This is the second in a series about Nido Qubein and his book, Stairway to Success.

After writing the first post about Nido Qubein and one of his books, I thought I would take a minute and explain why I am even talking about this to begin with, and why here on a marketing blog.

Boiled down and condensed, Nido Qubein says we are our greatest marketing tool. There is nothing in the world that can replace what each of us knows on any given subject or topic. If you were to put me in a room full of sports enthusiasts, I would be pretty lost. I wouldn’t feel the need to run and hide, but I wouldn’t be able to keep up with the stats, players, teams, so on and so on. But, if you were to put me in a room with economists and monetary theorists I could hold my own.

The greatest thing we as individuals can do is find the things we can do and love and develop those talents to be the best they can be. I didn’t take any marketing classes in high school or college. I didn’t learn theory on marketing and how to persuade people to buy things. I instead picked up some books and started reading from some of the best marketers around. I started following blogs, learned about web marketing and permission based marketing.

What I came to realize is that if I had taken some of those classes and had been taught those more “traditional marketing techniques,” that experience probably would have skewed my perception on marketing. Instead of reading about people in turkey costumes being targets of water balloons, you would be reading about proper banner sizes for your store and approachable vs. unapproachable color combinations.

The main message Nido Qubein is hitting hard at in his book is that each of us has a choice. That choice is the ability to determine our future, our success, our wealth and much more. According to William Jennings Bryan, “Destiny is not a matter of chance, it is a matter of choice; it is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved.”

Creating a Vision

“Many people go through life unaware that this creative power lies within them. Yet we all have it. You can create the future you want. It’s all a matter of forming a vision, committing yourself to that vision and acting in harmony with the vision.” - Nido Qubein

Here we come back to having that choice again in how we are going to be 2 or 3 years from now. First we have to choose what our life, business, physique or emotional status is going to be. Then you break down those goals into smaller, more manageable pieces. When all of this is done with the commitment of the head and heart it is much more likely to stick around than your last New Year’s resolution.

Crossing your own Rubicon

“Crossing the Rubicon” is a popular idiom meaning to pass a point of no return. It refers to Caesar’s 49 BC crossing of the river, which was considered an act of war. -Wikipedia

I am not saying that you have to start war with anything, but I think the point Nido is trying to make is there needs to be a catalyst. It’s like an alcoholic making the commitment of sobriety after hitting rock bottom, or a morbidly obese person starting recovery after being told life will be cut short otherwise. The event has to be significant and memorable to the effect of when things are tough you can look back to where you have come from since then as a source of encouragement. For me this was when I quit my traditional day job around Christmas of 2007 (almost been a year, WOW!).

I made the choice back then that I would no longer let others determine my fate, but I would pursue the things I enjoyed and learn those things to the best of my ability. I can tell you it was worth every bit of it and I would never take back that choice. I did have my doubts from time to time and ups and downs like anything else, but this is true anywhere and under any circumstance.

To be continued…

You can find the first in the Nido Qubein series part 1 here and part 3 shortly.

This is the first in a series on Nido Qubein’s book, Stairway to Success.

Most of you have probably never heard the name Nido Qubein, but this is one name you want to remember. About a month ago I had the pleasure of listening to him speak at a local Learning Club (a group of dentists that gather for the purpose of growing personally and growing their businesses). I am going to be condensing Nido Qubein’s book, Stairway to Success for the next couple of posts. This book is full of great insight and life experiences that can help you determine your success in life and business. Here is Nido Qubein’s introduction:

Nido Qubein came to the United States as a teenager with little knowledge of English, no contacts and only $50 in his pocket (sounds a lot like Scratch Beginnings). His life has been an amazing success story. He has been the recipient of many, many honors (I can list them or you can go to his website HERE).

He is the president of High Point University, which enrolls 3,000 undergraduates and graduate students from 50 countries. He has authored more than two dozen books and audio programs (which I have most of currently).

Nido Qubein serves on numerous boards including BB&T, a financial institution with over $115 billion in assets, La-Z-Boy, and is the chairman of Great Harvest Bread Company with 218 stores.

Nido has also been the recipient of the Toastmasters International Top Business and Commerce Speaker award along with the Golden Gavel Medal.

Of course this was the condensed version of Nido Qubein’s awards and successes, but it still shows what things can be accomplished by one person. If you ever choose to read one of his books you will quickly realize that great success is more of a mindset than set of circumstances.

What do you want to be when you grow up?

This question we are faced with at a very young age and for most of us we choose to skip over it until we are well into our 20s or 30s. Nido explains that the quicker you can determine the answer to the question, the quicker you can set out on your path to success.

“You are talented!” - Nido Qubein.

Everybody is talented at something. It is a matter of growing that talent to be the best you can possibly make it that partially determines success. You have to know, learn, love and enjoy the things you are doing in order to achieve great success.

Make a commitment

Making a commitment is like signing a contract on a house or a car, it is a here in now choice that determines a part of your future. When you sign a home loan you normally commit to 30 years of payments. When you make a commitment to yourself that you want to do or be someone in the future, it is the same thing. These questions are important to ask yourself: “How do you picture yourself in 3 years if everything went perfectly as planned in business, life, spiritually or physically? A commitment is a commitment no matter what it pertains to.

“The past is over… Your focus should be on the future.” - Nido Qubein

So many times I find myself worrying about the future or the past as if there is something that I can magically do to change any of it. The truth is I only live here and now and can only change this moment to either better or lessen my future in whatever facet. Who you become in the future is determined by what you do today. That is why it is important to have a clear goal of who, what or where you want to be in the future.

That goal can always change and it does all of the time. If you were to ask yourself the same question two years ago or two years from now the answer would be different. But when you choose not to ask yourself those questions is when you find time slowly passing by without any rhyme or reason.

I will continue with parts 2 and 3 on Nido Qubein’s Stairway to Success.

Chances are if you live in a big city you are no stranger to high-speed police chases followed by a news helicopter and live commentary. Is it sad that the whole time I watched a chase on TV yesterday I was thinking I wish my website logo was on the roof?

I am not sure that I would necessarily want to be associated with a fleeing criminal, but it makes me think about different marketing strategies, hopefully without anyone going to jail for a long time. Not to mention that one time I was almost killed by some 16-year-old in minivan running from the cops. Thankfully I looked up and saw what was about to happen to the rear of my car. But I digress. There are legal and illegal ways to spread a message. I hope most go for the legal.

I don’t think anyone could ever condone running from the police unless you are part of the Gumball 3000. This is a cross country free-for-all that takes place once a year somewhere around the world. It happens about once every other year in the USA.

The Gumball 3000 is a combination of too many people with too much money Baha’in across the country as quick as they can in their upper-end sports cars. They also have a huge following (a Tribe). If you have ever seen them you would know because all 160 or so cars would be zooming by you at 100+ MPH on the interstate. Here is a clip of the 2006 Gumball.

The Gumball 3000 is an extreme example of a Tribe of people taking part in something they love, fast cars and parties. This originally started out as a recreation from the movie Cannonball Run where Burt Reynolds races an assortment of muscle cars across the country on the silver screen. Now the Gumball has taken on a life of its own with documentary crews and celebrities going along for the ride.

In order to participate in a Gumball rally you will need a fast car and lots of money (the car in the video was $60,000), not to mention gas and food (AAA extra).

The question I ask myself is how can I create a group of people like those Gumballers? Seems like the answer to that would be pretty simple:

• Focus on the thing everybody in that group loves (like fast cars and parties)
• Organize / lead the group into an idea (like starting a rally including the above)
• Have a way of separating them from others (the high cost of entry)
• Allow the merchandise to spread (stickers, shirts, videos, etc.)
• Rise and repeat

If you are running a business that has a core group of people who center around one thing, your goal should be is to enable those particular people to talk about and share that thing with others. Become a leader and an enabler. If people are buying your products, you already have the core thing needed to build a Tribe. Now it’s a matter of finding what they need, not what you want.

Here is an Interview with Turnip of Power | Social Networking marketer on the creation of a new advertising network called CMF ADS. CMF (Changing Marketing Forever) ADS is a widget-based advertising system that allows advertisers to purchase ad space on quality niche blogs on a CPM (cost per thousand views) basis. Currently, there are 20 blogs in the network that have been selectively chosen to participate in the initial launching.

I like discovering new and up and coming products or services and thought CMF ADS would be a great candidate to share with everyone. After you read through the questions below, I encourage you to visit CMF ADS and see what it has to offer. Without further adieu, here you go:

What was your motivation for starting CMF ADS?

My motivation was to implement an idea I had posted several times on both my blog and on the Entrecard Forums. Each time the idea was ignored or given the canned response of “We have limited resources for that.” Then recently I was disappointed with the Performancing Ads Network. Stan from razzball.com approached me and said “Why can’t we do something like that?” That’s how it all started.

What are your short and long-term goals for CMF ADS?

Short term the goal was to get good people involved who wanted to be part of something new. We wanted to test our code, our server, public reaction, and iron out all the little unexpected surprises. Long term we would like to expand our portfolio of blogs and reach out to other social networks. As we are only 3 weeks old today, we are still refining our initial goals. Just yesterday I rewrote the widget code to allow for this expansion.

What is your major selling point for CMF ADS (elevator pitch)?

For publishers: We monetize your social traffic for you. All you have to do is maintain a quality blog. We help promote your blog, help you with your website when help is requested, and at the end of the day provide you with a small paycheck for displaying our widget in previously unused space next to their social networking widget.

For advertisers: We get your message out there on 20 of the best up and coming websites. No need to interact with so many small sites individually. We bundle our members’ page views and sell them to you in a very affordable CPM bundle, providing geotargetting and other advanced features the individual site owner could not easily provide due to a lack of technical expertise.

I could imagine many bloggers will want to utilize your service. Do you have strict quality control admission?

We have quality control on both the publisher and advertiser ends. Nobody wants to advertise on horrible made for adsense splogs. Likewise, no blogger wants scammy ads on their website. We manually approve all blogs and ads, allowing both publisher and advertiser to opt out of any ads or sites they wish. Each blog in our network was discussed in detail before being sent an invitation to join.

If a blog is interested in joining what will be the minimum requirements for joining?

Initially we invited only WordPress blogs. Since then we have allowed blogs using other content management platforms to join. The main requirements are your own domain name, a minimum of a 250 pixel wide sidebar, and maintaining a high-quality blog. Sometimes we work around the sidebar issue in special cases, but generally adhere to these rules.

How does the advertising widget effect the speed and efficiency of a site?

Our widget opens in an i-frame, so won’t ever slow down the rest of a site from loading. In addition, we host the bottom image locally, further speeding up the process.

What has been the overall perception of the widget so far?

Reception has been great. The first day we announced our network we sold 25,000 impressions as well as numerous high-quality blogs looking to join the network. Many curious bloggers have taken notice, along with a few advertisers.

Do you see yourself in competition to Entrecard or merely using some of their ideas to create a stand along advertising network?

We don’t see ourselves in competition with Entrecard or using their ideas. We took twenty well-respected blogs and made an ad network out of them. Now because we are active in the Entrecard community it was only natural that these twenty blogs were discovered through Entrecard. One blog has since left Entrecard and we welcome that, as well. A good blog is a good blog, Entrecard or not.

What measures are you establishing to provide the smoothest growth possible?

To ensure smooth growth, we are only letting in a fraction of the blogs asking to join. Each step of the way we have checked to make sure all issues were addressed before moving on to the next phase.

Conclusion:

I think this network has some great potential to develop into a full service advertising network. I don’t know how often they will be accepting new publishers, but I would make admission highly selective, more on the prestigious side. Say it only has enrollment every two weeks and only X number of new publishers will be allowed in during the beta stage, kind of like Gmail was invite only for the longest time. This would help in the beginning to have controlled growth of all the system resources preserving the quality of the network and service by not having a bunch of down time.

I really enjoy when people go out on their own by mixing and matching various different ideas to produce a worthwhile product. Time will tell how things play out, but I would again encourage you to head over to CMF ADS and check it out for yourself.