“If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, “thank you,” that would suffice.” ~ Meister Eckhart

Yahooey! I love Thanksgiving Week, spending time with family and friends and expressing my gratitude for everything around me. Of course, the fast pace of life and its demands can make it all too easy to forget to give thanks each and every day. Thanksgiving season serves as a lovely reminder that if I just pause to think, I’ll always have cause to thank, and therefore smile.

Every day is a new day. When you wake up each morning, how do you feel? Are you excited… anxious… worried…? Whether we are experiencing hardships or whether things are going fantastic, there’s always a reason to be grateful. So why not wake up each morning with a sense of victory? Know that you are big enough and capable enough to handle whatever challenges that will come your way. Anticipate obstacles. Welcome them with open arms. If you do this, there will be no such thing as “bad news.” Instead, all news will always ultimately be good news.

Thomas Edison used to say that his deafness was his greatest blessing – a blessing because it saved him from having to listen to reasons why things couldn’t be done.

Count and give thanks for your blessings every day. If you are grateful, your positive mind will be one that naturally anticipates happiness, joy, health and success, as well as rise to any occasion. Whatever the mind expects, it finds.

Happy Thanksgiving.

I love this post from Perry Marshall. Enjoy!

Entrepreneurs and our insatiable GREED

Have you ever….

* Tapped a line of credit or 2nd mortgage so you could give your employees their paycheck?
* Paid off all your vendors and creditors, even though it meant canceling a long-awaited vacation?
* Heard about someone in need and helped them out, even though you knew you would eventually end up borrowing the money – you didn’t have it but you gave anyway because it was the right thing to do?

With that in mind….

…When’s the last time you turned on CNN and heard an encouraging story about business owners doing good in the world?

When’s the last time you heard somebody in the media or education system say, “We need to build up entrepreneurs, because new businesses are foundation of our communities” ?

For all those who assume us money-grubbing entrepreneurs are driven by greed, selfishness and ego, let me share with you the results of a study by the Center for Data Analysis and the Heritage Foundation:

Charitable Giving by Household Income, based on IRS data:

Income Class         Entrepreneurs      Non-Entrepreneurs
$65,480+                          3.23%                         2.42%

$37,381-$65,480              3.47%                          1.84%

$21,661-$37,380              3.29%                         1.14%

$10,661-$21,660             2.25%                          0.74%

$0-$10,660                     1.55%                          0.35%

Average                       2.53%                          1.27%

Looks like entrepreneurs are TWICE as generous as everyone else. ESPECIALLY the ones with low incomes.

Why is that? What’s going on here?

It’s real simple. Most people only understand scarcity.

Entrepreneurs understand abundance.

My experience of entrepreneurs is we overwhelmingly tend to take care of everybody else before we worry about ourselves.

My friend, if you tapped every resource to pay everyone fairly, and you went to bed not knowing how tomorrow’s bills were going to get paid, then at least you had faith in the goodness of providence and the power of imagination and resourcefulness to find a solution.

THIS is why people in the modern world have three meals a day and microwave ovens and beds to sleep in and health care and straight teeth and computers and movies and modern music.

Because… somebody had faith in the power of ingenuity. They dreamed and schemed and innovated and gave until it hurt. Believing that somehow, somewhere, success would show up when it was most needed.

None of us can ever predict when or how solution to some vexing problem will present itself. We just have faith that it will.

I don’t know what problem you face today, but I know that one of two things is true:

1) Someone somewhere has already solved it, or
2) The ability to solve it WILL be given to you

Most of all I want to salute you in pursuing a journey that most people never even have the courage to undertake.

When you find the success you seek, you deserve it.

The talking heads on TV may not appreciate us. But we appreciate each other. And I appreciate you.

Seize the Day.

Perry Marshall