August 2008 – Razflections

August 17, 2008March 26, 2009

I finally took the next step…

At Convention, I passed out these little “Dream Cubes” that had four quadrants represented by a distinct category for each one, such as: professional, personal, cultural, and physical.

And I challenged people to write down on each of the four sides their dreams for each component of life, and then on the flip side — also listed by quadrant — action items needed to get going. Basically, what are a few things you need to be doing next to get going and accomplish the dream?

It was an easy exercise to do flippantly — or to flippantly avoid. It has actually been more difficult than would seem on the surface to do this with some thought and soul searching. In fact, it took me about two months from end-to-end to finally identify and settle on the four dreams.

Each dream/goal (I am using the terms interchangeably for this exercise) could be something with a five-year horizon or a one-year, or an even greater time frame than that. Why use the terms “dream” and “goal” in an interrelated way? I would expect if you have a really big dream that someday you’d like to have happen professionally — perhaps ten years from now — it would be made up of smaller dreams. And for this to not simply be a pipe dream akin to winning the lottery (an understandable but somewhat irrational dream), each dream ties to a degree with goals, though perhaps the former are more heartfelt and symbolic than the latter, which are typically more rote and quantified.

So I’m taking the 1-2 year focused approach for me personally.

At our meeting in Seattle I used my personal one-year dream in the physical category of trying to quantify a really big goal for me: 15% bodyfat (I wouldn’t argue with less) within the next year. So when I turn my dream cube over the next action items for me included changing my eating habits. In fact, it laid out this simply:

Dream: 15% bodyfat

Actions: 1) Start the South Beach Diet, 2) Walk a MINIMUM of 5,000 steps total a day (about a half hour of walking), 3) Resistance training at least 1x/week.

That’s it. And a few months from now maybe I’ll have to change some of my action steps depending upon my progress, but for now that’s what I KNOW I need to be doing.

As an aside, the South Beach Diet has always worked well for me, and I think it is among the healthiest and most sustainable options. I like it for the following reasons: 1) It’s balanced with protein/carbs/fats and lots of whole grains and fresh fruits/vegetables. 2) It’s delicious. 3) It will help you break a sugar addiction, which you probably don’t even realize you have. 4) It works and you can see significant results even within the first two-week induction phase. I would highly recommend it. Dr. Agatston just wrote a new book called “The South Beach Diet Supercharged” that’s worth the $30.

And I still haven’t even gotten to the point of my blog entry for today.

As I got going in one dream quadrant, the cultural one, I soon realized the challenge — and conscientious thought and commitment — required to get going on the other areas.

And I’ve been wrestling with the other quadrants because I really put some of the dreams that were desires of my heart on this piece of paper — and I’m committed to it but there’s a tough bridge between desire and action.

Here’s what hit me today: On the cultural quadrant I made a decision to move forward with a really important personal activity, something that I’ve been thinking about for many years. Probably five or more, and I hoped that SOMEDAY, even decades from now, I would take this initiative on and accomplish it. And when I was creating the Dream Cube, I figured “might as well try to add it to the list now and see what happens.”

It doesn’t really matter what my cultural dream is; in fact I’m not going to share this one (at least not now) because I don’t want it to cloud the lesson I learned.

Which is that it’s easy to talk about dreams but difficult to take action.

And exceptionally hard to accomplish them.

Which is why it’s important to list some of the “next action” steps to keep it front and center.

With my Cultural dream, I had a bunch of great reasons not to pursue it. In fact, I’ve been using them for years so that I wouldn’t have to take action — but I also never killed the idea of the dream from my mind either, because that also would have been depressing and destroyed some of my hope. Of course, at the rate I was going nothing was ever going to come of it anyways, so for a while it wasn’t theoretically hopeless. Just practically hopeless.

But I wrote down this cultural dream (defined in ONE simple word), and then on the reverse side listed some next steps — the action items required just to start making progress on the dream. And I started going down the list of steps. Before I knew it, I’m into the throes of planning for this initiative, and today it came time to make a critical decision in preparation for this event.

When I was driving down I-5 thinking this through I was at a crossroads, where for me to go to my next action step I would have to make a really big commitment with action step number one. And it was then that I realized that I was spending more time thinking about the reasons that I should stop pursuit of this (too much money, risky, difficult, etc.) than I was towards moving it forward. The thoughts were rationalizations — some legitimate and some not — to postpone this accomplishment. And during the drive down I-5, I finally got sick of finding reasons to hold back.

So I pulled the trigger and made a big commitment towards the next step.

And after committing how do I feel? Amazing.

Freedom. Excitement. Liberation. Purpose. Alive.

It’s like I got an IV injection of power, and not in an egotistical sense, but rather a centered/fulfilled/confident sense. It’s like one of those feelings that you get when you give something your total commitment — and to a degree, the end result doesn’t even matter, because you gave it all.

Today was one of those simple magical moments. And it came from a combination of silent thought as well as a simple but logical process that was fueled by both inspiration to be better and a dismissal of excuses that each of us experiences at various times.

I really felt a reinforced lesson of the importance of having a dream or passion, that to move it meaningfully forward it must be accomplished by some action steps, and that all throughout this process each of us will find opportunity to move it forward or backward.

Today, I didn’t need advice. Didn’t need support, mentorship, enthusiasm, motivational tapes, GANTT charts, spreadsheets, proformas, or visualization.

Instead, today all I needed was to be by myself and make it happen. And regardless of how this dream pans out, I’ll remember today for quite a while — because of the lessons I learned, and the feelings throughout this process.

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August 10, 2008March 23, 2009

Hilarious. Just hilarious.

This will be among my shortest blog postings yet, because Michael Jr.’s done all the work for me. For those who attended our annual Convention, you saw the brilliant humor that comedian Michael Jr. injected into our Thursday night Platinum/Diamond reception as well as General Session on Friday night. It was fantastic.

Spontaneity and humor can be a great–but also risky–combination. When Michael Jr. showed up to Saturday’s General Session unannounced, he was there to say goodbye to me back stage in between my hosting the session. Right before I took the stage someone back stage mentioned he was looking for me and was making one final round before departing. So, as you’ll see, I took a chance to see if he’d do one more impromptu set in the midst of recognizing him for the great show he performed the night before. The video below basically says it all and shows what ensued.

Thanks, Michael Jr. and also Andrew (Univera associate) for providing us some great entertainment. As Michael Jr. would say “That was hilarious man…just hilarious”.

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August 5, 2008March 26, 2009

One of the Greatest Things…

About the Direct Selling industry is the ability to offer opportunity and development to those who might never experience the chance otherwise.

Growing up in the Raz family wasn’t likely a totally normal experience; I think we were a family of restless overachievers yet at the same time each of us were and are, in my opinion, fairly normalized people.

For example, at the Raz household for Christmas, one of the annual gifts was ALWAYS ALWAYS a Day-Timer calendar for each person (seven in total) — this is pre ’95, which was the introduction of the Palmpilot which quickly replaced the Day Timer in our family of early adopters, so late 80’s and early 90’s it was Day-Timers all the way around. Even though, in the picture above, the decor actually looks a little late 70’s or early 80’s (so we kept it going about a decade longer). And, odd as it might seem, all of us were quite excited for our annual supply of Day Timers — my younger sisters included, despite the fact that friends of ours were singing Christmas Caroles, dreaming about Santa (which never really existed in our house past the age of four), and opening up gifts of Tony Hawk Skateboards and Atari game systems we somehow settled into a sense of satisfactory existence with the practical and probably peculiar annual family gift. Okay, so some of the kids (see tears below) weren’t always enthusiastic about the Day Timers…but those also weren’t the only gifts mom and dad gave us.

So fast forward a few years, though throughout all these years we received the annual supply of Day Timers, when I was in high school and most of my buddies were out mowing yards for summer jobs and drinking kool aid in the evenings, I yearned for something else — a job or activity that might put to good use my unlimited supply for Day Timers and penchant for calendaring and scheduling and deal-making, a desire to just do something unique…Different. I was seeking adventure, financial opportunity without limits, teamwork, personal development. I wanted to be stretched. I wanted to wear a shirt and tie to work even though I was in high school (though, based on the picture below, I am now cringing at several things about the wardrobe — including the tie clip and too short tie among other things!).

And, alas, I found the opportunity in October of ’91. I was 17, Senior in High School, and saw a sign that said “Part Time Jobs: $9/hour”. So I called, went to the meeting and learned it was for Vector Marketing — a job selling Cutco! And, it was the most influential job of my life. It taught me about leadership, people, personalities, listening, tenacity and perseverance…

As I write about it a flood of memories come back to me, because it wasn’t just a three month gig for me. It actually put me through College where I worked as a Sales Rep for a year, an Assistant Manager for a year, and then led my own office as a Branch Manager when I was 20, and moved up to Sandusky, Ohio (by myself) to do it as my college job.

The point isn’t really what I did or didn’t do with Vector, it was that it served as the PERFECT vehicle to fulfill some of my needs — which weren’t just income (I could have cut lawns too, in fact I did the years before — I just got bored with it more quickly than my buddies) but also personal development, a sense of satisfaction in what I did, a purposeful mission coupled with self development.

What made me think of all this today?

The Wall Street Journal.

Yes, I know, many think it’s all just boring financial blah blah in the Great Grey Lady (WSJ), but it really is a wealth of recycled papers wrapped full of compassionate and compelling stories of human interest and human spirit, in addition to a bunch of boring financial blah blah.

And today the WSJ ran a great article on a young man who is a Vector Marketing (Cutco) sales representative that reminded me of what makes this Direct Selling industry, and also Univera, so outstanding.

We have the opportunity of not just financial success, but also personal development. To develop the skills of time management. Perseverance. Teamwork. Enthusiasm and optimism. Where else can you learn such life-changing and beneficial skills than in this environment?

What I loved about Vector, in looking back, was specifically the personal development and how I was stretched, molded, and developed by the experiences and the people. Sure, I made quite a bit of money, but I could have done that anywhere. Truly, knowing what I know now, I would have done the whole Vector/Cutco thing for FREE just for the experience. It affected and changed me that profoundly. And, so too I think it is with Univera (but you don’t have to do it for free!).

Beyond just the benefits, what I also love is that there’s no filter in our industry. There’s no “ivory tower” or pedigree that’s required to engage or be considered for the role. No matter your situation, your background, your skills, your history, this is the land of alternative opportunity. Just a spirit of willingness and zeal is all that’s required, and sometimes not even in large doses – -for some it’s simply the willingness to “try it out”, though like with anything try should be accompanied with some type of sustained commitment to yield the best benefit.

Our industry is unlike that at any other business environment. For example, when I worked at Johnson and Johnson they required a huge number of hurdles to get in the door and to become hired was a fairly Herculean task. Consequently there’s also a bit of a “mold” that they look for as parameters. If you walked the halls of J&J, I’ll bet I could pretty simply categorize people according to background, MBA, sales/marketing expertise, and the like. Certainly, there’s good reason for this in that environment, but the beauty of the direct selling model is that there is no bias. There is no filter, and there are no prerequisites. Nor is there prior judgment. It’s an open door. It’s so…American…and Canadian…

Are you a doctor? Great, come join us. Dropped out of high school? Fantastic, we’ll see you at Diamond Club in Hawaii. Love a challenge but hate your current job? Start today! What, don’t have a job? Beautiful, we’ve got one for you! Love your job but need a secondary income? Order the 100340 and get your gifting pack, 10, 30, or 60 gifts, and let’s get gifting.

Really, it’s a beautifully unique and compelling model.

I’m not trying to overly simplify this, but rather point out what struck me today as a few of the amazing aspects of our business. Specifically, that anybody can join and do this. And, importantly, that it provides something more than just income. It provides a rich set of experiences with personal and physical transformation, self development, teamwork, patience, and developing skills to work with other people that will help to transform your life — and those of others.

It’s the amazing thing about this industy, and it’s the luster of Univera.

And the WSJ article that prompted all these thoughts is accessible via the link below.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121788532632911239.html

No doubts, take Lasix only as prescribed by your doctor. Levitra is one of the best-known medications of all date. What is the most significant info you must study about levitra vs cialis? Most doctors say the effectiveness of Levitra is well documented. Absolutely, a sexual problem refers to a problem during any phase of the sexual response cycle that prevents the individual from experiencing satisfaction from the sexual life. Whilst sex is not vital for good health, it�s doubtless great for anyone. Why it happen? What kinds of professionals treat sexual diseases in men? A common class of antidepressants, which include Zoloft � can kill the mood in bedroom.