Living a more frugal lifestyle is fantastic.  You save more money, avoid cluttering your home, and learn to be happy living within your means.  But sometimes all that wallet watching, coupon clipping, penny pinching, and price comparing piles up on you, and you just want to do something irresponsible!

I’m not referring to anything too over the top, of course.  You’re not going to blow the emergency fund on a truckload of puppies, or spend your kids’ lunch money for the week on a clown suit.  But you do want to do something completely out of the ordinary.  You want to go out to a fabulous restaurant that you can’t afford, or splurge on the heels you’ve been eying for weeks, or spend a night out with friends without keeping track of every dime. [Read more…]

Since the unfortunate loss of Steve Jobs last year, numerous business and technical news sources have been honoring his memory by giving an account of all the innovations he has brought to both home users and businesses around the world. From the first user-friendly personal computer to the revolutionary iPhone that made smart phones a household word, Jobs has left an indelible mark upon the world that will last for many years to come.

Innovations Before The Internet

World-changing innovations from America did not begin with the Internet Age, however, because the nation has long been a fertile ground for independent inventors. During the Colonial Period, for instance, Benjamin Franklin developed the first swimming flippers, the lightning rod and the flexible catheter. After the war for independence was won, Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin, which made the cotton industry of the South a giant by enabling farmers to mass-produce their product. [Read more…]

Living (and loving) Life

Reading the right books can provide you with powerful tools to increase your sales. People have been selling products and ideas since the dawn of time. Many others have been writing about it for almost as long. The best thing about some of these classic sales guides is that they have fallen out of copyright and can be found free on the internet.

Here are six timeless sales books that every salesperson shound read:

1 – “Think and Grow Rich” is an iconic book about positive thinking first published around the Great Depression. Napoleon Hill had been writing since he was 13 and he based the book and the principles founded in it around his research into some of the top individual success of the period around the Great Depression. This motivational book hit the stand in 1937 and continues to be one of the top sales books of all times. He looked at the characteristics and habits that helped establish success and used the information to form develop 13 principles for personal achievement.

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Living (and loving) Life)

Compassion:  “A feeling of deep sympathy and sorrow for another who is stricken by misfortune, accompanied by a strong desire to alleviate the suffering.”

I have always known the definition of that word without even having to look it up, but I had never really given it a lot of thought until a devastating hurricane wreaked havoc on our region a few weeks ago.

The destruction left in the storms’ wake is heart-breaking, but the resilience of those affected and the compassion of those who are helping them put the pieces of their lives back together are absolutely uplifting.

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The difference between becoming successful and missing out on what you deserve is very small. By applying yourself and taking your efforts to the extra degree, you can change your entire life.

If you’re like most people, you dream of owning a more beautiful home, having more success on the job, owning your own business, and obtaining ultimate freedom. The difference between you and the richest person in the world is merely, one degree.

Take for example the Olympics. Did you know that in 2004, the men’s 800 meter race margin of victory was .71 seconds? If the other guy would have pushed himself just a little harder, he would have been the one who won the Olympic Gold Medal, and that would have changed the entire history of the race for that year. A different name would have made it to the screen, and a different man’s life would have been changed.

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