Everyone Needs a Partner...

Many years ago, I was wondering where I could find the answers to the difficult questions in life. I was wondering why some of my friends were doing well and I was not living the life I wanted to live. I needed skills I didn't have, I didn't even know how to type and from the late 1980's to today, let's just say that the world is a drastically different place. When I was in high school, the biggest threat to our freedoms and our way of life was the Soviet Union and instead of the much-debated issue of global warming being the "biggest threat" to life on Earth, it was global thermal nuclear warfare (which I guess is a lot like "global warming," but on a much greater scale).

I found myself a little lost when I decided not to stay in the Navy and retire. My transition from the Navy to civlian world was a little tricky, to say the least. The Navy didn't teach us anything about the Law of Attraction and, if I had to guess, they probably still don't. I didn't learn any negotiation skills or any skills I needed to succeed in today's world. Going back to college was not going to happen for me and finding a great, high-paying job was also not in my future...unless I created it. That led my thoughts to having the best job in the world, the job I created for myself. I have since been involved with several different companies representing several different products and services over the years. My life as I wanted it was put on hold from 2002-2006 when I wandered in south Florida searching for the right brokerage firm for me, selling currency and commodity options and futures. That didn't work either. Then finally, a couple of years ago, I realized that the problem wasn't the government, the tax structure, my business associates, the businesses I was involved in or the products I represented (and until a couple of years ago, I represented poorly).

I realized that I was the problem of why my life wasn't going the way I wanted. I didn't have the skills, the education, the mindset or the information. In the past couple of weeks, I have partnered with the Nightingale-Conant Corporation. Nightingale-Conant was formed by Earl Nightingale and Lloyd Conant in 1960 and is the world leader in personal development materials.

I have been a customer of Nightingale-Conant's for years now and I'd like to share one of the sources for the information I have needed and used to change my life. Now, with all of the advances in technology, change happens quicker than ever. If you don't stay ahead of change, change will wipe you out. You have to be stronger mentally, you have to know where you're going and how you're going to get there. You have to associate with the personal coaches that have already helped countless thousands to achieve their goals, over the years. You have to maintain your belief that you can overcome obstacles and turn adversity into opportunity. You have to devlop the conviction and the perseverence that says "I will never give up!"

This is one of the companies I represent today because I use their products. In my library is some of the greatest audios available by some of the wisest leaders who have ever walked the planet. I have access to this enlightened world of knowledge, skills and motivation...and you can too! Living successfully has been and always be a choice. At any time you want you can change and improve your life...if you have the right information.

Nightingale-Conant is where I get my information to improve my life. Click on the link above and find something to change your life...because change is the only constant there is in the world.

My Library (aka "Where Personal Development Comes From")

Over the past few years, I have assembled a decent library. I finally got around to reading a fantastic book called "The Five Major Pieces to the Life Puzzle" by a great man named Jim Rohn. I highly recommend this book. My copy is an eBook on my hard drive, courtesy of my enrolling in Jim Rohn International's One Year Success Plan. My first exposure to him was when I was learning how to fail at sales in 1998. I was not quite computer literate yet, and I didn't understand a lot of the changes that were happening around me. I heard the words and I liked what he had to say, but I couldn't wrap my mind around the fact that none of my "friends" at the time had ever heard of him. After all, I had all the arrogance of being around some of the best minds in my hometown, not to mention my education and experience as a nuclear mechanical operator. Surely some of my "successful" friends would have heard of him. A couple of years ago, I realized that what I was listening to in 1998 was called "The Art of Exceptional Living." It is a compilation of some of the late Mr. Rohn's best work and, now, a part of my library.

I found myself with not a lot to do on Sunday, so instead of trying to keep up with the NFL scores of the day, I decided to do something productive and read a book. I had revisited the course a couple of nights before and realized that I had not read some of the material they sent me. Since the past couple years of my life have been almost exclusively devoted to creating positive personal change, I thought that I could keep up with football (fun to watch) or do something I have been meaning to do (improve myself by reading a new book). All throughout this book I could hear Mr. Rohn recite the lines he wrote many years ago. All of his ideas are great, inspiring and, best of all, they are true.

Why would I invest in a library of some of the best ideas ever written? Maybe I like to read. Maybe I'm actually serious about creating positive change in my life. Maybe it just looks cool (which I admit, I DO think it looks cool). This is where personal development comes from- the best ideas ever written and left by their authors for us to find. I am compiling this library because I have always had a hunger for knowledge and what I can do with it. It is also a curiosity of what those ideas can help me accomplish. Why not find a new idea that could help my business do better? Why not read something that makes the morning coffee taste a little better? Why not read something that inspires me with hope instead of the daily dread of the morning news?

This is where my greatest source of inspiration comes from...and to think it all started with a library card many years ago. Thank you, Mr. Rohn.

What If It's Not as Bad as "They" Say It Is?

This blog entry began on July 16, 2010. I am learning about writing a post and saving it as adraft so some of the current information may seem a little outdated, but the message is clear.

As I begin this entry, I am watching the stock markets enter a trading area known as "the crapper." I'm sure that a lot of novice investors and faithful employees have probably lost money in the stock market this year- that is IF they are bold enough to try to trade this market. The catalyst is that a preliminary consumer sentiment index for July is at the lowest level in 11 months, which shouldn't be that hard to imagine. I know that a lot of people are having a really difficult time right now financially. I'm not buying yachts or Carribbean islands right now, but I have to say that I'm doing alright. Considering that I was homeless a few years ago, my definition of "alright" might differ from yours. I'm achieving new goals and making plans to restore my FICO score to levels it hasn't seen in years. This brings me to the question "Who do you believe?"

I almost never watch the news unless I'm forced to because it's on in an area where I am, like having lunch at CNN Center. I don't think it's a coincidence that, if you're having lunch at CNN Center, you WILL watch CNN, whether you like it or not. I do pull CNBC up online and whenever I can view it in my leisure time, but only very briefly and only during trading hours. It's actually an old habit from my lost gig as a commodities and currency options and futures broker. Except if there's some major breaking news, I pay as small amount of attention to the media as possible. I even missed Lindsay Lohan getting sentenced to 90 days in jail, but my life went on.

There is a school of thought that states that whatever thoughts you hold in your mind, those thoughts will materialize in the outside world. If this sounds like an excerpt from the book or movie "The Secret," you're right. It is also the way that prayers are answered. I have experienced this phenomenon in my life as I'm sure you have too. So if you watch a lot of news and do your personal economic forecasting and planning based on recent news reports, I'll bet you haven't gotten very far recently (unless you work for "the news"). With the media cranking out nothing but bad news, if you pay a lot of attention to it, you have nothing but bad thoughts running through your mind...and this is creating your current reality.

Let's play a game to illustrate my point. I'm going to ask a few questions and, as quickly as you can, I want you to say first thought you have out loud (or think it to yourself, if you're in a "quiet" place). My reference for this is an audio program called "I know What To Do, So Why Don't I Do It" by Dr. Nick Hall (very highly recommended).

a) What color is freshly fallen snow?
b) What color do clouds appear on a sunny day?
c) What color is a doctor's lab coat?
d) What color does table salt appear?
e) How do you pronounce the word spelled "w-h-i-t-e?"
f) What do cows drink?

Well five out of six "ain't bad," right?

What's my point?

Since the first five questions had your mind fixating on with the word "white," I would bet your answer for the last question was incorrect. Chances are pretty good that you answered "milk" for the last answer. Cows don't drink milk, they give milk. Cows drink water.

So what if we're all being brainwashed by the media these days to limit ourselves and our potential? What if it's really not THAT bad out there? What if the media is painting a picture that does not really exist for you? I can just about guarantee that if you believe that it's bad out there (in the "real" world), it will be for you. If you think that things are getting better for you, they will be getting better (or not seem as bad).

If things aren't really that bad for you out there, what excuses can you now get rid of in order to improve your life?

When My Education Really Began

A lot of the ideas that I will be revealing did not originate with me. I would love to take credit for them, but I have had many influences. It would have been a great tragedy to say that when I graduated school, that my education ended and I never read another book (there are people out there like that, you know).

I have always been a little ashamed of the fact that I never completed my college degree after I got out of the Navy, but for whatever reasons (or excuses), I didn't. There were some people in my past that thought that a college degree is first, foremost and defines all of the success in life that anyone will have. That notion is great...if you're about 22 years old and have just finished final exams.

Notice that I haven't said "an education." People go to college, study hard (or not), graduate and the common misnomer is that they are thoroughly educated. They have reading, writing and 'rithmetic skills out the wazoo, so therefore, they are thoroughly educated. There is nothing wrong with this and it has worked for a great many people...for a while. College doesn't and can't give you an education. College gives you a degree (if you earn it).

According to Merriam-Webster, the word "educate" has a few of definitions. These are the two definitions that I am referring to:

1 a : to provide schooling for b : to train by formal instruction and supervised practice especially in a skill, trade, or profession
2 a : to develop mentally, morally, or aesthetically especially by instruction b : to provide with information : inform

The first definition is first because it is the most popularly used definition and the most popular context of the word. It is the classic definition of "go to school and get an education." The second definition is what you do with your mind AFTER you get out of school. It's the second definition that is the key to this thought.

My education began when I decided to read a book my teachers in school didn't require me to read. The first book I remember reading under these circumstances was "Moby Dick" by Herman Melville. I read it in about two days when I was in the third grade. I had always had a love for the sea and stories about sailing ships. I continued reading about these sorts of things until I was in high school. In high school, I studied at Indian Springs School, just outside Birmingham, AL, for one year. I learned one pivotal skill there...how to teach myself. After one semester at Florida State University (where I learned virtually nothing new), I found myself in the Navy. I was "educated" in nuclear power plant operation. This worked great for me when I was near a nuclear power plant. When I left the Navy and decided that I would not pursue a career as a nuclear operator, this "education" was suddenly obsolete.

I started a business with my life's savings and failed. I knew nothing about business, except business owners were the highest paid people in the company and I wanted to be the highest paid person in the company.

I found myself in retail sales as an assistant manager in a jewelry store and then as a manager of my own jewelry store with the same company. I didn't know much of anything about my trade and I was consistently one of the top salespeople in the company. Again, since I had some "business success" under my belt managing someone else's business, I thought I was thoroughly educated. I started my second business and failed...again. I thought I knew enough to start my own business, but I didn't...apparently.

My education really began (as it applies to the world of business) when I started putting together my library. It was in the early 1990's and I joined a business book club, where they send you a book you don't want, you send it back and buy a book that you do want. After a while they quit sending me books and I bought a business book of my choosing every month. I had amassed a great deal of knowledge in business and sales. I lost that library after I moved to south Florida and got in the habit of losing everything I had about every nine months.

My library now is becoming a source in inspiration for me and my future successes. It contains authors like Donald Trump, Jim Rohn, Zig Ziglar, John Maxwell, Robert Kiyosaki, Denis Waitley, Dr. Joe Vitale, Jeff Olsen and more. It has some of the greatest knowledge that business has ever put together and I am still a great student of my own library. I try to learn something new everyday and usually do. I cannot give myself a better present than a great education.

If you want better things out of your life, put something new into your mind. Turn off TV. Read a book. Invest in yourself and your future. Read a book that can change your life and improve who you are.

After all, success is not something you pursue, it's something you become.

I'm just sayin'...

Preaching is the one thing that this blog is not intended to be. I am in no way suggesting that I am better than anyone else or that I have all the answers. There are other answers out there to the same questions that you may have.

The purpose of this blog is to identify some choices that we all have as human beings. I illustrate some stories and events that have happened in my life and reveal the lessons learned on my part. I will also edify some concepts and ideas that I am intergrating into my life to create positive change and to live the best life possible. If it sounds like I am preaching in anyway, I am most likely preaching to myself (unless it's on a topic like "The Benefits of Having a Belt that Holds Your Pants Up").

By the same token, I will not cater to the "overly sensitive." If there is a portion of this blog that offends you, chances are that you are offended about 50 times a day by all sorts of things...and that's your problem to deal with, not mine.

Have a nice day and let's get started...

MBN

The Importance of Personal Development

I came to the conclusion that I had screwed up my life many years ago. Then I did it again...and again...and again. So where does one begin "un-screwing up" life and not repeating the process of "screwing up" one's life?

I had determined that I wanted to get my undergraduate degree in business and go on to get my MBA while I was attending Florida State University. It was not "in the cards," and I joined the Navy in January 1986. I graduated from the U.S. Navy's nuclear training pipeline and became a real-life nuclear mechanical operator in the fleet. It was insanely hard work. After I got out of the Navy, I had already proven (at least to myself) that I was just as smart (if not smarter) than other people with college degrees. I did not pursue my degree after receiving my Honorable Discharge. After all, I was already "smart enough."

I went into business for myself immediately after getting out of the Navy. I didn't realize that I could fail. I had what I thought was plenty of money from investing when I was in the Navy. I had a string of successes that indicated to me that I had the "Midas touch." I fell flat on my face after about 3 months. I quickly came to the realization that I had no idea what I was doing. I got a job as a manager in a jewelry store chain and was promoted to manager in about 7 months. I understood the basics of running a business. I was somewhat successful again and I thought I had the "Midas touch" again.

Then, another business oportunity found me and I went for it. Someone had told me about a book called Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. I read it and applied the reading to my life the best I could...and nothing happened. I saw the book as a mystical sort of thing. Just think about wealth and wealth would come...kind of like praying for wealth and my prayers would be answered. Nothing happened. I asked my mentor at the time what the problem was. He told me that I wasn't successsful in my chosen business because I hadn't paid the price of success yet. I asked him what that price was. He replied that I would have to determine that myself. A few months later, I quit my job and failed again...this time with disastrous results. I again blamed it on what I didn't know.

I became a big fan of reading books and improving who I was mentally. After all, the people I admired the most at the time were all "self-made" entrepreneurs. Along with my initial successful business experience as a retail manager, I had begun investing in building a great personal library, reading Success magazine and learning as much as I could in business. I joined a business book club and once or twice a month I would recieve books like The Portable MBA series. I didn't realize I was investing in myself.

Now, my personal development library is quite large. Some of the authors that are in my library include Jim Rohn, Brian Tracy, Anthony Robbins, Robert Kiyosaki, Steve Farber, Denis Waitley, Sun Tzu, Miyomato Musashi, Dr. Joe Vitale and more. I have read almost all of the books in my library. Some had a great effect on me and my results and some didn't. Some kept me awake at night and some didn't. Some changed my life and some didn't. I'll return to a book I had read or an audio that I had listened to and learn something I hadn't noticed before. That book or recording that didn't change my life a year ago is all of the sudden having a profound effect after a year.

That last sentence sums up what I think is the importance of having a personal development library. The object is to improve my life, to get a little better everyday. Some people want to make the world a better place and I think that's great. However, I have noticed that the people who are most effective at making their world a better place have begun with improving themselves and adding one more better person to the world.

Re-Beginning the Begin

So, I "began" this blog in January and I like it as my personal blogging home...except I haven't blogged anything. "So, what have you been doing since January?" you might be asking. It would seem that I have been doing a whole lot of nothing, but this is hardly the case. Among other things, I have been thinking a lot about how to begin this blog and looking for the inspiration to get started blogging again. For those who didn't realize that I was blogging before, I began blogging in October 2005, when I was "living" in a vacant hotel room in south Florida at Yahoo right before Hurricane Wilma redesigned the State of Florida (I was very broke at the time). This is where my blogging began. I also did some blogging at MySpace for a while, until I discovered Facebook. I thought that I would just blog at Facebook, but FB is more of a personal site for me (notice the lack of a link).

So then, I found myself writing blogs again and saving them in Microsoft Word on my hard drive. I had gotten into the habit of writing them out first and then publishing them later. My computer always seemed to freeze when I was almost finished and the entire posting would be lost. Then, I realized this work habit wouldn't work with this new platform. I solved the problem of my computer freezing. So, for the last couple of months I have been thinking of how to start this blog.

My typing skills sucked, so I had to learn how to type. I never took typing in school, because we communicated by tying notes to rocks and throwing them at each other. It was much more painful than email, but I never thought that our primitive system would ever be replaced. My typing skills still suck, but they are getting better.

Today, it donned on me. "Just do it." In many ways, the famous Nike slogan is what we need to remember when starting a new project, a new business or anything new. "Just do it."

Now that I have all sorts of inspiration to start blogging again, here it is...the beginning (again).

More to follow...lots more!

MBN


P.S. My high school English teacher (and all of my friends that are now teachers) will probably have a field day with this...oh well!

First, who is Michael Neely?

Please allow me to introduce myself. My name is Michael Neely and I am an entrepreneur, a salesman, and a businessman. I am a voracious reader, proponent of personal development/improvement and student of life...which I intend to be the purpose of this blog site. You might be asking "What do you know about success?" As I have lived my life (and continue to do so), the real question became about what I didn't know about success.

I grew up in a small suburb of Birmingham, AL where I graduated high school. I was a state championship soccer player my sophomore year in high school and made the equivalent of an "All-State" team. I went to Florida State University for one semester where I majored in English, Physics and partying. I "accelerated my career" in physics by joining the U.S. Navy and served as a nuclear mechanical operator on board USS Shark until October 1989. My first business attempt was as a distributor for a credit card company that went bankrupt three months after I began marketing for them. My first civilian job was as an assistant manager in a now-defunct jewelry store chain. I was always one of the top sales people in the company and got my store in Meridian, MS. I completed the 18 month managerial training course in about 7 months. I then started my second business, quit my job and failed again. After a few more personal and business failures, I blamed it on my hometown and moved to south Florida in March 2002. I quickly realized that it was not Birmingham's fault. I became a commodities options and futures broker and found myself sleeping on a park picnic table in Coral Springs, FL and waiting tables at Chili's. It was like the scene from the movie "Falling Down" with Michael Douglas when he realized he was not "economically viable."

It was June 13, 2003 and I re-began my life with everything I could carry, a pen and notebook. A couple of "old friends" "rescued" me, took me to Palm Beach Gardens and soon I found myself sleeping on picnic tables or anywhere I could...again. I continued to build the same business I crashed in Birmingham and successfully did just that. Then, in November 2006, the bank shut down my business by closing my overdrawn business checking account. In December 2006, I was exposed to my next business and I began again. A dilemna arrived when I had to attend a business conference in Atlanta. I was so broke at the time, that I told my mentor that if I attended the meeting in Atlanta, I would have to move there. His reply was "And?" In January 2007, I moved to Atlanta got a job waiting tables and re-began my new business and consequently, my life. That gets us close enough to where we are now.

Now, the blog posts will stray away from the negative aspects and events of my life and illustrate the lessons I have learned since I moved to Atlanta. This is where I really re-began my career and upon the way started building a series of small personal successes that will inevitably translate into much larger successes.

The point of this post is to introduce myself and point out a few of the struggles and challenges I have overcome. I'm sure that it's not the end of my challenges, but I will certainly recover much faster with the experience I have behind me.

If this blog shares just a little bit of insight to help someone else avoid a setback or overcome a challenge, then its purpose will have been served.

More to follow...

MBN

Another new blog...

And here we go again! I first started blogging in September 2005, as I was lamenting that I had not started blogging during the hurricanes of south Florida that year. I lived in North Palm Beach, FL and Hurricanes Frances and Jeanne were the ones that came to my house. Then Katrina in August 2005 and Wilma in October 2005. So, it was actually the hurricanes made me do it! This is just an initial stating blog to get this thing started and there will definitely be more to follow.

MBN