Posts tagged "being different"

I love books.  There is so much wisdom in each one of them.  So much experience, so many lessons to be learned…  Books inspire us, and satisfy our hunger for knowledge.  They let our imagination loose and answers questions, “what if?” “what is more?” “how come?”  They bring us to different worlds.  They open our minds, so we can expand our vision.

Recently, I finished e-book The Road to Wealth by Robert G. Allen.  He is a best-selling author and real estate guru.  Also, he teaches thousands of people real estate tricks and how to start an information empire.  He is wealthy in knowledge and very generous with information.  This is a second book I read by him and looking forward in reading other books of his, including “Nothing Down.”

Here, I want to share some excerpts and quotes from Robert G. Allen e-book, The Road to Wealth, that will make you think, encourage you, inspire you.  It inspired me, for sure.  Enjoy these nuggets of wisdom:

“Confidence comes with practice.”

“Don’t look at the immensity of the goal.  Don’t look down at the penalty for failure.  Just keep your eyes on the next step.”

“You’ll slip and bruise yourself.  Maybe even break a leg, figuratively.  But you’ll heal, and if you maintain the proper attitude, you’ll emerge a stronger, more courageous and less fearful person.”

“Face your fear.  You always find the best fishing holes in the places where the average fisherman is afraid to go.”

“The masses are always afraid.  This leaves more for the few who dare.  We don’t have shortage of opportunity in America.  We have a shortage of courage.  The lakes are teeming with fish.  But you have to dare to climb the cliffs to get them.  Where the risks are great the rewards are greater.

Once you understand this concept, you’ll never lack for anything again.  That is, if you’re able to overcome your fear.”

“As in all fairy tales, if you want to marry the princess, you have to slay the dragon.  The greatest dragon you’ll ever face is your own fear. ”

“If you can learn to live with the fear, the world is yours.”

“Watch the crowd.  Go in the opposite direction.  Success does not come by following the crowd.  Where there are many fishermen, the lakes get fished out fast.  You must not be afraid to go against the grain – to go alone to unclaimed territory.”

“To be successful you must learn to be different.  Find true friends who will admire you for your courage.  Any friend who encourages you to be less than you can be is not real friend by anyone’s standard.  Be different.  While the masses seek security, do the contrary.  March out into the risk.  If the masses huddle in a corner, afraid, stand out from them.  Face your fear.  Look around you.  See the masses standing in lives, waiting for someone to take care of them.  Step out of line and form a new line – with you at the head of it.

If fear of failure causes the multitudes to cower, let this be your cue.  Like all great people before you, determined to fail way to success if necessary.

If the masses yearn to be loved, strive instead to be respected.  It is greater to be respected than to be loved.  For respect is the foundation of love.  There can be no love without it.  When you learn to face your fear, you will come to respect yourself.  And you will be irresistible.  It takes courage to step out of the line marked “security” into the line marked “risk.”

“You’re already wealthy.  You are your wealth.  Wealth is not having.  It’s being.  Nothing you have is as important as what you are.”

“Acceptance is harder to give than advice but infinitely more valuable.”

“From ashes of failure grew my greatest success.”

“If you refuse to accept failure, you cannot fail.  You may fall down a cliff or two, but you must learn to get up, dust yourself off and keep climbing.  Only those who are willing to fail again and again deserve to make it to the top.”

“The brain is the most powerful computer in the world – your personal Einstein.”

“How do you stretch your brain to accept bigger and bigger ideas?  Associate with big thinkers.”

“Often hunches are correct.  Try to create an environment in which hunches can be nurtured.

Feed the faith, starve the doubt.  Learning how to recognize and follow this still-small voice can lead us to levels of success that we could not attain otherwise.

Thus, by listening to positive thinkers, reading positive books and by learning to follow our hunches, we can actually program ourselves to be more successful.

One of the best brain-stretching activities is some form of regular exercise.  Exercise builds self-esteem.  And self-esteem is the fuel that keeps us running after other people give up.  The better you feel about yourself, the more willing you will be to accept those big ideas from others and those hunches from your own computer.”

“You are obliged to help other people in anyway you can because it’s going to come back to you.  Your success is assured if you help enough people get what they want.”

“Whatever you plant in your life, you’re going to get back.”

I did it.  My friends did it.  Lots of women still do it.  Men do it, too.  All creatures, animals and birds do it all the time.  They camouflage themselves in their environment.  They hide to escape predators; they hide to save their lives.  A lizard’s skin tone suddenly resembles rustic fallen leaves on the ground.  Squirrel’s fur color is exact like palm tree’s or any tree’s bark.  Robin lifts up his head resembling a tree leaf.  Insects become the same color as surface they land on.  It’s a trick of survival, matter of life and death situation.

Now you probably asking, “What animals and we have in common?” We don’t need to hide from predators.  This does not make sense.  Or does it?

Looking deeply in ourselves, we’ll find we do camouflage.  The only difference among animals and us is that camouflage saves and protects animals, but it has an adverse reaction to us.  To some degree or another, we all have “a fit in” disease, and could be detrimental to our self-image, self-identity and even our health.

All of us probably heard or said to others “Oh, I like your outfit.  Where did you get it?”  Let’s admit it, we like to wear the same or similar clothes as others wear.  Even fashion magazines compare the real designer clothes to bargain look-a-likes, that anyone can “afford.”  By “fitting-in,” we camouflage our individuality, our individual tastes.  We blend in with others, by avoiding to be different.  We wear the similar hairstyles, similar jewelry, similar shoes.  We even “copy” movie stars.  Our justification is that now we look like famous people, or perhaps even better.

Don’t get me wrong, though.  Some of us try really hard to be different, but our society is set up this way that we look at those people who are different as outcasts, odd, strange and eccentrics.  Why can’t we accept them as normal human beings celebrating their differences and individuality?  They just try to express themselves of who they are and not what society wants them to be.  Better yet, why can’t we express unique ourselves in our clothes, our style full-heartedly and would not be judged and not judge others who do the same?  Why can’t we just celebrate our differences?

Secondly, beauty is everything for many of us.  We do everything we can to stay thin, young and beautiful.  Some of us go to the extremes to have plastic surgery, to go under the knife, just to become a beauty from outside.  That’s a form of extreme, another form of camouflage.  We want to fit-in a beautiful world around us, among beautiful friends in a beautiful society where media plays a huge role in changing “ugly ducklings” to beautiful swans, or showing never-aging actors and actresses.  Whatever happened to beauty from inside?  Whatever happened to intelligence and creativity and resourcefulness  as great qualities? Whatever happened for giving respect to older people who proudly are showing their age and wisdom?  It seems that all of this is forgotten.  All forgotten of what is important.  Outside beauty, no matter what way is achieved, no matter how many times going under the knife is all that matters.  To me, that’s a camouflage under the mask.  Shockingly enough, still physically not developed teens go under the knife to get breast implants.  Everything is just for an image, so they would fit in among beautiful people.  All of this fake beautification is just a mask.  What people do not realize is that no matter if person is the most beautiful from outside, if he or she does not have a high self-esteem, no boob job or face lifts will be good enough.  They’ll feel horrible anyway.  The first thing what they need fixing is their self-esteem.  If they are proud of who they are, they’ll not need plastic surgery to make them fake beauties.  Here is an idea for the media: how about a show portraying how people can be beautiful from inside.  There are many everyday heroes doing great deeds.  They don’t need to hide under fake masks.  They are beautiful all around.  It’s what inside that matters, and no makeover will change that.  Then maybe our children will learn more valuable lessons in life.

The third camouflage is not that noticeable, but it is as destructible.  Many of us don’t even know or notice it until it is too late, and we get easily lost.  We camouflage ourselves among family, at our work, at our endless the same over and over again schedule, earning that dollar to pay the bills.  We get easily stuck in the same routine over and over again.  We become what everyone expects us to be: a great wife, great husband, a breadwinner, excellent employee or manager, great mother, great father…  We start to become people-pleasers at no matter what price.  We take care of all of the world, and become what world expects us to become, but we never truly find the time to take care of ourselves.  We get so involved in the same routine over and over again.  Days, months, years go by very quickly, and we lose ourselves in every day life.  We lose ourselves.  Period.  Then, if we’re lucky enough, we wake up one day.  Many of us are not that lucky.  But if we are, we start asking ourselves, “Who am I? What do I like? What I’m here to do? I did everything for everybody, how about me?  What do I want in life?  What do I want to accomplish for myself?” We hit identity crisis.  When our children grow up and move out, or if marriage did not work or spouse died, many of us start to feel empty.  We gave all to others, and nothing is left for us.  Some of us hit the bottom and get depressed.  But some of us are lucky to still have time to re-discover ourselves.

Life is too short to be unhappy.  So let’s be happy for who we are.  Let’s wear clothes and hairstyles that express our individuality and makes us comfortable.  It’s OK to be different.  Let’s not follow the crowd.  Let’s be proud of who we are, not hide behind fake masks of plastic surgery.  Let’s be proud of our gray hair and wrinkles that show our wisdom acquired by age.  Let’s find the time for ourselves to do what we want to do in our lives, and learn and accomplish more, and be proud of who we are.  It is great to be imperfect.  Nature is imperfect.  That’s why it is so beautiful.  We do not need to hide from predators like animals do.  Therefore, let’s open ourselves like rose opens it’s bud and show the world who we truly are.  Let’s come out of camouflage.

For inspiration to be different and self-expressive, you can log into Dalia Koss Unique Jewelry where you’ll find stunning one-of-a-kind pieces that no one has.  You can express yourself with her art pieces in the most unique ways.    Shoerazzi.com brings you the best of the best in shoes, all in different styles.  Here you’ll see celebrities and people on the street wear them portraying their unique style.  living on impulse is all about life-style, adventures, living life you can only dream of, unless of course you decide to live it yourself.

Be yourself and inspire others to be themselves as well.  World is too boring when people want to be the same.

Most of us are usually the followers.  We want to be like somebody.  We want to fit in in the crowd.  If we differ in something, we think something is wrong with us.  How can we be different, why can’t we be like everyone else?  What we do not realize is that by thinking like this, we put ourselves in the box.  We become average people, looking average way, doing average things – we become like everybody.

Actually, not fitting in – is not a bad thing.  That means, we are different.  We have our unique personality, unique style – we are our unique ourselves.  Instead of hiding our uniqueness, we should celebrate it.  Being different is a gift.  Being different opens up all the new doors.  When we stand out from the crowd, we get different opportunities that no average person will ever get:  from getting a job to having a successful business to having a great life simply by being ourselves.

Think about it.  Do you know how many job applications employer gets?  Many applications and resumes never even get read.  How many businesses there are selling the same things? Do you know how many average people there are having routine jobs they hate, and never differentiate showing the actual talents they have because they are afraid to be different?  Unfortunately, many.

If we look for a job, we usually do it backwards.  We look for any job that pays.  Then, we get stuck with it, hate it, but we can tell ourselves, “Well, at least it pays the bills and we get benefits.” We get a job and we adjust to it.

The better way would be to look at our passions and skills, our gifts, our strengths and look for the job accordingly.  This way we will stand out and we will enjoy our jobs.  Employer will see right away the enthusiasm we have and how much we can contribute to the company.

Next, we got to promote ourselves.  Going for the job is like a sales job.  You are selling yourself.  If you would be an employer, would you hire yourself?  Stand out from the crowd:

1.  Learn about the job and industry.

2.  Go talk to employees to find out important people’s names, insider information like new positions opening up.  Also, when talking to them see if they are happy with the company.  If most of them are not, that means the company does not treat people right.  Look at other options, if you get a bad feeling.

3.  Always trust your instincts.

4.  If you need to learn some needed skills, sign up for classes.  Find out details what company and employer needs and show them what you can offer.

5.  Show employer you’re enthusiastic.  Attitude is everything.

6.  Most importantly, be yourself.  Be confident in your skills and who you are.

Now, if you have your own business, how to stand out?  As I mentioned before, there are so many ordinary businesses offering ordinary products we can find anywhere.  Some businesses even steal other business ideas or product lines to be more competitive.  Their mentality is, “if competition can sell these items, why can’t we?  We even can sell for lower price.”  Some owners even sneak to competitor’s supply trucks to steal supplier’s names.  What they do not realize is that in long run, they not only ruin competitor’s business, they ruin themselves.  They want to be ordinary and copy others.

The same, like with a job, if you go to business just to make money, the business will never survive and you’ll be miserable in the process.  Now, if you utilize your gifts and skills, and you’re passionate what you’re doing, you not only enjoy what you’re doing, but your customers will see that through you.  To stand out, you got to offer something unique:  product or service that nobody has.  People love different things, something that is out-of-ordinary.  One real great example is Dalia Koss at daliakoss.com.  Dalia makes the most extraordinary jewelry.  In 5 years of business, she never runs out of her creativity.  She makes one-of-a-kind jewelry and never makes the same.  Not only she dazzles customers with her creations, but she gives the best service.  She will match customer with a necklace, what will look good.  She even transforms a non-jewelry wearer to one who never leaves home without her jewelry.  Dalia creates magic with her shop and she is passionate what she does.  That’s a true example of standing out from the crowd.

Photo courtesy of daliakoss.com

When you’re passionate about your talents and who you are, you naturally stand out from the crowd.  This becomes your way of living – being passionate for life.  It transforms in everything you do.  It becomes your lifestyle.  Another great example is Max Spiker.  His lifestyle represents his way of being.  He is curious about everything, travels all over the world, takes on adventures and inspires people on the way.  Max does not let anything stop him from achieving what he wants.  He has a great outlook on life, and he turns his dreams into reality.  He is go-getter and inspires people by being him.  Many people ask, “How does he do it?”  He always finds the way – and that’s his way of life.  He stands out from the crowd by being him.

Both Dalia Koss and Max Spiker are my family.  I’m so proud of them, and they are the biggest inspiration in my life.  I love them with all my heart.  They inspired me to write this article.

To sum it up, to be extraordinary rather than ordinary and to stand out from the crowd, we got to:

1. Use our talents, gifts, passions at work and life;

2.  Be different than everybody else;

3.  Believe in ourselves, and most importantly, be ourselves.

There is nobody like us, and we should utilize it to our advantage.