Failing Forward!

What do Van Gogh, Einstein, & Jordan all have in common?

Vincent Van Gogh failed as an art dealer, flunked his entrance exam to theology school, and was fired by the church after an ill-fated attempt at missionary work. In fact, during his life, he seldom experienced anything other than failure as an artist. Although a single painting by Van Gogh would fetch in excess of $100 million today, in his lifetime Van Gogh sold only one painting, four months prior to his death.

Before developing his theory of relativity, Albert Einstein encountered academic failure. One headmaster expelled Einstein from school and another teacher predicted that he would never amount to anything. Einstein even failed his entrance exam into college.

Prior to dazzling the world with his athletic skill, Michael Jordan was cut from his sophomore basketball team. Even though he captured six championships, during his professional career, Jordan missed over 12,000 shots, lost nearly 400 games, and failed to make more than 25 would-be game-winning baskets.

Failure didn't stop Vincent Van Gogh from painting, Albert Einstein from theorizing, or Michael Jordan from playing basketball, but it has paralyzed countless leaders and prevented them from reaching their potential.

At some point, all great achievers are tempted to believe they are failures. But in spite of that, they persevere. In the face of adversity, shortcomings, and rejection, they hold onto self-believe and refuse to see themselves as failures. Here are seven abilities of achievers that enable them to rebound from failure and keep moving forward.

by Dr. John C. Maxwell

Do you think being wealthy is not spiritual?

If you have been brought up to believe that being wealthy is not spiritual, than I highly recommend you read The Millionaires of the Bible Series by Catherine Ponder. In these glorious books, you will discover that Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, and Jesus were not only prosperity teachers, but also millionaires themselves, with more affluent lifestyles than many present-day millionaires could conceive of.

(From The Secret's Daily Teachings)

So what the heck is Twitter and how does it work?

I just started using Twitter a few months ago not really understanding what it was or how to use it and today I just got my 100th Twitter Follower. So, I thought this would be a good time to blog about it...

From Wikipedia: Twitter is a social networking and micro-blogging service that allows its users to send and read other users' updates (otherwise known as tweets), which are text-based posts of up to 140 characters in length. This is a cool application!

Here is my Twitter profile... http://twitter.com/Aron_Parker

Twitter is clearly the Next Big Thing. In the past couple of months, we’ve seen CNN adopting it as a way of giving living feedback during their shows, celebrities from Britney Spears to Demi Moore opening accounts, and hundreds of thousands of new users join the ranks of Tweeters.

Businesses are getting into the Twitter game, too, using it as a way to provide near-instantaneous customer service, to promote their services, or to maintain brand awareness by staying engaged in ongoing conversations about their products and their competitors’.

Whats been missing is a guide to actually using Twitter, a “best practices” guide that will walk people and businesses through the process of building up a core of followers and beginning to build a reputation on Twitter.

Well, here is that guide. If you’re on Twitter just to keep up with friends and find the best parties, this guide isn’t for you. But if you’re looking to promote a business, build a brand, or keep up with your customers’ problems using Twitter, these 10 steps will get you through the early phases – and hopefully build up enough inertia to carry you through the next ones.

Here it is... A Practical Guide to Getting Started on Twitter

Also check out TweeterGetter. It's a great free tool that will help you get lots of followers!

http://twitter.com/Aron_Parker

Focus on just one thing at a time

When you are beginning to create intentionally, it is often better to focus on one thing at a time. With practice you will have great power to harness your energy, and then you will be able to focus on many things at the one time.

Imagine your mind as a magnifying glass with the sun shining through it. As you hold the magnifying glass steady in one place, you will create a fire. There is no difference between a magnifying glass and the sun, and your mind and the universe.

(From The Secret's Daily Teachings)

The End Of The World??? Nope... just a movie!

"The IHC's comprehensive research has confirmed with 94% certainty that in the year 2010 cataclysmic forces will decimate our planet and much of its inhabitants."

"The mission of the Institure for Human Continuity is to ensure the survival of the human race beyond 2012."

When I saw this today on InstituteForHumanContinuity.org, I was actually a little shocked and nervious at the same time! That was until I found out that the site is owned and operated by Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc. and was createed just to generate buzz about their next movie... 2012

They sure do a great job of making it look real.

Click here to watch the trailer.