TZERO Consulting

We are working on some super cool things.

New product update 8.30.20 — v5.

Philadelphia Thinkfest — 2020.

Equality. ✊🏻✊🏼✊🏽✊🏾✊🏿

A little to help you better achieve your goals.

My Secret Weapon: Waking Up Wicked Early.

There is no better habit for achieving your goals, whether personal or professional, than waking up early.

The question then becomes: How early?

If I want to hit the gym, have a meditation session, enjoy a heart breakfast, etc, how much earlier should I be waking up?

The answer is simple: To have enough time to do all of the things on your morning ritual, you should be waking up at least two hours earlier than you are right now.

If you’re serious about changing your life, we’ll want to make this a habit. And as with any new habit, we’ll want to apply a micro-changes approach.

For this habit of waking up early, simply set your clock back every week by about 15 minutes.

Tiny improvements over time ALWAYS equals exponential results.

This is far more effective than trying to just wake up at 5 AM on a whim and expecting to be able to do that every day without fail.

So I made a chart to help you out. Enjoy!

PS - Since you’re waking up 15 minutes earlier, remember to go to bed 15 minutes earlier. Don’t cut corners in your sleep!

To achieving your goals,
Tyler

I called a few of my professors today, seeing as it’s . I wanted to say hello and just thank them for being such valuable mentors and friends to me...

..and I knew it was coming, too: “So, Tyler, have you stopped trying to be all things to all people?”

It’s one of my favorite lessons they taught me:

Focus on that ONE thing, and forget about the rest.

If you simply focus on that one thing, your results will be exponential.

But the minute you start trying to be all things to all people, you’ll go mad.

Take McDonald’s, for instance. If you’ve watched “The Founder” on Netflix, you saw that they simplified their business by eliminating all of the “crap” that was clogging up their efficiency.

How did they do that? They focused on their “One Thing”: Burger, Fries, Shake.

Everything else went out the window. And not just the myriad food options, either.

Employees on roller skates that bring your food to you? Gone.

Food trays, plates and silverware? Gone.

Jukebox? Gone.

You get the point. They got rid of a lot of stuff.

It’s not always common practice, but common sense is pretty powerful stuff, and it turned their business into a well-oiled machine.

When I started out with my business plan, I can remember having 10+ “services” that I was trying to offer to people.

Seriously.

And I can also - very vividly - remember my professors trying to drive home the point of simplification (to which I’m sure I about drove them up the wall with)

It’s common sense, but it’s not always common practice.

Today, I have one product, one service...

And I do that one product, one service, very, very well.

And sometimes I sit and imagine what it would be like if I had 10+ services that I was still trying to offer... or even 5!

Especially as a one-man business machine, I know I’d just go mad!

So anyways, this was just a fun, short post about simplicity, turning common sense into common practice, and to ALWAYS appreciate your teachers, professors, coaches and mentors.

Give them a call today and say thank you!

To Teachers’ Day,
Tyler

An Open Letter: Where We've Been & Where We're Going in 2019 (and beyond...)

Let's start with where we've been.

One of our favorite things to do is to put out educational blog posts on our page, yet lately, we have not been doing that.

The truth is, it was crunch time.

Six months ago, we set out on our mission to accelerate the advent of affordable education.

We have accumulated what we feel is the largest assessment of life and business curriculum available: from seminars, webinars, books and articles, to high-paying careers, interviews, and experience, and of course formal education, self education and mentorships, too...

You name it. We did it. We studied it. We took stupid notes on it. And then we funneled and pared everything down to the essentials.

And then we put it all in here for you.

High-value. Low-cost.

The way education should be.

We have automated our coaching processes so that anyone, anywhere, can access and utilize the exact processes, methods, and tools for success in both life and in business, at their own pace and with MBA-level precision.

From powerful habits and decision-making, to supply chain and first principles, and even sales and marketing, we left no stone unturned.

We have coached some of the most successful businesses and their executives across Philadelphia using these exact processes, and it is our responsibility to bring that same success to you.

So, where are we going in 2019 and beyond?

That's a good question.

We believe in hard work, iteration and innovation, and to fail fast and move on.

We believe you should never let your left hand know what your right hand is doing.

And we believe in the hikers' philosophy to always stare at your boots and never at the summit.

One day at a time. One step at a time...

And as for tomorrow, our vision for TZERO is to create a better world, and our mission is to accelerate the advent of affordable education.



- Tyler


See more here: www.tzerogroup.com

Don’t confuse business with being a celebrity.
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If you want to be a celebrity, then go take a few acting classes and give Hollywood a shot. Maybe you'll make it...
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If you want to be a business owner, then be ready to say “no” to the 9-5 lifestyle and “yes” to the 5-9.
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But, there’s a caveat…
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You have to do what you love.
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“Because if you’re in it for the money, you will never make it. But if you love what you’re doing and you always put the customer first, success will be yours.”
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You see, as a business owner, your sole motif should be to help others; to serve and to make a positive impact on the world - however big or however small.
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If you’re starting a business to make a few quick bucks and run off of public perception, then I have bad news for you...
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Your business is a ticking time-bomb.
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In the short-term you might generate a few wins, but in the long-term you will be shown the door, along with the nearly 90% of all other startups who fail within their first five years.
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In life and in business, if you aren’t doing what you love and you aren’t genuinely happy, then no amount of Instagram pictures or high paychecks will soften that blow...
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And that’s why it’s so stinkin’ important to do what you love, or don’t do it at all.
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Especially in business.
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I have seen highly successful people leap into entrepreneurship with the only goal of attaining personal wealth. But what happens is that they lose heart when faced with the inevitable setbacks, and they quit…
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The most successful entrepreneurs are not motivated by money. It’s about knowing that this is the work that you simply cannot, not do...
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It’s too important.
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Entrepreneurship is not a job, and it sure as hell is not a get-rich-quick scheme. If that’s what you’re looking for then go sit at the corner store and play the lottery all day. Maybe you’ll strike gold.
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I started TZERO with the vision of changing the way businesses are run through a process we call Business Character Development... with a modern twist to help bridge the gap with the upcoming Millennial and Z Generations.
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There is a reason that many of the most revered entrepreneurs of all-time have coaches: they know and embrace that they can’t know it all...
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Applying an entrepreneurial mindset to one’s life and career is very important to me. From the big things such as how to make cognitive decisions and solve difficult problems, to the little things that may matter even more, such as how to communicate effectively, and knowing when to hire, promote, or even fire employees...
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And then there are long-term accelerators like learning how to productively chunk your time or how to mitigate poor habits and exemplify the healthy ones.
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Truly great individuals live in a permanent state of growth and development. They are constantly pursuing new experiences, knowledge, and opportunities. These are the type of people who don’t start a business or embark on a new venture with money in mind...
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These are types who relish the journey instead of racing to the finish line.
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And if you’re going to relish in that journey, you have to be willing to ask yourself if what you’re doing - what you’re working towards - is even worth fighting for. It has to be worth being uncomfortable. It has to be worth having to stretch, to get up early, to fail, iterate and try again, to do what others aren’t willing to do.
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Because if it isn’t, then no amount of money in the world is going to make you happy...
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Why?
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Well, because money doesn’t equal happiness and money sure as hell doesn’t equal success.
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Money is a tool. Use it to solve the world’s problems.
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To doing what you love,
Tyler
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If you liked this post, please give it a “Like” or “Share”, and we would love to hear your thoughts in the “Comments” section below! If you aren’t following TZERO Consulting on Facebook or Instagram already, go ahead and click that “Follow” button for more weekly insights on life and business. And as always, if you have ever thought of applying coaching to your life or business, please reach out!
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Quote Credit: Ray Kroc, Founder: McDonald’s

Want to make a difference? Make your bed.
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And I don’t mean this in some sort of metaphorical way.
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You know, like the saying “you’ve made your bed and now you have to lie in it.”
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I mean this quite literally.
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Make your stinkin’ bed.
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Making your bed will reinforce the fact that the little things in life matter.
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If you can’t do the little things right, you’ll never be able to do the big things right.
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And whether you want to admit it or not, the little things are far more important than the large things are when it comes to managing your life, finances, relationships, or business.
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Think about it for a second…
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Do the small things tend to add up in your personal life? Maybe your shoelace broke when you were dressing for work, then you spilled your coffee on your freshly-washed clothes, and then you bit your tongue while eating lunch and now that’s just nagging at you all day… All of a sudden, you’ve had a bad day.
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Or maybe it’s the complete opposite, and you found a five dollar bill floating down the sidewalk on your way to work, then you got a text from your spouse just wishing you a happy day, and that was followed by a breakthrough with a tough project with your team that you had been working on for weeks.
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We can use countless examples. In your relationships, do the tiny things like saying ‘goodmorning’ (or not) or giving your spouse a kiss (or not) tend to add up over time and then just explode (or implode) into something magical (or tragic)? Of course they do! In your finances, do you find yourself in debt, yet don’t know why? Look at your statements. Do you have a ton of tiny purchases at Starbucks, Amazon, or Wal-Mart, that you’re maybe just a tad too embarrassed to admit are adding up over time? Of course you do! In your business, how do you think people like Elon Musk or Bill Gates got to where they are today? By making the Tesla Model 3 or the Cloud and iPhone X right out of the gate? Of course not! They did the small things right, focused on one sale at a time, and continued to improve throughout their years…
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You see, small leaks can sink a great ship…
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And tiny investments can compound over time…
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But the grit of it all is that the little things are far more important than the large things we so often let harbor in our thoughts…
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The "I’m having a bad week" (or month, or year, God-forbid..), "my relationship isn’t working", "I can’t escape my debts", "my business isn’t growing as fast as I want it to"…
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These are all very big-picture items that you let encapsulate you…
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Yet if you were to just focus on the little things, you would be remarked at just how much your life would be changed…
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And for the better.
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So while making your bed can seem like such an ordinary and mundane task to accomplish, it often sets the table for an accomplished, productive day.
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By taking only a few minutes of your time every morning, you can ignite a positive tone for your day.
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You see, we write a lot about productivity and healthy habits.
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Why? Because, well, we teach a lot about productivity and healthy habits. Not just “doing things” for the sake of doing them and feeling “busy”, but doing things for the sake of being as efficient and productive as possible.
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There is a remarkable difference between the two.
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If you were to see a snippet of my daily to-do list, you would see that the very first thing is to make my bed.
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Why? Because, well, it is a way of quite literally putting yesterday to bed and making way for the opportunities of a new day.
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US Navy SEAL Admiral William McRaven gave an inspirational speech to students at the University of Texas, stating that making your bed will give you “a small sense of pride, and it will encourage you to do another task, and another, and another. And by the end of the day that one task completed will have turned into many tasks completed.”
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As the basal ganglia works, so do your habits…
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And as habits work, so do you…
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Once a routine of something as simple as making your bed becomes habit, you may find that other healthy habits will naturally follow.
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Perhaps you now keep your clothes off the floor and suddenly, dusting also becomes a compulsory custom that you welcome. Heck, you might even start doing the dishes and folding your laundry as they require.
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You might start telling your spouse just how much you appreciate her, and what once seemed like an outward falling of love is now something reattached and something you look forward to.
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You might decide that going to Starbucks is an unnecessary and expensive task to undertake day-in and day-out, and that maybe if you had just woken up thirty minutes earlier each day, you could save over $125 each month by making your own coffee. Remember, these things add up! The best part? You can still buy Starbucks coffee! The only difference is that you made it. It’s cheaper this way and you’ll probably feel a little better about yourself, too.
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Or you might even look at how much you need to accomplish in your business, month-in and month-out, as an incredible task at face value, but when you learn the process of chunking you come to realize that small, positive tweaks, changes, and tasks accomplished day-in and day-out will lead to exponential, Uncoachable results year-in and year-out.
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But start with something simple:
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Make your stinkin’ bed.
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To making your bed,
Tyler
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If you liked this post, please give it a “Like” or “Share”, and we would love to hear your thoughts in the “Comments” section below! If you aren’t following TZERO Consulting already, go ahead and click that “Follow” button for more weekly insights on life and business. And as always, if you have ever thought of applying coaching to your life or business, please reach out!
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Long (although very much worth it) Blog Alert
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Want to break a habit?
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Apply the "Golden Rule" and change the routine. You see, if we keep the same cue and the same reward, then a new routine can be inserted.
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Recently, I was having a conversation with a good friend of mine. We were chatting about habits and routines, and the variety of different things that we teach our clients on the “small victories” of success in life and business.
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Personally, I love the topic of how habits and the brain works. It’s one of my all-time favorites.
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So there we were, talking about mind-mapping, and how critical it is to physically map out your thoughts and ideas, so that you can turn them into actual processes and routines that make sense.
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By the end of the conversation, we were talking about how to train yourself to wake up wicked early in the morning.
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(Note: I told him my exact process and methodology for waking up early as crap. He texted me the next morning saying that he tried it out, and he loved it. So read on...)
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I remember when I first started to identify this unhealthy habit of mine as a cause for concern. I literally could not help it but to sleep in until 9 o’clock or later, after going to bed around 10. That’s almost 12 hours of sleep. Half of my day was gone simply because I wanted to sleep instead of waking up and being productive…
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I remember discussing this with my dad, and how I started to notice a trend. I would go to bed around 9 or 10 o’clock each night, and my body would wake up early - usually around 4 or 5 o’clock - each morning…
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The problem, however, was that my subconscious mind would tell my conscious mind, “Wow, it’s only 4 o’clock? I can still get another five hours of sleep,” and I would listen to it…
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This is not only bad from a productivity point of view, but also from a health perspective, as well. When you go back to sleep after your body has already woken up, you’re not only hurting yourself physically (higher risk of diabetes, heart disease), but you’re hurting yourself mentally (depression, socioeconomic status), as well...
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You aren’t supposed to sleep for 12 hours a day. Your body, truthfully, only needs about six to seven hours of rest each night.
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Think about it this way… The last time you woke up, decided to go back to bed, and then woke up again several hours later, how did you feel? Did you wake up groggy, feeling mentally taxed, and just generally more tired? Of course you did! Your body isn’t supposed to sleep that long. It’s just not healthy for you!
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So instead of saying, “I can still get another five hours of sleep or so,” what I needed my subconscious mind to say was, “Wow, it’s 4 o’clock! Time to get up. I have five more hours to be productive, before most people even start their days...”
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You see, you need to learn to train your subconscious self, because it typically doesn’t have good intentions for you. You need to rewire it to listen to your conscious self.
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And I knew that in order to do that, I had to change my habit of continuing to sleep after my body had told my mind that it was ready to be awake and be active.
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But… How exactly do you change an unhealthy habit?
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The habit equation is simple…
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Want to break a habit? Apply the Golden Rule and change the routine. You see, if we keep the same cue and the same reward, then a new routine can be inserted.
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For my example of sleep drunkenness (sleeping in), the cue and the reward never changed. My body’s internal clock would still wake up at it’s usual time around 4 or 5 o’clock in the morning (cue), and I still received the mental intoxication that I was craving (reward).
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The thing that did change, however, was the routine. Instead of laying there and talking myself back into more sleep, I would - quite literally - spry out of bed, make it up, scurry downstairs, and start a pot of coffee. I’d follow this with breakfast, tuning in to my favorite business podcast (We Study Billionaires - The Investors Podcast), having a shower, and then meditating before I started my work day. This started my days at earlier times than nearly any other person, and gave me that mental intoxication or emotional high that I was craving.
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(Note: This is “Bracket One” of my 7-Bracket Day-Map. I will blog on each bracket over the next few weeks until you have the full picture of how a typical day is mapped out)
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But doing this new routine once, or even a few times, isn’t enough. For a habit to stay changed, people must believe the change is actually possible. And most often, that belief only emerges with the help of a group, coach, mentor, etc… Someone to hold you accountable.
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It is important to note that though the process of habit change may seem simple on the surface, it is a Fool’s errand to imply that smoking, alcoholism, overeating, or other ingrained patterns can be upended without real effort. Genuine change requires hard work and self-understanding of the cravings that drive certain behaviors. No one will stop sleeping in late simply because they sketch a habit loop.
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So you see, I had to want to change for the betterment of myself. After all, how was I going to see what I was trying to achieve in life and in business, if I spent all of that time sleeping…
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If you want to stop a certain habit, figure out a different routine that will satisfy the cravings filled by that habit.
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If you want to change the way your company culture is run, study your organizational habits to determine why you really have these lapses of judgement. You will more-likely-than-not find that organizational culture is hierarchical, and that poor employee performance is a reflection of self. For example, do you have a tendency to show up to work late or leave early? Your employees will likely do the same. Does communication often feel difficult, forced, and unenjoyable? Your employees will likely feel the same. Do you bash and belittle your employees for a job poorly done, even behind closed doors? Your employees will likely behave the same. You will need to understand and rewire the routines of your personal and business habits, so that you are able to let them have a positive trickle-down effect on your company as a whole.
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Whether you’re changing the habits of your personal life or business practices, the evidence is clear: If you want to change a habit, you must change the routine, and your odds of success will go up dramatically when you commit to the change and are held accountable.
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Failures can become success stories. Smokers can quit puffing. Foodies can quit snacking on junk foods and sodas. You can stop berating your employees, sleeping all day, or drinking too much alcohol.
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You just need to change the routine.
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What unhealthy habit do you have that you are going to change?
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To healthy habits,
Tyler
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If you liked this post, please give it a “Like” or “Share”, and feel free to leave a comment below! And if you aren’t following TZERO Consulting already, go ahead and click that “Follow” button for weekly insights and more life & business-related content like this.
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In life and in business, there is one ultimate factor that will determine whether you will be a success, or whether you will be a failure...
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For some people, it’s the education you had...
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For others, it’s the family life that you were brought up in…
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And then there’s people who think it’s that they were born male or female or black or white or purple…
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The facts are, none of that really matters when it comes to your success as an individual.
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The only thing, the single most determining factor that will either make or break you as a person and as an entrepreneur starting or growing their business… the one thing, is your character.
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Your character is truly everything to a business owner...
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Your character is what defines who you are as an individual…
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When I think of character, I think of my favorite President.
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“In temper he was Earnest, yet controlled; frank, yet sufficiently guarded; patient, yet energetic; forgiving, yet just to himself; generous, yet firm.”
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This quote was one of many that were written about the character of the 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln.
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Lincoln was a role model for character, integrity, and honesty; traits that never left him throughout the trials and tribulations of leading our country during one of the worst periods in its history.
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The word “character”, of course, was once one of the most highly regarded words in the English language; used to describe those of a highly-regarded quality, it was once so important to society that it was even promoted as an essential component of one’s identity.
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Fast forward to today, and we know this word to be a rarity amongst men. The emphasis transitioned from a focus on virtue and character to a focus on self and material possessions.
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Character development isn’t as popular as developing the zero’s in your bank account, but it is one of the most satisfying, emotionally intelligent endeavors you will ever undertake.
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Good character consists of defining your values and integrity based on time-tested principles and self-reflection and having the courage to live your life accordingly.
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Just take a second and think about qualities that people of the highest character have, and then ask yourself if this trait defines you, or if it is something that could use some work...
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Do you have integrity?
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People who have integrity have strong moral principles and core values. They follow their life with these values, whether people are watching or not.
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Are you able to persevere through the rough times instead of giving up? Are you humble enough to come down from the mountain once you’ve reached a certain peak in your life or business?
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Are you honest?
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Not just in that you are simply telling the truth, but you are living the truth; being straightforward and trustworthy in all of your interactions, relationships, and thoughts.
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Are you loyal, kind and loving?
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Or do you have a tendency to show loyalty to those who offer you the most money, instead of the guy who offers you a generous amount of money and probably has higher moral values? Or are you shrewd and cruel, and have a tendency to show outbursts and periods of anger towards others?
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Through good habits and willpower, are you able to overcome your desires or feelings in order to follow the best course of action or to rise to your commitments or principles? Do you have such a strong sense of self-control that your are able to reach your goals and dreams? Or are you going to stay in bed until 11:00 each day, or stay out drinking with your buddies until 2 o’clock in the morning several nights a week because “it’s what everyone else is doing”?
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That is how you get nowhere.
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Look, developing high-character traits can be extremely difficult, and it is... it is really difficult stuff. Not only to develop them, but to stay consistent and committed to them, as well.
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The ability to contort your character and be as self-disciplined as possible - in life and in business - is at the core of our Business Character Development programs here at TZERO.
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To learn more, give us a follow for weekly insights and feel free to check us out at ---> tzerogroup.com
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To character,
Tyler
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You catch more flies with honey than vinegar...
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With fall weather showing up, so has the cold weather and, unfortunately, the cold virus.
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Lately, I have been running on empty, bedridden and sick, taking plums of antibiotics and cough drops to weather the storm.
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On my way home from the corner CVS yesterday, I stumbled past a unique bookstore, Neighborhood Books, on the corner of 19th & South. Having never seen this store before, I was intrigued and went inside.
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Wall-to-wall, the books piled on like leaves on a crisp Fall day, each with their own unique colors and markings.
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As I walked around, I noticed the shelves were labeled by what genre it held.
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Legal thrillers...
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Pulp fiction…
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Comic novels...
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And then there was this tiny section that read “Local studies”...
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Normally a section like this wouldn’t have caught my eye, but right in the center of the shelf was an old book that looked like it hadn’t been opened in years, and if it did get opened it would have fallen apart on the spot.
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Naturally, I grabbed it off the shelf…
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It didn’t have any writings on the exterior, so as I flipped through the first couple of pages I was able to find that this was a 1744 copy of “Poor Richard’s Almanack”, a book series written by Benjamin Franklin under the pseudonym “Richard Saunders” back in 1732.
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I pulled out my phone to do a little research and found that for the 26 years, the Almanack was a wildly successful bestseller in colonial America, selling nearly ten thousand copies per year.
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It consisted of a hodgepodge of facts, weather forecasts, household hints, puzzles, historical tidbits, poems, and assorted amusements. However, what made the Almanack most well-known were the witty proverbs and maxims that Franklin included as fillers.
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Page by page, you could see all of the little oddities that the book held within.
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And then, I stumbled upon one of Franklin’s patented maxims:
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“Tart Words make no Friends: a spoonful of honey,
Will catch more flies than a Gallon of Vinegar.”
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An English proverb, you catch more flies with honey than vinegar, is a saying of kindness.
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It doesn’t have a counter-intuitive meaning. If you are trying to catch flies, you are literally going to attract more with honey. That is, you’re going to get what you want (in the proverb - flies, but in life - any goal) with kindness rather than acidity.
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You catch more flies with honey than vinegar.
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The flies represent anything you want to achieve. Honey (sweet) represents anything pleasant that you do to get what you want. Vinegar (sour) represents anything unpleasant that you do to get what you want. This is a saying that means you will be more successful in your life, your relationships, your business - your anything - by being kind to others rather than being mean and doing hurtful, dishonest things to them.
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You catch more flies with honey than vinegar.
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There are countless stories of business people who went from being hasty and rude to being nice and understanding. One of those people is entrepreneur Mark Cuban.
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“Nice is way undervalued,” he says, “and I learned the hard way.”
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“My partner, Todd, came to me one day and he goes - now I like to curse - and he goes, ‘I don’t care about cursing, but you curse too much. Not everybody’s as accepting towards cursing as you are… So calm the [expletive] down.’ And I took that to heart. It became apparent to me, that the nicer I got, the more effective the people around me got, the more productive we got, and the more sales we got.”
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You see, the people who surround you are going to respond in the ways you would like, if you act out of kindness. Whether those people are your friends, your family, or your employees, the principle will always apply…
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And you can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.
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To kindness,
Tyler
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If you liked this post, please give it a “Like” or “Share”, and feel free to leave a comment below! And if you aren’t following us already, go ahead and click that “Follow” button for weekly insights and more business-related content like this.