A Story About An Entrepreneur and the Real Meaning of Success & Wealth

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Rarely has any movie left such a lasting impression on the American public as Frank Capra’s all-time masterpiece --- “It’s a Wonderful Life.” We all know the story and have seen it many times.

On the surface, the movie appears to be a sappy, sentimental film which puts a smile on our face and brings tears to our eyes, every time. In reality, this film serves as a universal story of the enduring human spirit -- filled with many powerful lessons about life, business and money.

It’s our story -- yours and mine. It’s a story about the George Bailey within us all. It reminds us of our own human condition and the deep issues we must confront. Especially at year’s end, the story’s core message nudges us to take inventory of our lives, evaluate our worth and question our place in a world that does not behave as we often expect it.

The REAL STORY Behind the Story … Does This Sound Like YOURS?

As uplifting and inspiring as the end of this film is, “It's a Wonderful Life" has a very dark side as well. George Bailey, played by James Stewart, is a man at the end of his rope. Throughout his life, he has sacrificed his own needs to make everyone else happy.

Young and ambitious, he dreams of traveling the world, and accomplishing great things. However, George must abandon his plans, when his father suddenly dies, and he must take over his dad’s building and loan business to carry on the tradition. It is a well-respected business that genuinely puts people ahead of profit, yet in George’s eyes, it is the chain that ties his life down.

That is just the beginning of George’s spiral downward. One Christmas Eve, $8000 is misplaced by George`s absent-minded uncle, driving poor George deeper into despair. The combination of his own dashed dreams and the prospect of abandoning the town to Potter -- an old, corrupt man who represents the most despicable image of capitalism – sends George into an emotional crisis so large that he contemplates suicide. Rescued by an angel determined to get his wings, George is then shown how much good he contributed to the world, and what life would have been like if he hadn`t been born.

The REAL Message: 3 Profound Lessons About Money, Success and the Purpose of Life

LESSON 1: Failure is in the eye of the beholder. It’s all relative to your goals, expectations and values.

"It's a Wonderful Life” is a movie about a small town guy who thinks he is a failure and wishes he had never been born, It is only by getting a glimpse of what life would be like without him, does George get a major epiphany. “He is not a failure afterall.” He learns that he contributed to the happiness of many people, and that he made a difference.

Good things happen and bad things happen to us all. A bank run happens and someone nearly drowns. Yet, by the end of the movie, George Bailey reminds us -- as business owners -- that no matter what goals and dreams we are pursuing, real success comes from our journey and the lives we touch along the way.

LESSON 2: Our true wealth is measured by the love and support of family and friends. There is no $$ amount that can replace it.

In the beginning of the movie, all goes well for Bailey - a beautiful wife, a few children and a lot of friends. George even pursues his dream of building a village with affordable houses in Bedford. Unfortunately for Bailey, life spirals downhill after the Depression and then bankruptcy. It is at the point when Bailey is unable to handle the burden of all the people's money he cannot repay, he contemplates suicide and ending his misery.

In that moment, all George could see was the “dark” side. He loses perspective of the many blessings still in his life. At the end of the movie, George opens up a book given to him by his guardian angel with a handwritten note: "Remember: No man is a failure who has friends."

We too often fail to truly appreciate and treasure our homes, our family, our friends, and even life itself. Wouldn't it be nice if each of us could learn the lesson, as George did, that life is already wonderful? That where we put our focus determines if it is so?

LESSON 3: We all have a purpose in life. Our purpose is not something we decide. Rather it is something we discover. Through the events of our life, our purpose finds us.

As with George, we all go through life, with a certain amount of struggle and adversity. Sometimes life is frustrating,. Sometimes we fail. Sometimes we might even reach the end of our rope and wonder “is this all there is? Why was I even born, anyway?”

George did not recognize his life purpose until he hit rock bottom and questioned his very existence. With the helping hand of his guardian angel, he got to see the truth. The roadblocks that forced him to sacrifice his dreams and instead serve the community where he grew up were, in reality, the stepping stones to living his life’s purpose.

If, like George Bailey, we could see what life would be like, had we not been born, we would realize how truly fortunate we are to simply be in this world. We would discover that every event in our life – no matter how mundane or how difficult -- somehow is leading us down the path of our life purpose.

No amount of personal or business failure, no amount of misfortune, no amount of struggle or turmoil can change the immeasurable value of our lives and the difference we are already making every step of the way. Our smallest contributions are often the most significant.

As we welcome a new year, may each and every one of you, take inventory of your life, through the eyes of George Bailey, and awaken to the real truth, "It’s a wonderful life."

Denise Corcoran - CEO, The Empowered Business (tm) - assists CEOs, executives and business owners in taking a quantum leap from the ordinary to extraordinary … from unrealized dreams to mastering their destiny … from slow growth to exponential results. Subscribe to her monthly ezine - The Empowered Business (tm) - and learn the legendary mindset, strategy and performance secrets of top business achievers. http://www.goldbar.net/go.php?id=7996&c=1738&ac=ezar

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Top 10 Things I Had to Learn on the Road to Full-Time Self-Employment

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As we wind down the year, I know many of you are considering your career directions and setting some resolutions to launch your own ventures in 2007. Allow me to give you some food for thought from the other side of that transition. Going from over a decade of salaried work in a licensed profession where I had a clear role and status to full-time self-employment in a profession that is a bit like the Wild West was not without it's challenges. If you are an entrepreneur or considering making the leap, here are a few tips I can offer you from my own insights and dope slaps along the way.

1. Admit it when you need help and then ask for it. Pay for it if you have to. Stubborn independence is not an asset when you are stuck.

2. Accept help and support without worrying that people will think you less of you if you aren't a 100% Self-Made Success. There is no such thing as a successful person who was not given help along the way.

3. Don't overplan. Once you start moving, new energy, new people and new opportunities always show up. You may even discover talents that were previously dormant. Leave some room for synchronicity.

4. Develop work habits that bring out your best. It may take a while to shed old habits and the remnants of burn out. Be patient and persistent with yourself and make sure you don't just substitute one stressful job for another. Experiment with what work flow is best for you.

5. You don't have to catch every ball thrown at you. If you are working from home, it does not mean your schedule is free and that you are on call to fill everyone else's needs. Know the difference between a business and a hobby.

6. Take a look around you once in a while. One's environment is a very strong, clear reflection of your overall life balance. Mix business and pleasure. Your work should support and energize you, not drain and consume you. Not sure if you are balanced? Look around you and take note of areas that are being neglected and make a plan to handle them.

7. Just because you are good at something doesn't mean you ever really enjoyed it. It's natural to gravitate toward our strongest skills, but they may just be overworked muscles. No one likes feeling incompetent, but if there are skills and talents you would like to explore, make it a priority to devote time to developing them.

8. Don't let small stuff serve as a distraction, you will fool no one. We are always making choices, and what we choose to tolerate are the most powerful choices we make in determining how high we will reach in life. Handle the little stuff and be a good gate keeper before clutter accumulates. You may feel like you are busy but is it with the right stuff? If you were on trial for running your business, would you be convicted?

9. You won't do it exactly like anyone else. Don't assume that all the experts know the secrets to your success. Study good models but listen to your gut.

10. Take care of yourself, you are your greatest asset. People are attracted by the person, not the message. You will succeed when you walk the talk because a powerful life is the greatest attractor.

Need help moving from insight to integration and implementation of these concepts? Visit Wellspring Coaching.

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SAN ANTONIO - For Scott Winters, a master inventor, distinguished engineer and director of development at IBM in Austin, inspiration can come from anywhere.

"Wherever I go now I constantly see things that I can do better or different, whether it's going to the supermarket or a football game or driving the car and coming to work," said Winters, 51.

He was sitting in the food court at an Austin mall while his family shopped when he came up with a new system for a cell phone network that he later patented. Winters modeled a directory of cellular services on the way kiosk vendors display their merchandise.
That kind of innovative thinking makes Winters one of the top patent producers at IBM. He received 25 patents last year; during his 18 years with the company, his total is 65 patents and another 40 pending.

For the 14th consecutive year, IBM topped the list of patent recipients, according to IFI Claims Patent Services, which compiles its annual report from U.S. Patent and Trademark Office data.

"Electronic technology is a hot area these days and will continue to be," said Darlene Slaughter, general manager of IFI Claims, based in Wilmington, Del.

Some electronic patents have a short lifespan, so companies are continually filing new ones on the latest innovations, she said.

IBM this week announced that it received a record 3,621 patents in 2006. The Austin campus received 640, up from 550 a year earlier. Fifty were related to Sony's PlayStation 3 video game console, on which IBM worked with Sony and Toshiba.

At IBM, patents are rarely issued to a single person; usually three or four people share in the development of one, said Winters, who develops mentoring groups with people at different stages of their careers.

The patents awarded to Winters last year focus primarily on cell phone software. This year's submissions to the patent office, he said, all will be based on social networking.
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Entrepreneurship Booming in Emerging Economies

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Start-up activity grew in China and India in 2006, but fell slightly in the U.S., according to a new study.

Developing countries have experienced a boom in entrepreneurial activity over the last year, while entrepreneurs in the United States have created most of the 6.8 million new jobs added here since 2003. Those are among the key findings of new research released this month by Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM).

The eighth annual GEM report measures entrepreneurial activity in 42 countries by surveying more than 2,000 people in each country. The 2006 data show a systematic relationship between a nation’s economic development and its level of entrepreneurial activity. Countries with the lowest Gross Domestic Product have seen a rise in start-up activity, according to the report. In the United States, on the other hand, early-stage entrepreneurial activity among people 18 to 64 years old fell to 10 percent from 12.4 percent in 2005. Among the countries in the survey, entrepreneurial activity is highest in Peru at 40.2 percent and lowest in Belgium at 2.7 percent, according to the report.

GEM researchers explain that the percentage of start-up businesses is higher in the poorest countries because there are fewer alternatives available for making a living in those places. Developing countries tend to foster innovation, creating room for entrepreneurs to replicate something locally that has been produced elsewhere, according to Maria Minniti, Research Director for the GEM Consortium and professor of economics and entrepreneurship at Babson College in Wellesley, Mass.

New business start-ups also rose significantly in China and India this year. Entrepreneurial activity in China is up to 16.2 percent from 13.7 percent last year. In India, meanwhile, one in every ten people is engaged in entrepreneurial activity, the report shows. But India also has the highest level of failed start-ups--at 15 percent--among the nations studied. Governmental bureaucracy and the presence of large companies in India make it more difficult for start-up companies to establish themselves, GEM researchers note.

For high-income countries such as Japan and the core nations of the European Union, early-stage entrepreneurial activity remains low, at 10 percent or less. While the proportion of people starting businesses in the U.S. dropped slightly in 2006, the level of entrepreneurship remains high compared to European countries such as the United Kingdom, where it hovers just above five percent.

Even in low-income countries, entrepreneurs are often driven by passion and opportunity, the study found. A majority of entrepreneurs across the world claim they are starting a business to capitalize on an opportunity, according to the report. Reasons for choosing the entrepreneurial lifestyle include the desire to be independent and to be passionate about work, Minniti said. "Satisfaction is a big motivation for productivity," she added. In high-income countries, this translates into high percentages of entrepreneurs forsaking other career options to pursue an entrepreneurial opportunity. In Denmark, Norway and the Netherlands, that type of opportunity-driven entrepreneurship accounted for more than 90 percent of new start-ups.

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