Self-Servants Not Wanted

A prospective partner contacted The SOFEI Group to offer their services to build their brand. This person was turned down because their main purpose to join wasn’t about helping us achieve our mission – it was self-serving.

If your ultimate reason to secure employment or start a business is to make money, you’re off to a bumpy start. Many MLM (Multi-level Marketing) business owners plummet because they see an opportunity to make money, instead of an opportunity to improve the lives of others with their product or service. And, many businesses are not experiencing exponential growth because it’s replete with self-serving people who choose not to use their skills, experience, or education to serve.

In this knowledge-based workforce, employers and business owners want to connect with believers, leaders, or servants. People who believe in the organization’s mission, goals, and objectives; leaders who can influence people to achieve greatness, and people who do not mind serving their internal and external clients.

Anyone willing to believe, lead, and serve can strengthen their opportunity to achieve long-term success. But, if your willingness to work is to reap and not sow, you may be characterized as a self-server. Have you ever seen a want ad or business opportunity for self-servants?

Take the Secret out of Doing Business

Attend this seminar to receive business secrets to grow your business. Really? Let’s face it; there are no secrets to doing business, just strategies. Instead of spending money and time attending seminars or workshops to find secrets, take a deep breath and revisit your purpose for going into business. Here are a few questions to think about when developing your business strategy:

• Who are your clients and how do they find you?
• What’s your strategy to deliver your product and/or service to prospective clients to meet their needs, solve their problems, or enhance their lives?
• Who are your ideal business clients?
• How well do you know your prospective and current clients?
• What’s your strategy to keep your clients happy and transform them to raving fans?
• What resources will you need to support your strategy?
• What’s your strategy to handle disgruntled clients and build their trust?
• What’s your strategy to continue moving your business forward when funds are low?
• What method(s) will you use to stay connected to your clients for repeat business or referrals?
• How will you demonstrate your appreciation for your client’s business?
• What strategies or tools will you use to measure your client's satisfaction?

Many business secret gurus or experts are simply sharing strategies that were applicable to their personality, business, and clients. Don’t get lured into their strategy because you don’t know the resources (e.g., money, people, or equipment) they had access to when they started. And, their strategy may not be suitable for your business mission, vision, or clients.

Stop seeking secrets; just create and build your strategies. You’ll be amazed of the results you will reap and you will not need to keep this a secret.

Everyone has had a free ride at least once

Entitlements – programs (e.g., Medicare or Social Security) funded by taxpayers that supposedly benefit non-taxpayers. How can this be especially for taxpayers that worked and contributed towards these programs? And, why are Entitlement programs on the chopping block to balance the budget or reduce the deficit in an effort to stop people from riding free?

Free riders are from different ethnic and economic backgrounds. They’re people who cheat on their taxes or avoid paying taxes due to tax shelters buried under complicated tax codes. They’re people who can afford to pay for healthcare, but choose not to; passing their expenses to the shoulders of people strapped with the high cost of health insurance. They're executives who receive government bailouts and bonuses, in spite of their misuse or ill investments of hard working citizens who lost their life savings. They’re also celebrities indulged with expensive gifts they can afford and may not want.

What about the poor? Are they simply sitting and waiting for a free ride or an opportunity to transform their lives? Not all of them. Why are the poor viewed differently when they’re provided with free opportunities or resources to improve their lives? Is it because the benefits to help the poor haven't been deemed a great investment?

Helping people transform their lives to become financial contributors to society can benefit us all. We just have to slow down enough to give others the same ride many of us were granted for free.

Training is a waste of time and money

Another federal government agency was snubbed last week for allegedly wasting tax payer’s dollars (50 million) for training conferences over a three-year period. Training is a waste of time and money when its goals and objectives aren’t clearly defined and connected to an organization’s mission, and the actual value training will add when completed.

Government waste didn’t start in this Administration; it has been a normal way of business to avoid a decrease in appropriation dollars for each fiscal year. When an agency learns that it has an excess in appropriation dollars towards the end of their fiscal year, many government employees reap the benefits of training, conferences, and/or new equipment.

Training should never be used as a last resort to save appropriation dollars that will result in waste. This strategy decreases the value of education and training. If a government agency can operate on less money than originally appropriated, this money should be returned to Congress to bring down the deficit.

Pay attention to what isn't being said

The SOFEI Group has counseled and trained many women who seem to pay more attention to what people tell them (e.g., their significant other or spouse) and not what they show them. Remember the saying Action speaks louder than words. What keeps women clinging onto the words of their loved ones while ignoring their actions? Hope for change, fear, blind love, or their religion?

People normally show us their truth. However, some women second guess their intuition and what’s presented to them. Example, a man’s truth maybe sexual or financial infidelity – the woman’s reality is she’s living or in a relationship with a man who cannot be trusted. A man’s truth maybe, he’s married with children - a woman’s reality that dates him is she’s an adulterer and a person that doesn’t value the sacredness of marriage. Lastly, a man’s truth maybe physical, emotional, or verbal abuse – a woman’s reality is depression, fear; hope for change, low self-esteem or self-worth.

Women have to take charge of their lives and stop allowing their lives to be controlled or manipulated by false statements and be motivated by the true actions of others. Maya Angelou states, When people show you who they are, believe them. And, don’t view their truth through your ‘lens of potential’ because we all have potential, but only action creates change.

If You Think...

If you think you can’t accomplish your dreams and aspirations, renew your mind with “I can do all things through Christ who strengtheneth me.” (Philippians 4:13)

If you think you’ve been defeated, you are “more than a conqueror in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 8:37)

If you think the world’s system has control over you, remember “greater is He that’s within you, than he that’s in the world.” (I John 4:4)

If you think you’re not loved and no cares for you, “God cares.” (I Peter 5:6-7)

If you think you’ve been cursed and nothing good will ever happen to you, “there is no good thing God will withhold from those who walk upright.” (Psalm 84:11)

If you think your efforts are going in the wrong direction, “the steps of a good [wo]man are ordered by the Lord.” (Psalm 37:23)

If you think your hard work is going unnoticed, “do not grow weary in well doing for in due season you shall reap!” (Galatians 6:9)

If you think your spouse will not surrender his will and life to God, they can become saved by the way we live (I Corinthians 7:13-14).

If you think it's impossible for a loved one’s life to be transformed, “all things are possible with God.” (Mark 10:27)

If you think God forgets to bless you when others are being showered with blessings, “God is no respecter of persons.” (Acts 10:34)

If you think your sins can’t be forgiven, confess them to God, because “He is just to forgive us of all unrighteousness.” (I John 1:9)

If you think you can become saved based on good deeds, “it’s by grace that we are saved, not because of our works.” (Ephesians 2:8-9)

If you think you have no purpose to live, God created us for His glory. (Isaiah 43.7)

If you think you’re unattractive, you came from the mind of God and “He fearfully and wonderfully made you”. (Psalm 139:14)

If you think it’s pointless to pursue your dreams or desires, “delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of our heart.” (Psalm 37:4)

If you think your enemies have the upper hand, don’t fret because “God will make your enemies your footstool.” (Psalm 110:1)

If you think everyone is against you because you’re a Christian, “if God is for us He is more than the world is against us.” (Romans 8:31)

If you think your job is drudgery, try completing your tasks “heartily unto the Lord and not unto men.” (Colossians 3:23)

If you think your gift is nothing compared to others, “every good and perfect gift comes from above.” (James 1:17)

If you think your life is headed for a dead end, “trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not unto your understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.” (Proverbs 3:5-6)

If you ever feel alone, God will “never leave us nor forsake us!” (Hebrews 13:5)

If your life is in turmoil and without peace, “keep your mind stayed on God and He’ll keep you in perfect peace.” (Isaiah 26:3)

The correlation between the window and the mind

While sitting in traffic one morning, a woman looked and commented about a dirty white car in her passenger lane. To further validate, she rolled her window down and discovered the white car was clean, and her car window was dirty.

This experience is a valuable example about our minds. Our minds can be as clean or dirty as car windows depending on the environment or the number of times the car or windows are cleaned.

Here are a few suggestions to get a clean mind:

• If you're a habitual negative thinker, get real with yourself and discover the root cause(s)
• Separate yourself from negative people and environments - even family members
• Watch what you feed your mind and determine its impact
• Read God’s word and meditate daily
• Become a non-conformist to the trends of the world
• Eat right and exercise to exert negative energy and get proper rest
• Forgive people that have wronged or hurt you and realize their actions could be a result of unhealed wounds or pain
• When a negative thought comes to mind, immediately replace it with a positive one

Finally, Proverbs 23:7a states, For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he.The way you think and feel about yourself and others will be reflected in your behavior. A transformed life starts with a transformed mind.