Persistency: the key to success of “the Colonel”

Colonel Sanders

How many times in your life you had an idea, but you didn’t take action? How many times in your life, after some “no”, did you give up? Persistency, having 100% faith in you is the key factor to success. That is what makes the difference between all successful people and all others, who had a great project/idea and didn’t even have the courage to tell anybody else. Not all people exercise their “guts”, embracing their fears, giving them a deadly embrace. How many times do we take excuses for not achieving our goals? I am too old, I don’t have enough money, I don’t live in the right place and I don’t have a title and many more, the most creative ones for not achieving our dreams, for the fear of failure.

I came across a story of a very famous man, whose face is very familiar to me, although I have never been in one of his restaurants. I think I am one of the few on Earth. I think you are familiar with the face of an old man on a big basket of fried chicken. The smiling visage of Colonel Sanders has been the face of KFC (also known as Kentucky Fried Chicken) for many years. Even nearly thirty years after his death, the image of the jovial southern gentleman (Sanders himself was born in Indiana) still stands as the public face of the company he started in the midst of the great depression.

He was 65 years old, when he received his first cheque of $ 99 for his retirement, when he decided he wanted to do something, starting his business. He realized, although he didn’t have a lot of money, he was 65 years old, he was in the midst of the great depression, to have something important: a great recipe to cook the best fried chicken. He started to go one after another to propose his fantastic recipe. And guess what? He received a no, another no and then another no and so on. He collected 1009 no.

His persistency was his success, because at 1010 was a YES. And then it is history the big success he achieved. He died in 1980, leaving a great legacy: His image remains iconic in KFC; a foundation he established in his later years aids charities and funds scholarships with over a million dollars in grants a year.

“The Colonel” is a great example of someone who didn’t care about his age, money availability, depression…We create our destiny with our decisions we take every minute of our life. We are the creators of our fortune or misfortune. Only when we believe 100% in ourselves we can succeed and when we run towards our fears. Only when we are strong enough to face 1000 no, we can win. That’s the Soul’s Expansion. By the way, we are on this planet for this reason, to give us the most beautiful gift: the gift of the experience. No mistakes exist, only experience exists.

Remember “to exercise your guts”.

Linda Lattuca

L.E.A.D.E.R.S.

I came across a small book from Deepak Chopra, who inspired me a lot many years ago, when I started to work on my self-discovery with awareness. The title of the book is “The Soul of Leadership”. In this book, he told about the meaning for him of the acronym L.E.A.D.E.R.S. After I read something from this book, I was meditating about this acronym, too and my meaning of it. That is what I would like to share with you in this blog post.

L = Law of Attraction of Attraction and Law of Karma:

True leaders know the universal laws and especially these two. They know how to play at the best in their lives, exploiting of the universal laws. They know very well that the Universe is conspiring to make their dreams come true. The Law of Attraction works 24 hours a day in everyone’s life, but only few people know it. True leaders study the principles which govern nature and they apply what they have learnt in their life on a daily basis. They pay attention to their thoughts, feelings, words they speak and actions. True leaders know also the Law of Karma; they know that what they put out, they will receive back. They take responsibility for everything they do.

E = Empowerment

True leaders love empowering themselves. They do it reading books written by great souls; they listen to audiobooks even when they drive, commute or doing their workout. True leaders attend seminars on line or live to expand their knowledge and ultimately their soul. They know that if they don’t have, they can’t give others. Only if they empower themselves in many ways, they are able to empower other souls.

A = Action

True leaders love the process of creation and they have guts to take action to make their dreams come true. They love shipping projects, they love having new experience. And if they “fail”, they stand-up again, carrying on in what they do, learning from their experience. Many human beings stop themselves at the phase of creation, because they don’t overcome their fears: fear of success, of failure or to be judged.

D = Dream

True leaders love dreaming BIG. They know that they are not limits in dreaming and that the only existing limits are the ones we create by ourselves (the bars of our “golden cage”). They dream new projects, new connections, a new life style…They dream to inspire others, to grow other leaders. They have 100% faith their dreams come true; that is why they manifest what they desire. The Universe is their best friend, which supplies them everything they want, just because they “know the rules of the game” and they play at their best.

E = Embracing fears

True leaders embrace their fears. This way, they embrace their life. They know they have the command, that they are the captain of their soul. They use fears to boost their courage. It is also exciting embracing their fears. In doing that, they expand their comfort zone, increasing their confidence.

R = Responsibility

As captain of their soul, true leaders know they are responsible for everything happens in their lives. If they don’t like something, they have the courage to change it.

S = Self-Discovery

True leaders understand that the most fascinating, wonderful, interesting journey is the one in their within. Only when we discover who we truly are and our infinite power, we start thinking, speaking and acting in a very different way. Magically, our outer world changes for better, because we have changed our inner world. We can travel around the world and this is fantastic to be open- minded, but if we miss the journey in our within, we miss the main purpose of our life on this planet: our soul’s expansion.

Keep leading from Within!

Linda Lattuca

Flying High

A snap I took on the flight London-Bologna

I don’t know at how many feet I am, but I know I am flying very high. I am on a flight from London to Bologna (Italy). I love creating, while I am flying and I decided to write this blog posts to share my thoughts with all of you.

As I sit here, many thoughts come to my mind. First of all, all my gratitude to Brothers Write for sticking with their dream to fly. I express my gratitude to them every time I am on a plane. First lesson we need to learn: let’s stick with our dreams, although our families, people, friends are telling us “you are crazy”, maybe laughing at us.

Another thought: Pilots are following a flight plan and they are continuously doing a check about the route and the instruments. Second lesson to learn: we need to set up goals (yearly, monthly, weekly, daily), checking every single day we are doing what is necessary to achieve our goals. We need our “flight plan to fly high!” ;)

As I look outside my window, I see the sun is shining above the clouds and the sky is always blue. Third lesson we need to learn: let’s be above our clouds, I mean above what we call problems (they are opportunities). Let’s think the sky is always blue above the clouds. Look at what you are facing like great masters, which are serving you for your soul’s expansion. Be detached to see the truth.

In front of me, I see a picture of all the emergency procedures and there are other two lessons we need to learn from it. One of the procedures says “put the oxygen mask on your nose for first and then help others”. Only if we have, we can give others. Only if we put ourselves on the top of the list, we can give others. It is not selfish; it is wise. Another procedure says: “abandon your bag in case of emergency”. That means: don’t be attached to what you got. Everything is borrowed in this dimension. We have “only” our Soul. Is it few?

Now, the pilot is telling passengers we are at 37000 feet and that we are above Germany and going to be above France very soon. Another thought come to my mind: we born in a place, we defined borders, but the best thing we can do is considering us “citizen of the world”.

Gosh, another thought: be a traveller of this dimension and not a simple tourist. I mean: it is important to understand who we truly are and act from our True Self. Another thought, again: how much it is important to travel to be more open minded, to meet people of other cultures, to try new food, to know other traditions. This enriches our soul. I feel very lucky to have this chance.

Here you are only some thoughts and lessons I learnt and wanted to share with you.

Keep leading from Within!

Linda Lattuca

Pearls of Wisdom from Og Mandino

I have always seen the name of Og Mandino and read some quotes, but I have never totally realized the greatness of this man, who died on 3th Sept. 1996. Yesterday night, I received on line my new issue of “Success”, a magazine I love and that I advise you to read if you want to increase your learning. I came across to a video in which Og Mandino, explained some of “the Secrets of Success”. What I read about his bio (read it on internet, please!), what I heard from him blew me away and I told myself I wanted to share with all of you some of his pearls of wisdom:

1. Life is a game. It’s precious, holy, beautiful…but it’s a game! How can you play, if you don’t know the rules of the game? (Universal Laws!)
Most of the people are spectators of their lives; only few know what they want
(goals setting) and how to get it.

2. Read great books about success and self-help (two authors changed his life: Napoleon Hill and Clement Stone). He advised to read books from some of famous authors, such as Norman Vincent Peale and Napoleon Hill (both in my MUST READ BOOKS LIST – read my blog post on 3th January 2011 http://expansionofyourwonderfulsoul.blogspot.com/2011/01/books-food-for-mind-spirit-linda.html)

3. Failures always seem to act as if they had 1000 years to liv

4. Never, never treat time as if you had an unlimited supply

Treat every single person like you know a secret about that person. And the secret is you know that person is going to die at midnight. How will you treat that person? You will show more care, love, compassion…Do it and in 3 months your life will change.

5. If you want to succeed, you have got to learn to live with failure

6. No man, no woman is an island. Success absolutely cannot be achieved alone

Mandino wrote The Greatest Salesman in the World which contains the "time-tested wisdom of the ancients distilled into ten simple scrolls" which, if followed for the prescribed ten months, will as Og says, "seep into my other mind, that mysterious source which never sleeps, which creates my dreams, and often makes me act in ways I do not comprehend. As the words of these scrolls are consumed by my mysterious mind I will begin to awake, each morning, with a vitality I have never known before. My vigour will increase, my enthusiasm will rise, my desire to meet the world will overcome every fear I once knew at sunrise, and I will be happier than I ever believed it possible to be in this world of strife and sorrow." (Scroll I)

The scrolls each have a principle designed to replace bad habits built up over a lifetime which "threatens to imprison my future" (Scroll I) with good habits developed through a ten month process of studying the scrolls. Each Scroll's principle is life altering. They are:

Scroll I - Today I begin a new life.

Scroll II - I will greet this day with love in my heart.

Scroll III - I will persist until I succeed.

Scroll IV - I am nature's greatest miracle.

Scroll V - I will live this day as if it is my last.

Scroll VI - Today I will be master of my emotions.

Scroll VII - I will laugh at the world (Keep perspective)

Scroll VIII - Today I will multiply my value a hundredfold.

Scroll IX - I will act now, I will act now, I will act now.

Scroll X - I will pray for guidance.

Mandino's main philosophical message is that every person on Earth is a miracle and should choose to direct their life with confidence and congruent to the Laws that govern abundance. He wrote in Scroll I, "I will not fail as the others, for in my hands I now hold the charts (the Ten Scrolls) which will guide me through perilous waters to shores which only yesterday seemed but a dream." Og was also a proponent of taking action now. In Scroll IX, the phrase I will act now is written 18 times. He recognized that all successful people take on their own lives by "charting" or consciously choosing both the desired destination and the path to reach it. Mandino's philosophical messages are encouragements to build good habits, to live according to the laws that govern abundance and to find a vigour and joy in life as we learn to stand at the helm of our ship charting its course into the safety of the harbour instead of just waiting for someone else to bring it in.

In some of my quotes or blog posts, when I mentioned about working on our influence, impact and legacy is thinking great souls like Og Mandino, who although is in another dimension, is still having a fantastic impact, influence and for sure left us a beautiful legacy.

Take action NOW! Be the change you want to see in the world – like Gandhi used to say!

Lead from Within!

Linda Lattuca