GOOD KNOWLEDGE, GOOD ASSOCIATIONS.
    “You are the same that you are going to be in five years from now except for two things: the people with whom you associate and the books you read”
                                       -Charlie “tremendous” Jones
  The most important decisions you would ever make in life are the associations or friends you keep and the books you read. If I were to ask a number of people, including you, what has been the most important decision(s) they’ve made, myriad may not remember, and those that remember may not want to be honest, but if you would be truthful, one of the most important decisions you’ve made are your closest associations and the information you allowed inside of you; and that why the number one excuse people give is always “because of someone else”, but the truth is that you are where you are today because of the choices you’ve made, be it friends, books, or anything, but for the purpose of this chapter let consider how our associations influence our life.
---consider who you spent the most of your time with (may be more than one)
---the information you shared together
---decisions you made together
---mistakes you made together
    It is of great value to know that the information you shared together has a lot do with who you are today. And where are information gotten from? Mostly books, so in the end books help shape and influence the decisions you make in your life. Jim Rohn said “you are the average of the five people you spend the most of your time with”.
    When we were growing up, our parents always told us not to hang out with some specific people, not because they hated the idea of socializing, but because they knew that we have the propensity to turn out the same way the other people we are associating with turned out to become. That’s why it is of essence to spend quality time with the people you want to become like, if you want to be successful, you’ve got to associate yourself with successful people, you want to be rich, associate with rich people and read books to help you develop a rich mentality.
   I have the privilege to be blessed with good families and friends who constantly help me refocus and my life, even since I’ve been young, always giving me advices like “choose good friends”, “know whose child you are”, “you can’t be moving with those kids”……….., and I really appreciate the values they’ve added to my life. It was at this tender age of fourteen that I made those crucial decisions to transform my life as a success; I got involved with books of values ranging from spirituality to entrepreneurship, and since then I’ve read more than hundreds of books that were authored by successful people, got myself friends with high esteems and value, many who I am accountable to. I’m not trying to appraise myself or trying to be proud, but I want you to know the value of good associations, you need to avoid toxic people, and start surrounding yourself with successful people. You must be selective in choosing your friend. Someone said friendship is by choice not by force.
   Most of us only read the biographies of successful people and fail to perpetuate their strategies into our life. If you want to be successful, adopt the successful people’s strategies into your actions; reading what they read, thinking the way they think, and most importantly doing what they do.
 “I just do not hang around anybody that I do not want to be with, period. For me, that’s a blessing, and I can stay positive. I hang around people who are happy, who are growing, who want to learn, who don’t mind saying sorry or thank you….and are having a fun time”
   --John Assaraf
     “Do not be deceived, evil company corrupts good habit”
                              --1 Corinthians 15:33
      “He who walks with wise men will be wise, but the companion of fools will be destroyed” --Proverbs 13:20

ARE YOU GONNA STAY DOWN, OR ARE YOU GONNA GET BACK UP
“If you haven’t succeeded yet, it’s because you haven’t failed enough”
-JEREMY
     There’s a Chinese proverb which says “the gem cannot be polished without friction, nor man perfected without trials”. There times when things won’t always turn out as we expected, whether it is in our relationships, finances, health and myriad other ways. It is how we respond to these critical situations which most people call failure that matter the most, and except you are trying to be oblivious to the obvious, if you aren’t going through one, you’ve sure gone through one of these moments; which I’d call “DEFINING MOMENTS”. These moments are what John mason called “breakfasts of champions”, except you what to be a mediocre, you wouldn’t want one of these moment, and the funny thing is that whether you want to be a champion or not, you would have to go through these moments. Hurdles and obstacles of life are actually there to make us stronger. Someone once said “God prepares great men for great task by great trials. The truth is that successful people have more failures in their lives. If you are familiar with the biography of Abraham Lincoln, you’d know he failed more than he succeeded in life.
He lost his job in 1832.
He was elected to the legislature in 1834.
He suffered the death of his wife in 1834.
He suffered a nervous breakdown in 1836.
He was defeated for the speaker of the state legislature in 1838.
He was defeated or nomination for Congress in 1843, after three years;
He was elected to Congress in 1846.
He was rejected for the position of land officer in 1849.
He was defeated for the Senate in 1854.
He was defeated for the nomination for vice president of the USA in 1856
He suffered another defeat for the post of senate in 1858
He was elected president of the United States in 1860
        After so many defeats, he later said “my question is not whether you’ve failed, but whether you are contented with your failures”. In their song “knock you down”, Kerry Hilson and Kanye west said “when they knock you down, just get back up when they knock you down”. I must admit that it takes a lot of courage to actually get back up from the mud of failure. Let’s consider Mary Kay Ash, I’m certain that most of you ladies her fond of her products, but do you really know the history of failure and hardship of this woman of courage. Her first career was in direct sales, though she was successful in it, she later found that it was hard for a woman to progress in the corporate world-especially in the 1950’s and 1960’s, in her words she said “I had worked up my way up to being a member of the company I was with only to find that, even though our sales force was made up entirely of women, governed by an all male board, my opinions were of no value. I constantly heard, “Mary Kay, you are thinking like a woman again!” I felt rejection in the worst form. So I decided to retire.” Her retirement was short, because she decided to start a business, in respective of the difficulties she was going to experience. Her aim was to give women that were going to work in the business unlimited opportunities, she decided she was going to start a cosmetic business. She acquired the best formula, designed her business strategies and set out to start the business. It didn’t take long when she encountered a difficulty from her attorney who was supposed to make legal arrangement for the business. He told her that “if you are going to throw away your life savings, why don’t you go directly to the trash can? It will be so much easier than what you are proposing.”
        She went ahead and started the business; put her husband in charge of the administrative department of the business, while she took charge of products preparation, packaging and other management aspect of the business. But a month before business was to open her husband died of heart attack, she didn’t let this weigh her down, she kept pursuing her dream business, and launch it on September 13, 1963. And today the company is more than a success.
        We must come to the realization that failure is not a permanent situation, I love what S.I. Hayakawa said “notice what happens when a man says to himself, I failed three times, then what happens when he says, I’m a failure”. Most often time the road to success is at the opposite side of the failure avenue, but the most important thing you could do is to learn from your failures on your way to success street, as Oswald Avery said “whenever you fail, pick something up.” Thomas Edison who invented the light bulb you are probably going to use tonight, after thousands of failure without giving up until he designed it mused “people are not remembered by how few times they failed but how often they succeeded. Every wrong step can be another step forward.” In his book, which I would recommend to people who want to be tougher for tougher situation, “TOUGH TIME NEVER LAST, BUT TOUGH PEOPLE DO” Robert Schuler wrote “look at what you have left, never look at what you have lost” and the irony of failure, is that we only fail, when we fail to learn from evaluated experience(s), that’s why I’d say if you haven’t succeeded yet, it’s because you haven’t failed enough.
       Always remember that most successful people, be it Jack Welch, Bill Gates, Mary Kay Ash, Thomas Edison, Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther Kings Jnr., Anthony Robbins and the host of others weren’t remember for their failures. So get up, stand up, and win, learn from failure, it often time success in disguise.
           “Fall down seven times, get up eight times”- Japanese proverb
    “For every failure, there’s an alternative course of action. You have to find it. When you come to a roadblock take a detour”
                    -Mary Kay Ash, Founder, Mary Kay Cosmetics.
  All rights reserved ,IAMJEREMY®    BB PIN: 7c22a925

 Money Is The Production and Consumption Of Value: before money was invented, we had trade by barter which means looking for someone that has what you need and needs what you have. Money is currency. It is a current that flows from consuming nations/individuals to producing nations/individuals. According to the 2008 edition of Guinness Book of Records, the US experienced the largest trade deficit of 661.8 billion dollars in 2005. In 2006, the US also experienced another deficit trade to China to the tone of 232 billion dollars. Why is China getting all that money? It is because they understand that if you start solving problems, especially that of cost, you will make debtors of everyone else. Even though the system of barter has changed, the idea has not. The paper or polymer note in your hands only mean you have value and value starts when and where it is produced and ends when and where it is consumed. The real Money Is Ideas: it is not the money you don't have that limits you but the idea (s) you have that you have not learnt how to use. If you want money you've got to think VALUE. You have to think of creating something of value that people can get in exchange for the currency they give. Money don't vanish into thin air, it exchanges hands and it's always in the hands of those who offer value. If you have ever mismanaged money in time past, you need to ask yourself if the money really vanished or someone else was taking it from you in exchange for something? No matter how bad a deal is, somebody must still benefit from it. Money is an idea that works for those who understands the game of money.Always remember that  people will only part with their hard earned money if they feel they would be better of with what u offering them, instead of holding on to the money,
 Every human action is to relieve a felt dissatisfaction.

Nothing quite predicts your future as your actions today

Perception is reality,some people fail, and say this is the end, while some say here comes another lesson. Are you gonna learn from your today's failure , and make the most of the lessons it teaches you, so you can use those same lessons as  weapons for your tomorrow's success(es)

You failed today, good, you've learned how not to fail tomorrow

  The reason most people never win is because they are afraid to lose, they are not rich because they are terrified of losing ..winners are not afraid to lose, on a second thought they are, because everybody as a fear....like every behaviour, fear can be unlearned or mastered. Successful people have grown to master their fear, and they've also learned that failure is most time a part of the process of success....the truth is people who try to avoid failure, never make it big...all they try to do is not necessary not to succeed, but not to fail. Shockingly most people who try to avoid failure, will inevitably avoid success.....because most times failure is success in disguise. Learn to manage risk, not avoid them. Who has ever tried doing something new and never had a setback. Remember, we all have fears, its how we handle our fears that matter.
  Perception is of importance, don't be gullible, you might wanna try something else if you arent  breaking through....you must understand what really motivates you to persevere in your endeavor