A Secret Worth Stealing

By Jim Calder

If this headline caught your attention, that is because it should. We all love secrets, whether it is the alleged affairs of a professional golfer, a secret stock tip, or career advice. It is safe to say that most of us want to advance in life. But there comes a point where we all must look in the mirror and question our ethics and our motives for success. Many are still following an outdated blueprint for success, which involves tremendous amounts of greed and stepping on and over people. This is shocking when there are other smarter and modern ways to become successful.

This Year …

This has been a big year for me, and I feel I have a lot to share:

This year, I was 31 years old,

This year, ends the decade that I started my career in publishing all the way back in 2001,

This year, I built my first website from scratch,

This year, I Co-formed a start-up company called ProLong Magazine, LLC and launched ProLong Magazine.

Note: This year I married the love of my life, but that is a whole different story for another day.

The Man or Women in the Mirror

During the last few months with the launch of our start-up I have learned some valuable principles and ethics that everyone should borrow or steal.

The first step involves taking a look in the mirror and asking yourself:
a) What kind of person are you?
b) Do you only make decisions based only on increasing your bank account?
c) What motivates you to be successful?
d) In 40 years will you regret how cut throat you are with people?

If these answers are hard to swallow or sound horribly wrong when you answer them in your head, you must realize that it is never too late to change.

So how do you start your own personal transformation? Take these simple steps.

7 Steps to Success

1) Treat everyone the way that you treat your family, your boss, your biggest clients and your best customers. Treating everyone you meet this way won’t cost you much and will absolutely give you a much rewarding and fulfilling life. And if anything else some people will actually show up for your funeral.

2) When someone talks, listen. Don’t spend that time crafting a response. Take in what they are saying and really try to listen to what the person has to say.

3) When someone you don’t know sends you an email asking for information or help with something, try taking the time to help them out. Don’t delete the email; try responding even if you can’t help the person.

4) Take a closer look at your schedule next time someone asks you to do something. Are you really as busy as you think? Maybe you could miss your favorite show one night to help a friend edit a paper for school, or get off of facebook once in a while to lend a hand to your friends or contacts when needed.

5) We are all guilty of avoiding certain things. Tell yourself that winners and leaders do not avoid things; they take on new challenges despite knowing the amount of work that will be required.

6) Stop being Phony: If you find that you are fake when dealing with coworkers, friends, family and even strangers, ask yourself why?

7) Never become out of reach from the masses. This seems to be a common trait in many successful people, the ability to allow yourself to stay within reach. Sure celebrities are often out of reach, but most of them are fake plastic people.

Heroes Walk Among Us

While I was working at a publishing house I had the opportunity to chase a lot of famous authors for interviews in our magazines. Many times it took some guess work or searching online to find their email addresses. But once that Interview Request was sent, I was shocked at how many of these authors would respond personally to me.

One author that sticks out in my head is Marketing Guru and best-selling author Seth Godin (Sethgodin.typepad.com).
Seth was more than happy to be interviewed by me via email more than once. This is a man who is asked by companies such as Google to give motivational speeches to their employees … giving me a few minutes of his time. It simply blew my mind, and left a lasting impression.

Why was Mr. Godin so generous with his time? Maybe he was just a nice guy. But maybe he was a nice guy who realized the importance of staying within reach, and the value of our word-of-mouth reputations. Thanks again Seth, I will be in touch soon to borrow a few more minutes of your time for an exclusive interview with ProLong Magazine.

Everyone Needs A Team

It has been my personal experience that many things worth doing in life cannot be achieved alone. Take this theory and apply it to building your career, your own business, a relationship, an audience, a sports team and more. No one will lend a hand or do you a favor if you are rude and short with everyone that you meet. On sites like facebook and Twitter there are millions of people just waiting to find you and create relationships that last. We can’t just spam our message out to people with no interaction.

For all of those still looking in the mirror thinking about how horrible of a human being you have been you can stop now. None of us, especially I can be perfect. But we can all start making better efforts.

Jim Calder is the brand architect and co-founder of ProLong Magazine. Jim was born with the perfect combination of cockiness and self consciousness. He has over 10 years of publishing industry experience and lives and works in Philadelphia, Pa. He currently can be found on the greatest adventure of his life as a newlywed with his wife Melissa. Jim can be contacted via email at jim@prolongmagazine.com