My grandma, Mabel Reynolds Ostrander, and I shared one of those special relationships as rare as a double rainbow. She was fifty-three when I was ten. That’s when we planted our first “Victory” garden together during World War II. We planted seeds together — in the soil — and in each other.

Grandma lived eighty-seven seasons without a complaint. I was forty-four when I last saw her. But I remember every mince and lemon tart, every bite of “made from scratch” apple pie, and every lingering wave of her hand as she stood (out of sight or so she thought) behind the rayon, Priscilla curtains in the little house at 718 West Pennsylvania Avenue in San Diego, California, where I was born and raised. As our station wagon full of kids and contentment would slowly pull away from the curb, we would all look back at her and wave – and I would gaze at her fragile silhouette through the rear view mirror, wishing I could frame her there forever, just that way – wondering how many more Easter and Christmas dinners we would share.

Most of all, I remember my grandma and me planting seeds. We planted squash, beans, corn, watermelons, beets, pansies, mums and other flowers. I’ll admit I rode my bike those twenty miles each Saturday more for the bonus of the conversation and the homemade pastries, than for the vegetables and flowers. But no matter how full I was after I ate, I was always left hungry for more of the wisdom and optimism she shared with me.

I’ll never forget the day we tasted our first harvest as a result of crossing a plum tree with an apricot tree. The ripe fruit was pink, not purple like a plum, nor orange like an apricot; but a combination of both. “Gee, do you suppose they’ll be any good?” I asked. “Why of course they will be wonderful,” she chided. “Didn´t we do the planting, nurturing and pruning?”

Sure enough, they were delicious, even though they were different than any fruit I’d ever seen before. “That’s because they are uniquely unlike any other fruit you’ll ever eat. They are plumcots!” she exulted. “You always get out what you put in,” she continued as we sat under the tree eating most of what we had picked.

“Plant apple seeds and you get apple trees, plant acorns and you get majestic oak trees, plant weeds and you will harvest weeds (even without watering), plant the seeds of great ideas and you will get great individuals,” she said softly and intently, looking directly into my eyes. “Do you understand what I mean?” I nodded, remembering I’d heard her say the same thing before, in different ways.

I learned from my grandma that the seeds of greatness are not special genes, dependent on the gifted birth, the inherited bank account, the intellect, the skin-deep beauty, the race, the gender, or the status. The seeds of greatness are attitudes and beliefs that begin in children by observing, imitating and internalizing the lifestyles of significant role models and heroes.

“Model your thoughts and actions after men and women who have been passionate, excellent, honest, unselfish and creative in their service to others,” my grandmother had counseled. Armed with that affirmation, I ventured forth to sow and reap my own legacy in life.

I’ve traveled the world to the seven seas.
I’ve been up at the top and down on my knees.
I’ve been blessed with abundance and plenty of weeds.
But I’ve never stopped caring about others’ needs.

As you tend your own garden, unlike any other.
Remember the words of my lovely grandmother.
“If you’re hoping to harvest a life of great deeds, remember you first have to plant some great seeds.”

You have the ability right now to learn what it takes to earn whatever income you want. That’s a pretty strong statement, but don’t discount it until you’ve read the rest of this article.

Do you know that the majority of today’s leaders in business were in sales at one time or another? The selling skills they learned to make others feel welcome, comfortable, important, and to trust their expert advice has taken them far. It can do the same for you.

Whether you’re in sales now or thinking about going into sales what matters most is your attitude about what you’re doing to earn your living. What are you willing to do in order to achieve your goals? How many “no’s” are you willing to take before getting to the “yes’s” that you need? How much are you willing to change what you are today to get what you want tomorrow?

Let me give you a head start on your road to success. I already know what the great ones do. I have taught proven-effective selling skills to over four million students during the last 30 years. Selling is my hobby. It’s my passion. Helping others learn better and more professional ways to serve others is what my business is all about.

Begin by internalizing everything you can possibly get your hands on about your product or service. Become a product of your product. Use it yourself. Talk with clients who use it and love it. Believe in it! People will say “yes” to you more on your conviction and enthusiasm for your product than any fact or figure you may quote.

Note: If you are new to selling, don’t settle for selling just anything. Find a product you can become passionate about. It’ll make all the difference.

Next, start working on your people skills. There are right and wrong ways to approach people. Your #1 goal when you meet someone new is to have them like you, trust you, and want to listen to you. It may seem elementary, but to have someone like you, you must be likeable. That means you smile. You make eye contact. You introduce yourself. Ask their names. Repeat their names so you know you are pronouncing them correctly. Your desire to be accurate and correct makes a powerful, positive impression.

Establish common ground. People buy from people who are like them. If you like the same sports team, that’s common ground. If you live in the same area, that’s common ground. If you’re around the same age with kids in close grades in school, that’s common ground.

Your next step is to determine the clients’ needs. I’ve developed a quick and easy-to-remember method for this. It’s called the NEADS qualification sequence. Remember that you’re trying to determine their “needs” but spell it NEADS to remember what to say.

The first letter, “N,” stands for Now. Ask them, “What do you have now?” Unless they’ve won the lottery or inherited millions, few people drastically change what they have now other than to make their lives better. So, knowing what they have now will help you understand where they’re coming from.

The next letter, “E,” stands for Enjoy. “What do you enjoy most about what you have now?” They’ll want to keep the good stuff when considering any change. So your product or service will need to at least cover what they enjoy.

The “A” stands for Alter. “What would you alter (or change) about what you have now?” This is where they will tell you what they need. Ask as many questions as you need to get a clear picture of what they’re telling you. Repeat your understanding of their needs back to them and get them to agree that “yes, that’s what we’re looking for” before going any further.

The “D” in NEADS stands for Decision-Maker. You need to know if they’re truly the decision-makers. Ask, “John and Mary, if we’re fortunate to find the right home/investment/insurance program for you today, who other than yourselves would be involved in making a final decision?” If there’s someone else involved in the final decision, you’ll need to find out who and present your product to all of them. Never make a product or business presentation to a non-decision-maker unless you just need the practice. If they’ve told you what they need and that they’re the decision-makers, then and only then will you move into presenting the benefits of your product or service.

The “S” in NEADS is for “solution.” You must impart to your clients that you and your company are in the ‘solution’ business—the business of helping others resolve whatever challenge brought you together.

Since no one wants to feel they’re ‘being sold’ expect most potential clients to object about something. It’s a natural reflex. Know that if a potential client objects that they’re feeling moved toward making a buying decision. You see, people aren’t going to waste their time objecting to something they’re not interested in. Makes sense, doesn’t it?

The great ones in sales prepare answers to the most common objections for their product or service. The answers are psychologically sound and help the buyers rationalize the decision—only if it’s truly good for them.

Now don’t forget the final step: Ask for the sale! Don’t laugh this one off thinking you’d never forget that. A study was done years ago where people were asked why they didn’t make a purchase after a product had been demonstrated to them. The most common answer was, “We were never asked!” Top professionals in sales know anywhere from five to 25 ways of asking for the final “yes.” Those are called closes and if you’re in sales to be successful, you’ll want to start mastering as many as possible as soon as you can.

You have what it takes to learn to become the best in your field. Just make the commitment and get on with it!

We can choose our attitudes about anything, including learning and education. That’s right. We get to choose what our attitudes are. Here is the definition of attitude: “The feeling or opinion about something or someone, or a way of behaving that follows from this.” We choose our opinion about people and situations. We choose the way we will behave in relation to other people and circumstances. We choose what we believe about learning. We choose it. Learning doesn’t have to be bad. It doesn’t have to be anything but what we want it to be. We have the option. We can have tremendously optimistic attitudes about learning – attitudes that will help us grow in ways we have never achieved before!

The choice of a right attitude will significantly determine new circumstances. Choosing to have the right attitude will change the world around you. This isn’t any sort of magic; it is just how the world works. Now, don’t get me wrong. It won’t cure everything and turn your world into a virtual Shangri-La, but it will significantly improve the world you live in. For example, let’s say that every day you go into work and you gripe about life and work from the moment you get there until the moment you leave. Will others want to be around you? Will others ask your opinion? Will others like you? Will others ask you to join them for lunch? Probably not! But what if you come to work every day and you are the positive optimist of the crowd? Will everybody love you? No, but significantly more people will than if you are the office pessimist! Your choice of attitude will determine what kind of circumstances you get!

The same is true with learning. What we feel about learning, and what we believe about it will determine the outcomes of our learning. And the outcomes of our learning will determine the outcome of our lives.

Ultimately, our attitude is a choice. Nobody else can force you to have a bad attitude. Nobody else can force you to have a good attitude. It is simply a choice we each make.

Where are you with your attitude about learning? Is it positive? Take some time to give it some serious thought. Then, no matter where you find yourself, decide to take your attitude to the next level! If you have a really bad attitude, decide to take it up a couple of levels!

So, if our attitudes determine to a great degree what kind of life we have, shouldn’t we focus on the best attitudes to have and then make them ours? Absolutely! If we want to soar with the eagles in this life, and if there are attitudes that will make us soar, shouldn’t we pursue them with all our hearts? By all means! So here we go!

Attitudes of Successful Learners

1. “I can.”
This is the most basic of all attitudes. We simply must choose to believe that we can learn. In our house we are not allowed to say, “I can’t.” We can say, “I’ll try,” or “I tried and failed,” but not “I can’t.” Telling yourself that you can’t will in effect make it so. But telling yourself that you can, will in effect enable you to learn much more. Even if you actually only achieve 50% of what you tell yourself, you will achieve at least that much more than if you told yourself you couldn’t. So many people were told at a young age that they couldn’t learn. Many others were allowed to engage in that kind of negative self talk (tell themselves, “I can’t learn”, “I don’t understand”, I’ll never get this”, etc.) and their parents and teachers didn’t intervene. This enabled them to develop the “I can’t” attitudes that become self-fulfilling prophecies.

I actually have a standard way of going about getting myself off of the starting block. I simply say if somebody else has achieved great learning heights, then I can too. I have to be smarter than at least one of those who has already done it. I have to be able to work harder than at least one other. There has to be at least one other person who has come from more difficult circumstances than me. And if they can do it then certainly, “I can!”

2. “This is a long-term approach.”
Learning isn’t something that happens overnight. Yes, you can learn individual facts, but the real growth comes when you see your learning build on itself and compound for years, when your knowledge meets up with your experience. When we take the attitude that it all has to happen immediately, we hurt ourselves in the long run because the fact is that it takes time to learn (even though we can accelerate it). If we expect it to happen immediately and it doesn’t, then we can get frustrated and stop learning altogether.

Instead, we need to take a long-term view just as we do in financial matters, weight management, leadership, etc. Long-term thinking, including our learning is always the best way to go for success.

3. “Learning is valuable.”
Some people have a “learning schmearning – who needs learning” attitude. They think that learning is overrated. I hate to tell you this, but not only was that wrong 5000, 500 and 50 years ago, it is especially wrong today. We live in the information age. We must gain knowledge and the ability to apply that knowledge if we are going to be successful. We must tell ourselves and cultivate the attitude that learning is valuable and that it will affect our lives.

4. “I will make a difference in the lives of those around me.”
People who soar are generally people who have the attitude of helping other people. Yes, they may do it for monetary gain, but they are others-focused. They want to change the way people live and experience life for the better. They are difference makers all around. This is the same in what we learn. We learn first for ourselves, but then with the goal of taking what we have learned, and what we make of ourselves, and we then help others to do the same.

I live in a town that is very affluent. Most of the people I know, work with and have as friends are very successful in this world. They have learned a lot about life and how it works. They have learned how to make money and be successful in business. One thing I can say, as almost a universal truth, is that as people, they are not self-consumed but genuinely care about others and will do what they can to help others. This is what I know to be true about the attitudes of the genuinely successful.

These are the attitudes of people who are not just successful at getting information into their minds, but in becoming good people because of that information. Learn all that you can, and be sure to keep the attitudes that will make you a successful learner and a successful person!

You Get What You Give
Ralph Waldo Emerson, in his essay, “Compensation,” wrote that each person is compensated in like manner for that which he or she has contributed. The Law of Compensation is another restatement of the Law of Sowing and Reaping. It says that you will always be compensated for your efforts and for your contribution, whatever it is, however much or however little.

Increase Your Value
This Law of Compensation also says that you can never be compensated in the long term for more than you put in. The income you earn today is your compensation for what you have done in the past. If you want to increase your compensation, you must increase the value of your contribution.

Fill Your Mind With Success
Your mental attitude, your feelings of happiness and satisfaction, are also the result of the things that you have put into your own mind. If you fill your own mind with thoughts, visions and ideas of success, happiness and optimism, you will be compensated by those positive experiences in your daily activities.

Do More Than You’re Paid For
Another corollary of the Law of Sowing and Reaping is what is sometimes called the, “Law of Overcompensation.” This law says that great success comes from those who always make it a habit to put in more than they take out. They do more than they are paid for. They are always looking for opportunities to exceed expectations. And because they are always overcompensating, they are always being over rewarded with the esteem of their employers and customers and with the financial rewards that go along with their personal success.

Provide the Causes, Enjoy The Effects
One of your main responsibilities in life is to align yourself and your activities with Law of Cause and Effect (and its corollaries), accepting that it is an inexorable law that always works, whether anyone is looking or not. Your job is to institute the causes that are consistent with the effects that you want to enjoy in your life. When you do, you will realize and enjoy the rewards you desire.

Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do immediately to put these ideas into action.

First, remind yourself regularly that your rewards will always be in direct proportion to your service to others. How could you increase the value of your services to your customers today?

Second, look for ways to go the extra mile, to use the Law of Overcompensation in everything you do. This is the great secret of success.

One source reports that last month marked higher demand in Orange County, California since September 2005 when demand was better than 2007.  Year over year statistics will not report until May or even June of this year.  Demand is better now compared to last year. There is an increased showing activity, open houses, more buyers who are submitting offers, multiple offers in the lower ranges and more first time buyers.  Buyers have been methodically entering the market place since the beginning of this year.  The year began with 30 day escrow activity at 944 escrows.  There were only 1,473 total escrows in January with 14,724 for sale.  Representing an inventory of 16.45 months.  Demand has increased to 2,286 escrows within the past 30 days, a 142% increase in volume.  Currently, there are 3,066 total escrows throughout Orange County, a 108% increase from the beginning of the year. 

Active home listing has only grown by 750 homes since January. This brought the inventory to 15,474 homes.  Expected market time has dropped significantly to 6.75 months.  The new FHA and conventional loan limits of $729,750 are now just hitting the market.  This is being achieved despite a major liquidity problem in the financial markets, meaning loans above $417,000 have been extremely challenging to obtain approval on  unless a borrower had a lot of money to put down and excellent credit.  

With a 10% down, the old $417,000 conventional limit only covered 37% of the current active inventory on the market.  The new limits now include an impressive 75% of the inventory.  The old $367,000 FHA loan limit covered only 23% of the active homes for sale.  Washington D.C. and strong institutions are focusing on programs and legislation aimed at further increasing demand and restoring our economy.

 Slowly there are visible signs of improvement in demand.  It be a few months for the recent increases in activity to start changing the headlines and stories in the press. Lower price ranges, where most of the higher risk loans occurred, are turning things positive first.  The increased loan limits will assist in restoring demand up to $800,000.  As liquidity improves those homes above $800,00 will turn start to gain momentum during the remaining months of this year.  The conditions are good for purchasing and into the horizon:  motivated sellers, wide selection of homes to choose from, lower rates, new loan programs are available. . 

As a buyer, do not let price be your only determining factor as always.  Price is important that is true, but current low rates will not last.  Prior to the subprime mess and later economic downturn,  the Federal Reserve was raising rates to counter inflation.  The threat of inflation is once again high due to the Federal Reserve easing rates.  Do not get too comfortable with our low interest rates, they WILL increase.     For every 1% that interest rates rise, it erases much of the benefits of waiting for property values to decrease by 10%.  The payments are virtually identical.