Small Business Is the Backbone of America

It all starts with two words--"What if?"--and grows from there: Dream, dare, do. Even if you've never owned your own small business, you've worked for one or know someone who has. In observance of National Small Business Week, April 25-29, it's only right that we celebrate the entrepreneurial spirit--the adrenaline that fuels the American dream.

Innovation and job creation are the foundation of a healthy economy. In the United States, we rely on the small-business community for both of these precious resources. Owning a business, like owning a home, is part of the national fabric. Entrepreneurs embody the strength and character that help make our country great.

Goods, services and technology produced by U.S. small businesses make up the world's third-largest economy, after the United States overall and Japan. The small-business community has sustained our economy when it has slowed and is helping put us back on track for growth. Need proof? Look at the numbers: Small companies represent 99 percent of all U.S. businesses and employ more than half the American workforce. Other statistics to note, according to the SBA, include these:

• Small businesses create 75 percent of the net new jobs in our economy.
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• Small businesses pay more than 44 percent of the nation's private payroll.
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• More than 50 percent of the U.S. private gross domestic product is generated by small businesses.
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• Almost 97 percent of exporters are small businesses.

Entrepreneurs are resourceful. According to the SBA, 70 percent of all U.S. businesses are started with less than $20,000 in capital. They provide services and products with fewer people and resources than big businesses. They can take products to market quicker because they aren't bogged down by bureaucracy. And because small businesses know their customers personally, they understand consumer attitudes and can respond to market conditions more quickly.

The nation's small-business community is a vital source of competition, which forms the foundation for innovation and fuels our free enterprise system. Entrepreneurs realize that they're undertaking no small feat when they decide to launch a business enterprise. But at the end of the day, they're the first to say that the effort is worth it.

As we celebrate National Small Business Week, let's salute the entrepreneurial dreamers, darers and doers. They represent the backbone of America.

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10 Books That Will Change Your Life

Are you looking for books that will change your life?    Are you wanting to get leverage on yourself, and make real changes, but you’d love a guide to assist you?

These 10 books absolutely fit that criteria.  Read them, but more importantly, do what they tell you.  It is your acting not just your reading that will get you the best results.  These books however will give you the framework that you need to take action:

1. The War of Art by Steven Pressfield

The most important book I’ve ever read, and the book that has helped me most to build successful businesses, write a book and create an authentic and fulfilling career.  It has allowed me to break through my inner resistance and create my authentic life, and live my authentic self.  Critical if you are an entrepreneur, writer, artist, or any form of “creator”.

2. Turning Pro – by Steven Pressfield

The follow up to the War of Art.  In the War of Art Pressfield identifies the enemy to living an authentic life – resistance.  In Turning Pro, Pressfield teaches you how to defeat it.

3. Flow: The Psychology Of Optimal Experience – by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

What are the optimal experiences in our life?  The vacations?  Laying on the beach?  No.  World renowned psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi in his landmark book proves that optimal experience is actually the moments in our life when we are giving our very best in pursuit of self-directed meaningful goals.  Through this book learn how to channel flow, and your life will forever change.

4. As a Man Thinketh – by James Allen

Thoughts are things. We are what we repeatedly think about.  Learn to first create in your mind the life that you want, then manifest its reality through your hard work and actions.  A classic – short simple and powerful.

5. Mastery – by Robert Greene

Mastery teaches you to take the long run, and seek a higher form of success, one that very few people every achieve – the level of mastery.  Learn from case studies of some of the worlds’s greatest masters and absorb practical advice on how you can apply it.

6. The Alchemist – by Paulo Coelho

An easy to read, highly descriptive, story that teaches a powerful metaphor – how to pursue your dreams.  Learn the obstacles that will arise, and learn how to channel your courage on the path of what you value most.

7. Awaken The Giant Within – by Anthony Robbins

Don’t let the TV infomercials fool you – this book has high quality strategies that are immediately applicable to get control of your emotional self.  When you can control the inner, then the outer follows.  Get leverage on yourself by reading this book and applying the strategies you learn.

8. The Game – by Neil Strauss

A fascinating read – my advice – read it from a cultural psychology perspective.  You will see that there are certain patterns of behaviour and influence what work with people.  Learn how people think and what attracts them, and what repels them.  You will need to be a master of influence in order to achieve any dream that involves other people.

9.  The Way Of The Superior Man – by David Deida

This book is more applicable for men, but worth reading by anyone. Get leverage over yourself.  This book helps you to understand various emotional challenges that many men experience and how to gain mastery over one of the most difficult opponents: yourself.

10.  7 Habits Of Highly Effective People – by Stephen R. Covey

A practical masterpiece with easy to follow instructions and guides.  Useful for both businesses and individuals.  Learn to “put first things first” and “begin with the end in mind”.  This book is a classic in management and leadership literature, and should be mandatory reading for anyone who is in a position of influence.