I read somewhere recently that positive people are far more likely to be successful. I wish I could remember the details because it was fascinating. A study was done by looking at the authenticity of the smile in school photo's - apparently there is a muscle in every persons face that just cannot lie. If you are truly happy this muscle moves - it adds the glint to your eyes. Those who were authentically happy in school photo's - were far more likely to be successful twenty years on.

I know that ever since I won the 'jelly bean in a jar guessing game' at the age of eight at primary school I have thought I was a lucky person. And my luck continues. Therefore when I read this quote sent to me from my friend JC... I rather liked it.

"Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul."
Samuel Ullman (1840-1924, Educator, Writer and Poet)

I have just finished speaking at a conference to an audience of 1000 business owners. Each of them had started their business... done the hard yards... created something from nothing. But the question I asked myself (in my head) as I was shared my story... 'Why?' What makes one person get on with it, whilst others talk about it?

You know that my personal motto is 'If it's meant to be it is up to me'. I left the audience with the final thought: 'The future is the one that we dare to imagine'.

When I got back to my desk and started going through emails.. a friend had sent me this, saying it reminded him of me.

Our Deepest Fear
By Marianne Williamson

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness
That most frightens us.

We ask ourselves
Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?
Actually, who are you not to be?
You are a child of God.

Your playing small
Does not serve the world.
There's nothing enlightened about shrinking
So that other people won't feel insecure around you.

We are all meant to shine,
As children do.
We were born to make manifest
The glory of God that is within us.

It's not just in some of us;
It's in everyone.

And as we let our own light shine,
We unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.
As we're liberated from our own fear,
Our presence automatically liberates others. 

Thanks James

"Vision is not enough; it must be combined with venture. It is not enough to stare up to the steps; we must step up the stairs." -

Vaclav Havel

"Success is counted not by how high you have climbed, but by how many people you have brought with you" Anonymous

"And the day came when the risk it took to remain tight in the bud became greater than the risk it took to blossom"

Anais Nin

At RedBalloon we are currently planning for the new financial year - with the 'painted picture' document as a guide the team is now working out how the business will deliver on the vision. It's so exciting. I love planning - creating the future. The one thing we do know is that the market will change and we must be adaptable to that... to stay doing the same things just will not cut it. We will continue to innovate this year to get were we want to go.

Gallup Organization talk about the cost to business of disengaged employees that is that employees aren't just unhappy at work; they're busy acting out their unhappiness. Every day, these workers undermine what their engaged co-workers accomplish. Actively disengaged employees made up 18% of the Australian Workforce in 2006 costing some $AU32.7 billion. (We are the second least engaged after the French- ouch that hurts.)

But this quote sums it up from a famous 'business commentator':

"If Adults don't like their jobs they don't go on strike, they just go in everyday and do it really half-arsed."

Homer Simpson

You never know where your going to find the gold ..

You may have come across these before. I had a very challenging day yesterday and I had to remind myself that 'if it was easy everyone would do it'. So I pulled out these quotes from George Bernard Shaw to remind me of what it takes.

"The reasonable man adapts himself to the conditions that surround him... The unreasonable man adapts surrounding conditions to himself... All progress depends on the unreasonable man."

"People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don't believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and if they can't find them, make them."

"Forget about likes and dislikes. They are of no consequence. Just do what must be done. This may not be happiness, but it is greatness."

George Bernard Shaw

"Employees who are valued add more value"

Rodger Stotz
Research Committee Chair,
Incentive Research Foundation and Forum ofr People Performance Management and Measurement

"Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything."

George Bernard Shaw

"You’ll always miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.’"
Wayne Gretzky