Value and Price by Jim Stovall

Photo by Fabian Blank on Unsplash

People who succeed at the highest level over a long period of time create value in the lives of others. Warren Buffett said, “People know the price of everything and the value of nothing.” Among the people and organizations with whom I consult, I always caution everyone about the risks of getting in a price war. If the main selling point of your product or service is that it is cheaper than anything else, you will either have short-term success or always be struggling to keep your costs down.  

Here in the global economy of the 21st century, it is not hard to find a multitude of people who are willing to work for less money than you may be. I would rather justify my price with value than apologize for low quality. In my personal and professional life, I have found that when I pay for quality products or services, it may be uncomfortable at first, but I am always grateful I looked at quality versus price in the long term. Any time I settle for cheaper services or products, I generally come to suffer the consequences in the long run. Just because something’s more expensive, doesn’t make it higher quality, but when something is significantly cheaper, it is invariably of low quality. 

As an author, speaker, TV and movie producer, or columnist, I strive to never be the least expensive alternative for those I serve. Instead, I strive to be a valuable asset in their lives and careers. When we seek out a surgeon, airline pilot, or babysitter, we invariably think of quality before price. A lower-quality alternative in these areas can be disastrous. However, anything worth doing is worth doing with excellence.  

Any component of your life that does not function with quality will eventually impact every area of your life. It’s important to make sure that when you pay for quality, you get it. If you’re not willing to make an investment in quality, you may want to wait until you can. My wife Crystal and I had a 15-year-old Pontiac that we paid a few hundred dollars for. We drove that car, known as “The Green Dog”—now famously immortalized in several of my books—until we were able to trade it in for a Mercedes. 

I’m not advocating a Mercedes over a Pontiac for you. All of us have to individually determine the things that are valuable in our lives and be prepared to invest accordingly. I know people who like to eat out five nights per week, so they can generally be found at a fast-food location. I also know people who appreciate an elite, fine dining experience, and they would rather stay home for several weeks in order to be able to have one memorable night out.  

There is no right or wrong answer; we just need to make sure that we receive all that we pay for. Hopefully we are all giving high-quality value for the money we receive, and we must be diligent to make sure that our hard-earned dollars bring us the quality we want in our lives. 

As you go through your day today, evaluate worth as opposed to cost. 

Today’s the day!  

Jim Stovall is the president of Narrative Television Network as well as a published author of many books, including most recently Will to Win. He is also a columnist and motivational speaker. Follow him on Twitter (@stovallauthor) or Facebook (@jimstovallauthor).   

Urgent vs. Important by Jim Stovall

Photo by Cathryn on Unsplash 

Success in our personal and professional lives is not just a matter of doing things right but also doing the right things. It is very easy to get caught up in activity as opposed to engaging in productivity. There are so many thoughts, ideas, messages, and tasks competing for our attention that we must have a system to filter out the noise and focus on the true path to our destiny.  

My late, great friend and colleague, Dr. Stephen Covey, in his landmark book First Things First, introduced people around the world to his four-quadrant diagram. As often is the case with learned and prolific people, Dr. Covey’s wisdom captured and built upon the teaching of a proven leader. Dwight David Eisenhower is unique among U.S. presidents and world leaders in that the pinnacle of this power and productivity may not have been his presidency but, instead, may have been when he was General of the Allied Forces during World War II. General Eisenhower’s command required him to be precise, productive, and prolific at all times. The D-Day invasion probably required more management, oversight, and leadership than any project in recorded history. 

General Eisenhower divided all information and actions into the categories of “important” and “urgent” in a system that has become known as the Eisenhower Box. In this system, combining these two elements gives us four possible categories. First, there are the items that are both important and urgent. These are tasks that demand our immediate attention, and the consequences will greatly affect our outcome. Ideally, with the exception of true emergencies, we should deal with important items before they become urgent. It is important to keep gas in our car, but it is not urgent to fill the tank unless we put it off until we are in the danger zone.  

Second are the items that are important but not urgent. This category is where we should ideally focus the majority of our time, effort, and energy. President Eisenhower said, “What is important is seldom urgent and what is urgent is seldom important.” Having an estate plan for your family including a will and life insurance, or reviewing long-term goals and objectives within your professional life, or maintaining and cultivating great relationships with friends, colleagues, and loved ones are all vitally important to our success, but we should never allow these activities to become urgent.   

Third are the items that are urgent but not important. This category includes activities that are relatively insignificant which may be expiring quickly. For example, an offer or a coupon to save an insignificant amount of money on something you may not want or need is certainly not important, but if you’re not careful, you may think it’s urgent if you continue to focus on the fact that it expires at the end of the day today. 

 Fourth among Dr. Covey’s quadrants or President Eisenhower’s box are the items that are not important and not urgent. You may wonder why two of the greatest thinkers of the last century would even include this category. They understood that more time is wasted and procrastination justified by junk, clutter, and time wasters. Here in the 21st century, we are bombarded with unimportant, non-urgent things that threaten to flood the landscape of our minds. In order to succeed, we must identify and eliminate these items immediately. Only when we look through the lens of productivity using a system such as Dr. Covey’s quadrants or President Eisenhower’s box, can we focus our effort and energy on the most vital things that will move us toward our goals, dreams, and legacy. 

As you go through your day today, begin to control your activities through your own productivity system. 

 Today’s the day!

Jim Stovall is the president of Narrative Television Network, a columnist, a motivational speaker, as well as a published author of many books. His latest book, co-authored with Don Green of the Napoleon Hill Foundation, is The Gift of Giving: Living Your Legacy. It is available to purchase from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-a-Million, Porchlight Book Company, Google Play, Apple Books, and other fine retailers. Follow Jim on Twitter (@stovallauthor) or Facebook (@jimstovallauthor). And be sure to sign up to receive free samples of Jim Stovall’s books and audiobooks from Sound Wisdom! 

The Gift of Giving by Jim Stovall

Photo by Suzy Hazelwood from StockSnap 

This week I am excited about the release of my latest book. The Gift of Giving, which I co-authored with Don Green of The Napoleon Hill Foundation, may be the most important book among the 48 I have authored to date. First and foremost, the privilege of working with Don Green and The Napoleon Hill Foundation is unparalleled. I don’t know of any individual or organization that embodies giving more than Don and the Foundation. 

Giving is one of the many paradoxes we face in our human existence. You may remember your third grade teacher explaining, “If Johnny has four apples and gives one to Mary, that leaves him with only three apples.” While this is mathematically true, it fails to take into account the intangible benefits of giving that far outweigh one apple. The equation fails to explain that Johnny is left with a sense of well-being and abundance that only comes from the process of giving our time or resources. The equation doesn’t explain that Johnny, now with his abundance mentality, will prosper more in the future and have dozens of apples to share that he might have never had without expanding his mind and spirit. Mary is left with a sense of gratitude that causes her to look at the world in more positive ways, and she becomes a success so she can, in turn, follow in Johnny’s footsteps and become a giver. 

Every bit of our time, talent, and resources should be divided into three categories. Some of it is meant to be enjoyed today, some of it should be saved for our future, and some of everything we receive should be responsibly given away. 

In our society, we are over-extending ourselves on spending for today. We have countless people and books wanting to advise us on how to invest for our future, but there is very little said or done regarding organized, intentional giving.  

In The Gift of Giving, I recount my experience of beginning with a ten-dollar seed that grew into a commitment for a single gift of over one million dollars. It might seem outrageous or out of the realm of possibility in your life, but if you read The Gift of Giving, you will discover that you’ve never met anyone less qualified or less likely to ever have—much less give away—over a million dollars. 

During these difficult times, we need to re-evaluate and reset our lives. In a post-pandemic world, there will be many people and causes that need your time, talent, and resources. Determine to become a giver and you will never regret it. 

As you go through your day today, commit to experience The Gift of Giving. 

Today’s the day!  

Jim Stovall is the president of Narrative Television Network, a columnist, a motivational speaker, as well as a published author of many books. His latest book, co-authored with Don Green of the Napoleon Hill Foundation, is The Gift of Giving: Living Your Legacy. It is available to purchase from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-a-Million, Porchlight Book Company, Google Play, Apple Books, and other fine retailers. Follow Jim on Twitter (@stovallauthor) or Facebook (@jimstovallauthor). And be sure to sign up to receive free samples of Jim Stovall’s books and audiobooks from Sound Wisdom! 

Living the Lottery Life by Shawn Doyle

I saw a news story the other night where a reporter on the street was interviewing people and asking them what they would do if they won the lottery. Many people said that they would travel or that they would buy exotic cars, a new house, or some other luxury extravagance. What I found most interesting is that when asked, “Would you stay at your job?” every single person said, “No, I would leave my job immediately.” That was every single person. 

This story really got me thinking about the psychology of the lottery. People often say that if they were to win those millions of dollars, they would finally be happy. But the big question is, why would that be? As the old saying goes, “Most people are living lives of quiet desperation.”  

Well, I have some good news and some bad news: It is highly unlikely that you will ever win the lottery—I guess that is the bad news. The good news is that you can begin to live the lottery life starting tomorrow. What do I mean by that? I mean that you can create your own life and win! 

1. Your job—If you truly hate your job enough to quit immediately upon winning the lottery, then guess what? You may want to think about the work that you do, because obviously you do not have a passion for what you do. First, mister, no one is making you do it. After all, you don’t have to work there. You could find another job. You could switch industries. You could find a new profession. 
   
   I was recently doing a full-day training program at a company, and when I asked one of the team members how long she had been with the company, she told me, “Fourteen years.” When I responded, “Oh, that is great.” She said, “No, it’s not. In fact, I have been here fourteen years too long.” I am a realist and not an idealist, and I know that you just can’t up and quit your job tomorrow. That is not realistic, and you do have mouths to feed and bills to pay. I get that. What I am saying is that starting tomorrow, you need to begin developing a plan for doing the thing that you have a passion for doing. The key, then, is to do something every day to move closer to that goal. You can work at your real job while in your spare time working on creating your dream job. There are many cases of people who have reinvented their careers and have ended up living very happy lives doing the work that they love. 

2. Your dreams—Maybe you dream of having a huge mansion. Maybe you dream of having a high-speed boat or traveling all over the world to exotic locales. I’m sure you believe that winning the lottery would help you achieve those dreams very quickly because the lottery would pay for them. But here is my question: What are you waiting for? Go ahead and start working on those dreams now instead of standing at your local convenience store buying twenty tickets and hoping that one of them is “the one.” Why not take some time today and write out your goals in every part of your life. Create an action plan and start working on it now. Find out what training and development may be available for what it is you’re trying to do, sign up for a college class, start learning a trade. Why not sit down today and figure out how you can have the home of your dreams; how you can have that boat; how, through your work and effort, you can travel the world to exotic locales without being sponsored by the Powerball? 
   
   You may think I’m crazy, but I also believe that if you achieve your dreams through your own hard work and sweat equity, you will feel much better about it than if somebody handed you a pile of cash that you really did earn. If you don’t believe me, there have been many cases of people who won the lottery, then a few years after winning lost everything and said that they were miserable because they felt like they did not deserve the money. Don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t turn down the money if someone handed it to me; I’m just saying I think you appreciate it more when you earn it and you worked for it. 

3. Your happiness—I hear people say this all the time about the lottery: that if they won, they would finally be happy. What if you never win the lottery? Would you never be happy? Are you not happy now? So instead of waiting for some random balls to come down the chute and change your life, why not figure out what would make you truly happy now? 
   
   I have often written that you are the architect of your own life, and I believe that. Take some time and analyze your life and figure out the things that make you happy, and those are the things you want to keep doing. Here’s a suggestion from the land of the obvious: if you have things that make you unhappy or miserable or that fill you with sadness and despair, change them, get rid of them, or do something about it. As far as I know, we only have the chance to live one life, and to me life is way too short to sit around and not be happy. You can decide how to handle every aspect of your life.  

So here’s what I want you to do: don’t stand around with your fingers crossed, watching the screen to see if your numbers come up. Instead, spend your time and energy creating your own lottery life, because the reality is it’s the only one that you can truly control.

For more business and personal development insight from Shawn Doyle, check out his titles from Sound Wisdom, including his Jumpstart Series, The Sun Still Rises, The Leadership Manifesto, and Two Months to Motivation.