Tammy's Tips

“If we are together nothing is impossible.  If we are divided all will fail."
 - Winston Churchill

Tip 40 is on Partnership At Its Finest.  The best partnerships are like marriage and the best marriages are like a strong partnership.  Finding the right partner is business or marriage is not easy, but when the connection is right anything is possible.  When looking for the right partner it is important especially in business to look for those who are strong where you are weak.  Great partners know how to leverage the strengths of their partnership for maximum results.  Great partners appreciate one another, rely on each other and help to motivate the other.

There are all kinds of partnerships.  Aristotle once said, "Friendship is essentially a partnership."  Think about the friends you have; some of them are funny and some of them are resourceful.  There are friends that will help you move and friends that you can call at 3:00 am.  There are friends for all occasions and we learn to love our friends for who they are and for who they are not.  Partnerships operate in the same way.  Not everyone can be like you, act like you or do something the way you would do it.  So we learn to tolerate each other, to have empathy for one another and to accept each others weaknesses.

I have a partnership with my children.  Although I am the leader of the pack so to speak, I have created a partnership with them.  I try not to dictate or control them because I want them to make their own decisions and learn from their own successes and failures.  I can't do it for them - there is no short cut to growing up.  I believe in the 3 R's of raising children. Create the Rules for the partnership, Reward your children for following the Rules and create Ramifications in they don't.  Just like in a partnership there is always a partnership agreement.  Joyce Maynard has said, "It's not only children who grow.  Parents do too. As much as we watch to see what our children do with their lives, they are watching us to see what we can with ours.  I can't tell my children to reach for the sun.  All I can do is reach for it myself."  So with children as with partners we must set a good example and walk our talk.

Of course there are the formal business partners.  This could either be the best partnership in the world or the worst.  I have seen marriages end and friendships combust when they go into business together.  One of the best partnerships in business I can think of is Bill Gates and Paul Allen.  Together they built the largest computer company in the world.  They were able to work together in a cohesive way that promoted each of their strengths to make Microsoft a huge success.  They were also able to create partnerships with IBM which really catapulted them to a new level.  Bill Gates himself has been quoted as saying, "Our success has really been based on partnerships from the very beginning." Their success was based on mutual respect and appreciation of the other.  You have heard me say before, "No one who reaches the top got their by themselves."  We all needs partnerships, alliances and joint efforts to help us make our dreams a reality.

Last but definitely not least is the marriage partnership.  This is a partnership intended to last a lifetime.  Spending a lifetime with one other person will take much hard work and persistence.  One of my favorite marriage quotes by Barbara De Angelis is, "Marriage is not a noun; it's a verb.  It isn't something you get.  It's something you do.  It's the way you love your partner every day."  Successful marriages like any partnership thrive on appreciation, mutual respect, good communication and trust. (For any of you local here in sunny South Florida, my friend Tim Kellis is offering a FREE marriage workshop - see information listed below).

“Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve.  Thoughts are things!  And powerful things at that, when mixed with definiteness of purpose, and burning desire, can be translated into riches."  - Napoleon Hill 

Tip 37 is on Thinking Outside The Box.  This concept comes easier to some than it does to others.  Thinking outside the box often requires creativity and is much more powerful when done in a mastermind format with several other professionals all there to help contribute and ask pertinent questions.  This quote by Brian Tracy says it nicely, "A major stimulant to creative thinking is focused questions.  There is something about a well-worded question that often penetrates to the heart of the matter and triggers new ideas and insights."  I have always found that a good martini opens up my creative mind (lol).   

In my new position with Ellis, Ged & Bodden, P.A. I am in completely new territory.  In the past I was only soliciting realtors and mortgage brokers for title work.  While I am always still interested in title work, now the firm I work for handles not only Real Estate, but Personal Injury, PIP Claims, Estate Planning, Asset Protection and Immigration as well.  Everywhere I go have so many more opportunities to network and meet new people.  I am enjoying working with the medical profession and see endless possibilities for working and networking together.  Vince Lombardi once said, "We would accomplish many more things if we did not think of them as impossible." Having confidence and being able to adapt to new situations is part of having the ability to think outside the box.  How can I get a stream of referrals going back and forth between all of my contacts.  I am certain with a little outside the box thinking, asking the opinions of others and brainstorming with my Tuesday morning Guerrilla Goal Getting group doors will begin to open and the sun will shine.

Often times we need to think outside the box when dealing with other people.  I think our siblings set up their own boundaries and we must learn to tread softly.  Sometimes it is our children that we must learn how to think outside the box to communicate with them.  Of course, what works for one child may not always work on the second child.  I have identical twin stepsons whom  I raised since they were 9 years old and they are as different as two people could be.  How I deal with one is not how I deal with the other.  Dealing with your adult children (my twins are now 21) can bring it's own trials and tribulations.  Not every child will follow the traditional path.  I didn't - I went to college at 26 part time for 8 years until finally the day came when I graduated.  I went to law school at 34 and started practicing when I was 37.  I love this quote from Edward de Bono, "Traditional thinking is all about "what is" Future thinking will also need to be about what can be."  

The possibilities are endless for each and everyone of us if we could just dream the impossible dream.  Think like Donald Trump, "I like thinking big.  If you're going to be thinking anything, you might as well think big."  Every single big project always breaks down into many small projects.  Take one issue at a time, thinking outside the box, the issue will be resolved and on to the next issue.  Before you know it your project has been completed and your dreams have come true.  Congrats!!  

"If the people we love are stolen from us, the way to have them live on is to never stop loving them.  Buildings burn, people die, but real love is forever." - The Crow (1994)

“People will do business with people they know, like and trust."  - Bob Burg