8 Traits That Lead to Success

8 Traits of Highly Successful People

For over 10 years, award-winning communicator and success analyst Richard St. John researched and dissected what truly makes a person successful. Instead of rehashing the same tired business theories, he took a step outside the box and tried a fresh approach: interviews. St. John held interviews with successful people from all walks of life, gathering millions of pieces of invaluable information. His 500 interview subjects included major celebrities such as Martha Stewart, Richard Branson, Russell Crowe, Quincy Jones and the Google founders – and they all had quite a story to tell.

“After speaking with all these amazing people, I learned that there is no one ‘secret’ to success. Many people wrongly assume you have to be exceptionally bright to make it to the top,” says St. John. “But that’s not the case. I’ve also discovered that you don’t have to be beautiful or handsome. Those are all myths that many of us have bought into and they’ve become engrained in our collective psyche.”

After a decade of in-depth research and careful analysis, St. John ultimately identified eight common traits shared by successful people, which form the foundation for success, wealth and greatness. And the best part? They are easily applied to our everyday lives!

The 8-Traits That Lead to Great Success:

* PASSION. Discover what you love to do and pursue it. Chase love, not money, and the money will follow.
* WORK. You must work very hard; all successful people do. But when you love what you’re doing, it doesn’t feel like work.
* FOCUS. Successful people say you must focus on one thing and one thing only. Develop the ability to ignore distractions and concentrate.
* PUSH. Push yourself through obstacles such as self-doubt. Push to achieve the impossible.
* IDEAS. Come up with ideas to solve problems and take advantage of opportunities. Anybody can be creative!
* IMPROVE. Successful people don’t rest on their laurels. They’re always looking for ways to improve themselves and get better at what they do.
* SERVE. You must serve something of value to other people. Focus on the people you serve and listen to what they have to say.
* PERSIST. Don’t cave in to adversity! Persist through the rough times, failures, criticism and mistakes.

St. John’s new book 8 To Be Great: The 8-Traits That Lead To Great Success (Train of Thought Arts Inc. 2007) delves even deeper into the meaning of the 8-Traits and how to develop them. “Over time, my little database on success grew to more than 10 million words,” says St. John. “I sorted them all into categories and discovered not only the 8-Traits, but also the supporting factors that enhance those traits. Really, anyone can develop and apply these traits if they want to be successful.”

Credit Card Fraud

Fellow Artists, June 27, 2008

I know that you are all aware by now of the recent issues many of us have had with fraudulent credit card charges. A team of artists became aware of this and wanted to get the word out to the bear community. We have been looking into this matter for only a few days, yet have heard from over 50 bear artists who have been victimized. As word continues to spread, we are still hearing from additional people.

Here is what we’ve found in common:
- Charges started appearing around the last week of May and are still appearing.
- It is a worldwide problem – artists from US, Canada, the UK, Australia and New Zealand are victims.
- Common charges are seen to Google AdWords, Apple iTunes & Skype, along with florists, candy stores and Microsoft products.
- Amounts of those charges ranged from as little as $1 into the thousands of dollars. While the majority of charges were not large, and many had at least one very small charge used to "test" their card, some artists had multiple charges that added up to totals of $3,000, $6,000 and even $10,000.

Searching for that one common bear business link has not been easy. In a perfect world, we might have found a case of "100% of the affected cards had been on file with company x". Yet as we reviewed our information, we determined that this was not the case.

So what’s been done?
- Edinburgh and Intercal were immediately contacted. The have run extensive internal security checks. We want to stress that both companies were quick to respond and have been very helpful! NEITHER company had dealt with all of the affected artists, and their security systems HAVE NOT been breached.
- US magazines have been contacted and they are assisting us in reaching artists.
- Promoters that have international artists attending have also been contacted and are working with us to spread the word.
- Everyone asked have checked and double checked their security systems and had no troubles reported.

Those of us who have been looking into this have spent many long hours and several sleepless nights trying to do the right thing, and spent far too much time away from our own work in these few short days. None of us are security experts or master sleuths and we feel that at this time, we have done as much as we can and accomplished what we set out to do.

There are no easy answers here as to how this all got started, and if further investigation is to be done, it needs to be done by professionals. We feel that we have documented a trend in our industry, and have made as many others aware of this as we possibly could within a short span of time. More than one artist had not noticed the fraudulent charges sitting on their credit card until they received an email warning them to check on it. We would like to extend our thanks to each and every one of you who helped spread the word in a calm and impartial manner, which has been so very important in an emotionally charged situation like this.

We are proud to say that everyone in this industry, individuals and companies alike, have shown that they can work together; and all of us wish to move forward as a united front. To the suppliers, magazines, show promoters and everyone else in this industry that was contacted, everyone wanted to help, and we all thank you so much for that. To Intercal, who allowed us to report our important initial findings on their Teddy Talk message board, even when things threatened to spiral out of control once or twice.

Above all, we must never forget that the criminals in this story are those who stole our credit card information. The victims are many and span the globe. Each one of us has been a victim, from those who experienced fraud firsthand to everyone else who feared that they would be next. The companies in this industry have been victims, too. Let’s never forget it and continue to support them all as you have done before! Those of us who examined all of this information have no plans to change our buying habits, and hope that you will all join us.

The research team…
Karen Alderson, Aleta Breese, Chrissi Catherwood, Cindy Malchoff and Kelly Zimmerman

-- Addendum 6/30/08 --
We wrote this out a few days ago, and had sent it to several companies to see if they had anything they wanted to add. With the weekend, it was today before we got final approval from everyone. The number as of today is over 60 artists. All we can do at this time is continue to spread the word for people to keep an eye on their credit cards. There are no simple answers here, and the best people to figure out the HOW, WHAT, WHEN, WHERE and WHY answers of these cases are the fraud departments in each of your banks and credit card companies.

In conclusion, we felt that this would be a good time to discuss secure credit card practices. We’ve learned some new things about credit card security this week, and think you will, too. This will be sent as a separate document.

IDEX 2009

If you're interested in selling your bears to stores around the world, IDEX is the show for you. The next International Doll and Teddy Bear Exposition will be held January 30 - February 1, 2009, at the Rosen Shingle Creek Resort in Orlando, Florida.

Representatives from the top stores will shop your booth and buy their stock for the season and the year. Many of them now choose IDEX over Toy Fair because IDEX has a better selection of the top collectibles -- plus, of course, the show is in Florida rather than New York! The weather is better, overall costs are lower, and there's lots more fun!

Collectors attend IDEX, too. They love meeting their favorite artists, buying show special editions, and attending exclusive events.

For more information on IDEX, including a list of current exhibitors, booth space reservation details, workshop schedules, and more, visit www.idexshows.com.

Events calendar

Want to find a bear show? Visit our events calendar at www.teddybearandfriends.com/forum. Look on the toolbar in the upper right corner for a link to the Calendar.

Want to post a show to the Calendar? Please send an e-mail with all of the show information (name, sponsor, date, time, location including address, admission fee, and contact name and number) to: mkinseymadavorcom.

To have your event published in the magazine, be sure to send the details at least five (5) months in advance.

Edit Opportunities

- Bruins n Buddies: I'm always looking for photos of new bears and bear-related collectibles for BnB. Please send 1-3 photos (preferably showing one bear each) along with captions (bear's name, size, materials, edition size, and story/inspiration) along with your contact info and a brief biography. Bears and friends welcome.

- News: If you're attending a show or hosting a show, send the preshow information at least 5 months in advance. Send a post-show review (500 words or less) with a few photos afterward. Have you given a teddy talk or exhibit lately? Send a description and photo. Tell me who, what, where, why, and how in reasonable detail.

For photo submissions, if it helps, use the form on our Web site: http://www.teddybearandfriends.com/forum/i...hp?showtopic=13

Send all submissions to: Teddy Bear and Friends, [name of project], PO Box 10545, Lancaster PA 17605-0545, or mkinseymadavorcom. Please include your first and last name, business name, captions, contact info, and brief biography.

"ADvice" from John Boggs

John Boggs has been in the advertising business for 30 years. This excerpt is from his May 30, 2008, e-newsletter.

The first basic lesson of business is to bring in more money than goes out. Yes, there are times when you need to invest in product, promotion and/or customer development. But in the long run, business is about making more than you spend. Therefore sales must always be a prime focus. Regardless of your sales paradigm, money coming in is the result of some form of sales. You may have a sales force, you may distribute through a system of wholesalers, or you sell directly to the consumer. If you are in business, you are in sales and all sales principles apply to you whether you embrace them or not.

The No. 2 basic business lesson is that there are only two ways to increase a company's profitability: increase revenues or decrease costs. More often than not a combination of the two is the course taken. You must understand that cutting costs can go only so far. Eventually, cutting back affects the quality of your product or service, and hence, will have a negative impact on your value equation, adversely affecting sales.

There are only two basic ways to increase revenues: Sell customers more product and/or services, or sell products and/or services to more customers. The first involves increasing the value of each transaction, and the second involves increasing the number of customers making transactions. In this day of Internet marketing, maximizing the value of each acquired customer is accepted as the least expensive way to increase revenues.

Acquiring new customers is, of course, the second way to increase revenues, but that is viewed as more expensive and sometimes more elusive than adding sales volume on your existing customers.

Advertising, although often misunderstood, works to sell more product as well as to garner more customers. Few advertisers are aware of the task they need their advertising to accomplish. If the task is clearly defined in their mind, the decisions that are necessary to execute the plan become more obvious. Case in point, if the advertiser wants to increase sales to current customers, the advertising needs to be focused within the media that the advertiser is currently using. The message should be consistent and the image should reflect much of what consumers already know about the product and/or service. If the business wants to sell to additional (different) customers, then the advertising can be in the same and/or new media. The message should be new, and product features should be different from what has worked with other customers. The image can also be expanded or viewed from a different perspective, to make it acceptable to a different audience.

The third basic business lesson is to understand the value of your customer. A customer buys your product and/or service. It is our hope that the customer will return and make additional purchases throughout the year. Many of our product offerings are intended to create just that scenario. The more transactions and the higher those transaction values, the more valuable is that customer. As an advertising medium, I am constantly telling my advertisers not to dwell on the single purchase a new customer from my magazine makes, but to look at each new customer in terms of lifetime value. I am always amazed at how small-business people often believe their businesses can survive without advertising when giants like Coca Cola, Chase Bank, General Motors, etc., know that they cannot survive without it. It is just common sense, watching what successful businesses do and then doing those same things ourselves. The next time you are thinking of doing something you perceive as extraordinary, stop and ask yourself, would Coca Cola cancel their entire advertising budget in a pinch? Would Chase Bank stop selling credit cards for the remainder of the year? Would General Motors not come out with next year's model in order to save money? If your answer is the obvious one, then maybe your decision is not the right one to make. Remember these large companies have remarkable common sense and business savvy. Maybe, just maybe, we could learn from following their lead and using our own common sense.