Whatever it is you do from small things to big things, honour your parents!

As promised here is the video of the first rappel, I wish they had the second rappel as that was where I went upside down and played around a lot more.  Next year for sure!  I do have to give a quick thank you to Amway Canada for taking care of the video for me, I really do appreciate it.

Here is the wonderful thank you I received in the mail the other day from Easter Seals.  The girl in the photo was this years Easter Seals Ambassador, Melissa Pickle.  Such a sweet girl and has a huge life ahead of her thanks to the efforts of Easter Seals.  Feels good to make a difference in a person’s life, wish more of us could do the same.

So 10 days until I take the plunge over the 28 story Sutton Place here in Edmonton all for the Easter Seals Drop Zone.  I have been very fortunate to have raised $2,590 so far however I still have $910 more dollars to go.  I’m currently sitting at 74% of my goal and am working by butt off to get the rest of the money to reach that goal.

Just to give people a quick refresher on what it is I’m raising money for here is a quick run down.

Easter Seals Alberta is dedicated to enhancing the quality of life of Albertans with disabilities and special needs. Proceeds from this event help fund each of our three main programs:

• Easter Seals Camp Horizon, where every summer, over 1200 kids and adults challenge themselves and have fun through participating in various activities that develop personal skills and build self-confidence and self-esteem.
• Easter Seals McQueen Residence, a fully staffed group home for disabled adults, where residents are encouraged to learn the necessary skills and develop the confidence to live in the community on their own.
• Equipment and Support Services (ESS), a last resort agency supplying assistive and mobility equipment to Albertans with disabilities and special needs, thus allowing for greater freedom and independence within our community.

This is a great charity and one of the few of the larger charities that are able to keep all the money raised in Alberta to stay in Alberta.  Most charities end up going to the larger foundation and then get spread out evenly which may or may not be fair.  This way all my efforts stay within the province which is one of the reasons why I’ve decided to dedicate my time and some of my money to this worth wild charity.

Now I’m putting out a challenge in the next 10 days to everyone that reads this and to everyone else I’ll contact in other methods to see if they are able to part ways with $20 dollars.  Typically that’s say a lunch and a coffee which most people who work downtown do.  I can tell you at work I hardly see anyone brown bag it, and if they could just give up one lunch that would be $20 dollars which would also be a tax receipt and doing something selfless instead of buying a lunch.

So what say you Edmonton and beyond?  Would you be willing to give up $20 dollars and brown bag it for one day? As the slogan says, Challenge yourself and change lives, I challenge you to give up a lunch for one day. Can I at least challenge those on the Summer Blog Challenge?  You’ll get more awesome points!

For those who don’t have the link here it is again. http://my.e2rm.com/personalPage.aspx?registrationID=1042653&langPref=en-CA

Follow other bloggers for this year’s Summer Blogging Challenge here:

Zita of Ignite Strategic Solutions, Cliff of Peer Pressure Works, Tammy of Tam I Am, Peter of Crazy Wookie Cookies, Chad of The Daily Grind, Vlad of Analog Coast, Robb of Blogging Life, Kim of Nature Baby Bloggings, Liam of ln The Now, Natasha of Natural Urban Mamas, Earl of My Name is Earl (J. Woods), Brad of Kick Me Out Soon

Also follow this on twitter with the “Official” hash tags #SBC #SummerBlogChallenge

If you are wanting to update and have not yet, please check out the link below for online donations.  If you want to donate in person drop me a line and I’ll be happy to collect that way too!

http://my.e2rm.com/personalPage.aspx?registrationID=1042653&langPref=en-CA

Well it’s now June and that means there are three months until September 6th, 2011 when I’ll be taking the plunge over the Sutton Place Hotel in Edmonton. Time is sure creeping up fast and before you know it, September 6th will be here so I figured I should ramp up my fundraising efforts.  Again I want to say thank you to all the people who sponsored me last year, those donations I know have gone to a great cause to help Albertans with disabilities.

So I’m asking for help once more to support me in this great endeavour where I will get out of my comfort zone and do what most people won’t do, rappel of the side of a very large building to raise money for Albertans that are far more deserving than me. 

I know this blog has a pretty far reach and you may not know me personally but I’m asking if you can see it in yourself to donate as you’d be doing a selfless deed and helping others that need it more than us. 

You can donate through my page here:

http://my.e2rm.com/personalPage.aspx?registrationID=1042653&langPref=en-CA

Don’t know what the heck this is all about or what I’ll be doing? Check this link out that shows my last year rappel. http://vimeo.com/17180137

Thank you in advance for stopping by and I appreciate your donation!

What really impacted me from last night wasn’t the pin recognition, it wasn’t the training, it wasn’t the plan, it was Mike talking about how they give back on a constant basis.  That struck me big time because Lindsay and I feel the same way and we want to make sure we give back now and give back more when we make even more money.  There are many amazing things you can do with money, and that doesn’t make it evil.  Its what you do with it and we plan to do some pretty cool and impactful things even with what we have now.  I’ve already talked about some smaller things we’ve done on “Seeing Our Donation in Action”, and my current campaign for Easter Seals on my Drop Zone Page.  However I’m talking about doing some impactful things to people in need on a regular basis and not just waiting for certain organizations to do their fundraising drives.

See what I love about getting around the people we get to hang around with is that you start to open your mind to the possibilities that are out there.  The people I hang around with at work or even some of my closest friends don’t think about this kind of stuff.  Things like giving back to families that are unfortunate or kids that go without new clothes, underwear or shoes for years.  I know my current job allows me to live comfortable but doesn’t allow me to write a $5,000 cheque to needy family to put new clothes on their kids and get them some much needed supplies/food/etc… I know that when people are in debt themselves they rarely will look outwards and be more giving.  They will put any extra money on debt or just spend it frivolously. I’m really not doing justice to what I heard last night but we are going to impact communities with what we are building and that is worth fighting for and that is worth putting in the work to make this amazing business opportunity work. 

I’ve always been saying here that my main focus is my family and that’s why we build this business, but I’ve been adding in the giving back as a very very close second and that is a primary reason why we build this now.  Say what you will about his business, be it a “scam”, “pyramid scheme” (which are illegal by the way and 52 year old companies that make 9.2 Billion don’t get away with illegal operations in over 82 countries and partner with companies like Best Buy, Sears, and the Detroit Red Wings. I think their lawyers did more research about this company then what you did before joining with Amway.  Come on this isn’t the 70’s, take your head out of your…), or whatever else you want to say, my reason for building this far out weights your negative attitude towards what we do.  I’m building this to give back and help people achieve what it is they want to, be it giving back or whatever reason they want.  That is powerful and nobody can steal that away from us.

So last night Erron and Kyle showed me the iPad with all the applications they have installed to help Elijah learn and communicate.  I saw first hand the progress Elijah is making with this device and that is amazing.  At first when I saw this donation request from Erron I wasn’t sure how an iPad could help out someone with Autism, and last night I was shown.  The iPad is an amazing piece of technology and it will help more people than I think Steve Jobs ever thought it would. 

I’ve mentioned many times before here that we really want to impact people in many ways and one way we want to impact people is through donations and being able to give back to organizations and people exactly like this.  I can tell you with 100% certainty that we would not have been able to donate as much as we wanted to without the business we are in.  We’ve made many more donations this year already compared to any other year ever because of this business.  So I can say Amway and World Wide Dreambuilders was the major reason why we were able to donate to Elijah’s iPad fundraiser and partially why he will be able to learn and communicate better.  That’s amazing.

Also Lindsay and I donated two beautiful gift baskets to a Saskatoon Autism Gala utilizing products from Amway focusing on the Legacy of Clean and the Artistry line.  Being able to utilize our business to make donations like this is pretty powerful.  It really helps Erron out by getting some silent auction donations in there and we are proud to help out in that way.  This is true World Wide Dreambuilders through and through which is about focusing on others and taking our eyes off ourselves and focusing on others.  I love that we get to associate with a company like that, pretty powerful.

Please check out the link here and if you have it in your heart to donate a few more jewellery pieces from Erron so that she can donate the next iPad they get to another deserving autistic child that would be amazing.  I think she’s 15 away and that’s SO close to be able to touch another life.

I mentioned what I think the fundamental problem is with people who cannot move on is, but now that I look back at that comment I think it needs to be expanded to why people are unsuccessful in utilizing the Amway Business Opportunity.  I personally think the problem is two fold, trust and selfishness.

Our society is so concerned with “what’s in it for me” and are always looking inwards, because of that we’ve become very selfish.  Just to put a disclaimer for those sensitive people, I’m not saying everyone. This business is very much built on taking your eyes off of yourself and helping others.  That is just a success 101 principal that most books, specifically books on leadership talk about. Don’t believe me?  Pick up a John Maxwell Book, or read the “How to Win Friends and Influence People” by Dale Carnegie. That’s one of the biggest reasons why I’m drawn to this business, it gives us the  ability to forget about ourselves and help others in so many different ways.  We don’t care about our own success because we know with the efforts of legitimately helping others we will be blessed in turn and become successful as a by-product.

The other by-product of helping others is that you gain that trust and friendship with people in your downline.  When we take people through the information process where we lay out all the costs, the work habit required, that is where the building of trust and friendship starts.  We continue to build on that trust as we help others start to knock down their goals, aspirations, dreams, etc… You cannot build this business by pushing people or setting expectations on them, you need to coach people in the direction of their own goals, not yours.  If you do that along with a great work habit, you will become successful.  Continue to be selfish, whine and complain that your not moving on, not changing pins, not achieving your own goals, you might want to check your own motives for building this business.

When it comes to retailing trust is also key because you need to earn people’s business, you cannot demand it.  I’ve said this many times that you need to fill the need.  If you see someone who has a need for say a much healthier energy drink, sample and suggest XS.  Tell them the benefits of why it’s healthier (0 Sugars, 0 Carbs, Multiple Flavours), and then ask for the business.  Don’t push it, don’t make them feel like they must buy from you, because in the end you’ll give that person a sour taste of who you are and that in turn gives Amway a bad name.  People need to trust you and what you stand for, they won`t stand for some slimy pushy sales person trying to get them to buy products they don`t even need.  Fill the need and earn the business, it`s that simple.

This business we are building is pretty awesome when you break it down.  We get to build trust and friendship with many people, impact lives in and outside this business, become selfless, get around positive people, achieve goals and dreams we have set out, oh and make some money too.  There is no other business out there that lets me do that, certainly not my day job in IT that`s for sure.

What is even more amazing is how quickly people can come together and rally behind something like this and how far out it reaches.  Erron pointed out she had friends of friends who she has no idea who they were buy charms via the masses of Facebook.  Pretty cool.  I’m not sure if this blog produced any purchasers of charms however I think spreading the word that iPad’s can help children with Autism is just as powerful.  This blog has never been 100% about me building our business with Amway or the training system of World Wide Dreambuilders, this blog and what we are about is impacting people in a positive way.  What we were able to do by helping Elijah reach his goal of getting an iPad was mission accomplished.  This business allowed us to do that and for that I am grateful.

So what’s next for Erron, Elijah and family?  Well the overwhelming success has prompted them to shoot a bit higher then their original goal and hit 120 charms sold.  With that they will win another iPad which they plan to donate to a family with an autistic child to help that child communicate and learn.  It’s the whole pay it forward in action.  I know with the amazing support you’ve already received you’ll achieve your second goal and be able to donate that second iPad to another family that would be most deserving.

“Those of you who know me know I love to talk, get me on the phone and you’ll have to end the conversation because I won’t.  Gabbity gab gab. But right now I’m in front of my keyboard and I don’t know what to write.  I’m talking about the success of the iPad fundraiser from this post:

The post where I ask you for 20 bucks (don’t worry you get something)

I’ve said it to a few of you, Thank you seems much too small.  Yesterday we hit 60 people committed to purchase  in our fundraiser to earn an iPad for our family, Elijah specifically…….”

Check out Erron’s full post here

Check out The Puzzling Piece here

The promotion involves selling 60 necklaces or key-chains or a combination of both.  If that is completed Elijah will receive a new iPad which has a lot of amazing apps that can help someone with Autism as she points out in her post.

If this came across last year or the year before I probably would have said sorry we cannot afford to do this.  However because of the changes we made in our financial situation as well as the extra income we are making from our business we are able to look at other options for donations and take our eyes off ourselves and be more selfless.  Not only that we have the ability to impact someone such as Elijah so that he can improve his learning and communication skills with others.  We were able to purchase 5 of these key-chains and have asked Erron to send us only one and donate the other 4 as she sees fit.  If you are able to, I challenge you to also do the same and help Elijah reach their goal of 60!

“The internet is abuzz.  Steve Jobs may have never thought he would change the lives of thousands of autistic kids, but he has.  His devices give voices to many bright, non-verbal kids with Autism, through apps like Proloquo2go and many others.  Parents have been astounded to find that many of their non verbal kids are able to speak eloquently, in full sentences, with proper verb tenses, and correctly using figure of speeches, when given an electronic voice, and those who don’t can learn.  Don’t believe it?  Search #autism into Twitter and I guarantee in less that 5  minutes you find a link to some article about how the i-revolution has helped to improve communication for children with autism.”

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