Tag Archives: time

Investment of Time

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InvestingTimeI’ve said before that you reap what you sow and the same can be said for time.  If you invest time you’ll get time back; the reap what you sow concept is so simple yet so many people cannot understand it.  What I love about our business and what we do (at least in this market anyway, I can’t speak for other markets) is that we invest time into people.  We invest time into people and help them become leaders, I sometimes like to think this business we are in is a leadership business.  Officially it’s not (I need to be careful of how I represent this opportunity since I’m sure some people may report me to the Amway police lol).  Unofficially I think it’s a leadership business because we really do build leaders who take control of their lives in all aspects and then help others do the same thing.  I may do a blog post on that later but for now I’ll leave it at that.

Back to what I was getting at, investment of time.  We’ve recently been fortunate to receive coaching and mentorship from our sponsor’s sponsor who coached and mentored them in this business.  They are now investing time into us and helping us to continue building our business and that’s awesome.  Awesome because there is no “the guy”.  We are able to tap into other leaders within this business and earn coaching and mentorship from anyone of them. 

I was thinking last night as they were doing an open for our entire organization, that this business is so different from any other business I’ve seen and stands on some pretty phenomenal traditional values and principals.  The amount of respect, transparency, integrity and trust shown in this organization is pretty amazing.  I certainly do not see that in my current job, it’s far far from it.  My job doesn’t invest any time into me, they demand time from me for as little amount of money possible to keep me there.  That’s pathetic because we invest time into our team and honestly expect nothing in return.  If they are not growing or moving on, oh well.  We meet them where they are at and help them in whatever fashion they need.  Some other “opportunities” out there would probably drop those people like its hot and move on, sorry not our opportunity, and that’s what makes our Amway opportunity stand the test of time.  If people are moving on in a big way then we applaud that and help them continually grow and help them where they need it.

We develop honest relationships with these people and ENJOY investing our own time into them because they deserve it and want that helping hand.  Like I said we help them in all areas, not just this business and that’s why I think we develop leaders and what sets us apart.  They are able to learn from that and help others do the same, that’s just one aspect of a leader and something I’m pretty proud of.

Take a look where your investing your time these days and ask yourself are you reaping what your sowing?

Weekend of Skiing With My Father

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This weekend my father took me skiing for Christmas and my Birthday which just passed on the 4th.  We had a great time heading up to Marmot Basin in Jasper.  The weather was looking a bit chilly as we left Edmonton early Saturday morning but weird things happen with the weather in Alberta as it was warmer in the mountains than if we had stayed in Edmonton.  It was around –2 on the hill at the top and around –10 at the base of the mountain. Weird, but I’ll take it! 

I’ve not skied with my dad in a long time and by skiing I mean skiing hard and looking for those great pockets of untouched powder and some challenging blacks and double black diamonds.  My dad for being almost 55 was a trooper and still has a few tricks in his skis.  He’s not the spring chicken that I may be but he holds his own and I’m pretty amazed.  He’s an amazing skier and is where I learned to ski the way I do today.  His technique has been perfected over the 50 years he’s been skiing.  It was a pretty darn good trip that’s for sure.

I got to do some dream building as well while on this trip as the trip to and from Jasper is almost 4 hours not to mention the dinner and a few drinks we had while watching the Oilers game.  Got to talking about future plans for both his family and also ours and where we are going to end up.  He’s moving out to Vernon, BC next summer which is about 20 minutes north of Kelowna where we want to head to in three years.  We got to talking about houses, vehicles, travelling and life after retirement as he will be retired at 55.  Out of all those conversations I’ve found out what I’d love to get for my father which is something he will never buy himself because of the upcoming retirement.  I won’t write it here just incase he comes across this blog but rest assured I’ll be doing a video just like my buddy Clay did for his dad.

Most of all what really hit me hard during this trip was the time I got to spend with my dad.  We don’t often get to spend as much time as we’d like together and that goes for ALL family members.  Work, life, and all other stuff gets in the way of that and as I’ve mentioned before we are building our business to create more of that time so that we can hang out with our family more.  There is no other option that I can think of that at least gives me the opportunity to do that.  My job doesn’t and owning my own traditional business sure as heck wouldn’t either and would only be me 10’s of thousand’s into debt.  So for us we build a business that contracts with Amway and World Wide Dreambuilders.  My dad while supportive doesn’t fully understand what we do but I’ve told him rest assured we will have many more days like this when you are retired and there will be much much more to come!

If you’re ever in the Jasper area during the winter make sure you stop by Marmot Basin. It’s a gem in the Canadian Rockies.

How Valuable is Your Time?

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A recent tweet to my personal account got me thinking about time again and how your job values it.  To be honest they don’t value your time at all and will make you work for the least amount of money they are willing to pay to have you replaced. “…Does your work value your time so little” was the response I got when I mentioned that I had driven 12 hours yesterday to Medicine Hat to shut down one of our offices and yet the total amount of time it had taken me to actually rip out the IT Infrastructure was about 40 minutes.  So I could see how someone may see that as being a bit ridiculous but when your based in Edmonton and there is no body else closer to the office that can do it, your required to do it.

Yes that is part of my job, so I’ll stop that line of thinking right there.  I’m not complaining at all about the drive because I was actually able to listen to a couple of great CD’s and a few audio books that I have during the drive.  Also driving 12 hours gives you some great reflection time as well so if there are some positives those would be it.  However that was a whole Sunday I was away from my pregnant wife when we could have been doing a lot of other things.focus_on_the_family

However jobs don’t value your time, if they did they wouldn’t continuously ask you to work over time which takes you away from your spouse, partner or family.  I’m a big believer in work life balance while I continue to work out the last year of where I’m at.  However its very hard to get buy in on that and while our company speaks it and says we should have a good work life balance, they don’t actually walk the talk.  A lot of companies are like this, at least the last three I’ve worked for.  I don’t profess to know how all companies work, I can only go by what I’ve seen in my previous jobs and what the IT industry has shown.  However I’d bet I’m not far off base with what other companies are like, especially after hearing many friends complain about what is required of them at their jobs.

The fact is your job will pay you as little as possible for your efforts and time.  Why do you think you get that measly 2-3 weeks of holidays for the WHOLE year to start at most companies.  Then it takes you anywhere between 5-10 years to get another week.  Those who are reading this don’t even try and defend your job because you’ve complained at least once about the crappy amount of holidays you get.  If you say you don’t your lying. 

I’m really just stating the obvious here and I’m not saying that Amway is the answer to this however it is the opportunity that we’ve decided to purse to allow us greater freedom in our lives and that’s why I can say this is the last year that I’ll be working.  I’ve got a family on the way and I intend to spend a lot of time with that family and less time working for someone else while they spend more time with their family.  The Amway opportunity along with World Wide Dreambuilders is paving the way for time freedom as well as financial freedom down the road.  It does come with some work however, and anyone that tells you this is a get rich quick is lying.  We are very transparent with how we build this business with prospective entrepreneurs because we value their time and want them to know just what it takes to build this business.

So how valuable is my time?  More valuable then any company can ever pay me and that should be the same thought for everyone.

Time, Plenty of It

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TimeI’ve been looking at time in a whole new light over the last 1 1/2 years as I’ve been working on my personal growth.  I remember saying a lot over the last 5-10 years of just how busy we were with various things and finding myself frustrated cause I couldn’t fit everything in.  Since reading success books like “The Magic of Thinking Big” and a few others, I’ve learnt how to steward time a lot more and take control of it.  Time isn’t an excuse in our household anymore as we’ve become a lot more efficient with it.

I know a few people think we are always busy and a lot of them think we are consumed solely with our business.  To be honest that couldn’t be further from the truth and I’ll tell you where we’ve changed our priorities.  Instead of spending on average 20 hours watching TV we’ve used that time and decided to put that towards our business.  So while it may seem like we are “busy” we’ve only changed priorities.  Now that’s not to say we don’t watch TV, we just PVR it and watch it when its convenient for us. 

I think a lot of us out there could learn to steward time more efficiently so that we don’t come up with that lame excuse of “I just don’t have time”, cause in my opinion too many people use that.  Now don’t misunderstand me, I’m not saying I’m higher then thou, this is my blog and my opinion so take your negative attitude elsewhere.  I’m just observing what I’ve experienced in the last 1 1/2 years and what I see when paying more attention to people.  Something else people probably should spend more time doing is paying attention to people more.  That’s another blog entry for another day.

Figure out where you spend your time and take a hard look and ask yourself are you really that “busy”?

Christmas in BC

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I love December and this time of year, it’s the time of year where Christmas really kicks it into high gear and where most decorations if they’ve not already come out are in full swing.  It’s also the start of trying to juggle the family Christmas events.

I have a lot of family and my parents have been split up since I was 7 so Christmas has always been a busy time of year for us.  Now that we have grown up (well only in appearance, haha) we have the battle of who’s turn is it this year.  I think we’ve been bouncing back and forth between the mothers.  This year is my wife’s parents turn and next year it will be my mom’s side again where we will spend Christmas day with.  My father usually gets either Christmas Eve of Boxing day depending on his wife’s work schedule as she’s a nurse. 

This weekend was really the only weekend that work out perfect to see my mom and step father here in Kamloops for our Christmas day.  It was a long drive up yesterday but the time is always worth it no matter how long we are here for.  Tomorrow we head back after a good breakfast with our aunt and uncle and cousin. 

As i’ve mentioned many times before having the freedom or the time to be able to spend with family or have family spend time with our soon to be kids is one of the major reasons why we are building what we are.  As we continue to move on in this business we are seeing that the fruits of our labour are rewarding and will soon allow myself to step away from my job so that we can start and continue to spend that quality time with our families.  While there may still be that battle for our time spreading it with the families there will be no stress on having to answer to a job or someone else telling us when we have to be back at work.  I know for some it may seem far fetched but I have examples who are directly coaching and mentoring us that have done this and in succession so we know its possible and will come true.

I hope however you spend your Christmas season this year it’s an awesome one.  Enjoy the quality time you do have with others and make the most of it. 

Happy Holidays