Sharpening The Axe -- Little Hinges Swing Big Doors

You may wonder what sharpening your axe has to do with marketing or business.

Well, truthfully it's just an analogy I borrowed from a well know professional speaker, Zig Ziglar. I thought this was pretty catchy because Zig tells a story of two woodsmen, one, a grizzled old hand and the other a young newly hired apprentice.

Both woodsmen chopped wood all day for a week, the old woodsman worked tirelessly without rest all day, while the younger one worked hard for several hours and then sat down and rested in the shade for 15 minutes or so, then returned to work. The older woodsman laughed, yet after the day was done the younger woodsman had always chopped more wood and had more to show for his days work than the older and more experienced woodsman.

Finally the older woodsman swallowed his pride and asked the younger one what his secret was. How could he possibly be able to sit down on breaks for 15 minutes and still cut more wood in a day.

The younger woodsmam simply explained to the older one that every time he sat down to rest in the shade, he would sharpen his axe.

This correlates perfectly with an often overlooked secret to the greatest success in business. Through magazine articles, networking and through seeking out knowledgeable experts in very specific field of expertise, one can easily gain a great advantage over our competitors by simply sharpening the axe, or improving our skills in any specific area. You must actively educate yourself on new concepts as well as re-vitalizing old tested and proven methods of getting the competitive edge above and beyond your competition if you hope for success.

Napoleon Hill researched these topics of success very thoroughly in the preliminaries of his book "Think and Grow Rich".

By researching, studying and comparing notes on the interviews he did with the most successful business people in the world, he came up with a set of basic success principals that these people, although very different indiviuals, had in common.

One of these principals was the driving desire to improve and be more effective. This success principle is very effective and has since been coined into a phrase used by direct marketing guru Dan Kennedy that he calls "The Principle of the Slight Edge". Which simply defines a person who gets up each day, looking, striving and searching for that one morsel of information, that one edge on their competition that tips the balance of the scales in their direction in even the slightest way. "Little Hinges Swing Big Doors!", and small increases in effectiveness in the sales and marketing of your company add up to big increases in your bottom line.

Many people mistakenly think of successful people as lucky. Well, that brings to mind one story of a man working on his garden and a passing minister stopped, called from his car window and said, "Hello sir, God sure has Blessed you with a beautiful Garden." The man clearly said, "Yes, I've been blessed alright, but you should have seen this Garden when God had it all to himself."

Another instance is that of Armond Hammer who said, "I work 18 hours a day 7 days a week and a lot of lucky deals seem to fall in my lap".

In order to reach success in business, life or anything else you must continue your education and put your best foot forward to continually improve. Too many people have taken on this outlook that your education stops after college or for some even before that. I'm here to tell you that to learn is to grow and growth is life, never stop. It's up to you to find your mentors in each field of interest to you because in order to reach your goals of success you can never stop "Sharpening the Axe".

James Sparks is a direct marketing consultant, webmaster and publisher of direct marketing information products by marketing experts like Dan Kennedy and others. For Other Articles like this you may join his FREE online direct marketing newsletter visit: http://SuccessinMarketing.com

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