My great friend and fellow coffee-lover, Melissa Stewart, founder of She Owns It, a company based on “Celebrating, Supporting & Connecting Women Entrepreneurs” recently tweeted,

“Your mind is a multimillion-dollar property.
Screen your tenants VERY carefully!”

How true that is!

Imagine owning a rental property and not screening your prospective tenants before allowing them to move in. I mean, wouldn’t you do a credit and background check, and perhaps even ask for references? Sure, because to make the decision to let someone impact your valuable property should not be made without as much thought and consideration as humanly possible!

How much more important is it then to make sure that, before you allow people (and their thoughts, opinions, belief systems, etc.) into your brain — your MOST valuable property — you do the same?

And, if it looks as though they could in any way damage that property, gently encourage them to look elsewhere.

No vacancies here. This is your mind we’re talking about.

Melissa, you up for another coffee tweet? I like your style!

Of course, awesome readers…may I ask, how do you do at protecting your most valuable property? And, what are the best ways you’ve found to do that?

Global hunger kills nearly 16,000 children every day. It’s a scourge of third-world countries. And, strangely enough…it’s also one of the most solvable problems there is. Why hasn’t it been solved then?

Of course, charity is a magnificent and wonderful way to help those who cannot help themselves. Yet, with all the charity that people in first-world countries provide, massive third-world hunger (much of it based on a lack of clean water) continues to exist, and big-time!

One reason is that, aside from monies falling into the hands of despotic leaders and never making it into the hands of those who actually need it, there’s no individual, long-term economic incentive for the actual residents to do the work.

The Solution

One thing that never fails in terms of increasing the standard of living for everyone under its umbrella is Free-Market Capitalism. This involves a person or group of people creating something that brings immense value to others, solves their problems, creates lots of jobs and becomes self-sustaining; based on a healthy profit for all concerned. Yes, even if the actual incentive for the creators isn’t the money itself (though it is one of the rewards), by “the very nature of the thing” it will create that long-term abundance for those who need it most.

Yes, while charity is so very important, it often merely temporarily sustains rather than permanently solves. Even more effective and beneficial is… to help people to not need charity; to be both self-sustaining and prosperous, and be able to pass that prosperity along to others.

The New “Fab Four”

And, that’s what one group of graduate students at the Lauder School of Government* at the IDC  in Israel, are in the process of doing. Originating from four different countries, the team of Princella Smith, Julian Jubran, Bezawit Getaneh and Paul Amos are competing for the International Hult Prize. If they win, they will receive $1,000,000 in seed funding for their project. Of course, they are competing with some other terrific groups of young entrepreneurs; all of whom deserve huge applause.

Forming a company by the name of Aqua Zai, the four’s mission, and how they plan to accomplish it, can be seen in this very brief video. (Please take a look. It’s outstanding. And, I’m honored to have been asked to provide a brief endorsement within the video.)

Aqua Zai will combine powerful technology – including the newly-developed, Zai Bug – with proven, advanced Israeli agricultural techniques in order to provide clean and nutritious food to the world’s urban slums. They will begin in Ethiopia.

Isn’t That Awesome?

To find out more about this project and the Hult Prize, visit www.solvingglobalhunger.com. If you’d like, you can vote for this project or another one you feel is deserving. {Note: Personally, I’m not a huge fan of online voting for contests because it often turns into a popularity contest rather than which project is best. However, the rules and methodologies have already been determined, and this is how it has been set up: the first round of qualification is through online voting. The final voting will be done by a panel of judges in New York.}

Please know: I did NOT post this article in order to ask you to vote for their project. I actually decided to write this post before I knew the initial qualification would be determined via online voting. I’m just personally so impressed with what this talented group of young entrepreneurs is doing and the cause they have gotten behind that it just seemed right that you know about it. Feel free to vote or not vote; or vote for whichever team you feel is most deserving; that’s up to you.

I wish the Aqua Zai team, as well as all of the competing teams, the very best.

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*The name of the school has “Government” in it, but neither this project, nor the Hult Prize is affiliated with any government entity. This is all privately funded.

As human beings we operate out of a Belief System based on factors including upbringing, environment, schooling, news media, television shows, movies, etc., etc., etc.

Our beliefs, paradigms, world-views, world-models, or whatever words we choose to utilize that really says, “this is how I see the world — it is my version of how the world operates” — is the sum total of all that we have experienced since birth.

As human beings, we also tend to believe that others see the world the same way we do. I mean, how could it be any different? We cannot intuitively see someone else’s view. So, we assume our view is also their view.

Or, as Judi Piani, author of the book, Trait Secrets says, “Normal is what *I* am.”

Yes, we think that others see the world as we see it. And, we are usually incorrect in that assumption. And, it confuses us.

Example: Have you ever felt wronged by someone and said to a friend, “I would never say that to someone.” Or, “I would never act like that.”

No, YOU wouldn’t. But they would, because that fits their world model.

This is one reason why taking the words and actions of others personally can be so counter-productive to our own sense of happiness and peace of mind.

Solution? No, we do not have to agree with their world view. We don’t even have to understand their world view.

We just need to understand that their world view is their world view, different from ours. And, that everything they think, feel, say and do will be be based on that frame or premise.

Now, we can be more at peace. After all, it isn’t us. It’s them.

Or, is it?

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On Tuesday, April 23rd I’ll be speaking in Memphis, Tennessee, at my friend, Don Hutson’s The Prosperity Series event. Then on Thursday, I’ll be speaking at the Think And Grow Rich Summit 2013 in Del Mar, California.

If you’ll be in either of those areas, I hope you can join us.

Do you ever hear people say things like, “that person is too nice.” Usually, the context is that, “he or she is so nice that they are constantly being taken advantage of.”

Please understand this is based on the very false premise that “nice” and “taken advantage of” have any natural correlation. They do not.

Don’t confuse being nice with being a doormat. If you are nice AND being taken advantage of, it’s not because you are nice. It’s because you are allowing yourself to be taken advantage of.

If this seems to happen to you on a regular basis, begin to operate from a place of conscious awareness; ask yourself, do I simply not know how to tactfully (but effectively) set boundaries and say no?

Or, is there an “emotional payoff” to allowing myself to be taken advantage of?

Remember, while “nice/kind” is a natural state of being…being taken advantage of is not.

Please do not confuse the two. How are you doing in this regard?

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Have you checked out our new whiteboard animation video of The Go-Giver yet? It’s a brief, fun overview of the story’s message. I hope you enjoy it. And, if you do, please feel free to share it. http://www.burg.com/tgg

Back in the early-90′s a woman applied for a job with me. During the interview, she mentioned she’d recently done some temp work for ex-NFL running back Tucker Frederickson, then a local businessman here in Jupiter, Florida.

Remembering Tucker from my boyhood and immediately going into gushing fan mode, I asked if he was a nice guy. (Note: Today, I would never ask that kind of question as it opens the door to negative talk, which is a form of gossip. Back then, that was not a consideration.)

She said he was always very polite, professional and courteous.

However, one thing she mentioned really struck me:

“At the end of every day, he always thanked me.”

What a great idea!

In fact, from that point on, whether someone worked either as a temp, part-time, or a full-time member of my team, I thanked them at the end of each day.

Nearly 20 years later, visiting with another woman, Ilene;  who’d worked with me full-time as my office manager for more than 10 years (before I moved my office into my home) we began to reminisce.

Imagine my surprise when she told me that what she remembered most about our time together — and what she often told others — was that, at the end of every day, I always thanked her.

Ilene was a terrific and extremely loyal team member. I’m sure it wasn’t because I thanked her every day. But, I’ll bet it didn’t hurt. And, I’ll bet it effectively communicated how very much I genuinely valued her.

How might a simple “thank you” affect those on your team?

Just a thought. And, thank you, Mr. Frederickson!