Nathan Martin

In Crush It!: Why NOW Is the Time to Cash In on Your Passion, Gary Vaynerchuk shares some of the ideas and tools that he used to grow his family business from four million dollars to fifty million dollars in eight years.  Gary explains that if you pursue areas of passion, work very hard, and take advantage of social media outlets you can “crush” your area of interest.  You can become known as the expert in your area of passion.  At that point there are many ways to monetize your expertise.

Gary Vaynerchuk epitomizes passion.  If you’ve never seen Gary, watch this interview on Fox Business.  The Fox interview is not Gary at his most passionate, but it’s great information and he doesn’t cuss at all in that interview.  If cussing doesn’t bother you, watch some of Gary’s other videos on http://garyvaynerchuk.com.  The concepts are brilliant and may change the way you look at business, marketing, and even sales.  The internet has allowed a low cost of entry into business if you’re willing to hustle and put in sweat equity.

Crush It is not written by the most creative writer.  HOWEVER, Gary Vee’s passion comes through and he provides valuable insight that is easy to digest.  Well worth the 20 bucks.

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Here in south-central Pennsylvania, we are enjoying a beautiful first weekend of spring.  The sunshine and warm temperature are a welcome break from the cold, snowy winter we just experienced.  I haven’t seen so many people outside for months, enjoying life in the warm weather, shedding their jackets and boots (some could leave a few more clothes on!).

Spring reminds me how our seasons of life bring about fresh opportunities for growth and change even through the long, cold, dark days that we face periodically.  Springtime always follows winter and brings new happiness with it.

Joy probably looks different each springtime in our lives.  If your winter included the death of a loved one, a divorce, loss of a job, bankruptcy, or all of the above, don’t expect spring to bring about the same kind of happiness you had before winter.  Those are incredibly difficulties and may lead to a long winter.  When we finally emerge from the winter season into spring, we’ve matured somewhat, the joy is deeper and we are better able to withstand the next season of winter in our lives.

So get out and enjoy the weather!  If you’re going through a rough patch in life remember that spring always follows winter.

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I picked up Chris Widener’s The Art of Influence in the Atlanta airport this week.  I like Chris’s books because they are short, fun to read, and always packed with practical insights to live a more successful life.  Chris is also an excellent speaker.  As I listened to the CD in this month’s Success magazine, I heard the news that Chris is running for the US Senate.  I wish him the best in that race and hope he hangs on to his values when he gets into the political arena at that level!

In The Art of Influence, Chris once again weaves an enjoyable, fast-moving story.  This time, he takes us through four principles of influence.

Four Golden Rules of Influence:

Live a life of Undivided Integrity

Always demonstrate a Positive Attitude

Consider other people’s interests as more important than your own

Don’t settle for anything less than Excellence

I highly recommend this quick read.

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http://www.flickr.com/photos/davidciani/ / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

This week my wife, Becky, was in a store and struck up a conversation with an older gentleman.  At some point, Becky shared that she is a stay at home mom after working as an insurance agent for many years.  The man said he hoped she would be able to get back to her job soon so she would have enough time to build up her social security for retirement.  I thought this was a sad statement on so many levels…

It’s not like you work 40 years then kick back to a life of luxury thanks to your social security check…what’s the hurry?!

Mostly, it made me sad to think that in 70 years, the man hadn’t learned that there are better ways to plan for the “golden years”.

One such plan is to not give up–We live in an information age, shouldn’t a 70 year old have tons of information to share?  With the right tools or teaming up with a younger tech savvy partner, I believe our 70 year old could be making more money than he ever had in his life.  And having a blast talking/blogging/tweeting about his life-long passion.

Anyone else have bad retirement advice to share?

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If you’ve never read Oh, the Places You’ll Go! by Dr. Seuss, you owe it to yourself to at least borrow it from the library no matter how old you are.  I recently purchased it for my 6 year old daughter.  She enjoys my reading it to her because it has the typical Dr. Seuss fun rhymes, silly names, and wacky illustrations.  I’m hoping the message of the book is sinking in and she’ll be able to recall it as she gets older.  It really is written for an older audience…in fact, my sisters will be receiving this when they graduate from high school in a couple months.  How’s that for motivation, Ginny and Joy?!

The book starts off with:

“Congratulations!  Today is your day.  You’re off to Great Places!  You’re off and away!”

From there we are treated to a series of encouragements even through some difficult circumstances.  It’s the kind of motivation we all need sometimes…does it matter that it comes in the form of cartoon characters?

“Today is your day!  Your mountain is waiting.  So…get on your way!“

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Two people in the past 24 hours have pointed out that I need to put together a bio.  This is proving to be harder than I thought.  The following is what I have so far.  Those who know me, please chime in with any help you can offer…

Nathan Martin grew up as the oldest of nine children in rural Pennsylvania.  He married his high school sweetheart.  They now have two children of their own and once again live in rural Pennsylvania.

Nathan has a background in accounting and has been working in the book publishing industry for 10 years.  He has a passion for helping people reach their dreams, especially their career and financial aspirations.

For more about Nathan go to www.nathanmartinblog.com.

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100 Ways to Motivate Yourself is the best Steve Chandler book I’ve read so far.  Based on how much of this book I’ve underlined, it is one of the most useful books I’ve read in quite some time.  As the title suggests, there are 100 short(2-3 pages each) topics that, if applied, will accelerate your personal development.  It has taken me a couple months to work my way through 100 Ways as I’ve been reading one or two a day and really absorbing and using the tools provided.  Some of my favorites:

• “Create a vision of who you want to be, and then live into that vision as if it were already true.”  –Arnold Schwarzeneggar
• “The only thing over which you have complete control is your own mental attitude.” –Napoleon Hill
• One hour of planning saves three hours of execution.
• “Fear kills more people than death.” –General George Patton
• “Make each day your masterpiece.” –John Wooden’s father
• Advertise to yourself.  Posting pictures of your goals in various places that you’ll see them frequently.

Other books by Steve Chandler:

100 Ways to Create Wealth

The Small Business Millionaire

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enTourage eDGe

This week I attended a Tools Of Change(TOC) Conference in NYC.  The conference was about the future of publishing.  At this conference I saw several tools that could change book and magazine reading significantly.  Qualcomm will be introducing a new ereading device that displays vivid colors yet sips battery juice very slowly.  Ray Kurzweil demoed an ereader software he’s been working on in partnership with Baker & Taylor.  The software is called Blio and combines text, audio, embedded videos, and more in an interactive platform.  And by now you’ve heard about Apple’s iPad.

The most exciting thing to me was a dual screen ereader/netbook type device called enTourage eDGe.  So far I haven’t been too impressed by the Kindle and all the similar ereaders.  The Edge is different from the other readers on the market.  The left side is a touch screen ereader that you can highlight and make notes in.  The right side is basically a netbook.  You can check your email, surf the web, or tweet about the book you’re reading.  If you click a link on the left side (the book), the link opens on the right side where you will see the video, definition, map, or any other helpful tool that was linked in the document.  Meanwhile, the left side hasn’t changed so you still have your place.

I’ve ordered the enTourage eDGe.  I’ll write a longer blog after I’ve had a chance to spend some time with my new gadget.

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I’m staying at a hotel this week as I attend the Tools of Change conference for the publishing industry.  I’m meeting many great people, including some bloggers like Michael Hyatt, Lindsey Nobles, and Chris Brogan that I’ve been following for awhile.  It’s nice to be able to connect in person.  Anyway, back to the hotel…like many hotel rooms, some guy named Gideon left his Bible here.  Having been raised (reared still doesn’t sound right) in the Christian faith all my life, I happen to know that the Bible contains this great book called Proverbs that many believe was written at least in part by Solomon, proclaimed to be the wisest man ever.  Here are a few of my favorite proverbs:

18:24 A man who has friends must himself be friendly.

4:7 Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom.  And in all your getting, get understanding.

3:16  Length of days is in [wisdom's] right hand, in her left riches and honor.

18:22  He who finds a wife finds a good thing, and obtains favor from the Lord.

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Dreams are elusive.  If we don’t write them down, take action steps toward achieving them, and stay focused, dreams quickly become faded memories of what might have been.  In the overstimulated world that we live in, the next shiny thing catches our attention before we’ve even fully comprehended the wonderful dreamy thought we just had.  And just like that it’s gone–often forever.  With so many distractions to keep us occupied 24 hours a day, who has time to dream?  Maybe we just need a big enough WHY.  Here are a few reasons why it’s important to dream:

1.  Dreams provide energy.  Sometimes the routine we settle into begins to take the life out of us.  Without dreams to strive for, many of us become drones, bored and empty.  Carving out some time to be alone to think and dream often recharges our batteries.

2.  Dreams provide meaning.  Life is much more fulfilling when we are working toward a dream.  The dream can be as public Martin Luther King’s vision of equality or as personal as buying our first house.  Even the most wealthy people often find themselves with all the comforts imaginable, yet dissatisfied.  They haven’t chosen a meaningful dream to pursue next.

3.  Dreams provide hope.  There are times in life when all we have is a dream of better circumstances.  In The Pursuit of Happyness, Chris Gardner found himself homeless, with nothing but his dream of a better future for him and his son.  Chris kept the dream alive and never gave up hope as he pushed himself to success.

We all need dreams no matter what season of life we find our selves in… at rock bottom looking for hope, running the rat race needing energy, or living the good life but seeking meaning.

Take some time alone to think and dream.  What did you come up with?

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