Читать книгу The Story of Stuart and Frank: How You Can Achieve the Results You Really Want - Paul Browning - Страница 5

You may come up with an answer, and you might not. That’s not important. What is important is that you spend a few minutes meditating on the question and a possible answer.

Here are a few more questions that I’d really like you to think hard about. As before, ponder on each question searching for possible answers before moving on to the next question.

1.Why is there such a huge difference in the results people achieve?

2.Why is there such a huge difference in the results businesses achieve?

3.Why do so many people work hard throughout their lives but achieve so little?

4.Why does 1% of the population earn 96% of the wealth?

5.Why are so many people at retirement age dead or dead broke?

6.Why do some people with the benefit of a great education, leave university but then go on to live mediocre lives at best?

7.Why do others with little or no education achieve huge success and whose names live on long after they pass on? People like Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Guglielmo Marconi and the Wright Brothers. There are also many modern day examples.

8.Why in tough economic times do some companies create outstanding sales and profit performance, whilst other companies with greater resources and in better economic times go out of business?

9.Why do some young students at school struggle to achieve good grades whilst their friends consistently get straight A’s?

10.What makes a football team consistently successful?

11.Why do the world’s best golfers or tennis players sometimes fail to win the tournament and less experienced players come through with an unexpected win over the champion?

How did you do? Don’t be surprised or discouraged if you couldn’t answer all of these questions. The reason that I asked you to think about these things was not to see how much you know, they were really designed to arouse your curiosity. A curious person is eager to know more or inquisitive to discover why.

These are very interesting and searching questions. And it is my job to provide you with equally interesting and accurate answers. I can help you to understand why you do the things you do. I can help you to understand why you are getting the results you are getting.

But more importantly I can show you how to get the results you really want and fast.

I believe that everyone, yes everyone has the power to change and become more productive and creative at work and live happier and more fulfilling lives at home.

You just have to learn to discover the power within and that’s what The Story of Stuart and Frank is all about.

A few years ago I needed to be in Leeds for a very important business meeting. I was living on Skye at the time and so I flew from Inverness down to Manchester where a good friend and business colleague collected me in his car and drove me to Leeds for the meeting and then drove me back to Manchester airport for the flight home. The small twin propeller aircraft that flew me down would be the same one for the journey back, only there was no getting back that day. A fuel leak was spotted before the aircraft prepared for take off and the flight was cancelled. Whilst I was delighted and relieved that the technical fault was spotted before the aircraft left terra firma, I was equally frustrated that I wouldn’t be able to return home until the next day. I was given a hotel room for the night and a food voucher. It was around 15:00 when I realised I was grounded so I proceeded to WH Smith’s to purchase something to read. At least I would endeavour to pass the time wisely. I purchased a “Number One Bestseller” book explaining to me how I could be more successful, feel happier every day and be the kind of person I’ve always wanted to be. It claimed that I would be able to achieve all of this in just one week! At first I was sceptical that anyone could change in just seven days but at the same time I was absolutely enthralled at the prospect of the author’s bold claim. And so, with time on my hands I sat down in my hotel room and read the book from cover to cover in one sitting.

I really enjoyed reading this book. The style was easy to follow, sometimes entertaining yet profound. By the time I had finished the book I was beginning to believe that anyone could make changes in their lives in seven hours, never mind seven days, if they had the know-how, the tools to do the job, and the desire to get the job done. The next morning I had breakfast, still thinking about this book. I caught an early morning flight north and by lunchtime I was back home on the island.

In the days and weeks that followed I went out and purchased several more books on personal development, self-improvement manuals and the like. As with the book I purchased at Manchester airport I enjoyed reading them all and learnt a great deal from them. But I began to notice that many of these books were not written for the faint-hearted! They were weighty tomes indeed. I have many books in my personal library back home, many of them over an inch thick and containing up to four hundred pages of continuous text (no pictures!) The giant of them all is actually one and a half inches (four cms) thick and contains five hundred and thirty- eight pages. This book is my absolute favourite and I have studied this book for the last six years. It is literally falling apart through continuous use. Please do not misunderstand me here. Every one of my books in my library is precious to me; they contain priceless jewels of practical information which work. But you wouldn’t give a four course gourmet meal to a six month old baby would you? You’d feed the baby with a balanced nutritional meal which the baby’s delicate digestive system could assimilate. Then the baby would grow and develop and eventually be able to take solid food and grow still further into a mature and balanced adult. Many of the large personal development books available today are really solid food, a main course, a veritable cornucopia for the mature appetite. But for the first time reader something a little easier to swallow might be more appropriate.

I decided there and then that I would devote as much time as it would take to create a book that would appeal to the first time reader as well as to the mature student of all things to do with personal or corporate development. It would be written in a simple, entertaining yet seriously profound style that could be accessed and used just as easily by a seven year old or an eighty-seven year old. My research indicated five key issues which my new book would need to address: –

1.I discovered that statistics show that only around ten percent of people who buy a book read past the first chapter.

2.Individuals who are not producing the results they want in their lives may have a negative attitude, be anxious, doubtful and even sceptical that anything can change their current results. They are often not going to be easily motivated to take on a mighty tome on self-improvement which is going to take weeks to read and even longer to produce the results it claims they will achieve.

3.As a nation we seek instant gratification. We buy ready meals, instant entertainment, and instant remedies. Many individuals demand instant results, and if they don’t feel or see some sort of rapid improvement they lose interest and give up.

4.Business people may rationalise that they are too busy and don’t have enough time to spend on reading books, watching DVD’s, listening to CD’s or attending personal and/or corporate development seminars.

5.It must have universal application and it must work.

The Story of Stuart and Frank meets all of these criteria. It is fully illustrated, and the short chapters are entertaining, simply presented yet they contain profound and life-changing principles that are easy to apply.

This book you are now reading is divided into two parts. The first part is The Story of Stuart and Frank. You have already been on my personal life journey and I now have the pleasure of inviting you to come with me on the personal life journeys of Stuart and Frank. We will be first introduced to our two lovable characters as new born babies. We will follow their personal life journeys through school, adolescence, university and at work. We will see them get married and buy their first house. We will go on holiday with them. We will join Frank in his local pub and we will ski with Stuart in Austria. We will meet Stuart’s children and grandchildren and finally you will be invited to Silent Meadow Cemetery to attend their funerals.

Each short chapter, introduced with a full colour illustration, reviews an important milestone in their individual journeys. Each chapter contains at least one valuable principle and teaching point.

As you read each chapter and reflect on the illustration you will grasp a clear understanding of why Stuart consistently produced the results that he wanted, day in and day out.

As you read each chapter and reflect on the illustration you will also grasp a clear understanding of why Frank didn’t produce the results he so much wanted in his life for himself and his family.

But you will also learn what Frank needed to do to turn his life around, which he could easily have done at any time between school and Silent Meadow. Each chapter contains a vital teaching principle which had Frank adopted, this simple change could have changed his whole life for the better. Frank never once achieved the lasting happiness that he so craved. Frank tip-toed through his life from cradle to casket. The saddest thing of all is that Frank was just a few easy steps away from creating the life of his dreams. He could have made this change at any time, but quite simply he didn’t know how.

As you follow the personal life journeys of these two lovable characters Stuart and Frank, you will want to find out what happens next and your curiosity will motivate you to read the story to the end, not just once but many times. You will admire the personal qualities and achievements of Stuart, and yet at the same time you will be willing Frank to make the changes which could turn his failures into successes

But please don’t just read this story impassively. Begin to apply these life principles to your own personal life. Learn from the mistakes of Frank and try not to make these mistakes yourself. If you do, apply these simple teaching principles contained in each chapter to correct these mistakes and move on. Contemplate on the qualities and the attitude of Stuart. Seek to understand how Stuart thinks, feels and acts to produce consistent results in his life. Then over the days and weeks ahead of you begin to emulate these qualities and practice these life-changing techniques for yourself. You will then know the answer to the question,

“How can I be consistent in producing successful results in my life?”

And you will now know how to live the life of your dreams.

The second part of the book is subtitled, “How You Can Achieve The Results You Really Want.” Please notice here that the emphasis is now on you. Still using the Stuart and Frank theme and often referring back to Stuart and Frank to illustrate essential teaching points we begin to dig a little deeper into the primary cause of our results. The last leg of our journey together concerns you. I am going to provide you with techniques, methods and skills which you will be able to use to govern, control and direct your life and consistently produce the successful results you so much desire. These techniques, methods and skills which you will be able to use every day will enable you to create your own personal life journey, a life journey of health, wealth and happiness.

Here are some of the fascinating areas we are going to explore together –

•The primary cause of your results.

•Your attitude and the circle of responsibility.

•How do we think?

•What does your mind look like?

•Your 5 physical senses.

•How to use your mental tool kit to achieve any result you desire.

•The Path To Results model to success.

•Give yourself the V.I.P. treatment. Repeat this simple

3 step exercise for 30 days and create the life of your dreams.

The Story of Stuart and Frank does not provide instant results. But I do promise you that if you read the entire book, meditate on the entertaining and colourful illustrations, and apply the material you will quickly feel and see changes happening in your life.

The Story of Stuart and Frank has universal application and it definitely works. It contains powerful lessons for personal and corporate change. It can rapidly assist any individual, group, team, organisation or business desiring better results.

The Story of Stuart and Frank is a powerful teaching metaphor at the heart of many of my training and coaching programmes.

It is based on many years of intensive research into why we behave the way we do, and why we don’t do many of the things we want to do.

The Story of Stuart and Frank will enable you to grasp a basic understanding of why you do what you do.

It will give you an insight into why you get the results you are getting and more importantly, how to achieve the results you really want.

“If you hold your VISION with a burning desire for long enough in your IMAGINATION and PERSIST with your PLANS on PURPOSE to completion, in spite of all opposition you will achieve all that you desire.”

Paul Selwyn Browning

Saturday 27 February 2010