John Assaraf : Reinventing the Entrepreneur

Imagine… staying in a floating 5-star hotel cruising the Italian and French Riviera. Unpack once and wake up each morning in a new breathtaking port where few larger cruise ships can go.

This exclusive yachting experience voted “Worlds Best” for the past three years by Conde Nast Traveler and Travel & Leisure, is limited to only 100 fortunate guests making it an intimate, relaxing and invigorating voyage.

What makes this particular trip even more unique is that guests will also be able to vacation alongside and experience powerful workshops and presentations from world-renowned authors and speakers. Joining me on the panel of presenters this year are good friends Shore Slocum, Scott deMoulin and Janet Attwood and we hope you will jump at the chance to spend a week of your summer cruising the Mediterranean both learning and playing with us.

This 7-day “all inclusive” personal discovery voyage has just about every facility, toy, amenity and activity available to you without additional charge. The food and beverage service is award-winning and includes world-class chefs and sommeliers, 5-star international cuisine, fine wines and discreet personal service.

To discover more about this life-changing trip go to www.makeachangejourneys.com and check out the itinerary that begins and ends in Monte Carlo, Monaco (July 12-19) with stops in romantic ports like Portofino, Italy, Corsica and St Tropez, France and many others. Remember, there are only 55 cabins total on this full-service yacht, so if you are interested go to the website immediately to learn more.

There is no financial gain for me if you choose to book your trip. The benefit to me is to share an incredible experience with our friends and spend a week vacationing with you and introducing you to some other great like-minded guests. Learn more now at www.makeachangejourneys.com

A few weeks ago I alerted you to set your DVR so you could see me on The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch. I don’t know if you caught it because it was quick — I made a short appearance near the end of the show. Well, I must have made a good impression because they invited me back!

I was in New York earlier today, and we filmed a much longer segment, which will air on CNBC tonight at 10 p.m. Eastern, 7 p.m. Pacific.

The theme of the show is Zero to Millions, and it’s full of great advice on how to grow your business. I shared the set with Chris Gardner (who Will Smith portrayed in The Pursuit of Happyness) and Kaile Warren, who was homeless before he founded a franchise company called Rent-a-Husband.

It was great to spend some time with accomplished entrepreneurs who came out of nowhere – and to hear from them the secrets of how they did it.

We discuss some really great business-building ideas, and it will be well worth your time to watch this. Once again, it’s The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch, on CNBC tonight, Feb. 4, at 10 p.m. Eastern, 7 p.m. Pacific. Tell your friends, and don’t miss it!

John

When we launched the Having It All Challenge last August, the goal was to create a community of like-minded individuals who would support each other in positively transforming their lives.

Five months later we are seeing the results, and all I can says is “Wow!” Through our exclusive webinars, online forums, group coaching, and our upcoming live event, Having It All members have first dared to express their dreams — and then they have actually gone out and made those dreams come true.

Among the many success stories in the Having It All Challenge, here’s one I’d like to share with you. In October I received an e-mail from Sean Simpson, a young man who was part of the Challenge. Sean had recently moved from Los Angeles to San Diego, and he wanted to know if we had any positions available at OneCoach, the business-growth services company I founded with my friend Murray Smith.

Now, OneCoach is not an employment agency and we don’t have jobs for everyone. But we are a startup, and at any startup there’s lots to do. And when someone with energy and ambition shows up, well, let’s just say that fortune favors the brave. So we found a position for Sean, and he has embraced the opportunity. He is soaking up all the knowledge he can, with the kind of passion and dedication that I admire.

You can see some of Sean’s passion here, in a video he produced for a competition he has entered. Take a look, and join me in applauding Sean’s enthusiasm, his drive, and his vision. Way to go Sean!

Donny Deutsch has built his whole “the Big Idea” show around the question of why some people succeed while other don’t – a topic I know something about – so it was only a matter of time before I got invited on.

In fact I’m in New York right now and I’ll make a brief appearance on the show tonight, Jan. 14. That’s The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch on CNBC at 7 and 10 p.m. Pacific, 10 p.m. and 1 a.m. Eastern.

Be sure to tune in or record it. I’ll be talking about the mindset of multimillionaires, and here’s a head-up: I’ll be pointing viewers to OneCoach.com, where you’ll be able to download some complimentary resources that will really give your business a boost in 2008.

To your best year yet!

John

Dear Friends,

On behalf of my family we wish each of you a wonderful holiday season filled with love and joy.

Next year promises to be one of absolute grandness when you make the decision now to cherish every one of the gifts our creator gave you. We have so much to be grateful for and live in a time where we have the total ability to create our own destiny.

In order to create the life you were meant to live, I am including a great piece written by my dear friend Dr. Ken Druck for your benefit.

10 Secrets to Having Your Best Year Ever
By Dr. Ken Druck

There’s no better time than right now to think about how you’re going to make 2008 YOUR BEST YEAR EVER. Regardless of how good or bad 2007 was for you, we all have an equal opportunity to set the table for success and happiness in 2008. Here are 10 secrets to help make it happen:

1. Think of 2008 as ALREADY being Your Best Year Ever

An elderly comedian I know starts his show by joking about his age with the line, “When I wake up, it’s already a good day.” This moment/week/month/year is all you and I really have. The past is gone, the future is promised to no one and the present is here for us to live and hopefully enjoy. Making this your best year ever begins with the understanding that the most we can do is to take care of THIS moment, and the next, and the next. When we take care of this moment, the future takes care of itself.

2. Give birth to your “Vision” for the New Year

What do you see as the greatest expression of your life in the coming year? What could happen to make your life more satisfying, or simple, or prosperous, or healthy, or sweet – beyond your wildest dreams? Once you’re clear, write down your “Vision” on a piece of paper and/or bulletin board. Creation often begins with a simple, divinely inspired idea. Cultivate and nourish that idea daily. Now, try to imagine if your vision were to come true for the entire world.

3. Put Your Heart into It

“You gotta have heart,” as the song goes. Without heart, even good ideas rarely thrive. Take a deep (cleansing) breath, place your hand softly over your heart and finish the sentence: “My heart’s deepest desire is __________.” Keep asking and answering that question (alone or with a trusted friend) until it starts becoming clearer and clearer. While you awaken your heart’s desire (for yourself and for the world), allow it to crack your heart wide open. Now let’s gently shift the focus to getting your mind in “game shape.”

4. Get Your Mind in “Game Shape”

Again, take a deep (cleansing) breath, clear your mind and get mentally prepared for a fresh start. It might take a little deep relaxation, lighting a candle, taking a bath and/or listening to a soothing CD. Or try a little vigorous activity, like going for a hike or venting your frustrations and doubts to a trusted friend in order to get your mind ready for what’s to come.

Once your mind is clear, set it to “My Best Year Ever.” Dial in on what that might look like, using your imagination. See yourself feeling completely satisfied, excited about the future and loving what you’re doing. Take a snapshot of this imaginary moment. Allow yourself a glimpse into what is happening in your life that makes you feel satisfied and complete. Once you have a picture of what is going on, you are ready to make a plan.

5. Make a Plan

Masters of good strategy will tell you: “If you don’t know where you’re going, you’ll get there. And if you don’t know what you want, you’ll get it.” Ask yourself, “If all goes well, what will happen? What do I dream about being and/or achieving? What do I really want in my life? As the desired outcome becomes clearer and clearer, sit down and make a list of “the 25 things I am going to do to accomplish this result.” Read your plan (and a backup plan just in case) to 3 trusted advisors for their feedback.

6. Get Started!

Put your big toe in the pool. Get your hair wet. Immerse yourself in your passionate pursuit without making excuses, justifications, delays and seductive distractions. Action and commitment build confidence and drive a result. Do something every day that brings you closer to what you want. Launch your intention, take action and direct your passion accordingly.

7. Work Diligently and Steadily

Reaching your goal takes as long as it takes, and often longer than you expect. Something almost always goes wrong and something almost always goes right. Count on it! Pace yourself and work diligently with fierce determination each day towards your goal.

8. Stay Flexible

The best-made plans and strategies have “what ifs” built into them. Set your expectations and establish a critical path to your goal with the understanding that life is not fair or orderly. It will take longer than you thought and you will likely need to improvise somewhere along the way. Flexibility will help you shift gears, explore the options and make good decisions.

9. Comparing Apples and Oranges is “Fruitless”

This year is this year. It cannot rival the memories of yesterday or dreams of tomorrow. Let this year unfold with its own special and sacred character. Comparisons fail to recognize the uniqueness and novel opportunities of THIS moment.

10. Show Self-Compassion

Nothing is ever gained by beating yourself up. Learning self-compassion is one of the most significant accomplishments of adult life. When your “best year ever” master plan has a hiccup, as it probably will, making the best of it. Giving yourself unconditional support can result in a healthy attitude of self-compassion and faith.

If you liked this piece by Ken, please consider a donation of any amount to his foundation, which I am a board member of. Also check out an event in January that benefits his foundation: The Secret to Having Your Best Year Ever - read more about your exclusive invitation here.

An exclusive invitation to create your best year ever:

You are invited to attend a phenomenal event on Jan. 19, 2008 at the San Diego Sports Arena called “The Secret to Having Your Best Year Ever” (www.YourBestYearEver.org). Through Dec. 25 only, several blocks of the best seats are being held for a special half-price ticket offer especially for you and other visitors of JohnAssaraf.com (see details below).

From 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Jan. 19, a world-class lineup of today’s most dynamic life coaches, authors and motivational leaders will present powerful insights on exactly what you need to know and do to begin having “Your Best Year Ever.”

Speakers will include four teachers from the well-known book and film “The Secret”:

Me, John Assaraf
Michael Bernard Beckwith
Bob Proctor
Lisa Nichols

Plus such amazing motivators as:

Tony Robbins (”Unleash The Power Within”)
Ken Blanchard (”The One-Minute Manager”)
Ken Druck, Ph.D., best-selling author and founder of The Jenna Druck Foundation
Rev. Miles McPherson, former Charger and now pastor of the Rock Church

This event will be unlike anything you’ve ever experienced! You’ll learn how to achieve your New Year’s resolutions, double or triple your earnings in 2008, get healthy and stay healthy forever, infuse your life with positive spirituality, create and nurture great relationships and much more!

Not only will it change your life, but your tax-deductible ticket purchase will also positively impact the lives of countless others by benefiting a great cause, The Jenna Druck Foundation in San Diego.

Here are the details about the special half-price ticket offer mentioned earlier, available only through Dec. 25:

• Visit the “Secret To Having Your Best Year Ever” page on www.ticketmaster.com and click on “Find Tickets”.
• Scroll down to find “SPECIAL HOLIDAY OFFER.”
• When you check the ticket prices, you’ll see that some of the very best seats are HALF PRICE at just $99.50 (normally $199) and $49.50 (normally $99)!
• To access these prices, just enter this SPECIAL OFFER CODE in the box: JDFBYE
• You may share this code with someone else who you think would enjoy this event. In fact, it’s encouraged! Remember, though, the Special Holiday Offer expires on Dec. 25, so reserve your tickets now!

For group ticket information, please call 619-308-4311 or email groups@sandiegoarena.com.

If you or your organization are interested in becoming a sponsor and/or reserving $1,000 All-Access VIP tickets, please call 619-270-9672 or e-mail info@YourBestYearEver.org.

To your best year ever,

John Assaraf

About The Jenna Druck Foundation

The Jenna Druck Foundation was established in 1996 by Ken Druck in honor of his remarkable daughter, Jenna, whom he lost in a tragic accident when she was just 21. The foundation has assisted thousands of families worldwide who have experienced the loss of a loved one and has provided leadership training to thousands of promising young women like Jenna. Visit www.JennaDruck.org for more information.

As the reporter left, I sat there with my head in my hands wishing I hadn’t opened my big mouth. Here I was, just 26 years old, telling an old home town reporter that I was going to build the most successful real estate company in the state in just 5 years, from scratch.

It really hadn’t occurred to me that the most respected and successful company in Indiana had been around for over 100 years. I had just moved to Indianapolis for the opportunity to build my own company and I didn’t know a soul. I was young, cocky and ready to claim my stake even though I didn’t know the difference between a profit and loss statement vs. an accounts receivable statement.

I had never balanced a checkbook let alone build and run my own company.

In any case, it was November 1986 and that’s what came out in the paper the next week because of the lack of control between my head and my mouth.

In the past when I got a bit ahead of myself, I just put my head down and starting selling. Selling was easy for me, building and running a company was a whole different animal.

At the time, our RE/MAX Of Indiana headquarters consisted of one executive office in a shared office suite setup, with a shared secretary that answered the phone for 15 or so different businesses.

Up until that time, I was a pretty successful real estate agent in Toronto Canada. I had moved to Indiana to try my hand at building something for myself, something that if I did it right, would provide me with a bright future and hopefully a chance to become the millionaire I so desperately wanted to become and wrote about in my goals 5 years earlier. Although I only went to grade 11, the wonderful mentors I had told me that I had within me more than school could ever do for me. For whatever reason, I decided to believe them, more than the insecure feelings I felt about myself.

So, with my insecure head up high and the RE/MAX concept as my ally, I started to set up appointments with managers and owners of every real estate company in the state. I started with the big boys first, the guys who were already #1 and #2 in the state and who were already doing billions in sales and had over 1,000 sales people.

The first meetings were disastrous, they politely laughed and escorted me out of their offices. Their attitude was, we already have what you are trying to build from scratch so why do we need you?

They couldn’t see past their own success to the future and hence were closed minded from the get go.

It wasn’t more than 4 months of daily prospecting and sharing my vision and story that I got a call from one of the top managers in the state. After our first meeting I knew I was onto possibly the first and biggest deal of my very young career. After several months of discussions we snagged one of the biggest fish in the pond and were on our way. Within 30 more days another unhappy manager called from the #2 company and he expressed interest as well. It wasn’t before long that he and another group purchased the franchisee rights to several more areas. This allowed us to gain credibility and traction.

At the end of the first, year we had 97 sales people at our awards banquet and we were off to the races.

No matter where I turned, everyone thought that we were going to go bankrupt within short order. That made sense since I later found out that two other people prior to me had owned the RE/MAX region of Indiana and both failed!

Regardless, in this case my ignorance proved a strength as I didn’t really care what had happened in the past. I was prepared to surge forward and build my company.

For me it was simply a matter of sharing with enough people the vision of a better future for themselves and then exceeding their expectations month in and month out.

The next challenge for me was to learn how to run a business and to understand all the moving parts. At first it was overwhelming, especially since I didn’t know what I didn’t know.

For a while it seemed as if I bought myself a job that was strangling me. Not only did I have to sell, I had to deliver all the promises I made, take care of legal, and make sure finances were in order. That was just the beginning. What it takes to build and run a 100 person operation is vastly different than a 1,000 person operation.

To help me deal with the growth and education I needed, I formed a mastermind group made up of some very successful regional owners in the RE/MAX organization. These individuals helped me shave years off my learning curve and saved me hundreds of thousands of dollars in mistakes. It also helped me build an organization that does 6 billion a year in real estate sales today.

I learned a very valuable lesson, specialized knowledge is worth its weight in gold.

From those early days of not knowing what to do, to today where I feel comfortable on stage teaching business owners how to build their companies while living an extraordinary life, it all boils down to finding what you love to do, becoming excellent at it and as you do, telling the whole world about it.

What’s the point of the story?

Go after your dreams with passion and purpose even if you don’t know how you’ll achieve them. The answers will show up along the way.

Wishing you the very best,

John

Hi Friends,

I was on a flight back from a speaking engagement in Edmonton when I got the call from Larry King’s office saying he wanted me back on the show to help people deal with the mental anguish of the trauma you go through when a life-altering event occurs. Even though I was asked to be on the show last minute, it turned out great. This was the third time in less than a year I have been on the show. (You can see a transcript of the call here.)

The interesting fact is that everyone has a different response when they are subjected to these types of life-altering events. Some people rise to the occasion and become stronger immediately. Others are in absolute shambles and may go into depression. What is the difference then between the two?

The main difference is how we have been conditioned to react to life’s ups and downs and the meaning that we give the event or circumstance.

While we were on the show Larry had one guest who was devastated at losing her home while another was grateful for having her life. She had also lost her brother in 9/11 and in contrast, losing her home now was insignificant. I had to ask myself how I would have felt had I lost my home. After careful reflection my thought was that I would be ok with it. I have learned not to get attached to my materialistic possessions and live my life in constant gratitude of the important things like my health, family and God. My wife on the other hand did not share my feelings, she was very distraught at the possibility of losing our home.

Can it be as simple as what we focus on is what we feel? The answer is yes, however, when we are dealing with loss, tragedy and pain, it’s easier said than done.

Our brains go into an automatic mode of protecting us and release neuro chemicals that enter our bloodstream and cause us to feel the effects of those chemicals.

As everyone has different reactions to trauma, the most important part for us to realize is that love, compassion and empathy is the best solution and to allow anyone who is experiencing their feeling to do so with absolute freedom and without judgment.

Time does heal and the right environment of friends, family and a great community helps.

I take my hat off and give thanks to the firefighters and thousands of other people who have helped all of us here in San Diego.

God Bless,

John

P.S. Here is a link to some of the images from the fires.

Hi Friends,

I was recently interviewed by Steve Pavlina and he asked me a bunch of great questions. If you would like to see my answers to his questions and also to look around his blog - which is excellent - you can go to it here.

Here are the questions from the interview:

1. What have been the major contributing factors to your success as an entrepreneur?
2. What are some of the biggest mistakes you’ve made in business, and what did you learn from them?
3. What personal or professional accomplishment(s) have you found most rewarding and fulfilling, and why?
4. In The Secret you told the story of how you manifested your house. What’s your current understanding of the process by which you accomplished this?
5. What is your understanding of the relationship between wealth and spirituality?
6. How has the popularity of The Secret affected you, both personally and professionally?
7. Do you have a purpose or mission? If so, what is it, and how did you discover it?
8. What are your most important guiding values, and what do they mean to you?
9. What do you love most about life? What inspires you?
10. What advice would you offer someone who feels emotionally and financially trapped in an unfulfilling job?

http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2007/09/john-assaraf-interview/

Enjoy!

Hey friends,

I thought you might enjoy these photos of me and my wife Maria with friends Jane Seymour and her dancing partner Tony Dovolani. We were at a dear friend’s house (Mario Simic) the other night to enjoy an art exhibition and Jane was the featured artist.

Check out Mario’s site for world class art at great prices at http://www.simic.com.

It was so much fun! Jane is such a sweet woman and what she has accomplished is truly remarkable.

We ended up buying the art piece in the photo along with another great piece by Yugoslavian artist Milanov.

Anyway, just wanted to share with you some fun things in my life and wishing you a “masterpiece” for yours and your loved ones.

John