Monday, September 15, 2014

Science Confirms: Failing is the Fast Track to Success!

Don't give up before you learn what you need to be successful. Failing is integral to learning a new skill!

From Fast CoCreate

Originally Posted at Awkward Family Photos
We're all familiar with the term "muscle memory." Once you've learned to do
something--serve a tennis ball, play a difficult piece of piano music, or draw a lifelike human hand--your body seems to intuitively "know" how to reproduce that action. But researchers at John Hopkins University have recently discovered that our ability to perform a physical athletic or creative task isn't entirely about what the body has learned to do right. Instead, we owe our success to the hundred times we've tried to master a skill and failed.
"When you're just starting to learn something new, the errors that you experience are helping you learn faster," says David Herzfeld, a PhD student in Biomedical Engineering involved with the Hopkins study.
To demonstrate this, Herzfeld's team devised a simple video game in which subjects used a joystick (represented on screen by a blue cursor) to hit a red target. The exercise was similar to throwing darts. "When the dart lands below the target, the next time you throw just a bit higher," Herzfeld says. "But next time, maybe the dart goes above the bullseye. What do those two errors together tell you? Your error sensitivity was too large. You overcorrected."
After a series of failed attempts, players corrected just enough to master the game. Then, the scientists secretly reprogrammed the joystick to always send the cursor 30 degrees to the left. After a few huge errors, subjects again adjusted to the new paradigm, learning to aim right. But as soon as they'd gotten the hang of it, the scientists switched the cursor back to its original "straight-ahead" position. Subjects were again forced to correct their shots, this time by aiming left. The scientists discovered that most people increased the speed at which they were able to readjust.

Even though this article is referring to learning hands on skills, I can't help but relate it to the many times I've failed at something in my business, and how the pain of that failure was so indelibly printed on my memory that I made sure that I changed my approach the next time. If failing at a certain task is the way we eventually learn to master that task, then not only am I more resolute to continue on to success in all things, but I am more certain that I should never let my failures get me down. It's just part of the process.

Saturday, September 6, 2014

Betting on Plexus


The Story of Patty


Recently, my wife Michelle and I started a campaign in our affectionally named "Rock the Pink" downline organization.  The name of our campaign is "put your money where your mouth is." Michelle and I believe so firmly in the vision and direction of Plexus Worldwide, that we have already spent thousands of dollars of our own money in the last year and a half traveling, putting on meetings, creating marketing materials, and doing giveaways all in an effort to promote the Plexus line of products that has radically changed our family's lives. But, it is our belief that we can't just tell people about Plexus, we have to be willing to put something on the line too.

Tonight, as we were sitting at the table at a local grill, we were remembering just how far that Michelle's mother, Patty, had come in her health since starting Plexus. About 10 years ago, Patty came down with pneumonia right before she left for vacation to Mexico. By the time the day arrived for her to leave, Patty's doctor had cleared her to go, believing that her body had recovered enough to be able to handle the trip. While in Mexico, Patty's weakened lungs contracted a form of bacteria from the air conditioning in her hotel room, and within a couple of days Patty was admitted to a hospital in Mexico. According to the doctors there, had she tried to leave without treatment, she would have probably died on her way home. From this bacteria, Patty developed a rare condition called Legionnaires' disease.

For years, we feared we could lose Patty any day. The bacteria causes an inflammation which triggered all sorts of complication. From food allergies, to breathing difficulty much like asthma, except the attacks could sometimes last for weeks and even months. Her body became weakened to the point that she began struggling with irregularities in her heart beat. When Patty tried the Plexus products, none of us had any idea how it would impact her life, and ours.

Patty had visited many doctors in her efforts to try to get better. At one point she was told that she just needed to stay well long enough for her body to be able to heal itself. She went on very strict diets, eating the same things every day for weeks on end, with no seasonings. She was told to eat a lot of yogurt to try to get the probiotics (the good bacteria) into her system. She would go for a while, seeming to do ok, then suddenly, an attack would come on. For almost 10 years, Patty spent about 6 months out of the year sick and hardly able to leave her house.

On top of this, Patty was in a car accident that had left her with a bulging disc and annular tear in her back. The pain of this, combined with her declining health left her in a place of such misery that even as a Christian woman, she began to struggle to find any hope. We asked her to try Plexus for her back pain, and at the time, we knew very little about the products. Within 3 weeks, the back pain she had had reduced in her words "on a scale of 0-15, from an over the top 15 down to a 0 to 2." Both she and her husband Ken were blown away. She had just had a cortisone shot for which she paid $2,000 that had not even touched the pain, and here she was using this natural "fast relief" product "from the sea" and it actually worked.

Patty became a believer in Plexus because of the pain relief, but what none of us imagined possible came afterward. Patty began using Plexus Slim, and Plexus ProBio5 along with the Fast Relief product. Ingredients in both Plexus Slim and Fast Relief can help with inflammation in the body. Along with this, ProBio5 has an anti fungal and an enzyme which can fight against bad bacteria in the body, plus the probiotics the body needs to allow the immune system to function properly.

Patty has not had any long term attacks since starting this regimen. In fact, she has had only a couple of small attacks, and these only lasted from a few hours to a couple of days. Up until the Plexus products, Patty had no answer. We did not know what was going to happen to her from day to day. Now, she is living a fun and "normal" life again. There is no price for this. It is this story and several others like it that have made Michelle and I diehard Plexus people. We don't just sell it, we believe in it. It's really not just about weight loss at all to us. How could it be?

Getting Down to it


So, one reason we are betting on Plexus is because we need to make sure these products stay around for our family, and we are going to do everything in our power to make this company successful, come hell or high-water.

Another reason we are betting on Plexus, is because Plexus has already weathered some storms. When we had to change from the original Accelerator to the Accelerator+, people were worried and complained. Some blamed Plexus for the change, even though the removal of the original Accelerator was required by the FDA. Some confusion about one of the ingredients surrounds that product, but in the interest of building a long lasting and stable company Plexus did what it had to do. The Accelerator+ has been a very successful product in helping to speed up weight loss for many people. Plexus also introduced a second weight loss supplement called Boost that offers an alternative to the Accelerator+ for those who would like to try it. The factors involved with this change have made Plexus decision makers worth listening to when it comes to their opinions about what products they should bring to market. Having weathered a storm withe the FDA means that they will be more likely to recognize when another is coming, and be able to better avoid it as well. This said, Plexus' revenue reached nearly $160 million in 2013. Not bad for a company that grossed less that $300,000 in 2009. This brings me to my next reason why I am totally sold, and betting on Plexus.

With $160,000,000, no debt, and a powerful and impressive range of products, Plexus has the resources and the researchers to bring any supplemental product to the market that they wish. Therefore, despite the impatience of some, this position is an exciting prospect, given that it means that the world is available when it comes to new products. With the explosive growth and fortune of Plexus Worldwide, is there any reason to doubt that they have passed on thousands more products than what they have brought to market? In the position Plexus has attained at this point, the question is not how to bring products to people, as if some product were out of their reach, but the question is rather WHAT products SHOULD Plexus bring to people. That is a question that any company with real vision must ask. Knowing the goal of being in business is to make money, the only reason why a company would not bring a particular supplemental product to market would be that it could not make money, or that the company does not believe it is safe. Therefore, for instance, Plexus is not under the pressure that a small start up would be in that could cause them to utilize supplemental products that are more risky or unsafe; a company that has built some stability will instead look introduce products that are fit for their long term goals.

We are betting on Plexus because with the resources, the complete line of products, and the experiences under their belt, Plexus stands out as a company with the long term firmly in their grasp.

On a side note, most people are probably not aware of what it even means to be a $100 million company.


Quote from Ewing, Marion, Kauffman Foundation
"In the paper, "The Constant: Companies that Matter," Kauffman Foundation Senior Fellow Paul Kedrosky explores the rate and founding locations of companies in the United States that "matter" from 1980 to present.  
Kedrosky uses three criteria to define companies that matter: They must be scalable, quickly reaching $100 million or more in revenues; they must be able to generate jobs quickly and broadly; and, they must be disproportionate creators of wealth, both directly through profits and salaries and indirectly through equity.
"Companies unable to reach $100 million in revenues are still relevant to the economy," Kedrosky says. "But the $100-million firms meet an entirely different threshold that gives cities, states and countries an even greater economic advantage."
Anywhere from 125 to 250 companies per year (out of roughly 552,000 new employer firms) are founded in the United States that reach $100 million in revenues."