Michael Alden's Blog

The support for Ask More Get More has been overwhelming. What started out as a small project to share my success with those around me has transformed into a movement. People are asking for more every day and they are getting it!

My publisher sent out copies of the book for review and I am humbled by the responses. Most recently, Nolan Bushnell, CEO of Brainrush, Inc., and founder of Atari and Chuck E. Cheese, has endorsement my book.

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I’m a fan of social media for two reasons: One, for staying in touch with “friends” and two for business purposes and marketing. Everything else that social media stands for I despise. Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and every other social media site is filled with negative activity. It is a virtual world of unhappiness. Faceless (sometimes) doomsday prophets who have never accomplished anything but bringing people down and killing other people’s aspirations.

Now, I know I’m painting with a pretty broad brush, but for the most part people are spending their time telling the world about how much they hate their lives. Things like, I hate my job, my ex-husband is a loser, I can’t stand when people…, I’m broke, I can’t lose weight and most of these posts are then followed up with FML.

F@&$ my life!

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When I was born the doctors immediately recognized something was wrong. I was having seizures on the left side of my body and they were unexplainable. I ended up in ICU in Boston Children’s Hospital and was baffling some of the most respected and talented doctors in the world. They started pumping me with penicillin to I guess cure me, but it only made matters worse.

The seizures became more frequent and violent. My parents were questioning their past behavior and their drug use. My parents were children of the sixties and did every drug known to man and they were now regretting their actions. Well, the doctors told them that their LSD trips, Quaalude binges and pot smoking had nothing to do with me being in ICU.

Really?

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This is tough advice to follow, but stop worrying about what others think or say about you.

People in this social media world are also concerned with what others are doing and saying. The most successful people in the world, since the beginning of time, do not worry about what others say about them. As I continue to become more well-known and my social media accounts continue to grow, it is amazing how much negativity is out there. However, I learned from Napoleon Hill that in order to be successful you need not worry about what others say about you; if you are true to your heart, you are honest and you are righteous.

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A while ago I learned a very valuable lesson about the company you keep and about where you are from and where you are now. I was at a local watering hole with some friends and having dinner at the bar. Now the place I was at is a classic New England fishing town type bar, with more than a few colorful characters. Cheap drinks, people who look tired and weathered and bartenders that look like they have been working there their whole life.

I was conversing with my friends when a woman next to me started staring at me and wondering what I was doing there. I was in a nice suit, nice shoes, a twenty thousand dollar watch and I must admit I looked a little out of place. But this was a local bar with great food and I didn't feel out of place.

This woman came right out and told me I didn't belong there.

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Recently I had someone reach out to me through Facebook with what I think is a very promising business idea asking me for help. I walked through how I would do it and some of the basics that every person needs to do in order to get started. I explained with very specific action points as to how to get started. This is something that I would normally charge a lot of money for. After I finished almost an hour of putting together an action plan I explained what needed to be done almost immediately. The following week the person called me asking for more help, which I was ready and willing to give. However, one basic fundamental thing that everyone needs before they start anything in LIFE – they need to get their shit together. Now I don’t know this person but when I asked if they had basics like a credit or debit card to set up part of their business, they told me they had it written down… Somewhere!!! But needed to think about where it was.

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Some of you have heard of this before; it is essentially when someone analyzes something so much that is causes them to become paralyzed through their analysis. They are unable to make a decision. In the book Blink by Malcolm Gladwell, he discusses how we as humans make decisions unconsciously, essentially without even knowing we have made the decision. Our brains analyze the situation so fast that our conscious mind doesn’t even realize it. It’s a great book by the way, and I won’t give away all of the details, but the basics of the book are about how humans make decisions.

I have found that successful people analyze situations, but they don’t let the data inhibit them from actually making a decision.

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Recently my daughter said to me “you’re not the boss of me” and of course I responded, well for the next eleven years I am.

She was actually just joking with me, but that same day I walked into my office on a weekend day in shorts, a sweatshirt, unshaven and unrecognizable to most of my staff. I walked in because I was checking up on a new division that we had just built out. It was one of our sales centers, and we spent about 50k renovating the space. I have done this several times throughout my career and it usually does not go well. It is usually at five in the morning or earlier and people are in a zombie-like state, strolling in to take calls at my Sales Center. This time was different and I am happy to report that, for the most part, the office was clean, everyone was upbeat and dressed for success.

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Who you know is as important as what you know. Whenever possible, I try to engage in relationship building. It is impossible to be a master in everything, so building relationships grows your value in ways that you could never accomplish on your own.

Building your relationship capital is invaluable to building your net worth. I invite you to listen to this teleconference I was part of recently with Larry Benet, CEO of the Speakers and Authors Networking Group (SANG).

Listen to the teleconference at Michael-Alden.com.

Actually, that’s not one hundred percent accurate. What makes me different is the way I think. The way I think is different than most. People say you’ve either got it or you don’t, but that’s not true. You can “get it” any time, anywhere. In fact, you have it right now—you just have to ASK for it. Someone or something has to teach you how to think and how to train your mind to ASK MORE. My book Ask More Get More will teach you skills, strategies and techniques that will get you more out of anything you want.

I had a high school teacher tell me that I was one of those rough kids who “got it.” But I only got it after I was taught how to think differently.

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