Ben Henderson: A Champion On All Levels

Ben Henderson will fight this weekend to take Frankie Edgars UFC title.

A few weeks ago Ben reflected on his career, to now owning his long time gym:

“It’s a pretty big difference from five years ago cleaning out the toilets, taking out the garbage, and going on Starbucks runs for the owner and his wife. Pretty big difference, and I’m happy for it,”

“I was pretty blessed with my situation when I came out here to Arizona. The old owner whose name was Jason Beck, he asked John Crouch, who he was friends with from back in the old school Gracie Academy days, he knew John had some fighters in Denver and he asked if he and some of his fighters would like to move to Arizona and just train and fight full time. So early on in my career I was able to move out here to Arizona and just train full time,”

“I was sponsored from The Lab. I got like a couple hundred dollars a month, just barely enough to survive, but I cleaned toilets, mopped mats, do all the odd ends sort of jobs. So I was able to train full time, so I’d train in the mornings, train in the afternoons, but in between I’d clean up, I’d teach the kids’ classes, clean up at night also.”

“Going from that to gym owner to fighting for the title, it’s something I am very excited for.

Excited to Celebrate the New Champion

Ben "Smooth" Henderson!!!!!

10 Things That Everyone Can Learn From Jeremy Lin | The NBA Asian Basketball Super Star

- It Takes 10,000 Hours

They say it takes 10,000 hours of practice to perfect a skill, and Lin clearly believes that. His skills have been developed over years of constant, unrelenting training. There are no free rides… in basketball or in life.





- Carpe Diem

When Lin was picked up by the Knicks he arrived with no expectations. Just a kid with no hype surrounding him, nobody expected Lin to be the next big thing. He was only started because the team was suffering too many injuries and absences, and he knew he had to make a splash if he was going to make it. You may only get one chance to blow the audience away. Don’t waste it.

- Tenacity Counts

Nobody would have foreseen Jeremy Lin making it all the way to the NBA. As an Asian American the odds were stacked against him, and when he wasn’t offered an athletic scholarship to college he took the hard route. He studied hard, pushing his GPA to 4.2 and heading to Harvard on the strength of his academic achievements. The path of least resistance rarely leads to success.



- Risk Comes Before Reward

Lin’s contract with the New York Knicks wasn’t handed to him on a silver platter. Before he was signed he slept on his brother’s couch in the Lower East Side as he couldn’t afford to pay rent. If you want to succeed you have to take risks. Leave everything out on the court. Sleep on a couch. People who play safe rarely make it big.

- Believe in Yourself

Lin’s professional career up until now could be summed up in three words: ‘Seriously, this guy?’. Nothing about his success was pre-destined, and he had to fight for every inch. He’s one of the few Asian Americans to make it in the NBA, and the first Harvard graduate in the league since 1954. Without a degree of self belief as tough as titanium he would have given up long ago.





- Don’t Brag

We’ve seen success go to the heads of far too many athletes to count, but Jeremy Lin has so far resisted. It takes guts to be a gracious loser, but it’s often more difficult to be a gracious winner. Lin accepts victory with class and style.

- Know Your Own Strengths

Before joining the Knicks Lin played for Golden State and Houston, and was dropped by both teams in order to free up funds to pay for new players. Lin isn’t a flashy player. He doesn’t dazzle, but he’s a great passer and distributor. It was only when the Knicks recognized his strengths that he found a permanent place in a team. You have to know your strengths and weaknesses, and find an organization where you’ll thrive.

- Look for a Lin

On the flip side, you can take a lesson from Knicks coach Mike D’Antoni. Look for the strengths of the people in your life and work. You might have employees right now who aren’t performing as well as they should. Do you have them dunking when they should be passing? Re-tasking can be better than replacing.

- Be Original

Too many players set their sights on being the next Michael Jordan, and they rarely realize that this is a fool’s errand. Jeremy Lin is content to be the best he can be. He isn’t trying to emulate anyone else. He’s simply doing what he does best. Forge your own path.





- Make Your Team Look Good

Finally, success is a team effort. Lin knows this. He knows that the top of the league is full of great teams, not great individuals. Going for personal glory is rarely the best approach. Make the team look good and everybody wins.

Natural Western USA Championships

A few of the EVC team members will be competing at the Natural Western USA Championships. The event will be held at the Mesa Performing Arts Center  on March 10, 2012.  Take a look at the flyer for more information. 

INSIGHT FROM A NAVY SEAL

All of us at the recent Keys to Success event, an annual kickoff meeting attended by all consulting office owners in North America, were so lucky to hear from our guest speaker, Eric Greitens, Navy SEAL and award-winning author of “The Heart and the Fist.”  The most powerful part of his message was the mindset required to survive the Navy Seal boot camp. Only about 10 percent of these highly-fit soldiers make it. Eric said that it was not the great collegiate athletes that survived. Instead, it was the ones with the greatest will.

The attributes that he described for the successful are the same ones that are needed for success in our business. Here is a sampling of his comments that I wrote down:

“Confront your fear and push yourself.”
“Courage is the courage of perseverance of willing to do the hard things day after day.”
“People quit when they think how hard it is going to be, but rarely when they are doing those hard things.”
“The Navy Seal challenges are called ‘evolutions’.  Your character evolves until you get to the place where you change who you are.”
“To get the life you want, change the compass just a few degrees and march in that direction every day.”
“If you attempt a challenge and do not succeed, the challenge always remains – the challenge always remains.”

Lessons for all of us.  Eric, we will always be grateful and learned so much from you during the conference. Your words will stick with us now and in years to come.

Via: www.cydcor.com

BIOGRAPHY   ::   http://www.ericgreitens.com/biography

TWITTER   ::   twitter.com/ericgreitens

BOOK   ::   www.theheartandthefist.com

Leading Provider of Outsourced, Face-To-Face Sales Teams Exceeds Financial Goal For Children’s Medical Charity

Scottsdale, AZ – East Valley Consulting, the leading provider of outsourced, face-to-face sales and consulting teams in Arizona, has helped raise more than $150,000 for Operation Smile. Operation Smile is a children’s medical charity that provides free cleft lip and cleft palate reconstructive surgeries worldwide. The $150,000 will fund a medical mission to a remote locale in Peru, Cambodia, or Rwanda.

More than 90 companies along with E.V.C.'s own team members raised the funds over the past year through a variety of fundraisers and events, often competing against each other to raise the most.

"I am so very proud of our team. It took an amazing combined effort to manage to raise this amount of money and I am blown away by the amount of support and dedication that was put forth for this great cause" said Gareth Roberts President and CEO of East Valley Consulting.

Happy Martin Luther King Day!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smEqnnklfYs

Quotes To Live By!!!!

”It’s always down to you and the choices you make. Work on the things you can change and never dwell on the things you can’t. You choose… ‘results’ or ‘excuses’ it’s always down to YOU… no one has ever given their BEST and regretted it. GO HARD NO EXCUSES.”

“No one said this would be easy, just know that nothing beats the feeling of accomplishment.”

‎”Turn those dreams into ACTION …action turns into results… sooner or later you will be living the dream.”

“There’s no substitute for consistency.”

‎”Once you learn to quit, it becomes a habit…. KEEP GOING!!”

“Hardwork can out-do genetics!!”

“Whatever doesn’t kill me… had better start running”

‎”Our fears don’t stop death,… they stop life.”

“Do it now. Sometimes ‘later’ becomes ‘never.’”

“Kick yourself in the ass, or someone else will.”

“The pain of discipline is far less than the pain of regret.”

‎”I’m not telling you it’s going to be easy… I’m telling you it’s going to be worth it.”

“Tears will get you sympathy, sweat will get you results.”

“Dear tomorrow, do whatever you wanna do .. I have already lived my today and I am not afraid of you anymore .”

“If we understood the power of our thoughts, we would guard them more closely. If we understood the power of our words, we would prefer silence to anything negative. In our thoughts and words we create our own weaknesses and strengths. Our limitations begin in our hearts where we can always replace negative with positive.”

“You can have results or excuses. Not both”

“You will never know your limits until you push yourself to them.”

“Pain is just weakness leaving your body.”

“I was not delivered into this world in defeat nor does failure flow through my veins. I am not a sheep waiting to be prodded by my shepherd. I am a lion and I refuse to talk, walk, to merge with the sheep. I will not hear those who weep and complain for their thoughts are contagios. Let them join the sheep. The slaughterhouse of failure…Is not my destiny.”

‎”Good things come to those who wait… greater things come to those who are willing to work for it”

“Set small goals for yourself and meet them. You are responsible to take care of yourself. You should be your priority!!”

‎”If we’re growing, we’re always going to be out of our comfort zone…deal with it!!”

“Failure does not mean defeat; to succeed you must fail first.”