The Power Of A Person’s Name

Do you want friends? Do you want people to like you? Do you want success in both business and personal relationships? I believe everyone should read Dale Carnegie’s book “How to Win Friends and Influence People” because, not only does he give invaluable advice for dealing with others in both positive situations and strife, but the implementation of these tips yields far better rewards than many many self-help books can, because it gives you control over your dealings with people, teaching you how to handle yourself.

It is my opinion that the most powerful tool in a first impression is a smile, because it comes first. Not only does receiving a smile make you feel important and liked, it endears you to the other person because they seem friendly, down-to-earth, and approachable. The second-most powerful (and possibly almost as effective) is learning the other person’s name, remembering it, and using it often.

People love to hear their own name. I know I do! It communicates to them that you care enough about them to remember a key part of who they are. Especially for people who like the meaning of their name, it is a very personal part of them, and using it immediately elevates you to friend status.

It is, though, hard to remember other’s names, but it is possible. Jim Farley, an American politician in the mid-1900s, remembered the name of thousands of people he met. This surely greatly contributed to his popularity. Many of us meet less than 50 people in a day, and every one of those people would love to hear you say, “Katie? Nice to meet you!” or “Xavier? That’s an awesome name!”

Repeat it. Use it often. “So, Anna, how is school coming?” “What time did you wake up, Anna?” “Anna, I want to introduce you to my friend.” Instead of saying “she” when you’re both in a group of people, say their actual name. It feels cheap to be referred to as ‘her’ or ‘she’.

Never forget a name. Write it down, say it over again to yourself, ask for the spelling – anything you have to do to remember it. If you can develop the skills to remember a person’s given name, you will present a better first impression, which will lead to more friendships, deeper friendships, and even make the other people at the bus stop happy that you remember who they are.

I am going to implement both the “Smile!” and “Remember and use the other person’s name.” techniques. If you ask any of the people who know me personally, they will tell you I always have a smile on my face. It’s true! So I am going to focus more so on remembering and using other’s names, because that’s the one I need to work on.

Thanks so much for reading!

Makayla

How do you feel when others use your name? Let me know in the comments!

Goals for my lifestyle in 20 years!

No matter what my life will be like in 20 years, I do know that I want my life to be full of purpose, passion, and fulfillment. I want to work hard, succeed in my niche, and never stop learning and growing. If I could have the world at my disposal, and all my dreams come true, this is what I would want my life to be like in twenty years.

I’m a country girl through and through, so I never want to leave, whether I live in the prairies or the mountains. I want to live an active lifestyle, with swimming, hiking, and kayaking playing an important part of my weekends! I can’t imagine life without a healthy body or not being able to run or hike, so I will be sure to stay in shape – I can foresee more workout challenges in my future as well!

I want to have a strong faith, self-esteem, and use my spiritual gift. I haven’t found it yet, but it’s inspiring to see people I know in my faith community stepping up and showing hospitality, making meals for people going through hard times, and providing music for worship.

I want to build, own, and direct a camp where I can encourage teenage girls and boys in their faith during some of the toughest years of their lives. As teens, we need more strength than we did as children to sustain us and assure us of the Truth of what God says in His Word. I want to mentor teen girls and young women with encouragement and Biblical truth, and just be there for them if they ever wanted to talk, study together, or go out and do something fun and crazy!!

I want to marry a man who loves God more than anything else, and will stop at nothing to seek truth. I want to be head-over-heels in love with him, but I also want that deeper love that will enable us to stay committed even in the worst, toughest, and darkest times. I don’t want us to ever stop seeking the Kingdom of God.

I want a local business; however, it doesn’t have to be a small business. I’m toying with a new and revolutionary business idea, but shhh! It’s still a secret! 🤣 The mission of this business would be to provide everyone with the opportunity to see themselves the way they could be, or the way they really are on the inside, and to make that happen on the outside.

I want to complete everything on my bucket list. Yes, I know it’s crazy, but there’s so much I want to try, learn, and experience!

I hope I can someday achieve all of these goals. I’m excited for my future and I know that I’ll have to work hard, but I’m used to that! 😂 Thank Yahweh for everything he’s given me, every talent, dream, and scrap of intelligence! May I use them all for His Glory!

Makayla

A difficult technique from the book “How to Win Friends and Influence People.”

Dale Carnegie’s book “How to Win Friends and Influence People” is a brilliant book on interpersonal and business relations. The book is divided into four parts. The chapters of the book are as follows:

Part 1: Fundamental Techniques in Handling People

1. Principle 1: Don’t criticize, condemn or complain
2. Principle 2: Give honest and sincere appreciation
3. Principle 3: Arouse in the other person an eager want

Part 2: Six Ways to Make People Like You

1. Principle 1: Become genuinely interested in other people
2. Principle 2: Smile
3. Principle 3: Remember that a person’s name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language
4. Principle 4: Be a good listener
5. Principle 5: Talk in terms of the other person’s interests
6. Principle 6: Make the other person feel important—and do it sincerely

Part 3: How to Win People to Your Way of Thinking

1. Principle 1: The only way to get the best of an argument is to avoid it
2. Principle 2: Show respect for the other person’s opinions. Never say, “You’re wrong.”
3. Principle 3: If you are wrong, admit it quickly and emphatically
4. Principle 4: Begin in a friendly way
5. Principle 5: Get the other person saying, “yes, yes” immediately
6. Principle 6: Let the other person do a great deal of the talking
7. Principle 7: Let the other person feel that the idea is his or hers
8. Principle 8: Try honestly to see things from the other person’s point of view
9. Principle 9: Be sympathetic with the other person’s ideas and desires
10. Principle 10: Appeal to the nobler motives
11. Principle 11: Dramatize your ideas
12. Principle 12: Throw down a challenge

Part 4: Be a Leader—How to Change People Without Giving Offense or Rousing Resentment

1. Principle 1: Begin with praise and honest appreciation
2. Principle 2: Call attention to people’s mistakes indirectly
3. Principle 3: Talk about your own mistakes before criticizing the other person
4. Principle 4: Ask questions instead of giving direct orders
5. Principle 5: Let the other person save face
6. Principle 6: Praise the slightest improvement and praise every improvement. Be “hearty in your approbation and lavish in your praise.”
7. Principle 7: Give the other person a fine reputation to live up to
8. Principle 8: Use encouragement. Make the fault seem easy to correct
9. Principle 9: Make the other person happy about doing the thing you suggest

These are all, as I have said before, brilliant techniques which actually do work in real life. I would highly suggest that anyone read the book and implement the techniques given. But there is a small problem … we are not, by nature, good at interpersonal skills. These skills do not come naturally. Implementing these principles is not easy. It’s really hard, like learning a new sport or instrument or writing the first essay in a new class. Naturally, you will have trouble with many of them, as I do. You have to commit. But you can do it! It is possible to become better with practice, perseverance, and experience.

From the book, one of the hardest skills for me to implement is going to be Part 4, on changing people. Everyone has difficult people in their life, and I am no exception. Trying to change my brothers (unsuccessfully, I might add) has caused a lot of annoyance on both their part and mine. If I were to use the techniques in the book, they might not even know that I were trying to change them. They would be more motivated to change and give me what I want, (quiet, respect, gratitude), because I would be giving them what they want. (Praise, respect, encouragement, etc.)

The reason I would find Part 4 so difficult to implement is that I find it difficult to change someone’s mind diplomatically. I am more used to debate and courtroom style disputes, which attempt to change a person’s mind with facts and strong arguments. There is no gentle persuasion when a criminal is on trial!

In trying to diplomatically change others, I would need to discard any training in formal logic and instead come at it from a different point of view that sympathizes with the other person, makes them (and their opinion) feel valued, and makes them think that YOUR opinion was THEIR idea! This is entirely contrary to my way of thinking. It will take practice for me to be able to convince others gently, carefully, and successfully.

~Makayla

Have you read the book by Dale Carnegie? What’s the hardest principle for you to master? How will (or did) you overcome the hurdle?

My Ideal Apprenticeship

An apprenticeship is a contract between an employer and a (potentially) untrained individual. The common situation is one where the employer trains the apprentice to do the work required of workers in that field. The employee gets paid minimum wage.

I love the idea of apprenticeship because it enables you to learn elements of any business, at no cost to yourself, even getting paid! This is an equivalent (in my opinion) to getting paid to go to college! Some of the best benefits of an apprenticeship are …

• Hands on training. You aren’t just another kid in a classroom. Your boss gives you real attention in order to train and instruct you.
• You get paid to learn a trade. You could apprentice part-time in high school to earn money and learn.
• Real-world experience. As you interact with customers and employees, you will learn more about the market and what people are interested in, as well as learning to deal with different groups of people.
• Business training. As well as learning the hand-work, you learn about various aspects of managing a business, like doing taxes, hiring, paying, and firing employees, etc.

As you can see, I’m totally in love with the idea of an apprenticeship, and my ideal choice would be to apprentice in electrics or mechanics, for various reasons.

Benefits of apprenticing in Electrics:

• You could wire your own home.
• In my area, it’s a high-paying job.
• Everyone needs electric work done.
• You visit other people’s homes and learn to work on all kinds of systems and buildings.
• It requires physical labor, unlike a desk job.

Benefits of apprenticing in Mechanics:

• Depending on the area of mechanics you decide to study (airplane, auto, or farm machinery) you could use your skills on your own, your family’s, or your friends’ vehicles.
• Again, almost everyone has a vehicle. Auto mechanics are in high demand.
• Again, in my area, it’s a high-paying job.
• It often requires physical labor. No getting soft on this job either!

Additionally, in both of these apprenticeships lie the opportunity to become a fully-fledged electrician or mechanic.  As an electrician, I could start my own business, literally from scratch, since it only requires smaller sized tools. I would need a dependable vehicle to get me where I needed to go, since an electrician does quite a bit of traveling to other people’s homes.

Setting up shop as a mechanic would be a bit trickier and more expensive, since I would need a shop and heavier equipment. However, the majority of people would bring their cars to me, so that would cut down on my gas usage, saving a lot of money in the long run.

Notwithstanding the previous point, one way I could fill a hole in this market would be to travel TO a person’s house to fix their car. Not only would I be providing service, but I would be saving their time while showing them I cared enough to show up. This adds quality to service, and might get me more referrals.

Thank you all for reading!

~ Makayla

Business – the Spreeder app

I have great respect for Mr. North’s advice. He has made many suggestions for a more productive life that I have been only too happy to take advantage of, since I can see that they actually work in real life. But sometimes, even when I know the advice is sound, I just don’t take action, perhaps for a variety of reasons. This assignment has got me thinking about the root reason I have repeatedly brushed aside his admonishments to use Spreeder, an app designed to increase your reading speed for maximum efficiency and knowledge.

I have always been a fast reader, faster than anyone I know. The other day I took a test and was ranked between 440 and 560 wpm. I originally supposed that I don’t need any improvement in this area, since I already read faster than the majority.

But what if I could double my CURRENT reading speed?

AWESOME, right?

Mr. North doesn’t need to do any more convincing. The Spreeder app costs $67, and in my opinion, this will be a decision that will save me time and money in the long run, as well as increase my knowledge.

Is it worth it to me to trade $67 and 10 minutes a day to use Spreeder to increase my reading speed? Absolutely. I am planning on getting Spreeder in the near future. The cool thing about Spreeder is that it is possible to set up five different accounts! I like that because I have younger brothers who might also want to use the app and increase their reading speed!

Thanks for listening to the musings of a school girl!!

When should you sell your business?

“I will sell my business when it makes a profit of [$??] a year, so that I can [??].”

If you are aspiring to become a successful entrepreneur, your tactic will lie in variety. Staying in one field too long means the market could stagnate and you’ll be left high and dry. Spreading it out, trying new things, and starting new businesses will ensure that you gain the most experience (and business!) possible.

Those are a few reasons why it is useful to sell your business. However, if you really love your business, the work you do has become the path to your calling, and you are happy with the amount of money you’re getting, then you might want to think carefully about selling off to start over. What if you end up hating your new job, or what if it doesn’t pan out?

In every case, what’s important to the decision is what matters most to you, and how much risk you’re willing to take.

If you had a business you wanted to sell, it is important to keep in mind that there is no set sale price for businesses in general. A profitable business will sell for more than one which is merely doing moderately well. But even more important than not being cheated on the price, is not cheating others on the price. Be fair in your dealings, and you just may gain a friend. In the business world, good relations are everything.

Once the contract is wrapped up and the business is sold, the former business owner is faced with a dilemma. What to do now? In this case, it will be important to think about your goals for your life, and your calling. Would your calling best be fulfilled by your starting another business? Or by traveling? Or by volunteering? Or even by getting a paid job? The list of possibilities is endless, and you’ll want to make sure you think very hard before deciding on something too drastic or life-changing.

In my case, the most attractive thing to do once I’ve sold my business would be to acquire appreciable assets, learn new skills, and possibly start a new business.

Makayla

The changes I’m making with my time for greater productivity!

Heyyyy y’all! I recently did a post on being more efficient, and here is where I get to pinpoint and be specific on which ones I’m going to focus on putting into practice first!

Don’t we all have those days where we know we haven’t been as productive as we know we could have? (#worstdayever!!) It goes without saying that we all want to be superhumans in managing time, but HOW?

The trick is to remember that everything you do takes up a niche of the time during the day that you’re going to want back, so you better think ahead and wonder, “at the end of the day, am I going to be glad I did this?” I’m almost ALWAYS glad when I do chores or school all day because at least I did something productive that makes a dent in my remaining school!!

I’ve found that reallocating time not only allows me to get more things done in a day, but it also allows me to do everything BETTER than I used to be able to. Once I stopped my extra reading and self-reflection, I noticed a MAJOR spike in my productivity and effectiveness on the job. Yet, there STILL remains changes to be made that will greatly reduce time-wasting.

The first thing I’m going to change is to write down or bookmark topics or articles I would like to study throughout the week. At a point in the week where I have free time I’ll come back to the list and look up the things that I still think are important. This saves tons of time because it keeps me organized, and it keeps me from surfing the net when I should be doing my school. 😬

The second re-allocation I plan on trying out is to reduce the time I spend in pleasure reading and use that time to write essays. Although I love to learn, take notes, and store knowledge, writing essays on certain subjects can take me a long time. I need to plan a time for me to sit down and write those essays I’ve been putting off for weeks!

As I re-enter the official school year, I feel better and nearly ready to start again! My third and final reallocation is to spend less time drawing and reading books and articles, and spending more time in school, math, essay-writing, and reading the Bible.

Stay awesome, y’all!

Makayla

(Business I, Lesson 60)

What recent time re-allocation changes have you made? Any tips for a gal like me?

My journey to becoming more efficient!

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No one ever has as busy a schedule as you, right? Wrong!

Even I think that often, but the truth is that people make time for what they care about, and put those things into their schedule. Everyone has the potential to overbook themselves (*raises hand*!)

Not only can taking things OUT of your schedule help with efficiency, so can putting things in!

Huh?

I know it sounds counterintuitive, but keep in mind that things like breaks, replacing ill-spent time with productive work, patience, determination, and perseverance, can all work together towards a WAY better usage of your time! Everyone has the same amount of time, so we should all use it well.

Things I could cut out (or minimize) to increase my efficiency:

• Project Research. Only a few of the things I read on the internet help my creativity, and it will be better for me to stay away from the screen as much as possible, especially since I already do my schoolwork on the laptop.
• Self-reflection. It’s important, for sure, but with years and years of homeschooling and most of my friends being scared to open the windows lately, I’m pretty sure I know myself quite well enough, thank you. 😉
• Cutting out sleeping in the morning. I know it sounds crazy! But I don’t want to stay up late and sleep in, I want to go to bed early and wake up 30 minutes earlier (6:30 AM.)
• I need to cut out negative attitudes toward positive assignments and/or activities, and insert a positive attitude.
• Writing. I’m a gal who really loves her notes, outlines, story ideas, lists, sketches, posters, project ideas … you get the picture! It’s very time-consuming, and although I love it, my creative writing often keeps me from doing my homework-assigned writing. I need to get the necessary stuff done first.
• Reading. After taking this business course, I censor a lot of what I read. My motto is “read only gold.” I will read on almost any topic but it has to be worth its weight in gold. Unfortunately, my love of reading can come between me and my school reading books as well!
• Blogging. Ron Paul Curriculum introduced me to blogging, and I am grateful that I have learned in the first few months to stick to following only the few people who give me the best information.
• Discussion Forum. It doesn’t take long, but it occupies a ton of headspace. And I am SO done with forum vibes! So I’m gone. Maybe I’ll return someday.
• Multitasking. I love it, and I wish it always worked, but it doesn’t. Unfortunately.

Even cutting out or minimizing the above doesn’t mean I’ll immediately be more efficient, but I have noticed instant results, like a clearer head, more enjoyment in school, and more school done in a day!

Stay awesome, y’all!

~Makayla

Entrepreneur or internship?

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“Would I rather start a small business or become a minimum-wage apprentice to a mentor? Why?”

The characteristics of starting a business versus becoming an apprentice vary. It depends on the kind of work or service you will be offering or performing, but whether you’d rather do the former or latter really depends on yourself and your attitude towards learning.

If you start a small business, you are likely learning everything from scratch. You have to guess at where the market’s going, at prices, at demand. You have to manage a business, own it, advertise, deal with all sorts of regulations, etc. But you have freedom to do whatever you want with it, take it wherever you want it to go (after all, it’s YOUR business,) and you will likely make way more money than you would have at minimum wage. You will earn valuable business management experience, but in general, you’d be on your own.

If you are an apprentice, your life is much simpler. You are doing what you love, learning from the best and their successes (and likely their mistakes as well!) You’re making a sure income at the same time as basically being ‘in training’. You are getting paid to learn a trade!

But it’s not all sunshine … you have to be committed to it, or it may get BORING. And your pay, although constant, is low.

The tradeoffs for you might be different for me. Do you want a great mentor and a stable income? Or do you want a challenge, something to call your own?

The adventurous side of me begs for the business. I have seen people successfully start their own business and take it to THE heights. The safe side of me wants a mentor, someone with experience and business sense, and to actually get paid to learn a trade (The electrical trade is what I would choose to apprentice in.)

And I finally came to my conclusion, after wrestling with this question for a few days …

*hold on, I’m gonna go wrestle with it…*

OK, I’m back. 😊

I have come to the conclusion that I would rather start my own business.

The obvious question is, WHY?

1) Freedom. Freedom to be my own boss, make my own business decisions, more spare time with which to pursue other projects, and so many other things. To be free is to be flexible, and my life already has need to be extremely flexible!

2) Higher pay. When you own your own business, if your idea was brilliant, you can get paid far above minimum wage, whereas if you work for minimum wage, the only reason someone would pay you more is if you exceed the others in your age/experience category.

3) Faith. I have the conviction that, whatever I decide to do in business, it should be directly related to Yahweh’s plan for my walk with Him. So I hope to be able to share my faith through my business, free from any regulations that would exist under someone else’s business authority.

It is also very important to me to be able to take time off work for Shabbat and the Feasts. In an internship environment, it can be hard to get time off work because you are simply not essential enough to work the schedule around. If I were to be my own boss, I could decide my work-hours (and workdays.)

4) Glamour. You guessed it – it is such a rewarding experience and a great reflection of character to tell someone that you started (and own) your own business. It tells people that you’re disciplined and you take initiative. It makes you look good, and it makes you feel good.

To conclude, what I want shouldn’t matter to you. That only matters to me. But to you … what path will YOU take? Are you thinking strategically about future job situations? In this period where all the public schoolers are getting a taste of homeschooling and more free time, are YOU managing it wisely?

Take initiative. I dare you.

~ Makaylajesalyn

The Outrageous Cost of TV

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How many times have you heard a friend talking animatedly about a TV show, film, or video game that just came out? Have you ever wondered “Does it matter?”

How much time do we spend watching TV that we could otherwise use to do something that could enrich our lives? Are we missing out on potential growth, or even stunting our growth? What is the true intended purpose of TV and screen time? And do the latest blue screen editions zone us out?

When TV was created, an enormous market opened up because people were fascinated. Children are fascinated with the screen, but when they are exposed to it over long periods of time, they become immune to the novelty and begin to take it for granted. In many cases, this produces tv-addict toddlers, video-gamer teens, and adults who devote hours of the day to sports and following up on their favorite players.

The reality can be depressing, but there are many people who are responsible with TV-viewing and video-games. TV was meant to be a diversion for people who wanted to relax and clock out for a few minutes. There are very few scenarios where a hobby connected to television can be helpful to overall physical/emotional and character growth.

One potential thing to consider is money loss. If one spends a lot of time on TV that they could otherwise have spent working, IT ADDS UP. Let me tell you how much it added up for me.

The past week I kept track of my FOR-PLEASURE VIDEO-VIEWING viewing, to get a rough idea of what I take in per week. Of course, the Ron Paul Curriculum has video lessons every day, but I was asked to keep track of the pleasure viewing I did, including video games.

I did no TV-viewing. We don’t have cable, so we never watch TV. However, we watched ‘One Night with the King’, (a movie on the Esther story,) on Purim, the day the Jews remember their salvation from the Agagite Haman. The running time was just over 2 hours. On Friday we watched ‘Hidden Figures’ … well, half of it … a biographical movie based on famed NASA engineer Catherine Johnson.

I expected the entire week would come to a total of 2 hours of video-viewing. If we assumed 2 hours per week, 56 weeks a year, and assumed minimum wage ($15 an hour) for my hourly wage, that comes to a grand total of $1,680 lost per year! That’s a lot of money lost per year, for TWO hours a week! (Many people get paid above minimum wage, so the yearly figure would then be a lot higher.)

The total from Monday to Monday came to about 3 hours. A whole HOUR more than I had estimated! Calculating again under minimum wage, if I spent 3 hours every week, 56 weeks a year, at minimum wage ($15 an hour) money count, the total loss comes to $2,520 lost per year.

(I was assigned to do the next two paragraphs, but I find the numbers unrealistic, so you can skip them if you’d like.)

I was assigned to test certain hourly wages at an estimated amount of hours per month, so in Lesson 23, I computed my “movie-watching-money loss”.  I computed 7 hours a month, using an hourly wage of $20 for the first decade, and $50 for the next 40 years. I found that the total amount of money I would have lost from watching 7 hours of screen time a month (with reinvesting), for over 40 years, is $3,070,699.41!)

The last assigned test took into account the 3 hours per week, and I would now assume that I spend about 9 hours per month on screen time. Then I recalculated the new amount from now to age 70 … and the total money loss (with reinvesting) came to $3,948,042.40.

(Okay, back to regular reading …)

Never before this past week had I realized just how much my time is worth. If spending only NINE hours a MONTH (which, let me tell you, is much, MUCH less than some other people I know spend) counts up to a couple thousand dollars lost in the end, how much is TV/movies/screen time really worth? It isn’t free anymore. It isn’t worth it anymore. Not to me.

That being said, everyone relaxes differently and has different interests. If you recharge a few times a week by watching news, or hang out with your friends by having gaming competitions, then that’s up to you. Just be sure that any kind of screen time for relaxing gives you information and growth, and that you use it in a healthy way. The monetary benefit of less TV is HUGE, as you can see from my experiment.

Stay Awesome y’all!

~Makayla

(Below is the link for the investing calculator I used…)

https://www.investor.gov/financial-tools-calculators/calculators/compound-interest-calculator