This technique was started in Japan by Toyota and it has an amazing application. When you answer all the five whys in sequence the root cause always seem to be human error or mistakes. For example a manager not paying attention to making sure that employees are properly trained could cause some incompetent mistakes further down the road. There are many examples where this tool could help to achieve a positive outcome. For example if you are heavily in debt, use the five why tool to get to the bottom of that instead of blaming the government or your employers.

You can read more about this tool on wikipedia – Five Whys.

If you really want to be successful at what you do, there is always a constraint that is holding you back from that breakthrough. We tend to blame the world for such hindrance when its our own action that is causing this. Use the five whys on any situation that you face and you will be very surprised on the root cause.

1. Things not to eat – The general consensus is eat less sugar and refine carbohydrates. Pretty much all weight loss programs seem to accept these facts. The main things that fall in this category would be rice, flour, bread and many of our standard heavy food out there. Of course any sugar is bad, so reduce its intake as much as possible.

2. Good to Eat – Its very good to eat lots of vegetables as these provide your body with the essential nutrients and if you follow this religiously, you have to lose weight unless you have some other ailments. Good levels of protein and calcium is also go in the process. Also drink lots of water in the process.

3. Exercise – This one goes without saying. Of course the intensity will vary depending on what you are trying to accomplish.

Between those basic premise, there are many variations but if you follow the core of those you will do well. Lets be honest, if you need to lose weight you will need to be stricter than if you simply just wanted to main your current weight. Eating vegetables can be a challenge and could be considered boring for the most part but there is no doubt it is very good for you. There is a solution to that.

The solution is called Vegetable and Fruit smoothies. Basically, you get fresh vegetables with fruits and blend them into tasty smoothies for any meal. If you want to be aggressive in getting results, it just means you will do this more often and in fact for all meals in a given period. Even Montel Williams is promoting this concept on TV recently. A great book to read more on this topic is “Eat to Live”.

Please comment on what you think of this overall concept.

Here is a great discussion on the topic from Success.com – The importance of Clarity.

Once you get clarity sorted out then you need to focus and execute to achieve that goal of yours. That three prong attack is really a winner if applied for your personal success.

The key to creating and making wealth is effort or good old hard work. One may ask; what about leverage and other tools? Regardless of what you use, the harder you work at it, the more results you would get. For example if you had $100M in the bank and you want to increase the amount, it would be hard work to researching options, making decision and execution that will make that happen. In fact, if you leave it to others alone to do it, you could end of up with less money in most cases.

Lets get back to my main point and the thrust of my argument. I am aiming this at people who have nothing or very little.  Here is a sequence for someone that needs to improve their lives.

1. Education – While formal education is important in this step,I am mostly interested in education that presents you a balance approach to life and how to contribute. In the end, you would need some skill or another. You could learn from someone, go to some government training program or just read and educate yourself. In the end, its important to have good moral character in this process. It will drive you to play your fair part in society and not become some kind of cheat.

2. Contribute – There is no reason to not perform work in some ways. Even if it means to just clean up your community. The excuse that you have to find a specific job is probably the biggest reason we have so much poverty in some communities. Just do something whether you are paid or not. While doing that, try to figure out which areas you could perform work to earn an income but you could volunteer to help someone in the mean time.

3. Value – Lets say someone had some land or a house but very little money initially. They could do whatever they can to improve that place. In fact regardless of where you are if you make it better the value will jump significantly. Think of what we call Ghettos or squatting settlements. If people decide that they will work hard to make these better it actually helps them both short and long term. The same principle applies if you have a job, the more you put in, the more you get over time. Maybe that job will not work out but your effort will help you find the ideal job.

4. Relationships – Once you have the right attitude to contribute to society, you will build friendships with people from different backgrounds. This will be an important piece of moving your desire to create wealth forward. People want to work with someone that adds value to the conversation and the situation. Also, you can work with your close friends to build something bigger than what you all have now individually.

5. Give – Giving is an integral part of human nature. When we start to get selfish, it will cost us long term. Giving can be as we mention volunteering or it could mean to contributing goods or money to a cause. In fact you can build even better relationships when you do this.

Conclusion

This conversation could go on for awhile but we need to leave these for people to digest and understand the bigger meaning behind them. The point is that wealth comes with effort. Even if you fail several times at ventures, its your willingness to contribute and be positive that will ensure your success eventually. When the bigger deals come around, it will only be for those whom are trusted and have the best work ethic to get things done. In fact when you put forth effort you can call the shots every time.

I want to share some perspective I gain from a few writers in the Fat Management world and kind of take the best of each one for some long lasting suggestion. The writers are Tim Ferris “4 Hour Body”, Jorge Cruise “Belly Fat Cure” and Philip Goglia “Turn Up the Heat”. Interesting enough, the authors seem to agree on most of the fundamental points. Bear in mind that Philip Goglia is the only certified doctor in this group, so from reading the book you can see more scientific data presented to enforce the required changes.

Here are the main points to achieve your ideal weight and health.

1. Build a weight management program without exercise. You can use exercise to accelerate weight loss but long term you should be able to have your ideal weight without excess exercise. In any case, its highly recommended to exercise daily for general health reasons.

2. Reduce  or eliminate Sugar – This one is across the board with all the authors. You have to manage this one well. In fact its a big change once you get it under control. Some substitute such as Stevia has being recommended by some doctors. Bear in mind that a lot of process food and baked products does have lots of sugar content.

3. Drink lots of Water – This one tip alone can account for a big change in your health. Water will help to cleanse your body as well as regular overall body function. The more important recommendation is to drink based on your body weight which in most cases would be more than the usual 8 Glass rule. In fact most of us don’t even drink 8 glasses daily. I remembered finishing off several cases of water during a one week winter break and I did lose at least 9 pounds solid. I did not pay enough attention then.

4. Body Type – This one was highlighted by Philip Goglia. You need to know your body type, so you can plan your diet based on that profile. You would normally find out your body type from the blood work done at the doctor during physicals. The general types are protein-fat type, Carbohydrate type and the Combination of the two.  This basically means for each body type you should eat more of those food to get optimum results. In the case of the combination type, you need to each proportionally to get the results. I am planning to check mine once I get the results from my latest physical.

Lots of people fail on diet programs because they are not eating to match body type. For example if you are Carbohydrates type and go on a low-carb diet, it goes without saying.

5. Do not starve yourself – Once you know the body type, you need to eat properly and the right amount of food. One reason the body stores fat is because enough nutrition is not coming so it reacts by storing fat.

6. Dieting should be long term – You need to plan your diet for the long term. It should not be some lose 50 pounds in 2 months then go back to normal way of eating. Most of these approaches do work but because they are in a sense boring, people will just go back to default habits later.

7. Stomach health – Ensuring that your stomach is operating properly will go a far way to ensure you process food correctly. This is where cleansing programs come into play. I would not recommend those up front but drinking as much water as possible and taking some pro-biotics will fix this fairly quick.

8. Practice Kosher Diet – I have to throw this one in based on my religious belief but in all of the above cases, make sure the food you eat is kosher. This is mostly along the line of the food type (no pork, bacon etc) and not how it was prepared. I don’t believe you need to have some special procedure before you eat food except to pray and thank God.

9. Always Exercise – While these programs are not overly dependent on exercise, this will help you in most cases.  Try to walk for at least 30 minutes a day. One recommended way to maximize weight loss with exercise is to have periods of intensity in between slow ones. This helps to burn calories.

Summary

The message is clear but I want to simplify here: Reduce sugar intake, Drink lots of water, eat to fit your body type then add in some exercise to close things off. You should consult your doctor about any health related changes as you could have conditions that is outside the norm. This way you protect yourself from any potential dangers.

In the end you want to feel good and look good, so always research and verify with your doctor to get the best results.

P.S. Please share this with others, I think it could go a far way to make people healthy and reduce health care cost. The like button is a good start to sharing.

Here are some ideas I decided to share for someone living an urban environment ( will cover rural in another post).

1. Mindset – The first and most important thing is to change your mindset about life. You need to find a way to look at things in a positive way. This can go a far way in the whole process. Instead of seeing yourself as helpless, homeless or whatever, you need to form a picture of where you want to be in life. No problem with dreaming big in this case. You have nothing to lose here as if you stay negative you are not going to make progress anyway. The bottom line with this step is that it will give you motivation to take action.

2. Values – This will be the bedrock of your life going forward – What values do you cherish in your life. Some of the recommended ones are Honesty, Love, integrity, patience, sharing and many other good ones. Pick about five main ones as your starting point. We all have values but some of them could be holding us back. There is a tendency for people in poor areas to support dishonest living but as you can see it just keeps you in a vicious cycle. Frankly, you can make billions if you are honest and be able to really help others positively.

3. Information – Now that we got the desire and values in place, we are at the point where want to take action in our life. This is the stage where you seek out the means to move forward. Things to find out are what does your government provide in terms of training, small business development, job programs and any other. Where could you get some guidance for moving to the next level?

4. Networking – Following up to the information gathering stage is the whole issue of networking. One simple place to start are religious bodies like a local church. There are small groups in lots of neighborhoods with help on various topics. Try to meet new people that could help you and keep plugging a way.

5. Education – even if you have a PhD, it comes to a point that if you are destitute, it means you need new thinking to get out of that situation. Try to find some ways to get a new skill or learn something new. With the Internet, there are many free options or low cost courses. One think I believe in nowadays is to consider starting a business, so get as much ideas on that as possible. Books are also very good educational tools, use the library if you can’t buy them. Most governments also provide some free basic skills training, try to find one that is not too common and has high demand.

6. Team Work – If you live in a poor area, there is a good chance you are not the only one in the same situation. This a chance for you to form a team to tackle issue of improving the groups situation. They normally call this a master mind group. You meet often to discuss ideas that can help the community and each other. This is not just about money but to add meaning to your life in general. Who knows, with complimentary skills, you could start a venture together.

7. Economics – I am sure while all the suggestions above can sound good, your urgent need is to put food on the table and a shelter over your head. The best start is to volunteer to help someone in exchange for small favors. Instead of begging you offer to help with something that is in need of attention. The important thing is how you do it, try to be presentable to build trust in the process. As you do more, you may have a potential service business on your hand. Just keep the contacts in place and offer to do more this time with price. The best start for persons with no money is to setup a service business and the team work mentioned about could be a big help with that. If you have access to the Internet, there is a bunch of ideas that you could pursue on that front.

All of this is said in the context that you can’t find work or that you can’t find money to start a full blown business. Just try to help people with good manners and see where it goes from there. You have nothing to lose and a lot to gain.

Conclusion

The basic message here is that you can be successful regardless of where you are, it all starts with your mind and what you think of yourself. If you think you desire better and take responsibility to do this in an honest way, you will be surprise of the rapid progress that you make.

Focus on the education and areas where people need basic help, do it professionally and you will move forward.

P.S. Please share this with others. Most people who need this may not have access to the Internet to so pass on the word. I will add more practical ideas in time.

1. Target – What are your specific Goals in life – This is a critical piece of moving forward, you need to know where you want to go. This is the most important of all tips as you need to have this clarified before you really achieve something. Ideally, your goals should be multi-dimensional. This means you should cover family, spiritual, career and any other separately. A lot of experts call this exercise your mission statement.

2. Current State – Where are you relative to your goals? Are you where you want to be or far off from there? Make a note of your current state of affair. Everything is important as you will need to tackle the bad ones directly in your plan. a fancy term for this is gap analysis. What are you passionate about career wise? Are you actually doing that now? A lot of times this is one of the biggest issues. You are not following your passion so you get miserable about life. Take responsibility for your current state of affair. Living in a poor country or location is not a good excuse.

3. Plan – Now that you have an idea of where you want to go and where you are. You need to develop a plan to move forward and close the gap. This plan should be around principles to start with. People can cheat or sell drugs to make lots of money but then deep down you are destroying your spiritual side and fighting the forces of the universe. This plan could mean more education, better time management or working harder in whatever way that you can. Bear in mind that plans can change but your focus should be on achieving your goals. A short cut way is to find someone that you could model after. If you could speak to then even better. Lots of successful people write books about their lives, find one that matches your goal area and learn from them.

4. Take Action – When all is said and done, all of the above can be easy to do with a little effort but the next step is to take action. With your plan in place, take the first step for each area. Try as much as you can on your own but don’t be ashamed to ask for help or seek help to move forward. I don’t mean help in terms of begging for money but help in terms of advice and connections to take the right steps.

5.  Time Management – Following up to taking action, you need to have good time management in place. This means you should be spending time on the things you want to do. For example, if you are not qualified for a job, you should be either getting trained, get mentoring or at least reading a book on the topic. The Internet has lots of information on most if not all topics. Use whatever means available to move forward. You can even volunteer to learn a skill (meaning work without pay). Work hard to cut out idle and unproductive time. Time out to relax is good too, so I don’t mean to be tense and always working.

6. Networking – While you should work hard to achieve your goals in life, you will need help or connections. You should always put networking as one of your planned activities in life. It helps you stay positive in your field and it can open doors to move forward. However, don’t see networking as a one way street, help others as well. In fact its in helping others that you stand to succeed long term actually. Its actually recommended to have a primary mentor as well.

7. Assessment/Monitor – We have discussed a lot of things in this post but in the end, to keep on track you need to monitor yourself on the progress against plan. Do this once a week as well as monthly. Where did you go off track? where did you succeed? This approach will help you to make the relevant adjustments as you move along. Don’t be afraid of failure along the way as this is a means to learn and grow. There is a stigma against failure but you will notice that lots of known successful people actually had failure in life along way simply because they take action.

If you follow this structured approach properly, you are guaranteed to succeed in life. One book that impresses me to address most of the above issues, is that one by Steven Covey called – 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Notice, he is using the term effective versus successful as it means you may not seem successful by other persons standard but you are based on your own goals. Check out the book link below on Amazon.

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

On the other hand, you can get an Accredited MBA fairly cheap nowadays. There is a school that offers an MBA online for about $4000.00 and they are accredited. In this case it could help you get promoted in most companies to a management position. There are several schools that offer in this price range and the quality is reasonable.

Now, lets assume you really don’t want to take an MBA but either want some comparable certification or you just want the knowledge to help with running a better business. I will outline my opinion on two paths to explore.

Option #1 – Gaining a credential that is comparable to the MBA.

This again could approached from different angles but we will keep it simple at this point.  The first option is to look into the Certified MBA exam, this exam does require you to have an MBA but to solve that problem there is an online school that offers kind of MBA equivalent diploma even cheaper than the $4000 degree I mentioned earlier. The name of the school is AMBAIU. There maybe other ways to sit the exam but that seem to be the easiest way for now.

The other paths along this line is to look at UK professional Qualifications in Management from bodies such as the Institute of Leadership and Management and many others.

Option # 2 – MBA level knowledge to improve business skills

This option is a lot of fun and it comes down to the good practice of reading. There are several books that tries to summarize what is covered in an MBA program, one such book is “The 30 Day MBA“. On top of that, there are several books out in the market place that covers different aspects of the MBA program and in fact by authors who have real world experiences running their own businesses. The other thing you can do is to visit the website of the top MBA schools, look at their course outline and use that as a guide for your self study.

Another approach you can take is to check out short courses and seminars offered by the SBA and other organization that seek to promote business activities.

To test yourself with the self-study route, you could try and write a comprehensive business plan from scratch with all the relevant sections needed to run a viable business.

In summary, we have seen that you can get your own personal alternative MBA by paying attention to what is being offered by the top schools and seek to get that through reading or certification programs. The bottom line in all of this is, get the results as that is what really counts in the end with an MBA.

Useful Resources

1. General Business Education Materials – UK

2. Top US MBA Schools

3. The Personal MBA Reading

4.  The Quick MBA

Added Note: One MBA program I forgot to mention that is fairly flexible and has very good respect in the market place is the EBS distance MBA. Check out EBS MBA here. Its not the cheapest online accredited degree but its very cheap for the respectability that it has.

Think about it, God does offer abundance; why do we think that being better than someone is the main aim in life? The key to life is to have good character in that case we are more equal than it may look.

What I am trying to say is that career confidence means you have prepared yourself with the competency required of this field that you are into. The first step is to always find out what is required to get that confidence then accomplish through various means such as school, work and whatever ways available. Outside of that people are being arrogant if they don’t take the time to stock up on the latest and most relevant knowledge in the field.

In closing, I think one of the best means to acquire knowledge is through books. Yes, you can read a lot of books and know nothing but if you chart a course to where you want to go and read the relevant books to fill the gap, the experience would be amazing.

Well, work on building your confidence through hard work and smart learning.