Mike Lopez Online

Thomas Alva Edison, also called the “Wizard of Menlo Park” by a newspaper reporter, is one of the most often cited personalities in history when it comes to dealing with failure and focusing on goals.  It is unclear how many times Thomas Edison failed in his tests before he invented the first practical, long lasting light bulb but it is widely accepted that he tried thousands of times before he discovered the best filament to use.

There are other inventors at the time who were also developing light bulbs but it was Thomas Edison who got it to the finish line.  His name is forever etched in history not because he was the first but simply because he was the most persistent, the most flexible, and possibly the most cunning as well.  As with many successful inventors, he too knows how to handle failure successfully.  Qualities like these define a true winner.

He too was a visionary, a trait displayed when Edison made the first public demonstration of his incandescent light bulb on December 31, 1879, in Menlo Park. It was during this time that he said: “We will make electricity so cheap that only the rich will burn candles.” – these words I often remember when I see expensive candle light dinners in first class restaurants.  LOL.

Finally, I think it’s worth saying that he did not invent the light bulb.  What Thomas Edison did was simply innovate, improving what others before him have already achieved.  Here’s an excerpt from Wikipedia that best shows Edison’s innovativeness:

In addressing the question “Who invented the incandescent lamp?” historians Robert Friedel and Paul Israel list 22 inventors of incandescent lamps prior to Joseph Wilson Swan and Thomas Edison. They conclude that Edison’s version was able to outstrip the others because of a combination of three factors: an effective incandescent material, a higher vacuum than others were able to achieve (by use of the Sprengel pump) and a high resistance lamp that made power distribution from a centralized source economically viable.

In summary, Thomas Alva Edison is a man with focus, persistence and determination.  He too knows how to handle failure, a visionary and an innovator.  Lastly, I think it is rightful to say that there’s a Thomas Edison in all of us.  We all have our light bulbs to create and we all have the obligation of lighting up the world one way or another.

Life is like a race.  There’s a start and there’s an end.  The same can be said for every little aspect of life.  There will always be a starting a line and a goal.  It is upto one’s desire whether he wishes ti finish the race or not.

I am writing this short article for a single purpose – to encourage you and the rest to just keep on going and going.  Go on until you can no longer go, reach for the goal until you’ve exhausted all your energy.  That’s what defines a winner.  To me, it’s not about getting their first nor is it being the fastest or the strongest.  To me this concept of “winning” is nothing compared to what I believe winning is all about.

Winning is about persistence.  It’s about how far you can go and it’s about whether or not you will do whatever it takes just to achieve your goal. In a race, some will be ahead, some will be left behind, some will be fast and some will be slow but all will be winners so long as they reach the finish line. That’s what I believe in.

It may take you days, months or years before you can reach your goal. People may start discouraging you but winning is about getting focused and not getting distracted by what others are saying. So what if it takes you your entire life to achieve your goal? Winners have one thing in their mind and that’s nothing else but their goal.

In short, winning is simply NOT TO QUIT!

Failure is oftentimes an event in our life that we do not want to experience again mainly because it hurts and it’s embarassing.  Even more, the very experience of failing leads us to fear failure even more.  It’s a traumatic thing and nobody wants it but it cannot be avoided.  It’s part of life and we just have to learn how to handle it.

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Credibility is important for any entity – be it an individual or corporation. It’s not easy to build it but it’s way too easy to tarnish or even destroy it, especially online. So how does one build credibility and keep it good online? Here are a few tips that may just help.

1. Build a website – you can never build online credibility without it.  A blog is more than sufficient for this purpose and you can build your blog for free at www.blogspot.com
2. Be kind – be as kind as you can to everybody.  You can do this by writing comments on their blogs, praising their articles, or simply writing on their facebook wall.
3. Be honest – never exaggerate on things and never lie.
4. Be sociable – respond to people’s comments on your blog and social networks
5. Never spam – spamming can destroy your online credibility in seconds
6. Be yourself – don’t act as if you’re somebody else.  Just be yourself and you’ll have more friends online
7. Offer help – if you’re an expert in some field, offer your help for free to other people in forums, blogs and social networking websites
8. Post photos – upload wholesome photos of yourself and your family on your social networking websites.  You can also upload them on your blogs
9. Be consistent – be as consistent as you can in updating your online profiles, blogs, etc. This let’s people know that you’re alive and kicking
10. Be friendly – nothing can be better in building online credibility than being genuinely friendly to others

This list is not in any particular order.  I just wrote them as they popped into my head.  If you have more suggestions in building your online credibility, please feel free to post them as comments below.

Thanks!

There are times when I just don’t feel like doing anything for the day. Oftentimes I get surprised by how huge my todo list has become. Worst than that is I’d immediately feel tired just seeing the list and eventually end up not doing anything to get things done.

I think it’s called procrastination – the act of delaying an action to a later time. It all starts with putting off a single task either because you have something else to do, you think it’s too easy that you can finish it in no time or you simply don’t want to do it right now. Then another item gets added to the list and so on until the list gets so large, the mere sight of it tells your brain to procrastinate even more.

But, how do you deal with it? Here’s a short quote that basically sums up what I’m about to say.

“If you wait until all the lights are “green” before you leave home, you’ll never get started on your trip to the top.” – Zig Ziglar

Basically, what you need to do is to take on your list one “green-light intersection” at a time. As soon as you’re finished with item #1, then move on to item #2 and so on until you finish everything that you can finish for the day. Set a goal like “I’ll finish at least 5 items in my todo list today” and focus on it. Each item in your list is a “green light” telling you to move on.

The same quote applies when you feel overwhelmed by the huge number of items in your list. What I do here is organize the items into categories and start working on them – one step at a time. If there’s too much in my list to accomplish in one day, I tell myself that I don’t have to finish all of them today. This tells my brain to “relax” and makes everything look easier. I then set my goal to finish 5 to 10 items off the list.

So, the next time you feel procrastinating, just take it one step at a time and before you know it, your todo list is empty once again.