Khalil-Ghibran Writer and Author

Many writers write for the experience.

Others dream of having a number one best seller. Both are wonderful reasons for writing. What many fail to realize is that these two do not have to be mutually exclusive. With a little research, you can enjoy writing incredible stories and see to it that they generate a profit.

The first thing that is needed is a business like attitude toward the process. From day one you must:

1) Know your niche.
Research which books are popular in your genre. Go to bookstores and start reading popular authors in your field. Also pick up writing magazines and see what publishers are looking for today.

2) Know your audience. If you are writing for children, for example, know the developmental stage that a child reading your book needs to be and cater to them.

Ex. A five year old would not be a good candidate for a chapter book.

You can also talk to your future readers and find out what really sparks their interest.

Ex. If you are a sci-fi writer, you can go into…

It always amazes me when I meet someone who has a disdain for expansion of knowledge.

The other day, over lunch, I was arguing with a girl about a principle of abundance. I illustrated this principle with anecdotes about historically famous millionaires who had applied this principle successfully.

Her response: “I can't use this information. It doesn't come from my experience.”

Since her idea of reality was only what fell into her immediate experience she was discounting the possibility of knowing anything outside it. Yet, unless she was willing to acknowledge the possibility of something outside her immediate circle of influence, how could she invite the actuality of the experience. Unless one has a hypothesis, experimentation is not an option.

Here is another example. During a certain period of time, a friend of mine and I, while working and living in similar circumstances, developed a completely different view of reality. During this time, I read books on super-string theo…

Creative Writing Tips –
How we usually begin the preparation stage in the writing process is…

We think of an idea for a story
We think of a suitable theme
We plot

Once we come up with a theme and we begin plotting, we have to see how the theme and the plot match up. Sometimes as we plot we find that the theme we had initially chosen won’t do.
For example…
‘Winning The Lottery Makes Your Life Easier’
Plotting with this theme in mind, we have our characters pay off all their debts, go on endless shopping sprees, go on holidays, etc. We find though that this won’t make a very interesting story. So we spice it up, adding to the theme or coming up with a different one.
“Winning The Lottery Makes Your Life Easier But Everything Has Its Price.”
We can show the characters living the life of the rich for a while before they realize that being wealthy has its problems too...

They now fear for their safety
Their friends and relatives are constantly harping at their door asking for assistance
Etc

This…

Making money is easy when you move to cause rather than living out effects.

Let me draw a simple analogy to clarify my point.

Imagine standing before a huge waterfall. You’re thirsty and the water is fresh, clean, and pure. You can take as much as you like.

How much can you take home with you?

It all depends on the size of your container.

You can take a thimble, a small cup, a gallon bucket, a barrel, or even a tank truck.

Similarly, the amount of money in the world is like this fountain of abundance. Trillions of dollars circulate around the world. The fountain is abundant.

Some people can hold billions, others millions, others hundreds of thousands, others tens of thousands, others thousands, others hundreds, and yet others only a pocketful.

These things are actually only the effects.

Effect is what you see in the visible world. They are the results of a wealth building strategy that worked.

What, however, are the causes? How are people able to build wealth in the first place?

Caus…

1. Among choices & habits you must choose choice most of the times.
2. Among intellect & wisdom you must use both of them most of the time.
3. Among ‘play to win’ & ‘play not to loose’ you must choose u must practice ‘play to win’ all the times.
4. Among luck & effort you must first focus on the efforts every time.
5. Among design & default u must practice design each time.
6. Among Feelings & facts you must consider facts most of the time.
7. Among Reaction & Pro-action you must prefer Pro-action all the times.
8. Among talking negative & keeping quite you must choose ‘keeping quite’ every time.
9. Among talking & doing you must prefer doing all the times.
10. Among available & fit to use you must work to be FIT to Use every times.
11. Among chance & inaction you must choose chance most of the time.
12. Among Depression & action you must choose action each time.
13. Among Helplessness & hopelessness u must choose non all the time.
…

Are you mad or bitter about the way your life has turned out? Is it possible that you are feeling other negative emotions for the same reason? I know that many people complain about their lives all the time. They also complain about how other people react towards them. Oh! And of course they are in that predicament because their parents were unsupportive, their teachers did not care about them and the bosses where dictators. Worst of all, the list goes on and on “never ending.” I will tell you what I think about it, “Oh please, give me a break!” Although external circumstances do affect us, it is not unlikely for an individual to change or redirect their path in life.

Look at all the drug addicts that overcome their addictions, look at poor or middle class children that grow up to become great leaders like Oprah and Bill Clinton. An Albanian Proverb states, “When you have given nothing, ask for nothing.” This is true, how can you expect someone to give you all their undivided attenti…

There have been so many times in my life where I have run into a series of obstacles that never seemed to stop.  I could handle each and every one, but after a while, I would grow weary and want it all to come to an end so I could return to a reasonable life. 

Over the years, I've learned that I can't just hope for positive change, I have to demand it and act on it.  This approach is has nothing to do with affirmations or affirm-actions.  It consists of simply telling the Universe what I want and having it show me the signs that all is well.

Many people feel that they are victims of their god and the Universe; however, we are our own gods.  We are our souls, our essence, and our spiritual deity.  In the end, we allow ourselves to become victims of ourselves, our beliefs, and our own inability to accept responsibility for our actions.

Putting a challenge to the Universe opens the ears of the multitude of other entities that exist to begin placing situations in motion to achiev…

As you are aware, there are two sides to everything; good and bad, positive and negative, yin and yang, action and inaction, force and allow, rigid and flexible.  In all of life there is a balance between the two polarities, sides or aspects that must be mediated in your pursuit of happiness and a truly harmonious in life.  In your goal setting activities this balance must be considered or you may find yourself severely restricting what is possible for you.

Remember that as you are envisioning and deciding on a goal, that visualization is based on your present awareness and knowledge.  What about all the possibilities that you are not yet aware of, do you want to limit yourself from something better than what you can see right now?

No matter how you believe about how the overall power behind the universe participates in your life, I think you will admit that frequently things do seem to happen and opportunities arise that your were not originally aware of when you start taking action…

Your fears, anxieties, and other problems have the best of you and you don’t know where to turn for help. At some point you feel totally helpless as you struggle each day. What do you do?

As a layman and an author of a Managing Fear book, there were times that my fears had the best of me. Through these experiences, there is one thing that I learned. You can’t hide or runaway from your fears.

Taking drugs, drinking, or other addictions will not take away your problems and fears. In the short run, they will make you feel better but in the long run these addictions will only make things worse.

So what do you do to make your problems and fears go away? Well, since you can’t runaway from them, then the best solution is to tackle your fears head on no matter how strong they may be. The key is to be smart in how you try to manage these fears. Here are some ways in how to manage your persistent fears and anxieties.

Take it one day at a time. Instead of worrying about how you will get through…

You have a purpose in life. You have a unique gift or special talent. By using this to gift to benefit others you raise your spirit to it’s highest. This is the ultimate… the dream of all dreams and the point where you can all live a life with abundant happiness.

The question is how?

This article will set you on that path and tell you what to do next.

Forget how much money you have.

Forget how big your home is or how big you’d like it to be. Forget where you want to go on holiday. Forget your religious background and forget your education. I say this because focus on these things can stop you from seeing who you really are and therefore stop you from doing what you want to do in life.

The reasons why you’ve forgotten who you are and what you want to do are that they have been extracted from you or squashed by following beliefs and values of those around you. You’ve been stopped from exploring you.

We get caught up on ‘being good’ conforming to the norm, directed by peers and elders a…

It just might save your life
Think of the many times throughout your life when you experienced a strange feeling that turned out to be an early warning of danger.

Use your early-warning radar.

Did you take heed of that warning and avoid the impending danger, or did you ignore your built-in early warning radar and walk right into harm's-way?

The funny feeling in the pit of your stomach or the feeling of the hairs on the back of your neck standing on end are ways of your body telling you that something is very wrong.

Any veteran police officer or soldier who's seen combat and lived to tell about it will explain that part of their survival was due to trusting their "gut-feeling" that they were in danger.

Here's how it works:
There is nothing magical about this sixth-sense. It's simply your body's first reaction to adrenaline entering your blood stream.

As your digestive system is being shut down to allow more blood to flow to your muscles, you get a queasy …

When did you last do that? When did you last listen to yourself? Is there a small voice inside you calling out “Just listen to me” Just listen. Please”. “All I want is for you to listen to me”. “ I am tired and fed up of continuing doing. Just stop for a moment and just listen. Please”.

When was the last time you sat down quietly with a cup of coffee and just listened to what is going on inside you. The small voice that wants to take care of you. Wants to make sure you are doing the right thing. The small voice that wants you to succeed more than anything else, and also wants you to enjoy your success.

Let’s do it now. Let’s just sit quietly and connect with that peaceful space within  where you can listen to yourself.

Just turn your eyes inside, look inside and go to your peaceful place. What do you see there? The mountains or ……the sea………..A sunset perhaps. …….  just relax ……..enjoy yourself there. Describe it to yourself……..What can you see?  What sounds can you hear? How do you f…

I bet you are saying to yourself what in the hell is this person talking about? Now hold on before you judge me, give me a chance to redeem myself and make sense of this whole chapter. Even the title will make sense in just a short while, so just hold on to those opinions and let me have a shot - Thank You!

Let us say your house burned down and all that you were able to get out of it was you and your wife and children. Now do not get me wrong that is the most important thing to get out. At least your family is safe. Yet you are sad because everything you had is gone. All your cloths are gone. You are overwhelmed by the loss you are now suffering.

Then a strange thing happens you look down in the ashes and you think you see gold in the fire. Somehow it is different; it is like all your desires.
What this means you are wondering to yourself? It hits you - your house was worth $85000 and they, (the insurance company) are willing to pay you 130,000! This amount staggers you... now you ca…

When I listen to people tell me about some of the things they want to do, I pause for two reasons. One is the fact that I’m listening and watching them to see if they are serious within themselves. Secondly, if it’s something they really believe that they can accomplish.

Can dreams come true? You better believe they can. But life is much more than dreaming. It’s about desire and believing. What is it that YOU desire? Do you “believe” YOU can accomplish it?

If you don’t desire and believe than there is no use in wasting your time.

There are many in this world that are simply followers and not leaders.

However, if YOU are a leader, then what’s stopping you?

You want but you don’t have. You desire, yet your still only dreaming. Yes you want to, but what are you doing about it? Why is it that I don’t hear these people say what they’re going to do rather than what they want to?

Well I’ve been there done that, so I can relate. First let me tell you that there’s nothing wrong with being a d…

Every good salesman knows that you must believe in your product or else be able to do a good job of acting like you do.  It's no different whether you are marketing products, policies, revolutions, or people.  Marketing is marketing.  Overall image and believability is king.  So how does that play out when you are trying to market yourself?

For the sake of consistency let's say that you're applying for a new job or a promotion at work.  If you have high self-esteem, you probably aren't reading this article.  So we can also assume that you aren't too sure of yourself.  You wouldn't be applying for the position if you didn't think you could do it, but you've got insecurities about how you should go about presenting yourself to the powers that be.  You aren't a professional schmoozer and that's not the image you want to put forth anyway.  So how does the everyday person market themselves without coming across as too arrogant nor too shy?

Let's…

“You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment. Fools stand on their island of opportunities and look toward another land. There is no other land; there is no other life but this.” --Henry David Thoreau (1817-62) American writer, author, naturalist

How do you actually spend your days? Are you focused and committed to everything you do? If you are, that’s wonderful! But if that’s not you, does this ring a bell? Are you spending a lot of your day thinking about what has happened to you up to this moment? Or are you waiting for something to happen, for the right opportunity to come along, to get some more time, make some more money, meet the right person? Are you dreaming of what might happen next week, next month, next year? STOP!

Each day you are given is a gift. It is time to value every moment. We all have 24 hours a day. No more. No less. The clock is ticking and there will be no second chance.

You cannot get time back once it has go…

Each of us has the power to be creative. It's part of our natural make-up as human beings. The trouble is that, too often, we block our natural creativity and so make errors in thinking and give ourselves more problems than we should. Here are 7 ways to open up your natural creativity and keep the channels unblocked.

1. Don't Make Assumptions. When we assume, we often make an "ass" out of "u" and "me". Assumptions are examples of lazy thinking. We simply don't wait to get all the information we need to come to the right conclusions. There is the story of the customer at the bank who after cashing a cheque and turning to leave, returns and says: "Excuse me, I think you made a mistake." The cashier responds, "I'm sorry but there's nothing I can do. You should have counted it. Once you walk away we are no longer responsible." Whereupon the customer replies: "Well, okay. Thanks for the extra $20."
Tip: When y…

Ok so you have been through the writing process, where you have wrote that perfect novel, and rewrote it again and again until it's perfect.  Then you found either a Publisher or Agent to represent you.  Your book has been through the editing stage, cover art finalized, and a Published Date assigned, now what?  Is the job done?  Have you did all you needed to do to make this book a success?  Nope, you have only begun.  Now you have to market that book, get  it into book stores, let people know it is available. 

First off you need to find out from your Publisher or Agent where you book will be available at, who is doing reviews and any promoting they plan on doing.  Once you have the answers to these questions you now know where to start. 

A review is the first step to getting your book known.  You can begin requesting reviews as soon as the Publisher has a final proof copy available.  Most review sites can be found in the Search Engines by simply typing the Genre of your book, Ex…

Writing style is a writer’s uniqueness. When you build your unique style, you will be known for it. For instance, Ernest Hemingway used to begin his sentences with ‘and’ or ‘but’ that was his particular style; Dickens uses aesthetically complex sentences, and that’s his style. So, each writer has his own style, which is the sum total of all the writing mannerisms, choice of vocabulary, and grammar constructions. In this article we will discuss the importance of building such a writing style and see how we can do it.

1.Read more and analyze what you read as you go on. When you read professional publications and blogs, you will know more of what is in these days. You will know the specialty of a particular writer. This is a first step toward building your style.

Some professional publications I recommend reading include Readers’ Digest, news sites like BBC, The Telegraph, CNN, etc. While reading, give importance to the mannerisms, choice of words, sentence structures, etc., used in the…

OVERVIEW

People are visual creatures. They look at your product, and see, for example, a button or display. They want to find out about that control or indicator. A Visual Index is a simple but powerful document access tool that enables your Readers to find the information that they want.

This article describes the Visual Index concept and tells how to create one for your document.

A VISUAL INDEX

A Visual Index is a picture of your product or process with links to the relevant information in the related document. Using a Visual Index, your Readers can look at the picture, and quickly jump to the place in your document that describes the item of interest.

Your document may include several Visual Indexes (the plural of "index' is "indexes" not "indices").

STARTS WITH A PICTURE

The Visual Index starts with a picture of your product or process. There are various kinds of pictures to use, based on the product type:

* Physical Product (for example, a barbecue o…

If you think proofreading equals editing, then you're wrong! Editing is a lot more than just scrutinizing your manuscript for misspelled words or missing punctuation marks.
As a whole:

Edit only *after* you've written the *whole* piece. If you stop to edit after every paragraph or sentence, you will disrupt the flow of your thoughts.
It is better to take a break before starting to edit a long manuscript so you’ll have a fresh perspective.
Revise only *hard copy* especially if your manuscript is quite long. Revising from a monitor is confusing.
Verify the spelling of names, figures, dates, and addresses. These are the most murdered items in manuscripts!
Be sure of what you put between those quotation marks! Otherwise, rephrase the line and omit the quotation marks.
Did you follow the writer guidelines? e.g., number of words required, font/font size specified, spacing, margins...

Edit your content:

Be sure that you did not stray from your topic. Are your paragraphs coherent?
Did you fu…

Overcoming writer’s block has so many prescribed cures that seem like witches’ brew, you may as well be trying to get rid of hiccups. My favorite remedy is “just write anything.” If I were to follow this advice when I’m stuck in a frustrating blank stare moment, my page would be filled with expletives that would be of no use to anyone, including Lenny Bruce.

If you have no idea of what to say on any given subject, you do not have writer’s block, you have a lack of knowledge problem. If you have the facts in front of you and still do not know what to say then you have writer’s block. The basic step of gathering enough material to complete your writing task should never be confused with writer’s block. Writing takes leg work - tedious legwork. Before the Internet this task could seem insurmountable; but now with worlds of knowledge at our fingertips, I don’t want to hear about any problems getting background material on any subject. Learn how to use the search engines well. This should…

Many people are under the assumption that proofreading is an “innate” ability. The reality is that it is actually an acquired skill. By following these tips, you can transform yourself into the expert proofreader you’ve always dreamed of becoming!

1. You are the best judge of yourself. By this I mean that you can determine exactly what your most common mistakes are. Whether it’s placing the “e” before the “I,” or simply forgetting the semi-colon; once you familiarize yourself with your most common mistakes, proofreading will become much easier.

2. Remember, proofreading is not about misspelled words only; most likely those are caught by the application you are using like MS Word spell checker. You must look for incorrect sentence structure, repetition, and text which does not flow well together.

3. Leave the document for a while, and return with new eyes. If you walk away from your work and take a quick break, then return, you will find your outlook has changed completely!

3. Slow do…

OK. You didn't get accepted at any of the schools you applied to. What should you do now?

Deal. Get over it. And consider what you’re going to do next year. If you decide to re-apply, you need to assess what went wrong and resolve to improve it.

1. Determine what you need to change. You definitely need to do something different, because your previous approach didn't work. Don’t turn in the same essays.

2. Analyze your qualifications versus your target schools' average stats and requirements. If you are applying with below average stats at more than two schools and are not from an under-represented minority, you are relying on miracles and not applying effectively. You either need to improve your profile or apply to less-competitive schools.

3. Seek feedback. Some programs, particularly MBA programs, give constructive feedback to re-applicants. If your school provides that service, take advantage of it ASAP. You want to hear the criticism as early as possible so that you h…

Being wait-listed is tough, and you need the right set of keys to open the door to your dream program. The truth is that even with these keys, it's still not guaranteed that the lock will work. But this keychain has the critical pieces of metal you'll need to turn that lock.

First, a word of introduction: Realize that receiving a wait-list letter means you qualify for admission. You pass. You are probably on the wait-list (and not admitted) because they have already admitted applicants with your profile and want diversity in the class.
Or they find your qualifications impressive, but find someone else's even more so.
Now let's examine that keychain.

Key 1: Read the letter for any hints of deficiency in your profile and attempt to improve that element in your profile.

Key 2: Give them more reasons to admit you. If the school encouraged contact, inform it of new achievements, initiatives, promotions, and developments in your life. This suggestion implies developing a pr…