Are You Chasing Money or Excellence?

Pursue excellence and money will follow

Words are cheap, the right actions can be very expensive but the price is worth it. Pay the price in the pursuit of excellence and you will never regret it.

1) Never let your job or career interfere with your education. Self-education is the only education.

2) When you work on what you love your energy is directed towards living your purpose. Your energy flows from an unlimited source, from the core of your being.

3) Allow your personality, skills and abilities come alive and you will express your desire when using your unique gifts to the world.

4) Have a deep belief in yourself. Self-expression, commitment, mindfulness are easy when you do what you love. Your problems will seem small and cannot withstand the continuous thoughts towards solving them.

5) There is a point when your subconscious mind, the software running your brain, takes over producing results that will surprise yourself. Connect your conscious and your subconscious minds.

6) Work becomes play not an addiction when work is an expression of your love. Make work a reflection of your vocation, your devotion to what you love.

7) Have faith in your ability to solve problems. Become an independent thinker and a great decision maker. Find the answers to your life’s most pressing questions and you will become a blessings to others leaving a legacy for centuries to come.

Be blessed and a blessing to others

Carlos Fontana, President of Phalanx

How Hasty Are You?

How Hasty Are You?

 “Start by doing what's necessary; then do what's possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible” - Francis of Assisi

Wise immigrants are hastier when it comes to taking action as compared to born citizens. Here are the 7 nuggets anyone can learn and apply to achieve uncommon results.

1) Be a fast listener, learners and doer; be a high speed implementer. Speed shift from problem to solution mode. Show your tail lights from your swift action and results. Recover fast from failures.

2) Be available and accessible to those around you especially people in need. Help others get what they need. Success is managed frustration.

3) Be a jack of all trades and a master of one. Choose what you love to do and do it with a zest and vengeance to master your core endeavor. Be nimble. Be a great starter and don’t forget to be a finisher in a world of starters.

4) Be a friendly and fun person to be around. Accept, approve and appreciate others by being like a reed; bending instead of breaking.

5) Have a thick skin and a soft heart. Accept rejection and humiliation as a way to grow your heart. Be a quick finder of talent and invest in people.

6) Lead others and help them grow by spending time mentoring them. Your security comes from the lifelong investments you make in others.

7) Take swift action and never settle for a mediocre life. The future belongs to those who can see and pursue opportunities before they are obvious.

Be blessed and a blessing to others

Carlos Fontana, President of Phalanx

Can you find HUMOR in your struggles?

HUMOR

The six trait of successful immigrant is HUMOR.

When the phone goes GREEN GREEN GREEN I PINK it up and say YELLOW?

1) Failures make for great stories. Learn and teach through humorous stories. Find humor in all your struggles. 

2) Develop, grow and expand your network and your community. You have to create stories before you have great stories to tell.

3) Don’t take yourself too seriously. Laugh at yourself often and learn from all your mistakes.

4) Count your blessings and be a blessing to others. Be a go-giver of kindness and laughter to others.

5) Give tender loving care with humor. Give to those that cannot pay you back. Help others lighten the load they carry.

6) Be humorous to children and to your elders and everyone in between. Everyone can use a little humor at some point during their day.

7) Be humorous without being offensive. Never use foul language. Clean jokes work best because most people never heard them.

Be blessed and a blessing to others

Carlos Fontana, President of Phalanx

Humiliation to Humility

HUMILITY

Henry A. Kissinger - A leader does not deserve the name unless he is willing occasionally to stand alone.

Josh Billings - He whom prosperity humbles, and adversity strengthens, is the true hero.

Wise immigrants display humility. Humility is keeping ego in check. Here are the 7 daily nuggets on HUMILITY.

1) Accept humiliation to become humble. Be humble or God will do a better job. Be willing to do what other will not do and you can have what others will never have.

2) Be God made and not self-made. Appreciate what others do for you.

3) Have faith, seek and speak the truth. Learn from your failures and the experiences from others. Accept mistakes and quickly correct them quickly. Stop listening to yourself if you don’t like your scorecard.

4) Be unpretentious and live below your means. Always know that others are watching you.

5) Have a spirit of deference and submission to your mentors and those you lead. Find the greatness in people and build expectancy in them.

6) Always have your feet on the ground and build a strong foundation casted in your humility. Seek feedback and accept criticism.

7) The world is full of negativity; quickly get rid of yours. Reward the positive behaviors and redirect the negative ones.

Be blessed and a blessing to others

Carlos Fontana, President of Phalanx

Are You Honable?

How Teachable Are You?

HONABLE

Today we explore the fourth trait of wise immigrants, honability.

John Sauget said that if you sit at the feet of the master long enough, and they’ll start to smell. Knowledge is powerless; it is the application of knowledge that has power. Knowledge is only valuable if it propels you to act. Iron sharpens iron. Immigrants know upon arriving at the new world, they must learn, learn a lot, learn fast, and above all apply what they learn in order to survive and thrive. Five years from now we can be older and grumpier or healthier, wealthier and wiser. The choice is always ours. Read great books and associate with people smarter than you. Why not learn from them? Here are the 7 nuggets. Apply them and prosper.

1) Wise immigrants are teachable and transparent. They know everyone has something to teach them. They read, study, discuss and apply. They let no hardship go by without a learning experience.

2) They learn from those with results in their lives. They understand that if you are too big to follow you are too small to lead. Knowing and not doing is worse than not knowing.

3) They are reflective and observant. They are patient as growth in knowledge compounds over time. They know how to discover the desires of their hearts and pursue them with passion.

4) They let no failure to go to waste. They look for a victory in every defeat and a defeat in every victory. They never miss a teachable moment. 

5) They value and build on their language and cultural skills. They learn to relate to those different than they are. They are patient and encourage others. They know that we all have different ways of learning and coping.

6) They welcome and embrace change. They look inside themselves for growth and growth outside will come to them. They listen to others to find their blind spots.

7) They value the setbacks in life because they come to help them grow. They are committed to investing and reinventing themselves continuously.

Be blessed and a blessing to others

Carlos Fontana, President of Phalanx

CAN I TAKE YOUR WORD AS YOUR BOND?

HONESTY

Today we will explore the third trait of successful immigrants, honesty. My mother used to tell me when I was a kid that “mentiras tem pernas curtas”, the Portuguese for lies have short legs. Tell the truth that way we don’t have to remember what we have said in the past and the past will not come to haunt us in the future. Here are the 7 nuggets that wise immigrants display at a higher degree the born citizens. 

1) Wise immigrants know that honesty is the best policy anyone can have. They build the character and fortitude to become what they promise themselves.  They have strong loyalty to people and causes bigger than themselves.

2) They build a high level of trust in all their important relationships. They take the time to feed and nurture their friendships.

3) They live by a single code of ethics. They know that there are no such things as ethics at home and ethics in business; only ethics.

4) They honor their commitments so miracles can happen in their life. They live with expectancy of succeeding.

5) They know themselves better than anyone else. They have the courage to work on their imperfections. Change is not foreign but a friend to them. They know that their word is their bond and their bond is their word.

6) They have high respect and learn from their elders. They seek their advice in moments of need. They honor the Ten Commandments and give all the glory to God. The are courageous followers before they become leaders. Immigration happens in waves. The very courageous go first then others will follow.

7) They take the required time to be in silence and solitude to reflect on their past and make the proper adjustments to go to their bright future. They never forget the journey to the new world. They often go back the initial journey to get the courage needed to go forward.

Be blessed and a blessing to others

Carlos Fontana, President of Phalanx

How Well Do You Know Your Heritage?

HERITAGE

The second trait of successful immigrants is that we know and value our heritage. It is very difficult to know where we are going if we don’t know where we come from, who we really are. Imagine building a great house on a faulty foundation; the house will eventually crumble when the tremors of life hit us. The majority of youth in America knows little about their heritage. Heritage encompasses so many things like language, foods, music, art, trades, professions, history, geography, etc of our ancestors. Why not go on a journey to discover your heritage so you can enrich your present by knowing where we come from? You can then define your path to a much brighter future. Here are the nuggets about HERITAGE.

1) We preserve our culture and are part of a proud heritage of survivors.

2) We value our history, beliefs, purpose and mission to preserve that heritage.

3) We have vision, a clear picture of where we are going.

4) We have a champion mindset to commit, prepare, and persists until the end.

5) We have strong faith in who we are and what we do. We value and chase freedom to get lifetime security.

6) We improve ourselves and understand that we can’t take our old self to a bright new future. We value our past but never let it rule our future.

7) We live simple lives, lives within our means, even if the world tells us otherwise rejecting us as outcasts. We sacrifice the good so we can have the great.

Be blessed and a blessing to others

Carlos Fontana, President of Phalanx