When you have trouble deciding between two things and are riddled with indecision, you have already decided to not decide. When you think too much, it often results in getting stuck on an idea, you get tunnel vision and end up going in circles. Sure, thinking is good, but have a clear picture of what the end goal is.

- Edwin, CashTheChecks.com

They say practice makes perfect, but that’s not true. There is no such thing as perfect. The pursuit of perfection leads to inaction. Don’t let perfection stand in the way of what you’re trying to accomplish. Sure, you can turn a bad essay/webpage/drawing/plan into a better one, and a better one into a good one, but you will never make it perfect. So just go for it and be satisfied with the result.

- Edwin, CashTheChecks.com

The early bird gets the worm, buy it’s the second mouse that gets the cheese.

Sometimes it’s best to let others ahead and see what they do before trying it yourself, you just might find out the rewards are sweeter.

- Edwin, CashTheChecks.com

The greatest ideas don’t happen after 5 hours of hard work trying to figure something out. These ideas come when you set your mind free. When you’re not thinking about work, creative juices can flow naturally. In fact, “thinking outside the box” is something that rarely happens when you’re actively trying to think of something. Big ideas are created spontaneously. So go outside, let your mind wander and see what happens.

- Edwin, CashTheChecks.com

Working hard is always good, or is it? Sometimes you’re just stuck on something. You’re in the forest in the middle of work and all you see are trees. Walk away and take a break. Your greatest ideas and breakthroughs will come when you’re staring at the waves on the beach, looking at a mountain top, or just going outside for some fresh air. So remove your tunnel vision and see the forest from afar. Instead of seeing nothing but trees, what you’ll see is the right path.

- Edwin, CashTheChecks.com

In life it’s usually the hard workers who get ahead, while the slackers keep performing beneath their potential. But there is still hope for procrastinators. While most people get into panic mode trying to get things done, slackers know how to fulfill their obligations, get acceptable marks and enjoy a relatively stress-free existence. Being a slacker isn’t necessarily a good thing, but it’s nice to find a balance between being laid back and being a high strung worker. Here’s a few ways how you can integrate the slacker lifestyle into your life and benefit from it.

- E-mails: you don’t need to reply to emails as soon as you get them. As long as you get to it within 24 hours,  you should be okay. So handle your other tasks first and put email on the backburner for a while.

- Take a break: While others are hard at work, it’s okay to take a break and relax. You’ll come back re-energized, re-vitalized and will be more productive even though you’ll be working less.

- Don’t multi-task: Often times when you try to do too much at the same time you end up not doing any of those tasks correctly. So take your time and get things done right the first time.

- Edwin, CashTheChecks.com

How you see yourself is likely how others will see you as well. Here’s a few examples of how you can implement this to your advantage.

- You’re unemployed. No you’re not. You’re advancing in your career, you’re an ambitious person looking to move up.

- You do freelance graphic design. No you don’t. You’re an artist.

Think of yourself as a product. You’re selling yourself to others. From your clothing to your way of speaking, you are a product to everyone you meet. Everyone from strangers to business owners subconsciously ask themselves if they want to buy you. So sell them your product. If you don’t market yourself or brand yourself in the way you want, others will most certainly do it for you.

- Edwin, CashTheChecks.com

When you’re working on a project, it’s tempting to dream about how it will be a huge success right away. That’s usually not how it works. Like many good wines, projects need time to reach their full potential. It often takes weeks, if not months, before a site starts bringing in any money.

If you end up bringing in plenty of traffic and no sales and you see no real success at the end of the tunnel, don’t throw money at your problem. When you’re in a hole, stop digging. See what you’re doing wrong and fix it. If that doesn’t work, just start over with a fresh idea. Internet businesses are cheap and you can start a new one without going bankrupt.

- Edwin, CashTheChecks.com

Here’s how it usually goes: You brainstorm or suddenly get an idea for a new site. You go ahead and try to implement your idea and you get all excited as you embark on a new project that is surely to be a big hit. You think or write a plan for your idea and get work. You pay the programmer and the web designer and the site finally goes live. Then you do some marketing and you’re still extremely excited about seeing your “baby” take off.

Now it’s time for reality to set in.. This site you created requires time to maintain it, it also requires money for maintenance. You end up spending your time doing the same tasks every day and pretty soon it’s not exciting anymore – its boring.

When you start a new site it’s important to realize what amount of work (both time and money) are involved to make it work. Always take upkeep and time into account or else your projects will always be incomplete.

- Edwin, CashTheChecks.com

Why is jealousy a healthy attribute? First, what is jealousy?

Jealousy is envy, bitterness and overall unhappiness because of another’s possessions.

Human beings are built with a fear mechanism that automatically triggers when they perceive danger. Likewise, one can imagine the cavemen hundreds of thousands of years ago envious of a fellow tribesman meal or place of habitation. What does it lead to? The next morning that jealous creature goes hunting for a bigger kill, so he creates better tools. He then uses his brains and brawns to build a stronger residence.

Jealousy is one of the main components in what drives man to better himself. So remember: jealousy is healthy, jealousy has always been around, and jealousy is what will keep you motivated through thick and thin.

- Edwin, CashTheChecks.com

Dropouts are the bosses and good students are the employees. Sounds twisted doesn’t it? But good grades in school don’t necessarily translate into becoming an entrepreneurial success. In fact, a straight-A student is more likely to be a structured type of individual who follows the rules and might not think outside the box.

Albert Einstein said: “Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.”

- Edwin, CashTheChecks.com

From the age of 18 to 21, I saved every penny I earned and bought myself a BMW (a used one but it was nice). I left myself with $0 in savings and lackluster monthly earnings. I had no fear. Why? Because I knew I would become successful. I began acting as if I was already a success. In order to be successful, you must portray an image of success at all times. If you’re already acting and believing like a success, the universe has no option but to give you that success. It’s the law of attraction at work.

I’m in the process of buying my first home. Again, I’m going to give up all my savings from the age of 21 to 26 (my current age). I have no fear because I know I will only earn more money in the future than ever before. I don’t even let doubt creep into my mind for a second. There is only one path for me, because I already believe it, I have no choice but to receive it, the universe has no choice but to give it to me.

- Edwin, CashTheChecks.com

Here’s a short list of high school / college drop-out entrepreneurs:

- Bill Gates, Microsoft CEO
- Richard Branson, Virgin Records
- Steve Jobs, Apple CEO
- Jerry Yang, Yahoo CEO
- Michael Dell, Dell
- Jim Clark, Netscape founder
- Lawrence Joseph Ellison, Oracle CEO

Feel free to add to this list!

Think you could be a millionaire entrepreneur if you went back to school? With online universities, now getting your degree is easy! You can get your online MBA by taking classes from home or get an online bachelor degree in a field you enjoy.

- Edwin, CashTheChecks.com

Motivation, momentum, luck. These are all things involving the mind and your thoughts.

Motivation

Losing motivation is just as easy as getting motivation. When you start a new project, you’re as motivated as ever, but when you start working on it, it eventually dies down when you realize the work involved. So a way to avoid this is to “keep your eyes on the prize” and to set realistic goals and keep a realistic time table. Motivation is a wonderful thing, but only if you use it to your advantage and never let the loss of motivation bring you down.

Momentum

Doesn’t it seem like when things go right, they keep going right, things keep falling into place, one after the other. But when things go bad, it keeps getting worse. That’s momentum at work. The reason why it happens is because of what’s in your mind when things (good or bad) happen. If the ball seems to be rolling downhill for you, you first have to stop the ball (stop thinking negatively) and then move that ball up the hill with just one small push (change your thinking), then you can build momentum, and it’ll seem like pushing that ball up the hill gets easier and easier.

Luck

There’s no such thing as lucky people. There are positive-thinkers, however. People who “always seem to get lucky” always get lucky because they believe good things always happen to them. People with bad luck have “bad luck” because they’re always down on themselves and say that things never go their way. It’s not what you go through that makes you who you are, it’s how you respond to those things. So if you can have complete power and control over your thoughts, you hold the keys to the world in your hand.

- Edwin, CashTheChecks.com

1. Success is going from failure to failure without a loss of enthusiasm. – Winston Churchill

2. The big shots are only the little shots who keep shooting. – Christopher Morley

3. There is no elevator to success. You have to take the stairs. – Anonymous

4. Rinse. Wash. Repeat. Rinse. Wash. Repeat. – CashTheChecks.com

5. I start with the premise that the function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers. – Ralph Nader

6. The production of too many useful things results in too many useless people. – Karl Marx

7. It’s not what you are that holds you back; it’s what you think you’re not – Dennis Waitley

8. Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there. – Will Rogers

9. You are what you think about all day long. – Dr. Robert Schuller

10. If I’m gonna bust my butt to make somebody rich, it better be me. – CashTheChecks.com

Life’s a lot like playing poker, you win some and you lose some, unless you’re the IRS… I’ve always viewed the IRS as the aggressive, bully, always bluffing poker player type, the kind of guy who never met a hand they didn’t like, no matter how much money you bet against them.

- Edwin, CashTheChecks.com