Here's the First Chapter
of Mark's sequel to the
best seller
"Freedom From Fear"

 

What are people says about “Freedom From Fear Forever”:

“This book shows you how to release your brakes and unleashes your positive energies for success, happiness and high achievement.”
Brian Tracy - Author – CREATE YOUR OWN FUTURE

Freedom from Fear Forever serves as a great reminder to all of us that execution is what really counts.  All the best ideas and best intentions will fall flat without a concerted effort toward implementation.  This book will help thousands of people to reach their goals.   Mike Murphy - Editor, Contracting Business Magazine

Tremendous effort.  Mark has another best seller on his hands.  Freedom From Fear Forever will change your life.  This book is a must read!  Andy Fracica - York Brand Marketing Manager York Unitary Products Group

This book is at once inviting and a quick read.  The wisdom is irrefutable.  For those of us with crazy schedules, this is good stuff. Dottie Gandy - Speaker and Best Selling Author of 30 Days to a Happy Employee

A book that will change your life if you use it as it was designed. Read it as the story first, the second time as the workbook, seminar format.  It’s life changing information.  I appreciate having the e-book option with my travel schedule.  Dan Poynter - Author of over 30 books International Speaker and Publishing Consultant

Freedom From Fear Forever supplies tremendous inspiration.  No matter your background, desires, or description of success, this book provides direction through insightful stories and teachings that reach a true level of understanding.  A cut above, Freedom From Fear Forever drives home a recipe for action and lays the foundation for success in family, business, leadership, and in life. Major Guy J. Brilando, ASAFR, 56^th Training Squadron, Luke AFB

There are hundreds of inspirational books that don’t inspire and thousands of self-help books that leave you with more questions than answers.  Mark’s latest book is head and shoulders above the pack when it comes to helping you with life’s real challenges and opportunities.  I highly recommend it.  Read it and you will never be the same again. Tim Connor, CSP - Best selling author and speaker.


Preface

Many people from the four corners of the globe have told me via email, voice mail and in person that they are reading and re-reading “Freedom From Fear” carrying it around with them for reference.  I appreciate this, and continue to be grateful for it.  The reach of the book continues to astound me. It is all over the world and I stand in awe.  Len continues to teach and make a difference in the world.  I feel blessed to have been able to tell this story. 

Early one morning, basking in the glow of a positive voice mail, an idea began to form in my mind: a companion, a workbook, a follow up to assist in making many of the simple principles live and breathe might be a good idea.  It’s what Len would want.  This follow up, this companion, represents his secrets, his formulas, his disciplines in detail and exploring much further what made him tick and succeed.  If Len were coaching you, these are things he would have you do and know more about.  The following is a follow up to all the inquiries of Len, his ideas, practices and disciplines.

I discussed this idea with my dear friend and publisher, Charlie “Tremendous” Jones and his enthusiastic response was, “What a tremendous idea!” (I would expect nothing less from him, as his passion for life and people continues to astonish me.)  It is our wish to provide more value to enhance the experience of Len’s Lessons.
If you made the investment in this companion, it means you are serious about your own personal and professional development.  I applaud your courage and efforts.

These questions, quotes and stories can have a profound effect upon your better future.  For enlightened self interest reasons, let “Len’s Last Lessons” change your life for good.  He will coach you, guide you, and nudge you to become the very best you can be.

Here are some suggestions for getting the most out of this book.  The great value of attending a seminar, listening to audio or reading a book is not what you read, rather it’s what you THINK about that counts.  In this book, there is a place to capture YOUR thoughts and feelings at the end of each chapter.  Consider the following strategy for getting the most out of this book:

1.     Read the book all the way through as a novel

2.     Re-read each chapter slowly with a pen in hand underlining passages that stand out for you.

3.     As you complete each chapter, write down your thoughts, feelings and action items.

4.     If you want to assimilate the strategies and philosophies, teach the principles to someone else as soon as possible.  It’s called dual plane learning. It’s the best way to take ownership of ideas.

5.     Buy two copies and tear the chapters out of the book to carry with you for review at odd moments throughout the day.

6.     Repetition is the mother of skill.  Until you have read something at least seven times, you do not have ownership of it.

7.     Give the book to someone else you care about. For how it will make you feel. 

Most of us are operating on less than five percent of our potential.  Like an iceberg, most of what we can do is below the surface, unseen, and unappreciated.  Let’s push more of that above the water line.

Experts say each of us has deep reservoirs of ability, even genius that we habitually fail to use.  You are so much more than others or yourself know, understand or appreciate.  It’s time.  Let’s go!

Chapter One  - “The Wedding”

It was a simple wedding.  Len had just turned 21, his bride to be, 19.  She was radiant.  Her long auburn hair fell gently around her flowing white gown.  Everyone said they were too young.  Len and Cheryl knew differently.  It was fate.  They were meant to be together.  They knew it from that first encounter.

They met in High School.  Len was working for the school newspaper.  He was assigned a project that required he interview students with a tape recorder.  It was an old tape recorder he had borrowed from his father. She had looked longingly into his eyes as he asked the questions.

Love is a magic carpet ride, a dream, a long slow ride in the tunnel of love at the state fair.  The first cut is always the deepest.  Len was smitten, head over heels.  Love is a drug.  Most of us forget over time how overwhelming those first feelings of true love are.

Nothing is more powerful than Love.  It is the strongest emotion a man ever knows.  It unleashes creativity, creates drive and energy where none existed before.  Len had dated other girls but nothing could have prepared him for how she made him feel.

She gave him a reason to succeed.  Pleasing her was his highest ambition, his only goal.  It is how God meant things to be.  After four years of dating, Len knew.  It was right.  He was ready.  Len had taken a job selling projects for an Air Conditioning Company.  He showed up early and stayed late.  He had big dreams.  One day he would own the company.  He had a 10-year plan.  Salesman, Sales Manager, General Manager, Owner.  The Service Business, that was the way of the future.  He kept his dreams to himself.

The day of the wedding, Len’s father took him to breakfast.  As they finished their scrambled eggs and toast, his father slid a beautiful binder across the table.  It was a leather bound book.  Len looked surprised.

“Len,” his father said in a warm tone, “What I am about to give you represents the things I feel are most important for you to remember as you start this new life.  I hope you take the lessons to heart.  They represent a lifetime of ideas, mistakes, lessons I have learned.  My hope is you read them over and over again, make them your own.  Then, as you experience new ideas, insights, lessons, add to this organic document for your son or daughter.  Only then will you appreciate this journey called life.”

The brown leather was impressive, the binding cracked as he opened it.

 

Len read it every slowly, like one might read poetry.  Soaking it all in.

In his father’s own hand, almost like calligraphy, it said:


A Letter to my son, “Lessons from my Life” 

You will never become wealthy working for someone else.  This country was made great by the risk takers, the small business man.  The rich buy assets.  The poor only have expenses.  The middle class buy liabilities and think they are assets.  Wealth is a person’s ability to survive so many numbers of days forward.  If I stopped working today, how long could I survive?  Choose Wealth every day.  It beats poverty.  Spend less than you earn.  Develop passive income to cover all your expenses.  There is truly no limit to what can be achieved if you don’t care who gets the credit on your team.

Update your goals every year on paper, preferably on your birthday.  Show up early and stay late in all your endeavors.  It’s never crowded on the extra mile.  Do what you love and forget what other people think.  Find your bliss and follow it.  Give yourself at least seven years to turn the corner.  Stretch your comfort zones every day, something simple like eating left handed or driving a different way home or letting the waiter order your meal for you in a nice restaurant.  If you can’t change the little things, the big changes will be very difficult.

Read and write something every day, specifically in your journal.  Plan your day on paper every day, even weekends.  Simply write down the six most important things you need to do today.  It is true, time is money.  Under-Promise and Over-Deliver in all things, especially in business.  Get in the habit of surprising people with more value by managing the customer’s expectations.  Follow hunches; write them down in your journal.  You just never know.

It doesn’t take any extra effort to be nice; in fact, it’s easier.

It takes a conscious decision every day to be kind, helpful, gracious, accepting, patient, and caring.  It takes a decision and action every day.

Every person has a story to tell.  Your job is to listen until you get to hear it.  When you dominate the listening, you will be welcome anywhere.

Say something nice behind someone’s back every day…it will get back to them.  If someone provides great service, do two things,

1.     Leave a nice tip

2.     Call their boss over and praise him or her.

If you want to influence others, try:

1.     BEING the person you want them to be

2.     Model the behavior you talk about

3.     Tell stories about times you screwed up and what you learned

4.     Borrow other people’s stories to serve as warnings or examples

5.     Praise the slightest progress in others

6.     Affirm that they will do great things with sincerity and conviction, touching them on the shoulder while smiling. 

Hug your kids every day.  Read to your children from classic literature from age five until fifteen or until they tell you they don’t want you to anymore. 

Tell your children with sincerity and warmth as many times as possible: "You have accomplished far more than I ever did at 18 and will continue to do so in all your endeavors.  Your future is so bright it burns my eyes to look at it.”  Treat everyone you care about as if it’s the last time you will ever see them. 

The quality of your relationships with others will match the quality of your life.  Getting along with people is an art to be mastered for a lifetime.  People who need love the most appear to deserve it the least.  Call your mother once a week and tell her you love her.  No matter how old you get, she still needs to know you are okay.  The older I get the less I care about defending my position.  I would rather be happy than right.  Your children are flowers.  If you neglect the garden, they will grow wild.  Love is spelled TIME in the garden.  Tell your children, “No matter what happens, win or lose, I am always:

1.     Proud as I can be of you

2.     Love you unconditionally.”

Other people will forget what you say and maybe even forget what you do; however, they will always remember how you made them feel. Forget getting even with someone or defending your position with someone who lacks social graces.  It’s a waste of time.  Just pray for them instead.

Buy the best clothes you can afford, always. Take the time to shower, shave and look nice before you go out of the house.  People WILL judge you in the first five seconds whether you believe it or not.

Ask the question, “How did you get started in your business?” to everyone you meet, and dominate the listening.  Everyone loves to talk about themselves.  Everyone has a story.  Ask a successful person what their favorite book is.  After you hear the title from more than one person, go buy it and read it!  Read the New York Times Sunday Edition at least once a month.  Invest a lazy Sunday morning and get through most of it.  It doesn’t get much better than that.

Write people “Thank You” notes as soon as possible.  It’s best the same day.

If you don’t, the inspiration will leave as fast as snow in Seattle.

Make or buy dinner for a friend that has just suffered a loss or has been injured.  For how it will make you feel.  Make friends with the janitor, busboy, baggage handler, shoeshine guy and cab drivers.  They have their thumb on the pulse of society, but no one ever pays attention to them.  Show them the same respect you would the CEO of a large company.  Never criticize the competition.  It’s bad business.

Develop the habit of forgetting what you do for others and remembering what they do for you.  You’ll be a lot happier when you stop keeping score.

Always offer others a choice of yeses in all you do.  We all like choices, especially if they are in our enlightened self-interest.  Every deal you will ever make is negotiable, especially if you are willing to walk away or have cash.  There is always another deal.  Ask for what you want.  Don’t be shy.  Unassertive people have skinny kids.  Be bold but kind, persistent but empathic, assertive but courteous.  Get good at understanding why people buy.  What are their motives?  Everyone is in sales; the only question is, ‘How good are you at it?’ We make a living by what we get.  We make a life by what we give.  It’s easy to trust God when things are going well.  The true test is: Do you trust him when it’s not?

When it comes time to take the credit in a team effort, give it away to your teammates.  When it comes time to take the blame, assume it all.  That is real leadership.  When someone says, “Trust me,” don’t!  If it sounds too good to be true, it usually is.  Say “please and thank you” as you look the person in the eye with the biggest smile you can muster.  Good manners don’t take much extra effort.  If you can’t remember someone’s name, reach out your hand and say, “We’ve met before, my name is Len”…and then wait.

Remember people’s names.  Teddy Roosevelt memorized all 1000 Roughrider’s names.  It put him in the Whitehouse!

When you know you are wrong, admit it promptly and with sincerity.  When you are right, remain silent.  You will be the same person in five years save for two things, the books you read and the people you associate with. Choose both wisely and in accordance with your goals.  Keep your discontents a secret.  Nobody cares.  ATTITUDE is more important than the past, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than education, than money, than what other people think, say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill.

Smashing the other fellow’s furniture will never make mine look any better.

If you have no time for prayer and meditation, you will have lots of time for sickness and trouble.  Act as though I was and I will be. GOD is ready the moment you are.  Peace of mind first and all things will follow on that.

Face the facts candidly, only then you can change them.  Peace of mind is the one thing that matters.  There is absolutely nothing else in the world which is equal in value to it.  Nothing else that life can offer is more important than that and yet it seems to be about the last thing that many people work for.  Under any circumstances, you must keep your own thoughts poised, tolerant, and kindly.  Remember the Golden Rule.

There is always tomorrow.  Things have a way of looking different in the morning.  Remember to ask:  ‘How important is this, really?’

Look for ways to praise…every day.  Make a gratitude list when you are feeling down.  Without love or a vision we perish.  Make certain you always have both.  Hoarding ideas or knowledge comes from a place of lack.  Sharing ideas or time comes from a place of abundance.  If you give away all you know, it forces you to replenish and learn.  Somehow the more ideas you give away, the more come back to you.  Keep reading more than anyone you know. 

Len was overwhelmed.  A tear began to well up.  This was 55 years of wisdom.  His father had put a great deal of time and effort into this gift.

“Dad,” Len said holding back the tears, “Thank you.”

His father smiled, appreciative of the fact it meant something to Len.

“It’s just the foundation.  You build a nice house on top of it.  Add to it.  Give it to your son or daughter.  It’s a legacy, a shade tree.”

They sat silently for five minutes.  The coffee was cold.  It was time to get ready for the wedding. 

If you'd like to read the rest of Freedom From Fear Forever - Len's Last Lessons

CLICK HERE (a new window will open)