Attack Your Weaknesses by Darren Hardy

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 5, 2013

Attack Your Weaknesses by Darren Hardy

We hear a lot about finding and strengthening your strengths.

Sure, you should figure out what you are really good at, as it is also usually the thing you like doing as well, and then yes, strengthen it to give you further leverage on that strength.

That’s a good idea. But…

Do not neglect, you must also find and strengthen your weaknesses—those attributes or skills that you are not good in, but are critical for you to accomplish your important goals and aspirations.

You must also ATTACK your weaknesses!

I remember a time, many years ago, while working out at a Gold’s Gym in South Beach Miami, I complimented this bodybuilder guy on his calves. I know, weird, but you should have seen them! My calves were something I struggled with. I had all the typical calve exercises in my own routine but they never seemed to grow like my other muscle groups. I just figured they were like your jaw muscles, no matter how much you work them out they aren’t really going to change much—you either have great calve muscles or you don’t.

So I asked this guy what he did to have calves like that. He explained he had lost many body-buildingcompetitions in the past because his calves were his weak spot. All the work he had put into developing the rest of his body was eliminated because of this one glaring weakness.

He said, “Then I decided I would just attack them. I wouldn’t work them out like the rest of my body, I would double, triple or quadruple the focus, intensity and emphasis I put on them in my weekly training cycle.”

He proceeded by saying, “And guess what? My weakness has now become one of my greatest strengths. But even if it was just no longer a weakness and only matched the rest of my growth it would have been a great victory. However, in order to accomplish that it required me to multiply my intensity in that one area just to bring it up to even.”

I learned a very valuable lesson that day in the gym. Not just about building my calves but about building my life.

If I have a weakness, one that is essential to the achievement of my goals, I can’t just work on it, I have to ATTACK IT.

If it’s truly a weakness, then it needs MORE attention than other aspects of your development that comes easier or faster.

What is your critical area of weakness that you need to attack? Declare your war in the comments below.

http://thejusurublog.blogspot.com/2013/06/attack-your-weaknesses-by-darren-hardy.html#more

Winning People Over: Persuasion & Influence by Darren Hardy

THURSDAY, MAY 16, 2013

Winning People Over: Persuasion & Influence (1 of 4) by Darren Hardy

Eat or be eaten. Influence or be influenced. Someone is always selling and someone is always buying (consciously or not).

If you open up your medicine cabinet, your dresser drawers, your pantry or your garage… or just look around the room you are standing in right now, each item you see is a war trophy, representing somebody’s or some company’s victory—who got you to trade your hard-earned money for their product.

How did they do that? What tools did they use?

That is what I will teach you in this four-part blog series—the all-important skill of influence and persuasion.

Make no mistake. There are legions of influence agents operating around you everywhere, all day. Sometimes it’s in the form of a TV commercial, or a phone solicitation, or grocery store announcement, bus bench or billboard, and other times it’s in the form of a solicitation or request by a child, spouse, employer, priest, friend or co-worker.

A friend of mine once tried to count the number of direct attempts to control his thoughts and behavior that he encountered in a single day. This included people requesting him to do things, forcing him to do things, asking him to buy things, telling him to pay for things, showing him where to stop and when to go, suggesting how he should think about things, offering him slogans to repeat, songs to remember, attitudes to change, and ideologies to believe. He doesn’t even read the newspaper, listen to radio or watch TV! He gave up by 10:30 a.m., as he lost count somewhere around 500.

Research calculates that the average person receives more than 30,000 persuasion attempts—every day!

This isn’t just happening in news and commercial marketing; it is happening in most every conversation you have.

For instance it’s estimated that 80 percent of your time at work is spent in verbal communication—most of it consumed with fellow employees, customers or vendors trying to get you to do something. Then when you go home you have to watch out for your spouse, your children, your neighbors, strangers and countless others you meet in the course of an average day angling you for something they need.

Really you could say society is simply a mass of people influencing, persuading, requesting, demanding,guilting, pleading, cajoling, inducing, and otherwise manipulating each other to further their individual needs and agendas.

Let’s face it: If you want to navigate the sea of society successfully you will need to learn how to become more positively influential and persuasive yourself.

In this series I will give you the insights on the topic from one of the most influential and persuasive people in history: Aristotle himself and his famous dialectic on the three levels of persuasion. I will use that as the framework to give you some of my own tips on influence and persuasion so you too can become even more persuasive and influential in your marketplace, community and household.

http://thejusurublog.blogspot.com/2013/05/winning-people-over-persuasion.html

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WEDNESDAY, MAY 22, 2013

Winning People Over: Persuasion & Influence (2 of 4) By Darren Hardy

No discussion on the topic of influence and persuasion is complete without a few words on Aristotle’s famous dialectic on what he calls the three levels of persuasion:

LOGOS, PATHOS and ETHOS.

In each installment I will boil it down to a single action item for you to walk away with in order to make this new knowledge have power in your own ability to persuade and influence others.

Let’s start with LOGOS—which can be understood as simply logic.

So the first form of persuasion has to do with convincing others through the use of logic. I interviewed Dave Lakhani recently (grew up in a cult, now best-selling author of Persuasion: The Art of Getting What You Want). Here is how he put it: “Persuasion is helping people come to their own most logical conclusion which happens to be one we share.” He goes on to say, “Persuasion is about being a more effective communicator and getting the best outcome for everyone involved.”

“Persuasion is helping people come to their own most logical conclusion which happens to be one we share.”

So, in LOGOS, we use logic and reasoning to persuade others to see things in a new way. Let me give you an example; this is how I lay out the argument for why someone shouldsubscribe to SUCCESS Book Summaries.

I do it through a series of logical questions…

Do you agree if you read 36 books from the best experts in the world over the next 12 months it would significantly improve your results?

Is it true you probably don’t want to spend the $1,000 to buy those books or have an extra 150 hours to sit on your couch to read those books?

So you want the results, but you don’t have the time, is that right?

Well, what if you could collect the best ideas from those 36 books, without having to read a single word… having them narrated to you… while you drive, exercise or walk the dog, taking zero extra time and for a price less than 10 percent of the cost to buy those 36 books? Would that be interesting? Would it give you a massive advantage over your competition? Would it help you make lots more money in your field? Why wait, go tohttp://www.successbooksummaries.com (and yes, I think you really should!)

LOGOS works best one-on-one, in small groups, and in writing, where you can focus your communication on one issue at a time and lead your subject through a series of agreements.

Now, as Dave said, “The difference between persuasion and manipulation is intent. Persuasion equals a mutually beneficial conclusion.”

Let me give you the best tip to crafting your LOGOS, or logical persuasive arguments or presentations. Today, the next time you want to persuade somebody to do something, before you speak, pause and ask yourself: Why would this person WANT to do this? What’s in it for THEM?”

I know this sounds simplistic but—trust me as the recipient of a lot of poor and unpersuasive communications—pausing to ask ourselves this question will stop us from launching into a diatribe littered with futile chatter about our desires, what’s important to us and why wethink they should do something… without the consideration or presentation of why the other person would really want to. Try it today.

http://thejusurublog.blogspot.com/2013/05/winning-people-over-persuasion_22.html

Winning People Over: Persuasion & Influence (3 of 4) by Darren Hardy

Aristotle’s second level of persuasion is PATHOS—which means using emotion: passion, empathy and feelings to build emotional discontent and to motivate people toward change.

PATHOS is used to gain individual attention, to disgruntle large groups, create mass movement, advertise products, start revolutions and winelections.

Both sides of the emotional spectrum are used, and both are as equally persuasive.

Positive emotions like: pride, joy, fulfillment, meaningful contribution, recognition, love, compassion and honor.

Negative emotions like: prejudice, fear, uncertainly, doubt, greed, hate, desperation, shame and guilt.

I remember Brian Tracy asking an audience, “What percentage of human decision making is rational and what percentage is emotional?” Most answered “80/20” or “90/10”. Brian then pointed out that we are 100 percent emotional.

Human beings, including you, decide emotionally and then justify logically.
Whether people use negative emotions to persuade, or positive emotions to persuade, both are extremely powerful. Look at how people were persuaded by Hitler, Churchill, Jim Jones, Gandhi, Napoleon, Cesar Chavez, Mussolini, Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, Mother Teresa, Stalin, and every other persuasive and influential leader. Whether leaders use positive emotions to empower you, or negative emotions toimprison you, they all use the power of PATHOS persuasion.
Which type of emotions should you use to build and empower? Certainly I have a strong preference. As you make your choice always remember this, if you build positive emotions, you will receive back and reap positive emotions. If you cultivate fear, you will live surrounded by fear.

If you build positive emotions, you will receive back and reap positive emotions. 
If you cultivate fear, you will live surrounded by fear.

One key aspect of persuasion and influence I have learned is, “People support what they help create.”Before making decisions in closed door board meetings, allow your employees, team members, customers, partners and vendors the ability to co-create, offer thoughts, feedback suggestions and input before dictating your plans and projects. I guarantee your ability to persuade buy-in and support will go up many times over.

In executing this idea I might offer another suggestion and tool of persuasion that many people and companies mess up: present fewer options.

When presenting ideas, soliciting feedback or making offers, instead of making 10, 20 or more choices available, only offer three. Would you choose A, B or C?
The reality is if you give too many choices people get confused, frustrated and eventually give up. Too many choices overwhelm and scare people off—they can’t make up their minds. Offering fewer choiceslessens the frustration of trying to figure out which option is best.
Studies show that companies offering fewer choices have better conversion rates than those with a large number of options. I won’t go to the Cheesecake factory restaurant for this very reason! By comparison, you go to a gourmet restaurant and they offer you very few, excellently selected options to choose from…ahhhhh….

I learned this principle when I sold real estate. When I was green in the business I would show a potential buyer 10 – 20 different houses—thinking more options to choose from, having more education and more reference points to compare against was better. Not so.
Then I learned this crucial principle of persuasion. I would first explain to the buyer that I have scoured the marketplace of every available option using their stated desires and criteria. Of all the options that fit their criteria, the houses I would show them are the very best three. Then I used another principle of persuasion that I will give you here as a bonus for free… see what a nice guy I am? (That’s the power of suggestion, by the way.)
The principle is what’s called the law of contrast. What I would do is show the least best option first—the one that was listed way over price and wasn’t very attractive. I wouldn’t let them write it 
off it too fast, I’d want them to walk around it and let it settle in emotionally a bit: “This is what this price buys you?”
Then I would take them to THE best option – best price and most attractive. Now, all of a sudden, this house looks like a dream come true! If I had taken them there first, without a contrast reference point, it would have looked just average and human tendency is to look foreverything not good about it.
Then finally, I would take them to the third option, which wasn’t as bad as the first, but certainly doesn’t live up to the second, which confirms and reinforces their decision on why No. 2 is perfect… and a GREAT deal.
Because they are not overwhelmed and have contrasting points of reference confirming and persuading both their LOGOS and PATHOS (logic and emotions), they were ready to make a decision to move forward.

Learning and employing the law of the few and the law of contrast improved my transaction rate by at least a factor of 10, which skyrocketed my income. I am suggesting that the use of these two tips in your own business, your own sales scenarios and in your own everyday conversations can have the same impact on your results.


So, as an action item, think about all the offers your company makes and the next time you need to influence someone’s decision apply the law of the few and the law of contrast. And by the way, people appreciate it when you make decisions easier for them by narrowing it down to only a few and providing high and low contrast points to compare against. Everyone wins!

http://thejusurublog.blogspot.com/2013/05/winning-people-over-persuasion_30.html

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Going Beyond Talent: Four Cores Of Character

THURSDAY, APRIL 25, 2013

Going Beyond Talent: Four Cores Of Character

By John C Maxwell

Are you a person of character? According to John Maxwell in Beyond Talent, “The choice to develop strong character may not be the most important to make the most of your talent. But it is certainly the most important to make sure you don’t make the least of your talent.” 1

Character protects your talent – and allows you to build upon what you already have. In order to protect our talent, we must invest in that which is hidden below the surface. Similar to an iceberg, there is more than meets the eye. Strong character allows talent to hold up when storms come.

“Character creates a foundation upon which the structure of your talent and your life can build. If there are cracks in that foundation, you cannot build much.” 2

Here we explore the four cores that make up character. They are as follows:

1.    Self-Discipline
“Self-discipline is the ability to do what is right even when you don’t feel like doing it.” 3

The most important victory is to conquer self. When give up or let ourselves live in mediocrity, our leadership will never reach its potential. However, being disciplined maximizes our abilities, our character, and in addition to our talent, will help us win the battle within.

2.    Core Values
“Core values give order and structure to an individual’s inner life, and when that inner life is in order, a person can navigate almost anything the world throws at him.” 4

John encourages us to write down our core values and strive to live them out each day. Those core values can be a guiding light during the darkest of moments. By following that “beacon,” a leader has the chance to show that his or her talent is not just skin deep, but rather that it is protected and sustained by the heart.

3.    A Sense of Identity
“No matter how hard you try, you cannot consistently behave in a way that is inconsistent with how you see yourself.” 5

Ask yourself this question: “Who am I?” Your answer is one that will drive what you do and how you act. In order to protect our identities, the “face” we wear alone must be the same as the one we wear in public. Without consistency, our lack of identity will impact our character, and in turn – our talent.

4.     Integrity
“When values, thoughts, feelings, and actions are in alignment, a person becomes focused and his character is strengthened.” 6

Integrity is crucial for any leader. With it, leaders avoid confusion and internal conflict. It allows leaders to follow a balanced path, where character and talent work hand in hand. With an aligned moral compass, integrity can aid in building the strong foundation upon which talent can rest.

Overall, “character shows that who you are and who you appear to be are one and the same.” 7 As leaders, we must communicate consistency to our team. With that evenness, we have the opportunity to make a greater impact on those around us. That will ultimately not only strengthen our talent, but also the talent of those we influence.

http://thejusurublog.blogspot.com/2013/04/going-beyond-talent-four-cores-of.html

Napoleon Hill's 17 Principles of Personal Achievement

Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, the mind can achieve.

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Lesson 1: Definiteness of Purpose
Definiteness of purpose is the starting point of all achievement. Without a purpose and a plan, people drift aimlessly through life.
Lesson 2: Mastermind Alliance
The Mastermind principle consists of an alliance of two or more minds working in perfect harmony for the attainment of a common definite objective. Success does not come without the cooperation of others.
Lesson 3: Applied Faith
Faith is a state of mind through which your aims, desires, plans and purposes may be translated into their physical or financial equivalent.
Lesson 4: Going the Extra Mile
Going the extra mile is the action of rendering more and better service than that for which you are presently paid. When you go the extra mile, the Law of Compensation comes into play.
Lesson 5: Pleasing Personality
Personality is the sum total of one’s mental, spiritual and physical traits and habits that distinguish one from all others. It is the factor that determines whether one is liked or disliked by others.
Lesson 6: Personal Initiative
Personal initiative is the power that inspires the completion of that which one begins. It is the power that starts all action. No person is free until he learns to do his own thinking and gains the courage to act on his own.
Lesson 7: Positive Mental Attitude
Positive mental attitude is the right mental attitude in all circumstances. Success attracts more success while failure attracts more failure.
Lesson 8: Enthusiasm
Enthusiasm is faith in action. It is the intense emotion known as burning desire. It comes from within, although it radiates outwardly in the expression of one’s voice and countenance.
Lesson 9: Self-Discipline
Self-discipline begins with the mastery of thought. If you do not control your thoughts, you cannot control your needs. Self-discipline calls for a balancing of the emotions of your heart with the reasoning faculty of your head.
Lesson 10: Accurate Thinking
The power of thought is the most dangerous or the most beneficial power available to man, depending on how it is used.
Lesson 11: Controlled Attention
Controlled attention leads to mastery in any type of human endeavor, because it enables one to focus the powers of his mind upon the attainment of a definite objective and to keep it so directed at will.
Lesson 12: Teamwork
Teamwork is harmonious cooperation that is willing, voluntary and free. Whenever the spirit of teamwork is the dominating influence in business or industry, success is inevitable. Harmonious cooperation is a priceless asset that you can acquire in proportion to your giving.
Lesson 13: Adversity & Defeat
Individual success usually is in exact proportion of the scope of the defeat the individual has experienced and mastered. Many so-called failures represent only a temporary defeat that may prove to be a blessing in disguise.
Lesson 14: Creative Vision
Creative vision is developed by the free and fearless use of one’s imagination. It is not a miraculous quality with which one is gifted or is not gifted at birth.
Lesson 15: Health
Sound health begins with a sound health consciousness, just as financial success begins with a prosperity consciousness.
Lesson 16: Budgeting Time & Money
Time and money are precious resources, and few people striving for success ever believe they possess either one in excess.
Lesson 17: Habits
Developing and establishing positive habits leads to peace of mind, health and financial security. You are where you are because of your established habits and thoughts and deeds.
Read Rich Man, Poor Man the story of Napoleon Hill

http://www.success.com/articles/554---napoleon-hill-s-17-principles-of-personal-achievement

Top of Mind: Leaders' Life Lessons

Life improvements leaders are thinking about this month

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Something I’ve been trying to teach myself for years has been the concept of the word no. I’m a workaholic and love what I do, but I’ve found that my inability to turn down certain work tends to take away from the time I need to recharge. The more I’ve been able to say no to jobs, the more I’ve found myself conducting better business with the clients I have current relationships with. It’s one of those things that you don’t realize is a problem until you look at your calendar and realize you haven’t eaten lunch in 10 days.
—Jon Contino, co-founder and creative director, CXXVI Clothing
I was intrigued by Dr. Mehmet Oz’s advice “not to make an eating decision until after lunch.” This allows me to stay focused on other things. My breakfast is simple: raw walnuts and almonds, water and coffee. Lunch is a Freshii salad with kale and quinoa, chickpeas, avocado and a few other ingredients, always with a side of Sriracha hot sauce. I only start making eating decisions around 4 p.m.
—Matthew Corrin, founder, Freshii
I’m working on finding balance these days. With so much of what I do centering on taking care of people, sometimes I forget to take care of myself, too. A good friend reminded me that if I don’t take care of myself, how can I take care of anyone else? So I’m scheduling workouts, making sure to eat well and acknowledging that everyone needs sleep.
—Yael Cohen, founder and CEO of F Cancer
I’m a big foe of open office plans—they subject people to the constant noise, gaze and interruptions, making it tough to concentrate—but last week I saw an open office I loved because (a) it’s beautiful and (b) even more crucially, it gives each employee a real, honest-to-goodness choice of working environment. At Steelcase, whose Grand Rapids, Mich., offices I toured after giving a talk, there’s lots of open, light-filled space—but also many sanctuary-like places for working alone, and cozy spots for colleagues who want privacy for one-on-one meetings.
—Susan Cain, author of Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking
I’m thinking about how I can leverage my 7-year-old son’s excitement for playing with apps on my iPhone and iPad into teaching him how to create apps himself. Young children are obsessed with technology. If only it were simple for them build their own apps.
—Avi Muchnick, Chief Product Officer and co-founder of Aviary
The most helpful program we’re using right now is Hootsuite. The social media management dashboard allows us to easily track who is talking about failure + social change, failure + business, leadership, learning and more. Twitter has been a great way to start conversations and build networks while learning in real time from some great thinkers and doers out there.
—Ashley Good, founder and CEO, Fail Forward

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Want to know what's on other leaders' minds? Check out more "Top of Mind" stories on SUCCESS.com.

http://www.success.com/articles/2387-top-of-mind-leaders-life-lessons

An Interview with John C. Maxwell

Plus, excerpt from 'The 15 Invaluable Laws of Growth'

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John Maxwell is sitting on the patio of a Palm Beach County, Fla. marina restaurant to discuss his latest book, The 15 Invaluable Laws of Growth with SUCCESS writer Chelsea Greenwood. She’s familiar with his works, having read several of his books and interviewed him on the phone for other SUCCESSarticles, but this time is a little different. She’s toe to toe with the 19-million-books-sold author, who is sharing the irrefutable “laws” of his own success, as one of his best-selling books The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership suggests.
In this SUCCESS exclusive interview, Maxwell says his epiphany came when he realized that working hard doesn’t guarantee success. In the early ’70s, as a 24-year-old pastor, Maxwell had been offered the chance to lead one of the biggest churches in his denomination, but he didn’t feel experienced enough for the task. He sought help from an executive coach who asked him about his plan for personal growth.
“I had no plan,” Maxwell tells SUCCESS.
That’s why his “Law of Intentionality” opens the book and is No. 1 on his list. It states that growth doesn’t just happen. (The rest of the 15 Invaluable Laws of Growth.) “If you want your life to improve, you must improve yourself,” he says.
Read the entire cover story in the October issue of SUCCESS, on newsstands Sept. 11. (Click here to preview the digital issue and subscribe.) 

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In this web exclusive, read excerpts from Maxwell’s new book, The 15 Invaluable Laws of Growth: Live Them and Reach Your Potential.

► John Maxwell on Potential
“When I started my career, I was intentional about working, reaching my goals, and being successful. I had a strategy: hard work. I hoped that would get me where I wanted to go. But working hard doesn’t guarantee success. And hope isn’t a strategy. How do you get better at what you do? How do you improve your relationships? How do you gain more depth and wisdom as a person?  How do you gain insight? How do you overcome obstacles? Work harder? Work longer? Wait for things to get better?”

► John Maxwell on Action
“You cannot win if you do not begin! The people who get ahead in the world are the ones who look for the circumstances they want, and if they can’t find them, they make them. That means taking initiative. It means doing something specific every day that will take you another step closer to your goal. It means continuing to do it every day. Nearly all successes are the fruit of initiative.”

► John Maxwell on Getting Started
“Most of the accomplishments I’ve achieved in life I began to attempt before I was really ready. When I was teaching pastors leadership in 1984 and they asked for ongoing teaching, I wasn’t ready to give it to them. But during a conference with thirty-four people in Jackson, Mississippi, I decided to pass around a legal pad and get the contact information for anyone who wanted to receive a monthly leadership tape. All thirty-four signed up. Was I ready to start a monthly leadership subscription series? No. Did I start it anyway? Yes.”

► John Maxwell on Priorities
“Rework your calendar so you have a sixty-minute appointment with yourself for personal growth every day, five days a week, fifty weeks a year. You might be thinking, what? I don’t have time for that! That’s probably true. Do it anyway. If you want to succeed, you need to do whatever it takes. Get up an hour early. Stay up an hour later. Give up your lunch hour. Put in extra time on the weekends. If you don’t, you’ll have to prepare to give up your dreams and any hope of reaching your potential.”

► John Maxwell on Purpose
“People say there are two great days in a person’s life: the day you were born and the day you discover why. I want to encourage you to seek what you were put on this earth to do. Then pursue it with all your effort.”

► John Maxwell on Curiosity
“Give yourself permission to be curious. The single greatest difference between curious, growing people and those who aren’t is the belief that they can learn, grow, and change. As I explained in the Law of Intentionality, you must go after growth. Knowledge, understanding, and wisdom will not seek you out. You must go out and acquire it. The best way to do that is to remain curious.”

The 15 Invaluable Laws of Growth

by John Maxwell
Excerpted from John Maxwell’s upcoming book, The 15 Invaluable Laws of Growth, in bookstores Oct. 2.

1.  The Law of Intentionality: Growth Doesn’t Just Happen 
2.  The Law of Awareness: You Must Know Yourself to Grow Yourself 
3.  The Law of the Mirror: You Must See Value in Yourself to Add Value to Yourself 
4.  The Law of Reflection: Learning to Pause Allows Growth to Catch Up with You 
5.  The Law of Consistency: Motivation Gets You Going—Discipline Keeps You Growing   
6.  The Law of Environment: Growth Thrives in Conducive Surroundings 
7.  The Law of Design: To Maximize Growth, Develop Strategies 
8.  The Law of Pain: Good Management of Bad Experiences Leads to Great Growth 
9.  The Law of the Ladder: Character Growth Determines the Height of Your Personal Growth
10. The Law of the Rubber Band: Growth Stops When You Lose the Tension Between Where You Are and Where You Could Be 
11.  The Law of Trade-Offs: You Have to Give Up to Grow Up 
12.  The Law of Curiosity: Growth Is Stimulated by Asking Why? 
13.  The Law of Modeling: It’s Hard to Improve When You Have No One but Yourself to Follow 
14.  The Law of Expansion: Growth Always Increases Your Capacity 
15.  The Law of Contribution: Growing Yourself Enables You to Grow Others


http://www.success.com/articles/1947---an-interview-with-john-c--maxwell

Making a Difference: MLB Hall of Famer Dave Winfield

As the first pro athlete to launch his own charitable foundation, Dave Winfield wields power on behalf of youngsters and baseball.

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When he talked with a boy’s parents after a Major League Baseball game in the 1970s, budding star Dave Winfield realized his power off the field. “I’ll never forget what the father told me that night. He said, ‘My son wants to grow up and be just like you.’
“Being a young player, that really stuck with me and made me think of the person I needed and wanted to become. I committed myself,” says Winfield, now 59. “I would give my time, money, whatever I could, in helping make a difference.”
In his 23-year career with five major-league teams, Dave Winfield collected 3,110 hits and 450 home runs, earned seven Gold Gloves, was a 12-time All-Star and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2001, his first year of eligibility. But what most people don’t know about Winfield are his “hall-of-fame” credentials off the field. Winfield is the first pro athlete to have launched his own charitable foundation, setting an important precedent for generations of athletes to come.
Starting in 1973, his rookie season with the San Diego Padres, Winfield began giving back by befriending neighborhood kids living near the stadium. “Many of these kids couldn’t afford tickets to a game, so I started buying tickets, bought them hot dogs and souvenirs, and gave them the full ballpark experience,” Winfield says.
He began purchasing more tickets for youngsters, and publicity about his efforts inspired help from volunteers and donations from local businesses. To track contributions and expenditures, Winfield’s agent helped him start the nonprofit Winfield Pavilion program, the first 501(c)(3) established by an professional athlete.
Perhaps surprisingly, his efforts weren’t universally embraced. “When I started my charity there were a lot of people and media that questioned my motives,” he says. “Many of them thought it was just a tax write-off, and they didn’t know where I was coming from—my head, heart and background.”
Although Winfield, a native of St. Paul, Minn., grew up with modest means, he says, “My mother made it very clear to me and my brother that in her home education came first.” Extended family living nearby gave him additional support and confidence. “Our family looked out for one another.”
Blessed with a triple threat of size, speed and strength, Winfield attended the University of Minnesota, where he played baseball and basketball. In 1973 he was voted the MVP of the College World Series as a pitcher, and later became the first person to be drafted in three sports: baseball by the Padres, basketball by the Atlanta Hawks and (without playing a single down) by the Minnesota Vikings of the NFL. After deciding on baseball, he became one of the few players who completely bypassed the minor leagues.
Ignoring the naysayers, he steamed ahead with the charity. “Since most of our games are at night, I spent most of my days finding people to sit on the board of directors and really learning how to run a foundation.”
He became a role model for other players as well as kids through the Winfield Pavilion. Fellow players soon replicated the program in Los Angeles, Atlanta, Chicago, New York and Houston. And beyond its mission of helping disadvantaged children, the Pavilion program exposed thousands of youngsters to the sport. (Interestingly, one beneficiary was Winfield’s Toronto Blue Jays teammate David Wells, a San Diego native who attended one of the Pavilions as a boy. As Winfield put it, “You know you’ve been playing a long time when your teammates start telling you they looked up to you when they were kids.”)
But Winfield sought to widen the scope of the foundation beyond ballpark outings. “We had these kids for the entire afternoon and we wanted to give them more than just a baseball game.” He identified the keys to his own success—health, fitness and education—and established them as core pursuits of his foundation.
In 1977 Winfield met with the Scripps Clinic and Research Foundation and together they created H.O.P.E (Health Optimization Planning and Education), an all-encompassing development regimen of proper diet, exercise, medical and dental checkups, reading, and positive, health-conscious behavior.
“In the late 1970s, no one was talking to young kids about adopting healthy eating habits,” Winfield says. “If you adopt good health and study habits as a youngster, there is a good chance they will stay with you throughout your life.”
The foundation organized clinics in the stadium parking lot, with the kids receiving noninvasive medical and dental screening, vitamins, toothbrushes and educational pamphlets about diet and health. Other cities with major-league teams began offering similar clinics, and Winfield says more than 40,000 kids have benefited from the clinics. An offshoot of the clinics is Hackensack (N.J.) Medical Center’s Dave Winfield Nutrition Center, which still provides nutrition counseling and assessments.
To further support the educational portion of its mission, the foundation awarded scholarships to deserving students starting in 1976. The program began in St. Paul and was brought to New York, where $40,000 was awarded annually to more than 100 students from public high schools from 1981 to 1986.
In 1984 the Winfield Foundation expanded its role again, adding a substance abuse prevention program. “Playing baseball all around the country provided me several opportunities to talk to kids from all walks of life about their concerns and issues unique to them,” Winfield says. “The No. 1 threat to youth then and now is substance abuse.” To develop the program, he met with federal Drug Enforcement Administration officials who cited research revealing that the average age children starting using drugs was 10, Winfield says.
“Early intervention and prevention is the key. And there wasn’t a program out there that targeted children grades 3 to 6. We called [our new program] Turn It Around. It became a far-reaching and reinforcing message to kids and a challenge to the community to get involved.”
Turn It Around’s interactive video and activity guide educate participants about factors that contribute to substance abuse as well as the five areas that experts consider crucial to thwarting it: building self-esteem, making choices, identifying goals, nurturing trust in others and developing positive alternatives. The program, which includes a full-day training session for adult leaders, has been implemented nationwide and even outside the United States.
Following his 1995 season with the Cleveland Indians, Winfield ended his epic athletic career and wanted to spend more time at home. “My kids were young when I finished playing ball, and it was time to focus some time on them,” says Winfield, who has been married to his wife, Tonya, since 1988.
But it wasn’t long until Major League Baseball again requested his services. In 1996 the Major League Baseball Players Association tapped Winfield as an adviser in the creation of the Players Trust, another 501(c)(3) charitable foundation. Through the Players Trust, professional baseball players can allocate part of their salaries to their favorite charities, lending support to thousands of people in need worldwide. “I helped guide them through the process of setting it up and gave them feedback on what worked and what didn’t with my foundation,” Winfield says.
“As I look back, I’m so grateful for the people who helped me become the person I am today,” Winfield says. “They instilled in me a desire to help others. My personal reward from the foundation has never been about monetary rewards, but being able to create, learn, teach and motivate. It has been truly awe-inspiring to see how many people we have been able to influence.
“To know we’ve changed some lives for the better is the true reward.”

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Winfield Rallies After Error
Dave Winfield's charitable foundation had a challenging moment in 1978, when he planned to bring 500 children to the All-Star Game in San Diego. During a television interview, Winfield inadvertently invited "all the kids of San Diego."
Some 10,000 youngsters showed up, so he persuaded the Padres to open the park early in order for the kids to watch batting practice. Sponsors brought in more food and souvenirs to treat the extra kids.
Major League Baseball later turned Winfield's solution into an All-Star Game tradition. Following his lead, the organization now opens every All-Star Game batting practice to the public and uses the event to raise money for local charities.

http://www.success.com/articles/1497-making-a-difference-mlb-hall-of-famer-dave-winfield