LIFE LESSONS FROM CLASSIC CARTOON CHARACTERS

Most of us grew up watching cartoons as children. The classic Tom and Jerry, beyond a doubt, has to be one of the most popular and generation bridging cartoons ever. The rivalry between the two  spanned over 50 years. Each episodes would begin with Tom scheming about how he could turn Jerry into a tasty morsel. But no matter how hard he tried, Jerry always found some way to escape, even after Tom had succeeded in swallowing him. 

In the Looney Toons cartoons, there have also been many similar rivalries. Elmer Fudd has hunted Bugs for many years without much success, but he keeps coming back to get that “scwewy” wabbit.

The constant hunt for the road runner by Wild E Coyote also has to be one of the most determined series of plots in cartoon history. He usually has a perfect plan, which should work by all logical means, but someway or somehow, the road runner always manages to get away. 

Sylvester is another popular character that has a similarly determined mindset for turning Tweety into his lunch, or sometimes he’s just minding his own business, but he somehow always manages to get into trouble.

What is the point of all this cartoon referencing? What do all these rivalries have to do with anything in life? Is there something that Elmer, Sylvester, Tom and Wild E Coyote all have in common? The answer is tenacity, and they all have it. 

Each one has a goal that they want to achieve, usually lunch. No matter how many times they get outsmarted, bashed, slammed into the side of mountains or squashed by falling anvils they keep striving after their goal, simply because they can see it in their mind’s eye. They always know what they want, and they are not going to let a few obstacles – whether it be the IQ of their opponent, the height of what they are striving for or the fact that what they are after is moving at a faster speed than what they can keep up with. They just find a way to do it

Consider The Road Runner, Jerry, Tweety, and Bugs Bunny to be the ultimate survivors. No matter what their hunters use to come against them, they always find a way to survive. No matter how many times they get trapped, they constantly find a relevant means of escape. Think about it, have you ever watched a Looney Toons cartoon, in which Wild E Coyote succeeded in completely capturing the road runner or that Bugs didn’t escape Elmer’s capture? No matter what the situation, they both exhibit their true nature. Bugs Bunny has the nature to survive at all costs and Elmer Fudd has relentless tenacity, no matter how many times he has previously failed.

Another group of cartoon characters I greatly admire are Top Cat (TC) and Yogi Bear. These guys are what I’d like to call, “The Original Kings of Hustle”. Top Cat is an entrepreneur, someone who brims with confidence and never allows anything to get him down. When he faces an obstacle he simply finds a way to overcome it. Whether it be a lack of money, assets or staff or occasional human obstacles in the form of officer Dibble, his brain always begins to work and he succeeds in overcoming the interference in some manner. Despite the fact that all of his ventures end up collapsing, he always keeps on trying, and the spirit within him never die.

The same goes for one famous Jellystone Park resident who is “smarter than the average bear”. He is the mammal that had exquisite taste long before Remy rat. Unlike the other bears that are satisfied with fruits nuts and berries, he longs for more, picnic baskets in particular. Despite all of the obstacles facing him, usually in the form of Ranger Smith who represents authority figures, or by his fellow bears who are satisfied with what they can rummage around, he wants something better. Usually there are things that people will tell him are not meant for bears, saying that they are out of his league and convincing him that he should stick to what he knows. Yogi never lets any of that veer his determination, and due to his extreme perseverance, more often than not, he succeeds.

Life is not very much different. Like the little kids playing or the cartoon character that falls down or is losing, we do not want to just give up and quit. There are always going to obstacles in our way. Even as babies when we gradually learned to walk, gravity was constantly an obstacle. We plainly fell down several (hundred) times, but that didn’t stop us from trying. Today we walk without even giving it a second thought, or remembering how difficult it was for us to learn.

Children usually fall down many times and get back up without even a second thought when playing “cops and robbers” or “tag”. Many of us have also played some form of sports and loved it. There is no doubt at some point in time that we lost a game or missed a shot, but we learned not to quit because of that.

Like those cartoon characters that kept going despite several knock downs or defeats, if we have a strong enough vision, we should not allow any failure to make us quit. Most of the successful people in history and in the world today have had so many failures that it’s a wonder that they kept on going at all. 

-Col Sanders the founder of KFC had about 1009 rejections for his recipe,

-Abraham Lincoln failed in getting elected for many different offices,

-JK Rowling received many rejection slips,

-Steven King threw away the manuscript for “Carrie”, because of so many rejections.

-Bing Crosby was written off by a casting director.

-Walt Disney was fired from a newspaper cause he had "no creative talent"

-Sylvester Stallone was constantly rejected as an actor cos "he'd never be a star" .

-Google's founders tried to partner with Yahoo. They were told to take their "little project" and come back when they finished college.

ARE YOU SEEING A PATTERN HERE? 

It’s not going to be easy, but no matter how many falling cartoon anvils get dropped on us, and no matter how many mountain sides we smash into – if our dreams are truly worth it, we should learn from our favorite cartoon characters, and never give up.

THE PATH OF YOUR DESTINY

It does not take a genius to figure out that you are never going to make a fortune by being an employee of a company on a salary . Even the CEO and President of companies can be fired and out of a job at anytime.

Many people have the fantasy of becoming celebrities,singers, actors ,sports stars, where we make millions every year and are living la vida loca. This is a very false path to wealth. We have all read the head lines. We know the story of MC Hammer , who was one of the most successful in his hey days, within the blink of of an eye he became penniless and declared bankruptcy.

Coolio ,was one of the most aired rappers in the 90’s ,Gangsta’s Paradise was a hit all around the world. Where is he now ?

We have known the stories of sports stars; Football players,Basket Ball Players who get injured ,are dropped or retire and from having 6 cars ,and 4 homes are now filing for bankruptcy and appearing on “has been” celebrity reality shows. They have lost their homes, their cars have been repossessed and all their assets have been sold to pay off debts and pay the tax man (Uncle Sam).

Only in the past ten years have we seen celebrities wised up and started making investments and diversifying their portfolio. As teenagers and college students, many of us have worn the Sean Johns, Roca Wear ,Wu Wear etc . People like Jay Z have invested in real estate, own restaurants. People like 50¢ (Fiddy) have branded them selves . We know the story of his $300 million vitamin water he has his G Unit shoes and clothing line, his record label, and many other investments.

I use theses names not to glorify or exalt what they do, but to point out a key thing with is INVESTMENT. Now, they could have sat down and waited for their royalty checks to come in, which would have been more than enough to live a very good life. They could have been satisfied with the comfort of only using their time and talent for money just like their predecessors . They however choose to be different they saw a chance to live larger than their dreams and they took it. They made investments, in companies,businesses and ideas. Which have made them 300% more fortune than they would ever have made performing and selling records.

Many of us will never become platinum selling recording artists, nor would we be paid $20 million per movie, but does this mean that we can not be financially free? Does this mean that we have to live a 9 to 5 life exchanging our time for money?

THANKFULLY NO.

There is a saying that goes

“Success is not something to be pursued, but something that is drawn to the person that you become.

There is another saying that goes

“You have got to build the man before you build the money”

I guarantee you that if you do the research of 99.9% of lottery winners all around the world, within 2 years time or a maximum of 7 years if they last that long ,they are completely broke, even worse off than they were before they won the lottery. Why is that? Because they do not have the right or appropriate mindset. They did not sit down to think of how this new situation would remain permanent, all they had on their minds was SPEND SPEND SPEND. Their minds were not changed despite their situation.

Look at it this way, imagine you find a house,one of those creepy old houses from the movies.One that has faulty foundations, shaky walls, creaking ceilings, and peeling paint. What if you paint that house ,with the most expensive emulsion paint, and get it looking brand new, the key word being “looking”. We have the house looking new, but it is still the same old house. It has changed on the outside but not on the inside, and pretty soon it would return to it’s former state.

It is insanity to keep doing the same thing and expect different results. We can not have a 9 to 5 ,despite the bonuses, and the raises and expect to be wealthy. If we do not invest those salaries or bonuses instead of splashing out on a new car or suit when we get that extra cash we will always remain in the same financial situation.

If you speak to any millionaire or billionaire. If you speak to anyone that is financially successful and on their own companies. Whether it be Richard Branson,Donald Trump or Robert Kiyosaki , they all talk about one thing. Personal Development. They all are constantly reading books, attending seminars, listening to motivational messages. They have a constant thirst for knowledge and they spare no cost to get it. They are always up to speed with what is happening and do not waste time on mundane things like many of us do. Are any of these guys geniuses, no not according to MENSA ratings. CAN WE DO WHAT THEY DID ?, YESSSS.

We often worry and complain about our financial life, but very few of us take the steps to make it better. We wait for others like our bosses, family, or the government, to make that change.
Do today what others don’t, to have tomorrow what others won’t.

A formal education will make you a living, but self help will make you a fortune.

-Jim Rohn

For many of us , we constantly heard, go to school, get straight A’s if possible, pass SAT or A levels and get into University so you could land a good job, where they can have “job security” and get a pension to retire on.


Renowned business man and motivational speaker Jim Rohn says “Profits are better than Wages”.

Profits will make you wealthy, Wages will keep you surviving.

Many of those in paid employment , the job that you have means Just Over Broke, where there is more month at the end of the money. If the money you earn now is barley enough to cover all your bills and save just a little. Why on earth would that be enough to survive on when you retire!

The fact is that many of us We’ll think nothing of spending hundreds, on fuels for our vehicles, but very little on fuel for our minds?-Matt Morris(Author: 7 Secret to 7 figures &  The Unemployed Millionaire)

We would spend money on a suit, or a movie ,but can not spend a fraction of the cost to on a book to educate our minds.Yet we fantasize about wealth but are not ready to take the pains,take the necessary steps to make those things come to pass.

There is a plethora of books that we can learn from, only a click away at Amazon, EBay . Instead of buying music off i tunes that you would soon get tired of, buy a book. If you can not buy ,borrow from your local library. One thing i want to point out it that if you make the commitment to buying a copy for your self, that shows the dedication you have to change your life.

If you don't intend to start your own business, but wish to plug in, to an already established company, that can help you start on the path to financial freedom. you may want to consider a home based business.

Home Business or Network Marketing, has given financial freedom to more people, and created more millionaires than any other industry.


If you want to invest in one, do your due diligence and investigate which would work best for you.

investigate before you invest

Find a company whose products you can get passionate about and stay with for the long term partnership. A great team that can help you towards achieving your financial freedom.

There are many companies out there, travel, nutrition, telecoms and a variety of other products, each with it's own unique compensation plan.

If you are interested in searching for a home based business with a great team and plan. With a low start up cost ,you could radically change the course of your financial future.

You can take a look at this video http://www.myfortuneroadmap.com/   and once you make a decision to go for it you can sign up at http://www.harvest.lgnprosperity.com/ and get started to becoming your own boss.


Decisions decide wealth, make a decision today to charter the new direction of your future .

SEE YOU AT THE TOP

FINDING AND WALKING THE PATH OF YOUR DESTINY

The Encarta dictionary defines educating as the imparting and acquiring of knowledge through teaching and learning, especially at a school or similar institution.

Formal education is looked upon as the key to having a successful life by many people all over the world. Young people across the globe have it drummed into their ears by their parents, uncles and aunts “work hard, get good grades so you can go to university get a degree and get a good secure job”.

Thus being the reason that many students enter the university and go for medicine ,engineering , law or accountancy , because these are seen as the prestigious courses that can get you a high income job in strong companies and the like.

But is that really the only means or guarantee to success in life and career?

I believe that everyone is born with something within them , which is essentially “the goose that lays the golden egg”. There are several groups into which these can be classified. One group of people “the intellectuals” are natural readers, they love to absorb and disperse information they love to analyze. This group consists of the doctors, lawyers professors and research scientists, mathematicians etc.

Another group read less and do more, they are good with their hands give them a television that is inoperative and they would dismantle it examine it to find the problem and fix it, these are the the technical” .

Another group are those that come up with things from within themselves, I would call them “the creatives”, they are the actors, recording artists, sculptors, poets, playwrights etc.

A completely different group is “the athletes” , they are blessed with physical prowess and excel well above their peers in sports. An individual from the athletes group, can never find fulfillment if he is studying medicine in the university, he may excel but deep down he’s know there is something missing in his life.

There is the age old belief that without a university degree one can not be successful financially and otherwise in life, but is that really true ?

What about those that have learning disabilities, are they doomed to be failures? Dyslexia, a condition that causes the inability to read or write it is known as a special reading disorder, it occurs in 10 to 20 percent of the world’s population and it has different levels of intensity.

One of the characteristics is having problem distinguishing the various sounds or phenoms that make up speech. It is rarely diagnosed and sufferers usually suffer the stigma of being labeled dumb or stupid and relegated to the background. Is there any fate for such people? If they can’t learn, read or write won’t they have difficulty making a living?

Apparently, the saying “when God takes something away , he gives something else” rings true in their case. For the first time, new research shows that entrepreneurs are five times more likely to suffer from dyslexia than your average citizen, some of the world’s leading entrepreneurs such as Sir Richard Branson, and Anita Roddick of The Body Shop allegedly suffer from dyslexia.

Branson ,whose Virgin empire includes Telecoms, Soft drinks, Air and Rail transport, Radio and a record company has a personal net worth of over £3 billion, he never walked the halls of a university and has admitted he's not too savy with accounting statements.

World renowned Public and motivational speaker Les Brown was labeled educable mentally retarded when he was in high school, today he earns millions every year from speaking engagements for executives of Fortune 500 companies.

It is said that Dyslexia forces people to hunt for creative ways to steer through life,ain’t that the truth.

As mentioned earlier there are different groups that individuals belong to, and parents need to discover what group their child belongs to and guide them toward that path. The blinders need to come off our eyes, the blinders that have given us tunnel vision, and brainwashed us into thinking that university education, is the only light at the end of the tunnel.

Those in the intellectual group will acquire the degrees at the Universities . “The technical” would hone their skills by attending vocational colleges where they can learn to become world class craftsmen, electricians, blacksmiths, masons,H20 transportation engineers(plumbers), etc. Vocations which are certainly not in short demand, especially in the home development and real estate business.

Those in the creative group need to hone their ingrown talent by attending a school for music and performing arts like Julliard where they can major in courses like dance, vocals, a specific instrument or music production. Or going to schools for radio, television and film, whichever is their preference and strength.

For the athletes, they need a sports academy, much like Aspire, a school in Qatar that trains it’s students to be professional athletes, at the same time giving them an education to fall back after their professional careers end or they choose not to go that way. A similar school was portrayed in the Australian teen drama SWEAT.

The essential in life, is a basic secondary school education, which should be standard for every child , after they’ve crossed that bridge each should discover their path , which only they can tread. But even Brian Tracy a world renowned business mind never finished high school and today is one of the most respected business minds in world, authored books that train Business school graduates and CEO of fortune 500 companies. Many of the worlds greatest minds from Henry Ford ,to Einstien and Edison performed poorly while in school,but came out and impacted the world in massive ways.

When we assume that failure in education or lack of a job in a Blue chip company is the end of the road;the question we should ask ourselves is,

Where would these people be

Legendary producer Quincy Jones ,who have brought us some of our most loved songs .

Muhammed Ali, the man that made boxing an art form, an eternal sports icon and a man that showed the world what unshakable confidence can do for your life.

Football sensation Cristiano Ronaldo who has lead his former team Manchester United to victory several times, and is carving his name in the football hall of fame.

Crooner Frank Sinatra, a kid from humble beginnings went to seal his name forever in the history of music and has spawned a string of imitators in Harry Connick Jnr, Michael Buble ,

Movie visionaries Francis Ford Coppola, Ridley Scott ,Alfred Hitchcock,Orson Wells are some of the greatest directors of all time.Quentin Tarantino , whose movie Pulp Fiction is listed in the top ten regularly of the imdb top 250 movies of all time, once worked as a video store clerk.


What if all these people decided to give up, because they felt they had no future without a university degree????

Some of the biggest companies in the world today, were founded by those who just had a dream. Some of them were dubbed stupid ,dumb or retarded by teachers. Some of them were doing great in school, but found no satisfaction from learning theories that were not applicable in the real world. Many of the founders of our most beloved brands started those companies out of a desire within them that could not be satisfied working for a pay check.

Now , don’t get this twisted, i am not knocking or discouraging formal education , i believe and encourage that every one has the minimum of a secondary school education, (high school education to the Americans, and O Levels to the Europeans) But from that point , each has to discover what they have the potential for, whether it be in the Art,Science, Business or Sports.

However ,even amongst the professionals, many of them have come out of those in the much awed “prestigious” professions to enormous success using their gifts.

Best selling author John Grisham was trained as a Lawyer, same thing goes for Michael Crichton , who was trained as a Doctor, he went on to become a best selling author and producer of the Emmy Award winning television show ER and many of his novels have been made into blockbuster movies including; Congo,Coma Sphere,Rising Sun ,Jurassic Park and others .

Have you heard of the shows ;Ally McBeal, The Practice, Boston Public, Boston Legal, the man behind them is David E Kelley ,he was working in a law firm when a t.v executive came across a script he had written, the rest is history.

Oscar nominated and Grammy Winner Will Smith had a full scholarship to Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT),but had no intention of going to College because of a dream he had to pursue.

Friends cast member Lisa Kudrow , graduated with a BSc in Biology with an intention to pursue a career in research.

We all know the success they have gone on to achieve , in the careers that their parents fought tooth and nail against.

There are several success stories of those that never got a formal education, one of them is hip hop icon Jay Z , one of the most recognized names in music. Born into a poor home in Brooklyn ,New York, he is a classic rags to riches story. Starting as a young hustling rapper on the streets from scratch he slowly began to build an empire that includes a chain of night clubs, a clothing line and alcoholic beverages, he is part-owner of the NBA team the New Jersey Nets is former head honcho of Def Jam Records and a long line up of endorsements, a club franchise, and real estate .He has a personal net worth of over $300 million and growing, not bad for a kid that never finished high school.

You may go on to say that, i have no talent .

Paris Hilton happens to be one of the most recognized faces on television. The young socialite is a tabloid favorite parties with A list celebrities, she has no talent to speak of, has failed at both a music and acting career, but she gets paid more than some professional speakers to make appearance at social events. She has discovered and harnessed her exhibitionist talent and gets paid up to $100,000 to smile and wave for less than an hour.

Even a blogger the self titled Perez Hilton( no relation) has turned his love for gossip into a money spinning venture. I’m not encouraging you to be the next Paris or Perez Hilton, my point is that every one has some form of talent, deep within them all you have to do is look hard enough. I mean, look at the Spice Girls,Jedward and some of the people that got their 15 minutes of fame on a talent or reality tv show.

Diablo Cody(Juno writer) went from a stripper to an Oscar Winning screenwriter, you may question the validity or that Oscar decision, but she has achieved what can be called a film makers fantasy. She's working closely with moguls like Spielberg,he went looking for her. Some people in the industry all their life would kill for such. If she can do that what stops you from being the next big thing in your industry?

It's not going to be easy, nothing worthwhile ever is. But just like a lump of coal has to undergo pressure to release the diamond within, as a caterpillar has to go through the cocoon to become a butterfly, there would be a process you may have to go through, to come out shining like the star you were born to be.

Today anyone that uses the internet is bound to have come across Yahoo, Google, and Facebook , these global companies were all founded , in college dorm rooms, and made their young creators billionaires before the age of thirty, so their is yet hope for the so called “nerds”(book worms) without musical or athletic talent

In conclusion I will continue to emphasize the need for a basic secondary school education, and then the discovery of one’s own path . I recommend two books,

Start Small Finish Big by Fred Deluca co founder of Subways who started the franchise as a teenager looking for a way to fund his college education

and

The Magic of thinking Big- by David Schwartz, this would change the way you see yourself, life, possibilities and where you could be in life ,if you have a mental and life paradigm shift.

I don't recommend them so that you start to pursue money, that is not what this is about, but to open your mind to possibilities, Business philosopher Jim Rohn was known to say

Set a goal to become a millionaire, not for the money,you can give that away if you want, but for the person that you would become (the character developed) )in the process of that goal.

BUT HE WARNS

beware of who you become in the process, never sell out(value,integrity,morals) while pursuing that goal