I'm frequently asked how I can be so productive in the business world and still have time for my personal and family life. The answer is that during my frequent travels I am an absolute "workaholic." When I get home I am then free to do things with my family and enjoy my personal life.

As I write this, I'm returning from a speaking engagement in Memphis. On the flight to Memphis I spent the entire time planning the presentation I was going to make. While there I was busy but still managed to read for an hour before bed. On the return trip I wrote notes for articles. I started dictating this article before I left Dallas and later gave it to my Executive Assistant, Laurie Magers. On the way home I stopped by my office, picked up my mail and headed home to take my wife to lunch. After lunch my son and I, along with a friend, played 18 holes of golf. After the golf game my wife and I had a long, quiet dinner, during which she had my undivided attention.

I give you these details to emphasize the fact that concentrating on my profession (job) when I'm away from my family enables me to focus on my family when I'm with them. This approach allows me to be more effective in both areas. It will do the same thing for you. Roger Staubach told me that he made his best grades at Annapolis during football season. His time was so limited because of football that he quickly learned to utilize every moment and focus on the task at hand to reach his objectives and to maintain his standing at Annapolis. Buy this approach and I will SEE YOU AT THE TOP!--Zig Ziglar is a motivator and teacher. He is the author of 26 books and loved by millions of people world wide for his practical wisdom and his gift of hope.

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Here are some fundamental marketing rules for living life in the slow (but safe) lane:

1. Ensure all marketing collateral (web and offline) are in synch - invest sufficient time and resources to ensure there are no discrepancies between them to build a cohesive brand that effectively communicates what you do.
   
2. Take time to really evaluate business opportunities, don't just blast through relationships, meetings or assessments - many times you can build viable partnerships by sitting down and taking a hard look at how third parties complement your business and vice versa.
   
3. Use the web for what's its really meant for - as a highway for communications and commerce, its not the "saving grace" its been touted to be by many companies; 87% of Internet users today utilize the web to research goods and services.
   
4. Make time to look at your competitors, whether they are across the road or on the other side of the world - the web has created a commerce model where a competitor is just a click away; so carefully analyze what your competitors are doing.
   
5. Communicate with your customers and partners - it doesn't do much good to build a beautiful web site that does not make it easy for people to contact your company. I've seen hundreds of web sites the last year that don't have e-mail contacts or phone numbers listed prominently - take/make time to build a site that lets people communicate with you.
   
6. Hire people with some gray hairs - they may not flash the latest PDA at you or wear the latest trendy clothes, but many of them have years of experience building companies slowly and carefully, by paying attention to business fundamentals. I've got nothing against youth, but it seems like many over 40-somethings got left by the wayside in the .com mania and to the detriment of many companies.
   
7. Think small when your building a business, the billion dollar days are gone with last year's PR hyperbole. I get no royalties from E.F. Shumacher, but I really think his "Small is Beautiful As if People Mattered" is a wonderful book and the forward is done by Paul Hawken, a brilliant serial entrepreneur, well known for his landmark PBS (Public Broadcasting Service for global readers) series on "Growing a Business" that inspired many of us to take the entrepreneurial plunge. -- Content provided by Jay Conrad Levinson, The Father of Guerrilla Marketing.

It’s a new month and a new quarter. Maybe you need some new motivation for the exercise goals you set for this year.

• I joined a health club last year, spent about 400 bucks. Haven't lost a pound. Apparently you have to show up.
• I have to exercise in the morning before my brain figures out what I'm doing.
• I don't exercise at all. If God meant us to touch our toes, he would have put them further up our body.
• My grandmother started walking five miles a day when she was 60. She's 97 now & we don't know where she is!
• I like long walks, especially when they are taken by people who annoy me.
• I have flabby thighs, but fortunately my stomach covers them.
• If you are going to try cross-country skiing, start with a small country.
• I don't jog. It makes the ice jump right out of my glass.

“Don’t wait. The time will never be just right.” Napoleon Hill