Successful persons find order in chaos and persevere when others quit. They are not lucky or super human.

Motivation is the antithesis of idleness, and organization is the opposite of disorder. Many times chaos comes prior to, not out of, great things. In fact, there is an order to chaos. An in-depth explanation of this can be found in Margaret J. Wheatley's book called: Leadership and the New Science. The illustration on the cover is an accurate graph of chaos, if you've ever wondered what it looks like. In the past, I thought chaos was a feeling like confusion, but quantum physics and the chaos theory give us a better understanding of this natural phenomena and the wonderful world we live in. We can harness this great universal energy and natural force called chaos. I remember Elaine Sorell, the photo agent, telling me about the butterflies in my stomach before my speeches. She said, use them, just get them all to fly in the same direction."

The universe is perfect. Everyday the sun rises and sets, and on time, too. You can simply choose to plug into this extreme order to achieve it. There are no dues or entrance exams and no tests. Just be there and embrace this concept. The act of embracing this fundamental law of the universe is all that is necessary to be organized.

Organization comes to you simply when you embrace the concept to be organized. Things will be automatically put where they belong without effort. Things will be in the right place naturally. You will find that much is in order already. Little effort is needed to continue the organization that already exists or to get organized. By thinking like an organized person, your cameras, equipment, and important papers, etc., will be found where they ought to be. By totally embracing this universal concept, you will stop tricking yourself subconsciously to foster disorder.

Start now, not tomorrow, if you are not already organized. To live in our society, one must be already quite organized. Think about it. Focusing on order and harmony with the universe will move you closer and closer to this natural force.

Your world around you and your lifestyle is already very orderly or you would not be able to survive in the world today. So one needs to only focus on that small part that is not in harmony presently.

I had many photography assignments, but I had no orderly system for my slide storage. Instead of causing myself distress over boxes and boxes of thousands of slides, I began one hour per day on one day per week to separate the slides into topics. This did not burden me and my staff with an impossible task to get organized overnight. The task was finished when the last slide was filed.

I made a plan and worked the plan. I did not drop everything I was doing and frantically dive into thousands of transparencies with hundreds of slide storage pages.

File topics were chosen from the requests that stock photo agencies sent me. Ergo any filing system follows my clients needs rather than some arbitrary filing system that I might have devised.

Do not look at the mountain of things that you must do. Just look at one thing at a time. Solve one problem at a time. Move one rock at a time to make your mountain. One set of slides filed today. Cameras cleaned and put away tomorrow. Paint the backdrop sweep wall the next day. Build a photo set the next.

Effectively manage your time. Keep others from running your life and your business. You let others disorganize you or you disorganize yourself. Its really simple and it is all how you handle each situation.

Do not mistake kindness for weakness, or quiet for peace, or strength for right, or money being always good. Remember the whole is made up entirely of its small parts. Be a stickler for detail. The lowest bid is not always the best, and rarely is. Large is not always good.

Learn to work wisely and effectively because you are probably going to work hard for the rest of your life.

Motivation can be achieved by positive or negative means. Reward versus fear of punishment or penalty. Personally, I respond better to the reward theory more than fear of the problems that occur for not succeeding.

For me, the U.S. Marine Corps really had a way of explaining motivation and winning. There is no such word as "can't." Retreat is not an option. And winning means you get to live. Not winning means death. I keep that same winning philosophy in business, and it works. Business is a kind of warfare. You must win. One of my suggested readings to be a successful photographer is a book entitled War Fighting.

Getting motivated is one thing. Staying motivated is another.

Eat, sleep, drink, talk, play, dream yourself into motivation. It is really easy to get fired up for a special project or for immediate gratification. Maintaining long term motivation is more of an out and out way of living.

Set your goals high--as high as you really feel that you can achieve. Then go after them full blast. Get as much education as possible and never stop learning. Keep bettering yourself and honing your skills. To be successful today, you must also be good at communication.

Negativity is like a cancer. It can spiral you down from lofty heights in moments. Negativity is really like an evil. It can trick you and your thinking. Fear, worry, doubt and surprise are the four evils noted by the Orientals for thousands of years.

So I have positive tricks that I do to overcome and neutralize negativity and some human nature. Love yourself! Self love is healthy. It is essential for life. Be good to yourself. Reward yourself often. Tell yourself you are great and good because no one else will. Always strive for perfection knowing that you can't ever be perfect. Make lists daily and do them. Check off the things you do, even the little things. Making phone calls all day seem like you didn't accomplish anything. But at the end of the day when you look at a long list of fifty names and phone numbers with a check next to every one, it will give you a good feeling of accomplishment instead of thoughts that you didn't do anything that day. You did a lot. You made fifty phone calls and talked to fifty people at fifty companies about fifty items of fifty assignments. Trick the tricker.

Avoid negative people and stay away from losers. Also stay away from negative situations. Prevent negativity from happening by avoiding the situations that start it. Think positive thoughts. Keep negative thoughts out of your mind. They rob precious time. You know that time is equal for a king and a peasant. Utilize your time wisely.

Use only positive words in your daily speech. Always state things in a positive manner. Eliminate even any accidental inference of negativity. Be totally positive in being.

Smile, be happy, think happy thoughts. Look at peoples eyes. Be sincerely happy. You will convince yourself and everyone around you. Positiveness is contagious. Reward good behavior, don't take it for granted and just comment about bad behavior. You will find yourself being kinder, nicer, more fun, happy, and more at peace with less anxiety. You will become more gracious and you will do better at business. You will also have better personal interactions with others. You will find yourself having more energy and you will probably make more money. Success breeds success and motivation breeds excitement with positive results.

This is my personal philosophy by which I live. I am sharing this with you in this month's seminar. Everyday I see the positive effects that this philosophy has in myself and on those that come into contact with me. It will work for you also.