Civility? Wha…?

This week, I had the pleasure of witnessing two altercations over some real silly stuff. OK, one included me as an unwilling participant, but still I’m trying to process (a new word I learned as a counselor) this out.
The first happened Saturday afternoon, as I was gassing up. It was rather busy, and there was a car waiting behind me, and one in front of me. I really failed to notice which had gotten there first, but as I finished, the car behind me sent his girl running up to swipe her debit card to claim the pump. Meanwhile, the car in front pulled into the spot. I had just pulled into a parking space, because I went inside to get a beverage. As I looked behind me, both parties were standing around the pump arguing. Pity… I never did get to see the outcome of that incident.
The second one happened this afternoon, about an hour ago. I had just finished picking up some supplies at Wal-Mart (this should tell you something right away), and I pulled my car out into the parking lane, waiting to exit the lot. There was somewhat of a jam toward the lot’s entrance, so I waited behind a minivan. As I sat waiting, it occurred to me that the minivan was not moving. Several cars were lined up behind me by this point, and I thought perhaps the minivan had broken down or something. But that was not the case. The driver was just waiting for one particular spot to clear out. After about seven minutes or so, the car behind me honked his horn, and tried to go around me. I honked my horn as well, because I was starting to get a little impatient. Finally, the car pulled out of the spot, and the minivan pulled into it, giving me a glaring look as she did. So then I pulled up, and was waiting to leave, the 14-year-old kid that was in the car came up to me and said, “You need to learn patience!” I looked at him and shot back, “You need to learn not to be so selfish!” Not wanting to leave it at that, I wished him “Happy Holidays”, and took off out of that infernal lot.
Like I said, I’ve been processing that for the whole afternoon. OK, maybe I was a little impatient, but why would someone hold up five cars just to get a close spot? There just seems to be an overall lack of civility in our society now. I’m also afraid it’ll get worse, as people seem to have an entitlement mentality, and a disregard for others. As if nobody else exists, or has any rights to common courtesy. “Me first, screw you!” is the new mantra. Let’s see how this new era of audacity plays out…

Doing the next-to-impossible!

I set myself a huge set of goals, that I can only meet with the help of the Lord Almighty! It can definitely be accomplished, but for me, it'll be a tough act; requiring more discipline than I've ever had to conjure up before. Here's my twin goals: Executive Team Leader by December 31 (and max out my bonus) and Team Coordinator by March 15 (Again, maxing out my bonus!) If everything goes my way, with God's help, I'll have made $10K and positioned myself to explode when NBC's "Celebrity Apprentice" features ACN on March 22, and Mexico opens up a few weeks after that.
Ready, set, PRAY! Then WORK! Then PRAY some more!
See y'all at the TOP!

Back from ACN Anaheim Convention

As I returned from the amazing Anaheim event, I took a moment to process the experience, and I took away a few insights from the weekend. First of all, I realized that ACN is more than just a company, more than a business. ACN is a family. Every one of the 20,000 attendees actually cared about every single other one in there! I met some of the friendliest, the most committed and the most dedicated people I’ve ever met in my life. I felt like, “These are my people… I’m home!” Every person I met, from all over the world offered to help me develop my team; offering to me any assistance I might need. When I saw people succeed that I’ve never even met, I felt the emotion, and the whole room felt it as well. The senior executives were just as approachable and took time and gave advice and their time to anyone who asked.

The second thing I took away from the event is how ACN is always looking for ways to make our company better; adding the best services and improving both our products and our company infrastructure to be the absolute best, and the most helpful to make all our reps succeed. The four co-founders really do care about every single person that signs a rep agreement. I could tell by watching them, and hearing them speak; as well as first-hand sources that these men are 100% for real. Donald Trump took an instant liking to our co-founders because of their vision, determination and integrity. And as one can imagine, Mr. Trump is such a busy man, that his time is quite limited and valuable. His friendship with our co-founders, and his endorsement of our company is a testament to the excellence, success, vision, and determination of ACN.

The third thing I took away from the event is that as much fun as I had, and the excitement I felt amongst my people, I did spend a lot of time by myself. Some of the members of my team didn’t make it, and my own personal downline is just getting off the ground. So what I learned is, these conventions are way more fun if you bring people, and have a team in place. As I grow my own team, I’m gonna express the importance of these international trainings, and bring my team to all events. It really is a phenomenon that can’t be explained unless you go there yourself. And it’s my commitment to never miss another international. I missed Robert Kiyosaki this past March, and I missed Donald Trump this past June, and I’m kicking myself to this day.

So these are a few insights I took back with me from ACN Anaheim 2008. I’m so excited for the possibilities, and the opportunities that 2009 is gonna bring!

The perils of having an unusual last name...

OK, so I got from my Netflix the video "Kemper" that I worked on last year. Since the Lovely Mrs. Shoehead was busy doing... whatever the hell she does, so I just skipped around a little bit to see some highlights and catch the credits. And they spelled my name wrong! They stuck an extra "L" in my name, making it "Mark Eldrys" instead of "Edrys" ...The Horror!
Oh, well... I'm used to my name getting butchered or miscredited in film credits. That's what happens with my last name. The film does look pretty good though. I also want to see MRG Entertainment's "Copycat-- Diary of a Serial Killer" that we worked on last December. "Kemper" has the trailer on it, and it looks pretty awesome too!